This is kind of a stream of consciousness journal that was recorded on my EeePC (tiny laptop) during my nine days in Peru. It hasn't been edited so please excuse any typos or spelling errors that may have occurred due to the tiny laptop or frozen fingers as I typed at 15,000 feet above sea level.
5/22 12:00am local time. jeff and mori got bumped from their flight so i have 5 hours to spend by myself and the whole day tomorrow.
5/23 1:30 am. being by myself worked out pretty well actually. It forced me to be self sufficient in terms of exploring the city, entertaining myself, finding food, and communicating with the andean people
i went to the cathedral de cusco, which was on par with any cathedral i saw in europe with the possible exception of notre dame. Next I went to find our tour company and settle up with them. they seem like good people. after that I took a long walk around the city and bought some gloves for the hike\for Angela. I found some ice cream and then came home to take a nap and try to force myself to go out for dinner and find a bar to watch the cavaliers\magic game.
i started walking back toward the main square around 6pm to look for food and ended up at some small place with only a german couple inside. I saw that there was loma saltado on the menu so I took a chance and went in. the food was ok, but not spectaular. the fries were undercooked and the steak didn't have much flavor, but it was like $10 USD for a huge serving and two mexican cokes.
I wandered around some more looking for a bar that had sports on the TV and ended up at PADDY's irish pub. I sat down at the bar and ordered a pint of Green King IPA since they were out of old speckled hen AND guiness apparently... it was ok. I then moved to a table with a closer to the Tv and the serbian guys said it was cool if i sat with them. The game turnd out to be pretty amazing. the magic were down by 20 at one point but managed to come all the way back in the 4th quarter and took the lead with 1.0 seconds on the clock. Lebron somehow managed to sink a game winning 3 with turkoglu's hand in his face.
the game ended up being a secondary source of entertainment for the evening though. i met 2 guys from serbia and talked sports with them for a good two hours. I then learned that one of them nejvek or something won the serbian version of survivor which was in panama. he showed me a picture on his phone of him holding up the 100,000 euros check with the serbian version of jeff probst. crazy. so him and his friend vook were travelling throughout south ameria for 3 months. awesome. im totally jealous. a little later two local girls sat down next to us and we chatted for awhile about life in america vs life in peru. it turns out that she has some sort of eagle at her house in some other city not far from cusco. it was loud, i couldn't hear the name. The serbian guys left shortly after the game leaving me with these two peruvian girls.
Kukuly and fannie asked me if i was doing anything now and i was planning on coming back to the room and sleeping since i haven't done much of that the last 2 days, but instead I said i had no plans and they invited me to a dance club. dancing isn't really my thing, especially to reggaeton, but i figured sure why not, i can sleep when i'm dead.
the music sucked of course but it was cool\weird being the only white dude at this peruvian reggaeton club. we met some of their other friends there and danced for a few songs. it was weird that they had these giant screens with american bands like green day on the screen, but they were playing this shitty reggaeton. At least it's easy to dance to since it's the same beat over and over... and over. One of the girls, Kukuly wanted me to go see her eagle tomorrow, but i don't know. we'll see how it goes once the circle gets here. At about 1:45am i left them to their own devices.
its 2am local time now. i should get some sleep.
5/23 9:57pm local time. Mori and jeff made it in this morning and woke me up around 7:30am. we had breakfast and showered and went to the tour office so they could settle up. we then walked around for awhile and ended up walking up this huge set of stairs. there was an old man at the top with a private balcony and he invited us up to take pictures of the city. We could see pretty much all of Cusco up there. he had this adorable dog that had circles drawn around it's eyes. He said it's because the dog's name is El Doctor. I guess he thinks all doctors have glasses or something. He told us we were only 15 minutes away from Sacsayhuaman so we decided to walk up the street. we ran into a guy renting horses for the trip to the ruins, but we passed. then we found out we couldn't buy a ticket just for that ruin and had to buy the boleto turistico for 130 soles. we didn't want to see everything so it was kind of a waste. The horse guy said it was only 30 sol for the horse that that we could see some free sites instead so we decide to that. we rode through some beautiful country and at the temple of the moon met a volunteer guide that wanted to practice his english so he gave us an hour tour of the temple and another close site called the cavern of the monkeys. my horses name was Alcon. Mori's was bandito. kind of cruel since Mona just lost bandit... We learned about the stair symbol that represents the condor, the puma and the snake, which are three of the most important inca symbols. this was kind of an impromptu trip so none of put on sunscreen and all of us got killer sunburns.
after the ride we had lunch at an uninspiring pizza place. then back to the hostal for a nap before our pre-hike briefing. one of the ladies in our group named basha is a raging bitch... not looking forward to trekking with her. From the moment we met, i knew she would be nothing but a royal pain in the ass. The first words out of her mouth were a complaint about the company that we were trekking with. While our guide Christian outlined the trek, she must have interrupted him 5 times with retarded questions that really didn't need answering at that moment. The other girl in the group is named Vita. Vita is travelling with Basha and met her at an outdoor skills class. She seems pretty laid back and cool. I don't know how she could possibly be friends with Basha; they are so different.
We met Kukuly for dinner at the Fallen Angel which was a pretty amazing looking place. It was also "gay friendly" so mori and jeff loved it. I had a fantastic asian spiced steak and mashed potatoes. the potatoes were brought out in two round lumps with a single pea on top to look like tits. very creative. back to the hostal for sleep and an early 6am pickup from the trekking company. our trek begins tomorrow...
5/24 6:06 pm local time. 14700 ft. We finally reached base camp 1 at the base of Salkantay. we hiked for approx 7 hours today. It seems that we added the most difficult part of the hike to the end of day one instead of the beginning of day two. let me tell you something... 2700 ft of elevation gain when you are starting at 12000 ft is no joke. Our group mates had horses and Mori went as far as she before the guides forced her to use a horse for the rest of the 7 snakes switchbacks. She did so well. I am really proud of her. jeff and i hiked together most of the day. then he decide to hang back with Mori for moral support once we hit the switchbacks. I was going to wait for her as well but I started getting so cold in the valley that I started shivering so I trudged on ahead. I didn't want to get early onset hypothermia so I had to go. I warmed up again once I started moving and was feeling better. I took it easy on the really steep switchbacks and rested every one or every other one.. finally we leveled out and the camp came into sight. I will say that this is the most physically demanding and exhausting day that I have ever experienced. it was an amazing day but I'm glad it is nearing its end. We are in the dining tent now drinking hot chocolate, eating popcorn and wafers and waiting for dinner. It's going to get down to -3 C \ 27 F tonight and my hands are freezing so I'm signing off for now. Oh yea, Mori got the red death today, making her hike all the more difficult. Ok, see you tomorrow bright and early. 5:30 am I think.
5/25 9:00pm local time. last night was absolute hell. I felt great after the hike and through snack, but then as dinner hit the table, the altitude sickness hit me in the worst way. I had the most painful headache of my life and my stomach started gurgling. I wasn't able to eat much dinner so I decided to turn in a bit early. It was fucking freezing. I didn't get much sleep and it was the longest night ever. It was a chore to get up to pee, but a couple hours after laying down i had to go again and decided I was going to try to throw up to make my stomach feel better. I was successful and my stomach did feel much better, but my head was still throbbing. I drank a lot of water with dinner because i thought I might be dehydrated so I had to pee again not long after I laid down. Once again I had to go through the process of getting out of the mummy bag into the freezing cold, finding the headlamp, putting on my shoes, unzipping the tent and the rain fly, trudging across the frozen ground to the latrine and then reversing the steps... One of the worst nights I have ever had. 15000 feet is no fun...
On to today.After breakfast which I wasn't able to eat much of due to my stomach issues, we began the last climb of our trek. After about an hour we reached our high point of the whole trek at about 15400 feet. we congratulated each other on making it past the hardest leg of the journey. We took a lot of pictures of ourselves with the sign and built cairns. Christian then led us in making an offering to the mountains for safe travel. He gave us each three coca leaves and after a short speech in ketchuan, we blew on the leaves and placed them on the cairn we had built. It was similar to the offering we made at the temple de la luna.
after that we began our descent which would last for the next 7 hours. In all we traveled about 10 miles today, dropping just over 5000 feet in elevation along the way. Even though we were descending it was still fairly difficult terrain; lots of steep grades coupled with a ridiculous number of rocks on the trail. I was really glad that we bought walking sticks as there were several instances where i could have taken a spill or turned an ankle. we took a short break in a breathtaking valley then continued on for another 3 hours before lunch. after lunch, the terrain changed dramatically as alpine grasses gave way to a lush tropical forest complete with mosquitoes. we saw two unknown raptors along the way. We made it into camp early - around 3:30pm. it was nice to have some time to relax and hang out before bed. tonight's camp is in a wonderful little area next to a river. jeff and I arrived at camp about 20 minutes before the girls and decided to dunk our feet in the river and wash our face and hair. Camp tonight was at this small secluded farm next to a river. There were Chickens and pigs running around everywhere. the owner of the land has a small store and we were able to purchase some snacks. we bought cokes and put them in the river to chill. Jeff discovered he doesn't like Mexican cokes. wtf seriously...
When I'm in a foreign country I always forget how much I enjoy cold drinks.
We taught basha and vita how to play durok before dinner. After dinner Christian told us some stories of Incan history, then him and Roger played a few songs. After that Mori, Jeff, and I retired to our tent and played big 2 for about an hour before bed.
day 2 is in the book. Tomorrow is a shorter day - about 5 hours. We also get to visit the hot springs in santa teresa. I can't wait...
5/26 9:27 local time. Day 3 is over and what a crazy day it was... We woke up at 6:30am and had breakfast at the farm. I felt a lot better this morning than I did the revious days. I actually managed to get a pretty decent amount of sleep. Today was a tough day, not so much because of the terrain, but because of the climate. It was hot and humid all day. Not nearly as much rocks as yesterday. We descended another 3000 feet or so today and arrived at our stopping point - a tiny town called Playa. After our lunch today we said goodbye to the horsemen that had been lugging our gear (and Basha) around for the last 3 days.
The plan was to take a bus to our campsite in Santa Teresa and then to the hot springs. The "bus" was actually a truck with a big open air flatbed truck. Basha sat up front and the rest of us sat in the back. the bus traveled some pretty scary mountain roads. It felt kind of like we were in an Indiana Jones movie. Along the way we picked up other people walking the road. At one point another truck drove up on us coming in the opposite direction. It was like a game of chicken as neither vehicle wanted to give up its position on the road. Oh yea, this was a one way road that was nearly impossible to fit two vehicles side by side on. Eventually our driver gave way and reversed about a quarter mile to the last "driveway" that we passed. The other vehicle pulled as far to the side of the road a possible and as we passed them the drivers had words. they were not friendly words. Mori said they were arguing over who had the right of way. Clearly they did as they were travelling uphill. As we drove off the drivers of both vehicles continued to yell at each other. Shortly after that episode we picked up another passenger who had a dog following him. The dog couldn't really get into the back of the truck so it ran after us barking the entire time. it must have followed us for at least a mile until we finally arrived in Santa Teresa.
At our camp site we soon discovered a Squirrel Monkey running through the area. Basha had picked up a Branch of not ripe coffee berries and as soon as she got out of the cab the monkey came running down some steps and went after the branch. she screamed and threw both to the ground. The driver picked up the branch and monkey and allowed for some pictures as the monkey ate some of the berries. The monkey then jumped off the branch onto Basha's shoulder. She asked if she as going to get aids from the monkey - what a fucking idiot. The monkey then ran around camp for awhile and eventually found it's way to a clothesline and preceded to throw all of the clothes that were hanging onto the ground. i hadn't eaten my apple that was given to us for snack and decided to see if the monkey would eat it. The apple was the same size as the little guy so I sat it on the awning above the store front and it came down and chowed down.
Shortly after our tents were set up, Christian arranged transportation to the Hot Springs. We were all pretty excited and we piled into a little hatchback and sped away.
the springs were amazing; everything we had hoped and more. There were four pools. one for kids, one small one that was super hot, one huge one that was warm like bath water and a fourth one that was cold and funneled the waterfall that was coming off the side of the mountain into the pool. there was also an area that had hot, natural showers pouring into a large basin.
We met a group of 20something travelers that seemed pretty cool. One guy named CJ had been travelling south america for 4 months and his friend Eric just got done with 16 months teaching english in Korea. CJ is an obvious Pato, I'm pretty sure Eric is as well.
We soaked in the tubs for a good two hours before we returned to camp for dinner and a good night's rest. What a great day.
Side note - Jeff and I started a bet today as to how many more times Basha will mention her age before the end of the trip. I said 4, jeff said 7. At the springs I asked her leading questions and was able to coax two mentions of her age out of her. Now I have to discourage it the next two days so that I keep it at 3 or less instances to win the bet. it's a fun game to play with one of the biggest cunts I have ever met. i fucking hate her. seriously. I don't know what Vita sees in her as a friend.
I'm feeling really good right now. We have descended 9000 ft in the last two days and have just a short 3 hour trek tomorrow to get us to Aguas Calientes, the launching point for Machu Picchu. This is also our last night in a tent as we are staying in a hostal at our last stop before we hit Machu Picchu. I'm going to read a little bit and fall asleep happy...
5/27 4:45 local time. We made it! We have finally arrived at Aguas Callientes, the town at the base of the mountain where Machu Picchu is located. We are in a hotel tonight which means a hot shower and a bed instead of a tent. Ijust got out of the shower and feel amazing. I have another Basha story, but i don't want to start out with something negative.
There was a strike today by all of the transportation workers in Peru. It sems that the Peruvian Government wants to start charging the populce for water usage, which up until now had been free.For a poverty stricken country that relies heavily on tourism, that doesn't seem like a great idea. It is only a one day strike though so I'm not sure how much that it will accomplish.
Because of the strike, we had to change our plans. Instead of hiking to Hydroelectrica and taking the train to Aguas Callientes, we used the same "bus" as yesterday to take us to hydroelectrica, and walked the tracks about 10km into Aguas callientes.
After we got to the train station at Aguas Callientes we had a Basha explosion. Christian informed us that we should just pack a day pack with what we would need for one night and that our bags would arrive tomorrow with the chef on the cargo train that would run after the strike was over. Basha started yelling at Christian about the situation. Her main argument was that "this is not a bakpacking trip!!!" and that her bags were supposed to be carried for her at all times because of her health issues. She yelled at him for a good 10 minutes, continuing on to say that he should have been prepared for the strike and insinuating that he should have known this was coming. I have never witnessed a person be so rude to another person for circumstances beyond their control. Christian has taken care of us (mostly her) for the last 3 days through some pretty rough terrain (not that she would know because she was on a horse 99% of the time). the thanks that he gets from her is this insulting accusatory fit of rage for no good reason. Instead of trying to problem solve, she resorted to yelling. the rest of us gladly would have lended a hand if she had asked. The fact of the matter is though that she could easily survive for a day without all of her belongings. She kept saying over and over that she was going to be in a hotel and needed everything to be be comfortable. Well guess what bitch, this is a trek in a developing country. you are bound to be uncomfortable at points along the way. You have to adapt to the situations thrown at you. If you are not able to cope with situations like this then maybe you should have never left the comfort of your couch. fuck you. go die in a fire. You are the worst kind of tourist. You are one of the worst people I have ever met.
Once she started attacking Christian Jeff and I stepped in and tried to calm her down and explain to her that there was no way anyone could have forseen the strike coming with enough time to make her happy. she told Jeff to shut up and stay out of it so We walked away. I wanted to fucking tear her head off after she talked to him and Mori that way, but I stayed composed and walked away with Jeff. At this point Mori was in tears because of the way she was treating Christian. Mori kept trying to talk some sense into her but Jeff and I knew that nothing she said would get through Basha's skull so we pulled her away.
I have never been so embarrassed. basha is the reason that american tourists have a bad reputation. She is the type of tourist that gives all Americans that travel a bad name. It just blows my mind that a person could be anything but humble and courteous to the people of this country after they have been so nice to us, treated us so well, and flat out taken care of us the last 3 days. Since we first met her, Basha has done nothing but bitch and moan about the trip. She actually mentioned at one point in this rant that she was going to never come back to South America and that she would tell all of her friends not to come here because everyone on the continent are liars and just want to take advantage of Americans. What a fucking cunt. Seriously.
About an hour later we had lunch and started our 3 hour hike to Aguas Callientes, the final leg of our journey before we arrived at our destination; Machu Picchu.
This hike was along the railroad tracks. Since there ws a strike there was no need to worry about trains coming and even if they were running, there was plenty of clearance on each side. jeff and I tried a technique that Christian suggested. It involved each of us walking on the actual rail with our inside arm locked with the others in order to help keep the balance. It worked very well but my arms got tired after awhile since I was carrying our pack also. Jeff decided to try the same technique but using our trusty walking sticks instead. It worked like a charm. Jeff and I zoomed along the tracks with this technique. We stopped every now and then so that Mori and Vita could catch up. 10km and about 3 hours later we arrived in Aguas Callientes.
We took a quick shower at our hotel and then headed out to check out the town before dinner. Christian made reservations for us at a restaurant for 7:30pm, but at 4pm we were all pretty hungry. We went on a search for empanadas and beer and eventually came across a place that had a 4 x 1 happy hour going on so we had a couple of beers and a couple of pisco sours along with our empanadas. we just wanted a snack and the picture of them made them look like regular sized empanadas so we each ordered one. Little did we know that they were the size of a calzone.
We still had an hour or so before dinner so we walked around town some more. We made our way over to where the locals live and found a giant soccer stadium with some kids running around. It was a happy place despite the obvious poverty surrounding us. We came across the protesters near the train station. Most were in traditional dress; some carried spears or bow and arrows.
We made our way to dinner where I had grilled Alpaca. Wow is all i can say. It was the most flavorful piece of meat that I can remember eating. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early 5 am wake up. We ran into Eric and CJ again along the way and decided to have another drink with them. We played card and chess with them as well. They seem like ok guys, but they aren't people I would choose to visit or maintain a friendship with. Maybe it's because they are so young. Finally around midnight we hopped into bed for our big trip tomorrow to Macchu Picchu.
5/28 6:37 local time. We are on the train back to Cusco after a great day in Machhu Picchu. Jeff and I decided that we were going to hike to the top of Huaynapicchu, the mountain behind the City. Only 400 people a day are allowed up the path so Jeff and I had to run across the city to the start of the trail to get a reservation for the 10am - 11am window.
The city was amazing. All of the architecture in the structures, particularly in the temples were stunning. We learned more about the important symbols of the Incas. The Condor that represents the sky world, the puma that represents the earth world, and the snake that symbolizes the underworld. I especially liked the temple of the condor. Christian expertly led us through the highlights of the city, showing us residences of the king and priests as well as several of the temples. He is a great story teller. After a two hour tour, it was time to say goodbye to Christian. We went back outside the entrance of the city and filled out some evaluation forms, took a few final pictures and said goodbye to our guide for the last five days.
Jeff and I had to run across the city for the hike to Huaynapicchu. It was an unbelievably steep hike that was just as steep as parts of the 7 snakes on day one. Luckily it was quite a bit shorter than that. the sign said it would take an hour, but jeff and I shotgunned it and made up in about 35 minutes. The view from the top was spectacular, but there were a ton of people up there in a very small space. That kind of summit would never be allowed at a tourist site in America. There were no guard rails or anything, just huge rocks with steep drop offs. It was totally worth all the work that it took to get up there.
We were pretty tired after that so Jeff and I headed across the city for a 4th time to the exit and to meet Mori. About 45 minutes later Mori showed up and we boarded the bus back to town. We were starving so we went to get some lunch before heading back to the hotel to pick up our bags.
Before he left, Christian told us that the bags we had left behind in Hydroelectrica would be waiting for us at this restaurant at the bottom of aguas callientes. Unfortunately for us they had never arrived and at this point we only had an hour before our train left. We found a payphone and called Andean Life. they told usto wait at the restaurant until they had more information. We waited for twenty minutes or so and then called them back. They told us to go ahead and board the train and that once the bags arrived, they would be forwarded on to Cusco.
A three hour train ride and a 30 minute bus ride later and we arrived back at our home in Cusco, Inkarri Hostel. Jeff and I were hungry so we went out and found a late night pizza place. then back to the room for our first night sleeping in this entire trip.
5/29 10:30pm local time. My last full day in Peru... I could spend at least another week here. Not in Cusco, but in another part of the country for sure. I really love this country. Nearly everything about it is just wonderful. Today was pretty low key. We did some shopping for our friends and love ones and just wandered around the city of Cusco. Jeff and Mori didn't really get much time to see it before the trek. We had a really good breakfast at Jack's Cafe. I had one of the best cups of coffee i have ever had. it was just cafe con leche, but it was perfect.
After breakfast we went down to the Andean Life office to see if our bags had arrived and low and behold, they were there safe and sound. Eliana explained that because of the strike, the trains were backed up and the Chef was unable to get them on the correct train in time for us to get them in Aguas Callientes. I guess the Chef had to shlep all of our bags, plus Vita and Basha's and all ofhis cooking gear as well. We left him a nice note and an extra tip for taking good care of our belongings.
After that we took the baggage back to the hostal and then headed out to do some shopping and explore the city. We found a number of good deals, but as everyone knows, I'm not really a shopper. I mostly followed Jeff and Mori around and picked up some things for Angela and the boys along the way.
We had dinner at Pacha Papa, a Peruvian restaurant that was highly recommended. I had Aji Gallina; some shredded chicken in yellow chili sauce situation and some cinnamon ice cream and cookies for dessert. It was fantastic. We wandered around a little more after that and I decided to get a massage from one of the many girls handing out massage cards. I got an hour massage for a mere 20 soles (about $7 USD) It was only ok. Certainly not the best massage I have ever had. It was a little too light for me. I tend to prefer more forceful massages that really work the muscles and this was more of a light rubbing. There was some sort of concert going on in Plaza de Armas, but we weren't into the music at all so we came back to the room to pack and get ready for bed.
I'm not sure what we are going to do tomorrow. I'm going to sign off for now and go check some email and confirm my flights.
5/30 10:12pm local time. We are here in Lima now, right smack in the middle of an 8 hour layover. We have played a lot of cards in the last couple of hours. Jeff and Mori went to check in for their AeroMexico flight to Mexico City, yet another stop-over before they get home.
Today we just walked around the city some more. Mori had a few more things she wanted to buy. We all got pretty tired of being approached to buy things today. It's probably a good thing that we are leaving today as I don't want that crankiness to sour the wonderful time I have had here in Peru. I really do love it here and can easily imagine myself coming back here someday.
this is going to close out this travel journal. I have another 3 hours to wait until I can board my 8 hour flight to LAX and then another transfer to get home to Angela and Domino.
I can't wait to see them.
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