Salkantay sacred valley trek, is and amazing program to discover the deep Andes, in a new trekking program rarely visited by other hikers, it’s an Adventure tour specially prepared for people who loves hiking new and non-frequented paths, the trek leads by quiet land inhabited by only few Quechua speaking people, people who keeps many Inca customs, this is a new peru trek.
If we compare it with the famous Inca trail to Machu Picchu, it is just not a frequented trail. The wild flora and fauna of this trek offers to visitors, beautiful highland Valleys, snow-covered picks such as: (Salkantay trek 6.271m.a.s.l. Tucarhuay, Humantay, Huayanay and others).
In this new trekking tour you will see the original Inca trails hidden by the icchu (highland grass), but still well preserved, we will walk on this trail, from here we reach the famous big corn. (If you want to extend your trip to Machu Picchu, we can manage it, you only need to tell us at booking time, instead of returning to Cusco, we can catch train machu picchu town and spend the night in aguas calientes, then do the Machu Picchu tour).
Trek available only in private service: Daily departures.
3 hours before pick up
The salkantay sacred valley trek program, starts with the transfer from your hotel in Cusco and transfer to the trail start point at“05:00 am” after 02 hours’ drive we will reach Mollepata “the last town on the way” where we will stop to buy some supplies such as water, walking sticks, etc, then drive Challacancha.
We´ll start our trek with 30 minutes uphill to reach a water irrigation channel, then walk by a flat trail up Soraypampa “a valley with impressive landscape views and stop for lunch. After lunch the trail continues by a valley towards north, then after 2 hours hike we will arrive to salkantay pampa “a quiet campground” where we set up our tents and spend the night over 400m.
We dinner and spend the night under the stars, at salkantay mountain slope. We may be the only trekkers at this camp.
(Day one overview: Medium difficult, 16 Kilometers, 6 hours).
The cooler morning temperatures will be excellent to ascend and summit the highest and toughest part of this trek. We wake up at around 05: 00 in the morning and after breakfast we start walking by an uphill trail towards the highest pass “Inkachiriasca” which is at 5,100 m, from this point we can overview the amazing landscapes of the area.
The view of the impetuous snow-capped salkantay “known as the sacred mountain since ancient times”, passing this place we will take the proper new trekking in trail, first we get Toqtoqasa by an easy downhill, then we continue by narrow and straw covered trail, this takes approximately four hours to the campsite which is at 3900m.a.s.l.
(Day Two over view: Challenge, 12 Kilometers, 7 hours).
After early breakfast we will initiate our beautiful walk. From breakfast we start a gentle uphill path, then goes by a downhill path by straw grass, the landscapes are beautiful as usual, we may see villages very far on the hills with the metal roofs that are shiny because of the sunshine. All the journey is about 7 hours walk.
If we are lucky we can observe the flight of condors that they come from time to time, but for sure we will see eagles and many Andean animals; our camp site is in a really quiet and cozy place that is surrounded by mountains at 3800m. At around 19 hours we serve delicious hot soup, followed by the main course. After dinner you can spend some time outside watching the shooting stars, then sleep.
(Trek Difficulty: Challenge Hard. Total distance: 9 km (5.6 miles). Estimated walking time: 6 -7 hours).
After nutritious breakfast we start our journey towards the Accoqasa pass 4700m, all the trail is uphill and takes about three hour, the summit offer a great wide 360º view, place from where we can see using binocular the famous Inca trail which leads to Machu picchu, mountain glacier mounts such as Salkantay, Humantay.
From here a gentle path lead us to the lunch place. After lunch there is another pass, it is the Huayanay pass which is at 4600m, from where we can see the famous Huacaywillka “veronica” (Sacred Tears), from here the trail leads by the old inca trail that is well preserved, down below we will see the Blue lake “Ancascocha Lagoon” where we’ll see some torrent ducks, Huallatas (Andean geese = Chloephaga melanoptera) and many others that migrates from different places.
Then following the inca trail we arrive to our camp that is at a stream in a quiet camp where we may be the only hikers over 3800m.
(Trek Difficulty: Challenge. Total distance: 15 km (5.56 miles). Estimated walking time: 8 -9 hours).
This fantastic salkantay sacred valley last day, begins with the walk by the inca trail, downhill hike and follow a canyon towards northeast and reach the sacred valley at the northwest end of the sacred valley in a village named Chillca, the walk runs through nice weather, abundant vegetation, and sound of the Qenqo Mayu river.
As soon as we approach to the valley, the 1st open lands are fully farmed, here they grow the biggest conr on the world, once we reach to Chillca we will lunch and after lunch our transport will pick us up and drive us back to Cusco, or if our itinerary includes machu picchu we can catch train from ollanta to machu picchu and spend the night. The next day we will visit Machu Picchu and return to Cusco.
(Trek Difficulty: Medium. Total distance: 9 km. Estimated walking time: 5 hours).
