29/07/2019 – Day 1 Choquequirao trek, Peru

It wasn’t too difficult to wake up early, as we were so excited. We had a 04:30 pick up from our hostel by Alex our guide and our driver. They tied our bags onto the roof and then we drove round the corner. We circled a roundabout and Alex stuck his head out the window and shouted ‘Thomas’ at the Peruvians lining the street. I believe they were all waiting to be picked up as guides/chefs/porters for people’s treks starting that day. Thomas, who was to be our chef for the week, made himself known, so we pulled up and picked him up, with a sack of pots and pans in his hand. We said hello and then he tucked himself into the back of the people carrier, to get a few more winks of sleep during the journey. We pulled up outside another hostel and picked up a French couple. They were going to navigate their trek independently but had used the tour company as a means of transport to get out of Cusco to the start of the trek. The driving, as usual, was interesting. Josh was cliff side of the car and I saw him hold his breath a few times! At about 09:30 we pulled up outside a small house in a tiny village in the mountain. We were shown in by Alex, and greeted by the homeowner, who sat the four of us at her table and cooked us a breakfast. After breakfast and a few nervous wee’s in what could potentially be the last proper toilet for a while, we continued on the mountain road for another half hour. We pulled up outside a couple of wooden huts in Abra Cupuliyoc. We were introduced to our porter ‘Diamon’ (Quechua name that I still find hard to say let alone spell!) Our luggage was unloaded, stuffed into net sacks and loaded onto our donkeys. So we were a team of Josh and I, Alex our guide, Thomas our chef, Diamon our porter, and three loaded donkeys. Apparently they are a hybrid between a horse and a donkey (honkey as we called them), they are quite funny looking! We had brought a few breakfast things with us, not realising we were going to stop on the way, so handed the bread, eggs and yoghurt out to our team, they were gratefully received (and it meant we didn’t have to carry them which was a result!) We had been given a rough guide of about 8kg of luggage each for the donkey, plus a rucksack on our backs for water, snacks sunhats etc. At the start of our trek we walked along a little mountain ridge, where Alex said we were going to make an offering to Pachamamma (mother earth) and ask her to keep us safe during our trek. Alex showed us what to do and say with the 3 coca leaves in our fingers, we had to blow on them in 3 different directions and say blessings in Quechua. Then we buried them in the earth and poured some chicha (Quechua fermented beer) over them. He then gave us coca leaves to chew and some chicha to drink (Josh and I spat the leaves out fairly quickly, it wasn’t to our taste that’s for sure!) The first day was a downhill trek pretty much all the way. By the time we had started trekking it was about 11:00 and we could definitely feel the midday heat setting in.

First photo of the trek

It had been hard to imagine when we were getting packed up in our cold room in Cusco! Josh ended up taking his vest off and putting on his fleece, to protect his arms from sunburn and mosquitos, and I ended up sliding my buff up my shoulder to protect one of my arms. It was HOT. Within about 5 minutes of our blessing to the pachamamma Josh had dropped his glasses in the dust and I slipped onto my bottom. Luckily Alex had brought us walking poles (by which I mean some bamboo sticks from the side of the road) that really helped with our balance and footing! Although we only passed a few people on the trek, Alex said this was a busier time, as Peruvians have a two-week holiday at this time of the year. Having said that, the whole trek was fairly quiet, with only a few tents at each place we camped at. The Choquequirao trek we are doing is the lesser trodden trek, as it is apparently the most challenging (we didn’t realise this when we booked it!) Apparently in total there are only about 5000 visitors per year, compared to Machu Picchu that gets over 1.2 million visitors in a year. However this is set to change as there are plans to build a cable car up to the ruins which will make it much more accessible and is predicted to increase the number of visitors by a long way. We are glad we are doing it before that happens! The mountain views were beautiful, and Alex explained where and what we were looking at as we descended the dusty paths. He played some of the Quechua songs on his phone whilst we walked, and even gave me the lyrics at one point so I could sing along! After a few hours we stopped at a small camp called Chiquiska to have some lunch. Our porter, chef and donkeys had overtaken us on the way and by the time we got to them our lunch was nearly ready. The donkeys were unloaded and roaming freely, drinking water and eating the hay, there was a small farm like building with some basic and pretty dirty toilets and sinks, a small shop selling some dusty bottles of water and a few packets of biscuits and a patch of grass. Alex took us into some shade on the grass and we took our shoes off, having some happy relief from the strong sun. After about 20 minutes we got called into a small booth with a table and benches for lunch. There was even a tablecloth, great service! Thomas and Diamon waited on Josh, Alex, and myself. We started lunch off with a lovely vegetable soup. We had chicha morada to drink, a typical Andean drink made from purple corn, it tastes a bit like very sweet Ribena juice. Then platters of lomo saltado (like stir fried strips of beef), cucumber, tomato, chips, garlic bread, and mashed potato were presented and we helped ourselves. Thomas and Diamon washed up after us. We found our luggage and slathered on more sun cream and insect repellent, Josh changed from his fleece into a lightweight long sleeve top, and we offloaded some of our warm things from our rucksacks into the luggage, safe in the knowledge we wouldn’t need it until later! We lay down on the grass in the shade, and the three of us fell asleep for a little while. When we woke up we got our things together and hiked another hour downhill to our campsite called Playa Rosalina next to the river for the evening. Our tent had already been set up! It was alongside only about 3 other tents. We had a shower (we stood under a dribble of cold water) and hung our sweaty clothes on a tree to dry off ready for tomorrow morning. We looked through Josh’s pictures from the day and then were called to a table next to a small hut to be served our dinner. We had vegetable soup, rice, chicken, potatoes and carrots. Alex also persuaded us to have some coca tea with him, which we reluctantly did out of politeness! Josh marvelled at the stars in the sky and took a few long exposure shots. He says it’s the starriest sky he has ever seen (I feel like I have written that a few times this trip now though!) We brushed our teeth and got into our tent. We had roll up blow up mattresses and north face down sleeping bags (not needed we were low down and it was such a hot night). We fell asleep listening to a podcast on Josh’s phone.