Salkantay Trek - Day 4

Day 4 started earlier than usual. We were up by 4:30.
Our chef made us a cake overnight, decorated with cream and everything.
We had quinoa for breakfast, instead of oatmeal which is quite unusual.
This is where we said goodbye to our chef and helper. The helper was bringing us lunch later that day but we were not to see our chef again.

We left camp at 5:15 and started uphill right away. Alex promised it was only 3 hrs uphill at most.
I had a hard time going up but it was not as bad as Day 2 and we were done with the uphill in 2 hrs.
When we got up there, there was some ruins and we stopped to have a break.
These ruins had a ditch in a straight line directly pointing to Machu Picchu, but because of fog, we could barely make out the outline of Machu Picchu.


We then went downhill from there until we reached the local train station. The sun was high up by then although it was only 10:00 am. We met with our helper who provided our lunch boxes. We were all so hungry that we ate right away.

We walked 2.5 hours along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes.
The agency had booked a hotel for us, but we did not have any change of clothes with us. We were free until 5:15pm when the local train would bring our bags to Aguas Calientes. It was nice to shower and have a nap in a real bed instead of the tent. Alex met us at the local train stop and gave us our bags before dinner.

Dinner was at Apu Salkantay restaurant, just by the local train stop. We had to pay for our own drinks but the agency paid for the dinner. Alex then showed us the cheapest supermarket in Aguas Calientes for us to buy our snacks and water before leaving us for the night.