Inca Trail

Today I went back to the mountains with Perry. He has land out there where he is planning to build a house, but to build a house, he needs a potable water supply, so I am trying to get a slow-rate sand filter built there before I leave. I don't know whether I can get it all done before I leave or not, but I'll do my best. Anyhow, I was concerned about whether we could get gravity flow of water into the top of the filter, so we went back out with a level and I found that I have plenty of elevation. Now I need to draw up detailed plans and find the tanks, pipe, etc., that we will need for the actual construction.

Right on the border of Perry's land is a right-of-way that dates back to the time of the Incas. It was a foot-path at that time, and has continued in use to the present. It is a legal public right-of-way and people travel on it on foot, on bicycle, on horse, and possibly on ATVs. It is not really of a size that a regular 4-wheel vehicle could travel it. Here are a couple of shots, one looking north and the other south, along the trail.

As we were looking around up there, a young woman came galloping up on horseback, and I got the following picture of her after she dismounted. There are a number of cattle grazing up here, as Perry invited the locals to graze their livestock there to keep the grass down. He plans to get some cattle of his own eventually, but in the meanwhile this works.
And not just cattle. This mare and colt were also staked out on his property. The mare doesn't look in very good shape, but I thought that was just due to the colt being so hungry. However, Perry said that they had just recently been brought in from elsewhere, where the grazing had not been so good. We'll see how the mare does up here.Also, I found this walking stick in the grass. There are a lot of them here, but in the grass they are almost impossible to see. This one shows up better on a hand.