They show little wear, suggesting that they were used in ceremonies or as a form of currency. The explorers face enormous challenges. The ruins are 20 miles from the nearest vehicle track and paths had to be cut through the forest with rope bridges strung across rivers. Mules and packhorses are being used to take supplies up to the main camp at Huariconca, in a 1,000ft-deep gorge. From there, equipment is carried 10 miles by porters.
Wildlife is abundant.
Besides bees, the explorers could encounter jaguars, pumas, monkeys, wild pigs, rodents the size of dogs and many insects and tarantula spiders. The venture, which will last about four months, is the third phase of the Kota Mama Expedition which began as an attempt to prove that the ancient people of South America used the continent's waterways for trade. In the first phase, which began in March 1998, traditional reed boats took explorers 250 miles to Lake Poopo in Bolivia. In the second, in 1999, the boats sailed 2,770 miles from Puerto Quijarro in the foothills of the Andes to Buenos Aires in Argentina. When the survey of the ruins is completed, the third phase will continue using a reed trimaran to travel from Lake Titicaca in Peru down the entire length of the Amazon, negotiating dangerous rapids to emerge in the Atlantic.