Apacheta #Salcantay #sinner #stonepile #apacheta Day 2 Starting from an elavation of 3,800m a 3 hour (7km) hike brought us to the Salkantay pass at 4,650m. #ihavehadbetterdays #gringokiller Apachetas are stone piles left in honor of the mountain gods. The size of the stone you carry from the base of the mountain is representative of your sins 🤔 Mount Salkantay, which means Savage Mountain in the Inca language of #Quechua has been worshipped by locals for thousands of years and is considered a sacred peak. Located less than 60km from the city of Cusco, this glacier-capped mountain sits at the eastern end of the Cordillera Vilcabamba mountain range and rises to a height of 6,271m., making it the highest peak in the range and the twelfth highest in Peru. The Cordillera Vilcabamba is a rocky massif that towers between the Urubamba and Apurimac rivers. Mt. Salkantay is home to glaciers, extremely high passes, lagoons, Andean chinchillas, magnificent condors and the high Andean plateaus are the breeding ground for alpacas. With so much to offer it is a wonder more people do not utilize this trail versus the crowded classic Inca Trail. The Salkantay path snakes through a stunning variety of terrain, anywhere from lush green valleys with abundant subtropical forests, coca plants and the Urubamba River, to alpine meadows and glacial moraines sandwiched between icy peaks. This quiet trail passes remote ruins and villages and as it climbs higher in elevation to the plateaus above the scenery gets more breathtaking as Mt. Tucarhuay and Mt. Salkantay dominate the panoramic views near Soraypampa. (at Salkantay Trek, Peru)