Source of the Amazon

From the Colca Canyon we rushed back to the luxury of the thermal baths at our smart hotel for two more nights.  A bonus was the presence of the Cripps, an English family from Cusco, who have a boy, Oliver, in the same class as Titus, and two other children.  We had had introductions to them from two different friends in England but this was the first opportunity to spend time with them.  The children romped around together in the pool and about the hotel, giving the adults time to talk.  On one day Zu, Martha and I went with Paul to an extraordinary pre-Inca fort perched above the Canyon, leaving Titus with Carol, his wife, and the other children.

On the way back to Cusco we took in ‘the source of the Amazon’.  We went with Eloy, a mountain guide, whom Paul Cripps had recommended.  We needed him, Paul said, because when you got up high the road disappeared and you had to know which rock to turn left at.  Eloy appeared at our hotel – now a cheaper one in Chivay - after an overnight bus journey from Arequipa and joined us for breakfast.  The boys and Martha were presenting me with home-made cards and I quickly had to explain that it was my 50^th birthday.

The road was far rougher than we expected and our poor car was soon bumping and scraping up it.  We made very slow progress.  Paul had said that the 26 km should take us about two hours but I think we took four.  The problem was not only the roughness of the road but also the thinness of the air: our engine began to lack the puff necessary to get up the steeper bits.  We were glad of Eloy, who coaxed us along and did tell us where to turn when the road ran out.  It was stark and beautiful country and it felt odd to be crossing it in a car.

(Video by Titus)

Eventually our wheels were defeated by what looks now an innocuous little slope and we had to take to our legs.  This was quite a relief as we had all had enough of being lurched around and we knew we would enjoy the arrival more if we had exercised our muscles.  After about 40 minutes we approached a boulder-strewn bank beneath a cliff.  Above it was the ice cap of Nevado Mismi (5597m). As we clambered along the bank the boys picked up icicles to suck.  Eventually we came to a point where water squirted dramatically out of the cliff face.  Beside it were some plaques and a cross.  We had arrived.  We marked our arrival in the modern way – with lots of photos – and we filled a bottle with water so as to be able to make Amazon tea later.  It was a beautiful spot and it was hard to imagine that that sparkling, cold, clear water would turn into the lazy, muddy Amazon and disgorge into the Atlantic over 4,000 miles away. 

Frank at 50

As we walked back to the car Zu found a large feather.  To his absolute delight Eloy identified it as coming from a juvenile condor.  This, of course, put Titus into something of a spin as they are quite competitive about feather-collecting.  Zu, to be fair, probably deserved this trophy more.  He spends hours walking off paths to look for feathers.

We had hoped to be back at the ‘main’ road in the early afternoon but the sun had almost set by the time we got down.  We had to abandon our plan to go and camp in ‘Tres Canyones’ , a spectacular valley slightly off the beaten track, and instead we took Eloy back to Chivay – where he announced he was going back to Arequipa on the overnight bus – and reinstated ourselves at our hotel.  We thought we would go out to the best restaurant in town to celebrate my birthday but that turned out to be a mock-Irish pub which played rock music a little too loud.

On the way back to Cusco we stopped at Kanamarca, some beautifully restored and extensive pre-Inca ruins.  There we had lunch and brewed up our Amazon tea.  Although it was Sunday we had the place completely to ourselves.  It made our decision to buy a car feel a little less absurd.

Frank brewing Amazon tea.