Category: Nature & Wildlife | Reading time: 6 min
One of the things that distinguishes the Salkantay from most other trekking routes in the Andes is the range of ecosystems it passes through. In four days of walking you descend more than 2,500 meters of altitude, from glacial high terrain above 4,600 meters to subtropical valley floor at under 2,000 meters. That vertical drop translates into a biological diversity that is, by any measure, extraordinary. The species you encounter on Day 1 bear almost no resemblance to the species you encounter on Day 3. The landscape does not change gradually. It transforms, sometimes within the space of a single afternoon.
This article is a guide to what you are likely to see along the route, organized by the ecosystems you pass through in order. It is not an exhaustive scientific inventory. It is a practical guide for trekkers who want to know what they are looking at when their guide stops and points at something in the vegetation.
The trek begins in the puna, the high-altitude grassland zone that covers much of the Andean plateau above 3,500 meters. The puna looks austere at first glance, a landscape of pale grasses, grey rock, and wide open sky. Look more carefully and it is anything but empty.
Ichu grass is the dominant plant of the puna, the tough, golden-yellow bunchgrass that covers the hillsides in great sweeping waves. It is one of the most cold and drought-resistant plants in the world and the foundation of the high Andean ecosystem. Andean communities have used it for centuries as thatch for roofing and bedding material for livestock.
Polylepis trees, known locally as queñoa, are the gnarled, reddish-barked trees that appear in sheltered gullies and stream edges above 4,000 meters, making them among the highest-growing trees on earth. Their bark peels in papery layers and their twisted forms give the high Andean landscape a distinctive character unlike anything at lower altitudes.
Lupins appear in purple and yellow clusters along the lower sections of the puna zone, particularly in the months around the wet season when the high grasslands briefly become something approaching colorful.
Andean geese, known locally as huallata, are large, conspicuous birds that pair for life and are commonly seen grazing in the grasslands around Soraypampa. They are monogamous, territorial, and completely unbothered by trekking groups passing nearby.
Vicuñas are the wild relatives of the alpaca, slender and golden-coated, and they move through the puna in small herds with a lightness and speed that seems disproportionate given the altitude. They are protected under Peruvian law and their population has recovered significantly from near-extinction in the twentieth century. Seeing a group of vicuñas on the high grassland above Soraypampa on a clear morning is one of those encounters that the photographs never fully capture.
Andean foxes are occasionally seen in the early morning on the approach to the Salkantay Pass. They are smaller than their European counterparts, wary but curious, and they move through the puna with a characteristic unhurried trot that makes them look completely at home in a landscape that appears inhospitable to almost everything else.
Above 4,200 meters the vegetation thins dramatically and the landscape becomes one of rock, ice, and the particular stark beauty of high mountain terrain. Plant life here is sparse but remarkably specialized.
Cushion plants, known as yareta in Quechua, are the dense, rounded mounds of compact vegetation that grow directly against the rock surface in the glacial zone. They grow extraordinarily slowly, sometimes only a centimeter per year, and large specimens may be hundreds of years old. Their compact form is an adaptation to cold temperatures and high winds, keeping the plant’s interior warmer than the air outside it.
Andean condors are the birds most trekkers hope to see on the pass crossing and the ones that generate the most excitement when they appear. With a wingspan reaching three meters, the condor is the largest flying bird in the world by combined wingspan and weight. They are commonly seen riding thermals above the Salkantay massif in the mid-morning, when the warming air creates the updrafts they use for effortless soaring. Seeing a condor at close range against the backdrop of the glacial peaks is an experience that stays with people long after the rest of the trek has faded into a general sense of having been somewhere extraordinary.
Caracaras, the striking black and white falcons of the high Andes, are more reliably seen than condors and nearly as impressive at close range. They are bold, opportunistic, and frequently found near campsites where they have learned that human activity sometimes produces food.
The descent from the Salkantay Pass into the cloud forest is one of the most dramatic ecological transitions on any trekking route in South America. Within a few hours of the pass crossing the vegetation shifts from sparse alpine scrub to dense, moisture-saturated forest draped in mosses and bromeliads. The temperature rises, the air thickens, and the sound changes completely.
Orchids are the defining plants of the cloud forest section of the route. Peru has more than 3,000 species of orchid, more than any other country in the world, and a significant proportion of them are found in the cloud forest zone of the Salkantay corridor. Most are small, attached to tree branches and trunks, and easy to miss at walking pace. Your guide will point them out. Once you start seeing them you realize they are everywhere.
Bromeliads cover virtually every available surface in the cloud forest, from tree branches to rock faces to the stems of other plants. They collect water in their central cup, which creates small micro-ecosystems hosting insects, frogs, and other species that live their entire lives within a single plant.
Tree ferns appear in the mid-section of the cloud forest descent, their prehistoric forms rising three to four meters above the trail floor. They are genuine living fossils, largely unchanged from species that existed before the dinosaurs.
Cock-of-the-rock, the national bird of Peru, inhabits the cloud forest zone and is one of the most visually arresting birds on the route. The male is a brilliant flame orange with a distinctive semicircular crest. They gather at communal display sites called leks where males compete for female attention through elaborate posturing and vocalization. Encountering a lek in full activity is one of the wildlife highlights of the entire trek.
Spectacled bears, the only bear species native to South America, inhabit the cloud forest zone of the Salkantay corridor, though sightings on the trail itself are rare. They are named for the pale markings around their eyes that resemble spectacles and are primarily herbivorous, feeding on bromeliads, cacti, and fruit. The knowledge that they are present in the forest you are walking through adds a particular quality to the cloud forest section that has nothing to do with whether you actually see one.
Hummingbirds are present throughout the cloud forest section in remarkable variety. Peru has more than 130 species and the Salkantay corridor harbors a significant number of them. They appear briefly, hover for a fraction of a second at a flower, and vanish before most people have time to raise a camera. The ones that do hold still long enough to observe are almost always extraordinary, metallic greens and blues and purples that look more like jewelry than birds.
By the time you reach the lower sections of the route near Santa Teresa, the cloud forest has given way to subtropical vegetation and the biological character of the route is entirely different from anything you encountered on Days 1 and 2.
Coffee is grown extensively in the agricultural land around Santa Teresa and the trail passes directly through working coffee farms on the lower sections of Day 3. The coffee plants, with their glossy dark leaves and clusters of red and green berries, are unmistakable once you know what you are looking at. Local farms sometimes offer tastings to passing trekkers and the coffee produced in this valley, grown at altitude in volcanic soil with natural shade, is genuinely excellent.
Cacao grows alongside the coffee in the subtropical valley and the large, ribbed pods hanging directly from the trunk of the cacao tree are one of the more surprising sights for trekkers encountering them for the first time. The fresh cacao pulp around the beans, white and sweet, tastes nothing like the chocolate it eventually becomes.
Passion fruit vines climb over every available surface in the lower valley, their intricate flowers among the most elaborate in the plant kingdom. The fruits are harvested by local families and sold in Aguas Calientes.
Parakeets and parrots fill the subtropical canopy with a noise level that contrasts completely with the silence of the high puna. Several species are present in the valley, their green plumage making them genuinely difficult to spot against the vegetation despite the volume of sound they produce.
Morpho butterflies, the large electric-blue butterflies of the Neotropical lowlands, begin appearing in the subtropical zone and their size and color, an iridescent blue that seems to generate its own light, consistently stop trekkers in their tracks. They are not rare in this zone but they never become ordinary regardless of how many times you see one.
The Salkantay trek is not a wildlife safari. You are moving through these ecosystems at a pace and with a focus that is primarily about reaching the next campsite, not about standing quietly in one place waiting for something to appear. The wildlife you encounter will mostly be incidental to the walking, glimpsed at the edges of the trail or pointed out by your guide. That incidental quality is part of what makes the encounters feel genuine. The vicuña grazing fifty meters off the trail that nobody arranged to be there, the condor that appears above the pass at exactly the right moment, the orchid your guide stops to identify on a tree root you would have stepped over without noticing, these are the moments that accumulate into a picture of a living landscape rather than a managed wildlife experience.
Our guides are trained naturalists as well as trekking specialists. If flora and fauna are a particular interest, let us know when you book and we will match you with a guide who shares that focus.
