Photo trip to Peru by Alec Fedorov

Photo trip to Peru

by Alec Fedorov

Hi Steve,

I am an amateur photographer who has been an avid reader of your website for three years. Thanks for the great service you provide to the community of photographers.

Recently, my wife and I returned from an REI trip to Peru where we hiked the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu, and I would like to share our experiences with the readers of your site.

I brought two cameras on the trip: Fuji X100s and Sony RX100III, both of which are great for travel photography. My go-to camera was the Fuji because of excellent image quality and ease of use. The Sony was kept in my pants pocket and came in handy a few times.

We arrived in Cusco, where we spent three days acclimatizing to the altitude, since the Salkantay Pass is at 15,200 feet. Cusco has the population of about 450,000 and it was the historic capital of the Incan Empire until it was conquered by the Spanish in 1532. Nowadays, Cusco is a growing city, and it is a tourist hub for trips to Machu Picchu.

We arrived in Cusco a few days before the New Year and the city was full of tourists and holiday lights. The streets in the center of Cusco are cobblestone. Some intersections are so narrow that the cars have to back up half way through the turn in order to complete it!

One of the most noticeable aspects of Cusco are the stray dogs which are ubiquitous. Some of the dogs have owners but the majority of them live on the streets. This is often due to people purchasing the dogs as puppies and then losing interest as the dog gets older and the novelty wears off. In Peru, it is considered inhumane to neuter dogs, so the population of street dogs just grows exponentially.

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Cusco is a blend of ancient and modern. The food was excellent and some of the restaurants were very eccentric, the kind you would expect to find in Manhattan.

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One day, we hired a local driver to take us to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, which encompasses the heartland of the Incan empire. The scenery was spectacular, with very few tourists. At the end of the day, we ran into many shepherds, bringing the sheep in. They live in primitive clay houses without electricity.

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After spending three days in Cusco, we hooked up with the REI group to begin the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu. This trek is named among the 25 Best Treks in the World by National Geographic Adventure Travel Magazine. It is an ancient and remote footpath located in the same region as the Inca Trail. The first few days of the 6-day hike traverses through a landscape of scenic views of the snowcapped 20,574 ft Mt. Salkantay.

We spent the first two nights at Salkantay Lodge at 12,600, and hiked to the Glacier Lake at 14,500 feet to further acclimatize.

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The hike over the Salkantay Pass began on a beautiful sunny morning. As we ascended, the green valley and blue sky was replaced by the grey lifeless rock and a dense fog. Shortly after reaching the top of the pass, a lone white horse emerged out of the fog. It was a very surreal experience.

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Over the next few days, we continued our descent into the high jungle, where we took our repose at three more lodges. The only traffic on the trek consisted of occasional packs of mules and horses carrying the luggage and the food supplies. In six days, we only ran across two other hikers. Photos below are of the local man who followed behind our group with the water and medical supplies.

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On the last day, before reaching Machu Picchu, we hiked through coffee plantations, and we visited a local family business. Many of these families rely on selling coffee to the tourists as their only source of income.

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Machu Picchu, in itself, was spectacular, and the experience of getting there by foot was unforgettable!

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Alec

Thanks,
Alec

16 Comments

  1. HI Alec, some nice pictures, thank you for sharing.
    Next july i’ll be in Peru for a full month. I’ll be shooting film exclusively.
    I have a question. Like you i plan to bring two camera (M4 for b&w and R5 for color).
    Did you have any problem at the custom… officially you are allowed either one camera with 10 films or one digital camera with two cards. Thank you again for sharing these images.

    • It’s not North Korea – correction – correction, having visited the DPRK, there is no restriction on cameras.

      Why do you think 1x camera with 2x cards is all you can bring with you?

      • From the official site, ministerio de comercio exterior y turismo de peru

        http://www.mincetur.gob.pe/Turismo/guia_facilitacion/english_guide.pdf

        m)One (01) film or digital camera.
        q) Up to ten (10) rolls of photographic film, one (01) external hard
        drive, two (02) memory cards for digital cameras, video cameras and/or videogames (only if you are carrying these devices), two (02) USB memories (pen drive), ten (10) video casse es for portable video camera, ten (10) digital disks for video or videogames.

        It’s disturbing, imagine 14% tax for anymore equipment….
        Maybe i should have choosen chile or argentina…

  2. Moral of the story is get a nice camera and get some brilliant memories that will last hour lifetime.

  3. Great timing with this post as Saturday my 16 year old son and I leave for nine days in Peru. We are travelling light and the only photo gear I am only taking is a Fujifilm X70. However I fully expect to come back with great images and even greater memories.

  4. I trekked the Inca Trail solo when you could still do so, them were the days. Did you have a.n.other carry your backpack?

    For me, many images do not work as you as too stand-offish, no sense of New Year’s Eve or Cuzco at all, sorry.

    I enjoyed the angles of the 6th shot, but you are not careful with your compositions: for example, the last image, R of frame, I want separation of the shadow and edge of frame.

    Too much emphasis in the middle of the frame tells me you need to fine tune how to better compose images, or try cropping 10×8 as this encourages a mid-frame subject?

    Thanks for sharing.

  5. It’s my own country so, yup, it’s beautiful. I’m going to Cusco this July after 40 years.
    I loved the salt-mine picture and the one in MAchu Picchu, it’s an interesting angle and perspective.

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