Huchuy Cusco

One of the places I have been hoping to visit before I leave Cusco are the ruins of Huchuy Cusco. These are not on a road but rather command an incredible and rather inaccessible vista about 1000´ above the floor of the Sacred Valley. The most direct route to the ruins is to hike directly up the switchback trail from the town Lamay in the Valley to the North and return on the same. Having always had something of a skepticism toward the direct approach – always forward, never straight – I planned a hike from the South that would take me cross-country to Huchuy Cusco and then out to Lamay. I chartered Jaime, of taxi fame, to bring me to the trailhead in the pueblo of Tauca, east of Chinchero. I then started looking for a good topographical map. No mean feat. The town is full of tourist maps that will guide you to the popular destination of your choice but other more obscure destinations remain shrouded in the mists of obscurity. I wanted to part those mists and I figured a little bit of route-finding would just add to the adventure. I wasn´t worried about getting lost as I knew I could just keep hiking to the North or West and get to a road. If I had to, I could collect dried llama dung for a fire, like the woman on the left in the second picture above, just below the silly looking guy who still thinks he can do 20-something adventures even though he is 40. I was set for the perfect hike… but then I decided to add a bicycle. I had been wanting to go mountain biking and I figured I would kill two birds with one stone but, like Sisyphus, the stone just about killed me. My route started at over 12,000´ and would take me to over 14,000´ but I was acclimatized to the elevation, so I figured I wouldn´t have too many problems. The hike was indeed spectacular and I didn´t suffer much by having to push a bicycle most of the way up. I ended up pushing it most of the way up because the route turned out to be much steeper than I anticipated and every time I would get on and pedal for a bit I would leave myself gasping for air. Almost the entire time I was well above tree line and treated to beautiful vistas of mountains and alpine lakes. I crossed two passes and then started downhill toward the ruins to the North. The basin I was following narrowed to a ravine which forced me stash the bike in some tall grass (there were no trees to lock it to) and continue downhill on foot. I had to share the path with a number of llamas who were in the creek bed of the ravine enjoying some cool water and green forage. They didn´t know quite what to make of me – I was the only human I´d seen all day and who knows when was the last time they saw a biped – and they were often a bit reluctant to make way. Eventually I crossed an Incan outpost guarding this approach to Huchuy Cusco, then some Incan terraces, and then a small plateu below which I was treated to a spectacular view of the ruins, way, way, below me. I´d come this far so I pushed on and I´m glad I did. The ruins were impressive, not because they were the most well preserved or constructed or largest, but because they were so remote and because I had them all to myself. As opposed to Pisac or Ollantaytambo or even Machu Picchu, Huchuy Cusco was primarily constructed of adobe over a stone base and has remained very well preserved. After enjoying the ruins, rather than heading downhill to Lamay, I was forced to retrace my steps back up, up, up to where I had left the bicycle then retrace my path over the two passes before I was able to put the bicycle to good use on the downhill all the way out. I can say, with a high degree of confidence, that I completed the first downhill descent on a bicycle from the pass above Tauca to the town itself and I don´t anticipate the route being repeated in the near future.

I originally had visions of perhaps riding all the way back to Cusco, but it was starting to get dark so I hired a beat-up old taxi that was riding on at least one “donut” spare. The spare was apparently losing air pretty consistently as we had to stop and refill it on the way back but that didn't deter my driver from trying to deliver his fare to Cusco at the highest possible speed; perhaps he was concerned about getting to the next air pump before the tire went completely flat? We made one other stop at a garage for what mush have been the original tire. As he carried it to the car, I noticed that there was a rather largish-looking blowout on the sidewall and the main "tread" was as smooth as my friend Will's pate. I jokingly asked what he was going to do with the old tire and he replied with a look that said, Duh, and told me very matter-of-factly that he was going to repair it and put it on the car. This got me thinking about the condition of the other tires which wasn't all bad, as far as trains of thought go, as it gave me something to think about other than the electrical system of the taxi which must not have been good as he would only turn on the headlights when we were approaching or overtaking another car. When we approached a vehicle checkpoint in the town of Poroy outside of Cusco, I also learned that he didn't have the proper license to legally transport paying passengers to Cusco so I joined him in a little celebratory cheer as we were waved through while he laughed at the driver of the big modern, tourist bus who was forced to pull over so the police could check his papers. To top the drive off, he refused to deliver me all the way to the central plaza, because of the risk of apprehension, so I got to end my journey with a little ride through the crowded but dark streets of the historic center of Cusco. I was beat, both mentally and physically, but it had been a great day.