machu picchu part 1

I traveled to cusco, with the sole intent of doing machu picchu, and hopefully meeting up with my good friend from pomona, felly koleoso. I was only partially successful. I got out of my long bus ride, and wanted to explore cusco, and cusco, while fairly touristy, did offer some nice views.

This is cusco's skyline

Of course, I had to get there first. The stairs were steep, and I was feeling a bit out of breath at the top. Between the high altitude of cusco which is like 3400 meters above sea level (high for one accustomed to the lowlands of the San Francisco Bay area, and the fact that I have not done too many cardio workouts lately, this was pretty tough. This did not bode well for the Inca trail, which has both more stairs and is at a higher altitude.

More views of cusco

And then the rain began. It started as a brief sprinkle, and I kept climbing higher and higher to see the skyline. Once the droplets condensed to become serious rain, I decided to head back down. This was a good decision.

This is a kid who was banging on the door, trying to get in and seek shelter from the rain. I felt quite similarly, trying to keep my backpack dry and find a nice cafe. I had made the unfortunate decision to wear shorts that day so it was on the frigid side.

I found a restaurant, and to appease them, I bought a fried guinea pig, pictured above. I stayed in that restaurant for five hours before the rain abated, reading my kindle and conversing with the occasional customer.

I attended an informational session on the machu picchu trail, and was informed that I had to wake up at 5 am. I set my alarms and everything, planning to distribute my weight from my heavy backpack to my suitcase, but I was staying in a hostel with a girl who snored, so I put in earplugs. Little did I know that this meant that the alarm meant to wake me up did not work. I woke up at 5:50 to knocking on the door. Scrambling, I gathered my things, stuffed them in my bag, and veritably ran out the door. We were on a windy bus soon, and had one last stop before the trailhead where we could grab breakfast and stock up on coca leaves/ anything we forgot.

This is the river that runs by machu picchu

The group, just quick notes on people, from left to right Kari far left,(professional photographer with a 10000$ camera, yeah that is the right number of zeroes,) your humble author, mary and toby (a kindly british couple) victor and angelica (the resident swedes), and miles and allison (a paramedic and a nurse). 

This is a local, and very colorful graveyard

some crazy views

the trail

more views

incan ruins of a village

my gear, notice that it is waaaaay too big. I noticed that too. Multiple times. It was by far the heaviest pack in the group, and on the uphills, I really regretted taking that second pair of pants and that extra sunscreen.

Because it was hard to grab water, I devised this system of carrying water.

Groups of locals lived along the way, providing snacks at exorbitant prices. They could charge what they wanted, because people who had already invested so much would be willing to spring an extra dollar or two for a bottle of water.

me in front of some incan ruins

close up of those incan ruins

donkeys were fairly common on the trail, and more than one of us wistfully looked at the donkey and wondered how much it would cost for a ride

Dogs also made an appearance.

Some of the flora was quite beautiful. My pictures don't really do it justice, but within the misty mysterious mountains were the occasional splash of color.

and was it verdant.

The first day was pretty tough. When we were told that this was supposed to be the easy day, we uttered a collective groan. We were quite glad to reach the campsite, especially the ones who had packed a bit too much. The hills plus the altitude really hits the muscles, and allison in particular found it to be trouble. One quote that I particularly enjoyed was "fuck this bag in the face". The food tasted delicious, instant cocoa is transformed in the context of backpacking to a heavenly elixir. We divide into tents, and set up the sleeping bags. Day 2 is supposed to be particularly brutal, so we all seek to mentally prepare ourselves for the next day as we settle to sleep.