Guagapo: The Crying/Never-Ending Cave

So approximately 2 hours after arriving in Huancayo, we convinced ourselves that we could totally make what Eli and Netto assured us would only be a 5 hour, strait forward, ride to the jungle. We would go up the mountain and down the mountain and we would be there. Piece of cake. Funny thing about Peruvians, they seem to have their own space-time continuum, and after about 4 hours we made it about half way to the "Never-ending cave" (end of ranting-promise)


The Never-Ending Cave
Something you should know about the three of us, we don't really speak Spanish. Meaning that we definitely don't understand the very rapidly speaking tour guides so far on this trip. So naturally we followed one into a cave that never ends. I'm pretty sure she said that it had been explored for 2000 meters before it goes underwater and even then forks off into thousands of different caves. Possibly she was talking about rocks shaped like tennis shoes, I guess we'll never know

This is Netto! Our Peruvian padre

The really uplifting local legend behind the cave is that when the people went to war with the Inca, they put all the old people, women and children in the cave to avoid a massacre. The families waited for the return of the warriors for a long time, but the Incas were too strong and the men never returned. The women mourned their deaths and, out of fear, never left the cave, becoming transformed into rock after many years. The legend says that the tears of the starving children are what created the river that runs through the cave and makes the valley fertile today.Like I said, uplifting right? Or maybe I totally misunderstood and the legend is about llamas...we'll never know
see below for more Katy-is-a-badass pictures