Salkantay day 3 - from Lucmabamba to Aguas Calientes

The third day of the four-day Salkantay Trek skips a stage (actually the Salkantay Trek is a five-day long-distance hike) and starts from Lucmabamba to finish at Aguas Calientes. There are more than a thousand altimeters in between, both up and down!

Lucmabamba is about 2,000 meters above sea level, which means that I say goodbye to the cloud forest of the day before and now enjoy the scenery of rainforest. In Lucmabamba there are a few small coffee farmers who make coffee in an artisanal way from the coffee beans that grow in abundance. Guide Dario explains to me how the process works and points out that many coffee beans grow here. Other plants and flowers are also abundant here. But I'm here to walk and I do that on an old Inca road that is fortunately still being maintained.

And that road goes up considerably: more than eight hundred meters to be precise. A steep climb, but unlike yesterday, the path is not littered with boulders and rocks this time. On the contrary, the path looks good and the first kilometers go surprisingly well. In the meantime I fully enjoy the beautiful views of the wild river that flows hundreds of meters below as well as the rainforest that surrounds me.

When there are four hundred altimeters on the counter, it becomes a bit more difficult and the climb starts to get a bit steeper. But because I am not at an altitude of 4,000 meters this time, the way up is a lot easier than on the other days. Occasionally I also stop to take a break and in the most surprising places I find a few food shops and sanitary stops. About halfway on the route there is even the possibility to camp. See, this is something I didn't expect. The most unexpected moment is the summit itself where a large meadow is part of the landscape and there are even some horses grazing. From the top you have a phenomenal view over everything else and you can see the Hydroelectric Station and even (part of) Machu Picchu in the distance.

The descent is again very long this time and goes down no less than a thousand meters. After descending a hundred meters, however, it is time for an extensive stop because there is the small ruin of Llactapata. It is believed that this was a former checkpoint of the Incas and some buildings have even been restored. It looks nice, but the site is so small that you stop here for ten minutes at the most. The rest of the way zigzags down and the path has a lot more stairs here than on the climb up.

The rainforest is at its densest here and is therefore the ideal shelter from the sun that is now burning high in the sky. Guide Dario occasionally stops to show plants such as orchids. He looks surprised when I say that they also grow in Belgium and his confused look betrays that he doesn't believe me. After two hours of descent I approach the Hydroelectric Station, but not before I walk over a beautiful suspension bridge in an untouched piece of nature.

The break at the Hydroelectric Station is used to add vitamins, proteins, salts and other nutrients to my diet for the finale. This finale is a twelve kilometer passage to Aguas Calientes that mainly follows the railway track to it. The beginning of this stretch is slightly uphill, but the rest of the road is mainly flat with a few small inclines here and there. This is the easiest, but perhaps also the least interesting part of the Salkantay Trek.

The environment of the rainforest remains beautiful, but there are no real outliers or it should be the bridge that I encounter after one and a half kilometers on this road. Good for a few photos in the photo album, but not immediately wow. To fill up the dead moments I regularly talk to Dario and after more than an hour half of the remaining route is already behind us.

The last kilometers are perhaps the least inspiring and then the countdown to Aguas Calientes begins. At the very last kilometers the railway is even abandoned and it goes back to the normal road to get to the center of Aguas Calientes. Here you have to watch out for the buses that come back from Machu Picchu and it is recommended to walk on the side. After almost 23 km the walk is over and I can finally look forward to a day at Machu Picchu.

This day suffers from the same symptoms as the second day of the Salkantay Trek: the trail gets a bit boring as it consists of one long climb, followed by an even longer descent. The path to Aguas Calientes in the afternoon is unfortunately not very inspiring either. Still, I may have had more walking pleasure on this day than the day before because of the well-passable path, the beautiful jungle environment and a dash of culture at Llactapata. This makes this day feel like the most complete hiking experience of the Salkantay Trek.