So it´s been a while since I posted on this thing so I´ll try to remember any hijinx or lame event that has occured since then besides the "i saw this cool thing, then i saw that cool thing."
So I last left out on going on the town with the English chaps and learned a valuable lesson. Drinking in high altitude is not to be messed with. After a relatively mellow few beers, the hostel bar closed and we were forced out to check out some "rash hashana" party which in reality didnt have much of Jewish feel to it. On the way out I decided to drink the last quarter beer or so that I had. The Incan gods did not take kindly to this jesture as I threw up all over the street infront of the hostel. This was no ordinary event since I never felt sick, it just decided to run it´s way out of my mouth. The English kids refered to this as an exorcism. The next day needless to say was not an enjoyable one. Went to "Paddy´s Pub" (unfortunately no relation the the It´s Always Sunny in Philadelphia one) to watch some EPL soccer replays. Lora and I then bought our obligatory Llama beanies for about $2.50 each.
The next day Lora and I headed into town to look for shoes since one of her shoes fell out of her bag somewhere along the way. Unfortunately, she apparently has giant feet and can´t find any shoes that will fit her, maybe we´ll have to wait until Argentina for that. We went up into the San Blas district which had thin cobblestone alleys and a bunch of touristy rocks in the walls, such as a stone that was carved with 12 Angles, or a bunch of rocks that supposedly look like a Puma, or as i quoted "it´s just some rock." More interestingly, in the Iglesia de San Blas there was a beautiful pulpit supposedly carved from one tree stump. Photo regulations require that you imagine the massive level detail on this large stump.
The next day we headed on a bus tour of the Sacred Valley; Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Chinchero. There we got to see some neat Incan Ruins. Specifically Ollantaytambo was interesting as the Incans where pulling up boulders as the Spanish invaded and left half of a monument in the mountainside. Our tour guide was quite interesting always referring to us as "the best group" and the bus driver as "the best bus driver," "free pisco sours at the end", a test for the $400 train ticket to Machu Picchu and lunch as the "most important stop." As this became annoying, in typical fashion, the stops on the tour were over priced and the food was cold and probably made me sick. In Chinchero we got to see the local Quecha women make yarn out of llama wool and dye it using local ingredients such as this cactus parasite that had blood red inners.
Think that´s all? Cusco also had 4 ruins withing a few miles of it. Lora and I took our $20 tourist ticket (normally priced $40!) and a negociated $5 cab ride up the mountain to Tambomachay and walked down toward Cusco. The first were in typical ruin fashion, a pile of rocks makign walls, some carved irrigation water running through them. Ok, i lied, it was quite fascinating but I don´t have time to go over them in great detail.
The last stop, Sacsayhuaman (or as joked as "Sexy Woman")had terraces that were built with these massive boulders. That´s what i call amazing. I don´t think i´d know how to move this with a Catepillar.
The next day for some reason i did not feel to well but Lora wanted to get our money´s worth with that tourist ticket we had to buy, so we went to the included scatter museums in the city. Each musuem had about 5 minutes of things to look at which made me wonder if they threw them in there to make it feel like you weren´t being ripped off for the tourist ticket. Remember $40 concidering a 3 course meal could cost as low as $3-4 is a lot of money. I ended sleeping that day. At night we ate the hostel´s (Loki hostel a gringo joint) sheppards pie. I can´t remember if it tasted good because my last recolection of it was it flying out of my mouth into the toilet. Chills and ache to follow. Oh no! the Inca trail is only in 1 day. Friday i felt like crap as well, trying to will myself into shape for the inca trail. That night I went to the predeparture meeting and realized, everyone except for me had hired a porter to carry their bags, sleeping bags and pad. I thought carrying your own shit was the norm, not the exception! Saturday at 5:30 AM i feel better and head out to km 82 with the Inca Trail group. The first day was nice and flat and the kids who weren´t carrying anything were flying down the path. Then the path went uphill and it
started to rain. By the end of the first day i was exhausted, wet and had major doubts about my ability to carry this backpack. The support of the hike was amazing, 14 porters would pack up 25 kg of stuff each, throw it on their backs, run ahead of the group, set up camp, cook an amazing meal that was better than many restaurants i was in, clean, break down, run ahead of the group and do it all over again! The next day was supposed to be the harded, a hike up to about 13,000 feet. Being the macho guy I am (actually i blame this more on being too much of a wim
p to ask for help) i carry my bag to the top. It wasn´t so bad, what was actually worse was walking down the billion steps to the next valley as it put quite a bit of pressure on my knees. After the hardest day we realize we had to walk up another mountain and down again. This day was brutal. There were 2 Incan sites along the way which we cool outposts along the trail to stop, rest at, and enjoy. Our tour guide Angel was similar too our guide in the Colca Canyon, always dancing, smiling and keeping everyone in good spirits. The second day was nicer, only half as much walking but twice as many incan terraces, towns and outposts. The next camp there were hot showers for about $2. I opted against this and took a free, freezing cold showers that one porter insisted was only for them. Finally after three grueling days Machu Picchu was next! But wait! We had to get up at 3:30 am, pack in the dark and wait at the gate since all the groups wanted first crack. 5:30 the gates open, but it was a 2 hour hike to Machu Picchu. There is this cool mountain Waynu Picchu to hike up but only 400 tickets are given out started and 6 am at the Machu Picchu site. So this meant if we wanted any chance to get them we´d have to essentially run the 1k up hill and 1k downhill with our backpack. This was the most exhausting thing. Steep stair cases and j
erks who thought they were tough enough to run all the way there were in our way. Our co-guide Miguel and this English guy Jon got there with no problem as Raj (from India and NY state) and i struggled, but beat most of the others trying to get there. By 6:30 i was running through Macchu Picchu to the confused look of tourists, soaked in sweat trying to find the ticket booth and the Waynu Picchu office. We got there an there was a line but Miguel pulled afew strings and we got our tickets, #360 out of 400! Let me remind you i had been in Macchu Picchu for about 20 minutes and barely was able to gaze in the glory of it. Here I meet Lora who had to pass up on the trail
because of her knees and take a tour and see the temples and sun dials that I would have probably overlooked if I had just run around Machu Picchu bymyself. Needless to say, everything they say about Macchu Pichhu is true. Seeing mostly the typical photo of it, in person the grandness of it stands out. It is an actual city ruins as opposed to the smaller ruins that you see along the way, or in the Sacred Valley. The run had exhausted me but I was still able to go through the site and enjoyed it despited the minor rain and photo obscuring fog. The hike up Waynupicchu was tough and involved nearly vertical stairs but the view from the top of all of Macchu Picchu was great, when the clouds weren´t in the way. It was amazing that up these steep steps the Incas had built more terraces to farm on!
We are now of the Puno and the lake that sounds like breasts covered in crap aka Lake Titicaca and then on Bolvia and the wonderful $135 entrance fee.
Another major activity that has gained popularity in Bolivia is this down hill mountian bike ride on a dirt road dubbed "the most dangerous road in the world" primarly due to sheer cliffs and it being about 1 car wide. Now the road is mostly unused but bike tours going down it have become popular. The major company 'gravity assited' was too much money for us. We found another company Vertigo that used legit Haro bikes and provided good gear. The ride wasn't as freaky as expected but, going off the cliff would be pretty much death, so some caution was required. Lora and I didn't fall but other people in our group weren't so lucky. The trips starts of with a trip down a paved road where everything is brown and boring. By the time you get to the dirt road with sheer cliffs the scenery changes into a healty green of plants, small waterfalls, and great vistas. As a plus our guides kept us entertained and the mechanic checked up on the bikes mid journey.
went with our hostel to the stadium and bought drinks at liquor stores that ran out of cold ones and cheap Bolivian jerseys to wear at the game. The stadium was about half full and Brazil fielded it's B team which in some sort of combination of slacking or high altidude weakness had the Bolivian team running circles around them. Our seats were on the goal side and we got to see the Bolivian side put in a nice free kick over the wall. It was quite enjoyable even though there was a quite a tourist crowd that couldn't get any chants going. The Brazilian travelering fans were mostly subdued as well. The final result was Bolivia 2-1 which is always nice to see brazil lose one in the end.
After getting off the bus we go to Erlan's nice hostel with hammocks overlooking the Beni River. The next day we head into the Pampas with a group of 6. This involved a 3 hour bus ride but the 3 hour river ride was awesome. The number of aligators, turtles and birds is simply astounding. There were about 3 gators around every river bend. We also go to see monkeys of different sorts and this big marmot like rodent. We also went hunting for an anaconda but came back empty! There were also pink river dolphins, but they were a bit shy and stayed away from the boat. We went swimming We stayed in primitive cabins along the river and pretty much traveled around by boat. Our guide Ronaldo, though speaking mostly spanish kept us entertained with guitar song, which made up for his lack of warning of the crazy walking throught grassland conditions we encountered. The second day we went swimming the river, despite there being aligators and piranhas which we went fishing for with little chunks of meat. Lora caught a few but I wasn't so lucky!
