GPS Track Details
Difficulty: 3/5 - Medium
Track length: 8.15 Kilometers
Total Ascent: 435 Meters
Total Descent: 322 Meters

D-6.2 Vilcabamba - Lambunuma pass - Masanamaca

Distance          8.1 km

Time                2.75 hours

Altitude          1530m - 1990m

Ascent             410m

Descent           290m

Rating             Medium  3/5

Start                Vilcabamba tourist office

End                  Masanamaca, Quinara turnoff (road construction camp)

This trail is a good sample of how the people used to travel from one village to the other, before the highway was constructed in the early 19-seventies. (The present highway has just recently been upgraded). Before, access to the villages south of Vilcabamba was only by mule, horseback or on foot. Nowadays the second half of this trail, the section from Lambanuma-pass to Tumianuma, is rarely traveled and therefore “a bit lost”.      

Route: From the tourist office head 4 blocks south along Calle Bolivar, turn left onto Calle Hatillo, cross the bridge of Quebrada Puliche and head uphill. At the top of the little, pass branch to the right onto the gravel road passing the Hacienda El Atillo. 5 Minutes later, at the intersection Cuatro Caminos continue straight. The Hacienda Mollepamba you will pass 15 minutes later. Soon the road starts climbing more steeply, and after 20 minutes you reach another intersection at the Mollepamba School. Heading straight, the road is getting steeper again and at a concrete gate, narrows into a trail. 15 minutes later, you get to a house- compound, and just before that, on a little knob to the right, you get a nice view back to the Vilcabamba-valley. From the house, the driveway climbs another 10 minutes to a black metal gate near the concrete Highway.  Turn left at the gate. 500 meters along the highway gets you to the top of Lambunuma-pass at 1990m. Continue along the highway for another 200 meters along a barbed wire fence on your right. Enter the fence at the farm driveway, then continue alongside it to another fence at a 90° angle. Just to your right, you find a lone 2 foot rock besides a chicken shed, which marks the start of the downhill-trail. At first, the trail zigzags steeply down the flank for some minutes. It now follows a tiny ridge just to the right of little stream. 5 minutes after, you actually meet the stream, then the trail veers away from it, crossing an open pasture and changes to the right hand side of the valley. The trail continues at the top of the clearing. After15 minutes hiking along the right valley-flank, we come across a fenced cattle coral. Enter and cross the coral. From here, the trail is well worn into rocky gullies in places 3 meters deep. 25 minutes from the coral, you hit the little stream. For 10 minutes the trail follows the stream, then veers away from it. From the stream its five minutes to the highway. 300 meters along the highway to the right, takes you to the Quinara turnoff, another 15 minutes to the hamlet of Masanamaca. But it’s best to hitch a ride back to Vilcabamba from the Quinara intersection.

 

 

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