ausangate trek: cordillera vilcanota

ausangate trek: cordillera vilcanota tours

Revered as one of the most sacred mountains of the Vilcanota Mountain Range, Apu Ausangate is the 5th-highest snow-capped peak in Peru. An Apu, or Mountain Deity, is the spiritual entity of the mountain, believed to watch over the communities of people and animals living in its vicinity. You will traverse remote and vibrant country that is home to one of the few remaining pastoralist societies in the world: high mountain herds-people living at these heights trade their meat and fiber with the lower-lying communities that produce agricultural products, using some of the very same trails we’ll be hiking. On the journey, you’ll see domestic camelids grazing in the fields, including llamas and alpacas, and if we are lucky, we’ll get a glimpse of their predecessors, fleet, golden vicuñas that produce the most expensive fleece in the world! Also, on this journey, meet some of the entrancing and hardy people that live in these remote environs. Bird enthusiasts will enjoy sightings of raptors, including eagles, hawks, and condors soaring the thermals far above.  On this journey you will marvel at brilliantly colored landscapes, turquoise high mountain lagoons, imposing white glaciers, rolling farmlands, and ice dunes, all part of the majestic Vilcanota Mountain range. Join us and discover the magic of this remote high mountain trek, breathing the rarefied air of some of the most beautiful hiking terrain in all of Peru.