Machu Pichu

email repurposed as a blog post:



i'm actually writing you from a speeding bus that is hurtling us through the Peruvian Desert. I'm a bit sad as it's some of the first desert scenery on the trip that has seemed truely unique(not found in the states) but I keep telling myself that I'll just have to come back to take pictures. Cait is sick again, seems to never have truely kicked that bug and so as soon as we get to a place with some medical care we'll see what's up. In the meantime we're travelling first class for security and comfort as we spend 72 hours on buses getting to columbia.

Machu Pichu was amazing. In some ways, we'd like to take it back...but the experience in person is so much more powerful than pictures can even describe. And the trek to get there made that even more powerful as you really spend your time wondering how in the world the people of that time lived their lives and whether or not they were thinking the same things about the same views, flora and fauna. While Cait and I had been in the temperate jungle of the Cochamo Valley, this was different. Spring was here and when we weren't gawking at the hundreds of different flowers all jam packed along the path, or the coffee bean plants, or the avocado trees, or the passion fruit trees, we were eating handfuls of wild strawberries that we found stradling both sides of the trail. We started outside of cusco and headed up a bumpy road in a taxi that was sure to break down(more on that later) until we met up with our group. We walked through the Salcantay valley to a base camp a thousand feet below the mountain. We made camp and some friends as we all huddled together outside to enjoy the stars in the freezing cold. Morning brought a knock on the tent and some hot coca tea....that's the life! After breakfast the cook and horseman packed up our tents and lashed our bags to the mules as we headed out carrying water and rain jackets. We climbed for about two hours to reach the foot of Mt. Salcantay and sat for a quick snack and history lesson in front of this snow capped and forbidding peak. The rest of the day took us up through the pass and down into a lush green valley that was peppered with huge boulders that looked like giant shrapnel from an ancient volcanic eruption. We made camp that night tucked in along the valley walls and talked well into the night with our new friends. That having been a 10-12 hour day, we were not excited for the 5am wake up call but did well getting up and out with the help of more coca tea brought to your door! We started our descent into the true jungle and spent the day walking over mudslides, ramshackle bridges made of tree limbs, sticks and dirt, and just marvelling at the scenery. This was the day of strawberries and butterflies. I'm not sure which we saw more of...but at one point we were standing in the middle of a literal butterfly cloud with probably 20 different types all flying around us. We were trapped!! We also saw a dying centipede that was metallic black with red legs. He was fighting off what I can only imagine to be the vultures of the insect community as they tried to get at his wound. Fields, mud, coffee and avocado plantations, bugs, and beauty. Amazing day. This was just a half day of walking and so we were all pretty happy to take it slow and arrive in plenty of time to hang around and relax. One of the other groups that was hiking the trail and staying with us bought a pig to be roasted and our group got to watch the preparation. Aparently they don't do this often and it is reserved for special events, so the whole show ended up being a pretty good time in between uncomfortable jokes about the bovine borne illnesses as the preparation reached its second hour.
Now, I can't quite describe to you in words what the next day was like. this was day 4 and it was time to climb a mountain and walk our butts off until we arrived in aguas calientes and the base of machu pichu. I've never climbed anything this long and steep before. Somehow, this trail would crush your spirits around every corner as another demanding set of steep steps and insistant uphill grade awaited you. It was incredible to hike through this valley though because it was the same foggy, steamy, misty jungle that you see as a backdrop in the photos of machu pichu. There were moments of complete whiteout where you couldn't quite tell where the edge of the trail was and the mountains surrounding you disappeared into the same cloud you found yourself in. There were streams to cross and refresh yourself in and Incan security posts along the way...protecting the path to Machu Pichu. The flowers were in full force this day as well. The night before, Cait and I had borrowed and poured over the "flora and fauna of machu pichu" book that our guide was carrying. We tried to identify everything we'd seen and cait wrote down many of the names for later picture searching. Well, that book time turned out to be an incredible primer for the explosion of color that we found ourselves in. I mean, you just can't imagine the clusters and fields and combinations of amazing flowers that we were walking past. At some points it seemed like these amazing flowers were the dominant plant in the area.
After we summited and had a snack, we started to descend the steep muddy path that would take us to the valley floor and lead us to the base of machu pichu. I love running down a mtn path and find it to be easier on the knees and so after a bit of group walk, I took off and ran-slid down the mtn. The rest of the group walk-slid and soon we were all at the bottom. The trip down was notable for two things. The mud...the incredibly slippery mud. Two, our first view of Machu Pichu. At two points there were spectacular panoramic views of the valley and of Machu Pichu itself. A few hours later we met the train tracks at the town of Hydroelectrico and walked along the tracks for about 2.5 hours to the town of aguas calientes. Along the way we learned that the "dont step on the lava" joke gets old fast and that walking along railroad tracks...while romantic...means that you spend more time minding the gaps and less time checking out the scenery. The scenery was the raging river that has caused so much destruction in the area this rainy season. I've just never seen this volume of water moving so fast. It was as if you were watching a beast that could just barely be contained. The mere fact that there were rocks in the river was unbelievable as I thought the force would have thrown these boulders out of the way. Also, we were walking along this river over mud slides, barely repaired track, and bridges that required you to walk rail-tie to rail-tie. crazy. As we rounded a bend we saw in front of us...close enough to touch was the bottom of machu pichu...diving down into the forest where much of it still hides. We walked into town as beaten and exhausted as I've been on a trip. The muddy, smelly and limping group of us stared into the bus windows at the squeaky clean tourists arriving like they were zoo animals and they returned the curious gaze as well. We found our budget hotel, ate a group dinner and were halfway through planning the party night when our guide said "4AM departure". It was 9:30pm.
Having bought snacks and stolen what felt like a catnap, we all woke up and gathered in the main square. 1400 steps up the inca trail in the pitch dark and pouring rain and we found ourselves at the gate. We snagged tickets as early birds to the sought after Waynapichu tickets (400 in total divided in half between two entry times) and headed in. Machu Pichu without anyone there is, in my point of view, magical. That first 30 minutes gave you the real opportunity to imagine a thriving city and society there. The rain that had greeted us at 3AM hadn't given a sign of letting up and by the time we finished our tour at 9am we were soaked to the core and very cold. Our guide had tired of our group and cut our tour short which was dissapointing to us nerds but at the same time welcomed as the group vibe had begun to feel like a wet blanket anyway. We gathered at the entrance to Waynapichu at 10 and started up. Waynapichu is generally the mtn that you see in the backround of the famous pictures. It looks like the rather vertical one covered in jungle. Well, inside that green cover are about 1000 more stairs that at times go straight up. Helped along by cable and ropes though, this felt like a piece of cake and we found ourselves up in the clouds again looking down at the whole site of Machu Pichu. We took a ton of photos with two french folks we had befriended and all sat down to enjoy some food and wonder what the hell life was like back then. After climbing down, we met a tour guide that we had talked to about our bad experience and he agreed to give us a tour of the most important places for an optional tip. AMAZING. He took us to and explained to us two of the coolest parts of the site. At the end, 2.5 dollars got us more information and imagination than we'd seen all morning. We splurged on a victory bus ride down to avoid the knee shattering stairs and then enjoyed a nice dinner with our French friends before getting on the train to go back to Cusco.

All in all a wild, unpredictable and awesome time. Can't wait to see you guys...home is starting to look real big in the windshield.