The Road to Machu Picchu
Last Monday I met Jamie, Luke and Tom and we decided to head out to Cachora to do a trek up to Machu Picchu, taking in another Inca site on the way. We set off on Tuesday morning, basically intending to wing it. We had no idea what type of place Cachora was, whether we'd be able to get an arriero (donkey driver) there or even donkeys. We got lucky. We found a cheap hostel and the owner had mules and said that he'd find us an arriero. We wandered around the town, stocked up on food, mainly bread and fruit and retired early.
At 6:30 the next morning we met our hastily acquired arriero, Tbour who was supervising the loading of our gear onto the mules. We were a little concerned that the mules had to be blindfolded before anything could be put on their backs and also, that the arriero tightened the girth onto the mules by bracing one foot against the animals’ side! My heart sank as I assumed we’d hired cowboys who really didn't know what they were doing and we set off unconfidently, all the time expecting to turn around to see no arriero, no mules and no rucksacks. Actually, this happened nearly every time we stopped but Tbour always turned up eventually, bringing up the rear.
Once again the scenery was amazing. We slogged on forcefully over the first pass and were rewarded by finding a little old lady under a wooden shelter selling water and Inca Kola - the drink of Peru. Inca Cola is bright yellow (glowing in fact), and is packed full of sugar, caffeine and other additives. It tastes like a sweet Iron Brew and I love it. Just beyond the pass one of our mules decided to bolt. It suddenly shot off causing the other mule to decide it had better do likewise. On hearing the commotion we turned round to see the first mule heading straight for us, while the second dragged a determined arriero behind it. We thought about trying to stop it but common sense (or cowardice) prevailed and we let it pass let it pass only to see it kick off its load and disappear around the corner. With the second mule subdued, we began to pick up our things leaving Tbour to attempt to retrieve the missing animal. Confidence in our arriero was at a new low however, about 10 mins later he turned up with the errant mule and started tying all the things back on again. He explained that the beast was very young and that this was its first time out. Strangely this didn’t make us feel any happier.
At lunchtime we unloaded the mules to inspect the damage. My plate had a dint in it where the mule put it's foot and some of the food was irretrievably stomped to bits. I really wanted to thump the mule but suspected that could have been why it had bolted in the first place, so I resisted the urge. Fortunately the rest of the day passed uneventfully and we got to the first campsite, a bare patch of stony ground where you could buy more Inca Kola if desired.
We were camping at a lower altitude than during the Huayhuash trek so I kept warm and managed some pretty good nights sleep. On the second day we walked for 3 hours to the next campsite and the Inca site of Choquequirao. This is a pretty recent discovery and is still being cleared. Before lunch we nipped down the mountain to see the agriculture terraces. There isn't much information on the site at the moment. Rumour has it that it might be bigger than Machu Picchu but as Machu Picchu is still being cleared too, the jury’s out on that one.
During dinner that night we met our camping next-door neighbours. It turned out they were doing the same route as us and, bizarrely, our arrieros and theirs were next-door neighbours in Cachora. After dinner we went up to the main part of Choquequirao. Tbour became our guide but we took everything he said with a pinch of salt. Late in the day he put the mules out to pasture and naffed off to the nearest village with the other arriero telling us he'd see us in the morning. At least it gave us chance to air our animal-handling worries to the others and they, in turn, had a good moan about their arriero Orlando. Over the week however, we saw other mules being blindfolded and arrieros bracing their foot against animals as they pulled the straps tight so we got more confident about Tbour. At least he knew the way and could tell us the odd interesting facts.
The third day was a killer. We walked up and over a cloud forest mountain gaining 300 meters only to descend 1000 meters on the other side before climbing a further 600 meters to our camp. All this was done in a sweltering heat. We set off leaving Tbour to help Orlando strap things to his mules. Despite the slog we managed to get to our camp by 3:30pm after playing a game of football with some local kids and taking a few photos of snotty children.
The entire trek was highly sophisticated. There was a long-drop toilet for our use in each of the villages we camped at. (I'm a pro at the long-drop now. The technique takes a while to perfect but I now understand the workings and the physics of it.) There would also be a village shop selling Coca Cola, beer and ‘simple foods’. As we’d lost some food in the mule-bolting incident we were worried we might run out but while we could buy eggs, we couldn't buy bread, which is obviously not simple! I got the impression that the Peruvian definition of ‘simple food’ is anything that comes out of an animal or is a dead animal.
As a culinary aside, so far in my travels I've tried guinea pig, which is small and fiddly with not much meat on it. In the cities you can buy an almuerzo or cena really cheaply, which is a simple 2 or 3 course meal. The starter is always a soup served in a big bowl. The trick is to dive straight to the bottom with your spoon and see what veg, mystery meat, fat or bone you might find there. One unfortunate occasion I dug my spoon in for the 1st stir and 3 chicken’s feet came to the surface. It was a disconcerting discovery although I managed to eat the soup by pretending the feet weren’t there. Needs must! Don't eat processed meats out here as they use every part of the animal. I've seen cows' noses on sale in the markets as some kind of choice cut, so which bits of meat go into the processed sausages I'd hate to guess. The ones I’ve tried have been so slimy I thought they were raw or worryingly gritty. This is the grim reality of ‘lips and assholes’ beyond anything we have in the UK!
Anyway after 6 days walking and one 4800 metre pass we reached the not so civilized town of La Playa where, if nothing else, we could get some motorized transport. We decided to treat ourselves to a well-deserved almuerzo and got a carbohydrate O.D. of rice, chips, onions, tomatoes and egg - an interesting combination that would never have occurred to me. After an hour or so we hitched a ride in an empty potato truck this, time only for a quick 60-minute trip to Santa Theresa. We rode through cloud forest, past banana and coffee plantations and saw huge flocks of parrots. At Santa Theresa we had to cross the river in a small cart suspended above the water on a metal wire and pulled across by rope. The guy in charge assured us it could fit 3 people plus rucksacks but we wussed out and went over in pairs. At the other side we had to wait for another truck to take us to the hydroelectric station from where we could walk along the railway tracks to our destination of Aguas Caliantes.
While we waited at the transport hub where people were selling food and drinks, we stuffed ourselves with bananas and chocolates and tried Chicha, a maize beer, which is strange but nice. A bit like a wheat beer which has unfortunately gone a bit vinegary and now tastes oddly like cider. We also got to watch a fight where a woman decked a man. He did deserve it! He was trying to steal something so the woman wrestled him to the ground. Whilst he was fighting like a girl, pulling her hair, she rolled her sleeves up and used her fists ‘till he backed down. Matriarchal society!
We piled into a truck headed for the hydroelectric station. We shared it with some homeward bound shift workers and a number of car tyres. When we got to the station, the tyres were dumped into a large bin carriage so I assume we’d been travelling in the rubbish truck. We started walking along the train track towards Aguas Caliantes. It was dark by the time we got there but at least that meant the trains had stopped running for the day. The town would not be so big if it weren't for Machu Picchu. Nor would it be so bloody expensive (although this is mainly because stupid tourists with more money than sense come here in droves!) We booked into a hostel for 25 soles per night per person – at least 10 soles steeper than anywhere else we’d been. The 1st hostel had been full so the owner wandered round for us looking for another. He also owned a restaurant so we went there for tea to thank him and he gave us discount so not everyone's a money pinching swine here.
The next day we spent about 7 hours wandering around Machu Picchu. Sadly we didn't get there for sunrise. We’d set our alarms for 4.00am but it looked cloudy outside so we went back to sleep. The first thing we did on arriving was climb Wayna Picchu (that’s the mountain in the background whenever you see a photo of the site.) It’s an amazing place! Over the back is the temple of the moon, which is accessed via steep steps and wooden ladders. It was my reason for wanting to see Machu Picchu and the highlight of my day. We spent 3 hours exploring the peak and the rest of the time wandering around the site itself. These Inca's were pretty smart guys and their masonry skills are unbelievably good even today. They carved outcrops and huge rocks to fit perfectly together. No wonder researchers think it took about 60 years to build this place! As much as I generally prefer to avoid tourist haunts, Machu Picchu is definitely worth a visit. I've seen quite a few ruins recently and although Kuelap boasts to be the Machu Picchu of Northern Peru and Choquequiroa says it could be bigger than Machu Picchu, the stone work and general building here seem to be the most sophisticated.
We caught the early train back to Cuzco this morning and although we’ve done the region on the cheap I still feel as if I've spent far too much money and will have to be a bit more careful next month.
Bye for now
Hugs Jen xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
