Inauguration day

Crossing the bridge the next morning

The next morning I woke up to this. As soon as I open the door one of the chickens ran inside the room looking
for food , unlucky for the chicken cause I was looking for some food myself and the chickens were looking good.

So I went around the house and this is what I saw.

Lucky for the chickens when the owner of the house offered me a plate of soup.
Lamb, potato and chuno (dehydrated  potato) with a bit of onions and oregano. The best.
Chuno it's made by an ancient technique of drying potatoes in the open at very cold high altitudes and it's been                                          the back bone of the Inca empire to survive famines and droughts for centuries, Lucky me because
there was no restaurants here.

The Apurimac river running on the back of the property.
This water will run down the Amazon river and eventually into the Atlantic ocean
  

Beautiful 

Walking to the party.

Setting up for the party.
They were selling fried trout, guinea pig, fried pork, fried duck all served with potatoes.
I had a feast.

Fine tuning.

This is one of my favourite photos.
Thesd two brothers were getting ready for a dancing contest.

These fellows were heading up to the surrounding hills to start announcing the arrival of the Inca. 

The ropes of the bridge at a closer look
Some of the ropes were 90mm thick.

The bridge was only awaiting the approval and blessing of the Inca.

Announcing.

Here they come

Arriving. 

Bridge inspection.

                                                       His whole entourage was of about 40 people 

The priest doing the blessing of the bridge.

The Inca doing the opening of the bridge.
He spoke in Quechuan  so I don´t know what he was saying but it sounded pretty good and inspiring.

The Inca giving his blessings.
I think.

                                                       Flag bearers.  No, That´s not the gay´s flag. It´s the Inca Empire Flag.

Part of the entourage. 

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love the hat.

Going for a dance.

It was like a picnic basket. This lady came around with a bag (blanket) over her shoulder,  put it on the ground.
opened the four ends and put the sauce in the middle, then the whole gang got around for a feed.
Their diet is mainly based on potatoes and it was the Inca´s empire key to success.
Here in the Andes there are as many as 2500 different types of potatoes.
In this picture you can probably see 5 or 6.

I was standing in front of these 3 guys , when the guy in the middle said.
"Ok guys a need a hand to do my belt , but don´t pull too hard or I will have to go to the toilet"
It was at that moment I took the shot.
I was so lucky to get this shot.

There were lots and lots of dancing.

Each dance was about showing their way of life or the remembrance of an important event.
This particularly one was about the death of a famous bull fighter.

You can find all kind of bridges around the world some are made out of steel,  wood or rock and you can also
find people that are very proud of them.  Here in Peru you can find a bridge made out of straw like above and you can
also find people that are very proud of it. I am one of them.

Living in the far high Andes is tough going,  no restaurants, no petrol stations, no shops and you only eat what you grow.

I could not believe the surrounding beauty and tranquility of Wenceslao's house.
He thought it was too quiet, I thought it was awesome. 

Waiting for the bus.

Just before leaving I looked back on the way that these people had been living for thousands
of years and I sincerely have a new immense respect for their toughness and their passion towards their true identity.
I did personally thank Wenceslaos for keeping the traditions alive.

Cuzco main plaza.

Back to civilisation. I was so looking for my first shower  after 4 days of flat out travelling.

This is what Raimundo and  I looked like after 100 drinks.
I think I deserved it. Then again.
Why do I keep doing this to myself?

Q'eswachaca. (Bridge of twisted straw)

About  3 years ago a friend of mine send me a link on the web about an Inca bridge in the Andes of central Peru.

The bridge´s name it´s Q'eswachaca meaning (bridge of twisted straw). I was so facinated by it that I said to Louise

that one day I was going to go there and see it, so that I could believe it.

I was so close to not going because of a silly head cold and I didn´t want to be sick, on my own in the freezing cold high

Andes but I pressed on (harden up b..ch) and it paid off 10 fold.

I was running out of time as the bridge started getting build on Thursday and I was just arriving in Cuzco on Friday 

and it was expected to be finished by Saturday afternoon. So I had to move real quick. No time for sight seeing on the way.

The bridge is near the town of Canas about 100kms south east of the city of Cuzco, 100kms sounds not to far

but in the Andes it's a long winding road through mountains and dusty roads.

On Saturday at 5am I got to the bus stop and everyone I asked was telling me that I wasn't going to make there till the next day,
but here in Peru nothing is in black or white so I kept asking and so I took a bus to a town 50 km out and then took
another to an even closer town and then another but I was missing the last 20 km leg so I had to pay this guy
40 dollars to drive me the last 20 km. Mind you 40 dollars for us here is a lot of money.
Once I got out of the taxi and asked the locals where the bridge was, they were more interested about how I got there in
the first place so I told them that I got there by taxi and their response was "And where is the taxi now?"  I told them that the
taxi was gone and they said "So how are you going to go back?" And I said"Well I am also looking for a place to stay and they
said there is no hostel or their likes in here. So I asked if any of the locals would be able provided some temporary

accommodation and they pointed me to some people and those people pointed me to some other people and that went on 

for a couple of hours, meanwhile I was witnessing an ancient Inca tradition that has been followed every year by this 

people for over 600 years. 

I was absolutely blown away !  

Every one in the community has a job to do.

These ladies job is to twist and braid the straws and make ropes of all sizes up to 90 mm diameter .

By the way no ladies are allowed near the construction of the bridge. They believe they only bring distraction or as 

some one said they only bring destruction. 

Twisting 

Before the twisting there is a softening of the straw with a rock.

getting ready for the big pull.

All the tensioning is done by man power

Not one modern tool.

Time for a spell with some coca leaves .

And also time for offerings to Pachamama (Mother Earth)

I was very humbled and touched when they asked me to do what they do, just like that bloke with the grey top.

In your standard offering there is coca leaves, corn, cotton, llama's fat and the highest rank offering of all a dry llama's foetus.

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Whilst they were having a break. 

Amazing Inca engineering . 

Time to do the offerings to the Gods.

According to this indigenous people an offering to Pachamama is what remind us that not everything is about taking
but it's also about giving.   

"I was there"

On the right is Wenceslao Vilca Vilca he was the director of the building of the bridge but
most important he gave me a room to stay and breakfast for which I was very thankful.
Wenceslao got a bag full of coca leaves around his neck to keep him going.

Dressing up the bridge

This bloke was happily working on the top part of the bridge when he notice that the guys on the lower part of the bridge
were getting beers,  he yelled out  "What about us?" to which someone replied.  "All you have to do is to came and get it".
So he did

He was one of those that would really... REALLY do anything for a beer.

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Already enjoying a few drinks of chicha jora (fermented corn beer) by the bucket.

Almost there.

Spirits!

First Unofficial cross.

Picking up the leftovers.

Tools of the trade.

No red carpet but a sticks carpet.

Going home for the day only to came back the next for the Inauguration day.
And what a day that was.  For the next blog.