We walked around for a long time looking for a hostel. Eventually we found one that had an open room with 3 beds and a shower that claimed to have hot water (which we later unpleasantly discovered was NOT in fact true when we took the coldest shower of our lives in the cold mountain air). There was a TINY kitten who lived in the hostel. It was super friendly and I wanted to take it home with me:
We had breakfast in the main square in a tiny shop run by a nice old woman. We ended up going there every day for breakfast, aka Coca tea (to help with altitude) with Pan con queso (bread and cheese).
As it was lunch time, we decided to do a small hike that day and save the big hike for the next day. We set through the town towards the trail.
On the way there I saw this really pretty door/balcony. The bright blue color was very striking and beautiful against the stone house:
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| cascadas de Huancaya |
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| cascadas de Huancaya |
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| cascadas de Huancaya |
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| cascadas de Huancaya |
On the other bank of the river were some small houses. To get to them, the people had built a narrow bridge across the river. It looked sooooooo rickety....
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| scariest, flimsiest bridge ever |
Here is me, Clémence, and Katrin at the cascades:
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| Me, Clémence, and Katrin at las cascadas de Huancaya. We look pretty good for having spent the night on a cold dirt floor and not showering. |
The area around the river was very busy with people who were camping. There were also lots of cows around.
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| baby cow! |
A bit further along the road we came to a small hill you could climb and get a view of the town and the river valley. The views were great:
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| Huancaya river |
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| Huancaya river |
At the top we met two old men who were natives of Huancaya. They were telling us how they remembered when Huancaya was a town with nothing - it was too isolated for any tourists to come. He also told us about some of the landmarks we could see from the hill. What was especially interesting was what he told us about the andenerías (terraces) that were directly across from us. The system of terracing is ancient in the Andes. Thousands of years before the Incas the Andean people used terraces to make mountainsides fit for cultivation. The man told us that these terraces were thousands of years old and that they have found tons of artifacts in them, including mummies!!!
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| terraces |
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| terraces and view of the valley |
The views were really incredible:
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| view of the road towards Huancaya and the river |
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| me and beautiful Huancaya in the background! |
The old man also told us about some petroglyphs that were on some rocks nearby. Unfortunately they were not well preserved over the years and they are vey faint now. The man told us that when he was a kid, he and his friends used to throw rocks at the paintings because they didn't know how old or important they were, and because he couldn't imagine a time when tourists would actually come and visit Huancaya! Apparently no one really knows who made these paintings:
Then we set out along the river for our hike. It was very beautiful and VERY different from Lima:
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| gate for cows |
There were tons of cows grazing freely in the fields along the way. This one didn't want to move out of our path:
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| hello ms. cow |
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| me in Huancaya |
Found some interesting lichens and rock-plants. Mom these are for you!
Some more beautiful landscapes:
There were tons of really really adorable baby cows everywhere. It was magical:
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| BABY COW! |
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| BABY COW! |
We found this tiny shrine on a hill in some rocks! It had offerings and everything!
Finally we saw the bigger cascades that were at the end of the hike. Unfortunately the trail got too dangerous/steep to continue all the way but we had a good view anyway!
There were really interesting flowers in Huancaya. These were some of my favorites:
On the way back I found the cutest baby cow ever:
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| BABY COW! |
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| BABY COW! |
More moss for you mom:
When we got back we were pretty tired so we just stayed in our room for the rest of the day and watched tv. We had about 5 channels ALL OF WHICH WERE PLAYING BIBLE MOVIES FOR EASTER. Every single channel had a different (terrible) movie about some bible story. They were so badly made and acted and dubbed that we just HAD to keep watching them.
