May 4 2025 – Cachora to Playa Rosalina
I woke up this morning to rain. Not even a light drizzle either. I had some concerns about whether or not I could pull the trek off, or, given the steepness of the Andean countryside and the possibility of landslides, if it was even a good idea to try.
Ultimately I decided I’d try, and worst case I’d turn around. By the time I had finished breakfast my transportation to the trailhead had arrived, so off I went.
Once we got to the trailhead at Capuliyoc the rain had stopped, though everything was still wet. In my research the place you purchase the entry ticket to the site was at the site itself, but most of that research was terribly out of date. You now purchase the ticket in Capuliyoc. The gentleman who sells the tickets doesn’t know English, but between Google translate and pantomiming I was able to purchase a ticket and he was able to give me a warning about staying on the high side of the trail when a mule passes so I don’t get knocked to my death.
From Capuliyoc the trail very briefly heads up over a shoulder of the mountain as you pass around to it’s back side. From there you can theoretically see the entire route to Choquequirao, so that would be the turn back point depending on what you see. All I saw was that I was standing ABOVE clouds.
Ultimately I decided to descend into the mist. The clouds rose up as I headed down.
It started to get very hot. When I hiked the Everest Base Camp trek 2 liters of water per day was more than plenty, so I had figured that’s all I’d need here too, and I wasn’t consciously paying attention to just how much I was actually drinking.
About 2/3rds the way down to the river you come to the village of Chiquisca. Most of the people who do this trek stop there for the day, but since it was only 11AM at that point I kept going. My plan was to make it all the way down to the river, cross it, and start climbing up the other side to Santa Rosa Baja.
If I was smart I would’ve at least stopped in Chiquisca to fill up my water bottles, but I trundled on through without stopping. The farther down I went, the hotter it got. I have a digital thermometer attached to my pack, and when I finally made it down to the river it was reading 102 Fahrenheit. At that point I had been out of water for a mile and was extremely thirst.
Fortunately I had brought a water filter and UV sterilizer. So I climbed down to the river and refilled my bottles. Emptied them again directly into my mouth, and refilled them again.
On the bank of the river is an abandoned campground called Playa Rosalina. I have no idea how long it’s been abandoned, but from the looks of things it’s been abandoned for several years.
I rested for a while intending to resume the hike, but ultimately I was worried if it would be as hot heading up the other side as it had been coming down, and decided to stay the night and head up in the early morning when it’s cooler. That’s the advantage of actually having food/stove/water filter/tent/sleeping bag on this trip. I did wonder about the legality of camping there, but ultimately figured nobody would care. And nobody did.
It was the first time in my adult life that I’d actually camped someplace alone, and I discovered that camping alone is actually pretty boring. Although it was a very beautiful canyon during the golden hour.
Tomorrow I’ll get up early, and begin the climb up to Santa Rosa Baja. I’ll be a day late in my itinerary, but hopefully there won’t be anything else that causes me to fall behind.
