TREKKING AND CAMPING

MOUNTAINS, PÁRAMO PLAIN, CLOUD FOREST AND ANCIENT ROADWAYS

A great untapped attraction of the region is multi-day trekking, particularly the Inca Trail (3,000-4,200 meters/ -2Cº - 18ºC), a vast network of highway construction built 500-600 years ago and still in use today. It is conceivable that travelers could deplane morning flight in Jauja (3350 meters) or get off bus from Lima before it arrives in either Tarma (3000 meters) or Junín (4200 meters), pick up their backpacks and set off on the Inca Trail to their first camping site.

If a trekker follows the main north-south trunk of Inca Trail and subsequent secondary routes, the Jauja airport is roughly a 1-1/2 day trek to Tarma (3000 meters / 4°C- 24°C), provided the trekkers stay on the trail full time. Alternatively, you may leave the trail to look at Laguna de Paca, where you will find a beautiful lake setting and diverse bird life, before returning to the Trail where you will find archeological sites en route, like Tunanmarca, Pintish Machay (cave paintings thought to be thousands of years old), and Tarmatambo, the former Inca regional administrative capital. Finally, you will arrive at Tarma, an excellent example of colonial Peruvian cities in the Sierra, also known for the extraordinary flower production in its valley, traditional culture, dress and customs.

If you enjoy challenges, you may follow the Inca Trail from Jauja to Lake Junín and from there chose from a number of alternatives destinations: four days to San Ramón (850 meters) or La Merced (720 meters), seven days to Oxapampa (1800 meters / 9°- 26°C) & eight days to Villa Rica (1500 meters / 10°-28°C). The routes are almost entirely on secondary routes of the Inca Trail that go from the high Sierra to the most profoundly deep canyons of the mountainous rainforest, all full of the abundant bio-diversity and cultural richness that characterize the region. From Lake Junín onward it is important to hire a local guide because these secondary routes of the Inca Trail leaving the high rain forest used by locals for centuries are unmarked.

The route to San Ramón from Lake Junín is a 4-5 day hike from Pampa de Junín through high sierra that passes south of the snow-capped Ulcumayo peak and trends downward to Pampa Hermosa and San Ramón.

The route to Oxapampa  (1800 meters / 9°C- 26°C), may be more than seven (7) days from Jauja via Lake Junín and via secondary routes of the Inca Trail through either Paucartambo or a more important secondary route through Huachón and Huancabamba.  If you would like to take another day, you may trek to the Coffee Country of  Villa Rica (1500 meters / 10°-28°C), surrounded by forest, waterfalls and the most important lagoon in the region, Oconal.

Via Concepcion, the Jauja airport (3350 meters) is 2 days to Monobamba (1500 meters), 3 days to San Ramón (850 meters) and 4 days to La Merced (720 meters). This route is largely downhill and brings trekkers into warmer weather within a day of hiking. It is also a route characterized by waterfalls due to the persistent eastern rain from the Amazon basin, the dramatic drop-off in elevation, high peaks, deep valleys and lush vegetation.

Yanachaga Chemillen National Park has campgrounds at two of the four entrances, Huampal (1100 meters) and Paujil (340 meters). The park is largely old growth forest, perhaps hundreds of years old, offering the trekker extraordinary bio-diversity unseen in most montane rain forests. The park houses 5500 species of  vascular plants, 600 species of orchids in extravagant shapes, and 9,000 epiphytes. A single tree can host 195 species of epiphytes of which 114 are orchids! The park is habitat for 127 species of mammals, including the spectacled bear, the river otter, deer, the Amazon tapir and the yellow-tailed wooly monkey, one of the largest primates in Perú.

If you choose to enter the park at Huampal, located in the northern section of the park (1100-1500 meters / 10°C - 28°C), you will find the deepest canyon of the mountain rain forest, Huancabamba, as well as a ranger control station, a lookout station, periodic waterfalls and an excellent campground. While many trekkers focus on the finish, it is important in this park in particular to focus on the diversity of the landscape, harmonious with the tropical mountainous rain forest.

The Paujil sector, infrequently visited by tourists due largely to its isolated southeastern entrance, the need to go by dugout or on foot and the uphill climb from 340 to 1,000 meters in altitude, is an excellent location to appreciate almost untouched rain forest habitat, see bird species not found elsewhere in the region, and come upon the rare lower rainforest mammals mentioned above - bear, tapir and monkey. The beginning of the trail to the entrance to the park is some 13 kilometers. At that point the visitor will encounter the biological station and campground. From the campground it is five (5) kilometers to Collpa Lobo and Laguna Luna Llena. In summer at the mouth of the Pescado River, four (4) hours from the biological station, is a good location for camping. From Paujil a visitor can also take in the caverns, six (6) kilometers away by a complicated set of trails to two caverns, one 60 meters in length and another that is an eye-popping 300 meters in length.  

SERNANP Oxapampa
T +51 63 462-544
pnyanachaga-chemillen@sernanp.gob.pe

Huasahuasi (2750 meters), the region where potato originated, is the midpoint between two locations. First, a trekker can hike from Lake Junín (4200 meters) on foot to Huasahuasi. Second, by taking an old hiking trail along the top ridge of the mountains between Huasahuasi and the Puyu SachaMontane Cloud Forest (1,500 - 2200 meters) the trekker goes from the Sierra down to high rain forest and can feel changes in temperature from 5º to 28º C, presenting a challenge to even the most adventurous trekkers. Upon arrival at Puyu Sacha trekkers will find camping and a cabin with bunks inside the most diverse montane cloud forest in the world. Along all this route trekkers will discover extensive Incan and pre-Incan archeological sites, whether they be in the Sierra above Tarma, the intermediate stop in Huasahuasi, the mountains and rain forest of San Ramón and La Merced or the high rain forest of Villa Rica and Oxapampa.

APRODES
T +51 996.411.245
rgambarina@aprodes.org
http://www.puyusacha.org/

Probably the most challenging trek in the region is the Frontier Trek from Villa Rica (1500 meters) to Iscozacín (700 meters) to Pozuzo (800 meters) to Huancabamba (1900 meters) to Oxapampa (1800 meters / 10° - 28°C) and back to Villa Rica. The hike begins in a temperate climate, goes to low tropical rain forest and back to high altitude rain forest.

A. The hike begins in Villa Rica, a charming coffee-growing region with lovely countryside, winding country roads, gullies and bushy vegetation. The hike sets off to Iscosacín (700 meters) about 120 kilometers away where the trek follows almost accidental, sinuous routes, innumerable curves and the Palcazú River as a guide. All along this route we will find numerous native communities in addition to the variety of trees that abound in the region, like cypress, ulcumano and cedar.

B. From Iscosacín the intrepid trekkers head to Pozuzo (800 meters), the picturesque community founded by Austrians more than a century ago. An unimproved road takes the trekker to this somewhat surprising community, not just for its imposing bio-diversity, but also for cultural mix - Austrian, native and serrano.

C. Leaving Pozuzo the waterfalls along the trek are reason enough to relax and refresh oneself before continuing the trip another 54 km that will take the adventurers to Huancabamba (1900 meters), a location where the trekker notices diversity in the countryside and encounters the breath-taking and deepest canyon of the central region of the country.