Quelccaya Day Tour from Cusco
$50 Full Day
Overview
6,384 m
Ausangate summit
4,300 m
Pacchanta village
7
Glacial lagoons
3 to 3.5 h
On foot
Ausangate is 6,384 metres high. It is the tallest mountain in the Cusco region and the fifth tallest in Peru. For the herding families who live under it, it is also the most powerful apu in the southern Andes, a mountain treated as a being rather than a landmark.
Thousands of visitors stand on its foothills every week. Very few of them see it.
That is because Vinicunca, the striped hill sold as Rainbow Mountain, sits on the far western edge of the same massif. The crowd arrives, photographs the colour, and turns round. Ausangate itself lies another hour east, above a village called Pacchanta, and it carries a glacier that feeds a chain of lagoons in blues and greens that do not look natural.
Seven Lagoons Above Pacchanta
Seven of those lagoons sit in a loop above the village. They fill hollows scoured out by ice, and their water is glacial meltwater carrying rock flour, stone ground to powder and held in suspension. That is where the colour comes from. Fine mineral dust scattering light back at you in cold water. Some read turquoise, some read almost black, and one or two change with the hour and the cloud.
Pacchanta is a working village at around 4,300 metres, not a viewpoint with a car park. Alpaca graze the ground you walk on. The families here collect the entrance fee and run the thermal pools, so the money from this route stays in the valley it comes from.
You will see the tour written as 7 Lagunas de Ausangate, siete lagunas, or the Ausangate seven lakes trek. It is the same day. You will also find the lagoons themselves named differently by different operators, because these were pasture landmarks long before anyone sold a ticket to them, and the naming was never standardised. Our guides use the names the community uses.
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Before you walk
An apu is not scenery.
Ausangate is where the Qoyllur Rit’i pilgrimage goes each year, drawing tens of thousands of people onto the massif before Corpus Christi. Ask your guide about it. It will change how the walk feels.
Tour Highlights
- ✓ The colour changes from one to the next, and so does the light on them. This is a landscape you move through rather than arrive at.
- ✓ Six thousand three hundred and eighty four metres of it, close, with its glacier in view for most of the walk. The Rainbow Mountain crowd never gets this.
- ✓ Natural thermal pools in the village, looking straight at the ice. Thirty to forty minutes in the water after three hours on your feet.
- ✓ Pacchanta sees a fraction of the traffic that goes to Vinicunca. On many days you will pass more alpaca than people.
- ✓ Entrance and pools are collected locally in Pacchanta. Your fee goes to the families who graze and maintain this valley.
- ✓ Trekking poles are handed out at the start and oxygen travels with us. Our crew on this route knows the ground rather than the brochure.
What to Expect
Roughly thirteen hours from your hotel door and back to it. Expect around six hours in a vehicle, split either side of the walk. Pickup from four in the morning, a buffet breakfast on the road south, and Pacchanta by the middle of the morning.
Expect the walking to be the main event rather than the approach. Three hours or a little more, uphill and downhill in turn, with the lagoons arriving one after another instead of all at once. Your pace sets the timing, and the group waits for the slowest person, which is how it should be.
Expect cold at the start and heat by mid morning. At this altitude the sun is fierce the moment it clears the ridge, and the wind comes back the moment it does not.
Expect basic facilities. Pacchanta is a village of herders, so there are toilets and there is not much else. Bring cash, because nothing out here takes a card.
Expect to be tired, warm and quiet on the drive home. Most people sleep. The pools do that.
Best Time to Go
The lagoons need direct sun to show their colour, so the season matters more here than on any other trip we run.
Green is the season we recommend Red is when departures are limited
May to September
Best
What to expect
Dry. Hard frost at dawn, clear skies, strong sun by nine
Our view
The window. Colour needs light, and this is when you get it. Firm ground on the last stretch of road.
Late May and early June
Qoyllur Rit'i
What to expect
Tens of thousands of pilgrims on the massif before Corpus Christi
Our view
Weather is at its best and the mountain is at its most alive. The road and the district get busy. Tell us if your dates fall here.
April and October
What to expect
Shoulder months. Mixed cloud, softer ground underfoot
Our view
Good, and quieter. Accept that one lagoon may come out flat and grey.
November to March
What to expect
Rain, snow on the higher ground, unreliable last stretch of road
Our view
Limited departures. The walk stops being enjoyable and starts being a slog.
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One thing about the colour
Cloud turns the lagoons grey.
The blues and greens come from rock flour held in the meltwater, and that only reads as colour under direct sun. Under heavy cloud the water goes steel grey and the point of the walk goes quiet with it. That is the real argument for the dry season, and it weighs more here than on any other route we run.
Tour Itinerary
1
Pickup in Cusco
Collection from hotels and hostels from four in the morning. We leave once everyone is aboard.
Bring cash in soles, warm layers and shoes with grip. Sleep in the vehicle if you can. The first stretch runs south on tarmac.
2
Buffet breakfast on the road south
3
Pacchanta village
4
The seven lagoons of Ausangate
5
The Pacchanta thermal pools
6
Buffet lunch at Pacchanta
7
Back in Cusco
✓
Inclusions
- ✓ Pickup from your hotel or hostel in Cusco
- ✓ Tourist transport for the whole day
- ✓ Professional guide, Spanish and English
- ✓ Buffet breakfast on the road south
- ✓ Buffet lunch at Pacchanta
- ✓ Trekking poles for the lagoon circuit
- ✓ Oxygen and first aid kit on board
- ✓ Time at the thermal pools built into the day
- ✓ Lagoon entrance ticket, 20 soles, cash on the day
X
Not Included
- X Thermal pools entry, 5 soles, cash on the day
- X Swimwear and towel, which you need to bring
- X Drinking water and snacks
- X Travel insurance
- X Dinner on return to Cusco
- X Tips for your guide and driver
Departure Information
Available: Daily departures
Group Size: Up to 9 people
Start Time: 04:00 AM
Pickup: Your hotel in Cusco
Frequently Asked Questions
How high is the Ausangate 7 lakes hike?
The walk starts at Pacchanta, around 4,300 metres, and the circuit rises to roughly 4,700 metres. Nothing on the route drops below the village. Ausangate itself, above you throughout, is 6,384 metres.
Is Ausangate 7 Lakes harder than Rainbow Mountain?
Can you swim in the lagoons?
Are the hot springs included in the price?
How much acclimatisation do I need?
Gallery
