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| Eagle overhead! |
Day 4: Today we left Humantay behind and entered the cloud forest, walking downhill alongside the Salkantay river through rich green jungle. A little rain even seemed appropriate! There were lots of colourful flowers and trees, some of which even had easy to remember slang names such as the abundant 'golden inca candle tree'. We also saw hummingbirds but a clear photo eluded us! After crossing the Santa Theresa river we had a short sharp climb to the lodge where we enjoyed a 'pachamanca', a BBQ cooked in a hole in the ground. Excellent meats and again, many varieties of potato!
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| Dancing lady orchids |
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| Colcapampa lodge |
Day 5: Starting with a steep descent and crossing a bridge by some hot springs, we proceeded to walk for a few hours through rainforest alongside the river, crossing a few bridges along the way. Due to landslides there was a change in the itinerary resulting in an exciting river crossing in a metal basket!
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| Fortunately nobody told me about the frayed rope until later! |
After a short drive the walk finished with a brief hike along a very verdant section of the original Inca trail through coffee trees to our final lodge. We were later shown how the beans were prepared and roasted and sampled the best coffee we have had since arriving in Peru!
Day 6: More uphill, and lots of it! For about three hours we steadily climbed up to the Llactapata pass. The last section comprised some Inca steps and we then walked down to the Llactapacta Inca site, which has only recently been investigated. From here we had our first glimpse of Machu Picchu in the distance! We had lunch of local avocado and trout nearby before a gruelling descent for our knees down to the Aobamba river to eventually arrive at the Hidroelectrica railway station. From here we had a spectacular train journey to Pueblo Machu Picchu, complete with an unexpected dancing fox and a fashion show!
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