Walking into the Sun

13 October 2010

Walking into the Sun

I was ready to get up when the sun finally started to rise around 0530 that morning. It had been a chilly night in the tent and I did not sleep nearly as well as I had the night before. It felt harder to breath that night and I don’t think it was the altitude but rather a cold I was developing. When I crawled out of the tent, I noticed there was frost covering the ground, the tents, and the backs of the pack animals grazing in the fields. I bundled up in my layers, hat and mittens and made my way to the dining tent. Everyone was beginning to emerge from their tents, sleepy eyed, and ready to finish our trek.

After another wonderful breakfast of eggs and a quinoa porridge, it was time to set off. My toes felt like ice cubes as we started out. It looked like it was going to be a beautiful day. The sky was still crystal clear and the sun was starting to light up the valley where we walked as it rose. We remained in the shadows for the first few hours while the tops of the mountains basked in the sunlight.

It would be a downhill hike for the next few hours. Although this is certainly less strenuous than hiking up to a mountain pass, going downhill uses all sorts of different muscles than going uphill. It was a loose gravel path on the way down, which did make for difficult footing on the way. It was not as easy to appreciate the views as we made our way down because the tree foliage increased and thus obscuring our vistas. There were many more pack animals to see as we walked, particularly cows. It seemed like the cows were hiding in the bushes. All of a sudden they were in the middle of the trail.

The sun was out in full force after about an hour of our hike. The temperature was also quickly increasing as we descended in elevation. It was as if we walked out of December and into June. The layers came off and the sun block went on.

Before long we were back in civilization. We came up to another group’s campsite next to preschool, which had running water, electricity and there were vehicles again! We dropped our bags and basked in the sun out in this field. As we lay there, we were greeted by chickens, ducks and a girl with some kind of congenital anomaly who was collecting food treats.

The rest of the group trickled in while we relaxed in the grass. We would have one last meal together prepared by our crew before we said goodbye. There was no need for a dining tent this time around. We sat outside at our table in the blazing sunshine. I had taken a peek in the kitchen tent earlier and saw them grazing tomatoes, chopping onions and chicken. They made a delicious meal, which as always, started with a hot soup, and this time was followed by spaghetti Bolognese and finally peaches for dessert.

All of the porters, the cooks and the guides came out after lunch to say goodbye to all of us. Erik presented them all with a tip we had all pitched in towards. Then we each got to do down the line and personally hug and thank every one of them. They really had done a fabulous job, worked tirelessly, and served us incredible food at 4000m in the mountains. The porters would return on foot back to where we had started, either to return to their families or start up with another trekking group. The cooks take about 5 trips every month with different hiking groups.

While we ate and rested at this campsite, we also got to meet the little children at the school. They too were sitting outside eating their lunch with their teacher. When we got close to where they were, they all came running over. They would stare and smile, waving and repeatedly saying, “Hola!!” They were all of the ages three to five and were absolutely adorable. These were not poor mountain children anymore, it was clear that they were more like city kids in their clean clothes, neatly combed hair, but equally as smiley and cheery.

After we said all of our goodbyes and waved to the little kids, we boarded the bus again. We made our descent further into the Sacred Valley, to just an elevation of 2700m. We had arrived at a town called Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo is known for some impressive Inca ruins and was the royal estate of Emperor Pachacuti who lived in the 1400s. This town is also a common starting point for those that want to hike the classic Inca trail.

Jaime lead us on a quick tour of the town which was also built in the 1400s with the homes being some of the oldest in all of South America. The town had a grid layout with cobblestone roads and aqueducts that run throughout the streets. We stopped inside one of the homes, which had a little farm of guinea pigs. They scurried around on the stone floor, eating grasses. The house cats there did not pay them much attention, clearly they all loved together harmoniously. And anyway, the guinea pigs should be more afraid of their human predators than their feline ones. After all, Guinea pig is a delicacy in Peru.

Next we took a walk up to the top of the ruins. It was ridiculously windy in this valley and the tourists were out in full force. I already missed the quiet solitude of the mountains we had been in earlier that day. We climbed up some very steep steps to get to the top of the ruins. The sand blew into my eyes so much that it was hard to enjoy the views up there. It was much more arid and dessert like in this area now, also a stark contrast to the wet and cool mountain climate.

On the way out of the ruins, someone in the group spotted a coffee shop called InkaBucks…a clever if not cheesy spoof on Starbucks. It successfully sucked us in. Richard was clearly craving a coffee as he offered to buy us all a round…finally a place that accepted credit cards too. I had a delicious milkshake made with coffee and vanilla ice cream. We all left happily sugared and caffeinated.

There wasn’t much time left to round up the group and get to the Ollantaytambo train station where we would embark on a two hour ride to the town of Aguas Caliente at the foot of Machu Picchu. There was total gridlock consisting of tour buses and local cars as we tried to leave Ollaytaytambo. So much that we almost got out and walked the rest of the way, but finally the traffic broke.

The train to Aguas Caliente was shockingly modern and lovely. In fact I will go as far as to say it was much nicer than any train I have taken in Europe. The seats were large and comfortable. The top of the car was literally all glass windows and there was a catering service that came through with a free snack and beverage. It was not exactly a speed train, though; in fact I may have been able to jog faster than this train moved. However the slow speed allowed us to appreciate the scenery on the way including mountains, glaciers and the river basin below. The train stopped at one point and I looked out my window. There was a little boy standing outside my window about 10 feet down. He motioned to me that he would like something to eat. I quickly reached into my backpack and threw down a few pieces of fruit to him. He smiled and gave me a thumbs up after he caught his prize.

When we arrived in Aguas Caliente it was already dark out. As we disembarked from our train, we noticed a beautiful train next to us called the Hiram Bingham. Erik told us that this was a luxury train service that offered direct travel between Aguas Caliente and Cusco. The interior of the train was very posh with dim lighting and servers clad in suits. It is not a cheap ride, according to their website, the prices start around $300 for a round trip ticket. This fee includes a few meals on the train, alcoholic beverages, a guided tour at Machu Picchu, and High Tea in the restaurant at Machu Picchu. (http://www.perurail.com/en/train_photos.php?id=3)

We all gawked as we walked past it and on the way to our hotel. We were quite exhausted at this point and quite smelly too seeing as we had not showered in about three days. Luckily the hotel was just a few blocks from the train station. We dropped our bags and the majority of us decided to relax our tired muscles at the local hot spring pool. They don’t call it Aguas Caliente for nothing! The hot springs did require us to walk up one more steep hill, but we pushed on ahead knowing there was a reward at the end. For three dollars we gained entrance and use of the pools. It was nothing glamorous but it was nice just to soak the tired body for awhile. The worst part was dragging oneself out and getting dressed again.

On the way back to the hotel, Dylan, Helen and I decided we’d try some of the local street food for dinner. In one busy section of the town we found a few different food stands. We started with the drink cart where a woman mixed together a bunch of different colored and flavored liquids including something hot that came out of a pot with some green reed-like plant inside of it. She told me that this drink was good for the back. It was served warm and was actually very soothing, especially on my sore throat. Next we tried some beef on a skewer topped off with a grilled potato. It was delicious, and we went back for seconds. We asked if we could find the grilled beef heart, another Peruvian delicacy, anywhere in the town, but the woman said we’d have to try in Cusco. For dessert we had rice pudding with a dark jelly like substance that was made from black corn. It was rich, filling and delicious.

It only seemed appropriate that we go out for a beer to celebrate the end of a successful trek through the mountains. We found a bar where we could sit outside and ordered up a few of the Cusquena Negra beers. It was a nice sweet dark beer. A Peruvian band set up their performance right across the street from us, and we enjoyed watching and listening. In particular, we marveled at the incredible mullet that one of the musicians was sporting. It was out of this world with long curled bangs and styled side-burns. Jonas was digging the wind instruments and approached one of the guys in the band to inquire about where he could get some of the pipes. The man said that if he returned tomorrow, he would get him a set. As the hour got late, we decided it was best to turn into the hotel. We had to get to Machu Picchu for sunrise the next morning and I still needed that shower quite badly!