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Our first day on the Inca trail was an interesting one. Mike and I woke up at 530 to be ready for our guide to come around six ten. We got very anxious as he didn’t show up to pick us up until 7am. From there we were the last ones to get on the bus, everyone was anxious and staring at us, and as a precursor I will say the bus smelled awful. Like BO and old food. Needless to say as we got higher into the mountains, I didn’t feel good. I ended up puking, five times, all over the bus. That was a good way to make friends off the bat, NOT. We stopped and I got cleaned up and they mopped the bus, and were on our way.
Our last stop before the trail was in Ollyantumbo where we picked up some last minute snacks and a walking stick. Mike was looking for a nalgene but it was a remote mountain village, without nalgenes. He ended up using a gallon water bottle for the whole four days, it was looking a little funky by day four but it held out.
The first thing we did was go to a checkpoint and show our International Student ID cards and passports. The guide told me right away that my cool walking stick, which I paid almost fifteen dollars for, was crap. More to come on that later. The first bridge was just some sticks and it went over a pretty big river and all I could think was, what I am getting myself into, but I kept going.
The scenery was great. There were wild cows everywhere and we called them vacas locas. They had been lost or abandoned at some point. There were many bridges over the water, which was loud and looked very cold. We passed some small villages and ladies would sell Gatorade and “chicha” a corn based drink that is popular for energy. It sort of tasted like pepto bismol, and well I wasn’t a fan, but all the same I tried it. The first day was pretty easy, we just went up and down and got used to the Andes. Took some pictures and interacted with our guide, Roger. He was twenty five and studying to be a teacher. He knew English and Spanish and Quechea (spelling?) very well.
The food was great. The porters had a dinner tent they carried and little benches. There were 12 people in our group, ten Europeans and mike and I. Michelle, Esteban, Dennis, Cecil were from France and seemed to be big adventure vacationers in their late 30’s. Lydia, Pau and Borge were in their early twenties and from Spain, they were vacationing on their unemployment money, it became a joke. Ida, Tonya and Corina were high school grads traveling for a few months from Norway. They didn’t know any Spanish which made them outsiders a little bit, as everyone else was fairly competent. The food was great, we got a protein and some rich or potatoes with every meal.
The second day was by far the hardest. We had to go straight up the highest pass, dead woman’s pass. It was about 4 hours of walking big stairs made of stone pieces. Of course we stopped and took rests and had snacks and all, but I couldn’t wait for that day to be done. It was 8km up, and people were struggling. One lady forgot her puffer (inhaler) and about 300m from the top she had to be carried by the porters. They were making jokes that is called dead woman’s pass because the last woman to reach the top gets sacrificed.
We started our descent down the pass, which turned out to be just as long and very hot. Mike got sunburned pretty bad. It was amazing to watch the porters who would carry up to 20 kilos on their backs, run down the steps. They didn’t have very good shoes either, but it was a lot easier on their knees to just barley touch each step rather than pounding on each one, which hurt my knees after an hour and they do the trail each week. As we got to the bottom, we crossed another river and my walking stick, whose light was already cracked, got stock in the wooden pieces of a bridge. The bottom half dropped into the river and was a goner. At that point I knew that our guide, Rojer, really knew what he was talking about. I cursed at my stick but was thankful it lasted through the toughest upward pass. Sometimes, simplicity is better I guess. The night was very cold. We got done around 2PM since it was such a rough day and we took a nap. We than had our merienda (snack) at five and dinner at seven.
At dinner, Rojer started telling ghost stories. He told us about one where a couple got into a fight at the pass and the man pushed the woman off the mountain, to her death. It is said that her ghost, a blonde woman dressed in white, still wanders around taunting the men and the porters, bringing to them the same end she faced. The other was of the “pistacos” who were organ hunters. Supposedly they would drug the hikers and either steal their blood or kidneys. Some of the hikers were getting pretty scared at this point, so he stopped talking but I think I will look into it…. We really started to interact with the other hikers this night so that was fun. I will give a prelude that at this time I started to get annoyed with Dennis. He has been traveling the world for four months with his wife and that is all he wanted to talk about it. When the Peruvians commented on how much that most cost and how fortunate he was, he went off on some rant about how the euro is doing so well and how they weren’t that rich. I’m sorry but anyone who can leave their job and travel the world for four months is a lot more rich than the our guides and he was being a snobby tourist by not acknowledging his good fortune. I could see the Spaniards giving each other looks while all of this was happening.
The third day was amazing. It was very easy, just up and down with flat and easy going hills. At one point we did go down 3000 stairs, but it only took an hour or two and it was a ten hour hike day, so in comparison to the day before, it felt like heaven. We saw black and red bumble bees, and Rojer said that if they stung you it would hurt worse than any other sting and that your whole arm would swell, so I stayed away. (I was thinking about you the whole time, mom.) We also saw some small lizards and other minor wildlife as we got into the jungle climate. At one point I was trying to ask him if there were any bears (asos) and instead I was so tired I said ojos (eyes). It became a good joke the rest of the trip because he just looked and me and laughed, of course there are eyes in the jungle. Mike also fell on the way down all of those steps, but he wasn’t injured so I could tease him a little. We practiced our running like the porters, but some of steps were just to steep so that didn’t last long.
The third night we got to take a shower. It was glorious. I paid 5 soles (a dollar and a half) for admission to the bathroom that has the shower. We than had five minutes. I tried to rent a towel but they were all dirty so I had to use a dirty sheet, needless to say, it wasn’t the best shower of my life, but I savored every second of it. The bathroom, even in the middle of nowhere, had a similar feel to ours. Woman from all over were gossiping about men and fussing with their hair. I guess it must be a universal past time, that bathroom culture. I got lucky because Ida, who took a shower after dinner, and did have a towel, got out of the shower to find a BIG old TRANTULA on her towel! I think she said she screamed for help from the attendant, but I don’t even think I would have stayed that calm. It also rained the third day, but we go lucky because it was during our lunch break! Rojer said the climate has changed a lot since el niño and that the snow capped mountains are getting fewer and fewer every decade.
The third night traditionally is a party. We had a fest for dinner. We had stuffed peppers and chicken legs and vegetables and Jell-O and friend potatoes and the list goes on. I was hungry so it was amazing. Dennis made another move snack though, and I must share. We were supposed to elect a group leader to collect tips for the porters and so naturally he took charge. He was like “I think we should chose the oldest person” which was clearly him or his friend Esteban, who didn’t know much Spanish and was very shy. So Mike comments that they are clearly the oldest and he says that it is Esteban. Well as Dennis planned, Esteban is not interested so he elects Dennis. Dennis just starts gloating and says, in English, “ just call the me the president”. I couldn’t help myself I looked at Mike and my Spanish friends and just started busting out laughing. It was great, and from that point on we mocked him a little, calling him “la presidente”, which is the feminine form. He had a translation error that led to a dirty joke later one, I won’t share it on here but ask me later if you are interested.
The fourth day is only a two hour hike and everyone is feeling accomplished and usually stays up late to celebrate. I was too tired to do any sort of partying, but it went on without me. Unfortunately my tent was twenty feet from the party, so I was basically there. It was loud all night and drunk people were laughing until the wee hours of the morning, when were expected to get up. My tent smelled bad again as we had the same one, but I was exhausted and slept like a baby, until three forty five that is. We woke up and ate breakfast, pancakes with a caramel in the shape of flowers on them for a syrup. It was awesome. We then walked ten minutes to a check point, where we had to show our ID’s one last time for entrance to the park. We were at the front of the line, which made it go quickly but also meant we were in the intense group. The 1.5 hour hike to the “sun gate” only lasted an hour and I feel like I flew up the “fifty steps to a gringo death”, fifty really steep steps, just to keep up. I needed a break after that, but people ahead of us were still running because they wanted to see the sunrise and get in line to climb Wayabamba, the big mountain near Machu Picchu, but we slowed down a little. We go to the sun gate, at six thirty and took a few pictures ( I look exhausted in those lol) and continued, with Machu Picchu in view.
It was another forty five minutes down to Machu Picchu, but we made a few stops along the way. One was a burial site where four men, a dog and a witch has been found. Rojer commented on how it was weird that a dog was buried with them as they didn’t keep them as pets, but it was pretty cool. We stacked up some rocks as others had down to show respect, called patapata, when little rocks are stacked up on top of each other.
We got to Machu Picchu and checked our big backpacks with a luggage attendant, it was liberating to not log it around anymore, I could have almost ran around the whole place! I got a drink and we took a rest, than I called Mom and Casey to let them know I was finally there!
We started our tour with Rojer, who told us the history of the site, how it was discovered by Hiram Bingham, who was in search of El Dorado (the city of gold) on the path that the liberator Simon Bolivar had taken. He talked about the puma, the llama and the serpent were the animals that represent the underworld, the earth and the sky. We saw the guard houses, the storage, the temples, the houses and the schools. He talked about the three different phases of construction and showed us where the changes had taken place. The Incas actually brought soil from Cuzco or other places that was more fertile to fill their terraces with. That means they walked the Inca Trial carrying dirt. I can’t even imagine. We saw a sun dial and a window that lined up with the sun gate to indicate when it was Inti Raymi, or their winter solstice, as it was a very important religious holiday because they worshiped, Inti, or the sun. We saw a chinchilla, an eagle and a lot of llamas around the ancient city. Rojer told us how they used conch shells and mirrors to communicate, making sounds with the shells and reflecting light signals with their mirrors of sliver and gold. We also saw a lot of people complaining about the steps, and knew they had no idea what they were talking about.
After exploring, we headed down to Aguas Calientes, or the Hot Springs Town. We walked around and got some lunch, with I think made Mike a little sick, and found our guide. I used the internet there, after four days of deprivation, and just relaxed. We then took a train back to the beginning of the path and a bus/van back to Cuzco, where I slept like a baby for over twelve hours. And now I am here, ready for the next adventure….
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