Choque trek comes to an end - 6th Feb 2011

Our last day started a little later as we thought we had less ground to cover. We’d been lucky with the weather thus far, but this morning and throughout most of the day it rained like a bitch, so much so that all the paths turned to thick, sticky mud. This didn’t present a problem until I started slipping around near the edge of the path, sometimes with heart-stopping drops beyond. With some coaxing and some very careful steps taken however, we made it to the top, and the rest of our walk was essentially downhill and on a road.

Going back down the mountain

I’d faced a number of fears on this trek – heights, spiders (which seemed to love crawling all over our tent) and even claustrophobia, but I had won through. It was a gruelling few days but we both felt a huge sense of achievement at their end, and slipped back into life on the gringo trail once we’d finally made it back to Cusco.

Laur demonstrates this cactus is big

Choque trek day 3 - 5th Feb 2011

Another early start and we were heading back the way we had come, down the steep mountainside had struggled with the day before – in a moment of inspiration I remembered about “tacking”, and my trek performance increased out of sight. Laura grumbled a little bit about how much distance we had to cover that day, however we were rewarded when we reached the campsite for the last night – an incredible vista looking down a canyon with towering green mountains on either side, and from our cliff-edge we saw condors circling in the gathering dusk.

Outside Choque in the driving rain and mist

Riding the Moolah down the mountain

Earlier that day I had been innocently trudging along at the back when suddenly Laura yelped and reeled back – in front of us was an actual, fricking tarantula, swaggering around as if it owned the place. Being Peruvian and comfortable with all types of fauna, our guide Renato simply urged the beast onto his walking sticks and placed it up on the embankment above the path. From then on I was constantly on the lookout for another one to leap out at me – none did luckily.

An actual, fricking tarantula - right there!

Choque trek day 2 - 4th Feb 2011

Sore from the previous day but raring to go, we headed off after an excellent breakfast to ascend the mountain to our next campsite near Choquequirao itself. The climb, quadrupled in intensity because of the altitude, was difficult for the first two thirds, but became an ordeal for me, and thus it was that some 15 minutes from the top and on the verge of collapse, I succumbed to the temptation to get a mule-back lift to the summit (others were doing the entire trip on horseback I hasten to add – and we had not done any training other than climbing down from Machu Picchu).

Laura gets a new hairstyle from a Quechan girl

A chastened Doogs is led into camp by horseman

This made all the difference, and by the afternoon I was back on form; we were hoping the sun would hold out for our visit in the afternoon. There was still 2 hours of trekking through jungle to get to the site which was high above the valley, and the changes in landscape, trees and plants were rapid. I arrived at Choquequirao on horseback, then we toured the ruins with our guide telling us about the historical events and personalities behind it, as well as pointing out what various buildings had been used for. It was interesting, but not a complete mind-melt like Machu Picchu had been.

On the trail to Choquequirao

Ceremonial mummy-storage centre in Choquequirao

Laur ponders the ancient mysteries of Choquequirao

Back to camp and another great Peruvian comida, then we went to bed early, sore again from walking (and in my case probably a little saddle-sore).

View from our tent in Marampata campsite near Choque

Choquequirao trek begins - 3rd Feb 2011

Bundled into the back of a “van” (it was actually a station wagon) at the crack of dawn set the pace for what was to come over the next four days. In our car was our driver, our chilled-out cook Mario (not Italian, but Peruvian) and our guide Renato. The drive to Chacora, not far from Abancay where we had come from a week before took over 4 hours, due to the traditional hazards of driving Andean roads – cattle, chickens, “death-wish”dogs that hurled themselves at passing vehicles smaller than a lorry, tuk-tuks, Aymara farmers laden with bundles of vegetation twice their size, fallen rocks and boulders, and extreme hair-pin bends that presented a challenge to the machismo of any driver to take as fast as physically possible.

Church in Chacor asquare as we set off

Arriving at Chacora we met our horseman, who would be in charge of the two mules we travelled with in the coming days, then once we’d off-loaded our main packs we set off through fields and eventually climbed into the mountains, oddly for me through eucalyptus groves which messed my head up a little bit. Andean mountains are incredibly bio-diverse, and the types of vegetation and fauna changed constantly, as did the temperature (hot and sunny in the valleys, cold and misty in the high passes and mountain-tops).

Renato shares his knowledge of the Apurimac Valley

The rest of the day was spent chatting with Renato who was a wealth of information about not only the surrounding vegetation, but a lot of the Inca history of the area too. We lunched on the side of the road, chuffed to see that our cook Mario put on full chef’s garb of puffy white hat and apron. The food would be consistently excellent throughout the trip, and introduced us to a number of Peruvian stapes (including about 10 different types of soup made with wheat, quinoa, maize), incredible considering that the cook and horseman were doing the same gruelling walking as us – and then on arrival cooking, cleaning, setting up camp and tending to horses while we kicked off our boots and I moaned quietly.

Mario dons his chef garb in the middle of nowhere

The first day ended in a cool valley at dusk, with the awe-inducing sight of the mountain we would have to climb tomorrow the last thing we saw before dropping off to sleep.

Back in Cusco, briefly - 2nd Feb 2011

Spent the morning trying to research going it alone to Choqueqierao; this turned into a bit of a non-day. In the end we decided to go with a small firm called Cusco Native, who support education programs for Quechua children and who got some good write-ups. We packed up to once again leave Cusco, and got to bed early, ready for our rude awakening at 5.30.

Gran Hotel Machu Picchu in Cusco, our colonial base

Where next? - 1st Feb 2011

So we entered the “worst month” of the rainy season with a gloriously sunny day, getting the slow train back to Ollantaytambo surrounded by excited gringos, and giving our hotly-contested patronage to a small colectivo back to Cusco, and our bags. It was a quiet evening of salad, wine and planning our next trip – a hike around the under-discovered ruins of Choquequirao, for what we expected would be an experience not unlike that which those hiking the Inca Trail in the 70s might have had.

As I write this we are deciding whether to take a tour or to go it alone (with a local guide), a difficult decision as there are pros and cons to both.

Exploring the Picchus - 31st Jan 2011

Up at the unholy hour of 4.15 so that we could join the queue for the first buses up to the Machu Picchu site. There were stacks of peopled queuing already when we arrived at the bus station half an hour later, mostly under the age of 25 and white. There was a sense of keen competition in the air as we were all vying (so we thought) for 400 tickets to climb Huana Picchu – this is the massive mountain that you see behind the ruins in the “classic” Machu Picchu photo (second in popularity only to that photo everyone takes in front of the Taj Mahal!).

First glimpse of MP from on high

Despite a desperate last-minute rush to buy bus tickets (everyone else had done this the night before we discovered), we made it and in fact were among the first into the Huayna Picchu site. It was a clear morning and walking through the centre of Machu Picchu was an intense and magical experience, very much worth the expense and hassle of getting there.

Llamas in the central plaza

Ceremonial Baths

I girded my loins and faced my fear of heights, the climb taking about 3 hours in total up and down the mountain; when we came down for a late breakfast it had started to rain, and soggy tourists were clambering all around the ruins. Despite the rain and the anachronisticly colourful guided tour groups, it was an amazing experience. We rounded the day off by walking back down the mountain, an experience we are still recovering from as I write this more than a day later.

Laur and me near the summit of Huayna Picchu

Sacred Valley from Huayna Picchu

Laur outside caretakers hut, huayna picchu in background

Farewell to a genuine wonder of the world

In the late afternoon, we soaked our aching limbs in the hot mineral baths that gave Aguas Calientes (hot waters) its name, drinking Cusqueno beer with the towering Andes in the background. We rounded off probably my favourite Monday to date, with dinner at an eccentric frenchman’s restaurant – far and away the best food we’d eaten in Peru, picky westerners that we are.