Travel with curiosity: It is not how far you go, but how deeply you go that mines the gold of experience. Thoreau wrote a big book about tiny Walden Pond.
October 8, 2013
Finally, we got to start hiking! First, however, we had to travel to our starting point via more ruins and a bug-infested coffee stop. Before that, we met Helen, the second Mountain Lodges of Peru guide who would be with us for the trek. She spoke lovely English, appeared to be about 35 - 40, and was a little plump. It was a great relief to me that she didn't look like an uber-athelete.
From Cusco we drove west to Limatambo Valley and the town of Limatambo, home of Tarawasi, an important Inca checkpoint on the royal road between Cusco and Equador. I wasn't able to find much more information about the site, other than that it had the usual religious, housing, and agricultural components. I think it is also unique in that much of the stonework is composed of octagonal stones rather than rectangular.
I mentioned in a previous post the use of cochineal, insects parasitic on prickly pear cacti, as a source of purple dye. The photo below shows a cactus infested with the little buggers. I sure wished I'd had a small jar with me to collect a bunch. What fun it would have been to experiment with them for dying after I got home. Alas, no jar, and I didn't think they'd stay intact in a plastic bag (the purple is released when the bugs are crushed). Yet another reason to go back to Peru someday.
After Limatambo we drove to Mollepata, another small town further west. We stopped for a coffee/tea break at a home where the owners had set up tables in their courtyard. Helen mentioned before we went in that we'd need bug spray, but mine was back in the bus and I had no way to get it.
Boy, was I sorry.
Our guides kept saying the little buggers were mosquitoes, but I think they were more like a gnat or no-see-um or white socks. All I know is that their bites hurt and caused quarter-sized welts to swell up on me. Now, at home in Alaska I rarely get mosquito bites. They just don't seem to like me much. When I do get one, it doesn't really itch. Apparently in Peru, I'm prime sweet meat. I had bites all over my legs, the undersides of my upper arms, and other random spots. They swelled up and itched like mad...for days. For the rest of the trip, I made sure I was well saturated in a double layer of two kinds of bug spray, and I still got a few more bites.
Enough whining.
There were other interesting little critters at our stop in Mollepata - Guinea pigs. Locally called by their Quechua name, cuy (pronounced coo-ee), there was a crop loose in the family kitchen. A local delicacy, I'm sure these were being raised for dinner on the next special occasion.
After Mollepata we drove up a long gravel road which had suffered severe damage during floods three years ago to Marcocasa. During the morning's drive, we'd traveled from 11,071 feet in Cusco down to 8,751 feet at Tarawasi back up to 11,000 feet at Marcocasa. Although the road continued to Soraypampa, the location of our lodge for the next two nights, we hiked the last four miles or so to the lodge in order to ease into the whole trekking thing.
I think we all enjoyed finally getting to really move, and it was lovely to have a bag lunch alongside an old Incan aqueduct. I was breathing hard going up hill, but I do that at home, too, and I was pleased that I caught my breath very quickly when we stopped.
We were all excited to finally start catching glimpses of our first real snow-capped peak. I think everyone had their picture taken at the same spot - posed in front of Humantay, 17,443 feet of snowy splendor hiding in the clouds.
Almost too soon, we reached our destination in Soraypampa Valley: Salkantay Lodge.
The valley sits at the base of two mountains, Humantay and Salkantay, each revered in the Inca religion as apus, places where the dieties reside. Salkantay is the highest in the region at 20,600 feet, and is the second-most revered in Inca mythology. I felt right at home, and given how wonderful our lodge was, I was ready to move in.
Mountain Lodges of Peru has four lodges along the Salkantay Trail, all designed to accommodate small groups. They seem to typically cater to groups of 12 put together by other companies. Our group was organized by Adventures in Good Company. The group traveling the trail before us was with National Geographic, and the one after was from the Sierra Club. Two groups could stay at the Salkantay Lodge, but each of the other three lodges only accommodated one group. On the day we got to the first lodge, the NG group was hiking to the glacial lake (see my next post for more on that). The second day, the NG group hike on to the second lodge, we hiked to the lake, and the SC group hiked to Salkantay Lodge. It all worked out that no two groups were together more than one night, and after the first two nights, groups never had to share a lodge. It was really quite a fabulous arrangement.
Salkantay Lodge was fabulous, too. Beautiful rooms with to-die-for views, excellent food served in a lovely second-floor dining room, and an outdoor hot tub. What more could you ask for? Oh yes, nightly turn-down service that included a hot water bottle in your bed. Heaven.
Soraypampa Valley had road access, superb hiking, and gorgeous views. There were a few private homes, and further up the valley a camp for trekkers who were roughing it rather than luxuriating in the lodges. Just enough people around to keep one from getting too lonely. I wonder if they'd sell me the lodge so I could just move in?
