Early to bed, Jess and I woke up at 6:30 to eat breakfast and get our things together before being picked up at 7:15 by our tour group. We loaded onto the van which already had seven other young women ready to hike with us. The drive that morning was rather uneventful, we spent most of the time getting to know each other and learning where each other was from, etc. Thanh is from Boston; she is a scientist who works for a pharmaceutical company and she has done a lot of awesome travels and hikes before. She and I got along really well and spent a lot of the hiking time together. Heather is her friend from college who now lives in Seattle and is a marine biologist. I'm supremely jealous of her, she gets to spend most of her days on boats tracking and watching for whales. Jess is her friend from Seattle who is a journalist and writer for the government. She said her job was too boring to tell us any more about it. Those three girls came on the trip together and they were a lot of fun to hang out with, very giggly and always having fun. Then there were two ladies who work as physician's assistants: Bri and Tori. They were also a lot of fun, and it was very entertaining hearing their emergency room stories. Finally, there were two doctors from Germany; Ana and Julia. They were quiet at first, but as the trip went on they opened up and were really fun to talk to as well.
Day one we took the van up through some mountains and out to the base of the Salkantay mountain. We only hiked about an hour to our campsite, where we quickly put on all the clothes we had brought along and huddled together in the food tent to wait for our awesome cooks to serve us the first of many delicious meals. We were very spoiled by our cooks the whole time with delicious Andean Peruvian food. That first day we had delicious hot vegetable cream soup, which was perfect since it was so very cold outside. It dropped below freezing that night, which of course didn't help my cold... However, I did go directly to bed after lunch around 3:30 since I was still feeling quite awful. I put on a hat and scarf and two pairs of wool socks and I was very thankful I had a proper cold weather sleeping bag. It kept me alive!
Here is our campsite from the first night; we got to see the snow covered Salkantay mountain just before the sun set!
We woke up bright and early the next day and set off straight uphill to hike through the Salkantay path. After saying good morning to the cows that had joined us overnight, that is.
I was so tired from sleeping eleven hours, and I was not even remotely feeling better, so it was a very difficult morning for me. I had to stop and cough and blow my nose at every turn, and we were going up switchbacks so that was quite often. A couple other girls had trouble breathing as well, but mostly from the altitude, not because they had clogged sinuses, so they got better as the day went on. I was jealous.
Here we are at the top of the Salkantay path! We all made our own little towers of rocks as offerings to the mountain for a safe journey.
It was a gorgeous hike, regardless of how I was feeling, and I wish I had been more alert and taken more pictures. After we made it through the pass it started to drizzle pretty steadily and I was quite concerned about keeping my Kleenex slightly dry during the transition from my jacket to my nose where it promptly became considerably less dry. Given this dilemma, I took very few pictures that day, but I remember being very grateful to my new friends who donated several rolls of toilet paper to the "Maia's really sick and needs a lot of tissues" fund.
When we made it to camp, the rain had let up quite a bit and I was able to change into dry warm clothes, pour hot water on my hair to wash it slightly (or rather, eliminate a bit of the annoying frizz that always managed to find its way onto my face and into my nose...gross) and warm up in the dining tent with several cups of hot tea.
Day three was a slightly shorter trek (only 15 kilometers compared to 19 the previous day) and it did not rain nearly as much. The first part was difficult mostly because the rain the night before left our first trails downhill quite slippery with mud... I was so proud of myself for not falling. I really enjoyed the walk that day because we trekked through some beautiful jungle and mountain scenery. I walked with Thanh for the majority of the trek, and she has a background in ecology and conservation. She has been to Ecuador and the Amazon and was able to share a lot of her knowledge with me. We spotted two huge gorgeous parrots, several tiny hummingbirds, lizards, beetles, leaf cutter ants, dozens of unique butterflies, and plenty of beautiful birds. I felt very lucky to be walking with her and I loved hearing her stories of other treks and climbs she has done.
Jessi and I in front of a waterfall, of which there were quite a few!
Our guide, Fernando, Ana, Heather and Jess.
This was a common view that we saw during our trek that day, we were walking through cloud forests, so the clouds were constantly hovering just above us.
Here is just one of the beautiful butterflies we saw throughout the trek. I spent way to much time chasing after them with my camera waiting for them to land so I could get a good picture. It was worth it though!
We crossed a lot of waterfalls that day, and even had to climb UP a river.... yeah that was tricky but quite interesting.
Another gorgeous butterfly... this one was iridescent, very cool.
We of course saw hundreds of flowers along the trail, and this was just one of the many orchids that we were lucky enough to find.
This, I was told by Thanh, is a TRUE beetle. Apparently many people think other bugs are beetles, but this one actually is. It has a small "x" on it's back which isn't really visible here, but is the indicator of the fact that it is a real beetle.
More gorgeous orchids against a clear blue sky... finally, no more rain!
These flowers were incredible. We saw a few hummingbirds floating around among them, but of course they were much too quick to get a decent picture.
This was one of the many rickety log bridges that we crossed that day. Some of them were quite wobbly and I'm impressed I didn't fall.
These flowers just astounded me. I love the combination of colors, they were so gorgeous!
Another beautiful iridescent butterfly. You can also see the gorgeous natural granite rock it is resting on. I wish it had been sunny, the rocks were quite sparkly on their own and must be spectacular in the sunlight.
Here is our whole group on day three once we arrived at our campsite. We were so happy to have the majority of the walk completed! At least, the most difficult part was over.
That afternoon and evening we had ourselves a few beers (I stuck to CocaCola) and danced the night away. We had our tea and supper there and did some yoga, which Jessi did a great job of instructing, which was apparently very entertaining for the guides and porters who just sat there and drank.
The next day we were able to sleep in until after 8 o'clock, which was phenomenal. We all needed the extra few hours of sleep to recuperate after walking so much and staying up late the night before. We took a van from the campsite to the hydroelectric town which is the entrance to the Machu Picchu valley. That ride was quite interesting. Most of it was on one way roads, and we had to play chicken with a few other vans quite a few times. It was also a very twisty road and our driver either had no fear of heights, or else just didn't see the raging rapids several hundred feet below us. I was sitting by the window looking over the edge most of the time, watching the road practically disappear beneath the side of the van and taking pictures the whole time. A few other girls, unfortunately, were feeling quite ill from the speed, heights, and twisty roads.
This is a river we drove through.
Beautiful blue skies again!
Here's the truck that nearly hit us. We had to back up on the curvy road for about 60 meters before we got to a part wide enough for them to pass.
Those are banana trees on the left; we passed some really gorgeous fruit and flower trees along the way.
Here is where we were stopped for about 20 minutes, waiting for a road to be built for us. A few days earlier apparently there had been a landslide and there were huge rocks blocking the whole path. So we waited there for the big machines to clear the way and make a new road for us. It was quite entertaining.
Here we are passing the massive machine quite slowly, hoping to continue without any more trouble.
However, we were stopped again, and quickly got trapped in by the one machine we passed that began pushing rocks in our direction, making it impossible to go in either direction. I found that hilarious but a few other girls who were already feeling claustrophobic didn't care much for the sensation.
The car in front of us got stuck on a pile of rocks, so one worker literally had to start pulling rocks out from under the tires and then push from behind to get it over the roadblock.
We made it finally though!
Of course, we then had to drive over another river, and this one was much more raging than the first.
We made it to the Hydroelectric town, which was rather boring, but we stopped briefly to have lunch and something to drink before setting off on our short (three hour) trek to Aguas Calientes.
On our way out of the town we saw this sign that made me laugh: "Escape" is supposedly the English translation of "Way out" (Ruta de Salida)... But of course in my head it sounded just like the way Dory says it in "Finding Nemo:" es-CA-pay. I started laughing out loud as soon as I saw the sign and had a hard time explaining it to the others. So, I just took a picture and decided that those of you who read my blog will be more likely to appreciate the humor. Your welcome.
The rest of the walk that day was rather non eventful, but we walked through some gorgeous rain forest scenery and the walk was very flat which was quite a comfort. At one point the river went over these gigantic rocks that for some reason reminded me so much of the Barcelona artist Gaudi that I couldn't help but take a bunch of pictures. It was quite fascinating.
As we got close to Aguas Calientes, Thanh and I met up with a group of about 20 men in their 50s and 60s that all had huge binoculars and cameras and kept stopping every 50 feet or so. We realized they were a group of birdwatchers who had come to the sacred valley to look for rare species of Peruvian birds. It wasn't hard to get them to talk about the birds they were looking for; in fact it was much more difficult to get them to stop! I was happy to walk with them for a few minutes and learn about the birds they were looking for. They were so excited, it was just adorable.
Our night in Aguas Calientes was very fun. I was able to take a nice hot shower right away when I got to the hostel, and we all went out to a nice dinner at a place close to our hostel. It was POURING rain by the time we went out... honestly I've never been in a rain that heavy before. I had a delicious bowl of fettuccine with garlic cream sauce and fresh vegetables, and I even tried a bite of Alpaca meat from Jessi's plate (it was really good!)
The next day, Friday, we finally got to go to Machu Picchu! We all decided to wake up at 5 and get there nice and early to have good lighting for pictures and fewer crowds to deal with. Interestingly enough, several of the girls and our guides had gone out dancing the night before and didn't get back until 3 am! That made it quite amusing when we got up at 5, and met the guides at 6... they were so tired and hungover that when we got up there Fernando found another guide who was a friend of his to lead us around and teach us about the ruins. That was nice of him, and I'm sure the information was more clearly presented to us by the guide who was not operating off of two hours of sleep.
Here is a view of the mountains around Machu Picchu; if you look really closely you can see the snow covered mountains in the background.
Our first picture in front of Machu Picchu! Looking at the pictures immediately after was quite surreal... it looked like we were standing in front of a backdrop.
Everyone was doing the classic "jump-in-front-of-an-ancient-ruin-picture" so I decided to join in.
Jess, Heather, and Thanh, contemplating the great ancient mystery.
Fernando sitting and relaxing, or possibly trying to stop the world from spinning...
Blue skies! We learned that the three symbols of the ancient city can been seen in and around the taller mountain in the picture, which is actually Wayna Picchu. Machu Picchu Mountain was behind us in this picture, and is taller than Wayna Picchu. In Quechua, Machu means old, Wayna means young, and Picchu means mountain. Therefore, we were standing on "Old Mountain" looking at "Young Mountain." In the picture, you can kind of make out the face of a puma in Wayna Picchu, there are two lighter spots just above a larger white area. The puma represents the human, earthly world. Also, the shape of a condor flying can be seen with the outline of the three peaks. The condor is said to represent the heavenly, spiritual world. Below us, of course, was the river Urubamba, which is said to represent the snake, or the underworld. These three symbols are represented all over Machu Picchu, and Cusco, especially in the form of a cross called the Chakana:
The top three tiers represent the condor (heaven), the lower three the snake (underworld), and the center is the earth, the human and animal world. The center is also considered to represent Cusco, the capital of the Inca empire.
This is the original entrance to the city of Machu Picchu, where they apparently had a gate and the messengers coming from other parts of the empire had to show a particular bone of the llama in order to be allowed to enter.
Here is my group, nicely contemplating the ruins below us.
They allowed one small plot of land in which to grow Coca plants and other trees to show the tourists what it is that many of the Inca grew on the terraces in Machu Picchu.
Just one example of a massive stone... they were huge! I couldn't believe they moved all of those. They actually quarried in the same mountain on which they built, but they didn't use wheels because they didn't have pack animals (llamas are not pack animals, they are quite delicate and were bred to be light footed). Apparently they moved these massive stones with manpower, and possibly logs for rolling things uphill.
In this picture you can see the top of Machu Picchu mountain. Most of the group went up to the top of the mountain (a very difficult trek, about 2 hours) but I stayed behind to rest my knee, and because I was having a really hard time moving at all without coughing so much that I would nearly lose a lung. I'm grateful I stayed behind because it was apparently mostly stairs, and a lot of it was very steep. Also, I got to write in my journal, and just relax and chat with a couple of other girls and get some sunshine.
Here are some chinchillas! They were napping and wouldn't come down which made me sad because I really wanted to pet them (they're so soft!!).
We spent quite a while climbing up and down the terraces, chasing the llamas. They were friendly enough, but not that interested in us since we had no food.
Heather tried diligently to get this one's attention, but as I said, they were rather bored with us.
WELL. I think that is about all that happened. After the girls came down from the mountain, we set off back to Aguas Calientes to eat and relax a bit before taking the train back to Cusco. I was at that point very tired and anxious to be back home, and so were the rest. But we were satisfied. We exchanged emails of course before setting off and plan to keep in touch. I am very please with how the trek went, and I am particularly satisfied with having seen and experienced Machu Picchu.
Sorry this took so long to post... it's been crazy since I got back and I plan to update you about this week as soon as possible!
Love love love,
Maia Jo
Oh, Maia, I'm so impressed that you didn't fall to your death in a river as I would have. I tend to have some serious fails when I encounter slippery areas. I expect to nearly die quite often while in China. Your photos are amazing. I can't imagine how awesome it must be there.
ReplyDeleteAs an added bonus, every single time I see the word "escape", I pronounce it es-CA-pay in my head. I'm certainly glad it's not just me.
Love, love, love you!!