Sunday I got back to Lima from Cusco, my last big adventure before returning to the States. After a few days of rest, I’m finally feeling up to blogging about the whole experience. But don’t worry – just as I will not be subjecting you to all 400+ pictures I took while there, I will not be recounting every little detail of the trip. Sigh of relief? Yes, I believe that’s in order.
I went with Katie and Deanna, two girls I used to live with. We flew to Cusco Saturday morning (the 4th) and checked into our hostel. We spent the next three days seeing the sights there in Cusco – the Cathedral, the Church of the Company of Jesus Christ, the Inca Museum, the Precolombian Museum, etc. It’s a beautiful town, though admittedly the central part of the town is so heavily populated by tourists that the gringo to native ratio seems to approximate 3:1. But it’s the jumping off point for Machu Picchu, one of the wonders of the world, so it’s to be expected.
Things of note: Cusco
1. Our hostel was an ass-kickingly steep hike away from all the sights. So exhausting, but good practice for the ass-kickingly steep hike to Machu Picchu.
2. Hippie backpackers. Hippie backpackers everywhere. I saw more dreads in three days than in the 22 years prior.
3. EVERYONE wants to sell you something. From little polished rocks to pictures with native Cusquenyans in traditional dress. You can’t walk a single block without being accosted by a young lady with business cards saying, “Excuse me lady, massage? Massage-manicure-pedicure-facial? Maybe later?”
4. Poo. Everywhere. Dog poo as far as the eye can see. So many stray dogs, so little time to crap all over everything.
On Monday night we went to a briefing about our trek. For anyone who doesn’t already know, the purpose of our trip to Cusco was a 5-day Inca Trail hike up to Machu Picchu. Such hikes are usually booked through an agency and include a guide and meals along the way. There are various Inca Trails of varying lengths and difficulties. Ours was one of the longer ones (5 days, 4 nights), and more challenging than the original Inca Trail. We were pumped. We were slightly less pumped after a very confusing and stressful briefing wherein we were informed of all the things we lacked for the trip and how we were going to freeze to death in our -5 Celsius sleeping bags. (We later gathered all the things we felt we really needed and managed to recover our original level of pumpedness.) At the meeting we met our guide, Wander, and our fellow hikers, a Canadian couple, Erin and Steve.
Inca Trail: Day 1
We left Cusco at 6:00 am in a van that took us to the start of the hiking portion of the trail. We stopped after a bit of driving to check out an Inca site that was, honestly, less than impressing. We spent all of 20 minutes there, took a few pictures, and then hopped back in the van. We were told we had 10 minutes in the van before beginning the hike. That was a lie – the first of many on the part of our guide. Not sure if he abides by some mountain concept of time or what, but his time estimates were more often than not utter lies. We spent another hour and a half or so in the van, all of us on the verge of vomiting from the bumpiness of the ride. Finally we stopped and piled out of the van to begin our hike. After Katie and I took our first Inca Trail pop-a-squat pee, we were off. We hiked a pretty easy 3 hours or so the first day, a nice little warm up. About mid-way through we stopped for lunch—fried trout, rice, and piping hot tang. Mmmm. The view was incredible the whole time, even when we arrived at our first campsite. Gorgeous mountains all around, some covered in snow. That first night was the coldest, but we didn’t suffer too badly. Our tour included tents and mats and after tea time and a pretty tasty dinner we took full advantage, going to bed around 9:30 to prepare for Day 2.
Inca Trail: Day 2
I woke up with sore hips, a consequence of sleeping with nothing between me and the hard ground other than an inch-thick mat. Ouch. But with some stretching and a pancake breakfast I was ready for the hardest day of the hike. A sixth person joined our group that day, Bryan, from California. We were told that we would be doing about 8 hours of hiking, the first four ascending and the last four descending. The ascent was…wow. An ass-kicker. We zig-zagged up a couple of mountains, stopping usually every 40 meters or so to catch our breath. It was definitely a challenge, but it was fun. Katie and I generally stuck together, trading off carrying the day pack we shared. I nearly got knocked off the side of the first mountain by one of the horses that were carrying people’s hiking equipment. That was before I learned about the pass-on-the-inside rule. Yeah, I let the horse take the inside while I stood inches away from falling off the face of the earth, and it bumped me with one of the bags on its back. My bad. Luckily no harm was done and I learned my lesson. We celebrated the end of the ascent by chewing some coca leaves, a custom in the provinces that involves chewing the leaves from which cocaine is made; the status of the raw leaves as a drug/non-drug is heavily contested, but I consider myself pretty sensitive and they had little, perhaps no, effect on me.
The descent began as more of a flat hike, which was nice. We learned quickly, though, that descending isn’t as easy as it sounds. It’s less of a cardiovascular workout for sure, but geez is it tough on your joints – ankles, knees, hips. The descent was as steep, if not steeper, than the ascent of that morning and seemingly endless. We stopped for lunch in the middle of it, all of us super exhausted. But it didn’t take me long to get re-pumped once again for the rest of the day. Wander lied to us again about the remaining time, and we ended up racing the sun down to our second campsite, our guide so far ahead of us that we knew he would arrive a good half an hour before us. We got to the point that we were counting flashlights and talking about the hopelessness of trying to find a place to camp on a 3-foot-wide trail on the side of a mountain should it get too dark to continue. Thanks, Wander, for that. The second night was a little warmer (though not warm), and I slept a bit better than the night before.
Inca Trail: Day 3
With the hardest day of the trek behind us, we were all in pretty good spirits upon waking up on the third day. That is, aside from being awakened by a dozen or so roosters who continued their cock-a-doodle-dooing long after dawn. Day 3 was probably my favorite in terms of hiking. We ascended and descended, but the terrain was such that we were never going up or down for very long at once. We passed (and crossed) a number of rivers, streams, and waterfalls, and suddenly found ourselves in the region they call Ceja de Selva (Eyebrow of Forest). The shift from relatively barren landscape to lush mountains covered in dense forest was abrupt, and it was really beautiful. I can’t remember how many hours we hiked on Day 3, but it was really enjoyable. After lunch we took a van to the next campsite. That night we were entertained by kids performing traditional Cusquenyan dances – so cute. We played cards, met and fraternized with a few people from other groups, and were generally jovial. I went to bed early – around 10:30 – while Katie stayed up playing drinking games. For different reasons, we both slept well that night.
Inca Trail: Day 4
We woke up, had breakfast, and were driven once again to the last leg of the hike. We were all excited that the hike that day was to be a flat one, but we would soon learn how miserable it is to walk on a railroad track for several hours. It was so uncomfortable – feet, ankles, everything. I was suffering. But not so much that I couldn’t enjoy the lovely scenery and the joy of knowing we had nearly made it. After a few hours of hiking we finally arrived at Aguas Calientes, a small touristy town that marks the last stop on most Inca Trails before Machu Picchu. I could have cried – not because of our proximity to Machu Picchu but because we got to stay in a hotel that night. Katie and Deanna and I shared a room at the Inti Inn where we nearly cried over ultra-comfy beds and hot showers (our first in four days). The group went out for dinner that night, but I stayed in the hotel and rested. I had had (inexplicable) diarrhea all day and didn’t feel like going out, much less eating. But Evelyn called me that night and talking to her for a bit really lifted my spirits. I slept like a baby that night.
Inca Trail: Day 5 (Machu Picchu)
We woke up a little before 4:30, said goodbye to our beloved hotel beds, ate breakfast, and headed to the bus stop to catch one of the first of the buses to Machu Picchu. We got in line and were told by Wander that he had our bus tickets. Lie. As we approached the front of the line, we began to wonder where Wander had wandered off to and how we were going to board the bus with no tickets in our hands. We became more and more upset as we had to let people pass us to get on the buses because, while now at the front of the line, we didn’t actually have tickets. Long story short, we took turns asking Wander what was going on and I may have utilized some of my recently acquired Spanish expletives in my inquiry. In the end some yelled at him (I didn’t) and we all agreed that he had lied to us, that we didn’t understand why or what had actually happened with the bus tickets, but that, in the end, we were going to Machu Picchu, even if it was in the LAST of the buses. Needless to say, we were all psyched when we got to Machu Picchu and saw it for the first time. I would have been more psyched and more emotional if I hadn’t been so worn out, but it was nice. We took dozens of the typical tourist pictures with the city in the background and then toured the ruins themselves. Wander described various sites to us in his often-incomprehensible English and I rediscovered my love-hate relationship with the discipline of archaeology. After the tour, we took some pictures with some llamas and hiked up to see the Inca Bridge, which was a ways away from the actual city of Machu Picchu. At the end of the day I felt pretty honored to get to see Machu Picchu and a little disillusioned at the same time. More than half of the ruins (70% according to Wander) weren’t actually constructed by Inca hands but by archaeologists reconstructing the missing bits of an ancient city based on their guesses about what it might have looked like. And honestly, they didn’t even bother trying to implement Inca construction techniques. But it was fun and it was certainly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. We returned to Cusco by train and then bus and reunited for one last dinner together as a group (this time in a restaurant as opposed to around a rickety old card table). We said our goodbyes, sharing hugs, invitations to visit our hometowns, and promises to Facebook one another.
Just before dinner that night I made an executive decision to change my travel plans. I had intended to go to Puno that night in an overnight bus, to spend a few days there and see Lake Titicaca. But I was exhausted and tired of traveling. I missed Evelyn and, while I could hardly believe it, I missed Lima. So I changed my flight, said fuck it to the $15 I’d spent on my bus ticket, and left the following morning for Lima. I was glad to be back.
Now I’m just trying to enjoy my last days in Lima. I can’t wrap my mind around the fact that this whole experience is ending. Most of my friends have already left. The house is quieter than it was just days ago. It’s strange, but I think I’m okay. I’ll be slightly less okay on Monday night around 10:30 when I board my plane to Jersey, but I suppose that’s to be expected. No reason to focus on that right now. See you all soon. Forgive me for failing to update much over the past couple of months. Be well. Pictures and vids to come soon.
