August 22nd Cusco to Ocongate Day 19
Sunday - but still working and a day into the high mountains
Cloudy at first but clear later, I think I had a good might in a decent bed after a lot of work the previous day.. The first job was to repack the Land Rovers, reconnect the electronics and check them out. Once all was ready we set off from Cusco around 9:30 heading off on the road to Urcos. Just for a change, this was a metalled road initially. The road mostly followed a river valley all the way to Urcos. After a 49 km drive, taking measurements all the way, we arrived at Urcos (at over 3,100 m asl) for a break at 11:30.
We had chance for about an hour break in Urcos so I had chance to look around and take some photos around the main square and the church (Church of San Juan Bautista, one of the highest churches in Peru apparently). There was lots of activity, I suspect because it was a Sunday, so there seemed to be a sort of market taking place. Plenty of local quechua women and men with their different hats and blankets (lliclas, or aguayo). Some of the ment are wearing traditional ponchos. There were llamas, often used as beasts of burden and decorated with coloured tassels on their ears. More pictures of the market here
Urcos - The Church of San Juan Bautista
Leaving Urcos at around 12:30 (at 3,200m asl) we were back to dirt road as we headed off to Ocongate and now climbing into the mountains. We were again back to lengthy zig-zags and slow climbing to around 4,200m through to ‘Abra Cuyuni, Mirador de Ausangate’ (Ausangate mountain view – The mountain 6,384 m.is a sacred to the quechua, quite a few km to the SE of where we were). We passed through the village of Ccatca and I took a couple of photos of the buildings as we passed. Ccatca would figure again on our return journey. We then descended into a broad valley at around 3,700 m before weaving up and down through mountains before reaching Ocongate (3,500 m asl) after a 60 km drive from Urcos.
View all the photos from day 19 here
Last Updated on 05/10/2026″