Machu Picchu

Lying on a couch in limbo land, waiting for a boat to the Amazon. The last 5 days have been a blur of shopping, female traditionally-dressed wrestling, dancing on tables with lions heads and having the worse of hostel life. After an epic weekend in Bogota with a friend we got up at 2:45 am to catch a flight to Cuzco, South America.

Cusco is an old colonial-inca city with cobbled streets, old churches and high altitude. It’s full of hills and it is freezing in comparison to balmy central america. Our first move was to get drunk off Pisco and book and adventure hiking, rafting and biking tour for the next morning as well as expensive waterproof jackets.

First thing next morning we piled into the strangest van with a bunch of people who wouldn’t speak! They were so silent and awkward and we were spending the next 4 days with them! We headed up through the beautiful mountains with the occasional snow cap peaking out between the barren landscape. Finally we reached a peak where the air was so thin it was a struggle to even walk straight. It was here we found there wasn’t enough helmets, some bikes had a flat tire and five minutes into the drive my chain fell off. It was a busy but stunningly beautiful ride down with river crossings and through gravel roads. I crawled down, so scared of falling until the driver told me I had to keep up with the speeding group in the front. It wasn’t the most relaxing ride but I don’t think mountain biking is supposed to be.

That afternoon Jade and I paid the extra to go white water rafting through the mountains with 1 Austrian and 3 crazy Israelis. It was insane, if someone fell in it was up to us to rescue them while the guide yelled instructions and told us how to throw a rope. Jade fell in the first 5 seconds and started to drift away until the Israelis grabbed her. As we had 4 strong guys and us, the guide decided to take us through some bigger rapids and at one point, with the Israelis screaming at the top of their lungs and yelling war chants, we plunged into a much too big rapid and all went flying into the icy water. Crazy, crazy guide and crazy crazy Israelis. Lots of fun through.

The next two days was hiking to Machu Picchu. We hiked through organic farms, trying their organic passionfruit juice and chocolate and talking to idealistic Americans volunteering there. We headed along the edge of mountains and through valleys, over rivers and even through construction sites in this perfect landscape. Every meal was the same: salty soup, rice, meat and chips but we got a lot of coca tea to keep us going.

Finally, after a long walk by a beautiful railway, we turned the corner to see a little village nestled in the mountains: Aguas Calientes. Jade and I got put in a hostel away from our weird group with a private room, hot showers and lovely people. Of course I ran into a piece of wood sticking out of my bed and ended up on the floor clutching my knee. I thought this would be a little bump, little did I know I wouldn’t be able to walk properly for a week after!

The next morning we got up at 3:30 and I limped to breakfast to walk up Machu Picchu for sunrise only to find out we didn’t have tickets because the company we drunkenly booked sucked and hadn’t organised them. Our 22 year old guide informed us it wasn’t his problem or his fault, thanks man! In the end, at 5:30 we bought new tickets. The path up the mountain is an ancient inca path and I seriously don’t know how they did it. It is 1 hour of stairs up a mountain, 2 hours if you have one leg. They must have been so fit. About 10 minutes from the top Jade realised she’d left her camera near the start. In 25 minutes she ran down the mountain and up again! Insane how fit she’s gotten.

Finally, 2 hours after we were meant to meet the group, we made it to Machu Picchu. Some say it was a city, others say it was a religious retreat . Shaped like a condor it is nestled among the mountains high up and beautiful. For some unknown reason it was abandoned(maybe sickness, maybe UFO’s) leaving a perfectly preserved city, ruins to be discovered later by some westerner.

It was strange to be there a second time, 6 years later. It was exactly the same yet so much has happened since last time I was there. I felt like a different person, seeing this beautiful city with different eyes and I loved wandering through the ruins with Jade. We had a picnic, played cards and enjoyed the stunning view until finally it was time to head back after our long, strange tour.

  

The next day was the festival of the sun and our remorseful guide offered to sneak us in to watch a llama sacrifice and dancing. About 30 minutes later he decided to take us to his fathers house for a gathering. We wandered through the pine trees in the beautiful sacred valley to a little red house full of people. Everyone was making traditional food and celebrating with their family. Our guide’s dad quickly supplied us with potatoes cooked in the ground and shots of some liquid to ‘kill the bugs’. We chatted about our guides player tendencies and then, Jade citing vegetarianism, I ate a huge plate of cows heart(semi raw) and other meats. It was beautiful and fun but I spent the next week recovering from the gastro. The next day I woke up with a bad head cold and gastro on top of my already twisted knee and sprained ankle. Not Happy.

Amazing experiences but I was not getting along with Cuzco. As soon as we could, we caught a hell night bus(no seats for us, ended up in the front with the driver and about 10 refugee style Peruvians listening to loud music and inhaling cigarette smoke throughout the night. We then got out of the bus, walked through a waste land of rubbish for no apparent reason to get picked up again) to Lake Titicaca were we spent the next few days wandering the island, resting and generally recovering. Finally, when we felt whole again, we caught a bus to La Paz to keep travelling.