Today was different because we started the day with a walk down hill. We walked by potatoes sitting on the ground. They will be used to create Tocosh, also called Moraya. The potatoes are left on the ground until a frost. They are then buried in a hole with water for one month. The resulting food product apparently smells horrible but has antibiotic properties. All local folks eat this food.
We walked down the Callinca Valley to the smal village of Huayllapa. We passed some pretty waterfalls along the way. The valley was lined with farming terraces. Many of them date back to pre-Incan times. The farmers grow alfalfa to feed the cows to produce milk and cheese. Also potatoes and the tuber that we ate the previous evening -Olluco - are grown. See image of terraces below.
We met and spoke to a couple of local women in Huayllapa. The woman below had been gathering wood for cooking. Each area of Peru has it's own special hat that all of the women wear.
The we got ready for a hot and hard climb up to our campsite. About a half hour into the climb our chef met us in the trail with pasta for lunch. He was taking a nap and one group almost hiked by without seeing him. His ride and our emergency mule, La Sora, are in the image below.
While we were taking a rest we saw a trekker who must have been in bad shape because he was riding a horse up. We later heard that he was going to be evacuated by helicopter.
We then climbed the rest of the way to the campsite. Part of the time we were walking on pre-Inca trail. I didn’t time it but I think it took a little over an hour.
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