We cross thru the small village of Chaullay, where 4 families have established camping facilities, and I've included a picture of the first two-story home in this small village.
We next pass thru Collpapampa village, where camping facilities, a "general store", and small restaurants have opened. Collpapampa also seems to be a cross-roads for switching cargo on mule teams, and I've included a picture of a husband and wife switching cargo from one mule team to the other.
As we enter Collpapampa two young girls with shopping bags pass us. Pepe says that they have come down from the mountain valley to purchase the only 6 things for which they are not self-sufficient: rice, noodles, sugar, salt, oil, and cocoa leaves.
We spend a long day hiking up and down the shoreline of the Santa Teresa, and then board a bus that takes us to a section of the Inca Trail - 5 meters wide, rock walls on both sides. There are 40,000 Km of Inca Trail.
We pass thru Playa, a small and very rural village that also has camping facilities. You get a sense that Playa (Beach) is an entire world away from the one we live in - but then again not very different from us in terms of basic goals and objectives - family, work, community. Seems very poor.
We hike a section of the Inca Trail, visit with a coffee bean growing family that roasts fresh coffee beans for us, and then check in to Colpa Lodge.
Long day. Lots of beautiful Andean river valley views - no way to capture them with an iPhone.
The corn field picture that is included is on a patch of land that is half-way up a hill that would be a challenge for any of us to hike !!
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