Choquequirao: what the tours don’t tell you

Built in the 15th century, Choquequirao is located some 44 kilometers from Machu Pichu at
3000 meters of elevation on the Vilcabamba mountain range. While Machu Pichu was a
royal palace, Choquequirao seemed to have mainly a religious function. First discovered in
1710, Choquequirao was really brought to light when the explorer Hiram Bingham went in
1908, while searching for Vilcabampa, the Capital of the last four Incas.
The secluded Inca city takes two to three days to reach.

In 2019, I convinced my husband to attempt the 8 days trek to link Choquequirao to Machu
Pichu. The bags a little heavy with food and camping equipment, we took collective taxis to
Cachora. Standing at the edge of the mountain, we faced the first reality described in the
blog: "a steep descent". The path was going down, steep and rough, all the way to the
bottom of the valley, some 1500 meters of elevation!

At the end of the afternoon, exhausted and already cursing the weight of our bags we
reached our first stage. Happy in spite of everything, we were mentally ticking off the first
day of our journey. Only seven days left!

The next day quickly dissipated any optimism. At 2000 meters of altitude, in the Apurimac
river valley, the weather is hot and humid, favorable to various species of mosquitoes and
horseflies, ambushing hikers all along the way. On the program, a winding ascent to get
back up at the same altitude as the previous day, but on the opposite mountain. Instead of
the five hours announced, we toiled nine.

On our first water break, we agreed: To hell with Machu Picchu and the mountain
adventure! We counted every step, knowing that they were taking us a little further away
from our starting point and salvation. The question fell: "If you want, we can turn back, if it's
too hard, so much the worse for the ruins." Tempting, but then it becomes clear: all the
effort and pain will have been for nothing if we give up now.

At night, it rains. The tent barely holds and João is having a bad night. The water of the
waterfall was not as clean as we had hoped for. Here, even mountain water has to be
treated carefully.

On the third day, at the very of the path in the Andean jungle, when we have tasted and
tasted again the meaning of the expression "endless", João exclaims with a huge smile: "We
did it! Yeah, just a bunch of stones". Laughing with joy, tiredness and relief, I too discover
the piles of stones. For about an hour, we walk through walls, courtyards and large roofless
rooms, wondering about the usefulness of each one.

Once back down from the mountain we bite into a "pan con huevo", a simple soft bread roll
with a fried egg. Short on food and almost out of money, this very simple meal fills us with
satisfaction.

The rapture is repeated and touches ecstasy when we stand on the last day at the top of the
mountain, back, at last, at the starting point, which has become our personal triumphal
arch. The ascent was Dantean: body and spirit threw the hot potato at each other: which
one would abandon first? Exhausted as never before, we ask ourselves: "So, was it worth
it?" Although we have not understood much about what was that city, with its many
sections far from each other, its enormous houses, its corridors without rooms, its countless
blind windows, we say yes. It was worth it! It really was!

But deep down, can one only answer the opposite and reduce four days of physical and
mental effort to nonsense? "It was worth it, because we already did it; but would you do it
again?" João summed up a few days later.