In the hills of Tuti to the north, are a set of large caves at the top that overlook the town. Many of the locals had pointed them out to me, and told me they were ancient Incan caves. The people here really want to me to work for tourism, so I figured a trip to the caves could give me an idea if this was an actual selling point. Originally I was not big on the idea of flooding the town with North American and European tourists, but then I realized that tourism was one of the few ways of bringing in an outside source of income.
I had started my resistance bands workout routine again, but went too overboard on it, and managed to get a very uncomfortable pain in my neck the night before the hike. I woke up at 10:30 at night in pain, was unable to breath in comfort nor find any possible position in bed that was comfortable for my neck. I tossed and turned the whole night, and managed probably 4 hours of sleep. When I woke up, my hands had the shakes, and to say the least, I just did not feel right. I went to one of the little stores in the plaza and bought a pain killer, which helped with the pain but then made me feel lethargic and my legs feel like Jell-o. I knew this hike was going to be an mental experience, but there was no way I was not going to try to get to those caves especially when 2 other volunteers had made the trip to Tuti with the plans of me going with them to the caves, and 2 locals had changed their morning plans to show us the way.
At about 6:30am our group of 6 people headed off to the caves. Alonzo, one of my counterparts, led the way along with the Narcisa, an owner of one of the local restaurants and who has quickly become one of my favorite people in Tuti. I pretty much gasped the whole way, which was a combination of my collarbone hurting when I breathed deeply and being over 12,800 feet above sea level, and focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. Obviously out of all days this one of the worst days to feel like you just wanted to lie down. At several points through the steady climb, the traditional hat of Narcisa and the yellow shirt of Alonzo started glowing, and the tan hillside turned to a bright haze. I managed to avoid asking the other volunteers the rhetorical question of if everything was glowing in their vision too.
After two miles of hiking up hill, and only 200 meters from the caves, we encountered 3 cows hanging out and grazing away on the trail. The cows and us shared looks of, “what are you guys doing up here?” I wondered if they were escapees, and imagined that the owner had been looking everywhere low and not 400 feet above him on the side of hill/cliff.When we got to the caves I was finally able to rest and not worry about making sure my camera was in my uphill hand so if I passed out during the trek it would not fall to its demise. Here I was rewarded with one of the most spectacular views I had ever seen. Of course the valley is vast, but only from a birds eye view could I see all the contours of what surrounds Tuti. One of the volunteers exclaimed to me, “This is where you live!” It was like a dream where I was floating over this unbelievable terrain, and I was able to pause my dream and look at everything with vivid clarity. We all sat there in silence, feeling and listening to the wind rush up the hillside. The silence was broke when I and another volunteer watched a circling hawk, which was at about our eye level, break into a freefalling dive and dropped out of our sight. “That was awesome!!” we stated in unison. Earlier I had just been talking to this volunteer about how I heard the “whoosh” of a diving bird of prey in
I had started my resistance bands workout routine again, but went too overboard on it, and managed to get a very uncomfortable pain in my neck the night before the hike. I woke up at 10:30 at night in pain, was unable to breath in comfort nor find any possible position in bed that was comfortable for my neck. I tossed and turned the whole night, and managed probably 4 hours of sleep. When I woke up, my hands had the shakes, and to say the least, I just did not feel right. I went to one of the little stores in the plaza and bought a pain killer, which helped with the pain but then made me feel lethargic and my legs feel like Jell-o. I knew this hike was going to be an mental experience, but there was no way I was not going to try to get to those caves especially when 2 other volunteers had made the trip to Tuti with the plans of me going with them to the caves, and 2 locals had changed their morning plans to show us the way.
At about 6:30am our group of 6 people headed off to the caves. Alonzo, one of my counterparts, led the way along with the Narcisa, an owner of one of the local restaurants and who has quickly become one of my favorite people in Tuti. I pretty much gasped the whole way, which was a combination of my collarbone hurting when I breathed deeply and being over 12,800 feet above sea level, and focused on just putting one foot in front of the other. Obviously out of all days this one of the worst days to feel like you just wanted to lie down. At several points through the steady climb, the traditional hat of Narcisa and the yellow shirt of Alonzo started glowing, and the tan hillside turned to a bright haze. I managed to avoid asking the other volunteers the rhetorical question of if everything was glowing in their vision too.
After two miles of hiking up hill, and only 200 meters from the caves, we encountered 3 cows hanging out and grazing away on the trail. The cows and us shared looks of, “what are you guys doing up here?” I wondered if they were escapees, and imagined that the owner had been looking everywhere low and not 400 feet above him on the side of hill/cliff.When we got to the caves I was finally able to rest and not worry about making sure my camera was in my uphill hand so if I passed out during the trek it would not fall to its demise. Here I was rewarded with one of the most spectacular views I had ever seen. Of course the valley is vast, but only from a birds eye view could I see all the contours of what surrounds Tuti. One of the volunteers exclaimed to me, “This is where you live!” It was like a dream where I was floating over this unbelievable terrain, and I was able to pause my dream and look at everything with vivid clarity. We all sat there in silence, feeling and listening to the wind rush up the hillside. The silence was broke when I and another volunteer watched a circling hawk, which was at about our eye level, break into a freefalling dive and dropped out of our sight. “That was awesome!!” we stated in unison. Earlier I had just been talking to this volunteer about how I heard the “whoosh” of a diving bird of prey in
3 comments:
I especially like the shots that include the people who live there- like this one and the one of the hike to the caves. I wonder if these folks can trace their family trees back to the time before Pizarro got there and trashed their civilization.
"No pain, no gain" comes to mind. I admire your determination and discipline to rise above your physical discomfort and to make the challenging trek with your fellow volunteers. And what a treat to see birds of prey in flight!
Curiously, but it is not clear
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