A Handmade 118-Foot Rope Bridge, Rewoven Every Year

[Judi Lynn]

A Handmade 118-Foot Rope Bridge, Rewoven Every Year
In Peru, a centuries-old tradition brings Inca infrastructure into the present.

BY SCOTT FERRARA AUGUST 29, 2017




The last crossing of the 2016 Q'eswachaka before the new bridge was constructed. ALL PHOTOS: SCOTT FERRARA


lthough the Inca Empire has long since vanished, Peru’s Cusco Region is saturated with archaeological and historical sites that offer a glimpse into pre-Columbian civilizations. In one particular remote mountain village, Inca tradition is alive at a three-day event that has been performed annually for 600 years: the rope-braiding festival of the Q’eswachaka, the last handwoven Incan rope bridge. 


During the festival, members of four local Quechua communities contribute strands of rope woven from grass. These strands are then woven together to create a 118-foot bridge that is slung across the Apurimac River. It replaces the bridge woven the previous year, which sags more and more over its 12-month reign.

The 2017 festivities took place in June beside the river, nearly a four-hour drive south of the city of Cusco. The trip is over rough and mountainous terrain and past cookie-cutter villages influenced by early Spanish conquest.



More:
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/qeswachaka-rope-bridge

Anthropology:
https://www.democraticunderground.com/12293307

[underpants]

1. This is as amazing as the kids in China who made a weekly horrendous climb to go to school

[Motley13]

3. Difficult ways to go to school

I had remembered the one in Colombia


http://www.brainjet.com/world/3426/13-kids-with-the-most-dangerous-trips-to-school

[Warpy]

2. One of the workshops at Inter Mountain Weavers

featured a series of films of the whole process, from picking grass, thigh rolling the singles, then plying them into rope and then cable. Women did the process up to the cabling, then men took over when it started to get really heavy. It ended with stringing the new bridge over the old one. I don't know if the old one is cut away or is just allowed to drop away naturally, but I suspect the latter.

It is incredibly ingenious, solving a massive travel problem with something a simple as grass.

ETA: Found it, good old YouTube.