Humantay Lake

"Humantay Lake is a sacred place for Peruvians, where people would visit to make offerings for Pachamama, the Incan mother earth. Unfortunately, the Lake also suffers from global warming, with its water levels decreasing yearly. Still, there's a significant effort to preserve the Lake for anyone who wants to visit. Swimming or even touching the water is not allowed. Combining a visit to the Lake with the Salkantay Trek to Machu Picchu is common. Humantay is right behind Salkantay Mountain. More information about the Salkantay Trek is in this guide in the Trekking section. If you are short on time or want only to visit the Lake, it's possible to do a day hike from Cusco. Multiple agencies offer tours; I left the link to the agency where I did the tour in the link section. My experience was excellent with them, so you have my recommendation. 🏅 ACTIVITIES Doing this hike with a tour guide is an excellent opportunity to learn about local tales and how the place has changed. The views are stunning and provide great photography opportunities. The main activity in this place is the beautiful hike, starting from the village of Soraypampa. It is demanding with an elevation gain of 700mts until the top. 🚶‍♀️HIKING Hiking to Humantay will require 1-3 hours to get to the Lake, depending on the person's physical condition. You will see many locals offering rides with horses to bring you there. If you are not a disabled person, don't use a horse. It is so hard for them to carry people at such high altitudes. I have seen many horses breathing so heavily after making multiple trips to bring people to the Lake. It's much better to put effort into your body and develop your physical condition than to put the burden on an animal unless you have a physical disability that makes it hard to hike. 🚃 TRANSPORTATION If you plan a day hike to visit the Lake, going there with an agency is much better. You will start from Cusco early in the morning and have enough time to hike and return to the city. The advantage of visiting Humantay with an agency is that they also organize breakfast and lunch with local restaurants. The food is delicious, and you will also help boost the local economy by doing that. If you want to do it yourself, the best option is to take a colectivo from Cusco to Mollepata. From there, you can find local drivers taking people to Soraypampa; the ride costs 100 PEN. With more people in the local, you can share the costs of the ride. The third option is to hike from Mollepata to Soraypampa, adding one extra day to the adventure. In this case, you can spend the night in Soraypampa and hike to Humantay the next day, resulting in a 2-day hike."

"After spending the previous day hiking Vinicunca and the previous two nights in a lot of pain, I had a choice to make: wake up at 4:00 AM and hike the Humantay Lake trail or sleep in and rest before flying home. Unfortunately, I chose the second option and have only regretted it since. However, I am also confident that I would have regretted going on the day trip while I was not feeling my best, so we decided to spend another day exploring Cusco! This did result in us losing our money that we paid to go on the day trip, but I felt it was worth it to not feel miserable all day. While this lake is difficult to reach (rated hard on all trails/1,515 ft. in elevation gain), the views seem to be incredible and I can only hope that I will make it back to Peru one day to attempt the hike when I am feeling better! "

"Be prepared for the altitude! Make sure that you buy some Coco leaves from Cusco or from a local before ascending up the mountain. Remember that this terrain is two times more the altitude of the Rocky Mountain so the coco leaves will aid you in getting rid of altitude sickness. "