The Vagabond Hiker

Hiking, trekking, and climbing the world

Peru’s Ausangate Circuit Trek

When last minute cancellations by other clients put paid to my plan to trek to the Incan site of Choquequirao, I signed up instead for an extended Ausangate Circuit trek in the remote Cordillera Vilcanota range of the Andes, south of Cusco, a city I hadn’t visited since 2009. After two days of acclimatization near Cusco, we commenced our nine day trek. Our group of seven clients, one guide and a horseman with his “sag” horse hiked about 90 km (56 miles) and ascended more than 3700 m (12,100 ft). While the distances and elevation gains were not great, the altitude certainly was: five high passes which ranged from 4850 to 5200 meters (15,900 to 17,060 ft).

The Cordillera Vilcanota boasts several 6000m peaks, including the sacred Ausangate, at 6372m (20,900 ft), the highest mountain in southern Peru. This high and wild trekking circuit wound its way on quiet trails through this rarely-visited range, following lovely alpine valleys and traversing a series of passes connecting them. After a lovely soak in the Pachanta town hot springs one afternoon, the usual end point for the Ausangate Circuit trek, our trek continued another 2 1/2 days, highlighted by the remote and stunning Laguna Singrenacocha.

Enjoy some of the hundreds of photos that I took!

View of the Sacred Valley from Parque Arqueológico Pisac, our first of two acclimatization walks
Banana passionfruit flower
A view of Incan farming terraces from Parque Arqueológico Pisac
A Cyclopian-style Incan wall at Sacsayhuaman above Cusco, where we did the 2nd of our two acclimatization walks. The stones weigh up to 200 tons.
Approaching Ausangate from near the Tinki trailhead on Day 1. The trailhead was a leisurely 4-hour drive south from Cusco.
Our first night’s camp. The orange tents on the left side are ours.
Glacial melt-water serenades our group of 7 clients early on Day 2. Our group included five Brits and two Americans. Can you spot them in this photo?
Laguna vista with Ausangate
Old Man of the Andes cacti (Oreocereus celsianus)
View from the pass Abra al Arapa, 4850 m, the first of the five high passes we would cross on the trek. The needle-like peak is Sorimani.
Laguna Pucacocha
Our group down-climbing above Laguna Pucacocha
Our horses grazing near our 2nd camp in the late afternoon
Late afternoon light on Ausangate
Hatun (Great) Pucacocha and alpaca herd early on Day 3
Ausangate with Hatun Pucacocha on the left here
Th Vagabond Hiker with our horseman, Rozes, on the Apachita Pass (4920m)
Painted Mountain, a popular day hike from the opposite side.
Llamas
Our 3rd campsite
Pano with clients on Day 4
Rozes and our guide Evr (r), on Abra Paloman (5100m)
The Vagabond Hiker on Abra Paloman
Pycnophyllum molle moss
Landscape with Senecio leucophyton (in the daisy family)
Lodge, tarn, and Ausangate, seen on Day 4. The usual climbing route ascends from the red-roofed lodge seen in the lower left.
A Northern Viscacha, a type of chinchilla. Over a couple of days we saw (and heard) numerous Viscachas near streams.
Nevado Ausangate in all its formidable glory
Lupinus weberbaueri, seen on Day 5. We saw several different lupines. . .
Lupinus alopecuroides. None of the flowers I saw seemed to have common English names, hence I’m sticking with the Latin binomials for this post.
Some of our pack horses on Day 5 near Abra La Campa (5060m). Jatunhuma (6100m) is in the background.
Puka Punta (5600m), Pachanta (5950m), and Callangate (6110m) seen to our east on Day 5.
Nototriche obcuneata, in the mallow family
View descending towards our Day 5 camp
Sunset view on Day 5. Puka Punta (“Red Point” in Quechua) is on the right.
Laguna Pucacocha in the morning of Day 6.
Grasses and blue pond with reflection of a portion of the Ausangate massif.
A remote village with Callangate behind, seen on Day 7
Some dry stone walls testify to the ubiquitous alpaca and Llama herding over the centuries
Perezia pygmea, in the daisy family
Landscape with glacial stream
An alpaca herd
Closeup of five alpacas. The 2nd from the left looks to me like a character in the Wizard of Oz.
Our “sag” horse, Ausangate, being encouraged to cross a stream
Day 7 sunset vista with horses and alpenglow on Callangate
The turquoise Laguna Singrenaccocha, seen early on Day 8
Gentiana sedifolia
Another view of Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we essentially circumambulated this day, camping near the southwest corner
Hatun Q’ampa reflected in a small, unnamed lake
The main river feeding into Laguna Singrenaccocha, which we crossed downstream, near its entrance to the lake
An view upstream of that river
Yet more alpacas (and some llamas)!
Mark crossing one section of the river near the outlet of Laguna Singrenaccocha
Our scenic Day 8 campsite and our horses
Our support crew (our cook, two assistants, and muleteers), Day 9
Still morning reflections in Laguna Singrenaccocha
Our final canyon descent to the roadhead near Malima on Day 9.

I chose to spend this summer in the Rocky Mountains of southwest Colorado and on the eastern side of the Sierra Nevada range of California. If I get some decent photos, expect one or two blog posts from some of my numerous day hikes. In early September I will be traveling around Europe for about 5 1/2 weeks, trekking across the Picos de Europa in northern Spain and the Julian Alps in Slovenia (yes, I know they are not particularly close together!), and doing a series of walks on São Miguel Island in the Azores. Expect three more blog posts this autumn from those adventures!

In the meantime, enjoy as much of the summer outdoors as you can,

The Vagabond Hiker

Travels with Clifford

As long-time followers of this blog may know, my youngest brother, Clifford, has both graced many photos and been behind the lens for quite a few more. Beginning with Maui in 1990, Clifford and I explored Belize in 1993, Wales with our dad in 2000, and coastal California and the Southwest US numerous times since 2007. More recently we traveled and hiked together in Tasmania and mainland Australia in 2017, Malta in 2018, Ireland in 2019, and Costa Rica in 2022. Clifford’s innate curiosity, far-reaching knowledge, boundless enthusiasm, and child-like sense of wonder for the natural world enriched my travels in so many ways. Here are some recent fond memories. . .

Posing with stringy bark eucalyptus, Franklin River Nature Trail, Tasmania, Australia, 2017
Scratching an alpha male Forester kangaroo, Tasmania
Smiling from inside a hollow eucalyptus, Notley Gorge, Tasmania
Investigating a termite mound, Bed Boyd National Park, New South Wales, Australia, 2017
Admiring the vista at Kalarranga Lookout, Finke Gorge National Park, Northern Territory, Australia, 2017
Enjoying the strata, Kings Canyon, Northern Territory
At a cliff-edge along the south coast of the island of Gozo, Malta, 2018
Kayaking on Dwejra Bay, Gozo
Admiring the cliffs from his kayak, Dwejra Bay
Looking up into the canopy from under a Dragon tree, San Diego Botanical Garden, 2022
Standing with an impressive yucca, San Diego Botanical Garden
Posing with an endangered Elephant tree at Torote Bowl, Anza-Borrego Desert State Park, California, 2022
Under California Fan Palms, Anza-Borrego
At the trailhead of the Domelands Loop, Coyote Mountains Wilderness, California, 2022
Making empanadas with Valerie, Guanacaste, Costa Rica, 2022
At Toroweap Overlook on the North Rim of the Grand Canyon, Arizona, 2023
Smiling with our brother, Mark (c), and me, the Dingle Peninsula, Ireland, 2019

Clifford Blizard

1970-2024

Carpe Diem!

Kent Blizard, the Vagabond Hiker

Guanacaste (Costa Rica) Walks and Wildlife

As my last visit to Costa Rica was more than 16 years ago and I never made it to this northwestern province in any event, I thought it was not before time that I returned to this stable democracy in Central America. My brother Clifford and his wife visited for much of the time. A three bedroom AirBnb house near Liberia airport was a good base for exploring the province.

A few longer hikes, combined with some leisurely nature walks and swimming in the warm Pacific Ocean proved a delightful respite from the North American winter.

Rincon de la Vieja National Park was the number one reason I visited Guanacaste. We hiked here on two different days. This photo and several that follow were taken on the leisurely Fumarolic Mud Pots loop trail.
Volcan Rincon de la Vieja in the mist
Impressive ficus roots
A seasonal waterfall on the Mud Pots loop
A juvenile Black Spiny-tailed Iguana along the trail
Passion flower (Passiflora menispermifolia) with a leaf-footed bug. This walk was a great opportunity to try out my new Olympus Tough TG-6 camera that replaced my recently-deceased Leica (see previous post).
White-throated magpie jay (Calocitta formosa). About my only decent photo of a bird in Costa Rica!
Indian head flower (Aphelandra scabra) with ants
Looking up
A more rigorous hike by far in Rincon de la Vieja was to the Escondito and Cangreja waterfalls. Here is a vista from near Escondito, the higher and more challenging portion of the hike.
Escondito waterfall. I had it to myself.
Cangreja (Blue Lagoon) waterfall, the far more popular destination. View the video full screen (the little button on the lower right)
Panorama of Playa Ocatal, one of the two beaches I visited. This one had some decent snorkeling at the west end (left side here). Playa Panama was better for swimming and only a 15 minutes drive from our AirBnb.
The Santa Rosa National Park hacienda. The road down to the coast was closed, so we settled for the Nature Trail hike and viewpoint walk from the hacienda.
Monk’s cap (Malvaviscus arboreus). Santa Rosa protects a large portion of the endangered tropical dry forest ecosystem in Costa Rica.
Panorama from Santa Rosa’s monument view point east towards three volcanoes.
A stately oak in Santa Rosa NP, a former cattle ranch.
I saw this scarlet creeper (Ipomoea hederifolia) in Diria National Park, where I did an otherwise boring hike primarily along a jeep track.
Two-toed sloths hanging around in Diamonte Eco Park. The next several photos are from here of fauna I couldn’t hope to find in the wild. . .
Crocs and friends
A pair of Jaguars, king of the New World cats
A Blue Morpho at Diamonte. We saw many of these butterflies at Rincon de la Vieja, but getting a good photo of one with its wings open was nigh on impossible.
Breeding male green iguana at Diamonte trying to impress a female. I never knew they could get this color. View the video full screen.
A coastal vista at Las Catalinas. I did a several mile loop hike out to Punta Guachipelines. It turns out the area is privately owned and I should have bought a day pass. Oops!
Making vegetarian empanadas with Clifford and Valerie at Tio Leo’s. We did a coffee/orchard tour which included much more than simply coffee! It was conveniently located just down the road from our AirBnb west of Liberia airport.
Turquoise-browed Motmot. No, this is Notnot my photo. Despite numerous attempts, the best I could do was miserable. Many mornings I enjoyed watching him from my balcony sitting out for the dawn chorus with my first cup of coffee and binoculars. Wonderful!

I am back in the States, hiking in the Palm Springs, California area and planning my upcoming European summer. I’ll be spending five weeks at an amazing apartment overlooking (a distant) Lake Garda and then basing myself near Windsor Great Park in England from late June until the end of September. From there I am planning several trips to Europe and beyond.

Later this spring, once my plans have gelled, I’ll post a travel schedule. Until then I’m taking a few months off from this blog. . . but not from hiking!

Get out and enjoy nature,

The Vagabond Hiker

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