PERU: Walking the Saltankay Route to Machu Picchu, Day 8

Now that I'm on Day 8, I suspect I should have put a "sub-title" or descriptor right under the title of each entry.  If I was to do that today, it would be subtitled: "The day we visit a mountain home and walk down to high jungle."

But first, we leave the Wayra Lodge on a clear sunny day.  I really like how the lodges blended into the landscape.

Before we left the plateau, Dalmiro led us on a visit to one of the mountain families that made their living in and around the meadow.  One of the unmarried sons showed us how potatoes were planted with a special potato planting tool that he's holding.  I took the photo to also show the rows of potatoes that had just been planted.  The rows are just visible behind the two people in the photo.  That's a lot of potatoes planted one by one with a leg driven hoe.

These are the family buildings.  They also have sheep that roam the mountainsides.  This looks back up toward Humantay Mountain. 

The buildings are perched right on the edge of the hillside above a stream.  The photo on the left looks down the valley the other way.



We were invited into their "main" home, which was maybe a 20' by 15' cabin on the right.  This is the "kitchen" area in the photo below. 

Cooking and heating was an open fire.  There was no chimney and the smoke wafted up through the thatched roof.  In fact, from the outside, the houses almost look like they're on fire when the fire is burning hard - smoke goes through the whole roof.  Interestingly, food is stored above the ceiling and the smoke helps to preserve the food stored up there.

But talk about food, the guinea pigs hang out on the floor - around the fire mostly because of the warmth.  They eat from scraps of food tossed to them - until they're eaten too.  I ate some "cuy" later that day.  I confess that I wasn't all that impressed - not much meat on those bones!

Visiting the mountain family was fascinating.  Dalmiro made a point of explaining how Peruvian mountain people lived for the day - with little concern for the future or the past.  Since that's one of my own goals, I was quite interested.   But the lifestyle was also amazing.  I'm not ready to sign up, but it has it attraction for me.  I wish I could explain it better, but this will have to do.

From the mountain plateau, it was 3400 vertical feet and 6 miles down, down, down.

The surprise was how quickly the hillside turned lush - and warmer and more humid.

Dalmiro called it the "high jungle" and it looked authentic to me.  We began to see lots of flowers that we thought we knew.

For the most part, the walking was good.  Every once in a while, there would be big rocks and/or mud - but it didn't last long.

The worst part was the smoke.  Our guides explained that it was the season for the "low jungle" farmers to burn off the fields to get ready to plant.  There must have been lots of burning!

Down down down.  Through the smoke in the photo on the right, just below the bare spot, is the site of our next lodge.

And here it is, the Colpa Lodge.  Notice the green grass and trees - quite different from what we had been walking through so far.

Ah yes, of course there were damp cloths to wipe our faces with - this time they were cool rather than warm.  Pass out the cold drinks!

We were also greeted with a demonstration of a traditional celebration type of Peruvian cooking - burying all the food in hot rocks.  Potatoes, some reported 3000 varieties in Peru, are a big food item.  With the rocks at 800 degrees or so, the food was ready 40 minutes later and we sat down to a big feast of chicken, pork, lamb, potatoes, and more.   Tough duty.

We had some time, so I took a walk later in the afternoon.  This photo shows how the other half travels: tents in a yard.  I was happy with the lodges.

This was a bar/restaurant for hikers.

It was called "Camping the Green Paradise" and the motto was "The Best Enjoy Every Day for You. . .  !!!"

There was a construction crew working on the road.  This part looked finished, but it was at least 18" deep.  A good sized stream just flowed over the road.  I had to talk back a ways and take a shaky "bridge" that had been built for walkers like me who couldn't get through!








This section of the road gave me cause for question, so I hurried through that section.


After all, I had to get back to the Lodge for dinner!