Casa de Salcantay
Residency ‘Casa de Salcantay’ is a family-Inn situated in the Peruvian Andes at the border of the village Cachora and nearby the cities Cuzco and Abancay. Here starts the Inca Trail to the largest Inca-city in South America, Choquequirao. These complexes of ruins are three times larger then the famous Macchu Pichu and the last resort of the Incas.
Casa de Salcantay is a friendly Inn with comfort. There are eight rooms for companies where in total 25 quests can have lodging. All showers have warm water and there is internet-communication. The central-room is the balcony-room in the main building where meals are served and meetings take place. In the comfortable resting-room next door you can relax and make your Internet connections.
US$ 20 a person a night include breakfast...
The Inn overviews the whole valley to Choquequirao overlooking the river Apurimac and gives a really sensational look at the Nevada Padreyoc (5.771 m) of the Cordillera Valcabamba. The locals call this the ‘Salcantay’. Although it is part of the same range it is not the ‘Nevado Salcantay’ (6.271 m). However Casa de Salcantay thanks its name to it.At Casa de Salcantay you can communicate in English, Spanish, Dutch, German and Quechua. It is wheelchair friendly.
Casa de Salcantay is primary ment for tourists who want to walk the Inca Trail to Choquequirao. It is also an ideal place for resting and to enjoy native flora and fauna.
For mountain-climbers it is the place for acclimatization and base for attacking the mountains from the Cordillera Vilcanota with the Nevados Verónica and Chicon and Vilcabamba with the Salcantay. Nearby Abancay is the Nevada Ampay with his beautiful park ‘Sanctuario Ampay’.
Casa de Salcantay is owned by Jan Willem van Delft, who is from Dutch origin. Before he opened the Inn Jan Willem had nine years of mountain experience in Peru. Together with his team-mates, the German Holger Paerschke and the Dutchman Teun Oosterom, he climbed many mountains in Peru, like the famous Huascaran (6.846 m.), and the most beautiful mountain in the world, the Alpamayo (5.864 m.), both in the Cordirilla Blanca. Jan Willem is married with Yovana (Peruvian) and together they have two children.
Tour to Choquequirao
From Casa de Salcantay, Choquequirao is in reach within two days. The ruins are not easily accessible because of the altitude. There is a difference in level of 1600 meters in altitude. First a descending to the river Apurimac followed by an ascending from the valley to the ruins. The landscape is spectacular and more then worthwhile the effort.
The construction of the different levels of temples, palaces, canals and aqueducts is really fantastic. As one guide stated «Choquequirao is the city which demonstrates the inspiring example of an elite Inca ceremonial centre. A city dedicated to the worship of the mountain gods, the river and the elements of nature.»