Of one incident of the ascent Mr. Hay wrote: “Most of the party started long before the two ‘Yanquis,’ but in half an hour we caught up with
them. They had waylaid an Indian bearer and were having beer and other refreshments under a tree. Here we noticed an example of the height of generosity towards an Indian in Peru. This is to let him carry all day, among other things, the refreshments. Then take the beer, drink it, and return him the bottle. The bottle, be it noted, should be received with many expressions of thanks on the part of the Indian. We passed the revellers and plodded on up together. Unfortunately for history but fortunately for our nerves, at least, the periodista gave out soon after this and was forced to turn back. So the chronicle of the events at Choqquequirau must come only from the pen of an alien? Not for a minute! El periodista was ever with us in spirit, and the report for the Lima Journal fared far better at the hands of Imagination than it ever could have through plain Experience.”
The enthusiastic Caceres kept shouting “valor” at the top of his lungs as evidence of his good spirits and in an effort to encourage the others. The two Yankis had a hard time of it and were obliged to stop and rest nearly every fifty feet.
At times the trail was so steep that it was easier to go on all fours than to attempt to maintain an erect attitude. Occasionally we crossed streams in front of waterfalls on slippery logs or treacherous little foot-bridges. At other times we clung to the face of rocky precipices or ascended by roughly constructed ladders from one elevation to another. Although the hillside was too precipitous to allow much forest growth, no small part of the labor of making the path had been the work of cutting through dense underbrush.
As we mounted, the view of the valley became more and more magnificent. Nowhere have I ever witnessed such beauty and grandeur as was here displayed. A white torrent raged through the cañon six thousand feet below us. Where its sides were not too precipitous to admit of vegetation, the steep slopes were covered with green foliage and luxuriant flowers. From the hilltops near us other slopes rose six thousand feet beyond and above to the glaciers and snow-capped summits of Mts. Sargantay and Soray. In the distance, as far as we could see, a maze of hills, valleys, tropical jungle, and snow-capped peaks held the imagination as though by a spell. Such were our rewards as we lay panting by the side of the little path when we had reached its highest point.
After getting our wind, we followed the trail westward, skirting more precipices and crossing other torrents, until, about two o’clock, we rounded a promontory and caught our first glimpse of the ruins of Choqquequirau on the slopes of a bold mountain headland 6000 feet above the river. Between the outer hilltop and the ridge connecting it with the snow-capped mountains, a depression or saddle had been terraced and levelled so as to leave a space for the more important buildings of the Inca stronghold.