I went on a hike in Costa Rica back in 2018, and it was the toughest physical activity I’ve ever done. Luckily, I had an amazing group of hikers to encourage me along the way and keep me going. Once we were completed, I asked Jared, a traveler who spent most of his adult life in Latin America and southeast Asia, if that was the toughest hike he’d ever done. He said no, and I learned from him later, that this was.
The Salkantay Trek is the more difficult of two trails that lead from Cusco to Machu Picchu. At 45 miles (72kms), it is by far the longest trek I’ve done, and it is indeed the toughest. Day 1was one of the hardest for me because I was nowhere near acclimated to the elevation. It begun at 9,350ft (2,900m) and was a leisurely hike for the most part, until we separated the men from the boys. And that was with the hike up to Lake Humantay.
From a distance, no slope looks as difficult as it actually is once you are climbing it and I assumed that it wasn’t as bad as it looked. Long story short, it took me an hour and a half to climb up to the lake and by the time I got there I was so exhausted that the guides thought I wasn’t going to survive day 2. I eventually made it to this wonderful crystal-clear lake at nearly 14,000 ft and was able to catch whatever breath I was capable of catching and enjoy the wonderful view. At dinner, they recommended that I rent a horse for the following day. Because day 2 was going to make day 1 seem like a stroll on the beach. The altitude affected me immensely on day 1, so I knew I was about to face my toughest challenge yet.
