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Of course it rained overnight, as it had been all the over nights since our arrival in Cusco. And it rained quite a bit.
Erick woke us up and immediately asked if we had felt the earthquake at 4am. What earthquake?? Second earthquake in a few weeks for us after the one in Santiago, but this time we slept through it.
Erick confirmed that we would visit choquequirao in the morning, without the mules, and the we would backtrack to Chiquiska. We started in a misty and drizzly weather. Soon we got to the first
Fresh mudslides, and had to run, one by one across the gullies, but no rock fell. The campesinos had started to rebuild a path so it wasn't as bad as the day before, but still far from suitable for loaded mules. The sections were very impressive, this was definitely the most adventurous hiking I had ever done. Kind of like crossing the grand couloir in mont Blanc, the place that kills the highest number of mountaineers in the Alps every year...
We also heard that another muleteer almost lost 2 mules the day before in a river crossing.
After a bit more hiking, we suddenly arrived at the choquequirao site, in a mist that made it even more mysterious. We visited several houses, a plaza, baths and warehouses, even trekking through the rainforest in between. Interesting but with such a thick fog that we could not get a global view or perspective. We then descended on the other side of the mountain to see the llama pattern decorated terraces. Very nice, especially when the fog suddenly lifted! We could see the apurimac river, 1500m below, and other steep mountains. What a site for an inca city! Upon return to the main plaza we finally got a birds eye view, and Erick pointed us to an old inca gate that marked the overgrown inca trail.
We left the site after taking many pictures and returned to our camp for lunch. A bit disapointed not to be able to continue our original path, but happy to be safe. We then descended all the way to the apurimac river, crossed it on a sturdy concrete bridge and up to chiquiska for camp. Nothing too eventful, but it was long, tiring and there were mudslides that looked new...
JN
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