Ausangate Sivinacocha 7D/6N

We depart from the city of Cusco in a private bus and head towards the community of Tinqui along the Cusco Puerto Maldonado highway. On the way, we will stop at Urcos to visit the beautiful Laguna Urcos. We then continue towards Cattca, an agricultural and livestock community, where we can appreciate spectacular landscapes. Finally, we pass through Ocongate, the capital of the district of the same name, which is only 1.5 hours away from our destination. We arrive in Tinqui and settle in for rest and begin the trek the next day.

After breakfast, we spend some time visiting the school in Tinqui and have the opportunity to meet children from different communities who study here. We then leave Tinqui and start walking towards Pacchanta for about 2.5 hours, where we stop for lunch. Pacchanta is a rural community that has magnificent thermal medicinal baths where we can enjoy a good soak while enjoying views of the magnificent Ausangate Mountain. In the afternoon, we continue ascending through the Pacchanta Valley, with the opportunity to observe llamas and alpacas, until we reach the beautiful Laguna Qomercocha where we set up our tents for dinner. This place offers amazing viewpoints of the Ausangate, Santa Catalina, María Huamantiqlla, Pucapunta, and Colquecruz snow-capped mountains.

We depart around 7 AM and have our first pass at Abra de Q’ampa at 5000 meters above sea level, which we reach after 4 hours of hiking. We then descend to the Ticllacocha lagoons, where we appreciate a beautiful group of small turquoise lagoons, and have our lunch. In the afternoon, we continue ascending for 2 or 3 more hours until we reach Yanamayo, where we set up our tents in an impressive valley. We will also observe enormous and impressive trees and the majestic peaks of Colquecruz and Pucapunta.

We start early and ascend towards Yanacocha or “Laguna Negra” (Black Lagoon), named after its dark waters. In this area, we will appreciate volcanic soil whose color ranges from dark red to black. We then pass by the Yanaqocha mountain at 5050 meters above sea level, and astonishingly discover a beautiful valley with colorful mountains and the presence of llamas and alpacas. We ascend for 1 more hour and reach Condorpaso, where we set up our tents.

After breakfast, we continue our ascent to the Condor pass at 5200 meters above sea level, which we reach after approximately 2 hours of walking. From this point, we can not only appreciate the Vilcanota River and the Sibinacocha lagoon, but also hope to see Vicuñas. We immediately continue walking for another 3 hours, crossing another mountain along the way, and then descend to the Sibinacocha Valley. We can camp by the lagoon and observe a species of wild ducks called “Huallatas”.

We depart very early and walk for about 3 hours along the shores of the Sibinacocha lagoon until we reach the community of Yayamari, located next to the mountain of the same name, an impressive rocky peak (5500 meters above sea level). We cross a grassland where we will likely see hundreds of llamas, alpacas, and if we’re lucky, we might even spot vicuñas. We then climb to the Ccascana pass at 5000 meters above sea level and make our way to the lagoon of the same name, where we set up our final camp. In this area, surrounded by snow-capped peaks, we can observe “huallatas” or perhaps flamingos.

We depart from Ccascana at 7 AM and walk for 3 and a half hours to Phinaya, a small Andean community where we find a small church. We have our lunch here as our private bus will pick us up in the afternoon and take us back to the city of Cusco in approximately 6 hours.