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2004-09-11
leavin' on the inca trail

17:37

Again, in trouble because lack of updates. I'm becoming worse and worse, I know.

Notes on Peru... The Peruvians are short, generally pretty poor, and swarm like insects to the tourists, selling everything from post cards to sweaters, and I'm sure, llamas, if one was seriously interested. The local merchandise is cheap, nice, and makes for good practice at honing one's bargaining skills. Lima, the capital, has 8 million people, over a third of the population of the country. Not suprising, considering most of the rest consists of the generally uninhabitable Andes. The city is very commercialized, complete with fast food restaurants and even a Starbucks. An hour's flight from Lima to Cusco takes you up 11,000 feet. Altitude sickness, anyone?

White-water rafting with an awesome, funny, crazy guide, Jamie. Becca thinking that Ottowa is in the US (okay, not really, but still funny, and no, it's not).

The Andes mountains awe-inspiring; snow-capped peaks abound. The Inca trail best described by our guide, Pauld - "more up" and "Peruvian flat". It seemed as if it would never end. Jen sick, she and Becca head back. (See Becca's and Sarah's pictures.) Finding my first ever geocache on top of Dead Woman's Pass. Aching muscles, knees, feet order of the day. Four-days' worth of hiking in three (go us), and the camp on the second night worth the extra trek. Other small additions to our hike, such as the burial ground and the optional trail, allowing us an early preview of Machu Picchu. More food than we could possible ever eat. Except maybe Gavin. Sarah writing a song to the tune of "Leavin' on a Jet Plane." No towns after the first day, few people and only at campsites; it was just us, the porters, the ruins, and the mountains for four days. Pretty incredible.

Aguas Calientes, where there was no agua caliente for a few hours, denying us our longed-for showers a bit longer. The actual site of Machu Picchu, where Pauld, in an attempt to show us as much as possible, managed to get himself into trouble as much as possible, and he couldn't play stupid American. The ruins are so well preserved, and showed how intelligent and innovative the Inca people were. Gavin and I discovered that the ruins can also be a bit of a maze when we were trying to find our way out to the Inca Bridge, a bridge which was nothing more than a couple of logs leading to a "path" (if it could be called that) hacked out of the sheer face of the mountain.

Machu Picchu - "old mountain", Wayna Picchu - "new mountain" - just next to it, climbing to the top where a breathtaking view awaited. Despite best attempts to re-enact human sacrifice by throwing each other off, we all managed to survive and headed back, catching the four-hour train ride to Cusco, which including passing the trailhead at the depressing time of only an hour later.

Last night in Cusco, hanging out with our guide, with whom Sarah and I shamelessly flirted, and who shamelessly flirted back. Lima, dinner on the water, four of the eight really leavin' on a jet plane, rest of us wandering around Lima one more day, finding food for the ever-hungry Gavin, then catching a plane back to the US, back to reality.

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