Cascadas Alcamayo

This guide to Cascadas Alcamayo near Aguas Calientes follows the jungle trail up to an unmarked gate on private land, where someone stands in a doorway collecting an informal toll with no printed price and no receipt. It traces the conflicting accounts hikers give of what the fee actually costs, and the frustration of reaching the checkpoint already soaked and three-quarters of the way up a steep rainforest canyon. Tiny stone dioramas of Inca buildings crowd the garden around the house that guards the only way through.