I will be going to Peru in May and doing the Salkantay and Asungate treks while I am there. I intend to do it solo without a guide or porter. I typically like to just maps, but seeing that my spanish is not as good as I would like it to be I finally purchased a GPS, Garmin Dakota 20.
Would anybody be able to tell me where I can get GPS maps for these treks, preferably for free or cheaper than on the Garmin website?
Take it that you're using the GPS as a side tool to map and compass rather than totally relying on it.
Lack of signal due to wooded areas, gorges, valleys one potential problem along with dead batteries, duff batteries or leaking batteries could ensure that it's a good paperweight.
Paper maps give you a better picture of what's around you than a viewscreen does.
Been using GPS for over twenty years, but never totally rely on a unitl for reasons mentioned above.
Yeah no doubt! I should have mentioned that. I have the Nat. Geo. Map and will also print out a copy of the map with my determined way points.
Any suggestion on what mapping app. to use for my gps though?
It would be pretty hard to get lost on salkantay, it's an obvious route and there are lots of people around and signposts. Really not very remote at all. Most people doing it don't even bother with a real map. Not sure if same is true for ausungate.
My partner and I are planning to do Ausangate and Alpamayo in June, both independently like you are. I use smartphone GPS apps instead of a dedicated GPS unit (as well as map and compass of course). The open source maps that I've seen for both the hikes we're doing are pretty good (possibly better than some of the paper maps available). As I don't use a dedicated GPS I'm not sure if/how you can download these but you could also download an app and have a look - maybe you'll decide to return your Garmin! When I had an iPhone I used MotionX GPS (which I really liked). Now I have Android I've been trying both Orux Maps (very powerful apparently but not easy to learn) and Backcountry Navigator (much simpler).
By the way, can I ask what temperature rated sleeping bag you're taking for Ausangate? Not sure if ours will suffice or if we should rent in Cusco (but worried that they'll only have super heavy synthetic bags). Also, how many days are you planning for Ausangate?
Cheers
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