Yanama to Totora - Day 5 : Trek Choquequirao to Machu
Yanama goodbye. I fell in love with this place and it was time to leave.
What a pleasant exit with a wonderful extended view of the meandering rio
Yanama valley and the rural scene on its banks
Soon after we leave the Yanama valley it is a steep steady ascent and up to a
high pass of 4950 metres or thereabouts.
At 4950 metres one is a swaggering sot. I was barely able to place a foot
forward to reach the apex, altitude sickness no doubt. Slight pain near the
base of the skull and temples. There were a few others arriving and we all
relaxed for a while out of the wind taking in the whole scene.
Down... The best way down was to jog hop, and jog hop I did for just over an
hour on the best track so far, until our lunch spot almost a kilometre below.
Wow, how good it feels to have oxygen back in the system.
The soup prepared by Ucco, was very good. The lunch spot was in a field by the
river and proved to be very soporific, the sun, the exercise, the oxygen:
snooze time.
A less frenetic pace after lunch to Totora, on the way there were waters
running in flowing streams. I needed a pee, but something else was moving. I
quickly bade Jan on and exploded in some shrubs. First bout of loose motions
on the trek. One running stream not so clean to drink, all those animals
and civilisation upstream perhaps. A couple of tablets of Gastro-Stop and I am
not bothered any more on this trip, but not before a little incident later on.
Ah the fragility of the human body, I am not superman after all.
Destination Totora: I was not overly impressed with Totora. It was smoky and
other campers crowded the site. Ben and Chris elected to go to the next site
an hour or so away, I quietly thought we should have been going too but we
were committed with our tents set up and packs unloaded.
A tipple of the local moonshine fixes misgivings. Dinner was interesting at
our host's kitchen-dining area, where we see a hanging side of sheep, guinea
pig in a very dark smoky room. Dinner was delicious however, comprised of
beans and rice. The early darkness of night brings on an early sleep, we need
to be up early for a big day tomorrow.
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