Trekkers gathered at a camp on the Salkantay route
Meals per day
Four, including afternoon tea
Cooked by
A dedicated trek cook
Vegetarian / vegan
Standard, no surcharge
Water
Boiled and treated, refilled at camp
Highest kitchen
Soraypampa, 3,900 m

People are sceptical about this until the first lunch. A trek cook travels with the group, the ingredients come out from Cusco on the horses, and what arrives on the table at 3,900 metres is recognisably Peruvian food rather than expedition rations.

The daily rhythm

Four eating points a day: breakfast before walking, a cooked lunch somewhere around the middle of it, tea when you reach camp, and dinner after dark. The tea stop is the one visitors do not expect and the one they remember — hot drinks and something to eat, waiting when you arrive.

Breakfast

Porridge or oatmeal, bread, fruit, eggs on most mornings, and coffee or coca tea. On the morning of the pass it is deliberately larger, because the next real meal is on the far side of 4,630 metres.

Lunch and afternoon tea

Lunch is a proper sit-down: soup first, then a main — trout, lomo saltado, ají de gallina, quinoa dishes, always with a vegetarian version alongside rather than instead. Soup first sounds like a formality and is not; at altitude it is the most reliable way to get salt and fluid into people who have stopped feeling thirsty.

Afternoon tea is bread, biscuits, popcorn and hot drinks, timed for arrival at camp.

Four eating points a day, and the third is the one nobody expects. Breakfast before walking; a cooked sit-down lunch with soup first; afternoon tea waiting on arrival at camp; dinner after dark in the dining tent. Salkantay.org — https://salkantay.org/blog/food-on-the-salkantay-trek/ Four eating points, and the third surprises people ONE DAY ON THE TREK · COOKED ON THE TRAIL Breakfast Lunch Afternoon tea Dinner Before walking Soup first, then a main Waiting when you reach camp After dark Vegetarian and vegan are planned as standard at no extra cost — say so when you book, not at the trailhead. SALKANTAY.ORG

Dinner

The largest meal, eaten in the dining tent after dark: soup, a main with rice and vegetables, and a dessert that is usually more elaborate than a kitchen tent has any business producing. This is also where the next day gets explained.

Vegetarian, vegan and allergies

Vegetarian and vegan are ordinary here, not an accommodation — say so when you book and it is planned for, at no extra cost. Allergies and coeliac need the same notice and more specifics, because a cook carrying five days of ingredients over a pass cannot improvise a substitution on day three.

Water

Boiled and treated water is provided to refill from — bring two bottles or a bladder holding at least two litres between them. Do not drink from streams. See the packing list for what to carry it in.

Common questions

Can you cater for vegetarians and vegans?

Yes, at no extra cost, and it is common enough that our cooks plan for it as standard. Tell us when you book rather than on the morning you start — the food is bought in Cusco and carried in.

Is the water safe to drink?

You are given boiled and treated water to refill from at camp and at meal stops. Do not drink untreated stream water, however clean it looks at 4,000 metres.

What about coeliac, nut or dairy allergies?

Manageable, but tell us at booking with the specifics. A cook working from a kitchen tent needs to plan around an allergy, not improvise around it.

Will I lose weight on the trek?

Most people do not. You are walking hard, but you are also being fed four times a day by someone whose job is to make sure you eat enough for tomorrow.