Hiking Guide: Ausangate Trek Info + Day 1

The Ausangate Trek is a challenging five day trek (six days if including Rainbow Mountain like we did), and it offers some of the most incredible views in all of Peru, perhaps even South America.

It’s a high altitude trek, which adds to the difficulty. Despite being in high altitude for 5 weeks by this point, I still struggled – especially the first couple of days. The beginning of the trail started at 3780m, and the highest point we reached was 5076m – so safe to say, breathing was a lot harder! It was so cold that high up that we didn’t sweat at all, so I guess that was an added bonus!

Like most of the hikes I completed in South America, we decided to hike self-guided. It was an added challenge, having to carry our gear plus six days’ worth of food, but having the flexibility to go at our own pace and letting ourselves sleep in if we needed is always our preference.

It didn’t seem to be a very busy trek, we only saw two small tour groups and a few other groups of solo travellers, so you will have the trails mostly to yourselves!

Getting to Tinki:

Tinki is the small town (and I mean small, it’s really just a street) where you commence the Ausangate hike. It’s 116km away, and there is a bus that goes there from Cusco.

Initially we decided to Uber there because it wasn’t that expensive - the app was saying about PEN250 (AUD$98.50/USD$66.20) for the 2.5 hour long drive, and it would have gotten us there faster than the bus which can take upwards of 3 hours.

However, when the Uber got there and the destination appeared on the Uber app, he said he couldn’t take us that far - which is fair enough, it would have been half a day's worth of travel for him. He did offer to take us to the bus station though. Seeing as it was 11am by this stage, we agreed.

When we got to the bus station, it looked very empty. It was a Sunday, and our driver said it’s possible there aren’t any buses going there on a Sunday after all. He offered to take us there for PEN250 cash instead of through the Uber app which we happily agreed to! We were determined to get on the trails, plus the Uber was very comfortable.

So off we went on our 2.5 hour journey to Tinki!

Arriving in Tinki:

By the time we arrived, it was almost 3pm and too late to start the hike that day. So we found which looked to be Tinki’s only accommodation, Hostal Viajeros, and luckily they seemed to have plenty of rooms. We got a large room with two queen beds for only PEN25 each (AUD$9.80/$USD6.60), and a shared bathroom - which, seeing as we never saw another guest, we seemed to have to ourselves.

There was a fresh food market that was about to close up for the day, so we got some fresh fruit and veggies for the first couple of days of our hike. We had done the majority of our food shop back in Cusco, so these were just a few extra treats to add to our meals.

There were only a few eateries to choose from, and we made a great choice when we ordered a pizza from around the corner at the pizza restaurant that seemed to have no name, and does not exist on Google Maps!

Fast Facts:

Taxi to Tinki cost: PEN250 (AUD$98.50/USD$66.20)

Drive time: 2.5 hours

Guesthouse in Tinki cost: PEN25 each (AUD$9.80/$USD6.60)

Day 1:

After a cozy sleep at Hostal Viajeros, it was time to start the adventure! We slightly cheated and jumped in a local taxi to take us the first 8km to the end of the road, about 1.5km from the first campsite - Upis. This cost us PEN50/AUD$19.60/USD$13.20, which seemed a lot for Peruvian standards but when I saw how rough the road was, I realised it would take us twice as long as I expected. Given it was just walking along a dirt road we were missing, we decided to save our energy.

We left at 8:15am, and after a quick fuel stop at their tiny petrol station which was more just a shed with a barrel of petrol, we arrived at the end of the road close to 9am.

The first part of the trail was very flat, and we got to Upis at about 9:30am, where about 30 villagers were gathered outside having which looked to be a village meeting. One villager came and took our fee for the National Park, which cost us PEN40 each (AUD$15.80/USD$10.50).

After Upis, it was a steady but slow incline, and I was starting to feel really awful. My body was feeling really weak - almost like altitude sickness, but given I had been in high altitude for six weeks by this point, I doubted it was that. We took a slight detour to stop at lake that was about 2.5km from the trail, and Tim had to carry my bag that last 500m as I was really suffering by that point.

We had our lunch at the lake, and the small rest seemed to help my body slightly - I was ready to hit the trail again, but I was still far from 100%. Leading the way, I didn’t check my AllTrails and walked up a steep rocky hill that I thought was the track. Turns out, I had lead us totally off track and we didn’t realise until we were about 500m up. Thinking it would be quicker to keep going, and that maybe I had discovered a shortcut, we kept climbing.

It was not a shortcut at all, and as soon as we got to what we thought was the top, we saw another hill we had to climb over. I really didn’t want to turn back and scramble down the rocks we just climbed up. That’s when I had my first-ever hiking panic attack!

Having a panic attack isn’t fun, and when you are at altitude, it REALLY isn’t fun. Luckily it didn’t last long, and when I managed to slow my breathing and clear my head, I was good to go again.

Going downhill back to the track on the other side was thankfully not as bad, as it was more bush-whacking and less scrambly rocks. We finally made our way back onto the trail, and after another few hours of walking, made it to our first campsite just before sunset.

DAY ONE FAST FACTS:

Time it took us: 8.5 hours, including the taxi and our off track adventure
Distance walked: 7km

Village fee: PEN40 each (AUD$15.80/USD$10.50)

Taxi to Upis cost: PEN50/AUD$19.60/USD$13.20

Drive time: 1.5 hours