Woo loo loo, I'm the shaman (Machu Picchu Day 5) - 20 March 2009

A big part of the reason we decided to go back to Machu Picchu today was so that we could climb Huayna Picchu. This is another mountain that towers over Machu Picchu proper and has additional ruins on it. Unfortunately they only let 400 people per day climb Huayna Picchu (2 groups of 200 people each), so there's a mad rush to get there early and get your spot in line.

Here's a shot of Huayna Picchu, taken from Machu Picchu:

We got up around 4 a.m., left our bags at the hotel, and headed down to the bus depot to try and catch the first bus. Instead, we ended up on the second bus but still got there in plenty of time to be among the lucky 400.

It's a strenuous climb to the ruins on top and you have to pass through some tunnels. I actually smacked my head going through one tunnel and said some, well let's just say, inappropriate things. Actually, I shouted some inappropriate things - Jen told me later that some of the folks waiting to go through the tunnel were giggling. I was not.

We climbed the Inca's crazy idea of stairs:

And here's pictures of us on top, just to give you an idea of the climb involved.

Yep, that's Machu Picchu in the background.

Once you make it to the top there are a couple of options. You can either go back down the way you came, or you can continue around on a loop trail and visit the Temple of the Moon. We chose the temple route. We found the temple itself to be a bit of a let down (and the additional trekking it involved to be a whip), but we did enjoy getting to do some fun things on the trail:

Jeremy described it as a "playland for people like me."

Here's a shot of Jeremy at the Temple - you can feel the enthusiasm:

I would post a picture of Jen and me at the temple, but due to some white balance issues the top of my head fades into the background and it's kinda creepy looking.

We finished the loop in relatively high spirits and headed back to Aguas Calientes to catch our train back to civilization. We took the tourist train, which was interesting because they did both a fashion show and a culture show. We weren't expecting it and I have no idea what's going on in this picture, but hey it entertains me:

We made it back to Cusco pretty late, and settled on the traditional food of Americans everywhere:

I was too hungry for just a Happy Meal, so I didn't get the Star Wars toy. Oh well.

Life's a journey (Machu Picchu Day 4) - 19 March 2009

It was a cloudy, rainy morning (as opposed to a dark and stormy night) and thankfully Oscar let us sleep in. So much so, in fact, that we were the last people to leave the camp site. When we got to the gate that marks entry to the last section of the Inca Trail we had to wake the guards up, since everyone else had passed through so long ago.

Here's Jeremy, just after passing through the gate:

Due to the clouds, there's not a lot to show you from finishing the trek. There were some pretty flowers along the way:

And there were stairs going up, of course:

We made it to the sun gate (or Intipunku) which has a great view of Machu Picchu on sunny days. Here's what we got:

When we finally made it to Machu Picchu, things weren't much better. Here are the three of us at the "postcard" rock, with Machu Picchu in the background:

Oscar took us on our tour and thankfully the cloud cover burned off. Here we are at the exact same spot a couple of hours later:To be honest, Machu Picchu is a bit of a let down after the trail. It's crowded and commercialized, so much so that we debate whether to come back early tomorrow over lunch.

After our tour and some free time we take a bus into Aguas Calientes, the nearest town. Jeremy has the good fortune to end up next to a woman who is on a "spiritual journey" with 12 other people and their shaman. Jennifer and I studiously avoid eye contact, lest we get sucked into the conversation.

Dinner was at the only Chinese place in town. Jen and I think it's pretty good. Jeremy, who works a couple of blocks away from Chinatown in San Francisco is less impressed. It's amazing the difference context makes.

After much discussion, we decide to go back to Machu Picchu first thing tomorrow morning.

I think it would be considered justifiable homicide, dont you? (Inca Trail Day 3) - 18 March 2009

We camped in a valley last night and there were already clouds when we woke up:

And while visibility came and went through the morning, it was still a nice, albeit strenuous, hike - for the morning.

If you recall the trials and tribulations of Patagonia, then you'll probably remember Calafate berries, which look a lot like these:

Only these are poisonous. Thankfully we didn't sample them before asking.

In addition to the berries, there are also Lady Slippers along the way:

Early during the hike we got to go into our first ruins, Runkurakay. This was an egg-shaped structure along the Inca Trail, used for storage, lodging, and as a guard post. Here's a view of it from further along the trail:

We made stops at two more ruins during the morning - our last stop cut short by the start of the rain. It rained on us the last 3 hours of the trek, which (not so) happily coincided with 3000 steps down. Our merry little band was decidedly less so during this ordeal. Jeremy is suffering from the effects of Chocolate Outrage flavored Gu (I mean really, why would you ingest something we the word Outrage in its name?) and took off in front of us to try and find a private place. Jen slipped and twisted her knee, and suffered through the rest of the day. Making things even more enjoyable (and leading to this installment's title) there was a couple that insisted on matching our pace and singing the same song for over an hour. We stopped and offered to let them pass, but they declined. We gave them dirty looks, but they declined to notice them. I, at least, pictured terrible things happening to them, but evidently they weren't mind readers.

Oddly enough, I don't have a lot of pictures from this part of the hike. I did see a frog, though:

But you know what makes everything better?





That's right - CAKE!

You know, I never realized how much a shaved head and a head-mounted flashlight resemble those pictures of girl babies with the bow attached to their head - that's really not a good look.

Tomorrow we're supposed to get up at some ungodly hour to make it to Machu Picchu by sunrise, but we talk with Oscar and say that if it's cloudy to just let us sleep.

At least one of us slept well (Inca Trail Day 2) - 17 March 2009

A beautiful day dawned and I woke up feeling refreshed - only to get the cold shoulder from my significant other.  Evidently I snored "6 straight hours" last night even through the position shifts necessitated by the liberal application of elbows.

For those of you out there who are geeks (AKA, "my people") you'll get a kick out of the brand/model of Jeremy's tent:

That's right, he slept in the "Pro Cyba 2" last night. Perhaps that explains his T2000-like running ability.

We also got formally introduced to the porter crew before starting our trek:

They are:

• Eddie (the cook)
• Eloterio from Anta
• Frain from Cusco
• Moises from Anta
• Wilfredo from Pisac
• Zacharias from Pisac
• Wilbur from Anta
• Juan de Dios from Anta
• Juan de Dios from Pisac
• Benedicto from Pisac

If you read yesterday's post you saw a picture of Oscar in front of an elevation graph for the trek.  If you look carefully, you'll see a dramatic increase in elevation - that would be today.  It didn't seem so bad starting off, and there was gorgeous weather.  Here are some shots along the way:

"Howdy neighbor, don't suppose you've seen John Connor?"
The climb quickly became a beating, and not just for us. Different folks of every nationality were sweating, laboring, complaining, and asking their guides how to curse in Spanish. We all got a giggle out of one guy who asked "¿Cómo se dice I'm f*$&!#?" Eventually, though, we made it to the highest point and took the requisite picture complete with fake smile.

From there it was literally all downhill to our just reward of apple pie:

And a chance for Jeremy to rub the bunions:

And since I have a sense of fairness, here's an unflattering picture of me as well:

Lookit that hummingbird tiny Elvis, that thing is HUGE! - 16 March 2009

From Cusco we took a bus to another town where we grabbed some breakfast while the guide arranged the rest of the porters for the trek.  This is similar to our experience on Kilimanjaro, where the porters are basically free agents.  Again, these guys do more work for less money than I can imagine.

Then another ride on the bus (this time with the entire crew) and it was time to start the trek.  Here we are at the beginning, when the trek was exciting and new:

Today's hike wasn't very strenuous, but there was plenty to see, from giant bugs:




To giant hummingbirds:


The picture doesn't do justice to the hummingbirds. The first time I saw one of them I had to look twice - it was so big I couldn't believe it was a hummingbird.

Jeremy made lots of new friends along the way:



Of course he tried to stop making friends after our guide, Oscar, came over and said "Be careful, they have fleas" - but to no avail:


Speaking of Oscar, here he is along with a sign showing the elevation along the Inca Trail:

We got to our camp early in the day, and rested until it was time for dinner. Here Frain, one of our porters, is placing a light so we can see dinner:

Tell me again who had the superior civilization (Cusco) - 14 & 15 March 2009

For our trek on the Inca Trail we have a special guest:

That's right, it's Jeremy, also known as Ptero, also known as the creator of the Man-Ox shirt. He took some time off from work to come down and join us, and in an act of supreme kindness also brought along 4 Butterfinger bars for us. I'd show you pictures of the Butterfingers, but they didn't last long enough to be photographed.

We went to the Peru Treks office to pay for our trek on Saturday, and got involved in what felt like a shell game. There is rampant forgery of U.S. dollars in Peru, so you can't use bills that are in anything less than pristine condition. Several of ours were in less than ideal shape, so they wouldn't take them. Then, as if that's not enough, they also won't accept $100 bills with certain serial numbers (evidently there's a particular series that's popular for forging). Eventually we got it all straightened out, though.

We spent the first night playing Oh Hell! and listening to cheesy '80's music.

The next day we visited Koricancha Temple/Santa Domingo. Basically the Spaniards co opted the existing Incan temple and built their structure on top of it. The Incan stone work is mortar less and basically perfect, while the Spanish work is, well less so.

There's a painting on display in the museum that I really like:

It's meant to represent the Incan understanding of the universe, and was painted by Miguel Araoz Cartagena.

The night before we left for our trek we had dinner at Indigo, and actually managed to get some spicy food - Yay!

The unfortunate business of getting from point A to point B - 11 - 13 March 2009

It's time for the familiar refrain of laundry, planning, and flying. This time we went from El Calafate to Cusco to start our trek to Machu Picchu.

Of course the single sentence above really went more like this:

El Calafate to Ushuaia to Buenos Aires to Lima (day 1).

Of course it's not even as simple as that - in Buenos Aires we had to change airports. This involved riding in a cab where the trunk didn't open, so our ridiculous amount of baggage was crammed into the front passenger's seat and beside us (and on us) in the back seat. Plus, there was no air conditioning, so we got to ride the entire way with the windows down. Good times.

We spent the night in the Ramada at the Lima airport, and let's just say that it's not the nicest hotel we've seen. It is, however, earthquake proof, and looks as though it should be.

The next day we caught a flight to Cusco, and just took it easy. It's been awhile since we were at this kind of elevation.

This is obviously some definition of "easy" that I'm not familiar with - 10 March 2009

And so our time in Patagonia comes to a close. We were supposed to hike up to the base of another glacier and then over to a pick-up point, where we'd be met by a van. All-in-all it was going to be an easy day of 4 hours or so.

Instead we found out that the bridge we were planning to use to cross the river was washed out. Plus, there wasn't a path up to the glacier - instead we would have had to scramble over a boulder field. Now I love to scramble, but it's not really Jen's thing, so we backtracked and went out another way. Thankfully, cell phone coverage is a lot better here than in the National Parks in the States, so our guide was able to call and arrange an alternate pick up.

Here's the glacier:


On the way out we spotted a couple of woodpeckers:

Male Woodpecker


Female Woodpecker

Once we got back to town it was time for a 4 hour bus ride back to El Calafate, and then a couple of days to do laundry and regroup. Today's moment of Zen is a sign from the bus:

This creepy childhood memory brought to you by Gene Wilder - 9 March 2009

So to be fair, my first Gene Wilder memory is not Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory - it's Stir Crazy. Of course that's a part of the family lore and I'll wait for my parents' response before I share that story (and how the mental institution plays into it).

Today, though, I'm referencing the film version of The Little Prince. It turns out that the author of The Little Prince, Antoine de Saint Exupéry, spent some time flying in South America, and that there is a mountain spear named for him. We were told that there is a drawing of a mountain in The Little Prince based on Mt. Fitzroy, but I don't have a copy of the book and can't confirm that. As I've said before, if you can't find it on Google, is it real?

Today was very strenuous, we hiked up into the mountains to get a view of the glacier. On the way we passed by three lakes, and I took this picture of waves:


We stopped and ate lunch near the glacier, with a great view of Mt. Fitzroy:


And I wouldn't want to disappoint the faithful readers by leaving out the required cloud picture:


After lunch we hiked down to our campsite. All told it was around an 8 hour day and Jen and I were both beat by the time we got to camp. Our guide said we could wash up in the nearby lake, but we elected to skip it (yep, we're nasty - and modest, he ended up skinny dipping).

Dinner was a ridiculous amount of food, continuing the South American tradition. This time there were actually other people at the campsite, and we got to listen to an American trying to teach Germans how to play Texas Hold 'em, which was very entertaining.

Speaking of entertaining, see how long it takes you to find what makes me giggle in this picture: