Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu
27 Abril 2011

This Semana Santa, Speare and I decided to join forces with Rocio and Edgar (volunteers from Arequipa) and conquer Machu Picchu! We got a sweet deal with a touring agency for super cheap, so there was no way we could turn down the opportunity to go. Our tour followed the notorious Incan Trail. But instead of trekking on the first day, we did mountain biking and whitewater rafting instead - they call this the Incan Jungle Trail.

And this is my story…

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Traveling to Cusco:

I woke up this morning on the bus to beautiful green mountains and light rainfall. It’s a quarter to 8am - about 175km to Cusco - after over 30 hours on a bus. I’m sitting across the isle from a man from New Castle, England - he’s very interesting. He has a peruvian wife and has been going to Cusco for over 25 years. They have a hotel in the Sacred Valley. What a great life. I could definitely see myself doing something like that in the future.

First Day in Cusco (3400m):

Speare and I got lucky and found a cheap hostel with hot water right off of the Plaza de Armas. For lunch, we found the most delicious all-you-can-eat indian buffet for only S/. 15! After lunch, we walked around the Plaza. It reminded me so much of Cajamarca - the green mountains surrounding the town, sprinkled with chacras. I felt so alive and excited that I gave a campo lady and her baby begging on the street a sol. That night, I left Speare in the hostel watching Alice in Wonderland, and I went to church solita in the beautiful Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús in the Plaza (built by the Jesuits in 1571). Being Palm Sunday, I bought a beautiful palm cross for a sol as my souvenir for attending church that night.

Cusco from afar:

Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús:

Cathedral:

a street in Cusco:

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Day 1:

Speare and I woke up at 5:30am - super excited to start our trekking adventure! We packed our bags (which we later learned were - by far - bigger and heavier than anyone else’s bags on our trip) and headed out for coffee in the Plaza. At 6:45am, we went to the Cathedral (started in 1559 and taking almost a hundred years to build) - which was where we were to meet the others. Luckily, the Cathedral was open for early mass! (During the day, it costs S/. 15 for a peak inside.) We went in, and Speare snuck a few pics of The Last Supper painting (Painted by Quechua artist Marcos Zapata - there’s a cuy on the center of the table!). As we were waiting for the bus to pick us up, we met Rocio’s friend, Tonje, who was joining us for our adventure. We hit it off right away. The bus arrived a little after 7am - and we hopped in with Rocio and Edgar, and the rest of our soon to be trekking family.

We went about 3 hours up into the mountains - taking a break for the bathroom and coffee - where we ran into Vann (a fellow Cajamarca volunteer). We didn’t even know he would be here in Cusco! He was taking a tour with a different group on the very same days we were, and he brought a friend with him from the states. During the break, I overheard the married couple in our group telling the Swiss boys that they are from the Tampa/St. Petersburg area! I jumped into the conversation and told them that I was too! Come to find out, they lived on Sunset Beach, Treasure Island - the same small beach community I am from! And they know my dad and his girlfriend, Suzanne! Such a small world!!!

The last part of our bus ride was up - up - UP into the mountains and cloud forests of Abra Málaga (4350m), where it was freezing and raining! We put on our rain gear and got on our bikes, ready for our 3-4 hour (almost 50km) bike ride down to Santa María (1430m).

Along with the cold and the rain, the view was breathtaking! Lush, green mountains with drastic waterfalls (which, at some points, we had to ride our bikes through). The wet roads made for a dangerous descent, and there were a few casualties… Speare hit a curb too hard, dodging a truck, and fell off his bike, scrapping up his arm. And the Canadian Girl fell off her bike, which was then run over by a bus!

After we arrived to the little town of Santa María, we had lunch and dropped our bags off in our hostel.

Our clothes and shoes were soaking wet from mountain biking, so we put them out to dry for the night. Then a small group of us went whitewater rafting. Speare, Tonje, Rocio, Edgar and I were joined with the married couple from Sunset Beach. We all pilled on one raft with our rafting guide, and we were out in the white waters, braving the rapids of Río Vilcanota. It was so beautiful… oh, to be on a river in Cusco! By the time we finished, it was dark - and we had to carry our rather large and heavy boat through the woods! Some of the girls were shoeless - it took us about 30 minutes walking baby-steps over the rocks, stones, and twigs with the boat up on our shoulders before we got to the bus.

At dinner, The Colombians joined us, and our tour-group family was complete!

The Line-Up:
Us - AKA The Peace Corps Crew (plus Rocio’s friend, Tonje)
The Married Couple from Sunset Beach
The Colombians (Juan Diego, his cousin and her friend)
The Swiss Boys
The Smoker’s Couple (a cute little couple who smokes cigarettes and walks as slow as me)
Canadian Girl
Angela
Two Other Couples

And then we were all off to bed, resting up for the large day planned for tomorrow.

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Day 2:

We all woke up and had the most delightful breakfast - a banana wrapped in a fluffy pancake with syrup on top. And by 7am, we all pilled into the back of a truck with our gear. It was about 15-20 minutes through the rainy jungle to the drop off point. Today was the hardest day - hours upon hours of walking (over 10 hours to be exact - and for over 23km) through the mountains of Cusco. And none of our shoes had dried from the day before.

All of us were exhausted after the first hour - dripping with sweat and being eaten alive by bugs. Our entire group pitied Speare and me for having to carry such huge backpacks. Our hiking paces were all in-tact by now: The Swiss Boys always leading the way, Speare and Edgar not too far behind, and I was usually walking with Rocio, Tonje, or my little Smokers Couple.

We had a couple of resting points, one of which was in a campo home.

The ladies there made cuy for the group to try. (I politely declined. Cuy is quite popular in Cajamarca, and I have tried it many times. I just don’t like guinea pig.)

There, the guides told us stories of the Incas and showed us a plant with dye inside of it that the Incas used to paint their faces. And then, one by one, the guides individually painted each one of our faces with our own symbols - getting us ready for the trail ahead.

Towards the middle of our treacherous journey, we reached the highest point of the trail (Dead Woman’s Pass - 4198m) - the only part of the ancient Incan Trail still standing - and I collected a few pretty stones along the way. The trail was basically hanging from a giant cliff, with astounding mountain and river views that our cameras couldn’t even captivate.

We took another break before lunch in a coca field, and we got a history lesson of the ancient use of coca leaves.

At lunch, I had the most lovely conversation with one of our trail guides about the Quechua language and about his life in Cusco. And we ate the best soup in Peru followed by yummy pasta. No one could feel our legs or our feet, and we had about 4-5 hours to go. To prepare for the next leg of the journey, everyone put on more coats of bug spray and sunblock, wrung out their socks, and put band-aids over their newly-formed blisters. Luckily, I had no blisters, but my ankle was starting to give out - so I wrapped it with a bandage Rocio had (thankfully) brought, and we hit the trail.

After about 2 more hours, we came to a section in the river with the most perfect swimming hole. We all soaked our tired feet in the icy river for about 30 minutes or so, and we chugged the rest of our bottled water.

Another hour into the trail, and we crossed a part of the road where there were 2 landslides. We waited for a while, until it was safe to pass - and even then, we had to take turns - one by one - climbing over unsteady rocks with our unsteady legs and the assistance of a road worker.

The last hour or so was mainly down hill. Which was nice, because we all got a chance to pair off and have normal conversations without gasping for air. I walked with one of the Colombians (Juan Diego) and Tonje. We talked about our lives and life in general - and before we knew it, the sun set behind the mountains, and we were arriving to Santa Teresa (1900m).

To say that we were all exhausted would have been an understatement. Every part of our bodies were aching. We (quite literally) stumbled into the town and barely made it into our hostel. Our room was disgusting - the cockroach capital of Peru. And, of course there was no warm water. We all suffered through our cold showers and examined our tired, scraped, bruised, blistered, bug-eaten bodies. After being eaten alive by bugs the first day (all over my arms, legs, and face), I layered the bug repellant all day long today. But, of course the bugs found the only places on my body with no repellant, and they got my eye lid and in my arm pit.

We had dinner and decided to reward ourselves with some cold beer. Around 10pm, our guides took us to a discotec, where all of the other tour groups were partying. We saw Vann and his friend, and all of us stretched out our aches and pains by dancing the night away!

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Day 3:

After a quick breakfast, half of the group went zip-lining (being terrified of going at great speeds, I opted out), and the other half hit the trail again. Today was a bit easier, with only about 4 or so hours of hiking (for a little over 15km) - and I (somehow) was feeling some energy. Juan Diego, Speare, and I led the way following the guide, with The Smokers Couple and Angela right behind us.

Most of the trail was following the notorious railroad. I had the idea of putting a sol on the track right before the Hiram Bingham Train passed, and it squished it perfectly. Everyone else did the same, after I showed them what I had done. Along with my stones I’d been collecting, this was a cheap and wonderful souvenir!

Right before lunch, we had our first peak of Machu Picchu from a distance! This fueled our feet to take us further! Lunch was in a cute little paradise-like place in the middle of no-where. We walked down a path to the side of the tracks, through a garden, a stream, and past some ducks - and then beautiful tables lined with clothes appeared. Our waiter was all dressed up - wearing dress pants and a dress shirt.

Here’s where the bad luck of the day began… When Speare was looking through his camera at lunch, he accidentally deleted ALL OF HIS PICTURES!!!!! We were terribly upset, but too weak and delirious to react the way we normally would.

After lunch, we were back on the trail and following the railroad tracks. We could hardly stumble up the last big hill to our destination, but finally we reached Aguas Calientes (1990m)!

Aguas Calientes was somewhat surreal. Juan Diego put it well - after walking for days through mountains and woods, we come to this developed, civilized world in the middle of nowhere. Beautiful parks alongside the roaring river, fancy hotels and restaurants lined up along the well-lit streets, and people (CLEAN people) were everywhere.

We got there before the other group, so Speare and I decided to reward ourselves with nachos. We found a cute, cheap mexican restaurant with board games on the tables, and we sat and played Jenga as we waited for our food.

On the way back to the hostel, we ran into Rocio - she left the other group early and took the train after zip-lining, because she was terribly dehydrated. She ended up being super sick and spent the rest of the day and night in the hostel (once again, BAD LUCK strikes!). Next, Speare and I had to hit up the ATM. Speare asked Rocio if she needed money out too, so we brought her card with us. More bad luck - Rocio’s card got stuck in the ATM! We waited around for 30 minutes or so and called the number on the ATM - but no luck - so, we had to leave it there.

We all met for dinner at around 7:30pm, and we had our choice of comida this time - everything delicious was on the menu! Qué rico! After dinner, our guides gave us our bagged breakfasts and details about the day ahead. Vann’s group was at the restaurant, too - we wished them all luck for tomorrow’s great adventure!

Of course, the day was not complete without a bit more bad luck… After dinner, we locked our keys to the hostel inside our room, and Vann’s friend from the states ended up forgetting his hiking shoes in the restaurant.

That night, I could hardly sleep. Not only because my body was so sore from the days prior, but also because of the excitement that was to come!!!

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Day 4 - MACHU PICCHU:

Our alarms went off at 3:20am, we popped our 800mg ibuprofen pills and vitamins, ate some of our bagged breakfasts, and put our game faces on for the last leg of the journey. We were out the door by 3:40am, hiked in the dark up to the starting point at the foot of the mountain (Puente Ruinas), and got in line with all of the other hikers.

We all stood at the entrance of the gate, right before the bridge over the Río Urubamba. They open the gate at 5am, where everyone races for an hour (for 2km) - straight uphill - to the entrance of Machu Picchu (2430m). Why race? - you ask…? Because only the first 400 people in line at the top get a stamp on their ticket for the hike to Wayna Picchu - a small, steep mountain with THE BEST VIEWS of all of Machu Picchu (they only let 400 people hike to this mountain top per day)! The buses from the bottom start going up the road at 5:30am, and for them it’s about a 20 minute bus ride to the top. The hikers have to beat other hikers, AND beat the bus time in order to get to hike to Wayna Picchu. It’s amazing how many people muster up the energy from within to hike this last section of the trail.


As we waited in the dark, more people from our group came up to wait in line… The Married Couple from Sunset Beach, The Swiss Boys power-team, The Smokers Couple, The Colombians (Juan Diego appropriately clad in a Super Man t-shirt under a bright red Adidas jump-suit)… we all waited together with anticipation and in hope that our legs would get us to the top.

The gate opened about 5 minutes before 5am, and we were off! I started walking with Speare, because my headlamp went out and it was pitch black walking through the woods. He quickly passed me (he took double the amount of altitude sickness medication the night before, as well as the 800mg ibuprofen that morning, so he was basically feeling no pain - blisters or no blisters).

I called into the darkness behind me for Rocio and Tonje, and they called back. So I waited for about 1 minute… but still no sign of them. As more people passed, I decided to just go up into the darkness by myself. After all, time was super precious. I went my own speed. Some people passed me, as I passed others who had stopped to catch their breaths. I recognized no one - but then again, it was extraordinarily dark, and no one was talking - only breathing heavily. I stopped for a minute to catch my breath as the sweat poured from my body, and familiar voices called my name. It was the married couple from Sunset Beach walking past - and their pace was perfect for me! We pushed each other about half way up, and I ended up having a second (or actually tenth or twentieth) wind - so I picked up my pace and went past them. 10 minutes more, and I was loosing my breath again. There was a hut off to the side of the dark trail with someone else in it, so I stepped in for a breather. Low and behold - it was Juan Diego! He, too, was completely out of energy. After about a minute of gasping for air, the married couple from Sunset Beach caught back up to us and stopped for a breath too. Then I gave Juan Diego (and myself) the best pep-talk in the history of pep-talks, and the four of us got out tired bodies back on the trail.

Pictures of the trail during the day time

(Speare took these on his way back down to Aguas Calientes that afternoon):

Finally, we made it to the top right before 6am - up into the clouds, but a little bit brighter!!! And we waited in the very last line - the line into Machu Picchu! We saw Speare up towards the front - he was the first one in line from our tour group, and Edgar a close second. Of course the Swiss were next, and somehow the other 2 Colombian girls weren’t far behind. After about 5 minutes of waiting in line, the buses arrived and unloaded more people into the line. Still no sign of Rocio or Tonje - I hoped they would make it for the first 400!

They finally opened the gate to our destination, and our tickets got stamped - first 400! - Heck YEAH! The married couple from Sunset Beach, Juan Diego, and I walked up into the clouds, past the Sacred Rock, and we had our first peak of what was in store. We couldn’t see much yet - the morning fog doesn’t fade away until after 9 or 10am - but we could certainly feel the greatness. We found one of our guides and waited for the rest of the group. One by one, they all walked up. Luckily, Rocio and Tonje made it for the first 400! The only ones who didn’t get the stamp for Wayna Picchu was the Smokers Couple. As a group, we did a-okay!

Our guides began our tour in the fog. We walked around a bit, learning about the history of this and that… what information archeologists, scientists, and historians have figured out, and what we may never know.

Before the fog cleared, Rocio and I had to use the restroom - so our guide told us where they were headed, so that we could find them again - Machu Picchu is HUGE! We left the group and headed back towards the entrance (outside the front gate is the only restroom in Machu Picchu). Afterwards, we walked around for a bit, and no sign of the group. But, this was totally fine with us - we could do some exploring of our own.

Just as the morning fog was beginning to clear, we ran into Juan Diego (who also made a trip to the restroom and was lost from the group). The three of us found a spot on a ledge to sit and watch the beauty and grandeur of Machu Picchu unfold before our very eyes. We sat in silence. I was in disbelief… was I really here? The drastic mountains engulfed this grand lugar. It was bigger than anyone could possibly imagine. And the journey we took to get to this place made the experience that much richer. I knew we were all thinking the same.

I don’t know how much time passed before we decided to walk around again. But when we did, we ran into our group. The three of us decided to keep exploring on our own, so we said our saludos and went off again into our expedition. This was the last time we saw our group all together.

I did, however, run into Vann’s friend - the one who left his hiking shoes in the restaurant the night before. He was hiking in socks and flip flops, but with a great big smile on his face! Such a trooper!

At around 9:30am, the three of us decided to take a bit of a break before we headed up to Wayna Picchu. We went back to the entrance area (where they sell over-priced drinks and snacks), and we refueled our tired bodies. At 10:30am, Rocio, Edgar, Tonje, The Married Couple from Sunset Beach, The Colombians, and I went to the trailhead for Wayna Picchu, where we waited in yet another line to show our stamped tickets and enter the trail.

Once again - another hour or so - up another steep mountain! And we all thought we were done with the hiking! Of course, we all went our own paces and separated - we’ll just meet at the top! Bodies sweaty and exhausted to no end, we made our way up the steep, slippery footpath and through a short section of an Inca tunnel. Nonetheless, we made it up there! And the view was priceless. All of us took our seats on our own rocks, sprayed the last bit of sunscreen on our bodies, and enjoyed the view…

After more than an hour or so, we started back down the trail, back into Machu Picchu. This is when my legs decided that this was the end. They were shaking with every step I took. At the bottom of the trail, Rocio, one of the Colombians, Edgar, and I went looking for the perfect sitting spot. We went to hop from one area to the next and got whistled at from one of the guards sitting on the other side of a field - which was a bit embarrassing because everyone around looked up to see what the commotion was about. We settled for a spot around the corner from the bottom of the trail (because no one had the energy to walk any further), and we laid our tired little bodies in the grass by some ancient rocks. Soon, Tonje walked up and joined us. We were content - just being there… soaking in the aura Macchu Picchu had to give us on that fine afternoon.

My soul wanted to stay, but my body had decided that enough was enough. So after around 1pm, the 2 Colombian Girls, Tonje, and I said goodbye to Machu Picchu and hopped on a bus back down to the real world. Towards the end of the bus ride, Tonje and I looked out our window and saw a very tired and disheveled Speare limping back by himself into Aguas Calientes - using a walking stick with a flower stuck into the end of it. I thought for sure that he had lost his mind… as we all had.

When we finally got back to the hostel, we plopped our dirty, tired bodies down on the couches. After a few minutes of resting, I splashed some water on my face and went with the group to get a real meal! For lunch/dinner (whatever time it was), I had pizza, a soda, and delirious conversations with the gang as we looked through the beautiful photos everyone had taken. Speare showed us a lengthy, 2 minute video that he took while he was hiking by himself back down to Aguas Calientes. It was the most hilarious video of him narrating as he held up his walking stick and threw it into the river ceremonial-like. I never laughed so hard in my entire life.

In the evening, we all met up again at the hostel to get our train tickets from our guides and say our tearful farewells and many MANY thanks to them. We all walked as a group to the train station, where we realized that we are all departing at different times. Us Peace Corps folks and the Swiss would be leaving on another train. This was it! So, we said our goodbyes and I’ll-keep-in-touches. I was so delirious, exhausted, and emotional that I cried right there in the train station when I gave my married couple from Sunset Beach their hugs goodbye! So sad - we had become family through our hardships and successes!

Our train and bus ride back to Cusco was all a blur. The only thing I remember is a brief moment on the train when Rocio turned to me and said, “I honestly think I have never had to do anything so hard in my entire life.” I agreed without hesitation. We arrived after midnight and stumbled into our hostel.

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Words cannot express the way I felt before, during, and after this vacation. I just know that this was the greatest trip of my life - and I will always remember these moments of this great adventure!