Salkantay Trail: Collpa Lodge to Lucma Lodge

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Features River/Creek · Views · Waterfall · Wildflowers

This section of the Salkantay Trail starts at Collpa Lodge and ends at Lucma lodge. The trail descends gradually along a relatively easy path, following the river through passion fruit trees and, closer to Lucma Lodge, tobacco plantations.

On our trip, we started at Collpa Lodge and stayed east of the river until we reached an abandoned tourist pool facility at the confluence of two rivers. After this point, we crossed to the west side of the river and continued for a few miles until we crossed back to the east side of the river by way of a metal cart suspended on a steel cable over the river. We needed to do this because of mudslides, which had made the regular route unsafe.

We saw a variety of butterflies on this trail, including some stunning iridescent blue ones that crossed back and forth in front of us but didn't land long enough to photograph. We saw an amazing fluorescent yellow caterpillar along the trail, and numerous wildflowers. Because we were walking at times through passion fruit trees, we saw lots of passion fruit flowers and the fruits themselves. There were also a lot of bromeliads in the trees around us for much of the way.