30/07/2019 – Day 2 Choquequirao trek, Peru

Our alarms woke us up at 04:30. We had been warned day 2 (today) was the most physically challenging day of the trek, so were slightly apprehensive after finding yesterdays heat during the trek very intense. After getting dressed, brushing our teeth and packing our bits into our luggage bags, we had breakfast at the table at 0500. We had porridge, a pancake with some chocolate sauce, and some toast with jam and butter. Alex, Thomas and Diamon had slept on the floor of the open air hut, it didn’t look comfortable to us but they reassured us they had had a good night! Josh was pleased to find a praying mantis creeping around. We set off for our trek at 05:30. It was still dark and the stars were still out, Josh even saw a shooting star! We left the playa Rosalina camp, crossed the river on a bridge, and started the 12km zig zag incline up the other side of the mountain (which Josh wants me to point out was steeper than Albion Hill!) It was daylight by 0600 but still cool (thankfully) for another couple of hours when the sun had properly risen. We stopped at a small hut in Santa Rosa for a toilet break and a glug of water, then continued up. The donkeys, porter and chef overtook us, something we quickly got used to. Thomas and Diamon and Alex could run up that mountain I have no doubt! Apparently Thomas worked his way up from porter to chef, and has been running up the mountains for over 27 years! Alex was brought up in a village in the mountains, at an altitude of over 4000m, where his parents still live, so he is very used to mountains and altitude! We arrived at the Marampata campsite at 09:30, a lot earlier than expected, which Josh and I were smug about! Without the heat of the sun we were physically ok with the trekking. Marampata is a beautiful mountainside farm like hamlet with great views and green grass, with chickens, horses, pigs, dogs and cats running free (well free until they become your lunch!) Alex laid out our mattresses on the grass and we all dozed in the sun for a couple of hours.

Lunch spot.

At 1100 we got called to our little table for lunch. We had vegetable soup, lamb, pasta and muna tea (a bit like coca tea but tastes much better!) The food really is excellent and we hungrily stuff ourselves full, much to Thomas’s delight! Originally the plan had been to stay here for the night, but because we had done it so quickly Alex decided we would move on, and camp a bit further up the mountain. We trekked on uphill to another campsite, right next to the Choquequirao ruins we were going to visit tomorrow. We stopped for a quick toilet break and then Alex said we were going to walk down the mountain to see the Choquequirao terraces, an area of Inca ruins in the side on the mountain. He said he had never been able to visit them, as he had never got to the campsite in such good time. By this point, Josh and I were physically pretty tired and as we went downhill I think we were both thinking, it is going to be a long way back up again! We were tired, hungry, thirsty, and had headaches, but once we got there it was totally worth it.

Terraces from above.

There was no one else there at all! The terraces are like huge Inca steps lined with grass, where the Incas used to grow crops up the mountain. They built terraces like this to reduce erosion and surface runoff, and also the stones helped to absorb sun and heat in the day time and radiate the heat back into the earth overnight to prevent it from freezing, so clever! We were able to climb and walk around the ruins, enjoying the views as we went.

Josh did an accidental fart whilst Alex was taking our photo, which was funny as we could see Alex didn’t know how to react and we all got the giggles. It was a difficult, heavy breathing hour long walk back up to the campsite. This was made better by the fact we were greeted by Thomas with popcorn, a whole packet of biscuits and a hot drink, around a table inside a little marque tent that was to be the lads accommodation for the night. Josh and I had a gaspingly cold shower, but it was definitely worthwhile after getting so sweaty during the trek. The sun had gone down and it was cold, so we got into the tent where I quickly fell asleep and Josh listened to a podcast. Alex came and got us at about 18:15 for dinner. We had soup, rice, vegetables, chicken and cups of muna tea to warm us up. Josh took some more photos of the stars and the milky way, and we tucked up inside our tent in our thermals and hats.

We were absolutely freezing up in this campsite as it was so high up and exposed. Thomas, Diamon and Alex had very basic roll mats and sleeping bags, no groundsheet, and basically a piece of tarpaulin above their head. They are so hardy those mountain people and the following morning they reassured us they had a comfortable nights sleep. Meanwhile I shivered in my thermals, a woolly hat, sleeping bag liner, down sleeping bag, blow up mattress and enclosed tent!