4 Day Jungle Trek, Cuzco - Machu Picchu

Well I won't go into as much detail about the trek as I did in my journal because you would all fall asleep!  But here are a few of the important notes about a fantastic 4 day adventure!

In total we were 8 people.  Carlos our guide, Christian from Switzerland, Remi and Lea from France, Kengo from New York, Fiona from Ireland, and of course Mike and I.  It was a fantastic group as everyone was very easy going and jokes abounded!  The first day involved being dropped off by van at 4100 m, where we grabbed the mountain bikes off the roof and descended 2000 m over a 52 km stretch on a road that is considered to be the world's second most dangerous road!  I was shocked by the level of safety they had for us including helmets and bright orange vests and the van following our route behind us in case of mechanical failures.  At 4100 m the ride started off quite cool so a jacket and pants were needed, but by the end - the temps had us sweating in shorts and t-shirts!  The last section was undergoing road improvements so the van went ahead of us at that point which was unfortunate for Fiona who suffered a blown out tire which no one realized until we were finished the bike ride!  The van had to go back and find her which took over 40 minutes which had us concerned by the end due to the label of the highway as the 2nd most dangerous!  We then packed into the van and drove to Santa Maria which was our pit stop for the night!  

We  had local Peruvian dishes as our meals which generally included a soup to start, and then a main dish of which there was rice, potatoes, steak, spaghetti with chicken to name a few!  Two items that stood out as absolutely delicious were the freshly made guacamole and bread starter, and a chicken salad made with french fries, onions, peppers and mayonnaise!  Yes - french fries in salad - it was SO good!  Unfortunately haven't found it in a restaurant yet!  

Day two was the start of our hike into the jungle!  There were numerous varieties of fruits including oranges, bananas, papaya, mango and other local fruits.  There were also farms where the main products were coffee and cocaine.  Yes I said cocaine!  Coca tea which is made from the leaves of the cocaine plant is a very popular tea down here which is quite delicious!  The leaves are eaten for their abundance of minerals and vitamins!  It's just too bad that some idiot figured out that by mixing it with acid that you can create a narcotic and make the trade of an amazing healthy plant illegal...so I guess I won't be bringing any home as a souvenir unfortunately!  Anyways, back to the hiking!  We hiked a total of 14 km through rugged terrain and temperatures reaching 39 degrees!  We took a 1.5 hr lunch and siesta break around noon during the intense heat!  The end of the trail brought us to a set of hot springs with 3 pools ranging in temperature from 25 - 32 degrees.  Mike and I decided not to pay the entrance fee into the springs but enjoyed the view and some cool drinks including Inca Kola which is hard to describe but almost like the old Tahiti Treat for those of you who remember that!  From there, a van took us to Santa Teresa which was the pit stop for the night!  A funny story from here involves Christian!  We could send our big bags on ahead by taxi so we wouldn't have to hike with them but Christian only had the one bag.  So we were in a store getting water for the next day and he got a bag for the water so that he would have something to put his extra stuff in since he only had the one bag.  Well we circled around the block and during that time his bag broke.  So, he went up to the woman sitting in front of the store and proclaimed "Senorita, una grande problemo", he shows her the bag and says "no funciona" and we are all killing ourselves in laughter!  The store he was standing in front of was the store next door to the one where he had gotten the bag and the woman had the most confused look on her face!  He tried to explain to her his dilemma as we're trying to tell him it's the wrong woman but he was quite focused!  Eventually he realized and it all got sorted out at the right store!

Day 3 was also an interesting day!  We had 4 people join our group for the last day hike to get to Aguas Calientes (a.k.a Machu Picchu town).  There was a couple from Chile and two guys from Italy.  Well I don't have too much to say about the Chileans...but the Italians certainly made things interesting!  We met them the night before at supper and you could tell they had certainly had a bit too much to drink already and what they were smoking wasn't particularly legal.  When we got back to the hostel that night, the larger italian was sitting on the steps by the bathroom with his head on his knees and hands on his head and our group is thinking...'tomorrow is going to be a long day!'.  It wasn't long after that he was throwing up in the bathroom which continued for quite some time!  We had to get up at 5:00 am to catch some breakfast before heading out on the hike and this was happening after 11:30 pm.  Well we got up and made it to the restaurant where  we were having breakfast and the Italians were no where to be found!  They did show up during the breakfast in rough shape however.  So we left in the van again to get us to our starting point of the hike.  Our group had decided to pay a little extra money so that we could hike 9 kms of original Inca trail instead of along the river road which was included in the price.  This hike started too far from the town which is why we needed the van to drive us to the start.  We started the hike at roughly 2000 m and climbed up to 2800 m passing the rich hikers with all their fancy gear and even a number of machete wielding locals so we felt good about that!  It was a good steady steep climb!  The end of the climb up brought us to a vantage point where we could see Machu Picchu 5 km off in the distance!  The site we were observing from was also an old Inca site.  Oh yeah, the two Italians were incredibly slow off the start and we thought the hike was going to take forever!  Then out of the blue, the one that had been in the worst shape the night before just took off on a good steady pace and we only caught up to him shortly before reaching the Inca site!  We were shocked!!!  They were certainly focused and determined when they needed to be!  The hike down from this site dropped about 700 m and it was down the entire time!!!  There were no flat sections - just steep switchbacks as we worked our way down to the river!  The guide told us it would take roughly 1 hr 40 mins to get down but a few of us made it down in less than 1/2 hr!  And yes - Mike would never forgive me if I didn't state that he made it down first!  We definitely paid for it though as our quads have been shot for the last couple of days from being jolted so hard during the decent!  It was well worth it though!  We then rested down by the river giving our feet an icy cold bath in the glacier fed river!  We then hiked to hydro electric town where there is a hydroelectric station (go figure huh!) and had lunch there!  It was here that we were given our bags back for the hike along the railroad tracks to Aguas Calientes.  The train is the only access to the town so the taxi could not take our bags all the way there!  It was another 9 km hike to the town but it was very easy as the path beside the tracks was very flat! 

Day 4 was Machu Picchu (MP) day!!!  Our group opted to take the bus up to the MP site instead of walking up the Inca stairs for an hour since our legs were tired!  The MP gate opened at 6:00 am and the first buses left at 5:30 am.  So we got up at 4:30 to stand in line by 5:00 in the hopes of getting on the first bus.  Well we didn't get on the first two buses but we still made it in time for the 6:00 am opening!  When we got there - the clouds were just started to roll off of MP which made the whole experience surreal!  MP was just revealing itself to us!  Unfortunately, it was also drizzling a bit so swarms of people were out in there stupidly rainbow colored ponchos!  GAH!  I was so tired of pink, yellow, bright blue and red ponchos filling MP and ruining pictures!  That was my one complaint - those should not only not be sold at the MP gate but they should be banned!!!  Anyways...enough ranting!  Haha!  Not much I can really describe about MP as it was just a lot to take in!  One big item of note though was that Mike and I were hiking to the Sun Gate which was a ceremonially but also entrance spot for MP at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11!  I'm already starting to decide where I should be for 12:12:12 12/12/12!  Suggestions are welcome!  We had a tour of MP for 2 hours in the morning and the rest of the day we spent exploring and simply sitting and enjoying the views!  We left the site around 3:00 pm after 9 hours of enjoying the entire shock and awe of the beauty of MP and it's surroundings!  We stayed in Aguas Calientes until our train departed at 6:45 pm having some coffee and a good supper!  While at the restaurant having coffee, I went to the bathroom but the lock wasn't working so a woman totally walked in on me and the surprised look of horror on her face was priceless!  Later on, she came up and introduced herself - she thought it was only right and we had a good laugh about it!  

So that sums up a portion of the experience!  If you read this far I'm impressed!  Thought I was going to make it short but we simply experienced and saw too many things in 4 days!  Some thoughts I had at Machu Picchu which I've never really thought about before - were the facts that Indigenous groups from all over the world saw the beauty of creation and knew there had to be a creator!  There worship may have not been "christian worship" but they knew that God provided for them through creation even though they labelled God through other facets.  I wonder where in history people lost the awe, respect and gratitude for a perfect creation that so intricately provides everything we need and more?!  

Well that is all for now - the last few days, Mike and I have spent in Puno on the edge of Lake Titicaca on the border of Peru and Bolivia.  We've done a lot of relaxing after the hike as we've given our legs a rest and worked through the hundreds of pictures we took!  Thanks for reading!  I've included a few pictures here from the trek but a much fuller photo album (although not as high quality pictures) can be found on my facebook page!