There is no way I could fit our five day trek to Machu Picchu into one post, so I’m breaking it up by days.
I’ll start by saying that Machu Picchu was the entire reason why we went to Peru, but having booked flights in July finally, we were disappointed to learn that the actual “official Inca Trail” permits were already sold out for November. At first I was sad because the Inca Trail was all I’d dreamed about, but we hadn’t realized they have only 200 permits a day that go like hot cakes.
We decided to book a five day guided trekking tour with Alpaca Expeditions and now, knowing Kay and myself and asking our guide about how it is on the Inca Trail compared to ours, I’m confident that we enjoyed our often completely private trek from Salkantay to Machu Picchu way more than we would have enjoyed the crowded Inca Trail.
As the first pickup in our group of 11 hikers, Kay and I woke up at 4am on November 1 for a 4:10am pickup. After picking up the other 9 hikers, the van drove 3.5 hours to Soraypampa where we got out for breakfast before the first part of our trek.
I’m not gonna lie folks, I was struggling with some pretty awful lady days, having nearly blacked out a couple times the day before and suffered stomach problems. The thought of trekking for five days without bathrooms was kind of terrifying. Also, considering the bad timing of my blessing of womanhood, I had dragged Kay all around Cusco the night before stocking up on pads and tampons to brace for the call of nature in the wild.
So, that said, I was feeling a little “ehh” the first day, especially when it started drizzling after breakfast. I’m not nearly as happy-go-lucky as Kay is when it comes to weather and the idea of trekking for fives days in the rain with my period sounded pretty horrible, to be honest.
I braced myself that this was going to be awesome somehow, or that I would survive at the very least. I was pretty low mentally, that this was how I was experiencing my way to Machu Picchu: period from Hell, freezing rain, stomach issues.
Below you can see that Kay and I came prepared. I had the rain gear, including rain pants and Gortex boots, although I really wish I had bought waterproof warm gloves. I didn’t want to get mine soaked, but it was pretty cold. And I was in quite a lot of lady pain. Gah. You can see it on my face!
Around this time, Kay asked me how I was doing and I replied cheerfully that it was 10am and I’d peed on my hands twice, so I’m doing fantastic. Positivity folks!
The guides were pretty easy going and we were only hiking for an hour or so from Soraypampa before we made our first stop at Soyrococha to talk about the area and take a couple group photos. 
As we walked closer Salkantay pass, the weather started opening up a bit and you could begin to see the shadow of something great beyond.
Kay was pretty excited by what we could see and so was I. We hoped it would open up even more!
As the minutes passed, the weather started opening up more and more and Kay was beside himself with excitement.
Even I with my sour disposition was thinking this trail will be alright. “I will make it!” I thought.
I took several more pictures before we started the hour hike from Soyrococha to Salkantay Pass.
Bonus part of guides are that they can take photos of you, even if you don’t necessarily want photos of yourself. 😉 I had burned my nose in Cusco and the whole thing was peeling for the second time in less than a week. It was not pretty, but who needs pretty on a trail with all this nature taking the show?
The next part of the hike to the pass was the hardest part of the entire trek. We were hiking up to 4600m, even higher than in Puno, and the guides were readily anticipating altitude sickness from us.
I have to say, at Alpaca Expeditions, they take altitude sickness very seriously. I am pretty slow going up in general, plus taking photos slowed me down, and I noticed that the guide trailing at the end asked me quite frequently, “How’re you doing sister?”
At first, I mistook this for him being concerned that I was falling behind the group. I kept replying, “I’m fine!” because although my lungs were protesting from being up so high and going upward, I knew my little engine could do it if I went at my own pace. Left right, left right, left right. Up, up, up.
I noticed him asking others, “How’re you doing brother?” and later at dinner in the evening, I realized that the guides had been meticulously checking in on us to make sure we weren’t experiencing any of the life-threatening symptoms of altitude sickness that can lead to death.
Our guide told us the sobering story of one couple where the woman felt sick and couldn’t go on on her own, so the guide mistakenly put her on a donkey to go up the rest of the way. He didn’t realize that she was experiencing symptoms of pulmonary and cerebral edema until the middle of the night when her boyfriend woke the guide frantically for help.
There is no cell signal past the Salkantay pass, so one of the porters ran for hours back up and down the pass until he reached signal on his phone. They called in a helicopter from Cusco to fly the woman out, but when it finally reached the camp site, she had been dead for several hours. Her boyfriend had been planning to propose to her at the end of the trek at Machu Picchu, which might have been part of his and the guide’s reason to push her to keep going, but it had awful, heartbreaking consequences.
Mountains are beautiful and breathtaking to behold, but you need a certain respect for the harsh and unpredictable conditions they hold. While altitude sickness only affected a few of our group with headaches, it’s extremely important to take it seriously.
Some of our group knew that don’t fare well with it, so they took anti-altitude sickness medication beforehand, with the only downside being very increased urination, which is always fun without bathrooms around. 😉
At this point, Kay and I were so smiley and happy. We agreed that what we saw in the photos below just made the entire tour worth it, no matter what happens next. 
Our guide Valentine told us that often folks pass by here and the mountain is completely covered, so they just have to show pictures back at the tour center of how it looks.
We were very lucky!
Overjoyed!
This view is not to be seen from the Inca Trail and I’m SO happy we got to take this in. It was one of the best parts of the trip.
Here you can see what the donkeys and porters for the group looked like passing us on the trek. These weren’t the ones for our group, but it’s a similar view of how they got our things up the mountain.
Alpaca Expeditions gives you a duffel bag to put things like your sleeping bag and things you will only need at night. Everything else you carry in your day pack. Kay’s and my daypack both looked ridiculously oversized compared to everyone else’s, but the extra size would come in handy a little later on the trail.
I could stare at this mountain for days.
Finally at the top, we took some celebratory photos together and with the group.
Kay was having a baller time and was not nearly as winded as I was. Below you can see he even climbed up a higher stretch with the ultrathon runners we had in our group. I politely declined. 😉
Overall, we were a nice group. Five Americans, four Dutch, Kay, and me. We were all pretty sporty and fit and kept a nice pace together, even with me a little slow on the way up. 🙂
On the other side of the pass, the crew set up lunch for us in a tent and even set up a portable toilet. I was really impressed and couldn’t wait to use it. This was only the first day, but you definitely start getting excited about toilets and running water on a trip like this. 😀
I had asked about my gluten problem the night before in the briefing and they said it should be fine. I asked about everything I ate and never got sick the whole time on the trek. Below we started out with some hot soup.
Look how happy my boy is! It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside to see him enjoying himself so much.
Our chef was pretty awesome. Every meal had tons of variety and tons of food. I had made it known at breakfast that I was celiac so sometimes I needed more of certain foods when the others contained gluten and everyone was accommodating to “let Katie eat all the fruits”.
At lunch we had fried fish, cucumbers and tomatoes, olives and below you can see Peruvian corn with cheese in the middle and ceviche to the left.
They also had rice and toasted crunchy corn. It was delicious!
After lunch, we all got a chance to use the bathroom. Before and after eating, everyone had the chance to wash their hands with soap and water. Considering that I had peed on mine, I was really appreciative of this, even though Kay had disinfectant with him too.
After lunch we hiked a couple hours down to Huayracmachay where we set up camp for the night. We were actually pretty lucky the entire trail that it was never raining when we set up or tore down camp. I was very thankful for this!
We set up camp before it got dark and then met for the cocktail hour. Kay and I are used to setting up camp quickly, so we got things sorted so that we’d be ready to peel off our clothes at night and crawl into our sleeping bags.
Behind us, the view to Salkantay was already closing up again.
Inside the basic shelter where the cook was set up, the guides set up a funny burning (kerosin?) lamp above Kay’s head. We told the guys to be careful getting up so they wouldn’t light their heads on fire. 🙂
We had a pre-dinner cocktail hour with hot tea and the best, saltiest tasting popcorn you ever did desire on the trail. Afterward it was time for dinner.
More rice and veggies for dinner as well as chicken. I was impressed overall how much meat we enjoyed on the trip. It was quite rare if at all on our homestay in Amantaní Island, so I felt like a spoiled tourist.
If that wasn’t enough, our chef outdid himself by flambeing bananas with pisco for dessert. Looks a little perverted, but tasted wonderful!
After dinner we all made our way to the bathroom, which was a real toilet with running water. HOORAY! We brushed our teeth and then went to sleep.
Up next, day two!
Alpaca Expeditions was founded by a retired porter and Inca tour guide. Their fantastic, professional tours specialize in sustainable tourism both by supporting local farmers and by paying fair wages to local porters, employee health/life insurance, and respecting local labor laws. The company also has social projects for children’s needs and they even work to help porters and their families to visit Machu Picchu, something that many locals in the area are never able to do on their own. By supporting Alpaca Expeditions, you can help them give back to the community and support the local Andeans.
More from our trip to Peru:
Our waitress was American and I was really happy to know that she knew what gluten was and could recommend several things to me.
As I mentioned in our 
Also at lunch after the soup, we got a big bowl of various potatoes, some carrots I think, as well as a big piece of salty goat cheese.
I was really impressed with the cooking the entire homestay because the kitchen was basically a small hovel off the eating area. It looked more like a barn or trash room because the family always swept everything from the eating area into the small kitchen space so that they could pick things up to burn later on. I was SO curious to see how they really cooked in a space like that. It was very small and cramped, with no vents for the smoke.
For dinner we had a kind of carrot and potato mix with rice.
The next morning I was concerned when our mama served us what looked like pancakes. Communicating with Kay’s Portuñol to their dialect of Quechua was a little tricky, but we verified that there was no “Harina de Trigo” and that it should just be made out of corn, so I ate my pancakes with coca tea and they were delicious.
Next on our homestay tour, we had left Amantaní Island and headed to Taquile Island where we had a big goodbye lunch before heading back to Puno. Here I asked our guide to make sure the food was OK for me. 
First up was some quinoa soup. We realized on the trip that quinoa, which we eat so often now with my celiac diet, often comes from Peru, and that the local diet uses it heavily, to my benefit.
For lunch we had a choice and I picked fresh fish with a side of rice, fries, and some veggies. I also purchases an additional Coke out of the homestay package because I felt icky and headachey and it took my headache right away. After that, I pretty much felt fine and headache-free from the altitude for the rest of the trip. Still extra winded though. 😉
Back in Puno, I wanted to go back to 
For my main, I got the grilled trout fillet with a passion fruit and rocoto pepper sauce, served with sautéed vegetables. And a Pisco Sour, because we’d hiked a tough walk on Amantaní Island. 😉
For dessert, I got my brownie and shared a tiny bit with Kay, who was quite stuffed himself.
On our fourth day in Puno, we thought we’d try something else out and we had the dreaded breakfast search, which is honestly still the worst part of traveling as a celiac. I’d eaten a snack bar or two before we found 
Muña tea and espresso were ordered, as well as juice because it was breakfast for us.
The menu was not extremely gluten-free friendly, but I got some kind of frittata that met my needs.
We also decided to split some chicken kebabs. Looking at them is making me hungry again.
After we walked up to the Condor in Puno, we stopped at the cafe again for some classic Inca Kola, which is like bubble gum flavored pop.
I also ordered a quinoa soup because breakfast didn’t fill me enough.
And they were so kind to give us more corn to munch on.
For our last meal before our night bus to Cusco, we just went back to 
It tasted alright, maybe a bit more gamey than chicken or beef. It was a bit hard to get all the meat off the bone though and I ended up finishing it chicken-wings style.
Up next, we arrive in Cusco the days we’d planned to acclimatize to the altitude we just encountered in Puno. Oops.
The islands are basically made with plant material including reeds from the area, which are also a major food source for the Uros.
The islands were really impressive and we got to get out of the boat and walk around on a few of them.
The clothing of the locals on the island was very distinct. We were surprised that in the cold weather (we had hats and jackets) the locals were still bare foot, but they had several layers under their skirts.
Still, the people in the region are much more used to both the altitude and the temperatures being outside all the time.
On the “big island” with the school, we stopped for some coca tea, made from the same plant which is used to produce cocaine. We had already been experiencing some altitude sickness in Puno and coca is supposed to help against it, which we found to be true.
It was impressive that the locals even have a school out on the islands for young children, but if people want further education then they usually need to move into town back on land in Puno.
Kay and I enjoying the sun warming us up a little.
After awhile it was time to get back on the boat and head to Amantaní island for our homestay.
If you have time around Peru, I definitely recommend visiting the lake. Some tours are day trips, so you could shorten your stay, but I’m so glad that we did our overnight homestay. It was such a special experience. More about that soon!
The weather was a little so-so during our whole stay and shortly after we arrived for dinner the first night, it started pouring in the square outside the restaurant.
At the advice of our very helpful airBNB host, we left for a one night homestay trip which was incredible and extremely memorable. It rained a lot the night we were gone and when we got back, it poured some more in Puno.
Puno by night below, on the way back up to the flat.
On our last day there wasn’t much to do. We went for a lazy brunch in the morning and soaked in the nice bright plants before hiking up to the condor statue overlooking the city in the afternoon.
Any hiking in altitude was quite tough. We thought that living near the Alps and hiking in them would help, but we probably don’t hike much above 1700-2000m normally, so we were struggling. Especially me, with my tough time dealing with uphills anyway. It was a nice way to work up a sweat in that cold weather!
The view over the city from the condor was lovely.
The condor itself was a bit of an oddity. We didn’t see any actual condors on our trip, but this guy was looking over the city, attracting tourists from far and wide.
He was also huge! Look at Kay below for scale.
Such a big bird meant we had to do some cheesy photos. 🙂
As we watched the sky, we saw storm clouds rolling in from behind the hills again.
We decided not to stay too long before the storm came, which it did. 😉 
Down in town, we stopped by a local dance competition going on and watched a few routines from young women. The music is quite different from back home!After dinner we headed to the bus station for our overnight bus ride to Cusco, which was pretty horrifying for me, although it didn’t seem to bug Kay that much. The bus was overly heated and since I was sitting next to the heater, I spent the night tossing and turning, dehydrated and sweating, despite taking all my warm layers off including socks and shoes and rolling my pants off. Having not slept at all, I was in a thoroughly sour mood when we arrived in Cusco. It was not a fun way to spend the wedding anniversary with Kay, but he booked the overnight tickets for that day. 😉
The first part of our trip was already quite adventurous. I’ll write more about our visiting to the Floating Islands, Amantaní Island, and Taquile Island later.