Inca Cave Explorations

For once, luck was not with us today when we left the hotel. On average, there is a sixty-percent chance of rain throughout the Cuzco region on any given day in January. Since Saturday, we had been blessed with little to no rain, except for the occasional shower at Machu Picchu. Today, it was Cuzco’s version of raining cats and dogs, complete with wind and damp temperatures within the sixties. Horseback riding was not on the original agenda, but I remembered there being an option to go Urubamba River rafting (not a fan after my Farmington River tubing incident this past summer) or horseback riding on our free day. After I briefly mentioned it to Edwin, our tour guide, he immediately took control of organizing everything for us and negotiating a good price. For US$30 per person, we were going to be led by a tour guide and several additional ranch aids to several Inca cave sites. I never realized the Inca used so many caves. I remember reading a long time ago about the importance of caves to the Inca. The caves were seen as a portal into the world between life and death. Since the mountain is a deity, the cave is a portal into the other world.

The tour guide, a ranch hand, and driver picked up ten of us at the hotel in the morning and we were driven up by the site of Saqsaywaman to meet our horses. It rained the entire time. We had to trek through one of the muddiest fields I have ever seen in order to reach the horses. In our group, we had at least two people who had never ridden and one that was recovering from a very major throw from a horse. At first, I was a little nervous as to how everyone would recover from this experience, but once I got into the saddle, I knew this was going to be yet another adventure. What was really interesting is that I chose my horse before the ranch hand even chose me. This usually happens with me and horses. It is very important that the rider feel a connection to a horse before getting into the saddle, otherwise the horse will not listen to the rider. When the horse, a dark brown male, came out of the fenced area I immediately knew I wanted to be paired with him. The ranch hand chose me to come up and get saddled and it was a perfect match from then on. Once we made our way through the crowd of riders ascending the mountain, it was very easy for me to take the lead through the paths to the caves. I forgot how much I love riding horses. I have not ridden since 2005 when I was in Las Vegas riding in the Red Rock Canyon. At the top of the mountain we were led by our tour guide on foot to the Temple of the Moon. This particular cave attracts hundreds of visitors with Shamans throughout the year, but particularly around the Winter Solstice. On or about December 21st, the moon will be perfectly aligned with a hole within the cave which reveals the sky. On this particular day, a Shaman led a couple to the top of the cave and he was performing a ceremony outside the entrance. After remounting our horses, we rode for about fifteen minutes before stopping on the opposite side of a road by a large structure of caves. The caves were like a labyrinth. We crept through tight crevices, ducked under boulders supported by gravity, and peered into the darkness of openings few would dare to enter. At some points, the twists and turns came so quickly, I lost site of the majority of the group in front of me and found myself in a maze of openings and closings. As the rain started to pick up again, the few of us stragglers caught up with the group and remounted our horses to begin the descent back down. I heard many of the people say they thoroughly enjoyed the experience, including those who had never ridden before. It made me happy to hear them say they enjoyed it since I had been looking forward to this experience since I first signed up for the trip.