Cochabamba, Bolivia and Incallajta
by David K. Johnson
Yesterday's journey from Cochabamba to the remains of the eastern-most outpost of the Incas brought back many memories of my time in Bolivia 20 - 25 years ago.
The day trip started at 9:00 a.m., and for the first hour we passed by many of the areas where we built the first rural electric system back in the late '70s. It was so mice to see television antennas on the adobe houses, street lights on many of the poles, and telephone cables hung below the secondary wires. I felt that my work had helped change the lives of tens of thousands of rural families. A tear of joy came to my eyes.
After about 80 miles of travel on a deteriorated asphalt road we turned onto an un-improved mountain road. It was in reasonable shape, but there were six crossings of small streams, only one of which had a bridge. When we arrived at the first one I thought "oh no, here's where we stop". But the driver just shifted down and drove into the water. The 1999 Mitsubishi compact station wagon spun its wheels a couple times, but we passed through the fast-flowing, 2' deep stream. We did this 4 more times.
Then we came to a wider, rougher, faster stream - a small river, actually. It was noon so we sat on the rocks and had our chicken, potato, yucca and rice lunch - all "finger food". We also had plums, and peaches that we bought along the way. I ignored the usual advice about not eating unpeeled fruit.
After lunch the guide and I removed shoes and socks, and crossed the river. It was very tricky! The river bottom was all stones of various sizes, and the water was flowing very fast.
About 1/4 mile beyond the stream we came to a stone path. The would lead us to Incallajta. The stone path, and the rest of the "fortress" was built in the mid-1400s to defend the Inca empire from attacks by other Indians who lived in the subtropical lowlands to the east.
The entire site is quite overgrown with brush. About 5,000 people lived at the 160 acre (my estimate) site for 75 years. There is a large temple - no roof, and remains of many rooms and walls. There is a 50' deep ravine passing through the site. At the head of the ravine is a beautiful, 100' + waterfall dropping straight down a shear mountain wall. We crossed the ravine at the waterfall, following the remains of the 500-year old stone trail.
At
the far side of the site we met a local 12-year old boy who lived on a potato
farm with his mother. We chatted with
Luis as we walked back to the river crossing.
Luis gave me a hand in crossing the river. I gave him my business card and told him that is he ever needed
help "crossing a river" in the USA to please give me a call. He seemed like a very bright kid.
Today I had a nice tour of Cochabamba. It has changed a lot since the 1970s. There are many new, expensive houses, including one area that reminded me of Boise's ritzy houses up in the hills. In contrast, I also saw a lot of the old adobe houses.
The large market (La Cancha) had gotten even bigger - and more organized. Each of the hundreds of vendors has their own space with a roll-up steel door. It looks like an enormous U-Store, but with a roof and 5' aisles. I bought a few things there.
Copyright 1999