Seven Lakes of Ausangate

Ausangate is the highest peak in southern Peru at 6,384 metres, and the most important apu in the region's Andean cosmology. At its foot lies a chain of meltwater lakes whose colour runs from turquoise to deep green depending on the minerals the glacier carries. The walk links them one after another, above 4,400 metres, across open puna with no trees or villages: only grassland, alpaca herds and the glacier dominating the skyline. It is a sustained high-altitude outing, with no technical climbing but constant effort from the thin air. Prior acclimatisation in Cusco is required.