Trek from Choquequirao to Machu Picchu

We decided that instead of the classic Inca trail we would do a less crowded trek and do 8 days through the Andes starting at Cachora city to Choquequirao ruins and then on to La Playa. The first two days of our trek we went with 2 other people, a guy from France and a girl from Scotland. It turns out that our tour company hadn't set up the mules to transport our gear ahead of time which meant a slight delay in the trek, and although it wasn't ideal, it was just funny to watch our french companion react. No explosion, just polite expressions of being dissatisfied.




Well we set off into the Andes and they began to kick our butts! Both Paul and I have less than ideal knees and living in a completely flat city doesn't help for training... the first day we found ourselves hurting way more with the down than the up and were thankful to have knee braces and anti-inflammatories to help. The second day we got the down part done early and then worked on the up. What I quickly learned was that I can't keep up my normal pace going up. Because our lowest point was still above 5,000 feet, we really had to decrease the cardio aspect so we could get enough oxygen. We had to go slower. Although, ironically, on this day we doubled our average altitude increase time... so maybe I only felt like we were crawling when in reality before lunch we climbed up to 9,000 feet! Then that afternoon we'd make it the Choquequirao or "cradle of gold" Inca ruins.

The next day we decided we'd get horses so we could try saving our knees (the morning would include a descent of another 5,000 feet on the other side of the mountain before climbing up the next one) plus it would buy us some extra time at the beautiful ruins.

That night we would camp high up at a Peruvian's homestead in the mountain. The greatest thing about the Andes is that they are full of life. People really do live in all parts and are connected to the world by small trails to others. They live off the land, farming potatoes and bringing up livestock including cattle, sheep, & chickens. And they also make a buck by letting campers use their cleared land to stake a tent and also inviting them inside to eat... we got to eat several meals inside these peoples' homes - which was really incredible. They live in either stone or adobe houses with one room or a room divided by a tarp or cloth. The roof is made out of straw and when they cook there is usually no chimney so you can see the whole house smoking. The have dirt floors and always guinea pigs are running around the corners or going under the stove to keep warm. There are some good pictures in the Cusco photos below where we built a new stove in a community house... We were told there is some local suspicion that if you take photos of people you take a little bit of their spirit so we didn't take pictures of each place we stayed. Overall though everyone we met was very sweet and always welcoming.