October 1: Chinchero to Lamay

We had an early call — needed to be packed and checked out and in the two vans by 7:30AM. It was a bit challenging for me to re-pack all my stuff after having exploded my suitcase during my 3 nights in Cusco, but I got it done before the group dinner and had a decent night’s sleep, which was important for the day ahead.

We headed out of Cusco northwest to the Chinchero district. There were two things to see there — some authentic local weaving processes, and Incan ruins of an important agricultural center. First stop was the little community overlooking the archeological site, where several women demonstrated and explained the yarn dying process. Their knowledge of how herbs dye the lambs wool to beautiful permanent shades has been passed down for generations. Most interesting to us were the parasites that live on prickly pear caucus — little white bugs that when smashed become blood red and is used as dye and lipstick. When you add a drop of lemon, the red becomes orange — all shown to us in the palm of her hands. We were then encouraged to purchased something — she seemed to specialize in table runners, but that isn’t really my thing, so I took photos of the llama and alpaca instead.

The mega stones supporting the walls and the terraces in the now well preserved Incan ruin show how the area was used for both ceremonial purposes and to take advantage of the rich, fertile soil. There’s also an important church there for the community, which draws many families — Sundays are busy in Chinchero. It’s also a space for a market and many women selling their handicrafts.

After that tour, we split into two groups — one to go to a couple cultural sites, including some salt flats built into a mountain that still spits up salt from millions of years ago — the other to hike down into the valley to Urquillos. I was part of the hiking group — just 5 of the 13 — and it was pretty much all down hill.  Chinchero sits at 12,350 ft, and the valley at 9,700 ft. We were walking on one of the camino routes, and some of the views were just spectacular. The mountain pass took us through the Vilcambamba range, and at moments there were views of the peak of Salcantay. It was about 5 miles and while the terrain in some spots was a bit rocky, overall it was very manageable. And much easier to go down than up.

We passed through several microclimates — Peru has 118! — and the evidence was apparent in the flora, fauna and the growing of lots of fruits and vegetables. Potatoes and corn at the higher elevation, where they dehydrate the potatoes naturally so they will cook more quickly, and the corn is called imperial for the giant kernels. Lower down it was more like California with fruit trees and squash and avocado and figs. Off in the distance, overlooking several large fields was the remains of a haciendando — leftover from the days of the Spanish colonization, many wealthy people took over land and forced the native people to farm it for them. A more liberal government came into power in the 70’s and said that those that farm the land own it, so many prior owners had to flee — fearing of an uprising from the locals. It reminded me of the book by Isabel Allende called House of the Spirits, who wrote about the times at the end of colonization in Chile where similar things happened.

We were met by the van at the valley floor, and drove along the Urbamba River, also called the Valcanota (house of the sun), a partially navigable headwater of the Amazon River. From there we met the other group at a restaurant for lunch, stopped by a small shop that makes Chicha, the local corn beer, and who also seemed to raise cuy — guinea pigs — a celebratory specialty in this area. They looked like pets to me.

Finally to our lodge, a lovely place in a different part of the valley with magnificent views of mountains all around. We have another big day tomorrow, and some climbing to do; I will hear about it shortly. For now I will leave you with a few photos from a wonderful day.