Adventuring in the Andes

Whoa. What can even be said about the past two weeks? Since I don't know where to actually start, I'll just begin!

Kya and I arrived in Cuzco, Peru on December 5. We took about two days to adjust to the crazy altitude, the busy city and the tireless pursuit of tour operators who want to sell everything from Machu Pichhu tickets to toe cushion inserts. We drank a lot of coco leaf tea, rested and begin planning our crazy adventure. Kya came prepared with a tent and a variety of other backcountry supplies and we'd decided we wanted to find a way to reach Machu Pichhu without an expensive guide or a group of obnoxious tourists. The big question was how to begin this adventure. The Lonely Planet guidebook gave little information regarding trekking without a tour group and obviously the tour operators were not eager to share information. The difficult part is that many trails require permits or are bogged down with hundreds of trekkers at a time...not exactly a solitary experience with nature. Eventually we made our way to the Cuzco office of the South American Explorers. These peeps are the bomb. They have clubhouses throughout South America and they exist to support hikers and backpackers throughout their travels. They gave us some info, sold us a map and we even met another traveler (Lester, from the UK) who had spent a ton of time solo trekking in the Andes. Very helpful. We decided on a ten day trip through the mountains. A local guide reinforced that this would be an incredibly beautiful trip, but also muy dura, muy fuerte...MUY MUY DURA. We heard this advice, but it took a few days to really understand what it meant. We left the clubhouse around noon with our topo map and a rough plan to hike from Cachora through the Choquiquerou ruins, through a few more mountains and villages until we eventually reached Aguas Calientes, or Machu Pichhu Pueblo. Next we headed to the central market to stock up on supplies. We invested in lots of high calorie quality snacks...almonds, brazil nuts, peanuts, dried figs, raisins, and fried bananas. YUM. The makings of seriously great trail mix! Next we found avocados, a wheel of cheese, mangos and some other misc treats. We took a break for some evening yoga and finally began packing around 9pm. Headlamps, sleeping bags, llama socks, layers, pocketknives and rain parkas. With our packs full we finally snuggled in for our last night in our warm hostel beds.

Tuesday morning we were up at 5am and staggered out the door at 5:30. Our biggest question was where the trail actually started. We knew that tour groups started in Cachora, but Lester said to take a bus to Abancay. Hmmm. We bought our bus tickets and two tamales from a woman sitting outside the bus. The three hour ride was incredible. We headed out of Cuzco and began winding up and down mountains on the most outrageously beautiful roads. By some miracle Kya noticed a Cachora sign out the window and we managed to convince the driver to pull over and let us off on the side of the highway. Under the curious gaze of the locals we loaded up and began walking down the road. Luckily a taxi showed up and after a good deal of negociating we agreed on a price to drive us down the mountain to the town. On the way our taxi picked up a few other people on the side of the road. This was our first of many encounters with people who spoke Quechua but no Spanish...very interesting. With directions from a group of men enjoying a shared morning cerveza, we made our way to the start of the trail just after 10am. The first few hours we couldn't stop talking about how incredible beautiful everything was. In fact, that was the general theme of the trip! I cannot explain the overwhelming splendor of the mountains, the glaciers, the clouds...everything! Along the way we met another group of travelers...Kristen, Paul and Mitzu. They were trekking with two tour guides, a cook, a mule master and four mules. A full group! We spoke briefly and knew we'd see more of each other throughout the next few days. We finally reached camp around 6pm and my feet were feeling the weight of my 40+ pound pack. We snacked, brushed and were sleeping by 7pm. Party animals!

We knew day two would be difficult. Throughout the first day we'd had the pleasure of looking across to the insane switchbacks on the next mountain. Difficult... but we're not average women or average hikers. How hard could it really be? MUY DURA!!! At 7am we crossed a bridge and began our up the mountain journey. By 10am I understood what muy dura really meant. This trail was insane. There were no pauses, no flats, no breaks...just up up up! At a pitch of between 50-60 degrees I began to question my stamina and my mental toughness. By 1pm I was exhausted. I was drenched in sweat, my pack seemed to weigh 200 pounds, my feet killed and I was COVERED in crazy itchy painful bug bites. YIKES. There was a point where I actually laid down with my pack on and decided I couldn't go on. I was determined to live on the side of the mountain until someone either helicoptered me away or I composted back into the earth. After a pep talk from Kya and a magic Gu packet found in the depths of my back I pulled it together and shlepped myself up the last few kilometers to the ruins built on a mountaintop. Exhausted, we set up our tent and fell in a heap of laughter and hysteria. We'd received more than a few suggestions to hire a mule to make the trek more bearable, but we were just too stubborn. More than anything, we realized how prideful we'd been when considering our options. For some reason I struggle to accept options to make things easier. Why? I think that sometimes I feel like taking steps to make things easier (for example, using a mule) seems like a cop out, or lazy. I'm not sure why, but I know that a day of shlepping up an insane mountain made me realize that sometimes it's just stupid to be stubborn.

Day three started with a huge smile. We knew we were facing another hard day and we got smart and decided to hire a mule for the day. Virtually skipping, we slipped on our day packs and headed uphill for another hour. We found the ruins and explored the foggy remains left by the Inca empire. We learned that they built on the mountainside for a variety of reasons. Primarily, the location allowed them to strategically see what was happening for miles around. Additionally, at nearly 4000 meters, they were at a prime location for sun worship. With our new knowledge and a smattering of pics we began our long fabulous day of trekking without our packs. This day was awesome. Trekking down a mountain and then up was tough, but nothing like the previous day. We camped on the side of a beautiful mountain. From our tent we looked up at glaciers on the surrounding mountains and down on the beautiful clouds forming below. Incredible.

With another mountain pass to summit we decided to keep our pack mule for another half day. We spent the first four hours shlepping up up up through the jungle foliage and into the Andean abyss. The most interesting thing about this trek was that each day had a theme of either straight up or straight down. There were very few moments of relaxed flat walking...VERY FEW. After reaching the summit we wound our way down into a beautiful community tucked in beside a river. It was so interesting to visit and experience places that have no roads, no access except by foot. Imagine if you lived somewhere where your only transportation was to start walking. Crazy.

Days four and five were incredible. We were able to hire woman to cook us the most delicious rice and fried eggs. RICE. YUM. Who knew carbs could taste so so so good?! After so many dried fruits and nuts there was something so perfect about rice. Day five we our summited our highest peak at over 5000 meters...that's 17,000 feet! Crazy business. With our packs we weren't setting any land speed records, but we were making steady and slow progress. We pitched our tent at the foot of mountains and in fields filled with cows. Incredible. After miles and miles and miles and mountain after mountain we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes on day six. We were four days ahead of schedule and exhausted.

Settling into a BEAUTIFUL hostel we showered and purchased our tickets for Machu Pichhu. WOW. On the seventh day we woke up early, ate a huge breakfast and began our final trek to the citadel. After a quick uphill hour we entered Machu Pichhu. It was overwhelming! Incredibly beautiful and incredibly huge! It was so weird to be surrounded by so many people after so many days with just the two of us. It's hard to describe this day. We were so excited to reach Machu, but it was also a bit of culture shock. After a few hours exploring, jumping around and being generally silly we wound our way back down the mountain to town. Ditching the gringo restaurants we headed to the local market for a huge lunch of lentils and rice. We had a great time interacting with locals and learning what we could about Aguas. Day eight we loaded our packs again and decided we were walking out of this town too. With no roads and few trails leading to Machu Pichhu our options were limited. We spent the day walking 30 km down the unbelievably flat and tedious train tracks. Not the most fun day :) Eventually we found our way to a sweet camping spot in ruins above the tracks. Delirious and tired we laughed our way to sleep and exuberantly decided we were ditching the tracks the next day and finding any means possible to get home. Unsure if our camping location was exactly legal, we were up and packed by 5am. We found a trail and walked to the next town. We passed the bus station and kept walking. By 10am we'd had enough and hailed a bus. We spent the rest of the day in a great Sacred Valley town called Urumbamba. We indulged in great fresh juices and bought greens and beans from a woman selling out of a pot on the floor. Yum!

We wrapped our trip up with a final bus ride back to Cuzco. Only eight days, but incredible. Arriving back in Cuzco was weird. It felt so strange to be back among the hustle and bustle of everything. It took a bit of time to readjust, but I did love Cuzco. It's an incredible place with an outrageous history and an indescribable energy, but it's hard to compare to the beauty we saw on our journey. I can't describe our trip any better except to say how thankful I am for the experience. Without Kya this wouldn't have been possible and I can't imagine a better ending to my time in South America. Walking is such a simple thing, but so powerful too. It's crazy to see how far I can go with my feet! I loved every day...laughing and struggling and laughing and sweating and struggling some more and really laughing a lot!

Thank you to Kya for being the best trek partner I can imagine. Thank you to my parents for teaching me to appreciate the beauty of the outdoors. Thank you Peru for a great ending to an incredible trip. Thank you to anyone who stuck with me to the end of this crazy long blog!! I love you all and I while I am so sad to end this trip, I'm also so excited to begin the next part of my life. Here we go!

El tiempo se volio!

I cannot believe today is my last day in Lima. The past four weeks started out rough, but flew by in the end. My feelings about Lima are mixed, but in general I am thankful for my time here and the friends I made during my stay. I feel like my Spanish has improved drastically, but there will always be so much more to learn.

Last weekend I had a great time in Trujillo with Isabel. She is a lot of fun and very relaxed so the weekend passed smoothly. We spent Friday night on the bus and arrived early Saturday morning. During the day we visited various ruins near the town. It was incredible and unfathomable to see and touch ruins created over 3000 years ago...3000!!? How is it possible?? I've seen buildings built in 1976 that are barely standing and this structure is from 1200BC?? WHAT?! Mind blowing. Sunday we went to the nearby beach town of Huanchaco. There they still fish in these crazy straw boats that resemble surfboards. I tried to find someone to take me out in one, but no luck. Spent the afternoon braving the cold ocean waters and enjoying some delish cebiche. YUM.

Was crazy sick this week and hopefully the funk has passed. Started feeling ill Wednesday, went to bed Wednesday afternoon and woke up Thursday evening. YIKES. Something like 30 hours of sleep in two days. I think I had some kind of stomach bacteria and I will spare you the details. Yuck.

Tomorrow I leave for Cuzco! Originally my incredible friend Cori was going to join me for this part of the journey, but she ended up going to South Africa instead :) After that I attempted to wrangle a few other friends into coming south, but without any luck. Finally I conceded that this would be an incredible experience and I was ready to go alone. THEN (DUN DUN DUN)...the other day (Wednesday) I found the email address of a friend a met two years ago on a Quetzal Trekkers trip in Guatemala. We hadn't spoken in two years, so I sent quick email to say hi, how are you, etc. Imagine how shocked I was when I received a response that she was on her way to LIMA!!! This world is loco. Kya arrived last night, bought a ticket to Cuzco today, and we're off tomorrow. I am so excited. She is prepared with all kinds of gear and I see a great adventure in our future. It's so random because she is a former Quetzal Trekkers guide and my incredible (but hard to contact) sister Kimmo is a guide there now! Also so random because we hadn't talked in so long, but feels like no time at all. CRAZY.

This internet cafe business is super sketchy so I must say chau (weird, but that is how it's spelled here). Cannot believe I return to the states in only 16 days. This trip has been an incredible adventure and I'm so thankful for my experiences. I'm also so excited to return home to my friends and family soon! Until then...suerte!