A trip to see waterfalls and Inca ruins

I've been so busy with the Yanamilla Primary School in the last week or so that I'm having trouble keeping up with the blog and I haven't had time to write about a great trip to Cangallo, waterfalls, and Inca ruins a few weekends ago! This trip had been postponed because I'd gone down with another nasty stomach upset, but when we finally managed to go, the good news was that some of the new volunteers came too. So instead of it being Pancho, Phil and myself travelling round on local buses, in the end it was Claire, Katie and Angie too, and this meant we could go in a private van - much more convenient. And even though I liked the idea of taking the collectivos (local minibuses), I must admit that the private van was much nicer! And Alejandro was our driver, so even better. Alejandro works as a driver for CCS and hires his own van out at the weekends.

Phil, Katie, Claire, Hazel, Angie, and Pancho on tour

We set off early on the Saturday morning and headed south for 3 hours, along tiny, unpaved roads, and over some pretty impressive mountain scenery.

We then stopped in a small village, left Alejandro to drive on and pick us up later, and we walked for an hour or so into the coutryside to find some waterfalls. En route we passed several remote farms, and at one we stopped to say hello to a woman who Pancho knew. She agreed to show us the cheese she was making ... it was rather surprising to see that she was using the toilet supplied by an NGO as her cheese-making unit!! Apparently this is not unusual. I must admit the cheese looked very tasty, but having just recovered from stomach problems, I didn't think it would be wise to try some.

The countryside to the south of Ayacucho is much more lush and fertile than to the north. We saw lots of herds of healthy-looking cattle here - hence the cheese-making. And I found out that Peruvians wouldn't dream of making cheese from milk from sheep or goats! The fields are cultivated a lot more - much larger fields of potatoes than I'd seen before, and with enough for campesinos to eat themselves, plus surplus to sell.

Then we reached the first of several waterfalls on this trip. Time for a rest and a chance to sit in the sunshine ...

We then walked back to the road where Alejandro was waiting for us in his van - great - wouldn't have been able to do this on public transport! And we headed on up into mountains again. En route we visited the 'Misky Queso' cheese farm that had been helped by an NGO to produce more widely marketable (and safer-to-eat) cheese, so we got our cheese-tasting afterall! And then we left left the van again and headed off for another waterfall, this time down into a pretty impressive gorge.

And again, there was time for another welcome rest!

We then followed the gorge for a few miles further - and at well over 3,000m a few miles was enough - it was very hot and sticky, and the air feels so thin when you're doing any kind of exercise! Blame it all on the altitude ...

The great news was that at the end of this walk, there was a very welcome swimming pool waiting for us! No photos of that bit, though - our white bodies caused quite a bit of amusement for the locals ... And then we went for yet another walk - Liz, hope you are proud of me! This time along part of the Inca Trail, and as it was by now late afternoon, the temperature was lovely, and everything was a very lush green. We then finally headed for Cangallo, where we were to stay that night - right down in a valley, surrounded by mountains, but even so still at 3,500m!

The town was pretty quiet, with a very basic hostel to stay in - only cold showers, no toilet roll, very curvy beds ... and so we soon went out to find the night life. There wasn't much, and the liveliest place seemed to be a children's birthday party in a town hall (!) but we did find a restaurant with safe-looking food and settled in. The waitress didn't seem in much of rush to serve us, and the huayno music on the video was way too loud, but we did eventually get a good meal and there was beer, so all was well! We then looked for a bar, but couldn't find one, so investigated a couple of 'recreos' that Pancho knew - these are kind of back gardens with bars as far as I can tell. The first was closed, which was a shame as apparently you can build fires there , and the second one was totally empty and lit by very harsh strip lights, so we bought more beer there are resorted to sitting in the park instead ...

The next morning we were up early, and after a hearty breakfast of omelette and chips, we headed out of the valley and north over some very high mountains. After an hour or so we left the van and Alejandro at a remote spot at about 4,000m and headed off across very wild countryside, with lots of weird cacti that live for a hundred years, flower once, and then die! It was quite tough walking even though on the level, as it was so high. I reckon 1 hour of this walking is worth a good 2 going up hill in Wales!!

Pancho didn't have a map, and there was no obvious path, but we eventually reached a ridge with a fantastic view out over another valley and across to Vilcashuaman, the Inca capital.

And when we got to the view point there was one lone shepherdess standing on the hill. Once she saw all of us coming she said hello in Quechua politely and then scuttled off in the opposite direction - could't resist this photo!

We then headed along another part of the Inca Trail, and steeply down into the valley to Inti Huantana to visit our first Inca ruins ...

Inca Trail

Inti Huantana ruins

This was very exciting as I'd seen so many pictures of Inca ruins, but had never experienced them for real! This site was built as a resting place en route along the Inca Trail from Vilcashuaman to Cuzco, and the Incas built a lagoon plus very large temple - not that much of it in tact, but absolutely loads of Inca stones lying around - if only there was money to renovate more of it it! But there was definitely enough of it left to appreciate the stone work - all the angles in the stones so that they all fit together so perfectly - very impressive!

Inca bathroom

Rock from Inca Temple - supposed to give you energy if you stand here!


Count the angles!

Inca sacrifice stone


Inca sun-dial

We then headed off up over more hills and after an hour or so reached Vilcashuaman across the valley, to visit the Inca ruins there. As this had been the Inca capital, I'd been expecting quite a lot more than was there, but unfortunately the Spaniards had destroyed quite a lot of and used stones for other buildings. Even so there were some impressive ruins which have subsequently been turned into a Catholic church ...

And there were also some impressive temple ruins. The Inca town had apparently been built in the shape of a falcon (falcon = huaman in Quechua), but I must admit that this would have been lost on me if I hadn't been told. There are also some nice Inca walls around the town, and on some of the stones there were carved pumas still visible. Hunt the puma became an entertaining game before going for lunch.

Lunch was in a very quirky little restaurant! As it was Sunday, there was very little open in the town and the dish of the day on offer would probably have started off the stomach upsets again ... so Pancho managed to persuade the restaurant to cook chicken for us if he went and bought one! Pancho is very resourceful. We'd had to give the restaurant an hour to cook it, and so we had gone to visit the ruins first, but it was worth the wait - probably the best chicken I've had so far. And believe me, I have tasted plenty of chicken here ... won't be eating any for several months when I get back!

Back of the resturant - best not to see before eating!

The 4-hour journey home was via a slightly different route, and along a very scenic valley, with yet more weird cacti, before heading back up over the hills and getting to Ayacucho just before dark.