17 December 2008

The Trek to Machu Picchu
DAY 1

I biked 45 kilometers today! Granted, most of it was downhill, but it was also predominantly along a bumpy, gravel road, so I deserve some credit there. I could legit feel my brain rattling in my skull. This is only the second time I´ve biked in about 10 years and the first was the Bikes N Wines tour I did in South Africa, which was quite a different experience. Today´s adventure was pretty intense. Go me!

Rachel, Kate, and I woke up at about 6:30 this morning in our hostel in Cusco. We finished packing our backpacks, stowed our extra luggage in the storage room, and checked out of our room. We had a bit of a scare when the front desk staff couldn´t locate Kate´s passport, but luckily they found it and we headed off to the main square (Plaza de Armas) for breakfast. I had coffee, fruit salad, and a crepe topped with chocolate sauce, coconut, apples, and peanuts. Delish.

Despite our early wake-up, we were still running a bit behind schedule. (And the passport debacle clearly didn´t help.) Fortunately, our trekking guide was running on South American time (meaning at least 20 minutes late) so we had plenty of time to finish our breakfasts before meeting our transport and the rest of our group. We´re hiking with "Nice Tour Peru," a company recommended to me by a girl I met who was interning at the Marriott where I worked this summer. There was a bit of confusion on Monday after the tour coordinator forgot to pick us up at the airport, but we managed fine and I´m expecting the rest of our trek to go swimmingly.

The three of us are the only trekkers booked with Nice Tour, but we´ve paired up with another group of five and their guide. I´m not sure how much time we´re going to be spending with them, but they all seem nice. There´s Augustine from Argentina, Olivia from Vancouver, Max from Miami (originally from Sweden), Gil from southwest France, and Laura from Australia. I had a really great talk with Laura during the three-hour drive to the spot where we started our bike ride. Turns out she majored in Sociology at university, so I asked her about Australia-specific Sociology topics since I´m hoping to get a grant from Barnard to do my thesis research there this summer. She gave me some great ideas and her mum actually started an NGO that works with Aboriginees, so she might be a really good connection. Laura just started a year-long journey on an around-the-world ticket. I´m a little jealous, but I´m still pretty excited to be heading back to the states in a few days. My time for an around-the-world trip will come, hopefully not long after I finish college.

We were all pretty cramped in the car ride up the mountain, but there were lots of good discussions going on and great 90s throwback CDs playing- N´Sync, Christina Aguilera, Santana, etc. The scenery was absolutely beautiful. It was a little gloomy, but I almost felt as if the low-hanging clouds and steady drizzle added to the ambiance. I do wish it had been a little drier during our bike ride, but we decided to come to Peru in the rainy season, so what to do.

We rode for about four hours total. As I said, it was mostly downhill. There were a few upward slopes and one or two big hills, but otherwise the most strenuous aspect was tolerating the bumps and trying not to crash. The first hour of the ride was down a smoothly paved asphalt road that wound down the mountain. There were some gorgeous waterfalls and a river running in the valley below. Unfortuntately, I didn´t really appreciate the asphalt until it ended.

The last three hours were very, very bumpy. It was a little rough and not wholly pleasant, but I´ really glad that I stuck it out (even though my ass is really sore and the palms of my hands are swollen from clutching the handlebars). I´m kind of inclined to get a bike and use it this summer, since I no longer have a car, but Edgewater isn´t very condusive to bicycle riding. I´d like to see if it´s possible though. Work on my ecological footprint a bit, get some exercise.

For most of the ride we were surrounded by tree-covered mountain on one side and cliff on the other, but we did pass through several (very) small villages. At one point I noticed a sign that said "Zone Urbana" right before we rode through a tiny collection of houses, a few small shops, and a gas station. If it hadn´t been raining so hard I would have snapped a photo of the sign that warned us of the upcoming "urban zone." I had a major IHP-moment and the question "What is a city?" popped into my head for the umpteenth time this semester. I clearly still don´t know the answer, but I might just have a topic for the post-study abroad writing contest that I was thinking about entering this spring.

I thought our journey would never end, but at about 4:00 we arrived at Santa Maria, our resting place for the night. We were all absolutely covered in mud, so the lack of hot water at our hostel didn´t deter us from showering. I even braved the frigid water long enough to shave my legs, which seems a little ridiculous in hindsight. We rinsed out today´s filthy clothes and hung them to dry in our hostel´s courtyard. Victor, our guide, assures us that they´ll be dry by morning, but I´m not so sure. I hope he´s right.

Santa Maria is a town of about 1000 residents, according to Victor. There are lots of dogs running around, fruit stands selling mangoes and avocados, and children throwing firecrackers, which only reminds me of how much I love small humans. We ate dinner at one of the restaurants on the main street. I had a vegetarian version of Saltado, a traditional Peruvian dish. Peppers, onions, tomatoes, and cubes of potato stir-fried with rice. It was good, although not really very protein-rich.

After dinner we played asshole with the other group. (It´s a card game, not as obscene as it sounds.) Now it´s about 10:00 and time for bed; we´re getting up at 6:00 tomorrow and leaving Santa Maria by 7:00. We´ll hike for about 7 hours and then stop at some hot springs, which will hopefully soothe my muscles. I´m sure I´m going to be absurdly sore after today´s adventure.