At Mirador Capuliyoc (2,970 meters), the pale thread of the Apurímac, some 1500 meters below, shows through the cloud. Somewhere across the valley at around the same altitude as I am now was Choquequirao—just over 20 kilometers away, eight of which were down to the river and 12 of which were straight up the other side. With full kit, because this is no Inca Trail with porters to carry your luggage, it’s a challenge to reach the ruins in two days. To do it and return in two days is even tougher.
I get going, jogging parts of the downhill to save time. The Andes are brown, rugged mountains, but the Apurímac valley is more varied, the pale green of cultivation and the inkier green of dwarf forests breaking up the view. Above me, the peaks are snow-capped.
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There are occasional houses, at Chiquisca on the way down, at Playa Rosalinda by the bridge across the Apurímac, and at Santa Rosa on the valley’s far side, that cook hot meals for passers-by and passers-by there are: I count 40 altogether, suggesting those 5,800 annual visitors could already have nudged nearer 10,000.
Off-the-beaten-track, then, but not as off-the-beaten-track as it was … Choquequirao is already on the radars of some, though these seem to be travelers who shun the sort of development planned. Most I meet are here to see these ancient ruins before they become Peru’s next mass-tourism project.
