Choquequirao - CAR - Salkentay (94km)

A wonderful 4 day solo hike, fully self sufficient.

Although there are plenty of places to eat along the way especially the route to Choquequirao. If your only looking to complete the Choquequirao circuit, you don't actually need anything, no tent, food, guide, donkey, just take snacks and clothes since it's possible to use one of the numouros homestays in Marampata as a base, they even have WiFi!

The waypoints are mainly small streams on the trail, I stopped marking the Salkentay after a while since there was an obundanse of water! However this is not the same from Capuliyoc to Yanama. Especially when climbing to Maizal from the valley, it's a 1200m steep accent with absolutely no water so hydrate and stock up at the main river, I had capacity for 3.5 liters and needed it all.

The hike was broken into 2 sections, Capuliyoc to Yanama (55km) followed by a 2 hour car journey to join the classic Salkentay. With the 2nd section going from Chaullay to Mollepata (39km). If you have the time walking the central stint would be totally possible. Actually the valley out of Yanama looked beautiful, almost untouched with a perfect shepherd trail running most the way. However after the high pass it would be a long road hike to Chaullay.

It was certainly a difficult hike, especially the first 55k. This section is cut steeply into the valley, great for route finding but tough on the the legs! There are almost no flat areas, even visiting Choquequirao involved plenty of climbing. But that being said, the valleys are just spectacular, rising and falling almost vertically for 1000's of meters. It makes the Inca sites along the route even more impressive. Also the huge elevation changes means you experience dramatic shifts in climate. From desert like conditions at 1500m, into dense humid rainforests and inevitable rocky, snowpeaked mountains.

The Salkentay felt more like a commute in comparison, a beautiful commute but I must have passed a 1000 people and hundreds of donkeys, it was very commeralized.

In total the route covered 94km of hiking and approximately 8000 of accent! I paused the app during the taxi journey and because the destination was at a lower elevation it made no impact to the elevation gain but did impact the elevation loss slightly. My itinerary went like this:

Day 1 - Capuliyoc to Choquequirao (7 hours, 20km)

Day 2 - My day started with 4 hours at Choquequirao, I entered at 6am and was entirely alone for hours, until I stumbled across a specallied bear. I departed camp at 11am and walked to Mizal. (12 hours, 25km)

Day 3 (Morning) - Maizal to Yanama (3 hours, 10km)

Car to Chaullay

Day 3 (afternoon) - Chaullay to Huairaspampa (3 hours, 11km)

Day 4 - Huairaspampa to Mollepata (7.5 hours, 28km)

It was a fantastic hike, rugged and unforgiving! But still achievable for any reasonable fit person. I would however suggest a different 6 day itinerary.

1 - Capuliyoc - Santa Rosa
2 - Santa Rosa to Choquequirao
3 - Choquequirao site - Pincha Uniyoc
4 - Pincha Uniyoc - Yanana

Option here to continue on by foot but add at least 1.5 days to reach Chaullay.

5 - Chaullay to Huairaspampa
6 - Huairaspampa to Mollepata (although you can take a tourist bus from Soraypampa)

Carry food for 3 days, eat were you can along the way and have a great time :)