Climb Every Mountain...

A bit delayed, but I still wanted to write about the experience of 4 days worth of trekking through the Andes and arriving at Machu Picchu...


Guinea Pig
Before leaving Cusco, of course I still had to try guinea pig.  Erin and I went to a little restaurant down the street to enjoy this local delicacy.  We entered and ordered.  A moment after, one of the gentlemen restauranteurs dashed out the front door of the establishment.  In short order, he returned, discreetly "hiding" the plastic-bag wrapped guinea pig from the eyes of his impressionable clientele...which in the entire restaurant came to the sum of two gringas from PA and MD.  Erin and I had a great laugh over that...and had to chuckle again when our orders (or the ineptitude of the cooks, who seemed to be googling the recipes as they prepared the meal) necessitated not one but two more errands down the street.  And while this all might sound strange, this is nothing particularly out of the ordinary, at least from what I've seen previously in my travels.  I enjoy it, to be honest- it's a distinct departure from what we are used to at home, and the entire meal is an experience in one way or another.  I think I probably would have been more disappointed if I didn't have a tale like this to tell.

Once the pig finally made it to our table, I stared him in the eyes...and the teeth.  It was served whole, including the head, and WOW were his teeth sharp.  There's not much meat on a guinea pig, and it was so well-cooked that I could not get my knife or fork through the guy.  One of the waiters took it back to the kitchen, and a few whacks with a chopping knife had it quartered for me to pick up and eat finger-food style instead.  My next recourse was to pick up the guinea pig (cuy is the local word for this delicacy) by his hind foot and take a bite.  This, also, was more difficult than anticipated, as the meat was really done.  The consistency was like leather (I imagine) with crunchy flakes breaking off in your mouth.  Because of all the effort needed for mastication, it was hard to get an actual flavor from the meat.  I tried a second bite, to no avail.  Check that off the list, but unless it were to be cooked in a different style, guinea pig is one food I won't feel the need to try again.

Porters

Before I start writing about the actual trail, I have to put in a word about porters, or chasquis (Quechua/Incan word for messengers).  For each group of trekkers that goes out on the trail, there is also a group of chasquis that goes with the group.  These gentlemen are, in a word, incredible.  Wearing, in most cases, no sturdier footgear than a pair of leather strap sandals, the chasquis carry around 55 pounds of gear (think tents, kitchen equipment, and food for the trek) all over the Inca Trail- and many run or jog the trail.  To give you a better visual on this, I'm struggling to get my ass up the trail, with a backpack and water bottle plus the aid of a walking stick, and these guys are running by, passing me, and carrying about 9 times the weight that I am.  One chasqui with our group was in his SIXTIES.  We figured out that each guy makes about $75 dollars, plus maybe another $15 or so in tips, for a grand total of $90 plus food and lodging for a 4 day trek.  I cannot imagine getting paid that amount to run all over the mountains.  These guys are, again, no other word but incredible.  One of the really neat things about the trail is that no matter who you are walking near, anyone who knows a chasqui is approaching will yell ahead to the next group: "Porter on the right!" or "Chasqui on the left!" to give them right of way.

The Inca Trail
This was truly the trip of a lifetime.  After being picked up around 5:30 AM on Wednesday, we rode the bus for a few hours until we were dropped at a town called Kilometer 84.  At this point, the elevation is already 2600 meters and you're left to stare at the rugged mountains around you, thinking to yourself, "Can I really do this?"  Well, hopefully so, or else you'd better board the train because at this point, there's no turning back (or at least not without a lot of work- once you're on the trail, you have to hike back the way you came, so deciding to quit makes little sense unless it's still Day 1).

Day 1's hike is basically a pleasant meandering along the River Urubamba with one or two hills of any note.  You take a break along the river for a delicious lunch, which is your first introduction to just how magical your cook is (Benedicto will live forever in my memory- I can't even cook like him with the amenities of a full kitchen).  After lunch, we hiked for another few hours until arriving at Camp 1, 3000 meters up at Wallaybamba.  Although our hike wasn't particularly stressful, we still took a nap before dinner was served at 7, and promptly fell back asleep again at 8 PM.

That was a good thing, because you're woken up with tea service at 5:20 (aka, shortly after my normal get-up-for-school-time anyway).  You have about 40 minutes to pack your bag and get ready for the day, breakfast is served at 6, and you're hitting the trail again before 7.

Day 2 is...grueling doesn't really even do it justice.  It turns out that I was doing the trek with some sort of upper respiratory infection, possibly bronchitis, so that complicated things too, but even in good health, it probably would have been killer.  There were many times during the day that I really thought, hmm, I might have been insane to start this or even There was mention of kidnappings by the Shining Path....let them take me now if it means I don't have to hike anymore!  No joke.  I'll come back to this later, but I would have been so excited to finally reach the top if I hadn't been so exhausted.  I don't even want to mention how much later I reached Dead Woman's Pass than the rest of my group...

...but on the other hand I caught up to about a third of them while climbing down the other side, so I guess I wasn't too far behind.  Despite a persistent hacking cough, I don't think I've ever slept better than I did that night.

The next morning, we had two more passes to make it over.  After having made it through Day 2, my attitude was definitely, "well, now I can do anything!", so it was much easier going.  I had also had the genius stroke of putting in my iPod, and I was enjoying the misty morning, so all in all it was a wonderful day.  We also got to see another ruin, Phuyupatamarca, another Quechua word that literally means "City in the Clouds".  Very true to its name.

That day, we also encountered the Gringo Killers.  Basically, after you've come through the second mountain pass of Day 3, it's straight down more than 2500 steps.  Wayyy worse than if you were simply walking down a path.  Every step, you're jolting a knee, ankle, or hip (or all three).  Finally, you emerge from that and arrive at the Intipata, one of the old Incan terraced farming sites set way above the Rio Urubamba, and from which you can actually see the third and final campsite on the trail.

We really tried to go to bed early that night, because we were waking up at 3:30 the next day.  The trail opens at 5:30 to get to Machu Picchu, so we were trying to be first in line.  Team Goonies ended up being second, and following our entrance into the Sanctuary (as it was stamped in my passport), we had a very rapid 2 hour hike all the way up to the Sun Gate.  The Sun Gate is the first place from which you can actually see Machu Picchu- at least, if the weather permits.  Climbing at the end of the rainy season like we did, the weather did not cooperate, and we waited a few minutes in vain before continuing our descent down into the sacred city.  We paused at another lookout, where we were able to start making out some of the forms below, but it was until we were right in Machu Picchu City that we could really see things.  I don't really even know how to describe what it was like to see this ancient stone city rising out of the mist, or how it felt as we began to explore and the sun began burning the mist off, so that more and more of the ruins were revealed.  All I know is that I eventually needed some time to just sit by myself and revel in being there.

The Lesson
That brings me to my personal revelation from the trip: indomitable will.  The Incas needed will in order to build a city so high up on the mountain that from the bottom, it can't even freakin' be seen.  They needed will to destroy THE ENTIRE FIRST DAY'S WORTH OF THE TRAIL just so the Spaniards wouldn't be able to find Machu Picchu (and they never did).  And I needed it to make it up and over the trail at all- in fact, if I had been more sure of myself, I honestly don't think Day 2 would have been AS hard as it was.  It's all about telling yourself that nothing will dominate your confidence and your willpower.

The End
Because Erin and I are masochists, we decided that noo, we wouldn't take the bus down from Machu Picchu like everyone else- nope, we had to hike down and all the way to Aguas Calientes.  David and Angel, our wonderful guides from Peru Treks, Ltd., told us that it would take 40 minutes.  They must have been telling us chasqui speed, though, because it took us about 2 hours.  Still totally worth the effort to roll into town and know that we did every last inch of the trail on our own two feet.  After some pizza, beer, and final laughter with the group, we got on a train, then a bus, and finally made it back to Cusco.  BEST SHOWER OF OUR LIVES.

The next morning, we headed for Lima (but not before we finally got to try choclo con queso!)

where we lounged in hammocks at the Pay Purix Hostel before heading to Miraflores.  Once there, we found a lovely restaurant on the sea, gorged ourselves on seafood and dessert, and then headed back to the hostel, where we spent the night drinking beer and eating pizza (again) with some other hostel dwellers until our flight the next morning.