Tour Full day Charquini y Laguna Esmeralda

Absolutely amazing experience. Transportation was on time and loved that we stopped to get some snacks before starting this hike. Our guide she was the best she explained everything and was super patient with us helping us on the hike. Altitude was hard for some of us, but she made sure to talk us through the breathing, took breaks with us, and gave us some medicine to breathe in to help us on our way up. The views where beautiful 100% recommend.

We were picked up on time and then it went up. We had great weather and saw all the surrounding mountains. There were plenty of photo stops and our guide Patti told a lot of interesting things. The highlight is definitely the Esmerald lagoon. You start at 4600 meters and walk about 1.2 kilometers to get to 5040 meters. You have about 1 hour for the ascent, 1 hour at the lagoon and 30 minutes for the descent. Because of the height, challenging, but feasible. Be sure to take water with you and drink small amounts again and again. Overall a great experience, which I can 100% recommend.

The guide was kind, but he had almost no English. And, in general, he gave few information or guidance (even in Spanish).

The Laguna Esmeralda was really great. Not tour for everyone. The Laguna was snowed and our tour guide abandoned us, leaving for first, without controlling if we are ok ( i was fallen) and consider that we didn't have network on the mountain to call help. Our tour guide was only aware for take a group photos.

The tour was an amazing experience! Our guide was knowledgeable, friendly and helpful to those who found the altitude challenging. The scenery was spectacular.

Excellent tour, the scenery is spectacular both in the lagoon and climbing, the guide very friendly and patient as the climb up the height was challenging 400 meters of positive slope, they are like 4 kilometers round trip but less 1 hour and a half of travel, also I liked that they are attentive in case you feel ill at altitude offer medicine or coke to chew. When you arrive, they also give you snacks to recover energy.

The tour was too good, the guide gue exceptional, explained us about the places, and was very attentive to the people who had a little trouble getting to the top. I recommend 100% the tour and more if it is with today's guide. Thank you.

The view of the lagoon is gorgeous, worths the slightly strenuous hike up. However, some other stopping spots are not very attractive and may consider be skipped to make the trip half-day (after all, the trip description said 8-9 hours, but we arrived back in city in less than 6). The guide Marco is a gentle friendly nice guy, but he is not providing enough support to me. As the only non-Spanish speaker in the group of 5, he obviously spend most of the time on the others with minimal basic translation to English. During the hike, I’m the eldest and slowest in the group, hence I may need more time to catch up. However, he is leading the others at the far end, walking quite fast to meet their pacing. I was asked once at the beginning and then I was literally left alone on my own to keep following their path according to my sight whereas some time they went out of my sight at some turns. The next time I saw the guide waiving at me was already at the finish. He is very interested in taking good photos of us at the lagoon though, even brought a national flag for photos. I hope he can do better next time, taking care and accompanying those weaker one who may need more support and encouragement.

The van had very small seats and it was quite uncomfortable considering you have to drive for longer than 1 hour on a bumpy road. Altitude was a major issue, I felt very ill and went straight to the hospital after the tour. Plus, the day after I had to go to a chiropractor as I put my back out due to the very uncomfortable seats in the van. A complete nightmare..

It is important to mention that it climbs to 5024 mts, which requires a physical effort if you are not used to trekking and higher in height, however, the guide Marco was super patient at all times, he waited for everyone regardless if some were slower than others, he was on the lookout at all times and we all managed to reach the lagoon and it was completely worth it, the lagoon and the view of Charquini is spectacular. It is recommended to bring winter jackets and raincoats, shoes and suitable clothing, temperatures vary throughout the day, we had snowfall and also sun, hat and gloves is also indispensable. They gave us a bread and cheese, a banana and a chocolate which was very grateful. We made several stops before starting the ascent to get acclimatised and I think it is very important that they do. Fully recommended and very satisfied with the experience and our guide Marco 10/10.