el fin
last week during Holy Week we went to a procession on monday night called Señor de los Temblores in which a brown skinned Jesus was processed through Cusco and visited many of the churches in town. On thursday we went to Mass at night then we did the traditional visit 7 churches in which we went in 3 vans all of the community and visited 7 different churches around Cusco, entering and praying as a group for a few then heading to the next. we did not get back until very late. on Friday we went to the girls school Santa Maria Goretti and did a Stations of the Cross walking through the countryside, then later in the afternoon had a liturgical service here in Cusco. on Saturday we ran around town preparing everything for our trek, buying food, gas for the stove, practiced setting up the stove and tent, and then ran out and bought all the last minute things we had forgotten. the Vigil Mass on Saturday night was beautiful, we did not get back until very late though. we went to Mass on Sunday morning, then i baked cookies and granola, then there was a big party downstairs of where all the families live to celebrate Easter. the children played a game where they were searching for the bags of sweets we hid and there was so much good food. it was a wonderful day, very joyous. Fr. Vincent said all of the holy week Masses, and his sense of humor is really good.
on monday morning we woke up at 4.30 to catch our 6am bus, then we went 4 hours to Ramal de Cachora where we caught a taxi to Cachora and met up with our arriero (guide) and 2 mules and started on our trek. we walked all afternoon and arrived at the campsite just before dark, and the flashlight we brought did not work. we struggled to finish cooking and getting ready for bed but we borrowed the flashlight of our guide a bit. the next morning we got up very early and hiked down to the river and then back up. one of the mules was for riding, the other was to carry all of our stuff. we got to the top of the mountain at noon and set up camp and just relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful view and the afternoon sun. wednesday we went to the ruins at Choquiquirao, stayed at the same campsite the third night and then thursday we climbed down the mountain and halfway back up the other side across the river. in the sun it was challenging but we made it with a lot of water and snacks. there were so many beautiful butterflies along the way, of all colors, it made me think of Lauren. last night Thursday we stayed in a campsite nearest the town (16km) and this morning were up just after 5 to get a head start before the sun came out. we walked the last 16km and got into town in time to catch a taxi and a bus back to Cusco and have spent the last few hours arranging all of our stuff, returning all the camping gear to our friends, eating, going to the Mass the community has every Friday night, and saying goodbye to the missionary families. now we can finally go back to one last night in our room at the hostal and shower at last. hopefully the hot water has not run out.
we want Kryn and Ashley to do the trek with us in about 10 years when the ruins are completely restored. right now they are working on restoring them, only 10 percent has been restored. it was a noncommercial trek and not very touristy which i like.
in total we did 64km of trekking and are tired. we are leaving in the morning for Lake Titicaca and then will do straight busses from there to northern Argentina.
Feliz Pascua a todos!
Tags: Cuzco
annieandal
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