Day 14. Third stage of the Salkantay Trek, from Chaullay to Lucmabamba

Submitted by maria on Fri, 19/09/2025 - 13:24

Third stage of the Salkantay Trek, from Chaullay to Lucmabamba.

Salkantay Trek

Today's journey is also long, 20 kilometres, but they say it's very flat and all downhill (about 800 metres of elevation loss).

Breakfast is at 6.30 am, eggs with bread, jam and butter, fruit and muña tea.

We grab our backpacks and set off towards Lucmabamba. As soon as we leave the village, we see two deer crossing the path.

Mules

The town of Colpapampa, half a kilometre from Chaullay, is also a good place to stay overnight. This is where we met the German couple.

You can do the whole route on the wide track used by vehicles, but if you prefer to avoid them, one kilometre from Chaullay there is a sign pointing to Salkantay Trek, which follows a path through the forest to the area known as La Playa.

The trail runs inside the canyon parallel to the Santa Teresa River, which joins the Vilcanota River in the town of Santa Teresa.

Salkantay Trek

There are several fruit and juice stands along the way.

Don't do what we did: following a group that was returning to the road, we crossed the river and ended up walking an extra two kilometres to cross the next bridge. It turns out that many groups hire transport to the hot springs and don't walk to Lucmabamba; they are picked up along the way in tourist vans.

Salkantay Trek

Crossing the wooden bridges over the river is exciting and gave us the chance to stop at the Puiry Wayna campsite restaurant to eat strawberries, bananas and cocoa butter.

We returned to the forest trail. The vegetation is impressive, the views, the colours of the flowers, the route is very beautiful. It is an area where many fruit trees and coffee are grown.

Salkantay Trek

A couple of hours later, we arrived at the area known as La Playa, where there are several restaurants. Coffee beans are drying in front of the houses.

The last bridge to cross the river is a suspension bridge and moves quite a bit.

The last two kilometres along the unpaved road are tough, especially because it is very hot.

Lucmabamba

We arrived in Lucmabamba and stayed at Lia B&B Lucmabamba, in a double room with bathroom, dinner, breakfast and coffee tour included for 70 soles per person.

We met Sergio and Mirella, and Marco and Maia. We shared the coffee tour with them and another group of Americans who were sleeping in tents.

The coffee tour is great fun, our guide tells lots of jokes. First he shows us the plantation and then the coffee-making process, in which we all participate, and then we taste the coffee with a serving of avocado and popcorn.

Coffe

The coffee tastes strong to us; they mix 80% Arabica with 20% Robusta, and that blend gives it a very powerful flavour. You can buy coffee here for 15 soles per unit, but we decided not to buy any so as not to carry any extra weight.

Dinner is at 7 pm. Soup, trout with rice and muña tea.