Why You should RECONSIDER The Inca Trail to MACHU PICCHU | Peru

Welcome to the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. This is one of the seven new wonders of the world and as most people know you can get here by train and you can also get here by the famous Inca trail. However, there's another arguably one of the top 10 most beautiful hikes in the world called the Salcantay trek and as always it's not just about the destination it's also about the journey. So we're going to rewind to four days ago when our trek started to get to this beautiful destination. We got a world to see and all the time to learn. Well, the moment has come. We are at the base of the Salcantay trek. Jamie, are you excited? I am excited. A bit nervous but excited. We got our packs on. Aki has his pack on. We want to introduce you to our guide Nilo. Hi guys. We lucked out and we actually have a private tour so the four of us. Yeah. Including Nilo. And look at the start. It's a good way to start it and I think the elevation is only going to go up from here. And if you don't want to do the hike this is for a bit more of a glamping experience. Check out these. It felt nice and quick for you guys I'm sure but it was pretty uphill for us. Look at that. Look at the color of that water. Aki. Aki, you're not meant to be doing that buddy. I know. Aki, come here buddy. Come on. Good boy. Grandma's a softie, huh? So we are hiding out of the wind at the moment but in the background you just saw the view of Salcantay Mountain and that's why this trek is called Salcantay. We go through the Salcantay Pass and this one is four days. We finish at Machu Picchu. We're about four hours into the hike. Sorry the horse is getting close. Come here buddy. And Aki is loving it. So we seem to have picked up a bit of a friend following us. Hey buddy. I don't know how you're in a t-shirt. Bloody Canadians, huh? Can handle the winter. Day one done mom. Day one done. Super cute. Check out the little kitchen. Oh it smells so good in there. Smells amazing. It's warm. Let's get in there. Good job buddy. These guys have nailed it. This is our third course. So first we had avocado and olives then soup. Now look at this spread. Looks amazing. And this really cute tent I think we're gonna check back in tomorrow because it is still only day one. Amazing. Good morning. It is 4 45 a.m and we've been woken up with some coca tea which is very smart because it actually motivated me to get up and out of bed. We're gonna pack up. We have breakfast at 5 10 and then I guess we're gonna be taken off at 5 40 this morning. How'd you sleep buddy? Still sleeping. So last night was by far our coldest night of the three nights we're gonna have here. It was about negative six degrees. Aki snuggled with us in the tent. We've also fed him extra this morning as well as last night and Aki's definitely doing it the easiest out of all of us. And this is the elevation we slept at last night. Aki's been checking on everyone making sure everyone's doing okay. How you feeling mum? The trek's hard. I have a bit of trouble breathing but my body's great and look at that it's so worth it. And who really needs to breathe anyway? And mum just so people get a gauge, well if you're okay with saying it, how old are you so people can get a gauge of? I turn 59 next week. 59 next week and killing it. And that is an Andean chinchilla. They're calling to each other. I think they're all on alert because of Aki. They're up there on top of that rock. Oh yeah, yeah. There's another. Why was I playing where's Waldo? Where's Wally Lee? Come on. What? Waldo? Yeah. Let us know what the real answer is. Hey mum, we need you to settle the debate. Is it where's Waldo or where's Wally? What? 100 percent? 100 percent. Are you sure if they're in Australia and North America? No mum, isn't Waldo the one in yellow and black, the bad guy? I thought Waldo's wearing red and white. Do you know where's Wally? No, no. Where's Wally? He's wearing red and white and he's got a, he's got like half set of glasses and a beanie. Is he a rabbit? Mind blown. No Nila it's not a it's a children's book. You have to find him in amongst all pictures. Yeah Wally, see? No Wally, you're right. Whereas Aki's still on the chinchilla hunt. It's probably your Australian slang that they say Wally. Oh Lee. Morning. Cold night last night. And beautiful. Yeah, it was cold down where we were so yeah. It's not only cold where you were. Minus seven. I can see the frost still on your tent. It was in the tent too. So Kenny, I don't know if you can see but Aki's just licking the ice while all of us are trying to keep our balance and traverse over it. Killing it. Woohoo. We did it. Yeah and feeling it and have a look where we've just come down from. All the way down into that valley. All right mum, was it, was it formidable? Ah, challenging. Well good work making it to the peak but we're not completely there yet. I know. Good work Nila. Open up the windows, the world waits just outside for us. Wow. You ready for lunch mum? Oh yes, I'm ready for lunch. Oh, what do we have today? Aki is making the most of a bit of downtime. As if they haven't already outdone themselves. Look at this condor. I'm blown away. Hey, happy campers. So good. Sit. That's right, it's tea time for Aki too. Wait. Wait. Okay. Oh good boy. Watch my coffee. Check. Other hand. Okay. Let's dance. He's like, I'll give you whatever you want. I think I'm just going to give him the rest of this whole pack. Wait. Wait. No. Okay. Good good boy. So we've now descended far enough that we are reaching more of kind of a jungle area out of the altitude and it's really cool to see where the snow meets the tree line and it's already gone up to about 20 degrees which is actually kind of nice. Oh Aki, the best kind of friends. Wait Aki. The king and his disciples. Yes sir, yes. Me too. I'm so happy. So it's amazing to think that that is where we came from. Not that long though. Yeah. And I think what, how many kilometers? Around 12 and 8, so 20. So yeah. That's quick maths. Quick maths. Campsite number two officially. Good work team. Good work mom. Yeah that was tough. 12 hours. You did well. Up and down. And what was worse? Down. Yeah. What do you guys think? I think down is way worse for hiking, especially over long distances. Leigh, thoughts? This is awesome. Ready to crawl into bed? Yes. So we did get offered a four dollar shower but we're accepting the buckets instead. And Aki is out to the world. You can't be a cakewalker again now. Chicken. Salud. Morning. It is 5 a.m of day three. I think we're all feeling it a little bit today. Aki went out and had a run around with another dog last night so he's tired. And last full day of hiking before Machu Picchu. Yeah it's much warmer last night. You ready? Happy baby. Look how quick these guys have packed up the tents already. Okay mom, are you sure? Yes. All right we'll see you at lunch. So as you just saw we have said goodbye to mom just for this leg of the trip. One of the good things about the Salcantay hike is that you have the option if you're struggling a little bit you can skip over a section. And this section we're about to do is 15 kilometers and it's six hours worth of hiking. Mom's feet were pretty sore. So she's gone on for lunch. She's getting a van there and we're going to meet her there and that way she's going to be all good for Machu Picchu. And yeah so she's going to... Oh yeah and we've got another another hike this afternoon she's joining in. So she's going to read a book, have a coffee, relax. We'll meet her there hopefully around midday. Okay you don't have to look at me for okay. Do you think Occy is the first dog to ever march the whole Salcantay trek? I think so yeah. Good dog huh? Yeah. Good behaviors. He's just quiet. Don't bark a lot. There you go Occy. You passed the test. These stops are awesome. So as you can see above and below we're crossing through yet another landslide. Along this trek we've probably passed what five, six? Yeah today. Six of them today. Such a steep drop off down to the river. So this is mica which is known as like a fake silver so you'll see a lot of things made here with this instead. I mean it'll fool me. Who's there? How's the morning off? Oh it's been lovely. I've had a lovely time. I found wi-fi. Wow so I said no more shots of food but look at this. Amazing. So we're on the final leg of our trek. We are now at Hidroelectrica and what you see beside us is the local train that does go from here up to Aguas Calientes which is the town of Machu Picchu. Yeah the town at the base of Machu Picchu and we have 10km to get there but apparently this walks pretty flat, pretty easy, a couple of hours and we'll be there. I have to say though after this morning's walk, although I felt great doing it, taking a bit of a break, I'm sore and tired. Ready for a shower. Yeah. From here, from this bridge, we can see one part of the city of Machu Picchu. The terraces are up there. That is the Sandia that lies on the top. This is like a pyramid. So today we are going to surround Machu Picchu. Yeah. We're getting close mum. How are your feet? Good. How are you doing buddy? We just crossed 50km in on the third day and you are killing it. So bloody close now. 25km, yes. Killed it. Aki buddy, you are the superstar. You're the best ever. Shake Aki. Good boy. So this is the train station, this is Aguas Calientes and we stayed tonight in a hotel actually before starting up to Machu Picchu in the morning. So we've all just had the nicest hottest shower to clean after camping the last few nights. We were in our hotel room which is also very beautiful and clean. Way nicer than we thought it was going to be. Yeah way nicer than we expected. We're heading out for dinner and then we're probably just going to hit the hay because we're again up at 5am to finally go to Machu Picchu. And this little guy has tuckered out so he's going to be staying in the hotel tomorrow when we go to Machu Picchu because you're actually not allowed to have dogs enter this site. I think Aki's happy with the decision. So we weren't quite the first to make it here. You made it mum. It's beautiful. So we have absolutely lucked out with the weather here and this video was more about the journey than the destination of Machu Picchu but we couldn't leave you guys without showing you a little bit of it and telling you a bit about it. It was built in the 15th century by the Incas but it wasn't discovered by outsiders until the North American Hiram Bingham discovered it in 1911. So the king who built the empire here wanted it built in secret so what he'd do is they'd bring in essentially slaves from under the Inca empire from all different cities and bring thousands in and every few months they would send them out and bring new people in. So yeah it was never seen by the Spanish or even the local people living around because no one knew about it. It was pretty cool. Very cool and like look how high. Imagine trying to build up here. Look how high. That's where we walked on the railway track yesterday. Also I take the cool back. It's not cool to have slaves build your empire but it's interesting. It's impressive. Yeah. What are we entering the border from? The main gate of the old city of Machu Picchu. So this side was all the agricultural section and now we're entering the urban section. So this area I'm in now is the quarry and some people might be wondering how the Incans cut all the rocks to make all the walls and what they actually did they had these chisels and they would put little holes in the huge boulder rocks like the one behind me and then they would put water in and overnight the water would freeze and expand and become ice and that would cause a crack that they'd do it night after night and after night and the crack would get bigger and bigger and bigger and eventually they'd be able to split the rock down the middle and they'd do that continuously to get the right size rocks. So apparently this is the bathroom. The shitter as the Incans say. Now we're gonna reverse out because it's tight. After exploring for about three and a half hours we were making our way out. I'm busting to use the washroom. Yep and if you can't tell we're all a little tired after hiking over 55 kilometers but it was so worth it to get here. I'm not gonna see you again so thank you so much. Hi buddy! Hello! How have you been? Hello! These past four days have been amazing and seeing Machu Picchu this morning was really just the cherry on top. We enjoyed the full experience. Thank you Tunkaini for the awesome service and the amazing food as we showed you this whole past four days. We hope this gave you a good example to see the other options to get to Machu Picchu other than the Inca Trail and just taking the train which Incaini Tours still does both of those but we personally love the Salcantay for all the scenery that you could see. The trek did cost 5.80 US per person and you might be wondering about the little floof and how that went. Yeah and if you think it's now time for relaxing for us not quite yet because one it was awesome that we were able to bring Occy and it was so good that they were flexible with that but as you saw he wasn't allowed to Machu Picchu and the other thing is he isn't allowed onto the train which is the way Lee and mum are getting back from Aguas Calientes back to Ollantaytambo where they get a taxi or a ride to Cusco. There's no road transport other than the train so me and Occy have to now hike another 10 kilometers back and we're getting a van from there six hours back to Cusco so we're not going to be getting in till about eight o'clock tonight I think. Yeah so as always it cost us a little bit more to bring Occy but it was absolutely worth it he was a great addition to the hike. Yeah and finally I just want to say mum yep so proud of you making it for the hike and up to Machu Picchu was it all you imagined it to be? It was everything I imagined it to be and more it is pretty challenging but that's the buzz it was it was magnificent and Machu Picchu is unbelievable. Final words from Jano there if you liked the video give it a thumbs up if you appreciate the fact Occy walked 65 kilometers give it two thumbs up and we will see you guys next week. See ya. Bye. I'll see you back in a bit. Love you too. I can't begin to say how proud I am of my mum for doing this whole trip she was really nervous about coming to somewhere that was a bit outside her comfort zones you know she killed it can't wait to have her visit us in another continent another country.