8/19/10: Day 19 (Trek Day 3), The Gringa Killer & Machupicchu

I wish I could say I was happy to awake this morning, but the truth is I wasn’t. I had gotten basically no sleep and was incredibly ill. I had severe stomach problems all night long and spent most of the night in the porter’s bathroom (incidentally cleaner than the tourists bathrooms, thankfully). But, when you’re sick and in need of a toilet, squatting over a hole in the ground for an hour isn’t exactly what you’re hoping for.

Anyhow, 3:30am rolled around, we got ready for the day, had breakfast at 4:30, and took a short hike in the dark to the morning checkpoint gate for its opening at 5:30. After that, we headed out like horses through a start gate. We were head to tail in line and people were passing each other right and left on the narrow trails. In fact, an old man stopped on the side smacked Jenny with his bag and very nearly knocked her off the cliff with it when he tried to sling it back on in a hurry. A little scary I might say…

We finally hit the gringa killer (a set of steep narrow stairs) after about an hour’s hike and on their steps we found a few fat, white ladies (gringas) crying while complaining that they can’t possibly hike any more stairs. It apparently had a well-deserved name.

The sun gate was the next stop and was quite literally littered with tourists. It reminded me of pigeons in Chicago. Anyhow, it was the first point in which we could see Machupicchu and was a sight for sore eyes. Finally the moment we had been hiking for 3 days for… the coveted Machupicchu.

It was built on the mountainside that got the first sun of the day and stood out upon the mountainside like a gold ring upon a finger. We slowly descended the distance from the sun gate to Machupicchu and received the chance to take a gander at the wonders within. The architecture and planning were absolutely astonishing. We viewed the sun dial and many of the buildings and terraces. Viewing a post card or a picture doesn’t do it justice, you have got to see it with your own eyes to appreciate its presence.

By noon, the ruins were becoming packed with tourists from buses and trains, so we decided to head down to the local town to take some time at aguas calientes and relax our ridiculously tired legs. Later, we met up with more of the group for lunch and drinks and then took the train back to Cusco.

What a wonderful journey this has been! New friends and lots of stories…

8/18/10: Day 18 (Trek Day 3), I’m Pretty Sure Veronica is in the East…

Today is the day that Hilbert (our main guide) decided he didn’t like us. He tried to make the group stay together from the get-go, but our group wanted to actually walk and not spend the morning puking, taking breaks, and being carried by porters. We rebelled at the every 5 minute break and eventually he let us go at our own pace to certain check points.

The first check point was a ruin where we spent 2 hours listening to Hilbert repeat himself about Inka history and the fact that we always know which direction we’re going because Mt Veronica, the glaciered mountain, is always in the East. During this time I saw a condor (which Hilbert erroneously dismissed as an eagle even though he didn’t even look at it) and took a siesta (nap). Edison (the other guide) and Jenny did too, and I think this made Hilbert even more annoyed with us. But, we didn’t think it was fair to have a 2 hour repetitive chat in the middle of the day’s sunlight about stories that led nowhere and made no sense.

Anyhow, this day was a fast one and the hiking was pretty easy. We hiked around 6 hours for 16 kilometers and ended up stopping for the day at lunch. This campsite was great, it had a hostel nearby with hot showers and beer. We were in heaven.

We had a few drinks, saw some more ruins, and all got clean for the night. At dinner we all ate and relaxed and finally spent some time enjoying the scenery.

Now Hilbert was a nice guy, but macho, and it was evident that Jenny’s persistent nagging to let us keep walking instead of taking breaks was really getting to him. At dinner, Hilbert cleared all the plates from the table, but left Jenny’s sitting in front of her. This set her off on a tirade (just to us of course) about how inattentive he had been the whole trip. I’m sure the beers didn’t help the situation…

Off to bed again for a 3:30am wake up and the site we were all waiting for, Machupicchu.

8/17/10: Day 17 (Trek Day 2), The Crier

This morning we awoke early to the sounds of vomiting and growning. Eric was still sick, though it was not his vomiting I had been hearing all night. Alex, the fast one, apparently had gone too fast the first day and ate too much, and was now suffering the brunt of altitude sickness. He could barely walk and looked a bit drunk, even though he wasn’t… I’ve come to the realization that this place likes to knock down the cocky hikers and reward the slow and steady ones, so I was thinking that I should stay in that group.

We met the porters (around 20 of them, the oldest being 60) and the chefs after breakfast and headed out for the trails around 6am. This was definitely the longest day of hiking and the one that kills the most people. It was infamous for being difficult, time consuming, and ego-knocking. It consisted of a 12 kilometer trek involving 7 hours of hiking and two passes. Dead Woman Pass was the first and the hishest, coming in at 4200 meters. The second pass, Runquaracay Pass, was not as well known, but just as high, treacherous, and time-consuming as the first pass.

This day consisted of much waiting around. To my surprise, Jenny and I basically led the group the entire day with Ginger and the German/Italian couple very close behind. Both guides stayed at the back of the pack with the sick group members and we spent a ton of time (around 4 hours total) waiting at check points for the rest of the group to catch up with us. The hikes were difficult and time-consuming, but rewarding and absolutely breath-taking (in more ways than one). I love the mountains and this was just another reminder of that.

Around lunch, we realized that Ray was also sick and not doing well with the altitude. We now had 4 of the total 12 of us that were too sick to hike at a normal pace and needed to have some sort of oxygen and carrying assistance. Not good odds. The healthy drank lots of coca leaf tea and prayed to not get sick as our minds were dulled by headaches. The altitude was definitely affecting some of us, but not all to the same extent.

Eric ended up being well enough to slowly walk the trail today and Sarah did the same. Alex, on the other hand, ended up paying two porters to carry him this entire day. Jenny and I were pretty much disgusted by this and I think that it was probably well known within the group. It seemed pointless to hike the Inka trail if you’re not actually doing the hiking.

After lunch, our newly formed group (Jenny, Vrana, Marco, Ginger & I) quickly set out for our next destination, the camp site for the night. Sunlight was quickly burning up for the day and we still had one more pass to climb and hours to hike. We were concerned about having to hike the trails in the dark, so we pretty much ran the next portion of the trail.

Now, let me preface this by saying that the second pass sucks way more than the first one. It is all tiny little stairs on an extremely steep incline with no room for error. A little nerve-wracking to say the least. When you’re pressed for daylight, I suppose it makes the trip a little worse… Anyhow, the views were absolutely spectacular. We crossed over some of the highest non-glaciered peaks around and lived to tell the tale. And, we made it to camp just before the sun set.

Lucky me, I ended the night by breaking my headlamp and stepping in human poo (because I didn’t have a headlamp to see it) when I went to the squatter stall that night. My group seemed to think that one was pretty freaking funny, though I guess anything is funny when you’ve been hiking for 7 hours, are at 12,000 ft elevation, have only had 4 hours of sleep, and are completely starved. We were slap-happy to say the least…

This was a great day and a huge confidence builder. I’m not nearly as out-of-shape as I had originally thought!

8/16/10: Day 16 (Trek Day 1): Altitude Sickness

We were supposed to leave Cusco today at 5:30am to begin our trek. However, we got around to leave and ended up waiting for another hour because our bus driver got in a wreck coming to pick us up… not a good sign!

Anyways, we finally left around 6:30am and had the opportunity to meet our trekking companions. Hilbert and Edison were our Peruvian guides, and they were joined by Eric and Sarah (from Pittsburg); Leah, Doug, and Alex (from Canada); David and Ray (from Sydney, Australia); Marco and Varna (from Germany and Italy); and my personal favorite, Jenny (from Australia originally, now living in Venezuela).

We embarked our trek at kilometer 82, which is located in the town of Ollantaytambo. We crossed the river, took many photos, and started our trek with clean clothes and good health.

Today’s trek was pretty mild, though many people were sick due to the altitude. Ginger had a throbbing headache and Eric and Sarah struggled to climb even the smallest of inclines. It was very obvious there would be trouble with altitude sickness among the group and eventually Eric started vomiting and had to be carried via horseback to the first camping site. Ginger was a complete champ and kept up with me at a pretty good pace even though she was not feeling well. Alex, the 16 year old son of Doug and Leah, pretty much ran up the mountain and made the rest of us look like panzies. The Australians, David and Ray, proved their hiking ability and kept a click very similar to Alex. I was very “middle of the pack” and appreciated not looking too out-of-shape even though I was winded pretty much the entire day.

We finally reached camp fairly late in the day (around 5:30 or so) and settled in for the night. I think at this point we had hiked around 14 kilometers in 6 hours. Eric was still vomiting at this point and we were all getting worried about his ability to climb the mountain and survive day 2, the infamous “crier” of a day ahead.

8/15/10: Day 15, I Met Marc Anthony, but he can’t sing

Today we met a group of tourists at 8:30 am for the Sacred Valley Bus tour through our tour guide service. We had a Peruvian guide named Marco Anthony (like the singer Mark Anthony) who spoke impeccable English, but couldn’t sing… Anyhow, he was more of an archeologist and had plenty of interesting information to share.

Our first stop was Pisac, an ancient Inca city in the shape of a condor. The royal bodies were buried here, over 3000 total. The bodies were buried here because the condor (a huge native bird here) is supposed to be the courier to heaven. This city was full of terraces and a still-functional water irrigation system.

The next stop was Ollantaytambo. This place is the resting place of the ancient Inca warrior Ollantay. The terraces here were strictly for erosion control and the city was never finished due to invasion from the Spanish conquistadors. This city was mainly used for storage and we learned here that the entire Inca trail system is 42,000 kilometers long (the earth’s girth is only 40,000 km).

The final stop was Chinchero. Here we watched the local women die yarns and learned about alpaca, llama, and sheep wool. There is a beautiful church at the top of this place (elevation 13,000 ft) and this is the highest point in sacred valley. This church is considered to be one of the most ornate catholic churches in the world and houses many paintings and murals.

We reached the hotel again about 7:30pm and got ready to embark on tomorrow’s journey.

8/14/10: Day 14, I Gave My Sol for a Picture of Alpacas Wearing Hats

Finally, a morning to sleep! We woke up around 7:30 to the jungle sounds of
McCaws and what Ginger and I were hoping to be the Harpy eagle (we’re still unsure.) It was chilly for the rainforest and I was hesitant to climb out of my bed and mosquito net to head off to the restroom. Eventually I drug myself out of bed to get ready for the morning and pack for the flight to Cusco.

We left the jungle for another 3 hour boat ride back to Puerto Maldonado. This morning I sat up front with Jorge and discussed medical issues with him (he has a genetic bone-growth issue) while pointing out any animals/reptiles he saw. There are benefits to befriending the guides! We saw many interesting things as the others in the boat slept the morning away.

The plane ride was quick and painless, but the city (Cusco) was much less friendly. It left both Ginger and I feeling dizzy and tired. We ended up having some comfort food for lunch (pasta) and then walked the city for a few hours. People here will do anything for your money. In fact, I paid 4 women I sol (the equivalent of about 30 cents) to take a picture of them holding baby alpaca’s that were wearing knitted hats. I couldn’t resist!

I ended up feeling better, while Ginger’s headache got worse and worse. I’m concerned that she has the beginning of altitude sickness. Hopefully tomorrow we will get more rest and she will acclimate better to the 3,400m altitude here.

We had a dinner of chocolate vienoise & stuffed chicken breasts (stuffed with cream cheese and asparagus and wrapped in salted prosciutto.) Another good meal, but not as good as the food in Lima. Due to headaches and lethargy, the two of us slowly crept back to the hotels for warm (well, a little warm for the first 5 minutes) showers and clean beds.

8/13/10, Day 13: The Cornhairs

Today we awoke at 4am for a delightful day of rainforest fun. The morning started with a dark boatride lit and driven only by a small spotlight at the front of the boat. An hour and a half later, the sun rose upon a clay lick full of McCaws, parrots, and parakeets. We watched in awe as the blue and yellow mccaws, red and yellow mccaws, red and green mccaws, and several types of parrots and parakeets flew overhead. The birds come every morning to the clay lick in order to imbibe some clay. This clay contains large amounts of sodium and helps the birds to metabolize the toxins ingested in their normal diets.

Looking at the canopy, our guide Jorge noticed 3 red howling monkeys sleeping in balls in the top of the tree. Eventually the monkeys woke up and started jumping from branch to branch… they were quite the spectacle.

We sat for a bit to enjoy the scenery, have a cup of coffee, and share some monkey brains (a native fruit.) Eventually, we piled back into the boat and headed to the lodge for a late breakfast and change of clothes. Shortly thereafter, kayaking the amazon’s rapids ensued, followed by swimming, lunch, and a zip line adventure. Exhausted, Ginger and I spent the next few hours trying to keep awake for the caiman-spotting trip at 7.

This trip was awesome, Jorge caught a rare type of black caiman, one of the most endangered species in the world. He brought it on the boat, let all of us take a look, and released it again.

Ginger and I were both disappointed that this part of the trip had to end, it was such an interesting and eye-opening experience… Plus by this point we had made many new friends: Doug & Andy from Canada; Elizabeth, Megan, Sarah, Katy, & Emilie from California; and of course, Jorge, our indigenous guide who fondly referred to us as the corn-hairs (Ginger and I are both blonde like the tassle from the corn here.)