Peru- Choquequirao and Beyond

SEAlpine

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Feb 4, 2014
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After hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with the family in June my mind quickly turned to another trek I wanted to complete in Peru. Luckily I found a group looking for additional trekkers on the exact trek. Before I knew it the trek and plane tickets were booked and I was headed back to Peru!

IMG_9609.jpg After arriving in Cusco my driver dropped me off at the Maras Salt Mines. Stretched the legs a bit after some long flights and walked the trail along the salt mines down to the Sacred Valley. The salt mines are constituted by a set of approximately 4,500 salt wells placed in the form of stepped terraces in the slope of the hill. The set of wells and canals has been in continuous operation from the pre-Inca period until now.

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I based myself out of the village of Lamay in the Sacred Valley for a few days to acclimate to the elevation. First hike I did was to the Inca Royal estate of Huchuy Qusqu (Little Cusco) with my awesome 72 year old guide Percy.
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Some nice section of Inca Trail led the way to the site.
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Post hike beer looking out over the Sacred Valley of the Incas.
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The next day we explored the Andean Puna home to llama, alapaca, and sheep herders.
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Beautiful rock enclosures used to corral the animals dotted the landscape.
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After the hike I moved onto Cusco to meet my group for our trek to Choquequirao and beyond.
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The first day of our trek we dropped 4,624' to the river bottom then back up 2,478' back up to camp. This would be an all too familiar pattern over the upcoming days.
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Camp 1 Upper Santa Rosa
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After a couple of days we arrived at Choquequirao. My few pics don't give the ruins or the location high above the river any justice.
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After seeing pictures of these llama figurines years ago I was so happy to see them in person.
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We continued from Choquequirao to the village over Yanama over a few more days. IMG_0241.jpg
Camp 3 was set on some old Inca Terraces.
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Sometime during the morning of day 5 my Inreach device accidentally sent an SOS. It was in my duffel bag riding on a horse when it sent the SOS. Garmin quickly contacted my parents, wife, and the Peruvian authorities.
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Almost to Yanama, little did I know wait awaited me upon my arrival.
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After arriving in Yanama and connecting to the WI-FI I found a flurry of messages asking if I was ok. I spent the next hour assuring everyone (Peruvian police, Garmin, wife) that I was OK and it was an accidental SOS. What a mess, but it's good to know the SOS was taken seriously even though it was a mistake.
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After leaving Yanama we left the beaten path and didn't see any other trekkers for our final three days of the trek.
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Up this valley are some of the best and most intact sections of Inca Trail remaining in Peru.
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Beautiful sections of trail.
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Making our way up to the 15,100' pass along ancient Inca Trails.
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Our camp cook Leo whipped up some soup at 14,000' to help power us up over the pass!
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We had six horses supporting our trek.
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Two horseman, cook, and our guide.
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Made it to the top of the pass, 15,100'!
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Over 7 days we hiked 55 miles, gained and dropped 21,000' in elevation.
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The people of the Andes are remarkable. Strong, hardworking, spiritual, and not far removed from their Inca heritage.
 
Awesome trip! And that's good to know the SAR feature gets local response outside North America and Europe. Haha.
 
looks like an awesome trip, how was the weather? Were you hiking with gloves and warm hat each day? How was the group part?
 
looks like an awesome trip, how was the weather? Were you hiking with gloves and warm hat each day? How was the group part?
Weather was great, mostly sunny with no rain. I usually hiked in t-shirt/pants. Would have liked to have hiked more often in shorts but the bugs were pretty bad in places. The group aspect of the trek was fine. It was just me and a father/daughter duo and we all got along great.
 
Awesome stuff!
 
Great report. We've done three different trips around Cusco, and always wondered about this one.

How much did the whole Choquequirao trip cost? And where did you stay in Lamay?
I went with Apus Peru (one a few companies who does this particular version of the Choquequirao trek). https://www.apus-peru.com/tour/choquequirao-to-vilcabamba-trek-9d

Costs depends on number of people in your party. I didn't include pics from the end of our trek at the village of Huancacalle where we also visited the "White Rock" and Vilcabamba ruins (both important Inca sites) and also a day trip to Machu Picchu. Only a handful of parties do this extended version of the Choquequirao trek every year, most people opt to hike to the site and back in 4 days.

I really liked Lamay, it was clean, had a cute main square, and there were no other tourists. I stayed at an AirBnB whose owner (Franco) ran the tour company in town and the cafe. The cafe was my base to meet for hikes and eat breakfast/dinner. Killer coffee, food, and company at the cafe. La Base Lamay is a wonderful company who provided high end services IMO.

 
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