Since I missed an entry while I was sick, I decided to write a #lateblog #doubleblog and post them both here together. The first blog goes from the Amazon through Cusco, and the last one takes us from Cusco, through Machu Picchu and back to Lima. Spoiler alert: Machu Picchu
Blog One
In Sickness and in Health
The end of the last entry ended with us on our way to Puerto
Maldonado (or as Americans probably call it, Porto Marinara) and the Peruvian
Amazon. The Amazon was pretty incredible, although not the most wildly fantastic
thing I have seen. Upon arrival it was a wicked-hot 35+ degrees, which was
pretty fantastic. I packed a lot of short sleeved weather, so this was exactly
what I was hoping for. However, looking back, it was clear that on the first
day in the amazon I was already starting to get sick, so everything I did there
is a little tainted with me being tired and wanting naps. And taking naps. The
cabin we stayed in did not have A/C or a fan, so the only time you weren’t
sweating was the first fifteen seconds after you got out of the shower, or
between 7-7:30 AM. The rest of the time… hello sweatsville. We were living in a
three person potpourri hut.
The lodge we stayed in was called Corto Maltes. Other than
the mentioned lack of a fan in the room, it was a realy nice lodge. Three meals
a day were prepared, and was really quite good. Our guide’s name was Jose, and
he was a pretty great guy. He kept making fun of me for sleeping all the time,
but whatever.
We were in
the Amazon for three days; here are the highlights:
-
Jungle tour; many trees, plants and animals
therein
-
The Amazon is the home of most of the plants ued
in all our every-day, and not every-day drugs. Such as Coca and the plant used
in Viagra. Also, many natural plants and animals can be used as remedies; our
guide took some ants and rubbed them on his skin – natural bug repellent.
-
Night time boat tour on the Madre de Dios river
(tributary for the Amazon River); saw some Cayman’s. I slept on the boat
-
Canoe tour to a small Amazon lake, where we saw
some more Cayman’s and some birds. Tweet.
-
Monkey Island; saw some sweet monkeys but didn’t
get to feed them ourselves.
A final
highlight was the daily 5 PM football game that all the staff play. Jory and I
showed up on the second and third day’s and got to run around wit the staff and
pretend like either of us have plated soccer in ten years. We are both pretty
sporty, so weren’t actually the worst on the field. They play a mix of a man
game, a zone game, and a ‘run around with no position’ game. We fit right in.
It was great.
Friday
morning we left Corto Maltes and Puerto Maldonado and flew to Cusco. I was
starting to feel better, and was hopeful I would be able to take part in the
activities we had planned. These included a Cusco city bus tour, and a Sacred
Valley tour. Instead, I slept through both. I went to the front desk of our
hotel to ask about a clinic, but they called a doctor to come for a house call
instead. After waiting an hour, a Hot Peruvian Doctor came to check me out;
while I did trust her diagnosis that it was a virus and would pass through in a
few days, I was a little wary because she didn’t bring a thermometer with her. She
asked me if I had one…which I did not. I didn’t even bring enough socks for two
weeks, did she really expect me o have a thermometer? But, did I mention she
was a hot, young, Peruvian doctor? Anyway, Jory and Amanda went on the city
tour on Saturday, which they got excessively rained on, and on Sunday Jory went
on the Sacred Valley tour. He said it was nice; I watched a lot of CSI (the
only English channel I could find).
Anyway, the
idea was to rest up enough to be better to go on the Salkantay Trek to Machu
Picchu, which was really the climax of our trip, and which started on Monday. And,
as Sunday evening came around, I realized that I still wasn’t feeling great and
hadn’t eaten yet, so decided to abandon the trek and made other plans to meet
them on Thursday after the trek, in Aguas Calientes. Small win: on Monday I ate
food for the first time in over two full days! Yay me! It was an extended Yom
Kippur in Peru. So I remained in Cusco on my own while Amanda and Spanish Jorge
went off trekking. I was sad that I was missing out, a little jelly that they
were doing this amazing adventure without me, and also quite nervous that I
wasn’t really getting better. Up to this point there was a few times when I
thought I was feeling better, then it got worse, then I was feeling better
again, and then I wasn’t… I actually looked into changing my flights to come
home early but in the end I decided to wait it out and if I didn’t get better,
I would just be sick until I got home.
Thankfully
that wasn’t the case, and after eating some rice and soup on Monday I went out
for an entire day on Tuesday.
On Tuesday I
hiked up to El Christo Blanco, the White Christ, which overlooks Cusco. The
climb itself was not that hard, and you end up with a great view of the town of
Cusco and the whole surrounding valley. On Wednesday I headed from Cusco to
Aguas Calientes where team Weinstein-Cohen 2014 would reunite on Thursday.
Blog two:
Aguas
Calientes (Hot Water), Machu Picchu, and Lima
I arrived in
AC on Wednesday at 1 PM. Nothing else happened that day. Picture a small
touristy town where, despite the basis of the towns industry is tourism, not
many people there speak English. The stores go like this: restaurant,
restaurant, massage, restaurant, massage, buy things, restaurant. All the
restaurants serve the same food, and none of the massages come with an ‘Inca
finish.’
On Thursday
morning I left my hostel and climbed to the top of a mountain called Putu Cusi;
on one side it overlooks the town of Aguas Calientes, and on the other side
gives a full view of Machu Picchu. On my way up I thought I was going to die,
and on my way down I almost did.
Picture
this: you’re walking up some stairs on a mountain, NBD. About fifteen minutes
in you get to a roughly six foot wooden ladder that goes up a sharp rock face,
but is completely broken and rotten. Ok fine, it’s not so long, you can climb
around and over and whatnot. But then! Not even ten minutes later you get to
another wooden ladder going up an even steeper incline that goes up, ooooh
roughly 200 feet straight! After just climbing over a rotted out wooden ladder,
now you need to put your Peruvian faith in these untreated wooden rungs, hoping
they aren’t going to fall apart as you go up, or when you come back down. I
assume other people have done it and not died, so up I went! On the way back
down, one of the rungs was loose and there was that split second where you say
to yourself, welp, this is it then. See ya! Thankfully I didn’t die, I made it to the top
and back, and I have some incredible pictures from the top of Putu Cusi of the
town of AC and of Machu Picchu from the other side of the valley.
Amanda and
Jory arrived back at our hostel before me so when I got back, sweaty and
smelling like I hadn’t showered in days (I hadn’t), my spirits were uplifted
when we were reunited. They, obviously, had an incredible time on the trek, but
you will need to read their blogs to see the highlights. They don’t have blogs,
so just imagine they do and it was fun. Side note: The Mexican food in Cusco,
while not truly authentic, is pretty tastey. The trick in AC is to ask for a
discount at every restaurant, and they all give you the same deal on basically
the same food. Jory tried a hamburger once, and that was a sad mistake. Shoulda
kept to ‘Mexican.’
Friday
morning the whole trek team (which I was meant to be on) met together at 4:30
AM to begin our walk to Machu Picchu. The first 1.7 KM’s is the equivalent of
the Grouse Grind, only you start at 2000 M elevation, instead of ~100 M. It is
a half hour walk to the base, and then rough 45 minutes up. That hike of stairs
takes you up to Machu Picchu, where you can see the sun rise with only the few
hundred other people, before the busloads of tourists arrive later in the day.
We had a bit
of a walking tour, and then we headed over to climb up Wayana Picchu. This
climb was quite a bit steeper, closer to the edge, and went quite a bit higher
than just Machu Picchu, and led up to an Inca temple on the Northern side of
the site. Again, more beautiful views of everything around you, and makes you
wonder how the people who created these sites managed to build such intricate
and awesome buildings so incredibly high up. The vista was incredible, and I took
a full 360 degree panorama shot of the entire valley.
When we got
back down to Machu Picchu the three of us took some time on a grassy area to
stretch a bit, relax and unwind. I saw some tourists taking pictures so offered
to take them together; I know, im a mensch. They wanted to do those stupid
jumpy pictures, which as you can tell I am not a fan of, but fuck they aren’t my
memories, do whatever you want. After taking a few of them, a ‘man in red’
(Machu Picchu guard) ran over and yelled at us and said ‘No jumping pictures!!’
Seriously. You aren’t allowed to take jumping pictures on Machu Picchu. Well,
this isn’t America ladies, fuck you and your jumpy freedom. Anyway, he went
through all their cameras and made them delete them all… hilarious.
We got back
down from MP a aroun noon; my train left at 7 PM and theirs left at 9:30. We
were all sweaty, smelly, and tired. So we found a dumpy hostel that rented us a
room for the afternoon. It smelled like mold and unwashed sheets, but we were
all exhausted and they had towels and toilet paper. We crashed with the lights
on, and showered when we woke up. It was a great way to end to an incredible
journey of a day.
We got back
to our hostel in Cusco and left for Lima the next morning. On Saturday back in
Lima we went for dinner with four girls Amanda and Jorge met on the trek; I ordered
a Peruvian dish which was a mistake. Bifsteak with a fried egg, fried banana
and beans. I cant get the taste out of my mouth…
And then on
Sunday we had a full day to kill; we wandered around some markets where I bought
a blanket (along with to chocolate bars, the only things I bought to bring
home). A+J were sore from the trek still, so they went to a movie. I walked
along the beach for a few hours, and climbed up some stairs from the beach back
to the main level of town (the beach area is much lower down). But since the
stairs are still under construction, I ended up at the top surrounded by
construction fences that I had to climb under. Good times in Lima!
Thanks for
reading, will let you know when my next adventure comes about.
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