Peru: Machu Picchu, Part 1

As mentioned, I recently took a trip to Peru, visiting the Amazon area, Cusco, and Machu Picchu/Aguas Calientes… follow along as I show you everything I ate on my amazing trip!

After being in Peru for almost 5 whole days, it was finally time.  We woke up super early, headed to the meeting spot, and were shuttled over to the bus station, where we boarded what amounted to a van that would take us to the train station.  Before January 2010, normally, we would just get on the train, but because of the huge rains this past rainy season, there were major mudslides that knocked out much of the train tracks.  We are lucky they were able to repair some of it already, such that we could still do this trek – our trip had originally been scheduled for the first week of March, but because of the mudslides, it was impossible to do what we wanted so we’d rescheduled for the first week of June.

This picture was taken from the backseat of the van as we headed away from Cusco and up towards the Machu Picchu trails.

I love this picture of the countryside, also taken from the van as we sped towards the train station at Km 84.

Km 84 is actually where most people who do the 4 day hike of Machu Picchu begin their journey.  See the blue?  That’s SAS Travel, where we booked our two day hike.  Those are the porters you hire to carry about 50kilos of supplies per person; they carry your crap up this mountain and get paid about $60USD for 4 days.  Learning this made me feel awful (despite us not having porters since we “only” did the two day hike), though other people tried to make me feel better by explaining that the cost of living is so much lower in Peru than in NYC that $60 is actually not horrible… They have to carry 50kilos up this mountain and back to earn it!

Since we were slated to do the two day hike, we boarded the train… and it chugged chugged along.  It was taking us to Km 104, where the 2day hike begins.  This photo of the Urabomba River was taken from the very slow river.

Our first stop were the Chachabamba ruins, which our tour guide, Freddy, informed us was only discovered about 15 years ago.  Apparently, new ruins are being discovered constantly because the mountain is so vast and, well, the brush that grows to cover the areas is so dense and thick.

A sacrificial altar at Chachabamba; the Incans sacrified black llamas because they were so rare.  Or maybe they were so rare because the Incans kept sacrificing them?  Freddy didn’t appreciate my joke… but I thought it was funny!

And then began our climb.  We’re all carrying our own crap, by the way.  Of course, despite my load not being too heavy at all – BF kindly carried some of my water for me (which actually turned out to be a BAD idea) – I quickly fell behind.  The ups and downs of the trail were a struggle for me; I was having trouble breathing the air, which is notably thinner than it is in NYC (which is sea level), and I’m just not physically fit right now, since I quit running in August of last year (shame!) and just have no time for much physical activity.

See how far behind everyone I am?  No?

Well, that was a zoomed in picture.  This is the actual un-zoomed-in picture.  I’m really far behind about half of our entire tour group; I’m ahead of the other half.  It had nothing to do with age – nor, apparently, status as a smoker, since to my great shame, BF and another man who smoked the entire trip both were at the front of the group constantly.  Interestingly, though, walking at my own pace (because I wasn’t going to kill myself to catch up and keep up, nor was I going to force myself to slow down considerably), I was smack dab in the middle, too far behind to hear or really see the group ahead and too far ahead to hear or see the group behind.

“Why am I climbing this mountain alone?”  Well, my dear, you are awesome for hiking a mountain all by yourself.  Luckily, the trail doesn’t have many (any?) forks, so I was able to mostly follow the trail without much issue.

…with finding the trail, anyway, even when I didn’t want to.  What are those?  Oh, those wily Incans.  They didn’t want people finding Machu Picchu, but they sure liked building stairs.  And putting them everywhere.  I mean EVERYWHERE.  I think they must have invented them… they were so in love with the stupid things.  *angry face*

Shot of the stairs with Winaywayna to the right, very very far away – yes, that’s where I’m headed.

MORE STAIRS.

I am NOT AMUSED.  Do you see how high those stairs are???  No, really.  And I was still alone.  Awesome.

To make things even better, here came a part of the trail that entirely runs alongside a river/stream, complete with gorgeous waterfalls.  Except I had to pee really badly by this time, and I couldn’t just wander off the path to pee – you’ll see why in a minute – but I also couldn’t just squat and pee in a bush right on the trail, because there were people somewhere behind me and I didn’t want anyone to stumble on me peeing (even though it was all women behind me, that would be super awkward, I think).

The view from the trail was breathtaking, though, so I tried to get my mind off the peeing by taking some more photos.

I think this was when it occurred to me that I’m deathly afraid of heights.  You see, I’d been concentrating on just not passing out from lack of oxygen, and not really thinking about what I was actually doing: climbing a damn mountain when I am really, really, really afraid of heights.  But the show must go on; I wasn’t going to try to climb back down, and even if I wanted to quit, I needed to catch up to those ahead of me to tell them I was going to quit.  (Hah! I wasn’t going to quit.  Face your fears.  Do something new that scares you every day.  I think I covered that, yeah?)

And finally, the payoff.  Well, the first one.  This is Winaywayna (where the rest of the group was waiting for us slowpokes) – once I reached the ruins that were a few pictures back, entered, turned around and took a picture looking out over where we just climbed.  A better pic if I’d gone down and moved everyone’s stuff, but my legs were trembling a little and I was short of breath so I said to hell with it and left them there.

Here’s a fun photo: you see that vaguely brown line running horizontally sort of across the middle of the picture?  That’s the trail I’d just climbed.  Yes, indeed; that’s how much ground was covered in the first half of the first day of the two day Machu Picchu trek.

Our reward?  Lunchtime!

A lovely cream of asparagus soup, despite how hot I was, I scarfed this down.  It was really yummy, and I’d already realized that in Peru, nearly every meal will start with something liquid and hot to drink/eat.

Fried rice

Jungle potatoes, tomatoes and cucumbers

My plate, which contains the above items plus lentils and stewed chicken pieces.  This was excellent, hearty and delicious; it was especially good after our trek through the mountains, and I inhaled my food.  The lentils were also especially delicious; small but bursting with flavor and cooked really simply.  Gotta try to make that at home.  In fact, all of it was something I want to make at home; BF even asked that I try to make chicken stew like so because he really enjoyed the spices and flavors of Peruvian cooking.

And then we had to go back out and start hiking again.  Here’s another mountain shot.  I was still focusing on not falling off the mountain and distracting myself from any fear I might have at this point.

More stairs; the two women in the picture were actually part of the group behind me, but I was trailing more and more slowly and had to do what I could to prevent a panic attack.  She was nearly bent double as she clambered up these awful steps.

“Guys, really?  I don’t know about this…”  (Yes, I took all these pictures just by stretching out my arm and aiming at myself.  I’m quite proficient at this art.)

But finally, the real payoff.  My first glimpse of Machu Picchu.  And it was glorious, and so worth the hike, I can’t even imagine having declined going on this trip “because I’m afraid of heights and don’t want to climb a mountain” – the sheer beauty and amazement.  And though I sound like I’m complaining about hiking alone, honestly?  It kind of added to the experience to be able to do this “alone” and just absorb what was around me, enjoy the view, the scenery, without anyone else around to talk to or disturb the peace of my thoughts.  I love my friends and my BF, but sometimes, being alone – yet not – is one of the best things in the world.

Here’s a slightly more closeup view of Machu Picchu.

And this is where I reveal that I really did not appreciate our group tour guide at all.  Freddy tried hard, but from 5 minutes into meeting him, I was already done with him; slowly, the rest of the group came to a similar conclusion.  As a tour guide – especially on such an excursion – I’m not sure how or why he doesn’t wear a watch, but constantly asking us what time it was… coupled with him telling us that we would have a lot of time to see things and we were good on time, but let’s try to hurry, ok?, followed by a literal lecture on our surroundings that would take 30 minutes (explain it as we walk! PLEASE) and then telling us we were not doing well on time – it was incredibly stressful.  This hike was already stressful insomuch as the physical strain, but to have him tell us “the last bus leaves at 5:20 and it takes 2 hours from where we are to get to the bus station, what time is it?” and it is almost 4 pm… well, not ok.  “Oh but you can walk down the mountain to our lodging, it takes 2.5 hours” – I was near panicking because I didn’t want to climb down the mountain after sunset.  Can you blame me?  There’s a lot I can say about how much I disliked him as a tour guide – but for now, this will do.

Pretty much as soon as I reached the Sun Gate – where we had our first taste of the view of Machu Picchu – everyone scurried off to try to get to the bus station before 5:20 so they could catch the bus.  I was not happy because I couldn’t enjoy the view too much, and I’d just learned that though we were told initially that we’d have time the first day to reach Machu Picchu and wander the site a little bit, this was not going to happen and instead we were going to head straight for the bus station.  I was displeased, to say the least.

So I began the scramble down steep, slippery paths paved unevenly with rocks towards the bus station.  As I scrambled, trying to go as fast as possible, I tried to take a picture but quickly realized that I’d have to be satisfied with this one blurry one and then concentrate on not cracking my head open on this path.  Nighttime was falling fast and the panic was rising in my throat; I was alone, and though I can’t imagine BF getting on the bus and leaving me behind, part of me still felt panicky and paranoid that such a thing might actually happen.  I had absolutely zero interest in being alone on an unfamiliar mountain – no, any mountain! familiar or not! – and trying to make my way down towards lodging that I’d never seen before and wasn’t even sure of the name to be honest.

But of course I needed to take a break at one point, and so I took a moment to take this picture.  The sun was gone.  The time? way past 5:20.  I’d already slipped a few times on the mountain (the trail was wet in parts, and the stairs were not quite as deep as my foot is long; I actually slid a few times but kept on truckin’ but what choice did I have, really?).  I wanted a shower, a hot bath, a hot meal, anything.  Had I not been alone, I’d almost certainly have been whining for hours (which annoys even myself).

I took the picture anyway.

And when I got to the bus station, Freddy revealed that he sent someone ahead to ask the driver of the 5:20 bus to send another bus back up for us at 5:50.

Thanks for telling me that earlier, Freddy.  It would have been helpful to know that so I didn’t almost throw myself off the mountain just to get to the bus in time.

I was not happy.

The rest of Machu Picchu will be told in another picture-heavy post… at 2:30pm 🙂