Day 15-16 of our trip to Peru ended up taking us up to one of the places we were most excited about. That of Humantay lake and Salkantay Glacier. We had originally hoped to fly to a city called Huaraz and explore some glacier lakes and mountains North of Lima, but due to covid all flights were cancelled. However, when I asked experts on trip advisor about some other mountains to see, one guy suggested just exploring the Andes mountains near Cusco and told me about Humantay and Salkantay. When I looked up the pictures, we all agreed it was a must see for our family! ❤️
The problem we were running into though was most tours only had a one day option where tourists had to wake up at 4 in the morning, be shuttled 3 hours to the mountain range, hike to the lake, and then immediately turn around for another 3 hour drive back to Cusco. With 5 children and the early wake up call that sounded pretty miserable spending 6 hours in the car on little sleep and we knew that was a recipe for very cranky kids! 🤪
Therefore we ended up calling our amazing tour guide Adner (who we did the Inca trail and Machu Picchu with), and asked if he could put together a private tour for us – one that
included an overnight stay near Humantay and Salkentay so we could divide up the drive into two days, and allow ourselves more time in the beautiful mountains we were anxious to see. He ended up arranging a home stay for us with a local family including all meals and then drove us there himself. It was AWESOME!
We started our day off leisurely sleeping in as long as we wanted and then we packed up our belongings, took them over to Adners apartment (where he graciously offered to store our luggage for us), and then we took off on our 3 hour road trip to the beautiful Salkantay
mountains. Adner stopped at a bread shop on our way so we could try out some local breads and while there we also got some corn tamales to try. Yum. One was a sweet one and one was more savory. Both were very good although the kids didn’t love them.
As we drove we saw beautiful views and avocado plantations, and glimpses of the glacier mountains we were heading to see, and had fun listening to Adners American music mix he had put together. When we arrived in the Salkantay mountains, our host family (A darling peruvian couple with a teenage daughter and young 2 year old granddaughter) had lunch ready for us and then they showed us to our rooms. They put us up in a separate little house with 2 bedrooms on the bottom floor and another room with several beds upstairs (which another guest used). There were 2-3 beds in each room, but they each had a small bathroom with flushing toilets, and were perfect for our little family. We put the older 3 kids in one room, and then Jamis came in with Adam and I. Adner slept in a room in the main house.
We had a couple hours to just hang out and explore, so Adam and I took a short walk over to get a better view of the Salkantay and Humantay glaciers while the kids played balloon toss with our hosts Granddaughter. She was seriously the cutest!
Because we were in such a remote location, and staying with locals, our adventure included going without a few basic luxuries, two of them being heat and electricity! For dinner that night we ate via candlelight and flashlights, and then once dinner was over, we also needed flashlights for our rooms, but with not much to do in the dark, we all opted to just go to bed early. Plus it was pretty much FREEZING after the sun went down, so snuggling up in our beds sounded pretty nice. 😂
Our hosts were so kind and brought us all in hot water bottles to put in our beds to help keep us warm, but because it was so cold outside (there is a reason the glaciers haven’t melted) we all still wore our winter coats, hats, and gloves to bed.
The next morning we woke up early around 6:30, had some breakfast, and then by 7:30 we were on our way. We hiked directly from our home stay, up to the lake which took us around 2 hours. However, unlike the other hikes we had done, this one felt quite a bit harder because the mountains we were hiking in had elevations over 17,000 feet! Crazy! To give you an idea of how high that is, Timpanogos mountain in Utah is only 11,700. The air was so thin which made it a little more difficult to catch your breath, requiring all of us (including the kids) to take a lot more resting stops than normal, but oh was it worth it. The lake was absolutely without doubt one of the most beautiful I had ever seen and the most gorgeous turquoise green. The higher up we hiked the more beautiful it got, so we ended up exploring a lot. It was seriously amazing!
After a few hours up there enjoying the views and eating some snacks, we started the hike back down but this time took a different route that allowed us to pretty much run down the mountain on a grassy slope! From there we hiked up to a beautiful picture spot where we could see the Salkantay glacier, and then we split up a bit. Harry and Adam were itching to hike more of Salkantay glacier, where the other kids and Adner and I were ready for some down time and naps!
When the boys got back though we all had a late lunch together and then took off back to Cusco where I had rented us a one night stay in an apartment. Such a fun 2 days seeing Humantay lake and Salkentay glacier though! ❤
