Again, greetings from Peru. Given the fairly positive response I received from the last addition of "a day in the life ... " I'll send out another generic response.
Well, obviously I lived through the Inca trail. Although, it was close at times. We walked more than 30 miles over three mountains in 3 days. The first day as I huffed along behind even Jo the Australian (who is 55, by the way). I spent most of my time thinking, "What the HELL am I doing here!" Then that "1/2 mile" straight up the second day turned out to be a 4 and a half hour climb up a virtual stairway (and closer to a mile).
I was behind everyone by an hour, Jo waited for me so that I wouldn't look like a loser. THEN after lunch we walked down the same bloody mountain and up another (I was first up this time) where we camped for the evening (on the edge of a cliff in 10 degree weather with wind gusts up to 40 mph).
Those poor souls that were still drinking that coca tea got water poisoning (you have to boil it longer at 15 000 feet) and were puking and crapping the entire night.
Meanwhile I managed to infect almost the entire group with my cold just as I'm getting over it (I'm really popular now). There was hope in the supposedly "easy" third day. Lets define 'easy', shall we? To me it is not a 3 hour hike up yet another mountain followed by 4 1/2 hours climbing almost straight down over 3,000 feet. You could see the valley below the whole time your ankles and knees are screaming that you couldn't possibly walk another step.
I was near tears by the end and found myself passed by some crazy German who was doing this two months after breaking her ankle. At the end of all this we were supposed to find hot showers, but instead paid 5 soles to be dribbled on by luke warm water. Given that we hadn't seen running water in 3 days it was still wonderful at the time.
There was one toilet there for about 60 campers, unless you call the cement structure with a hole and completely open to the world, covered in a green fungus of some sort, smelled to high heaven because people were afraid to get too far in, a toilet. (Seb told me there was crap of every color and consistency, puke and urine covering them as well).
unfortunately, we were also camped on a cliff ledge and there was nowhere to pee. After no sleep for the 3rd night in a row, and a couple more of our group get water poisoning, they wake us up at 4 am for a 3 hour climb in the pouring rain to see the sun rise (obviously there was some confusion about sunrises and cloud cover). We walk to the "sun gate" which is totally obscured by clouds. I was so tired and pissed off I barely stopped and just headed down to Manchu Pichu. To get to the end we again had to face a never ending climb down the side of a mountain. Our guide told us to wait in the restaurant at the bottom of the hill.
Did I mention that Manchu Pichu is at the top of said hill? I was wondering what the hell that was all about, because I certainly was not going to climb down just to climb back up again ... but that's what we did. All of us were pissed off, completely exhausted, dehydrated and needing a real bed. My only thought was NEVER AGAIN, NEVER, NEVER , NEVER. AGAIN.
Anyway, we saw Manchu Pichu which is really quite impressive (I should note here that you can take a train there, not to mention the fact that the Incas themselves took a short cut through the valley). We finally got on a train back to Cusco.
We had to pay 3 dollars extra to get reserved seats. It was quite an experience. The vendors follow you on board and walk up and down the aisles with sweets and plastic bags full of warm tea. A band was also in the aisle playing Beatles tunes on traditional instruments. The B.O. was horrible for those stuck in aisle seats because most of the locals had to stand and being in the aisle meant sitting just at armpit level. Then there was the fact that the train shook so badly I thought it was going to derail! We got off a stop early because taking a bus back to Cusco was actually shorter (usually ... IÂ’ll explain why not in this case).
We get on a bus for the 2 hour ride back to Cusco. The minivan/bus overheats. We all jump out and offer our water, the driver knows nothing about cars and Ian is screaming at him inEnglishh not to put the cold water in there without the motor running. Well, they finally get it cooled down and we go back on our way ... for about 5 minutes. Then the engine seizes and we pull off the road in front of another dead bus that has beenabandonedd. Well, we all jump out and people were taking pictures and looking up at the stars (which are beyond incredible).
Thirty minutes later when no one had come to get us we started to get cold andwhinyy it was now after 9 and we had been up since 4 am. Then a cattle truck slows down and drives by and we all think well at least we weren't expected to get in that. SURPRISE! It turns around and comes back and stops in front of our bus. I think someone said, "you've got to be kidding" but they weren't.
Thirty miles away Cusco sits and they are loading our luggage and us into the back of a cattle truck that didn't even have a roof!! It was a 40 minute ride and freezing cold, but highly entertaining. We put all of our clothes on and spread the sleeping blankets that we had out for everyone. Then we drove through a police check point looking like refugees and finally into Cusco where people looked very surprised to see a bunch of gringos standing up in the back of a cattle truck!! The hotel personnel was a bit surprised as well.
Well, needless to say it was nice to be back in the warmth of a hotel, with cable even! I also dropped off my laundry and will get it back to day, 50 cents a pound -- they wash, dry and iron your clothes for you and get them back in a couple of hours ... you've gotta love the prices!
I'm too quickly out of time, and I was hoping to send some personal messages, but this was the latest!!
