Day 399 - Beginning the Trek to Choquequirao
Tarawasi and the Limatambo Valley
We drove away from Cusco along the Apurimac River through its flatlands toward our trailhead, but first stopped at Tarawasi where an ancient Incan Marketplace still stood among a small farm. Tarawasi was on a direct line from the high mountains of Choquequirao to this central village onto what is now Nasca near where saw the Nasca Lines. A theory is that the village acted as a way station where repairs were made, goods were replenished and where couriers would run fresh fish from the sea up to the mountains through miles of brutal terrain. The photos reveal the intricate and refined stone work the Incas were capable of. Even now, 700 years after these buildings were built, you couldn’t fit a piece of paper between these stones. It was as if they were laser cut.
Coco Masana
We began our our six day journey to Choquequirao and Machu Picchu mid-morning and walked to the trail head to find this view.
San Pedro de Cachora
We began our descent to the Apurimac River. In the Inca language, “the river that roars.” This decline down this mountain is what it takes to reach the sacred, ancient city of Choquequirao. It’s so remote, the Spanish Conquistadors left it untouched when they destroyed that culture over 400 years ago. To put the descent in perspective: we would walk down rocky switchbacks the equivalent of 5+ Empire State Buildings! The first part of the descent wasn’t too bad, then it got steep.
