Salkantay day 1: Humantay Lake

We got an early pick up from our hotel at 5am ready for the Salkantay Trek. First we had a 4 hour bus trip to Soraypampa, the first village along the trek. We were surprised when we hopped in the van to find our friend Adam who we had met in Cotopaxi! He was with one of his friends with the UK who has joined him for his travels. We had a good yarn on the way in between snoozes, enjoyed some breakfast, and got to the trailhead at about 9:30. Since I’m still a bit sick Sal and I opted to get dropped off a bit closer to the hostel, a short 1.5km hike rather than the 5.8km from the official trailhead. We had a nice rest at our hostel, enjoyed some lunch and a game of catch with Adam. Adam’s ball fell into a drain pipe when one of the staff decided to play and did a huge throw onto one of the roofs, so we had a bit of an adventure trying to get it back. One of the other workers helped us locate where it was stuck and took matters into his own hands, using a pick axe to dig through to the pipe and break a hole in to get it out 😅

Once all that drama was over we headed off to Humantay Lake, a glacial lake sitting at about 4,200m above sea level. It was a steep walk up, but we chose a good time of day as most of the other hikers were headed back down. The view at the top was stunning, with bright turquoise water resting at the base of the snow-capped Humantay Mountain. The vibrant shade comes from mineral runoff, microscopic life, and sunlight hitting the glacial water. After we soaked in the view for a little while we went a bit further up to see it from a different perspective, also admiring a beautiful valley and stream over the other side of the ridge. Sadly I lost my hat somewhere along the way, but it was worth it!

After the 6km hike we enjoyed some delicious dinner, a (lukewarm) shower, and enjoyed the beautiful night sky from the comfort of our glass-roofed cabin.Read more