Machu Picchu- The Inca Jungle Trek

We decided to go with a tour group after getting lost every single day in the Canyon. Our group was really fun with one Australian, 3 other Brits, 2 dutch, one Brazilian, one Irish and one Spanish/Swiss guy. Doing the original Inca trail is about three times more expensive than doing one of the other alternative treks so we picked the Inca Jungle Trek. We chose it from the others because the first day is 5 hours of downhill mountain biking which sounded like a nice change of pace.

The Australian guy crashed into our guide within the first 10 minutes and dislocated the guide´s shoulder and crushed his hand which left us sans leader for the entire trip. I naturally stepped in and led most the way down just because I wanted to go faster than most. (Guide is right behind me below.)

The first 3 hours or so were amazing as we glided down the mountain side on a perfectly paved road. Then we hit the worst road in Peru and were all miserable for about two hours. No one mentioned this awful part when they were selling it to us. I was riding down it as fast as possible just to get it over with but decided I should stop and wait for Gemma.

We started riding together and the second I went 3 seconds ahead of her I hear "ahhhh, oh, oh ahha, AHHHHHH". I immediately knew she was crashing but was just hoping it wouldn´t be a bad one. I screached my bike to a halt, turned around and see Gemma lying on her back in the middle of the road. She twisted her knee pretty badly but other than that was able to hobble away with just some scrapes on her arm, knees and hip. They also didn´t mention when they were selling us the package that there would be a 50% crash rate. We spent the night in Santa Maria and stayed up learning from the all knowledgeable Rob.

Gemma and one other girl had to skip the second day of hiking and took a cab to the next town. Which was really nice until it stopped and picked up five other locals along the way and nearly drove off a cliff edge. The rest of us hiked up a pretty steep mountain and then all the way down it to Santa Teresa.

The highlight of the day had to be this little guy below. Its part of the guinia pig family but much much larger, and cooler.

We ended our day of hiking with an amazing stop at really nice hot springs.

The third day the girls rejoined us for a hike to Agnes Calientes which is the town you have to arrive in the day before you hike to Machu Picchu. We walked along train tracks most of the way but crossed this bridge below which I thought was beautiful.

We were given the option to hike to the top of a mountian next to Machu Piccu which would be our first view of the ancient city but from the side. The first part of the climb is actually straight up four sets of handmade wooden ladders the longest of which is 100 feet high. After you ascend these ladders you are half way there and have to climb up rock steps to the top.

Wikipedia says the most defining feature of Mt. Putucusi is the hour and a half climp up these 1700 wooden and rock steps. I did it in 40 minutes. Gemma and the Aussie were only about 5 minutes behind me and then the rest of the group slowly made their way to the top. I was just so damn excited to finally catch a glimpse of Match Peach that I pretty much ran all the way up.

Here were our first views of Machu Picchu from the top of Putucusi!

The winding zig-zag road you see in the left of the pic below is the road the bus takes to the top. The path we climbed was actually straight up through the middle of this path.

Partially because we ran to the top of Putucusi and partially because this was our 8th day hiking out of 10, Gemma and I were absolutely dead last of our group to the top the next morning when we climbed an hour and a half to the gate. I´d like to blame this partially on our two wardrobe changes we had to do en route. We started at 4:30am and figured we´d be hiking so wouldn´t need warm clothes. Well when we could clearly see our breath for the first 10 minutes we decided to change into our longjohns and long sleave shirts. After 10 minutes of strenous hiking we stripped off for our shorts and short sleave again.

This is what we looked like half way up. Drenched in sweat, well at least I was.
But we made it.

And it was well worth the wait. Even though we were the last two of our group, we were still amoung the first 100 people in line and got to see the grounds with virtually no one there. After 11am the posers that take the train in that day and then the bus to the top arrive and crowd the place.

There are about 20 llamas that live at Machu Picchu and wander the grounds. Not a bad address huh?

Relaxing and clowning around on one of the many many terraces.

We spent from 6am until 2pm there. When we decided to leave we made our way to the exit and took one last look. That last look took about 25 minutes because it really is just so damn beautiful that it makes it hard to look or walk away from.

I took one last business call and then we hit the road back.

Chivay and Colca Canyon, Peru

We left Arequipa and headed towards Colca Canyon, the 2nd deepest canyon in the world. The first is not the Grand Canyon as most people guess but another canyon just an hour away from this one. We spent several hours in Arequipa speaking to different tour agencies that offer two to four day guided treks. We decided that our previous trekking experience (ie. ZERO) was good enough to do it on our own.

We first headed to the town of Chivay, a few hours outside Arequipa. We really liked Chivay and have been recommending it to everyone who is headed that way. We started the morning walking around the market and admiring all the old women in their traditional clothing. One lady was selling fried eggs and cheese sandwiches for one sole (about $0.33). They were amazing and we were so grateful to eat something that resembled what we might have had for breakfast back home.

Alpacas resemble small llamas and are very common in Peru. You can buy Alpaca sweaters, hats and socks at every market and Alpaca steaks are on the menu at every restaruant in town. I had it for the first time in a pineapple stirfry and it was delicious. In the market you could buy their heads, hearts and I´m sure alot of other parts I didn´t recognize. Check out their heads and hearts on the left in the pic below!

One not so glamourous part of traveling is using the toilets in third world countries. They aren´t exactly like the heated self-cleaning kind I used at Google every now and then. I remember when I was traveling abroad in college and was at one of the best restaurants I´ve eaten at in France. I was with a group of friends including my dear friend Evan whose wedding I just went to and wrote about. I´ll never forget the look on her face when she returned from the bathroom and we all found out she had accidently stepped in the hole in the ground that was the toilet.

I have traveled alot since that moment in 2002 but had yet to experience the pleasure. Finally before our 5 hour trek I got the chance. It was magical. It was actually kinda cool, but its definitely something that you never need to do again.

We set off on what was supposed to be our three hour hike and immediately passed by this lady walking between these two huge statues.

An hour into our journey we passed by these donkeys and their shepherd. He asked us where we were going and we pointed towards the small village on the map we were using. The map we were using was actually a hostel leaflet with a small map on the back. It was really just a line that showed three towns on it. He informed us we were walking in the wrong direction. Of course. My sense of direction is probably the worst in the world. If there are two ways to go, I always go the wrong way. Its my moms fault.

To our credit, the sign below was facing the wrong direction. We came from the road in the left side of the pic and kept walking to the right, not seeing the huge sign on our left that pointed us in the right direction. People of Chivay, please place a sign on the other side of the road.

We turned around and got back on the right track. It was a beautiful hike and the scenery really blew my mind. One of the things I´ve been looking forward to on this trip is getting to see the rice terraces in China. Well I felt like I got to see them already after coming around a corner to see this:

And here is the small cactus that stuck into my leg as I was taking the pics above.

Along the way we walked past this lady and her two alpacas. She brought them out of the yard and let us pet them and get a few pics.

We ended the hike at a local hotsprings. It was just the two of us and about 20 locals chilling in the pool. We left and hiked the last thirty minutes in the dark before we made it to our hostel. This wouldn´t be the last time we finished a hike in the dark.

The next day we headed to Cruz del Condor, a lookout point where you can view the giant condors that live in the canyon. We read you have to get lucky to see them and unfortunately we didn´t. We did get a chance to see a few over the course of the next few days hiking in the canyon but not close up as we´d hoped.

Then we got a bus to Cabaconde where we would start off on a three day trek up down and around the canyon, visiting four small villages along the way. The first leg of the journey was supposed to be about 4 hours. After hiking for 20 minutes I noticed a path that led towwards the canyon but it looked steep and difficult. I thought maybe we should take this route but Gemma said she felt better about taking the road to the right. We hiked this Loooooong, winnnnddddding, uphill road for two hours. It was like a slow March of Death. It was so hot. We finally found a man who led us to a path that took us all the way back to.....you guessed it, the point where I thought we should have gone in the first place. No big deal, just a little two hour uphill and unscenic detour.

By this point it was 2pm and it was supposed to be a four hour hike which we were now at the beginning of despite our two hour trek. We were a little unsure of continuing because we knew it would be dark by 6 and if we got lost again we´d be spending the night in the canyon. We decided to go for it. After a couple hours we ran into a guide who told us we had four hours left and that we wouldn´t make it. Sweet.

We started running down this little tiny path down the canyon. It was really rocky and once you started running it was impossible to stop. We made it to the bottom in about an hour. No idea what that guide was talking about. A little peruvian woman was waiting for us at the bottom and asked us if it took us two hours. I told her more like five. She said, "No, No, muy rapido" referring the last leg of our journey in which we ran down the mountain. She hadn´t seen the slow March of Death or other detours we had along the way. The red dye in her hand below was from the beetle dung on the cactus behind her. Apparently they used to sell this to cosmetic companies in the past.

She led us up to her hostel which turned out to be a little slice of heaven in the canyon. We hadn´t planned ahead and couldn´t have gotten luckier. Here is a pic of the candle light dinner she made for the two of us.

After dinner I set up my camera and although it was completely dark outside was able to capture the mountian we had just raced down along with the stars in the sky in the pic above and below. Click on it to make it larger and you can probably see all the stars better.

Here is what the mountian we climbed down looked like from our dinner/breakfast table the next morning. If you look closely you can see the path we raced down.

We left the little village and had a really really steep uphill trek to the next small village. From there we walked another twenty minutes to the neighboring village before heading to our final stop of the trek, The Oasis. Of course we got lost once again literally 10 feet before the finish line because we thought we needed to walk down closer to the river. We got to the bottom on the canyon and realized we´d gone too far down. But I wouldn´t have got this nice shot of the river bed if we hadn´t gotten lost so I think it was worth it. You can see the Oasis in the bottom of the pic on the left and the river bed on the right.

We spent the night there and had a great time sitting around a bonfire talking with a Dutch couple and an Israeli guy drinking wine out of a carton. I also took some time to model my new alpaca sweater. Nice huh?

The next morning we climbed from the bottom of the canyon to the top up a super steep cliff. By the time we got to the top we were exhausted but also really proud of ourselves for completing four days of hiking in this huge canyon without a guide. We felt prepared for Machu Picchu which was our next stop.

Lima and Arequipa, Peru

By far the best expierence I had in Lima was visiting the Monasterio de San Francisco. We weren´t allowed to take photos inside but I snuck a few in here and there. Mostly they didn´t turn out because I was shooting from my hip or as we were walking in the tour. I was told to stop at least once but when we entered the catacombs below I decided the little Peruivian tour guide wasn´t going to stop me from taking the photo below. How cool are these bones?

We spent most of our first week simply trying to decide what we were gonna do in Peru other than Machu Picchu. We put alot of time into planning our worldwide route but zero time into deciding what to do once we arrived in these countries. To be honest, everytime we head to another town we don´t even know where we´re staying or what we´ll be doing there when we step off the bus.

Lima might have alot to offer but it seemed overcrowded, rushed and wasn´t exactly what we had in mind when we pictured Peru. We left Lima and headed for what we hoped would be a smaller, more beautiful and less hectic town. Most people call Arequipa "The White City" but locals say "when the moon separated from the earth, it forgot to take Arequipa" which sounds much more poetic.

Arequipa is surrounded by three volcanos so everywhere you walk you can see one in the background. The picture below is the cathedral with El Misti rising behind it.

When we were inside the cathedral a small Peruvian man (well they are all small I guess) asked if he could tell us about some of the most important aspects of the church in return for us correcting his English. He was a teacher but apparently there are now hundreds of thousands of unemployed teachers in Peru and so now he´s trying to be a tour guide. We were skeptical at first but have since come to realize that when someone is being nice and helpful to you, sometimes they are just nice and not looking for handouts. Which is refreshing.

He ended up showing us around town for about 2 hours and was so grateful everytime we taught him a new word or corrected his grammar. Thanks Freddy.

Fountain of Youth Discovered!

Thats right, I´m 25 years old again! Crackin!

Gemma is a little younger than I and constantly likes to remind me how close to 30 I´m getting. Well for $10 and a little forgery I´m officially an "International Youth Traveler". Thats right, you have to be under 26 years old to have the honor of carrying this card. I handed them my real drivers license but apparently they didn´t pay close attention to my birthdate.

So far I´ve only saved 7 soles ($2.30) but each sole saved tasted sweet.

Thanks Mom!!! - Miraflores, Peru

So Gemma and I arrived in Lima and immediately went to a little cliffside town outside of central Lima called Barranco. It was a quiet town during the week and then picks up quite a bit on the weekends. As we were walking around a neighboring town, Miraflores, we noticed a ton of people swooping down and around the seaside cliffs. It looked dangerous and amazingly fun at the same time.

When you are traveling for a year on a backpackers budget you have to pick and choose your expensive adventures wisely. But then I remembered the $40 my mom gave me for a "nice meal" and thought perfect! I negotiated the guy down to $60 for the both of us to fly. This way we each only had to spend $10 of our daily budget (which is only $23.50 a day in Peru for meals, accommodation and fun).

Above and below are a few pics I took while up in the air.

It was a great experience. You literally just run off the side of the cliff and after you take your last step you just lift off into the sky. We flew up and down the coast, over the highway and past many onlookers from the seaside mall. It was a great way to kick off our trip.

Thanks Mom!!!

Introducing Gemma

I´m happy to have the pleasure of introducing you to my girlfriend and new traveling partner, Gemma. I met her in London and was able to put up with the little annoyances of living there largely thanks to her. She makes me laugh constantly and should add a little more excitement to the trip. Its been great seeing Central America the past few weeks but I´m really looking forward to having her with me the rest of the way to share the experience.



She helped me decide to take off on this trip so while I´d like to say it was all my idea to take a break and travel, it was really Gemma that helped me take the plunge. And for that I´m truely grateful.

We met at the Lima Airport August 24th and have already had a crazy 12 days in Peru. We are off to Cuzco to hike the Jungle Trail to Machu Picchu tonight. I´ll be updating the blog with some of our adventures soon!