In the footsteps of the Incas - Part II

Day 3 Collopampa to Schuayaco

Today´s hike was pretty easy for all our group and due to Luke´s semi-miraculous recovery from food poisoning, we all hiked with an increased pace and were pretty much in sync the whole way.

I was shocked when, upon stopping for a snack along the way, I ran into Katya and Ian, a couple I'd met a few weeks earlier when riding on an ITSA bus from Piura to Trujillo. They were hiking essentially the same Salkantay Trek but with another company. Ian, bless 'im, had ironically twisted his ankle the afternoon before. But no!!! It wasn't as one might expect from tripping on a root while descending from the Salkantay Pass! He'd actually hurt himself while playing football with some of the local lads, but he was now forced to considerably slow down his pace (and presumably pop pain pills!). It was awesome to see them again and proves that the world is indeed becoming a much smaller place.

The (J)Crew arrived at our next night's campsite, Schuayaco (2065m), which is next to the village of La Playa, in the early afternoon leaving us plenty of time to kill. I opted to do some journalling while listening to a boombox loudly crank out some wicked 80's tunes such as Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" and Twisted Sister's "We're Not Gonna Take It!" much to the rest of the crew's dismay.

We were the only group camping there, however, as the other hiking groups took a bus to the nearby hot springs of Santa Teresa. In the early evening, we were all seated at the picnic table having a jolly good time discussing inocuous, non-controversial topics not worth mentioning when these strange looking birds started flapping around us. It took a few moments to figure out that we were being invaded by bloody bats!! There must have been at least 5 of them flying fast and furiously in our midst. Strangely enough, it was not us gals who succumbed to a state of panic but one of the guys!!! To protect the reputation of the gentleman concerned, however, my lips are sealed and I shall not name names. At one point, a small flying creature landed on the bread basket in the middle of our table and we hotly debated whether it was a baby bat (seeing that it was a trifle smaller than the other bats) or just a large moth. Annyck and I whipped out our cameras in order to document the creature for later identification but then Alex the Cook walked up to the group and settled the matter once and for all. Twas a moth, nay a baby bat!! I guess us city fffolks ought to brush up on our lepidopterology, aka "the study of moths and butterflies".

At around 8 PM, Jamil took us around to a local woman's home so that we could see how coffee, grown locally, was roasted/grinded. The six of us jammed into a small room where the woman kept her rudimentary stove as well as about a dozen guinea pigs. The guinea pigs, called "cuy" in Spanish, are a Peruvian delicacy, so it was no big surprise to see them running around the floor and between our legs while being fattened up for later consumption. The woman started the roasting process and once she'd demonstrated the proper stirring technique, Annyck tood over and did a superb job I do declare. It took at least a half hour of vigourous stirring before the beans had been suitably roasted after which the woman produced an old-fashioned grinder (similar to one my Mom owns actually!) and had both Luke and Bob take turns grinding the beans into aromatic smithereens. My taste buds went into bionic overdrive due to the smell of the final product! It was definitely an interesting, labour-intensive, process to observe and I'm glad that Jamil arranged for us to witness it.

That night I had hoped to sleep soundly as the previous 2 nights had been restless, but around 3 AM, I was rudely awakened by the sound of jingle bells, hooves and a jovial "Ho Ho Ho" on my tent's rooftop! Hee hee, a little Xmas humor. But seriously, I WAS awakened but it was actually by a cacophony of barking! Apparently, all (and I do bloody mean ALL) the neighborhood dogs had deigned to gather around our campsite in order to bark at one another incessantly for 90 minutes! Then, once they'd had their fill of yapping, the roosters took up the slack and started cock o'doodling away. I could not fall back asleep without the assistance of a sledgehammer to the back of the head so I surrendered to wakefulness at 4:45 with the words, "those fucking dogs" on my lips...

DAY 4 Schuayaco to Aguas Calientes

This was the most difficult day of walking, particularly for yours truly. After 3(!!!) nights of not-enough-sleep, I definitely was off my game and felt incredibly sluggish. The rest of the crew, au contraire, were hiking as if they'd been born in the Andes and so for the the first couple of hours (all uphill) I was lagging behind the others and feeling awfully grumpy. Once we'd reached the top and started our descent, however, it became much easier for me to keep up.

After about 6 hours of strenuous walking, we reached Hydroelectrica, a town aptly named for the hydro-electric pumping station there. We had a final lunch there prepared by Alex then gingerly set off on weary limbs towards Aguas Calientes. This final stretch followed the train tracks which immediately had me reminincing about River Phoenix and Will Wheaton in search of a dead body named Ray Brower. Thankfully, we encountered no leaches nor did we have a close encounter of the dangerous kind with Kiefer Sutherland. Once again, I had some difficulty maintaining the Speedy Gonzalez pace of my (J)Crew, so I fell slightly behind them. I didn't mind so much though as I was feeling a pang of regret that our amazing, glorious trek would soon be finished and I wished to cherish those last kilometers as best I could. We finally reached the incredibly touristic and high-priced town of Aguas Calientes at around 4:30.

Once checked into our hostal, the others opted to hit the hot showers but I, following a long-established tradition set by myself and Rebecca D'Arcy, my former hiking partner and dear friend, went and had an ice cold beer. Priorities peeps!! Afterwards I did wash away the grit and sweat which covered my body under the spray of a hot shower and then had a nice wander around the town. It seems to be a place which caters COMPLETELY to Machu Picchu tourism. Its sole remaining grace, in my opinion, is the powerful presence of the Rio Urubamba which flows through the town, creating a symphony of sound I found soothing.

I met up with the others for a "Last Supper" together where the beers, grub and laughter flowed freely and we all congratulated one another for having reached our final destination with few blisters and no broken bones!

I slept as if I'd been euthanized...

DAY 5 MACHU PICCHU!!!!!

The first time I visited Machu Picchu, I arrived at sunrise at the Sun Gate of the Inca Trail and was blessed with clear skies throughout the day. A bit of a miracle considering the fact that it had rained for two days straight beforehand due to it being the height of the rainy season then. THIS time, unfortunately for my comrades, our tour of this fantastic site was accompanied by a fairly steady rain as well as considerable mist. For me, this was more of a positive thing as it allowed me the opportunity to photograph the place looking completely different than previously and the mist seemed to envelop the site in mystery, which B&W photography was able to capture almost perfectly.

Once Jamil finished his grand tour around 9:15, I headed to the trailhead of the Huayna Picchu mountain (2720m). The Peruvian government now strictly controls the number of people allowed to climb this mountain each day. 400 permits are issued in advance per day for $15 with the first 200 being scheduled to climb between 7-8 AM and the latter 200 between 10 and 11 AM. I was the only one in my group who'd paid for one of the permits so I huffed and puffed my way to the top solo while the others walked up to the Sun Gate instead. It was pretty tough going up and there were moments I felt excruciatingly aware of the fact that I was one small slip on a stone away from death but I made it to the top and was blessed by divinely cooperative weather besides for the clouds lifted just as I reached the tippy top. Ooh, aah, oh...my...Goddess! Standing on top of that mountain was deeply spiritual for me. My soul sang and muscles quivered in appreciation.

To those who've never visited Machu Picchu: What the hell are you waiting for??? An invitation from the long-dead Inca Chief Pachacuti himself?!!