First off, I just need to show everyone how AWESOME my work friends are…TWC recently had their holiday party and my amazing friends made this sign for me to show the love-
Seriously, how cute is that?! THANK YOU!!! I miss you too!!
Just made it to Machu Picchu (MP means “old mountain”) yesterday, and what an adventure it was. Let me start off by stating that the 4 day hike to MP on the Inca Trail was the hardest thing I´ve ever done in my entire life, by FAR! Just to explain, the Inca Trail is the original trail built by Incas in the 16th century for royal, high-class people to use for their pilgrimidge to MP, though they built it after they built MP itself. Over the 4 days, I walked a total of 45KM (about 27 miles), which does not seem like much, until you consider that it is all uphill and downhill over rocky, off-balance large stones, at ridiculously high altitudes- from 8,000 to 13,200 feet above sea-level! I got a walking stick and was totally hooked on it- can totally understand how elderly people get addicted to canes. Breathing while laying still was even more difficult than usual, so just imagine climbing high mountains! I think I did more exercise and heavy, heart-pounding breathing over the past four days than all the exercise I´ve done in my life put together. Seriously. On both the first and second day we walked for 9 hours each, the third day for about 4.5 hours and the final day was 2.5 hours to Machu Picchu- but then had to climb lots of painful steps to explore MP for 5 hours as well.
I went with an agency called Llama Path (I think there are like 10 other companies along the path- 500 people do it per day, including porters and guides) and was really glad we chose them. First of all, and most importantly, they treat their porters really well. Ours were called the “Red Army” (gotta love the Commie overtones) because they all had red uniforms and red backpacks with proper straps. A lot of the porters from other companies did not even have actual straps and their stuff was just hugged to their back with cloth or plastic ropes. Note that the porters carry about 60 lbs each and basically RUN the trail and a lot of them even do it in sandals! Just madness. By the time we arrived at camp, either for lunch or for the night, the dining tent, sleeping tents, juice and our meal was all set up for us. Seriously heavenly. They spoiled us. In the mornings, they woke us up (at anytime between 330am and 6am) by bringing hot tea to our tents. The nights were freezing, so this was a complete blessing. Though the first morning it happened, we started yelling at them because we thought they were just intruding into our tents!!! We felt extremely guilty when we found out their true purpose, thats for sure. The food was amazing too- our chef Jorge was a genius and even created little animals out of food- like a cucumber parrot, etc. I ate like a queen because there was always so much food and after burning up so many calories, it was hard to turn it down. I probably scarfed down the most out of our group- many a joke was made on my behalf about that.
There were 9 of us total , with one guide (Casanio), 14 porters, and one chef. Other than me and Deirdre, we had a Brit named Susie, a Finnish girl named Minna, and 5 Aussies who all knew each other- Jason, Jon, Hay, Ahn and Tim (who is a Pastor). Most groups have about 15 people in them, so we were really lucky and all got extremely close while wallowing in our misery. Susie explained this best as she kept spouting out phrases like, “This is mental! I am totally destroyed. I am totally broken. We are insane! Im sooo done!,” etc. I mean, was really sooo worth every painful step in the end, but man, it was ROUGH going! On our first day, Jon, a 30 (or so) year old Aussie, who weighed about 170 lbs, had to be carried up the mountain by 3 porters! Literally piggy-back-ride carried uphill for an hour. I didnt get to see it (Dee and I were always at the front of the pack, so I was already at the top), but hearing about it was just incredible. I hired a porter to carry my stuff and just carried about 7 lbs on my back, but some of the other people carried their entire 30 lb backpacks the entire way- talk about MENTAL!
Our guide called us CHAMPIONS, but with his accent it sounded like “champignons” (mushrooms in French) so we called ourselves Team Mushroom. We rocked it! We were always the first or second group to finish, but that was mostly because we went a lot further each day than the other groups. For example, our first day was the hardest day because we walked to the farther possible campsite for the night and walked halfway up to Dead Woman´s Pass (the steepest point), while most of the other groups camped closer to the start, but then did the ENTIRE ascent up the mountain on the second day and then had to go all the way back down it. I really liked that we did it our way, because in the end, it made everything a bit easier overall.
Dee had a bit of trouble with Casanio though and though she used to LOVE Latin men, she´s slowly getting over her obsession. For a guide, he was completely inappropriate with her. He kept telling her she should marry him (basically) and live in SF half the year and Cusco half the year, and like kept hugging her and stuff. At one point, when she was getting REALLY fed up, I had to be like “She DOESN´T like you!” and even told him that she was really independent and liked to be left alone, so he would get the hint, but nothing really changed after that, so Dee ended up complaining to the agency about him. It was seriously like jr high! The good thing about Casanio was that he played this traditional Peruvian flute as motivation for us along the trail, and every once in awhile would break into “Turn Around Bright Eyes!” Was hilarious!!
On the final morning, after a HUGE rainstorm (luckily our only bad weather was on the 4th day because seriously can´t imagine doing this in the rain), we woke up at 330am, ate some cake (yep, they baked us a cake for us to eat at 4am- check out my pic of the cake next to my watch), and seriously RACED to the checkpoint- we were the 2nd group there, which meant we would be one of the first to arrive at the Sun Gate for our first views of MP. Along the way, this lunatic boy ran ahead trying to pass everyone, and stumbled and nearly fell off the cliff- was a bit scary because he seriously could have died, but he was being an IDIOT trying to run ahead of everyone, so we all kinda laughed at him. Dumb. Also, we had to climb up the “monkey steps,” and you literally need to use your hands to partly crawl up them- that´s how steep they are!
The views from the Sun Gate were pretty good when we first got there, though soon after it started getting VERY cloudy, as you can see from the pics. The clouds made it all the more gorgeous though. MP really is incredible–was very moving to finally be there and I don`t think it would have been nearly as spectacular if we didn´t have to work so hard to get there. I´m glad we did. Explored MP for about 5 hours. Definitely could have spent an entire day there, had I not done the trail, but was almost a zombie wandering around checking everything out. I “re-energized” myself at the Sun Dial (same place the Incas did this in their time) and had to take a train back to Cusco, where we arrived at 8pm and basically PASSED out. We were all so tired and cranky, whining about everything like we were 6 years old!
The next day, I treated myself to a mani/pedi as a reward, and the woman kept going on about how she could tell how much I´d walked! Had a group reunion that night, with happy hour drinks equalling 3 for the price of 1, and had a great time reminiscing. We took a cab back from the bar to the hostel and stubborn Dee ended up arguing for about 30 minutes with the taxi driver over about the equivilent of 15 cents. Was pretty funny, but she got her money back in the end! Some of the guys in the group were Chinese, so I got to play my favorite Chinese drinking game with them!!! I was so pleased. The Peruvians are fascinated by the Asians and go up to them all the time and ask to take pics with them. I imagine it might be like that for us when we get to India and people start handing over their babies for us to hold! Going to be insanity.
The next morning, Dee asked me what time our flight to Santiago, Chile was for the next day, and I checked and turned out it was TWO hours before that on THAT day!!! We totally thought it was the next day, so we missed our flight, had to pack up everything in a major hurry, get to the airport and buy a new ticket to Lima to catch our connection to Santiago. Luckily, everything worked out and it only cost us $100 each for the new ticket, but it could have been SO much worse. Well, at least we learned our lesson about stupidly just ASSUMING we know when our flights are!
I´m currently in Santiago, which is like a REAL modern city!!! They have department stores around every corner, movie theatres (yess!!), and even a STARBUCKS! Had been 7 weeks since my last iced grande sugar-free hazelnut non-fat latte, so was pretty much in heaven this morning when I discovered it. Families all hold hands here- no matter their age…like 18 yr old girls holding hands with their parents! Right now its nearly 9pm and it`s still sunny too and really really hot. I love this weather. It`s going to be so bizarre to be here for Xmas in the heat!
Tomorrow we are leaving for Easter Island and will be on the most remote island in the world for an entire week just looking at the giant Maoi statues and sunnin´ it on the beach! Cannnnnnot wait.
Also posted some pics in my blogroll from MP and the trail- so enjoy!
I´ll leave you with a poem my dad so sweetly wrote for me:
A LITTLE TRAVEL POEM FOR JILLIAN
I see you lying awake
Staring at the ceiling
Your imagination planning
Tomorrow’s new routes.
I sense you listening
To your inner voice
As it speaks to you loudly
And your heart beats quickly.
As traveling builds your pride
And inner strength abounds
Sleepy senses become acute
Youre learning who you are.
On the road you become a poet
An angel and a dreamer
An ambassador for your country
Filled with bravery and power.
Oh, how you love to travel
Somewhere new, somewhere old
Where the people sing and smile
And dance often and merrily.
On the road you are fearless
Unstoppable and strong
A medicine woman an angel
Sometimes even a genius.
Oh, how you love to travel
On a plane, bus, or boat
Flying like a soaring bird
Overseeing the wonders below.
On the road you speak of others
Tell tales of Auntie Linda
Think back to your earliest travels
When you first fell in love with adventure.
Oh, how you love to travel
Seeing sunsets and new horizons
Your senses finding new things
And never becoming dull
The scent of exotic flowers
The taste of beans and more beans
The sight of Machu Piccu
The sounds of rushing rivers.
On the road you reprimand yourself
And always set new goals
Stop, recharge your batteries,
Then begin anew again.
Oh, how you love to travel
Every part of you comes alive
You are energized and blown away
Every minute of every day.
On the road you experience freedom
You’re a citizen of the world
With humanness, compassion, and affection,
Raised to a level before unknown.
So my advise my daughter
As you travel around this earth
It is fine to arrive on empty
But always leave satiated and full.
Have the greatest trip ever
