Last weekend I was able to get out again with the South American Explorers Club (SAE) to do a nice little Saturday day hike to Ccorca and the Tecsecocha Canyon. It was great to be able to make the time to get out of Cusco and spend some time in nature again. Best part, many friends in town I had not seen in a while were also on the trip and we got a chance to catch up and relax from what has been quite a busy tourism season this year in Cusco.
One of the reasons I like hiking with the SAE is that they do not just hike the typical routes; Matt, the guide, goes out of his way to find cool and off-the-beaten-track areas to explore. This day hike was no different. This seemingly unvisited area was built up for tourism and included hanging tombs, rock drawings, a little cave, dried up waterfalls (which will look AWESOME in the rainy season), pretty foot-path to walk along, a man-made lake, and a great little picnic area. Not too shabby for a place that no one ever visits.
We started at the SAE clubhouse at about 10:30am and took a S/. 0.70 combi towards an area called Tica-Tica which is an area where Maximo Nivel does much volunteer work. From there, a taxi driver took the group of 7 of us (plus a little dog) another 40 minutes or so up through the mountains until we arrived at Ccorca. We started exploring at around noon and arranged for the driver to meet us in the Ccorca main plaza at 3:00pm sharp. This driver had worked with our guide, Matt, in the past and was very nice.
We started going into the canyon, following a nice foot-path along the way. There were little bridges built to help zigzag across the little river. We say some rock paintings and come skulls in a little tomb. Then we climbed up to the top of some hanging peaks. The view at the top was 360º views of all of the valley and were pretty spectacular.
Afterward we hiked back down and walked back down to the starting point and walked down the river a little, also along the really pretty footpath. We passed through a tiny little cave, saw more tombs, and finally ended up at a super cute picnic area. This area had table and chairs made our of carved trees, an enclosed area to get out of the sun, a man-made lake (pond), and a really nice path which circles around a waterfall. Sadly, due to the dry season there was almost no water but I cannot wait to go back in the rainy season to see what it looks like.
We stayed there for a while, ate, had some fun with the puppy who came with us, and eventually made our way to the main square in Ccorca. It was really scenic and quiet… nice! We explored the town a little and checked out the cemetery which was very colorful. Not too much going on in this town, but it was pretty and everyone was nice.
Our driver showed up at exactly 3:00pm, rare for Cusco, and we made it back into town where we had some celebratory drinks before calling it a day. Thank again to Matt at the SAE for setting up this awesome hike and introducing all of us to more great, unknown, areas around Cusco.
