April, 2026
Quiswarani
Today’s hike from Quiswarani to Quelquena included another mule assist; our summit was higher than yesterday! I sure felt every one of those 4440m in my lungs even though our elevation gain was only 600m. On the way to our hotel we passed an accommodation that I’m glad was not on our itinerary!
A beautiful, sunshiny start to our hike from Quiswarani to Quelquena, aka The Trail of 1,000 Lakes.
Comforting to know we had our mule assist, at least to carry our lunches. Spoiler alert, nobody needed the oxygen!
Overlooking the Sacred Valley with an Urubamba River tributary running through.
Adam sure has a knack for finding baños al fresco!
This alpaca seems non-plussed that his grazing area was being used as a toilet and made a hasty exit.
A llama with his untouched pointed ears innocently peeking over the hill. Was he in his baño al fresco as well?
I mentioned before how some farmers cut the ears of their flock as a means of identification. Here’s a llama with split ears.
Guard llamas.
Runoff from melting snow or high lakes create waterfalls big and small throughout the mountains. Sometimes our car drove through them and sometimes we navigated them on foot. Of course the Inca would have taken advantage of this runoff for their sophisticated irrigation systems.
Queuñacocha lake is relatively low in Sacred Valley terms at 4170m. Because it sits just above the Quiswarani village and has a wide, grassy shore, the locals use it as a grazing area for their horses, sheep, and alpacas. They don’t raise cows here because they ruin the grass. Cows pull the grass out by the roots while llamas and alpacas cut the grass but leave the roots to grow more grass.
This is our summit, the Huchuyccasa Pass. Just a few more hundred metres up. Piece of cake! (Note the foreboding clouds).
Leaving the horses, llamas and alpacas to their lakeside grazing, we begin our final ascent!
Picnic lunch at the Huchuyccasa Pass. What could be a better dessert than peeling and eating a fresh passion fruit!
Those foreboding clouds are still there hanging over a few of the thousand glacial lakes…we have donned hats and our puffy jackets.
We’ve stepped up and put on our rain gear. What started as a sunshiny day quickly turned into rain and hail just on the other side of the pass. We’ve been carrying the rain pants untouched for days and as much as I didn’t want to have to touch them, I’m so glad we had them!
I think the waterfall at the end was of the hike in Quelquena might have been running a little faster with all the rain!
The lodge where we stayed supports the local village in a variety of ways. We were “obliged” to stop at the little co-op shop where the local ladies take turns bringing their handicrafts to sell.
We received the full ceremonial welcome of placing flower petals on our heads as we entered. Showering us with petals has its roots in Pachamama (Mother Earth). It is an offering to invoke good energy, share a blessing from nature and ensure harmony between us, the land and the people…and who knows, maybe a wish for those welcomed to have full wallets.
We bought this table runner. It has a woman’s name on it so I asked who she was and this lady raised her hand! She’s the one who wove it!
This is our amazing guide, Juan de Dios. We are spending a glorious week travelling around Lares and the Sacred Valley.
I love the little “him” and “her” dolls on the doors of this outdoor baño.
It’s voting day! People are dressed up to go vote. Voting is mandatory in Peru and people are fined if they don’t. For those in villages it can be quite far to go to the voting station so people will either pay the fine or try to get a ride. Sometimes they get a taxi minibus, sometimes they climb in the back of a cargo truck! This journey can take a whole day depending on where someone lives and where they are registered to vote. The fine is based on the district you live in and the degree of poverty to which it’s classified. If you’re registered in a non-poor district, you are dinged the equivalent of $45 CAD. If your district is classified as poor, the fine is $22 CAD and if you live in an extreme poverty district, the fine is $11CAD.
These ladies, dressed in fresh finery (they always dress this way), are trying to wave down cars to get a ride to the polling station.
Here’s the Skylodge hotel I’m glad we’re not staying at! Note the people lower left who are climbing up to get to their pods suspended 365m up. I did enough climbing for today, thank you.