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north side of sexywoman
getting to the trail on foot...You never know where opening a book is going to take you... We eyed this walk to a local Inca ruin from a tome called
Exploring Cuzco by
Frost it's a great resource for trekking in the area and available for purchase (or reference) at the local
South American Explorers club house that we joined this past week. Utilising the resources is priceless this was a great recommendation by fellow travelers staying at the same hostel as us - we seemed to keep running into them during breakfast hour!
While perusing through the book I noticed a nice day hike from the centre which is great because you needn't any public transport, just a day bag, plenty of water and a couple of apples and snacks. The hike would take us past two Inca sites, off the tourist circuit but close to town.
Reading the first paragragh I got excited so, of course, had to pass it along to Sean. As always - a take charge kind of man - didn't get it back until he jotted down the details of the trail/walk for us to follow at a later date.
We started a bit late when the
cross roads
following the aquaduct sun was high in the sky and needless to say very hot. We head towards the slippery road out of the city central square and headed up the steep steps. After stopping a couple of times along the way to catch my breath we eventually make it on to the main road. Like Italy you always seem to be walking up hill; continuing on the road towards the northside we get passed up by several packed taxis and a RUNNER! Super fit guy ... as we carefully approach the north entrance to the Sexy-woman ruin (as it is known by non-Spanish speakers) we walk right through on the farside staying clear of the ticket control.
As our tickets have long since expired either they thought we were locals taking advantage of free entry to residence or they just couldn't be bothered to ask ? Kinda like Italy...
Successfully getting past the guards at the gate we relax and then are amazed, again, by the hugeness of Sasaywana - it's massive and may apear more so on the north side as it is absent of tourists which quite a contrast to the other entrance.
Everywhere you look everything
seems to have welled up from ther ground. Outside the center everyone seems to live in an adobe house the color of the red Earth, yet all their craft and clothing is so brilliantly colorful and the people are always greeting you with bright eyes and cheerful smiles.
Man, you think trail marking in Italy are poor, try following footpaths with no clear indication that you are proceeding in the right direction until you arrive upon a definate land mark like the adobe wall with four windows.
Tramping around in the field we eventually see it in the distance, yes we can go forward! Continuing on paths that seem to be for campesinos only, avoiding mules and bulls that are on the direct path forces us to take a round about way to get beyond them without suffering bodily harm. Wouldn't it suck to get kicked by a donkey?!
At the cross roads there are adobe bricks, row after row, drying in the Sol. A thatched roof adobe home then we see our next land mark - the aquaduct. Now it's just a matter of following the system to the sites which we discover is easy said
than actually done.
Chacan, accent on the second A, by this point I'm tired and a bit grumpy as Sean could tell you. A gorge is in sight we follow the instructions into the 'cave' that looks down onto the river below. Spotting a family playing soccer and splashing knee deep in the freezing river. Enough of the 'cave' and it's graffitti and head down towards where the family are at the river.
One of the elders in the group is at the front headed towards us as we descend and with much excitement in his voice tells us in Spanish about the 'cave'. Sean follows him back even though we've just been but the old guy isn't hearing it, believe this is known as selective hearing.
Meanwhile one of the young boys tells me we can walk down river but need to go barefoot with our shoes... for a split second, wondering if the shoeless thing is a ploy to take our hiking boots, horrible thought I know. Just like when you go skinee dipping there is always a bit of you that thinks someone is going to run off with all your clothes but most
certainly that only happens in hollywood films... Has anyone ever taken your clothes?
Like children ourselves we climbed around the area for a bit then shared an apple, granny smith, Sean's favorite. Per instructions, we went up river for as long as possible with out taking off our shoes. Taking a break to review Sean's notes and doing our best to decipher his hand writing
it says to go up stream 'something'
. Attempting it but it doesn't seem passable so we accept surrender, for the moment, and go up to the main trail.
Proceeding further along believing we'd be able to see the ruins, terraces from the path. Yet again proven wrong, staying optimistic we continue on the dusty road. Spotting a ruin high up but decide not to go up, you know, admire from afar was our thinking at the time.
Considering we began waling from Cuzco center at 11am and it was now past 3pm. Being very tired as I suspect Sean must be too but he wouldn't moan about it like me. Deciding to give it another half-hour.
As we get ready to call it a day and retreat we encounter a couple who are on their way towards
the center (Cuzco) from a distant village transistor radio in hand. Everyone here seems to have a portable radio... inquiring where, if they know of this site - of course they do!
Their instant reply is telling us that we've come way too far! Asking if we may join them walking back and they being naturally kind the allow us to walk with them. The man is the one doing most of the talking as his wife seems in a hurry to get to her destination and walks a good five paces in front of us.
They lead us to fields we past awhile back where they instruct us to go down to the river to get to Nustapacana. Once past the fields there certainly is a pather down. From the edge of the field we can view the ancient untouched ruin.
SUCCESS! we found it thanks to local know how - the ruin is a chamber with arched doorway built on various terraces next to the stream. It´s quite a tough climb down through undergrowth, and once we explore it we have to figure out how to get up again. The easiest way seems to follow
Esther
unimpressed by the Devil´s Balcony the stream down, but it passes through a narrow rock channel and basically that means taking off our shoes and wading through. Sean gives it a try, finding out this glacial meltwater is pretty darn near freezing! Also the way ahead gets a bit too steep for safety. Meanwhile I keep my boots on - and fall in! That means cold wet feet all the way home...
We decide to walk down the terraces on the other side to bypass the narrow, steeply flowing part of the stream, finding another pristine Inca wall, then continue along the river until we meet the aqueduct and get back to the gorge. A local woman and her granddaughter are walking in the direction of Cuzco and we fall in with her. An unfriendly campesino dog starts to snarl and run towards us, but the woman does not mess about, but picks up a stone and mimics to throw it - the dog running away. She tells us that that dog is the unfriendly one on the route, but a picked up stone always deters trouble! She turns out to be 72 years old, but carrying a milk churn and walking stoutly like
she was 20 years younger, her six-year old grandaughter complaining about the pace! Her son turns out to be working as an artisan in Italy - Peruvians are much more cosmopolitan than they might at first appear. We make it back to Sexy-woman at dusk, the pair having shown us a much faster way back, and bid them goodbye, descending into the city so I can change footwear and then grab some much-needed grub!
Local students are selling photos of kids for the local orphange - all money goes to the orphanage itself. We buy a picture of a little girl doing somersaults on the hill above it...
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