Cuzco part I - Choquequirau

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We reached Cuzco on Friday morning, after a long night bus, and took a taxi to a Israelis hostel more or less close to the center. The place was a bit of a dump, but we took it in the meantime and decided to look for some other place later. In the breakfast we met a Israeli couple who wanted to go on a four days trek to Choquequirau, another Inca city (not Machu Picchu) that was discovered only recently and is now being excavated, and therefore it is much less touristic. They wanted to do it independently (not through an agency), which means to go to the village where the trek starts, find a donkey driver and a guide, and go on the trek. It sounded good, so we said we'll join them, and so did another girl that I already met before in Huaraz.

That was the beginning of 4 days of supposedly preparing for the trek, but in fact not going anywhere. On Monday noon, after the 10th change in plan (this time they were talking about an 8 days trek leaving the next day, with many more people), Yaron and I decided it was too much mess and in the last minute for us, and we'll go alone the next morning to Choquequirau, following the original plan. So we spent the afternoon buying food and a map, renting some outdoor equipment, talking with some guy from the tourist information to arrange a donkey driver etc., and eventually on Tuesday morning we finally left for the trek.

So what did we have there? Well, in order to reach that lost city you have to walk from the nearest village called Cachora all the way to the site and back, and this is the trek. We did it in four days - two days there, two days back. The village and the ruins are more or less at the same height, around 3000m, but there's a deep valley of about 1500m height that seperates them, which means you have to go all the way down and then up again, and return the same way. And believe me - climbing 1500m is not that easy...

On the first day (Tuesday 23.10) we took a bus and then a taxi to the village Cachora, and met our donkey driver Felipe in the village main plaza. It turned out that he was the brother of the guy from the tourist information, which explains why he was so helpful about arranging this. There are no guides in the village by the way, only through agencies in Cuzco, but the trail is very clear so it's not necessary. We loaded our things on the donkey and set off - Yaron and me, Felipe, the donkey Francisco and Felipe's dog that refused all Yaron's efforts to become his friend. We walked first more or less horizontally on the side of a mountain on the Cachora side of the deep valley. During that part it started raining a bit, and Felipe started hurrying his donkey (and us), so it was quite tiring. Luckily by the time we reached the end of this part it stopped raining, so we could sit in some nice view point and have lunch. The ripe avocados we were carrying with us, that were supposed to last for the whole trek, were already quite smashed, so we ate many sandwiches with the more smashed ones. A point that should be mentioned is that when you go on a trek with a guide he's making your food, but when you go on an independent trek with a donkey driver you're the one making his food, so poor Felipe had to eat our smashed avocados too. In that view point we met a group of two young americans with a guide and (probably) his girlfriend who did the same trek, and we kept on walking with them. Now it was time for a long descent into the valley, until we reached some cabin close to the bottom where we camped that night. For dinner we cooked "Knor" soup and rice with onion and tomatoes. The eggs we carried with us for breakfast turned out to be completely smashed too, so we had to get rid of them.

On the second day we woke up and left very early, in order to finish the ascent on the other side of the valley before it becomes really hot. That plan worked so well, that in fact we had rain during most of the ascent. The problem was that we put on our rain coats that are simply plastic clothes, and during the climb it was extremely hot inside this plastic. We were wet from the outside due to the rain, and wet from the inside due to sweat. In the beginning of the ascent I felt like I couldn't do it, and then Felipe passed us with the donkey and suggested that I put my "small" bag on the donkey too. I did, and the climbing suddenly became much easier. So we climbed the whole thing, partly during rain, and 1500m higher we finally reached the top, where we camped that night.

It was only noon, so we had lunch (the last smashed avocados), rested a bit and then walked from the camp about an hour to visit the ruins of Choquequirau. The way there was very nice, and the view from the city was amazing. The city itself was nice but not too interesting, because we didn't have any explanations about what we saw. Unfortunately on the way back, just before the last short ascent (I had no energy left for ascents by then), maybe 15-20 minutes away from the camp, a terrible rain mixed with some hail (BARAD) started. Suddenly I had enough energy to climb that last ascent very fast, and more or less run all the way back to the camp in the road that turned into a stream. We reached the camp site soaked (clothes and shoes), and were very happy to find that our waterproof tent indeed proved to be so, and at least all our things were dry. The rain stopped of course, 10-20 minutes after we reached the camp.

That evening everyone that were camping in that site gathered in the cabin (with no electricity) that was next to it, hanging their wet clothes everywhere and cooking dinner, and it was nice. Yaron was brave enough to take a very quick shower of frozen water, I skipped the pleasure. For dinner we had again some soup and rice with onions and tomatoes. By now we didn't have any avocado or eggs left for breakfast/lunch, only some tuna and nutella.

The next morning we started going back the way we came - first descend all the way back to the river in the valley, and then we climbed more or less half the way up on the other side, so we'll have less for tomorrow. When we got to the bottom of the valley we met a group of school girls with their teachers, that did the trek as their annual school trip. The difference was that they started that same day, very early in the morning, did all the descent from the village and were going to climb up to the city, all in one day. Unbelievable. For lunch we had tuna (we even bought one more in the cabin where we stopped, because we felt we were starving Felipe), and for dinner, the only thing we had plenty of (guess what...) - Knor soup and rice with tomatoes and onions. By now we were sure Felipe is dying to get home and eat some decent food, and that he would never eat more rice in his whole life. In the cabin next to our camp site for that night we saw an interesting curiousity - a very new refrigerator, that brought up some interesting questions. First of all, how did it get to this place, where the only access is by foot? Did some horse or donkey carry it all the way from the village? And the more interesting question - why bother, if there's no electricity in the cabin?!

On the forth and last day we got up very early and climbed the rest of the way until we reached Cachora village again. Felipe went much faster than us and got home about half an hour before us (maybe because he was starved...). When we finally reached the top of the ascent, the view point where we had lunch on the first day, we were so pleased that we bought an Inca Cola bottle from the old lady that sat there, and even asked her to take our picture. Inca Cola, by the way, is a Peruvian soft drink that tastes like bazooka chewing gum with bubbles, and has shiny yellow color. At first we didn't like it, but by the time we got to Cuzco we were already very used to it. The good thing about this drink is that unlike other soft drinks we know from home, it's not disgusting when it's not cold (maybe because we're used to having it this way). Soft drinks in Peru are usually served in room temprature, or in this case hilltop-in-the-shade temperature.

After a very friendly parting from Felipe, we took a taxi up to the main road, and waited there for some bus that would take us back to Cuzco, about 4 hours away. The first bus that passed took us, and it turned out to be some kind of HALTURA of the driver (he took the money to his pocket). The bus came all the way from Lima (21 hours away) and was full, so we sat in the driver's cabin with a great panoramic view. Too bad we slept most of the way... In such long distance buses they have two drivers, who drive and sleep in turns. When we put our bags in the baggage, we saw inside something that looked like a bed - a mattress and a blanket, and it seems like this is where they sleep - after a while the bus stopped on the side of the road, the driver went out and another one came in with his hair all messed up...

That evening, back in Cuzco (and the dump hostel), we enjoyed a good shower and dinner, with absolutely NO rice :-)

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Photos

Francisco the donkey
Loaded and ready to go outside of Felipe´s house

Cachora
Looking from the village toward our trail

Our tent
Ready for the first night

The view from the first night camp
By day

The view from the first night camp
In the evening

A chic on the top
In the second night camp

View from the second day camp
The trail to Choquequirau

Inca terraces at Choquequirau
Look at the slope!

Yaron streching himself
On some Inca wall

Choquequirau
The famous Inca inclining doors

Day 3 - on the way down
The zig-zag trail on the other side of the valley is what we had to climb later that day.

Pitching the tent
Without Felipe´s help we encountered some difficulties