Choquequirao

The last five days have been spent on the trek to the Inca ruins at Choquequirao. It was pure hell. I've never felt so out of shape on any hike in my life and this one pretty much kicked my ass. Not to mention a second round of stomach troubles for the trip, plus about a hundred mosquito bites. Fun.

Five of us, along with our tour leader and two cooks started off Wednesday morning with about a four hour drive to the village of Cachora. We met up with three porters who took care of the mules and horses that transported our stuff during the hike. Out of Cachora, it was about six miles of relatively flat trail until we reached an overlook where the trail dropped about 3600 feet over the next six miles to our first night's camp.

Day two was complete murder as we descended two miles and another 1200 feet to the Apurimac river. Crossing the foot bridge, we had a merciless 5500 foot climb over five miles, which completely killed me. I was exhausted and dehydrated by the time we stopped for lunch at the height of the climb. At this point, we lost two members of our group as one had severe stomach issues, probably caused by drinking a bottle of water that had been refilled with tap water. Her best friend was along for the trip and turned back as well. We haven't seen them, but found out today that all was well.

Following lunch, we had a few more miles of undulating trail that killed me with every incline and brought our total elevation gain for the day to over 6000 feet. Our campsite that night was right at the ruins, and I was never so happy to pass out in my life.

Our third day was spent exploring the ruins. Our first stop of the day was the lower terraces where most of the crops for the city were grown. It was interesting, but not worth the long descent down to them.

After lunch we hiked up to the main ruins. They were interesting to see, but the city wasn't nearly as big as I'd expected. To be honest, it was pretty disappointing. We all kind of had an issue with our guide too, as he told us it was a short trip down to some other terraces. It wasn't and the terraces were hugely disappointing. He was excited to show us the llamas that the Inca built into them with white stones, but the Peruvian government had plastered over them and it looked incredibly fake. We told him it wasn't worth the hike down, considering how tired we were.

From there, he wanted us to wait at the top altar to see the constellations come out at night. None of us wanted a hike in the dark, so we just asked if we could have some free time at the ruins. He agreed, but we could tell he was disappointed. We told him to do what he liked and if he wanted to stay, to stay. He didn't though.

Our fourth day had us descending to our first night's campsite and brought a few blisters from the descent. I also started having stomach trouble, probably from the water. This morning we had a 3:30AM wake up call to hike out. I was so beat from the previous four days hiking that it took everything I had to get out of the canyon.

All in all, the ruins weren't as impressive as I'd hoped. The scenery was amazing though, and was easily the highlight of the trip. But considering how hard it was (to give you an idea, imagine hiking the from rim to rim at the Grand Canyon, then turning around and doing it again) I'm not sure it was worth. Maybe it was though, I think I've dropped a few pounds over the past few days.

Tomorrow afternoon I fly to Lima and have a nine hour layover since my flight leaves just after midnight. I have honestly never been so ready to get home from a trip. I'll comment more on that later, but for now have to find something to eat.