Peru ::: Inca Trail & Machu Picchu (9/4/05)

All good things come to an end and so is the case with my 2005 Anti-Reality Tour. This year has been one amazing adventure after the other and luckily I got to end it on a high note this past week in Peru.

Days 1 & 2 ::: Me and 27 other Kellogg students (and significant others) left Evanston last Sunday for a pre-orientation trip to hike the Inca Trail and visit Machu Picchu. We left Evanston around 2:30pm and arrived in Cusco, Peru via Newark and Lima about 24 hours later. After quickly dropping off our bags, showering and drinking some coca tea (to help prevent altitude sickness), a small group of us decided to explore the streets of the ancient Inca capital by foot. All those years of Spanish classes finally came in handy as we cruised the markets, chatted with locals and sat down for our first Peruvian meal. Thank god it all came rushing back to me otherwise we might have unknowingly eaten guinea pig, a favorite of the locals. Instead we nibbled on arroz con curry, sopa vegetal, papas fritas, berenjena, ensalada y lentejas (and don't worry, I did get more adventurous!)

Day 3 ::: We woke up bright and early, organized our packs and drove two hours by bus to kilometer 82 of the Inca Trail. We met up with our leaders, cooks and porters (there were more of them than us!), snapped a few pictures for posterity and set off on the trail. The first day is supposed to be a warm-up, which means we hiked about seven miles on fairly flat terrain, stopping along the way to see a few ruins, drink some water, take in the spectacular views and play some high altitude stickball. One of my classmates was pitcher for the Cal baseball team so we decided to make a "tape ball" and have some fun. I promptly took his fastball out of the park with my bamboo walking stick while a mule played first base. Oh yeah! That night we camped in Huayllabamba.

Day 4 ::: Dead Woman's Pass. I'd been hearing about this part of the trail for months and one of my friends had even gone as far as to say it was harder than the NYC marathon. Just over seven miles long and about 5.5 miles up. Yes, I said up. It's also the highest point on the Inca Trail at just over 13,600 feet, which means altitude sickness and fatigue can be a real problem. Don't get me wrong, it was pretty damn hard, however I was pleasantly surprised at how well my body responded to the challenge especially considering I'd been on the no-workout workout for over 6 months. I was the second one to the top and despite a pounding headache I decided to indulge in a shot of homemade whiskey with one of the trail guides I met at the top. After basking in the glory of our accomplishment for quite a while, we made our way back down that damn mountain to our campsite in Pacaymayo. Everyone was pretty beat that night so after dinner we called it a night (8pm) and tried to get a good night's sleep while rain pounded our tents the entire night.

Day 5 ::: All along the guides told us that we'd be fine if we could just make it to Dead Woman's Pass. They failed to mention that the third day of hiking would be 10 miles and a lot of up and down including 2,400 downhill steps in the afternoon alone. You're probably thinking that going downhill is a helluva lot better than going uphill but really quite the opposite is true. While the ascent is painful, the descent puts a ton of stress on the knees and is draining mentally. You really need to focus and take care with each step to be sure you don't slip on loose rocks and/or gravel.

After we made it through the first and most treacherous half of the hike, a small group of people started to run down the trail with one of our guides. Me and a few others caught up with them and all shit broke loose. Ten of us and the guide ditched the rest of the group and bolted down a very steep section of switchbacks. It got really crazy and to be honest, quite dangerous as people jockeyed for position and left the trail for shortcuts between switchbacks. I wound up blindly following someone through a shortcut and sliding ten feet down the mountain on my ass, thankfully in a spot that was loose dirt and not rocks. I quickly bounced back up, looked at the shocked faces of the people who had lost the lead and took off in the front pack trying to hold back laughter about what had just happened. When we arrived at our camp we laughed our asses off and realized we were pretty lucky to have come away from it all injury free.

Day 6 ::: We woke up at 4:45am to have breakfast, tip our porters and try to make it to the Sun Gate for sunrise. We left a bit late but it didn't really matter because there was cloud cover when we arrived at the Sun Gate around 7:30am. Thankfully we waited it out because the sight of Machu Picchu once the clouds rose was absolutely stunning. We hiked the last mile to the complex and then took a 2.5 hour tour of the major areas. After the tour we drove to the nearby town of Aguas Calientes for lunch and then took the train back to Cusco. We had a group dinner that included rocoto relleno (a deep fried green peppers stuffed with meat and vegetables) and monster shots of tequila. After dinner we stopped at a bar to throw back a few pitchers of local beer before finishing off the night around 3am at a disco called Mama Africa.

Days 7 & 8 ::: Despite being a bit tired and hungover, we managed to get up and do some last minute sight-seeing and shopping around Cusco before catching our flight to Lima. We had a long layover so our tour company picked us up at the airport and took us to see the beach and to a very nice restaurant for dinner. Our guide told us all about Lima and it's odd climate - apparently it's only sunny three months of the year and the rest of the time it's overcast and 99% humidity... but, it hasn't rained since 1972! And apparently the surf swells up to 7 meters in the towns just below Lima. We got to see a few brave souls in the water during our stop-off.

The highlight of dinner was my delicious ceviche (cold raw seafood marinated in lemon juice, peppers and onions) and getting a chance to finally hear everyone tell the group their personal stories (during the trip we weren't supposed to discuss where we were from, where we went to college or what work we'd been doing). There were definitely some surprises! After our final meal together we left for the Lima airport and started our 24-hour journey back home to Evanston. What an amazing trip and summer! For the full photo album go to (and don't worry, it's only 125 picutres):

http://amazon.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=1379kkan.1bd10lzv&x=0&y=-hysdlw
So I guess that's all folks! I gotta get some sleep and get ready for orientation on Tuesday. Lata!