View of Peru's Ancient Civilization: Machu Piccu (By Stefanie Payne)

Story and photos by Stefanie Payne

For the adventure-minded, you either dream of hiking, or have hiked, the famous Inca Trail.  But there are many “Inca Trails”—thousands of kilometers, in fact—that lead into and around the ancient and abandoned city of Machu Picchu.

Nevado Salcantay is a the 38th highest peak in the Andes and is less traveled than other routes, primarily because, it is a hard-core hike at high-altitude.  Honored as a sacred deity of the Quechua people (the native Inca tribe that inhabited Machu Picchu,) Salcantay provides a playground for the mighty condor, emblazoning the Andes with winks from her snow-capped peaks.  The word “Salcantay” translates in Quechua a more rugged “wild, invincible and… savage.”

Salcantay - The Other Road to Machu Picchu (By Stefanie Payne)

National Geographic Adventures, 2011, Peru Inn-to-Inn

The Trek

The duration of our trek was ten days.  Machu Picchu as a destination deserves its own story, so the most I will say is that it exceeded my expectations completely.  No large signs, no trash. No noise.  Just miles of beautifully restored history and respectful travelers leaving only a tiny wake on an immaculate place.  And to get there, we had to start somewhere, and it was Cusco.

A small group of us set out on a short bus ride from Cusco to the Salcantay Lodge, situated in the valley beneath Salcantay where the trek would begin.  I had been in Cusco a few days and had my time to acclimatize, but it was at the lodge that I fell to the spell of real altitude.  I looked upon the mountain and foothills leading into Her and felt the smallness of myself, and the power of Salcantay’s magnitude rumbling beneath the clouds that robed her.  At the beginning of the trek, my goal was to see Machu Picchu, but in retrospect, my achievement was reveling in the days on the mountain that led me there.

The NG Adventures group ascending Salcantay

It is true that this section of the Cordillera Vilcabamba is “wild, invincible and… savage.”  Sheer trail drops fell thousands of feet to the earth all around me… severe head colds and chapped lips were as common as breathing; mountain bulls were ready to charge, suspension bridges would challenge all fears—specifically one that nearly cost me the remainder of the experience completely.  For when I was face down breathing in 150 feet of air separating me and a rocky shore, and the chants of my new friends couldn’t coax me across—the words of the porters a hundred years past soared through my subconscious: “why would anyone intentionally cross a suspension bridge?!”  Eventually, pegged in sweat and tears and terror, I crossed that damn suspension bridge (with the helping hand of an angelic guide, a patron saint of Salcantay.)

Over a period of ten days trekking from Cusco to Machu Picchu, I coddled a variety of anxieties as well as great joys—like a young mother not knowing what to do with her first child. And when I reached the crest, (4600 M / 15,180 feet), I danced.

Stefanie Payne celebrates reaching the top of the Urubamba’s Sacred Mountain: Salcantay, on the way to Machu Picchu in Peru

Want another taste of Peru?  Head over to CityRoom Gourmet to read about Chicha: The Preferred Beverage of the Peruvian Quechua People.