Fact file:
Dawn usually brings with it relief from the unknowns of the night. But here, above Mollepata, high in the Peruvian Andes, you soon discover that the strengthening light only delivers new terrors. Namely, you can see out of the window and realise how high up you are. You can see just how dizzying is the sheer drop a metre or so from the minivan’s wheels. Crunch-crunch go the tyres on rocks and dirt as the vehicle whips around corners with no barriers and the bottom of the valley appears far, far below.
It pays to keep your sleepy eyes above the horizon, where jagged, snow-capped peaks are also emerging from the gloom. Up here the twin pillars of Salkantay (6270 metres above sea level) and Humantay (5473m) dominate the skyline, though tight mountain passes reveal ever more skyscrapers in this former domain of the Incas, riven with ancient pathways.
I’m here today to follow one of those pathways, as soon as our van grinds to a halt at Soraypampa, a tiny village at the edge of a verdant high valley. I’ll be climbing to Humantay Lake, a gorgeous pool of sparkling glacier melt beneath sheer cliffs invisible from the base below, a trek that’s short on distance but long on effort as you struggle to draw enough oxygen at these heady altitudes.
Humantay Lake is the perfect destination for those who want to nibble just a small amount of the alpine hiking experience in Peru. This isn’t the Inca Trail (three full days) or the equally spectacular Salkantay Trail (five full days). It’s up and back in the space of a morning, with time to return to Cusco for afternoon tea.
Of course, that means leaving the city at the ungodly hour of 3.30am to make the three-hour drive to the Humantay trailhead before the bulk of the crowds, but
Getting there: it’s worth the effort to be one of the first to place boot on track and begin what will turn out to be a spiritual experience.
Because this part of the Andes is not just beautiful: Humantay Lake was and continues to be a significant site for the Incas and now for the Quechua people, a place with deep connections not just to Pachamama, the Earth Mother, but to the spirits of the mountains. “Human” in Quechua means head; “tay” means god. This is the godhead.
And so it seems fair that there should be a struggle to get to a place like this. It’s only three kilometres of walking from Soraypampa to Humantay Lake, but an ascent from 3850m above sea level to 4200m. To put that into perspective, the lake is almost twice the elevation of Australia’s highest peak.
It’s recommended that you spend at least a few days in Cusco, elevation 3400m, to acclimatise before attempting this hike. I, however, arrived yesterday and don’t have that sort of time, so I just have to take things very slowly, one foot in front of the other, as the path ascends a bare mountainside and twists up a steep slope.
The Humantay peak is up there somewhere, right now hidden by clouds, so it’s easy enough to just put my head down and plod, plod, plod, until the trail rounds a rocky outcrop, I take a few more steps up, and there it is: Humantay Lake.
Suddenly, all the puffing and wheezing are worth it. As the clouds clear and the snowy Humantay peak is revealed high above, as the ice-blue water sparkles in the sunlight below, you understand immediately why this place was assigned such spiritual importance. It’s utterly stunning.
As one small token of gratitude for the privilege of being here, visitors can add to an “apacheta”, a Quechua tradition of piling stones in cairns as a waypoint and sign of respect to the gods.
These rock piles litter the shore of the lake, almost outnumbering the social media influencers who have now begun rounding the end of the pathway and posing in possibly one of the world’s most spectacularly Insta-worthy locations.
It’s time to go. The sunlight now is our friend, the sight of deep valleys and dizzying cliffs all part of the experience. traveller.com.au
The writer travelled as a guest of LimaTours.