January 4, 2014

After an awesome 12 hour layover in Miami, which was well spent at the closest movie theater (Wolf of Wall Stree and American Hustle), we arrived into Lima around 10PM. We had to wait a few extra minutes for our bags after a teenage boy clumsily posted up on the emergency stop button. After a good giggle, we were on our way and at the hostel by 11PM. While we were checking in, our close friend and bar-mate from Athens (Julie) saw us and ran over to welcome us. After dumping our stuff in our room, we headed out into the barrio of Miraflores to the Irish Pub for a couple Cusqueñas and catching up. We wound up staying out for a while, but all the better. We returned to our hostel and slept well, for the next day we had a date with a 20+ hour bus ride.

The bus was leaving Lima around 4PM so we did some walking around, checked out the cloud covered ocean, and grabbed some lunch from a cebicheria. We had a rather nice lunch which consisted of lots of seafood, both in the fried and ceviche forms. It was quite delish.

With our stomachs full we headed to the bus station. We wound up having read the departure time wrong so we got there a little early but no sweat. We went to the café and did some research on how to spend our time in Peru. Anyways, the bus was comfortable as is typical in South America and arrived into Cusco around noon the next day.

INSERT [This is where I would put a picture of Julie being amazed at how plush the buses are in SA, but it has been lost in the shuffle. You can imagine]

We checked into our hostel in Cusco and wanted badly to rest after the bus ride. For whatever reason, long rides take it out of you regardless of if you sleep or not. We managed to rest up a little and walk around before we had a meeting with the tour agency to go over the details of the trek ahead of us.

The Salkantay Trek is the alternative to the much busier classic Inca Trail trek. The trek took 5 days and with all the extra hikes covered about 90km. Either way it was a good bit of walking. This walking was not made any easier by the fact that it rained 90% of the time. I’d love to say that I had a great time but it’s difficult. It certainly had its moments. The sun came out a couple times and it was very nice. The rain punctuated by small amounts of sun made it that much sweeter. The rest of the time was lots of walking in wet clothes and shoes which made being positive a trying matter. I find this video to sum up the experience:

A lowlight for the trip, our second day, started with Holly and Julie not feeling 100% but both were absolutely game to start the hike. We covered 22km almost entirely under rain, with mosquitoes, between altitudes of 3500m and 4500m, and with mud that was very deep in some sections that made navigating the trail much more time consuming than it should have been. We were all grumpy and tired by the time we arrived, but upon arrival to our campsite we received a gift from the gods: cold beer. They weren’t even really that cold, but oh my were they tasty. The group stayed up drinking grog and shooting the breeze for a good while trading Australian and America slang, telling stories, and naturally a good time was had by all. The next morning, however, it was clear that Holly had developed a pretty serious affliction and was in no shape to hike the 10km to our next camp site. She had to be transported via the donkey express and car to our next spot where we could go to a doctor.

(Note:mud)

Turns out it was just a bit of an upper respiratory infection made unbearable by the altitude and cold. The doctor gave her a shot of some mystery drugs and some antibiotics and within the hour Holly was already feeling much better. She was still supposed to rest the next day but she’d still be able to make it to Machu Picchu. So the next day we took a bus to the train station which also happened to be our trail head to drop Holly off for the early train into Aguas Calientes. But wait! This is the rainy season in Peru and of course the tracks had been washed out and wouldn’t be repaired until later, so hike it was for ol’ Holly Jones. Fortunately, the trail was flat and relatively easy and didn’t rain too much. The altitude was also much lower so breathing was easier and temperatures warmer. Good things. The tracks were also repaired during our walk which was a nice sign.

We finally made it into Aguas Calientes to our hotel, turned on AXN (our favorite crime drama channel), and rested. Dinner was at 7 and it was destined to be good. Shortly after arrival to dinner, right after the arrival of my chicken soup that was so warm I wanted to cry, Holly says, ”Brent, I’m getting a migrane.” Bad luck Jones strikes again. I walked her back to the Hotel, finished my soup, and took her meal to go. Machu Picchu, Machu Picchu, Machu Picchu. That is all we could focus on. It had been such a rough trip we had to try hard to keep the goal in mind. We slept like rocks and woke up at 4 the next morning to make it up the mountain early to get to the city before the hoards of people. BUT WAIT! Rainy season. A boulder the size of a greyhound had wreaked havoc on the road going up, making it impossible to arrive by bus, so walk it was, again, in the rain and cold and mud, finally, to Machu Picchu.

The Boulder, where it stopped. Note the guide standing on it and looking up its path.

Part of its roughly 1km trail of mayhem.

Arriving at Machu Picchu could not have been more anticlimactic. Naturally the rain didn’t let up so we saw the ancient Incan City as only a fraction have: through the clouds and under rain. Most views were obstructed and we were soaking wet. Our guide went through the motions, told us his interpretations of what was where, how the stone work differed for different reasons, the importance of the location, etc. Upon his departure, we sat around at the guard house where those classic Machu Picchu pictures are taken just waiting for breaks in the clouds to see the city as a whole.

Holly’s pictures have been doctored and represent only about 2% of the time we spent at the site. Most of the time it was like this:

We watched some crazy llamas and killed time watching the clouds before we started our hike up the actual Machu Picchu mountain.This hike too was pretty strenuous and had a lot of vertical gain over a relatively short stretch making it a true leg killer. Holly’s condition got the best of her and she decided to stop around half way up and let Julie and I finish by ourselves which was probably a good call because it didn’t get any easier as we went. Reaching the summit felt great and we were excited to see the city from a different view, but that view never came. Clouds obstructed the whole thing, so the only reward we had was a small sip of Gatorade and some chocolate.

We took some pictures for proof and decided to head back, but as we were leaving Holly appeared! It had started raining again and Holly got cold and like a good backpacker decided to keep moving, and she chose the up direction. We took some more pictures and we pointed out where the city would be if there were no clouds. At this point we had a 1 hour hike back down to the ancient city and then another hour and a half back to Aguas Calientes. We would have certainly taken a bus, but the road was still out and would probably remain that way for the next week. It was a huge mess. At this point in time it was full-on raining and we still had the 2.5 hour hike to look forward to so we started back. So did everyone else. The trail down to the city was fine, just wet. Once we got down to the city though, the hoards started. The hundreds of people who would have normally taken the bus were forced to walk on the foot path which was not designed to handle that kind of traffic. It was also not designed to handle older people, families, and people who generally avoid physical activity. Going was frustratingly slow and muddy made worse by the rain and people. Upon taking a shortcut around a massively slow crowd, Holly slipped and got covered in mud. I think it might have helped dry her off a little bit though because she was literally steaming mad. At the bottom, we were all totally down and out. While walking back a bus drove by and splashed us with muddy water. The bottom had been reached. This situation was made even more complicated by the fact that we had already checked out of the hotel and would be forced to wear our wet clothes for another 8 hours until we would finally get back to Cusco. We ate Chinese food, which is huge in Peru, and I left an extra tip for leaving puddles under our table. I apologized deeply and we left in a hurry to wait for our train in another 4 hours. Holly and Julie fortunately had extra clothes and the hotel was nice enough to let them change. They also brought out a hair drier and dried Julies soaking wet passport and train ticket. I left the girls in the hotel lobby and ventured out with some other folks from our group for a beer. We happened to find a restaurant with a wood burning oven. This oven served as the equivalent of my hair drier. I was mostly dry by the time we boarded the train, which left late for Ollantetambo. Upon arrival, we had to transfer to a van to be shuttled back to our hostel in Cusco. The driver was fast and efficient but his music choice, after an entire week of being abused and beaten, was psychosis inducing. Around 11:30PM we finally got into Cusco, walked into our hostel with high hopes of showers, laundry, and relaxation. Nope. They never marked down our reservation and were totally booked. We were forced to bounce around to be rejected from a couple more hostels before someone told us about a hostel down the road which had plenty of rooms available. We booked a private so we could be pigs and spread all of our stuff out to dry and reorganize. We showered up and the three of us hit our beds hard. And like my man Steve Brule says, nothing else could go wrong, “just dreams.”

Reflections:

What a week. I feel like Murphy had a heyday. We were totally broken by the time we got back. I had been eaten by some freakish deviant of mosquito that itched worse than anything. Holly developed a crippling sickness. We were all probably a little hypothermic and certainly on the brink of going crazy from all of the terrible music. I think it cultivated incredible mental toughness in all of us and it will be interesting going forward from here. It was certainly memorable but for all the wrong reasons. One day it will make a great story and people will laugh and laugh, but all I have to say is that I’m glad its over. I never thought I’d say that about time spent in the mountains around Machu Picchu but I think we are all a little sour about it. It was too devastating to move past and is probably why I felt the need to write out our tale in excruciating detail. I suppose I’ll consider it therapy. We are looking forward to more great experiences but that is the luxury we have. Some people traveled specifically for this trip and I can’t imagine their takeaway from it. But like I said, I’m glad it’s over and am excited for warmth, sun, and some proper fun.