14th June 2011
El Fuerte is... THE BIGGEST CARVED ROCK IN THE WORLD! Pretty amazing right? I went there today with an English lad called Sam who is staying in the hostel.
We half walked, half hitch hiked there, its only 9km away from Samaipata but the road there is up and down hill and is dusty and hard to walk on. We hitched 2 cars to get there, the first dropped us at the bottom of the hill, from where we walked about 2km before stopping a couple in a jeep, they stopped leaving us in a in a cloud of dusk and took us right to the enterance.
El Fuerte consists of a long walkway around this massive rock. The path has several look out points with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and of course, views of the "world famous" rock. It has carvings from pre-inca times and has been used for centuries as a fortress, a temple, a trade centre - everything. It was a very pleasant walk actually. Nice views, inca ruins - standard south american tourist attraction really. I enjoyed it. We rushed through a little because I had to be back at the hostel for 1, but I think we took enough time- theres only so much rock you can look at before getting fed up.
We started walking, unenthusiastically, down the mountain for about half an hour before hitching a ride on a flat bed truck. Sitting on the back of a truck in south america hitching through the Andes is endlessly cool, however, the cloud of dust and dirt which envolves you is not. We got a lift all the way back to Samaipata, saving us loads of money, but we were covered in dust and dirt by the end of it.
It was a good trip, followed by a good evening. Even though Im supposed to stay in the hostel all night I managed to slip out for dinner. We went to Tierra Libre, by far the best restaurant in town, and had a fantastic meal followed by lots of red wine, card games, cake and music in the hostel. Not bad really.
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