This morning, we woke up at 4:15 to catch our 5:oo AM shuttle to start our 9 day trek to Choquequirao and ending at Machu Picchu (hence why we are a little behind on our posts, no wifi in the wilderness). The car ride to the start of the trail took about 4 hours, and finally started trekking around 10 AM from Cachora.
Our caravan consisted of a guide, a cook, a sous chef/helper, and a horseman along with his 4 mules (actually 1 horse and 3 mules, apparently the horse is the leader of the pack and the mules just follow whatever it does). We didn’t realize we were going to have so much support!
To start, it was very cloudy, so we were a little bummed that we couldn’t see from the first viewpoint. As soon as we had descended a little, though, the clouds lifted and we were left with beautiful views of the valley below. We learned about some of the native plants- such as using an agave like plant for rope, and a pest that grew on cacti that they exported for a dye used in lipstick.
The morning was all down, down, down, until we stopped for lunch around 1. This was the first meal on the trip, and we realized that we were in for a lot of food- the meal was huge! We started with a soup, then had a fish dish, a pumpkin puree, rice, and a salad. After this huge lunch, we still had more hiking to do. We continued down for a while, then started a harsh uphill for the next few hours until reaching our camp at Rosaspata Baja. The crew set up our tents for us which is a luxury we have not been accustomed to.
We each took a cold shower at the camp. Next was tea time at 5:30pm, which also included some snacks. After tea time was dinner, just as big as lunch, but this time also with dessert (they made sure to keep us well fed!). We went to bed early for an early start again tomorrow.
Total distance- 7.6 miles
Total elevation gain- 2640 ft
Total elevation lost- 5798 ft
Travel Fun With Cassie and Alejandro 