The Sanchez's Gap Year: 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