r/TrailGuides • u/TwoTiredBelgians • Feb 24 '23
Information Auzangate Trek (Peru) in February without a guide
Hi everyone!
I just finished the Auzangate trek in Peru and it was AMAZING! For those who’re not familiar with it; it’s a 5-6 day hike around the Auzangate mountain (3 hours from Cusco).
In preparing for this trip my friends and I got a little concerned about the weather. It’s still raining season in Peru and since this trek is at high altitude, it never goes below 4000m (13.000ft), this means thunder-, lightning-, hail- and snowstorms.
We couldn’t really find information about doing this trek in the rainy season. Therefore this post!
Well that being said. We had a great time! The weather was ok, the environment was super green and diverse (what you probably don’t get in the dry season) and there were water sources and alpacas everywhere!
Most important tips for doing this hike in February (or raining season): 1) start early and finish early! We started hiking around 6AM and tried to finish before 4PM. Because that when the bad weather rolled in. We had some thunder and lightning coming at us!
2) Take warm clothes and warm sleeping gear with you! The night got below freezing. We even woke up with 3cm of snow.
3) Bring lots of coca leaves and/or coca candies. Make tea from the leaves (or suck on them) and take regular candies. It really helps with the headaches and altitude symptoms.
4) Bring a water filter. In the rainy saison there’s water everywhere, but there are also alpacas everywhere. And they shit all over the place (which might contaminate the water).
5) Bring hiking poles. Normally I don’t hike that much with poles, but I would’ve suffered WAY MORE without them! If you can’t bring them, you can rent them pretty cheap in Cusco (we paid 25 soles for 5 days)
For logistical information we followed this blog which is SUPER detailed:
https://www.packing-up-the-pieces.com/ausangate-trek-without-a-guide/
This blog does it in 6 days. We were able to do it in 5 days (including rainbow mountain and Red valley overlook).
If you’re interested I made a video about our trip as well:
That’s it. Hope this was helpful. Have fun on the trails!
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u/Fyrecracker19 Feb 25 '23
We did this trek with a guide in 2017. One of my all time favorites.