Chapter 7 - Journey to Pisac

Chapter 7 - Journey to Pisac

18.12.12
We finally started our journey to Pisac: we decided to walk there, through the mountains. Chris had shown me a map indicating 20km in 6 to 7hours from Tombo Machay (a ruin some 10km away from Cusco), 600m up, 1400m down the mountain. We thought: “OK, let's take our time, and do it in 2 days.”... MY BUM! IT TOOK US 4 DAYS!!!

So here we go, little Tom and Maggie, starting this awesome journey in the nature of the Andes, with 10 to 15 kg each on the back. First challenge was to get outside of Cusco, which is deep in the valley, so we had to climb I-don't-know-how-many steps, to reach the Christo Blanco over-watching the city. Just next to it, the Inca ruins of Saqsay Waman (pronounce approx. Sexy Woman :p ), followed soon by the ruins of Q'enco.

Q'enco's ruins

Between Q'enco and the next ruins, Puca Pucara, we heard previously of a way through the fields. We asked for that way, and both had the feeling that our travel finally started =) We were finally walking in the Peruvian nature, surprised to find edible mushrooms similar to the ones you can find in Europe, amazed by beautiful flowers and land snails looking like see shells... At the top of the first hill, Tom's guitar bag cracked: he had to stop to fix it, while I would catch up (I was often behind, surprisingly hehe); but going just a very little bit on the right, the next ruins would appear to my eyes! I was maybe 50m away from Tom! We were wondering if it was Puca Pucara, but it was obviously no ruins shown on the map. We discovered later that it was El Templo de la Luna. Already a bit knackered (I know, we are chickens, but keep in mind that we thought the rest of the walk would be only 7hours...), and very pleased to find such a holy place for free, we decided to set the tent there, right on top of the ruins. The tent was almost set, when a local guy walked past and warned of the danger to be robed, since we could be seen from the next village. Night was falling, panic was rising: “What shall we do, we are tired, it's almost night, we can't stay here but can't go further...”. We finally found a little space in the bushes, quite hidden from any view. Still, the whole night was quite scary, and I spent it waking up every hour, alert to any noise, my knife at my side. In the end, everything went fiiiiiine =)

Let's call it chiuaua's cactus

Mushroom or flower?

19.12.12
After some meditation and nice breakfast (porridge!), we carried on to Puca Pucara, followed right after by Tombo Machay, the starting point of our journey on the map. We asked our way to be sure, and the local guy showed us the very top of the mountain: holy shit! That was at least 300m walk straight up in the Andes! Let's go! We struggled for maybe 3 to 4 hours, but arrived on top the landscape was obviously amazing!

Puca Pucara's ruins

And going down was exiting! We arrived in a village called Queser, which was basically not supposed to be on our way; we went too much on the left :/ Pfffiu, carried on on the road to get back to our planned route to Qorimarca. We only had to climb another mountain to reach a lake indicated on the map, where I wanted to spend the night. But when we saw the mountain, we decided to keep it for the next morning... I set up the tent while Tom was cooking. A good and safe night, apart our leaking tent.

20.12.12
We climbed the 500m up to the top of the mountain, breaking often because of heavy bags, having nice chats, but also totally burning under the sun. The lake revealed itself, seemingly very nice; but once down there, it was actually quite dirty, the place was totally deserted, very windy, and thunder was breaking in the next valley. Quite scarring.

After quick lunch we carried on up the next mountain to the next village on the map, Patabamba, where we realised we wouldn't reach Pisac on that day... again. A woman offered us to stay in her gestrooms; she cooked a tasty meal for us while Tom showed the guitar to his son and I did a crochet flower for her daughter.

Chilling in Patabamba's guesthouse

View from the guesthouse

Patabamba's guesthouse

21.12.12
 D-Day! After full breakfast for 3soles (£1), we took the road, found a nice place for a long and energy-filling meditation session, and carried on to Pisac. The road was going down, we thought it easy, until we got blisters very soon. But at least no more going up! For the last km on the road we took a mototaxi. Arrived in Pisac, we had lunch and headed directly to IncaTek, 30min walk away.

The Andes, good place for meditation...