Community Trek

As an alternative to the Classic Inka Trail which has high numbers of other trekkers I decided to take the Dragoman ´Community Trek¨ as it would be just our group walking the trail and some of the money from the trek is donated towards community projects in the villages we visit high in the Andes. These communities are often poor with very little / no infrastructure. I am going to allow the photographs to portray the details of the trek but I will give you some background information / an oversight.
Over 4 days we walked through the Andes, over 4800 metres in places through rain, wind, snow and sunshine. The Andes cover 7500km from Argentina to Southern Panama and are 250Km wide (little knowledge nugget for you). The air was thin and some people faired better than others with the altitude. Personally I was mostly ok, finding the Coca leaves very helpful in times of difficulty. It was a challenging trek but beautiful at the same time. We camped overnight at various remote Andean villages. By remote, I mean it takes up to 5 hours to walk to and from the nearest road! Some of the children walk for 2 hours to get to the nearest village school! The teacher will often be at the end of training and although paid by the government for a 5 day week will get to the village late on Monday and leave early on Friday to get home.
The main crops grown are potatoes and apparently Peru has 3800 varieties of potato. They keep Llamas / Alpakas for selling on and for wool. They keep sheep and cows for food and donkeys /mule for tourism and to transport goods to and from the villages. Donkeys / Mule can carry more weight than Llama but in comparison to the Llama they eat more and have a greater deleterious impact on the trails.
The people are very shy and many of the adults speak only Quechua and limited or no spanish. The children learn spanish in school. They often live in poverty and malnutrition is high. NGO´s assist with health and dental care. The children wear traditional Andean clothing, uninfluenced by modern life unlike most places I have seen to date in Peru. They weave and make ceramics for their own use and for selling to tourists and at every village we came to, we were greeted with a line of women and children offering us their items.
As visitors to the villages, we tool gifts of paper, pens and such like to give to the schools. At the most remote village Dragoman had organised hot cholcolate and bread for the school children which you can see us handing out before our second days trek from the photos. The walk consisted of early mornings, retiring exhausted to sleeping bags after dinner, no showers but our guides looked after us well. The donkeys / mule from the villages carried all the equipment and food and the accompanying cooks and guides from the villages made us great meals along route and were great company.
We passed through magnificent landscapes and scenery of lakes, waterfalls, quaint little houses / villages, glaciers and observed varying Andean flora and fauna.
Our last day led us to a campsite with thermal baths and boy was it good to relax our tired and aching bodies in the hot steaming healing sulphur whilst the surrounding Andean temperature at dusk significantly dropped around us.
It was a beautiful and humbling experience.

In day 4 we set off at 3am on a 3hour bus ride along a bumpy mountainside road to Ollantaytambo, a town and archaeological site 60kms Northwest of Cusco which served as a stronghold to the Inkas during the spanish conquest before the Inkas fled to the jungle (and Macch Picchu). However from 1532 there was a civil war and the spaniards took advantage of this, eventually conquering the Inkas.
Ollantaytambo contained religious, astronomical, administrative and housing complexes with areas for both agriculture and livestock. It is a fascinating place. There are many carvings in rocks which point to stars. If you look to one of the surrounding mountains you can see the profile of an Inkan face shape on the edge of the mountain. On June 25th Winter Solstice, the sun rises exactly at this point in the mountainside and not only that, the sun ray shines in a straight line towards the city in alignment with a doorway of the ruins!
Agriculture was the main activity for the Inkas so a good calender was necessary for planting, harvesting times and to know when El Nino was due. There is a stone calender at the ruins which was used as a sun dial.

Entering Cusco

The Inkas built a network of roads radiating from the centre at Cusco North to Columbia and South to the present Argentina. Messages and goods were sent between empires by men running short but fast distances to various posts along the length of the roads. It is thought to have been an extremely efficient system. With less urgency alpacas were used as the main form of transport for carrying goods, slow but well suited to life in the Andes. One of the photos shows me running through the gateway into Cusco.

Sacsayhuaman is a ruined fortress and temple built a above the city of Cusco on the top a mountain. An enormous structure made from enormous blocks of quarried limestone some weighing more than a hundred tons thought to have been roughly shaped before being transported uphill on wooden rollers where they were shaped and finished to sit flushly against the others. The ruins show the expertise in technology and building techniques whilst also displaying the Inkan connection to astronomy and their spiritual beliefs. The drainage holes in the boulders assisted with the dispersal of water down hill resulting in the stability and longevity of the structure to withstand earthquakes and erosion. If the Spaniards had not deconstructed the Inka buildings to use the blocks in their colonial buildings of Cusco, much of them would still be intact today.

Pisac ruins were as equally awe inspiring. Looking out over a fertile terraced valley, a place of ritual and ceromony. With tombs carved into the mountains facing to the East to the rising sun symbolising new beginnings. Today many of the tombs have been robbed of their more precious artifacts.

Racqui Ruins

From our chilly camping site we continued our journey high up in the Peruvian Andes. I really enjoyed the journey, spending the whole time observing the local Andean farmers go about their daily lives.
I must admit I saw mostly women and although some of them were wearing the bright clothing and colourful satchels we had become accusomed to in Peru, others now wore dark,dull colours of browns,blacks and greys with different shaped hats. The colours and costumes are significant to which region / community a person is from. I only saw women shepherding, often running along behind a flock of sheep for example or sitting quietly with the grazing flock, colourful satchels on their backs, chewing coca leaves to help wth the altitude. Maybe this explains how the women of 70 -80 years old look so fit.

With the decrease in altitude we began to see more green and fertile valleys with the occasional small farm, giving the impression that life is basic and simple with no sign of any machinery. For example, I noticed a small but tidy little farm wih a few small mud brick buildings. Outside of the surrounding mud brick wall cattle grazed whilst inside a colourful poncho drew my attention to a women leading a horse whilst another women had just left the farm on foot. With nothing other than the wilds of the andean mountains in view, I wondered where she could be going and how long it would take her!

At 3000m the land suddenly changed to rolling hills with much more grazing and therefore more frequent farms following the line of electricity pylons which previous farms at higher altitude had not had the luxury of!
As we passed through a larger rural town of farming communities with mud brick houses and small farming plots centred around the river I saw women and children washing their clothes in the river.

We arrived at a farming village and archaeological site called Raqchi. We had such a wonderful time here partly due to the nature of the site but mostly due to the people. Dragoman had organised for us to stay overnight with local families in their homes, an Eco tourism initiative which was set up for the community in 2001. The government paid 20 per cent of the costs for 16 families to learn about tourism, hospitality, hygiene and English language. The families each paid for their own renovations to their homes.
The village was beautiful consisting of narrow, steep muddy streets lined with either mud brick / dry stone walls with the aroma and sounds of farm animals amongst the beautifully earthy mud brick houses which overlooked the fertile valley of crops with a distant backdrop of the Andes. The mud bricks are made of clay, straw and guinea pig hair....that´s a lot of guinea pigs but atleast nothing goes to waste!

The People:
We were looked after wonderfully and fed very well! The food was traditionally peruvian (high in carbohydrates) as the families eat every day and it was truly delicious. Quinoa, potatoes and maze seem to be the main ingredients as they are some of the few crops which can be grown at higher altitudes. Quechua is the first language for most of the andean communities and here is no different although spanish is also spoken. The women are mostly very shy and whilst we watched a group of women showing us their traditional ceramic and pottery work, I watched a group of local women chew coca leaves and laugh like children as they watched from the sidelines.
After a wonderful dinner each of us were given a set of traditional andean clothes to wear for our ´night out´. From within a courtyard whilst we all sat in a circle, the locals performed a shortened but meaningful ceremony which they continue to practice. The annual version is usually much longer but shorter versions are periodically practiced when needed. The locals participated aswell, giving thanks to the surrounding mountains and Pachamama and asking for health for their families and for us on our travels. Once the serious part had been completed a fire was lit in the centre of the courtyard, providing us with warmth, aroma and atmospheric smoke. A few women sung melodius high pitched andean songs to the guitars and drum. The local men and women, old and young danced with us all showing us the Andean dance and through the smoke we could see the swinging and swaying of the colourful fabrics in the cool thin andean air.
When the time came to leave the community, the families surrounded us to say goodbye and wish us well. Their colourful hats and poncho´s brightening up the otherwise dull, cloudy and rainy day.

The Ruins:
Raqchi Ruins was one the most important site for the Inka people as it was used for administration purposes aswell as a religious site. All that remains of the temple of Wiracocha is the central wall standing 12m high and 3m thick in places. The Temple would have been an impressive 92m x 25m and visible from any point in the surrounding area and receiving many pilgrims.
The ruins of the residential area show where the noble women and priests resided. A On the 21st December Solstice the sun rises in line with the central walkway between the houses, following the whole length throughout the day until it sets.
Within the site there are also Qolca ruins. Qolcas were used to store large amounts of food (dehydrated) over long periods of time for times of hardship.

Now as trivial as this may sound, I saw a woman pushing a child in a buggy, the first I had seen during my time in south America! Much to the amusement of my fellow travellers I pointed this out as a significant observation. From childhood you see girls and women carrying sometimes large and heavy loads on their backs wrapped in the woven colourful blankets. Furthermore the buggy was seen in a rural town!

Colca Canyon

A 6am start for a journey along windy bumpy narrow roads in the mountains through picturesque valleys of patchwork terraces overlooked by snow capped mountains to Colca Canyon. We passed a little village with cows, donkeys, pigs, alpakas and thesurrounding dry stone walls were laidened with cacti along the tops which I thought was quite a good alternative to pallicade fencing. Do you think it could catch on in London and Herts? The snow capped mountains overlooked the neat patchwork terraces ascending the steep slopes. On arrival at the canyon it was cold as we stood at the tourist spot awaiting the condors which fly on the thermals through the canyon early in the morning. By 9am tourists had arrived in great numbers and the sun was reaching us warming us all up but the condors, although in flight were lower down in the canyon. We watched the clouds rise out of the valley for clearer vision then more clouds rose until the canyon was layered in thick cloud once again.
As we drove back down the windy road and through the steep slopes ladened with alpine plants we passed a farming women carrying a baby on her back wrapped in the traditional cloth used for carrying any kinds of loads. At the same time she was sheparding cattle and sheep with a baby lama in her arms, a real beautiful picture and a very resourceful women. Women all over the world are clearly good at multi tasking!
Back at Chivay as we ate lunch the rain started and it fell cats dogs and elephants. Realising we had to be back at the truck but unsure where the truck was, we ran out in the rain and scattered in all directions! Lets just say that all the locals who were sensibly taking shelter in shops whilst we screamed and scattered in various directions thought this the free Gringo entertainment was hilarious! We however were less entertained and soaking wet! On arrival at the truck we scrabbled around for some dry clothes for the next leg of our journey, the long drive up and over the Andes again. To assist with the long journey and the cold, we played cards and drank cheep spirits we had bought previously in Ecuador and obviously saved for this moment!
As we drove through the snow at over 4000m the then beautiful scenery became shrouded in snow. Ok now it was really cold and it was getting late. We were looking for somewhere suitable to camp for the night but we had to atleast wait until we had driven below the snow line. Eventually we found somewhere suitable and after dinner we retired to our tents. Admittedly it was chilly.....
In the morning whilst eating our camp breakfast we suddenly noticed a bull and cows nearby, the bull making his way over to us looking a little too interested. After initial concern we realised a middle aged women herding them. We were apparently on her land and although we gave her bread and milk she told our driver Mike that she would like some money to help her out with an operation she needed. This is quite a common sory but what do you say.....we were a truck load of gringo´s apparently on her land!

With am unusually later start to the day we left Arequipa at 10.30am and within 1.5 hours of climbing with the coastal desert now in the distant past, we were high up in the Andes with views of cacti and grass amongst the bare grey earth splatterd with boulders.
The mountains ahead shrouded in clouds and the winds bleak, the sun and warmth of the coast was also a distant past. The pictures show Vicuna, the smallest and most beautiful of the South American Camelids and now protected in some areas after being hunted to near extinction.
The climb peaked at just over 4000m and past various landscapes; sometimes predominantly sandstone, others volcanic rock, dry areas and boggy areas with large pools of standing water until we reached a smallish Andean farming and market town called Chivay. It was a Fiesta weekend in Chivay so people were happy and lively. Dressed traditionaly in Andean clothes I found the people colourful in many ways.
We watched traditional dance to the Andean music of flute, drum and guitars over dinner. The dance consists of a colourfly dressed woman and a masked man who take it in turns to beat each other into submission of love from what I could gather. It was a lot of fun and one of the guys from the other Dragoman truck took part. This was even more hilarious as he is about 6ft tall in a local costume dancing with a local 4.5 ft woman. Drawn by the sounds of the brass band a few of us wandered into the main plaza afterwards and a friend and I stopped at a stall for a spontaneous hot toddy, a local fresh fruit drink served hot with a splash of liquer. It was lovely and warming on the drizzly but colourful evening where the locals danced a traditional dance to brass bands at both sides of the Plaza.