Hiking and Biking Peru's Inca Trails

We've had the following updates from Hervé Fagard.

Route 14 (Choquechaca): To reach Choquechaca from the ruins at Pumamarca, the start of the description is correct: go north, then NNE through an eucalyptus forest. The path then goes down to eventually reach the bottom of the valley E of the ruins ("Rio Yuracmayo" on the guidebook map, but "Riachuelo Choquechaca" on Opentopomap.org). Going up this valley but staying on the right bank of the river (W of it), you may see the small stone bridge mentioned in the route description, but do not cross it! The path goes up the valley but always on the W side of the river. There is NO path uphill on the opposite bank, unlike what the description says. You will eventually reach Choquechaca, which is well below the quoted altitude, in fact slightly above 3800m: both my GPS and the contour lines on opentopomap.org agree on this. In fact if you zoom in enough on opentopomap.org, you will see the correct route. On your way back, rather than returning to the ruins, cross the small bridge, and you will find a very well marked and very pleasant path going down the valley, on the E bank of the river. It will eventually lead you to the small village of Pallata (wrongly placed on the map in the route 13 description: it lies in fact at the rivers intersection, not SW of it). Then you will have to catch a ride back to Ollantaytambo. A very nice day walk, very recommended to acclimatise before higher altitude hikes.

Route 20 (Las Canterras quarries and Inti Punku): The direction arrows on the map need to be reversed, since they do not match the description: "Inca bridge --> mirador --> quarries", and "quarries --> Cachiccata". On the way back, the trail split towards Cachiccata is shown near the quarries: this point is 3.5km below Inti Punku, not 2km. At this point there is an obvious path towards NNW up to a couple of buildings. But then the path disappears, going on at the same altitude off-track towards NW will eventually lead you to a much better path going down to Cachiccata. On our way down from Inti Punku we saw a good path branching off to NE, which may be the one mentioned in the description 2km down from Inti Punku (but this does not match the map). It is probably the same path we crossed after the off-track section, and the best way to reach Cachiccata. Again, the opentopomap.org map seems to show the actual paths. Very recommended day hike, which allowed us to see a pair of condors.