Last full day in Cusco. Walked through a local market (very crazy, lots of animal parts everywhere) and explored the streets a bit more.
Had dinner at a wine bar our guide recommended and made Megan hang out in the cold while I took pictures of the main square at night.
Early checkout tomorrow, but a late flight so will probably hit up a museum or something to kill time. Not looking forward to the layover in Lima.
And so we are almost done. Yesterday, after the Indiana Jones bridge, we walked through the Machu Picchu hydroelectric plant (which I thought was really cool, but probably everyone else didn't enjoy) to get to the train station.
The train station was pretty energetic, with women running stalls right next to the tracks (and in some cases on the tracks) selling everything you might need.
The train ride was only a few miles around Machu Picchu (following the river from west to east), but involved a fee switchbacks (wasn't aware trains could do that), and a lot of stops of attach and detach cars.
After a short walk from the train station to the hotel it was time for a quick shower (very dusty trail) and then to the bar for drinks (yay drinks, finally done with cipro) with our assistant guide Whillder before he left us to go back to Cusco.
The next day was a late(r) start (for everyone else, I was still up before 5). A (very) terrifying bus ride up ~2000 ft and we were at Machu Picchu. The morning was spent on a guided tour, then lunch, then the rest of the afternoon was time to explore on our own. Megan ans I walked to the sun gate (far, and not as cool up close), as well as to the Inca bridge (picture 2 logs over a 15 ft gap 8000 ft above the valley).
Tomorrow is an early start (trying to catch sunrise), and maybe climb huayna picchu (the mountain you see behind the city in most photos).
You can't really see it in this picture but Machu Picchu is visible between the mountains.
Today started off early with a 7am kick off to a long climb. I think we went up around 2500ft to an Incan temple. The weather on the tropical side of the mountains is totally different to what we had felt on the dry side. The walk up was very humid (we were basically walking through the cloud layer in places) and I probably lost another 5 lbs in sweat.
We stopped for lunch at a rest stop run by a local family with a view of Machu Picchu. Except everything was covered in clouds. Or we were inside of the clouds. Not sure how you can tell. So some of the group played frisbee with the family's 3 year old son Miguel.
Eventually the clouds started to clear (or rise, or whatever it is clouds do so that you can see things) and we got our first view of the city. Granted, it was far away and a bit hard to see (the surrounding mountains and valleys were more impressive), but it justified dragging that stupid (heavy) telephoto lens all over this country.
After lunch (first food in 2 days!) it was a set of 94 (steep) switchbacks down into the valley to catch the train into Aguas Calientes. The down hill part was Megans least favorite (apparently she has poor balance), while I was loving it and basically ran down the mountain (or a barely controlled fall).
Once at the bottom we had to cross the Ahobamba river (which of course involved an Indiana Jones style wood bridge). Megan really didn't seem to find the humor in bouncing while crossing, which is unfortunate.
(Pictures should be a bit bigger now, in a hotel with internet that doesn't involve satellite dishes and tin cans connected by string)
Woke up this morning feeling much better. Fever is gone and I had a bit of energy for the first time in days. I'm thinking the only way left for this country to kill me is a puma attack.
Today was a ~10 mile hike down through a tropical valley. Most of it was walking along side a river that eventually feeds the amazon.
We visited a small coffee plantation and saw how they hand roast the beans (the floor was also covered in guinea pigs - seems to be how kitchens in peru work).
It's much warmer (and more humid) on this side of the mountains. Tomorrow is our last day of hiking, thinking my feet and knees will be happy.
So this post is a day late. Apparently after altitude sickness comes bacterial stomach problems. This made what should have been an easy 4 hour hike something like a death march. And I threw up on the side of some sacred mountain. So there's that off the bucket list.
Megan is, of course, perfectly fine. Well, she has a stupid sunburn, but I currently don't think that counts.
I basically spent all of the afternoon and night in bed alternating between sweating and chills. I missed the guinea pig roast, and of course Megan didn't try it.
Our guides were very helpful and filled me with all sorts of Peruvian drugs. I woke up without a fever, which was awesome. First time I've had energy in days.
The worst (at least re: altitude) is over. Currently we are all sitting around a fire drinking pisco sours. Hot tub later. Thinking I like roughing it. :-)
Definitely got (had?) altitude sickness on the way up. Headache, dizziness, and nausea all at once. The last few hundred feet were as close to crawling as you can be but still be on 2 legs (and a pole). At the top another one of themountain group was nice enough to give me one of her altitude meds (my doctor only gave me enough for 3 days, which didn't include the highest altitudes - have I mentioned my dislike for doctors?).
Once at the top it started hailing, and of course I had to take a group picture. So, when in a few months I need a new camera it's because of the hail damage. :-)
About 10 minutes after taking the meds I felt much better and we headed down the other side of the pass into a valley. About halfway down we stopped for lunch, which was cooked in a permanent campsite on the hillside. Hot soup, pasta, and pears cooked in wine. And of course coca tea. The food has been incredible, especially for being in the middle of nowhere.
Hiked up to ~14,000 ft this morning to see a glacial lake. Was quite impressive, but of course I forgot to take any pictures of it on my phone. Oops. (The picture is of the mountain above the lake).
While there we were lucky enough to see an avalanche. Something that sounded like thunder made everyone look up in time to see a huge chunk of snow and rock slide off the glacier.
Pretty sure I got altitude sickness coming back down, that's going to make tomorrows hike up the murderhorn much less fun.
Well, we didn't die. Day 1 started very early (6:30) with a van ride to some Inca ruins and a local village for coffee and to pick out our guinea pigs for a future dinner (kidding, but they did have guinea pigs).
This was followed by a bit more driving to the trail head and then a 6 mile hike from ~11,000 ft to 12,000 ft. The uphill parts were pretty brutal; the altitude making it impossible to catch your breath. We stopped for lunch on a hill overlooking a beautiful valley next to a run down building. The last 3 or so hours we're basically flat and quite easy.
Thefirst first lodge is pretty incredible, with views of snow capped mountains from each room and a hot tub.
Megan had her first outdoor bathroom experience (no pictures to commemorate), and I think I brought too much camera stuff (typical).
The whole group is here (the airlines lost one girls luggage, how much would that suck?) and we are heading out early for the first lodge.
The food here has bee surprisingly good. I'll leave you with a picture of Megan eating an alpaca, a cute and delicious animal.
Arrived in Cusco, with all our luggage. Hotel provided us with a shuttle from the airport, and then promptly started filling us with cocoa tea.
We had some really nice views of the Andes mountains as we flew in, but I wasn't able to pick out the ones we are going to be climbing.
You can definitely feel the altitude, no nausea, but shortness of breath. Thinking we are going to take it easy tonight and just explore the city.
Lima airport was a zoo. Had to go through customs, then get our stuff from baggage claim (yay, it arrived), then back in line to get boarding passes and re-check our luggage for the flight to Cusco.
The lines at check-in were insane. Apparently the thing to do is to show up 15 minutes before your flight leaves, then try to skip the lines and security.
Pointless post, but keeps the location database up to date.
Assuming all goes well we should be in Lima by 4:30am.
Megan thinks these posts are not very entertaining. She is probably correct. So: A guinea pig and an alpaca walk into a bar...
So apparently American Airlines pushed our flight back from 3:30 to 5:30. And didn't bother to let me us know. So we are spending a bit longer than expected getting acquainted with concourse C at BWI. I suppose this isn't any different than the 6 hour layover in Miami we were originally going to have, but it would be even better to be sitting at home right now.
Number of things forgotten so far: 1 (Megan's Peru guidebook)
