Choquequirao: the hardest 4 day trek in Peru.

Hola Amigos y Familia!! We are back in Cuzco after our epic 4day, 3 night hiking/camping/ruin exploring adventure to Choquequirao. What a journey...

--aerial view of Choquequirao---

So, Friday morning we hooked up with our guide, Rodolfo, at the hostel at 5:30am. Caught a bus to near Cachora (3 hrs away from Cuzco) and then a taxi the rest of the way to the sleepy farming town of Cachora. In Cachora we had brunch, chatted with our guide, hooked up with our Cook/Mule driver, and then walked out of town to the trail to Choquequirao.

Our guide Rodolfo spoke Castellano (and a few words in English), but luckily was WAAAAAY more easy to understand than Agroman. He told us quite a bit of background about the Incas, about the town and people of Cachora, folkstories of the jungle people, and aliens, etc. Very knowledgeable guy. Really good 4 days of Castellano practice for the both of us, too.

So our first day of hiking was pretty easy, mostly flat. But the route to Choquequirao (which is Quechua for The Golden Cradle...from what Hannah could gather...) which, like Machu Picchu, is hidden deep in the jungle ontop of a mountain, took us over one mountain, down a valley to the river, over a bridge, and then up another mouintain...it was 32 km long basically. I would post photos but this stupid internet cafe doesn't allow that.

Okay, so the first night, our Guide was concerned because apparently the tent Marie and I brought is "for the beach" and he was pretty sure we were going to get soaked in the rain. We weren't took worried about it. Marie said, "I mean, I bought this tent on sale at Target because I was homeless. But it's been good to me from Minnesota, to the res in IC, to the Island." So, our campsite was about halfway down the first mountain. Day 2 of the hike is "the most difficult" because you have to walk down to the river, and then all the way up to the height of Choquequirao (I wish i had the altitudes for you...but i just don't. Trust me, it was really high). So we had to get a good night's sleep. We stayed up a little bit talking with Rodolfo about the 3 times he has seen ghosts on trail, including a one-legged gnome (el enano)! Delicious chiken dinner with soup appetizer. day one/night one: No rain.

Morning of the second day we were softly woken up at 4:30am by our Cook Julian Jorge. "Senorita Maria y Hannah? Quieren Matecitos?" So we had some hot tea to wake up. Bread, jam, instant coffee. Jorge packed us some snacks for the trail and we set out pretty early. Luckily, we payed a butt load so Jorge took care of packing up and setting up the tents and the mules carried all our mattresses, sleeping bags, and food. Good old mules. Which are apparently more safe than Horses -- who trip and fall a lot I guess.

So!!! Day 2 was pretty sunny and hot. And after getting to the river it was like 5 hours of climbing up-up-up-up. So many switchbacks. We took our time, though. We had lunch waiting for us about halfway up. Also, one of the dogs from the first campsite had taken a liking to us and followed us day 2. Our guide pointed out a lot of plants and animals including: a bug that lives on a cactus and is filled with natural skin tint (used for natural lipsticks), a tree (not native) that grows cotton (orangey colored) that marie and I played with to make moustaches, beards, etc), and a GIANT tarantula that Marie discovered while she was picking up a waterbottle cap. HUGE tarantula. Our guide was kinda freaked out by it actually. So after we finished our lunch and refresco we continued on (up. up. up. up. up. ouch to the max!!!) to the sleepy mountain village of Marampata. This was about 1 hour hike away from Choquequirao. We stayed in the yard of a cute mountain lady, who was Jorge's Aunt. Chickens, guinea pigs, mules, horsies, and dogs abound. Soft green grass terraces and an amazing view to soak in.

We actually arrived with a bit of daylight left so we hung out in the yard. A little 4 year old girl took an interest in Hannah's drawing and decided to do a big of drawing of her own. She drew a bunch of skribbles and dots and called them "Caballos".


--Day 2 campsite. Small mountain community.--

During dinner we talked about more folk stories and then the subject switched to ALIENS because HOLY FUCK WE SAW A UFO!!! Friends and Family, we cannot explain how crazy amazing this was. Marie looked out from under our grass hut roof to make a wish on the nights first star. "I really dont think that's a star, Marie. It's rising too fast." And as the night became darker, it became clearer and clearer that this thing was something else. Okay, so it was moving all about in the sky to the south. Up, down, left, right, and tinkling from green to red, to blue, to purple, to yellow. Our guide told us they are really common around this area. The locals don't really mind them, don't understand them, they are just a way of life. He also said that if you look at them in binoculars they have like a panel of lights 3 by 10 that blink on and off in all different colors. We believed in aliens before, but after seeing a UFO, its entirely different. Day 2/Night 2: No rain. Just SPACESHIPS!
Hannah and Marie both wanted to cry, laugh and call our dads to tell them about the UFO. Marie also got super inspired to write a sci-fi story about the incas contacting aliens and spaceships and all things magical.


--Rodolfo putting Dandylion Leche on Marie's wart. He knew a lot about natural medicines.--

DAY 3: FELIZ CUMPLEANOS de MARIA!!! we awoke surrounded in fog. We were really in a cloud forest. The roosters were a' crowin' and everything was tranquilo. Jorge made a MAGNIFICO desyuno which consisted of pancakes bigger than our faces and hot chocolate. Best birthday breakfast of Marie's life, with the best view once the clouds started to part to see mountains all around. After eating we packed up and headed to Choquequirao. The hike there was super mystical because of the foggy clouds, waterfalls with lil bridges to cross over and the sound of birds chirpping. Once we entered the ruins we stood in the plaza for a moment. Choquequirao is apparently larger in size than Machu Picchu and was recently discovered in like the late 70s and is only 20% uncovered, according to Rodolfo. Positively mindblowing that the Incas built this city on the side of this jungle mountain. We then headed down the side of the city to see the famous LLAMAS made of white granite on the sides of the terraces.

So beautiful, so amazing...so many photos. After that we hiked back up to the plaza and by then the sun was waking up from under the blanket of clouds. Rodolfo told us more about the temples near the main plaza and then we went to the top where the alter was. This was a grassy flat place where only shamans and the high priests went. Rodolfo had told us to find a tiny rock to bring for a special ceremony...this consisted of us sitting in a circle and stacking our rocks from biggest to smallest and then we held hands, meditated on the good and respect the beautiful place we were at. PACHAMAMA! Rodolfo burned some special wood, similar to the aroma of sage. It was mystical no doubt. Then we saw a tomb area where the Incas kept the mummies...mummy photos pending...

The Incas were so brilliant that they even had a special, efficent place where they stored food a.k.a grainery store house with windows so that the wind would blow in to keep the food cold, similar to a fridge. Those crazy Incas, up to their old antics, building a water canal as well. Wherever there is a temple, there is water nearby. Apperently, they have tried for 10 years to restore the water system, but no luck.

Then we kicked it in the plaza for a while, ate some snacks, Rodolfo enlightened us with more Incan folkstories and knowledge while Hannah drew some amazing views of the temples. We left soon after that and went back to the tiny village where we camped the night before to refill our water bottles. Day 3 was the hardest of all trekking because we basically climbed 2 mountains! Marie hiked til' she puked! She spotted a tarantula after lunch and then vommited up so much refresco. We decended the rest of the mountain slowly. It took a lot of water breaks, duching our heads in waterfall streams and will power. WE DID IT! we had to cross the rio in the dark with our headlamps and made it to camp safely with a few slips and falls.


--the only other people we saw on the trail and at the ruins. 2 peeps from Lima--

DAY 4: We awoke to Rodolfo and a teapot "mate?" Jorge was the man and made us pancakes again AND hot chocolate. Day 4 wasn't as intense, pretty easy, pretty flat and it felt like a good cool down from the other days. Once we reached Cachora we saw the festival Jorge and Rodolfo kept talking about. Pretty much everyone was drunk wandering around while a band was playing in the plaza. Everyone was drinking chicha, even lil kiddos who seemed drunk off of the sips from their mamas. We ate another delicous meal at this woman's casa/restarante where many people were drankin' chicha like there was no tomorrow. This was when we realized we were both in love with Jorge...so ripped, so strong, such a badass, amazing cook. whew! it didn't even bother us that he was missing a lot of teeth.

After eating and watching the town live it up for the festival we hopped in a taxi, met 2 other dudes from our travel agency and they took us to the thermal baths. We were a little weirded out that there was 3 dudes with us...but we ended up all swimming and playing different versions of the same volleyball game. It was refreshing and not too hot. It felt great for our mind, bodies and bug bites.

We headed back to Cuzco from the baths. Luckily we didn't have to listen to pop musical sensation "grupo cinco" the entire way and the radio station played all the jams: REM, knock knock knockin on heaven's door, etc.

Today we slept IN! We feel refreshed and not too sore, mostly stronger and accomplished.

We're meeting Megan in Arequipa soooon!