After I had acclimatized in Cusco for a few days and saw the main sights on the tourist trail, I was in search of an immersive experience that would introduce me to “real Peru”, not just the sights you see in travel magazines! I decided to sign up for a community visit to Chaullacocha, a remote Andean community above the glorious Sacred Valley of The Incas. For authentic experiences in Peru´s highlands, I researched online and decided to book with the local travel agency Kallpa Travel. This is a small family run local agency that takes people to see authentic and off the beaten track destinations. Wow did I choose the right company!
Setting off on my Authentic Andean Homestay Experience
I was picked up early and we travelled to the edge of Cusco, in the predawn chill. The city is just beginning to stir and the vans headlights dance across the cobblestones. I climbed into a private van with just Juan the driver and my guide Domingo. Both were Quechua-born and soft-spoken, who’s genuine warmth made up for the lack of coffee at that early hour.
We left the colonial buildings and narrow streets behind us, and with every twist and turn of the mountain road, the city loosened its grip on us as we headed into the highlands of The Andes. En route, we passed through The Sacred Valley spread out before us with fields patchworked in shades of gold and green, mist clinging to the winding Urubamba river like a veil.
As the road wound higher, eucalyptus forests gave way to open expanses of high mountain plains, called “puna” around these parts. This region is a golden landscape punctuated by pristine glacial lagoons and flocks of llamas and sheep. Farmers trudged along narrow footpaths in their traditional garb, herding alpacas with nothing but ancestral wisdom, a friendly dog and a long wooden stick. Around every bend some new came into view. Craggy peaks sprinkled with snow, waterfalls cascading from what looked like the sky, and massive green terraces etched into the mountainsides like ancient handwriting.
Now, there were no tour buses in sight. No road signs. No paved roads. Just the occasional moto-taxi and a long, slow wave from a shepherd wrapped in a poncho the colour of the sky.
By the time we reached the high pass, that was over 15,000 feet above sea level, the world felt much more immense and a lot simpler. We parked up beside a weathered wooden signpost, the air was much thinner than any I’d ever inhaled before, and proceeded to advance on foot.
The scenery here didn’t just surround me, it encapsulated me. It was mossy and soft underfoot, silent and brimming with life. Domingo stopped often to show me wild herbs or high-altitude flowers that only bloomed for a few weeks a year. “Medicinas,” he’d say, pressing them between his fingers. These amazing people in the middle of nowhere, with no access to hospitals or doctors, know how to survive from the land.
I followed him loyally through that vast unshaped wilderness, toward a village that wasn’t on google maps, but was about to become a huge turning point in my understanding of Peru.
Arrival in Chaullacocha – Authentic Cultural immersion Peru
Chaullacocha may not be on many maps, but that is exactly what I was looking for. I was tired of entrance times, schedules, itineraries, and checklists. Of traveling Peru through windows and guides with headsets. I wanted to be in it, feel it, smell it, taste it. Not be above it, not adjacent to it, in it. In Domingo´s words, “Chaullacocha is quiet, but it speaks.” The perfect explanation of this remote rural Andean community. No one performed for me. No one adjusted their day to accommodate mine. That’s what made it real.
One local woman motioned for me to help her pick greens by the stream. A teenager showed me how to spin yarn, laughing at me when I tangled it. We gathered around a small fire that evening, eating soup in silence while a baby slept on someone’s back. There was no formal “tour,” no PowerPoint explanation of culture. Just real life happening, and space for me to be part of it. It was cold. It was hard to breathe. But I felt awake in a way I hadn’t in a long time.
That night, under skies so dense with stars it felt like they might fall into the valley, I sat in stillness with a few members of the community. We shared stories in broken Spanish and Quechua, with gestures doing most of the work. I asked about the mountains, about how people live with them, not just on them. One elder said, “The mountains listen. That’s why we speak to them.”
The next morning, the first sound I hear is the low hum of alpacas outside, like the soft purr of some ancient mountain lullaby. Then nothing, just silence. No engines. No phones. Just wind, earth, wool, and sky. I sat up slowly, my bones adjusting to the altitude, and glance out the window of my adobe room. This cosy room had everything I needed to protect me from the harsh elements.
Then, there it was. The Andes, not in some cinematic, postcard sense, but as towering, breathing ancestors. The sun hasn’t fully risen, but the peaks glow faintly gold, and the frost clings to the grass like lace. I hear children’s voices echoing faintly in Quechua, and a rooster calls from somewhere down the slope. This is not a place built for outsiders, and yet I’ve been invited in.
At one point, I asked Domingo how much the families here think about the outside world. The wars, the noise of global headlines, the slow march of virtual life. He paused for a moment, watching a young boy herd alpacas with a whistle and a flick of his hand. “They know,” he said quietly. “They hear things. But they don’t carry those stories in their minds.” What preoccupies the people of Chaullacocha is the rhythm of weather, the health of their animals, the readiness of their fields. Life here is lived close to the land, close to ancestry, and even closer to one another.
What I learned in Chaullacocha had nothing to do with places to go or things to see. It had to do with ways of being. With presence. With reciprocity. With respect for rhythms older than roads. If you come here, come open. Come ready to listen more than speak. Come with humility, human connection and not just a camera. Chaullacocha isn’t merely another amazing Peruvian destination. It’s an authentic invitation. You won’t find it in a guidebook. But if you’re looking for the real Peru, not the Instagram Peru, not the bucket-list Peru, then this is it.
Raw. Honest. Alive.
If you are looking for an authentic Peru experience in The Andes Kallpa Travel is there to assist you every step of the way!