Peru - Salkantay Trail to Machu Picchu

The Quick and Dirty:
Location - Lima, Cuzco, Aguas Caliente, Peru
Travel Duration: 8 days
Visa needed for US Citizens?: No
Vaccination needed for Americans: Routine vaccination and antibiotics for well traveled areas such as Cuzco, Lima and Aguas Caliente 
Spanish necessary for traveling: no
Type of trip: Machu Picchu, backpacking, hiking, site seeing
Total Cost of the trip including airfare: ~$1,000 per person

I found these incredibly cheap plane tickets from LAX to Lima, Peru shortly after my southeast Asia trip earlier this year. Along with the rest of LA who took advantage of the deal, Louis and I set out to conquer the Salkantay trek along with Macchu Picchu with three of our friends during the Thanksgiving break. We arrived well after dinner in Lima the first day, stayed at a hostel called Mami Pancheta in the San Miguel district and took the cab to the airport the first thing the following day to Cusco. As the old capital of ancient Peru, the city was filled with pre and post Spanish history, this would also be the meeting place for our tour group to star the Salkantay trek the following day. 

Thankfully, we did not experience any of the delays notoriously known for Star Peru and arrived at Cuzco at midmorning. The hostel we stayed at the first night was Piccola Locanda, tucked away in one of the many side streets of Cuzco, the hostel was quaint and clean. Because Cuzco is approximately 11,000 feet above sea level, we were immediately offered Cocoa tea to help acclimate with the altitude. 

 Alpana and Edwin enjoying their Cocoa tea at Hostel Piccola Locanda.

 Plaza del Armas, Cuzco

We were warned over and over again not to stuff ourselves silly on our first day in Cuzco because of the high altitude. We were overcome with curiosity of the local cuisine and soon forgot all about the warnings. Lunch on the first day consist of alpaca on a skewer, potatoes, trout ceviche and roasted guinea pig, notice the awesome presentation of the guinea pig.

 Inside former temple of the sun, after the sack of the Spaniards, with the structure's old foundation, convent of Santo Domingo was built on top of the former temple.

 First day of the Salkantay trail, 19kms of hiking total on the first day.

 Edwin and Louis with mount Salkantay as the backdrop.

Our mules carrying our packs! Bag weights are limited to 5kg per person, if you want extra weight an extra 80 soles can buy you another mule to share with others. 

The campground at the end of our first day. The elevation here was around 13,000 feet above sea level. This is the place where many people begin to feel the altitude sickness. Thankfully, no one in our group was sick, we've all been taking Diamox (altitude sickness medication) for a few days. 

 Outhouse with toilets without seat covers.

Eating with the group on the first night, temperature dropped 10 degrees below zero on the first night, and this is summer temperature! 

Day 2, Louis and I feeling good at 14,000ft.

Finally got to the top! 15,225 feet!

 Our international team of awesomeness! 

Alpaca grazing in the rain

Louis finally feeling the altitude after descending from our highest point. 

 Daily tea time after the hike, my favorite. 

Campground at night 2.

 Lunch at day 3, ceviche vegetables. 

 End of the hike at day 2

how many people can you fit in a 8 person van in Cuzco? 

 Day 4, after ascending 1,600 steps Machu Picchu!

 One of the countless number of llamas on top of Machu Picch

 Amar's classy Peruian pink pants ;)

 Posing with the llamas 

 At the entrance of Huayna Picchu (new peak), yes, we are getting ready to climb that peak in the background.

 Amar and Andrew taking a break climbing Huayna Picchu. Unfortunately, those red pants never made it back to the bottom of the mountain in one piece...

 We made it to the top of Huayna Picchu, break time. 

 Beautiful day, we were so thankful for the lack of rain and tourist. Sitting in front of the best views in the world enjoying the afternoon sun at Machu Picchu.

Last day in Lima

 Lima, outside of Monastery of San Francisco right before the tour. Underneath the monastery, there's 6 miles of catacombs, unfortunately, no photos were allowed during the tour of the catacombs. I highly recommend this when in Lima!

Last meal in Lima at Cordona, one of Lima's oldest restaurant. This is the ceviche that left our stomachs aching the next day.

Catalina Island- Little Harbor Campground

The Quick and Dirty:
Location - Catalina Island, Little Harbor
Distance - 5 miles one way
Terrain Type - flat to gentle slopes, coastal
Difficulty - Beginner 
Best Time - Fall through Spring
Special Conditions -  private land, bison grazing, off-road vehicles

Duration- 2 days

We bought a Groupon for RT ferry tickets to Catalina Island via the Catalina Flyer earlier this year. Louis and I have been wanting to go back to Catalina since our first backpacking trip there last year.  The Trans Catalina trail from Avalon to Two Harbors is approximately 20+ miles and we were only able to finish the stretch from Avalon to Black Jack campground near the airport.Since we only had a weekend this time around, we decided to skip the portion we hiked last year and took a bus from Avalon to the airport via the Catalina Airport shuttle. Traveling around Catalina was not cheap, the round trip tickets from Avalon to the airport was $26 per person.

The airport shuttle runs every two hours starting from 9AM. We caught the 1PM shuttle on Saturday and was dropped off at the airport at around 1:30. Eyeing the Buffalo burger inside the airport restaurant, we all made a mental note to come back the next day for lunch before we left the island.  

The hike to the Little Harbor campground was pretty fast, downhill for the majority of the 5 miles. I'm not sure what is it about the Catalina trails that gives everyone terrible blisters. By the time we got to our campground, I was limping, wishing I had brought my sandles for the weekend. Seeing the buffalo on the trail just made me more hungry for that burger...

We found a shortcut going into Little Harbor. 

Our four star campground. Camping fees here was $16 per night per person. We were shocked at how expensive it was until we got to the campsite. This savvy campground has well established fire pits, walking distance to the beach, palm trees, picnic tables and porta potties. The rangers even deliver wood to your campground for $9 a bundle!! The best part was, because it was "winter"  the campground was almost empty, we literally had the entire beach to ourselves. 

 Beautiful Little Harbor, courtesy of Edwin's panoramic app on his phone.

Little Harbor ranger station, closed for the winter. 

Back in Avalon, view of the boats and the old Casino.

Yosemite- Young Lakes

The Quick and Dirty:
Location - Yosemite National Park, Young Lakes 
Distance - 24 miles one way
Terrain Type - flat to gentle slopes, northern Sierra Nevada region
Difficulty - Moderate Strenuous  
Best Time - Summer and Fall
Special Conditions -  US national park, entrance fee required upon arrival, backpacking permit also required.

Duration- 4 days

Louis and I spent labor day weekend backpacking at Young Lakes at Yosemite National Park with a few friends. We left Friday morning and drove up to Yosemite National Park's Eastern entrance off the Tioga Road into the Tuolumne Meadows. It took approximately 6 hours to drive up to the national park from Southern California. Lodging is $5 a night for backpackers at Tuolumne Meadows backpackers campsite. We planned to meet the rest of our camping party at the campsite on the first day but never found the campground. Instead, we drove all 20 miles east on Tioga Road to Porcupine campground and setup camp there for the night. We did manage to find our friends some time later at the backpacker's campsite and convinced them to move over to the Porcupine campground since it was close to our starting point the next day:) Porcupine was fine for a car camping campground. We were stuck next to some very loud neighbors and did not sleep very well that night, which reminded us why we enjoy backpacking so much more. 

This was our plan for the weekend. We were not able to obtain a backpacking permit from Dog Lake so we opted for the longer hike starting at Murphy Creek and ending at Dog Lake on Monday. 

First day, at our lunch spot. The weather was about 75, still too cold to swim in the water. 

I brought up the topic of us always wearing the same clothes during backpacking trips to Louis. We are considering wearing something different on our next backpacking trip. 

We found a campsite 1.5 miles away from the Glen Aulin junction and stay here for the first night. 

Really beautiful waterfall next to the High Sierras Glen Aulin campground on our hike the second day. It was a minor detour on our way to Young Lakes

Day two at one of our peaks.

Even the beautiful view could not cheer Edwin up. Ammar is giving Edwin a pep talk about backpacking.

We arrived at Young Lakes and camped at the lower lake. After everyone went into the lake for a dip, we napped and ventured up to the upper lakes. Next time, I think I'd prefer to camp at the upper lakes. 

Alpana, Lisa and I discussing where we are going to eat once we leave the next day. Dinner plans at Tasty Garden in Alhambra for the next day was decided shortly after the photo was taken.

Sun setting, kind of reminded me of Columbine Lake at Mineral Kings. 

Enjoying dinner by the lake

 Day 3, hiking back to Dog Lake's parking lot.  

Last photo of the group (with Ammar as the photographer) before saying goodbye to Yosemite.