Salkantay Trek Walkthrough: Day 2 (Huayramachay – Ryanyoc – Challway – Collpapampa)

Camping 30 mins after Salkantay pass 4,600 m – Huayramachay 3,900 m

9am – We were feeling much better after a night’s sleep, ready to put yesterday’s nightmare behind us.  When we opened the tent we saw it was still snowing outside.  We quickly packed and left the campsite, eager to reach lower grounds with warmer temperatures.  We ate a Clif bar each, looking forward to descend to Huayramachay campsite to cook some hot food.

The snow had covered the treks completely (this was a recipe for getting lost really) and it got us really nervous. We didn’t see anyone else around us and decided to just try our hardest to seek out mule tracks the night before.  But fortunately we “guessed” correctly and eventually the snow turned into muddy trails where the tracks were much more visible, and the trail started to emerge from melting snow.

We reached Huayramachay at 10am, and the snow has turned into rain at this point (not hail, thank GOD). The supposed “snack shop” was closed, but we could see the banyo (bathroom) labeled by a blue circle. (This was pretty common throughout the track)

The bathroom was surprisingly VERY CLEAN and the toilet FLUSHES! How funny these simple things are luxuries during hikes.

We borrowed a table from one of the tour groups (KB Adventures, the cook was extremely kind.) and they told us we had 20 mins to eat before the group catches up.  So we took out our jetboil and made our meals – Pasta primavera and chicken noodle. Oh it felt SO GOOD to have warm food in our tummies.  Pure bliss, my friends.

At noon, we packed up and left with an easy downhill track to Ryanyoc (or Ryanpata). It was very muddy and still raining at this point . I tied what was left of my torn rain cover around myself as much as possible.  I looked so silly but decided I couldn’t look worse than the prior day at Salkantay pass.

At 1.30pm, we had reached Ryanoc.  It was foggy so the views weren’t that interesting.  The saddest part was the snack shop at Ryanyoc was closed as well, presumably due to the weather.  A kind lady (owner of the little hut at Ryanyoc?) happened to see us and opened her “shop” for us with Gatorade and water. We paid 5 Soles for the Gatorade.  We were then quoted a 2-hour hike to Challway. Muddy downhills make it tough as we were slipping a bit due to our heavy packs. We passed Los Andenes on the way.

We saw a little valley with huts and houses in the distance  (it turned out that it was Collpapampa!)

Challway (2,850m) – Collpapampa (2,950m)

At 3pm, we passed Challway we saw KB Adventures guides / cooks again. The area said there was WIFI and hot showers (how tempting!)  The tour guide recognized us and waved, asking us to spend the night with them.  We politely declined saying we would like to get to Collpapampa since we still had time before dark.  The tour guide pointed us and told us to cross 2 bridges and a bit of an uphill to get there.  He was SO nice – we thanked him and carried on.

After an hour, we reached Collpapampa, and passed by a few houses and large empty areas opened to campers.  We saw a kind old man working on chores in his backyard, and we paid him 5 soles to camp there for the night.

Having the entire spot to ourselves was a huge luxury.  The old man opened up his provisions shop and had we bought some water (13 soles for a huge bottle and a gatorade – A little pricey). He had us sit at his little sheltered dining area while we cooked our hot dinner.

The sky was dark by 6pm as we went back into our tents and rest for the night.  It was a huge confidence boost for us that day – and Mark and I discussed whether we should take the La Playa – Llactapacta route or skip it and go to Santa teresa from La Playa. We decided to go for the latter as to conserve energy for the climb up Wayna Picchu.

Read on for Day 3 of the hike!