Salkantay Blog
Day 1. Ralphed twice. Altitude sickness, that I hadn't felt even a twinge of despite climbing and running around at 12,200 ft, hit like a mean dog this afternoon around 1pm. I made it to base camp for lunch slowly but surely, willing away the headache, but after eating a little food and taking two ibprofen, I laid down in the tent as bundled as my lackluster wardrobe would allow and closed my eyes for ten minutes. I don't think I would call it sleep. When it was time to go I got up and took five steps outside and whoop there went the pumpkin soup. Gross. Twice. So instead of climbing the next hour to our base camp for the night, I rode a horse on steady incline, stomach rolling as much as my eyes kept going back, feeling pretty awful. Whose idea was this insanity anyway??
But yesterday was INCREDIBLE. And the views of glacier mountains today will be something I will always show off but jeez. This feeling has yet to completely fade and that could make tomorrow, already coined the hardest day, extra miserable. But think of happier times. Like the fact when I landed in Cusco...no back up even more...
Home for a week was just right. Enough to get my feet wet and readjust to what exactly Home means: for me, crisscrossing the county to visit people, going to church at Rozetta Baptist Church for Sunday school, then sprinting to Grace Bible Church for family service time with ever true and steady prayer warrior crews, visits to the different school buildings to laugh and share life with kiddos and faculty alike, hiding in my room to read too many books, thoughts of what happens next after my travel year, and relaxing car rides in Rubes (my red prius). One week was enough to remind me that Home is Amazing, Complicated, Challenging in a good way, and Always Involved. In other words, it's family, roots, intentional living and loving, and an incredible place to call home base.
So it was with a somewhat breath of relief that I didn't yet have to process my travels of the last seven weeks but could instead count this as an extended layover before driving back up to Chicago to fly out to South America. I still can't believe I'm actually here. Until I arrived I knew no one, but had a travel agency "Peru for Less" highly recommended to me. They are wonderful! Even with all of the prep work and all of the logistics clear and concise, I was nervous about this trip. Hiking and camping in the Andes mountains for 4 nights to arrive at Machu Picchu...what was I thinking. Thankfully they eased me into it--perfectly smooth flights to get me from O'Hare to Panama City to Lima (for an overnight sleep in the airport for my layover, not my favorite but honestly not bad), to Cusco where my ride awaited with my name on the sign. They drove me to the hostal--beautiful place with a lovely set up, really more like a bed and breakfast. Then I was free to wander the rest of that Sunday. I took a nap then explored Cusco on a beautiful sunny day.
The next morning (yesterday) I was picked up at 7:45am and taken on the Sacred Valley tour. UNBELIEVABLE. So so cool. I couldn't have been happier with who I was with, what we saw, what we learned, and the pace. Lovely lovely lovely. My favorite part was befriending an older couple traveling with their son and daughter in law. The dad was such a gentle soul, but tired. He became my buddy despite the language barrier (Spanish) as I would joke around and give him an occasional pep talk to reach the top. In the end, they asked me to join in photos and then bought me a bottle of water. Such a warm and friendly reminder that a smile can make a world of difference.
When you don't want to spend a lot of money or check luggage, it is a recipe for frugality or disaster depending on the task. This unfortunately will land a little more in the disaster camp. I'll survive but it will be thanks to these good people to make sure I don't fall off the mountain or freeze to death. Pick up for the trek was 4am this morning. One of the first, I got a window seat and tried off and on to fall asleep, often wondering when my head bopped me awake if it was a dream. Nope. The Spanish music, van full of better equipped hikers, and the constantly curving roads was real life. Best/worst memory. The older gentleman (maybe 70s) who was driving must have been a nascar driver at one point in his life. When the highway turned to a little dirt for traction WE WERE FLYING. At one point when I dared to open my eyes, I literally saw my end...I could look straight over the edge of a cliff with an incredible steep and long drop off. I should have filmed but I couldn't believe it was real. I may never forget it.
Mom, Dad, I'm ok. My toes still haven't thawed and doubtfully will for another 24 hours. I've been loaned a fleece liner by my tent mate, a story for face to face, and I have enough cliff bars to live off forever even if I can't hold much down. The trek group called Wayki, is wonderful and very kind. The food is a four course meal and really good...if only I could eat.
The pictures from this trip are beyond anything I could have imagined. God is an artist, an incredible beautiful magnificent artist who sees beauty beyond anything I could ever imagine. "Lord of all creation, of heaven earth and sky, the heavens are your tabernacle, glory to our God on high. God of wonders beyond our galaxy you are holy holy. The universe declares your majesty, you are holy holy. Lord of heaven and earth..."
That worship song plays over and over in my head.
From night one in a tent, buenos noches. May the Lord grant us all sleep and warmth tonight.
M
---
Day 2. 11 miles in the books. Heard two glacier avalanches over the course of the night, hiked up to 15,200 feet, and actually slept for a solid 30 minutes without sweating or freezing after taking some Tylenol at 4am. But the best part of the whole thing, after surviving? My 3:30am toilet run when the moon was shining so brightly that I could see Salkantay with stars scattered all across the tapestry behind. Magnificent.
Today we hiked to the summit of Salkantay, to a lake, and then down and around an entire mountain. My group is led by Romm, Cusco born and raised. He is 31 and has been leading hikes for 5 years. The rest of our crew is comprised of tourists: Olga, Hannah and John from England are in their late twenties and love to travel, Matt is the English son of a retired diplomat who also loves to spend his two weeks of holiday doing something radical, Brian is born in Brooklyn but raised in Jersey and he is an adventure seeker, Carlos is an older guy (maybe 40s) from Mexico who loves to hike. I am the baby of the group, but only by a year. Everyone is friendly and enjoyable with very interesting backgrounds. No one talks TOO much :) especially while we are walking, and everyone makes sure to check on whoever is bringing up the rear. Which until we reached 12,000 feet on the way down was me every time.
There are some Coloradoans proudly waving a Broncos flag and when I mentioned I had hiked Mt. Beirstadt this summer they laughed and said I had just spent the night a few hundred feet above that. Aye yi yi. There are various people you pass and then get passed by along the trail which can make it comforting/nice to see familiar faces. So far my stomach bout was the worst of our group. I am very thankful that didn't last through all of today.
It's about dinner time and I am trying to conserve battery. Buenos noches from the valley in between some really big mountains,
M
---
Day 3
11.5 miles today all along a river valley up and down Peruvian flats to the Playa, our stop for lunch. From there we took a bus for an hour and a half through the jungle past avocado trees, coffee plants, banana trees, and other fun plants. It was rather exciting to run into construction equipment along the way as there was rarely room for both vehicles to occupy the space. We found our camp site in a small town just up the road from Santa Teresa. We dumped our stuff and then hopped back in the bus to go to the hot springs. A very nice way to recover from the hiking even with the bugs and cicadas. We just finished supper and I am tanked. I hope someday my hip flexors forgive me.
Did I mention we are now in the jungle? So heat? No problem. Well actually, heat Is the problem. Too much of it. I woke up last night drenched in sweat after having a dream where I forgot my basketball shoes in the locker room and was sprinting to go find them. Oh dreams.
Tomorrow we will get up around 6:30am and head to Aguas Calientes just outside of Machu Picchu. We are almost there and I am definitely ready. Home sounds pretty good...a nice football Friday evening cheering on the Heat...but this too is something I must enjoy. Mosquitos and all :)
M
----
Day 4
Whoa. It's 8:45pm on a Friday night and we are all tucked into our hotel beds praying we don't get eaten alive by bugs. Oh. And that we wake up to our 4:15am alarms to make it to the bus station by 4:30am so that we can catch the 5:30am bus up to Machu Picchu. Oh boy.
Today we woke up to a very wet jungle atmosphere outside Santa Teresa. It had rained for a few hours overnight, thankfully cooling down the temperature. Unfortunately all of our swim stuff we had left out to dry didn't exactly dry out at all. After an hour long bus ride overlooking canyon edges again, we were dropped off at the train station by the hydroelectric plant. Following the train tracks on foot for the next 6 miles, we made our way to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. The views again today were stunning, but the reality of the humidity and bugs of the jungle made it a little more difficult to take everything in as we traveled. I believe I am up to over 20 bug bites and I have been religiously dousing myself in bug spray. Oh joy.
I am SO EXCITED for tomorrow!! In the meantime, I'm going to veg out and watch "The Voice". Hello hotel life. Good times :)
Here's to Wonders of the World catching!
M
---
Day 5
Alarm went off at 4:10am, we were standing in line by 4:30am, and there were nearly 50 people in front of us. Thankfully one of our guys had practically run and secured a spot at 4:10am. By the time I arrived the line behind him was over 200 people deep. Talk about enthusiastic sight seers! We boarded the bus around 5:45am and made our way up to Machu Picchu, translated Old Mountain. Early enough to get some photos of the city without tourists swarming it, we were all pleased with our early morning decision. After a two hour guided tour, we split up our different ways. I walked with John from the UK to the Incan Bridge and then the Sun Gate before heading back down to catch the bus around 12pm. All in a morning.
I again don't have much to say about today because the three hour train ride shook my brains into a complete scramble. The train literally rocked side to side the entire ride. It was far worse than then Boston T green line. Then I climbed into the taxi directed to me by the tour guide holding my name and realized through my bleary eyes this could be not so good. Thankfully, other than the language barrier, we made it to the hostel in one piece while listening to Tears in Africa and Beat It because I answered "Illinois" to the question of "donde esta?".
I've gone through my photos and videos and cleaned out the true flops. It's still about to be overload on FB but ah well. I need the space on my phone. Not sure what the next two days will entail in Cusco other than laundry, recovery sleep, and a little shopping. Then it's off to Lima and Panama City for a couple days before Home Sweet Home.
Peace,
M
No comments:
Post a Comment