I got back from another hike down river today. Earlier in the week my friend Max said he was going to Quechualla on Thursday and asked if I wanted to go with him. I said sure, as it has been cool here lately and it is warm down there! We took the combi down to Sipia Bridge and then started hiking from there. On the way I found out that he had to go to Sancay, a village about an hour above the trail to Velinga and Quechualla, to check out a leaking water reservoir. While we were there, we were offered fresh oranges as well as got invited into a home for lunch. Then an old man offered to show us where a shortcut was to take us back to the main trail.

 

Another purpose of the hike was to find out if an old trail on a flat plain below the main trail was still passable. I had wondered about it many times as it looked like it should save time and a lot of climbing up over a couple of high spots over some steep cliffs. Max had been told that it was no longer usable so we decided to check it out. Much to our surprise and delight, it turned out to be in fairly good shape and we had no problem following the whole trail. There were a couple of spots where part of the trail was eroded but it was easy to pass by them on foot. It would not be usable for animals without some work on it, but even that wouldn't take much time. Max talked to the mayor of Velinga to see about getting the trail repaired, and should get an answer in about a week or so.

 

He decided not to go on to Quechualla so after a soak in the hot springs in the late afternoon and spending the night near there, we started back to Cotahuasi this morning. I took the old trail and Max took the current trail to see how much time difference there was. The old trail seems a lot easier but it only saved about 5 minutes. but Max might have been going faster than I did because I was carrying a full pack and he did have anything. He went on a two day hike and didn't even take a daypack with him. He drinks out of streams, eats food if someone offers him some and sleeps wherever someone offers him a bed!

 

After that we also took two side trails down to the Cotahuasi River, and he thinks he has found a better new route for the road they are building to Quechualla. I hope it works because then they won't have to destroy a beautiful foot trail that clings high up on the side of the cliffs. We talked about a number of other trails that we want to explore so are looking forward to more adventures in the future. Max is an engineer here who works on roads and other developments for the area.

 

A couple of weeks ago I checked out a hike listed on my Adventure Cotahuasi Tours web site, which I will be doing with my first clients in two weeks. It is the 4th one on the "tours" page, Huarhau Salt Mines, High plains, Llasca, Charcana, Niño Hot Springs, Sipia Falls. I started on a Saturday morning (10:45), had lunch in Mungi, then went up to Huarhau, which took 8 hours. I was too late to go to the salt mines, they were closed when I got there so didn't get to see them. I went up about 30 minutes above the village and found nice camping but no water (the water in the village had a lot of sediment). In the morning I found water and good camping about 30 minutes higher. It was a nice hike across the high plain, the high spot was 14,400 feet. It looked like it might rain but thankfully it didn't as it was so nice when I left that I didn't take my rain jacket. It took 10 hours to hike to Charcana. From the high plain I could hear the band playing for their fiesta so I camped out of the village a ways, around a hill where I couldn't hear it. I didn't go see the cave paintings or the stone arch but that is about a 4-5 hour round trip, depending on who I talked to. I finally realized that it is foolish to ask people who don't have watches, how long it takes to hike somewhere! It took 5 hours (including breakfast and taking the wrong trail) to hike down to the hot springs at the river, where I soaked for awhile and then went and explored the Wari ruins. I decided to go back to the springs for dinner and to camp (along the river) and then returned to Cotahuasi the next day.  

 

If you are interested in a hiking adventure here, check out www.adventurecotahuasi.com

 

Thanks,

 

Vic