I leave Arequipa today...it´s definitely bittersweet. My last day of school was awesome...had my Desperdida (goodbye party) with my kids and it was pretty cool...something I´ll remember forever.
Heading to Lima tonight, there for a few days, then home next week. I can´t believe 6 weeks has gone by already...it´s been an awesome adventure...I will be thankful for this experience for the rest of my life.
Hope everyone´s well...I´ll be seeing all of you soon!
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Monday, April 5, 2010
The Craziest Trip I´ve Ever Taken
Cusco was amazing...life threatening...but amazing! The 4 days spent in Cusco, and specifically the 2 trying to get to Machu Picchu, are the craziest days I´ve spent traveling ever!
It all started out beautifully...we took this great double decker bus on the 10 hour journey to Cusco...leaving at 8PM Wednesday night and getting into Cusco at 6:30 Thursday morning. We get off of the bus to be greeted by dozens of eager cab drivers...everyone wanting our business, so we got into a cab with a guy named Lenin...who I might add was wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a suspicious looking briefcase...on our 10 minute drive to our hostel, we discover that he may have a way of getting us to Machu Picchu (something that, at this point, was unthinkable from everything we had heard). We get to the hostel, and within 30 minutes we´re driving to different train and bus stations to see if there´s any availability on tours...no dice. We offer to hire Lenin personally...for the right price of course...he makes some calls, and he´s able to personally take me and two of my friends on a 2 day, 1 night trip to Machu Picchu. We are psyched...we meet him outside of our hostel at 10:30AM (a meer 4 hours since getting off the bus)...Lenin shows up with a pimped out van, a 16 year old ¨guide¨(aka his girlfriend´s little brother), and a proper driver, David...we each had a guide to ourselves...things were looking good! The drive to Santa Theresa takes about 6 hours...and what would happen leading up to that and after, we had no idea. Because the next 48 hours may be tough to follow in paragraph form, I´m going to give it to you in bullet point format...so here we go...
*about 4 hours into the drive on Thursday we come across an avalanche that doesn´t allow us to cross the desired road, so we take the ¨very scary road of death¨and about 5 minutes up said road, we get stuck. We´re spinning wheels on a tight corner of a cliff, so for every time we don´t get enough traction to drive up, we slide back closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Two of the guides and an entire other van of people proceed to collect rocks to put under the tires to create traction. We are told to stay in the van for weight...I immediately tell the other two that we have to be on our A game in case we need to jump out for dear life. At one point, a Peruvian woman from the van below, starts to pray for us....awesome! After about 15 mintues, 6 guys are able to push us up the hill. We are scared sh**less, but thankful to be alive.
*We arrive in Santa Theresa around 6PM Thursday night...we´re too late to walk to the train that takes us to Aguas Calientes (the city at the foot of Machu Picchu), so we get a hostel for the night and get ready to wake up at 4AM to proceed on our journey.
*Wake up at 4AM, eat a questionable breakfast, and proceed to ¨walk¨to the train. The van takes us about 15 mintues up the mountain, and when it can´t go any further due to road conditions, we get out and walk.
*It´s 4AM, so we´re on a cliff with only moonlight to light our walk...we have to walk on the edge of the cliff (which leads down to a roaring river) because closer to the mountain isn´t safe due to possible avalanches...again, awesome.
*Come upon, what I have named, ¨mud river swamp¨...it´s a mud river about 4 feet deep at some points with no way to get across...our guides go find boulders to try and create steps...one wrong step, and you´re waste deep in mud. As our guides help us across, I take one of these wrong steps, and lose my shoe in about 5 inches of mud. The guides keep telling me to place my foot here or there, and for about 5 steps I keep saying ¨my shoe¨...they don´t hear me...finally one of the guides looks down and says, ¨Tu zapato¨...ha...so he goes back about 5 feet, and pulls out my shoe, dripping and filled with mud...I put it on and kept going. Once across the mud swamp river, I cleaned out the chunks of mud and tree branches and keep going.
*After mud swamp river we´re led down a cliff (still mostly in moonlight)...it was literally a downhill slope with jagged rocks.
*When we get to the bottom of ¨death cliff hike¨we can hear the river even better...the sun is starting to come up and I see a cable crossing over the water. That cable is attached to an over-sized toolbox of a trolley that takes people over the river...WHAT?!?!?!...I was scared at firt, but then became really excited...I get in the basket and the guide says ¨spread your legs¨...I´m sorry, what?...another guide jumped in and we took a romantic basket ride on a cable 100 feet above a raging river. Suffice it to say, when we reached the other side, we did a group hug and high five...little did we know the adventure had only just started.
*We hike for 2 1/2 hours in the most beautiful scenery I´ve ever seen...the hike was really dangerous, and was basically mountain climbing at points, but over some swinging bridges and planks of wood bridges (literally a plank of wood was a bridge over part of the river...no sides...just 8 inches of wood to walk on)...we get to the Perurail station...a couple of huts and some train tracks.
*The first train is at 8AM, which would give us a chance in seeing Machu Picchu, but the 8AM train is for locals only...the next train was 4 hours away, so we would have had to hike another 2 hours to possibly see Machu Picchu. Lenin, our awesome sketchy guide, slips the driver some money, and says that we can´t hike b/c we´re all sick...so we pretended to be sick (Oscar worthy performances I might say), got quaratined in a train car all by ourselves, and left the remainig pissed off tourists behind as we head to Aguas Calientes.
*A 25 minute train ride brings us to Aguas Calientes (a really cool town), we stand in line for 2 hours to buy our train tickets back to the questionable Perurail staion. While waiting in line, I overhear two Canadians talking about how they had gotten abandoned by their tour, hiked 6 hours in the pitch black dark, and now couldn´t get back to Cusco until Tuesday when their flight left on Sunday. I check with my peeps, and we pick up two Canadians for our journey back. You had to have a passport to buy a train ticket, which only one of us had, so Lenin, in his shady fashion, got all 3 of us return tickets without passports...but we did all end up being Irish due to the one friend from Ireland who had a passport copy...fine by me.
*Run to the bus, take the bus up to Machu Picchu, spend 25 mintues there...the best 25 minutes ever spent...it´s beyond amazing...heading back down the mountain to catch our train.
*Ran to catch train, made the hike back in 55 minutes (where it tooks us 2 1/2 hours before), waited in line for 2 hours for the ¨death buggy¨across the river, sprinted back up the ¨cliff of death¨, back over the ¨mud swamp river¨and into the van. Two Canadians and two Peruvians heavy, we headed back down ¨very scary road of death¨and enjoyed some beers and music to unwind.
We got back at 1AM Saturday morning...passed out and were pretty much worthless the next day. Did some more sightseeing in Cusco and then got back in at 6AM this morning. Sorry for the long post, but I didn´t want to leave anything out. Cusco was by far the craziest trip I´ve ever been on...and I´d do it again in a heart beat. Glad to be alive and amazed that I got to see Machu Picchu...unreal!
It all started out beautifully...we took this great double decker bus on the 10 hour journey to Cusco...leaving at 8PM Wednesday night and getting into Cusco at 6:30 Thursday morning. We get off of the bus to be greeted by dozens of eager cab drivers...everyone wanting our business, so we got into a cab with a guy named Lenin...who I might add was wearing a black leather jacket and carrying a suspicious looking briefcase...on our 10 minute drive to our hostel, we discover that he may have a way of getting us to Machu Picchu (something that, at this point, was unthinkable from everything we had heard). We get to the hostel, and within 30 minutes we´re driving to different train and bus stations to see if there´s any availability on tours...no dice. We offer to hire Lenin personally...for the right price of course...he makes some calls, and he´s able to personally take me and two of my friends on a 2 day, 1 night trip to Machu Picchu. We are psyched...we meet him outside of our hostel at 10:30AM (a meer 4 hours since getting off the bus)...Lenin shows up with a pimped out van, a 16 year old ¨guide¨(aka his girlfriend´s little brother), and a proper driver, David...we each had a guide to ourselves...things were looking good! The drive to Santa Theresa takes about 6 hours...and what would happen leading up to that and after, we had no idea. Because the next 48 hours may be tough to follow in paragraph form, I´m going to give it to you in bullet point format...so here we go...
*about 4 hours into the drive on Thursday we come across an avalanche that doesn´t allow us to cross the desired road, so we take the ¨very scary road of death¨and about 5 minutes up said road, we get stuck. We´re spinning wheels on a tight corner of a cliff, so for every time we don´t get enough traction to drive up, we slide back closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. Two of the guides and an entire other van of people proceed to collect rocks to put under the tires to create traction. We are told to stay in the van for weight...I immediately tell the other two that we have to be on our A game in case we need to jump out for dear life. At one point, a Peruvian woman from the van below, starts to pray for us....awesome! After about 15 mintues, 6 guys are able to push us up the hill. We are scared sh**less, but thankful to be alive.
*We arrive in Santa Theresa around 6PM Thursday night...we´re too late to walk to the train that takes us to Aguas Calientes (the city at the foot of Machu Picchu), so we get a hostel for the night and get ready to wake up at 4AM to proceed on our journey.
*Wake up at 4AM, eat a questionable breakfast, and proceed to ¨walk¨to the train. The van takes us about 15 mintues up the mountain, and when it can´t go any further due to road conditions, we get out and walk.
*It´s 4AM, so we´re on a cliff with only moonlight to light our walk...we have to walk on the edge of the cliff (which leads down to a roaring river) because closer to the mountain isn´t safe due to possible avalanches...again, awesome.
*Come upon, what I have named, ¨mud river swamp¨...it´s a mud river about 4 feet deep at some points with no way to get across...our guides go find boulders to try and create steps...one wrong step, and you´re waste deep in mud. As our guides help us across, I take one of these wrong steps, and lose my shoe in about 5 inches of mud. The guides keep telling me to place my foot here or there, and for about 5 steps I keep saying ¨my shoe¨...they don´t hear me...finally one of the guides looks down and says, ¨Tu zapato¨...ha...so he goes back about 5 feet, and pulls out my shoe, dripping and filled with mud...I put it on and kept going. Once across the mud swamp river, I cleaned out the chunks of mud and tree branches and keep going.
*After mud swamp river we´re led down a cliff (still mostly in moonlight)...it was literally a downhill slope with jagged rocks.
*When we get to the bottom of ¨death cliff hike¨we can hear the river even better...the sun is starting to come up and I see a cable crossing over the water. That cable is attached to an over-sized toolbox of a trolley that takes people over the river...WHAT?!?!?!...I was scared at firt, but then became really excited...I get in the basket and the guide says ¨spread your legs¨...I´m sorry, what?...another guide jumped in and we took a romantic basket ride on a cable 100 feet above a raging river. Suffice it to say, when we reached the other side, we did a group hug and high five...little did we know the adventure had only just started.
*We hike for 2 1/2 hours in the most beautiful scenery I´ve ever seen...the hike was really dangerous, and was basically mountain climbing at points, but over some swinging bridges and planks of wood bridges (literally a plank of wood was a bridge over part of the river...no sides...just 8 inches of wood to walk on)...we get to the Perurail station...a couple of huts and some train tracks.
*The first train is at 8AM, which would give us a chance in seeing Machu Picchu, but the 8AM train is for locals only...the next train was 4 hours away, so we would have had to hike another 2 hours to possibly see Machu Picchu. Lenin, our awesome sketchy guide, slips the driver some money, and says that we can´t hike b/c we´re all sick...so we pretended to be sick (Oscar worthy performances I might say), got quaratined in a train car all by ourselves, and left the remainig pissed off tourists behind as we head to Aguas Calientes.
*A 25 minute train ride brings us to Aguas Calientes (a really cool town), we stand in line for 2 hours to buy our train tickets back to the questionable Perurail staion. While waiting in line, I overhear two Canadians talking about how they had gotten abandoned by their tour, hiked 6 hours in the pitch black dark, and now couldn´t get back to Cusco until Tuesday when their flight left on Sunday. I check with my peeps, and we pick up two Canadians for our journey back. You had to have a passport to buy a train ticket, which only one of us had, so Lenin, in his shady fashion, got all 3 of us return tickets without passports...but we did all end up being Irish due to the one friend from Ireland who had a passport copy...fine by me.
*Run to the bus, take the bus up to Machu Picchu, spend 25 mintues there...the best 25 minutes ever spent...it´s beyond amazing...heading back down the mountain to catch our train.
*Ran to catch train, made the hike back in 55 minutes (where it tooks us 2 1/2 hours before), waited in line for 2 hours for the ¨death buggy¨across the river, sprinted back up the ¨cliff of death¨, back over the ¨mud swamp river¨and into the van. Two Canadians and two Peruvians heavy, we headed back down ¨very scary road of death¨and enjoyed some beers and music to unwind.
We got back at 1AM Saturday morning...passed out and were pretty much worthless the next day. Did some more sightseeing in Cusco and then got back in at 6AM this morning. Sorry for the long post, but I didn´t want to leave anything out. Cusco was by far the craziest trip I´ve ever been on...and I´d do it again in a heart beat. Glad to be alive and amazed that I got to see Machu Picchu...unreal!
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