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Published: December 11th 2008
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Group Photo Before Biking!
This marked the start of the epic journey... Last week I finally saw Machu Picchu, one of the ¨New Seven Wonders of the World¨ and it was absolutely spectacular. I did a four day jungle trek with some friends to reach our destination and had a blast. I´ll attempt to summarize the awesomeness of that journey now.
Day 1 - Mountain bike day! We descended over 3000m through gorgeous mountains shrouded in mist (this was a theme and it was just fantastic). It rained pretty much the whole time so we all wore ponchos and looked completely ridiculous. The bikes were rather poor, which simply made the whole ordeal that much more hilarious. Jonathon, the French guy, had two flats going down and arrived at our destination town holding one of his pedals in his hand. Thankfully nothing that bad happened to me, my bike just made clunking sounds and refused to change gears, which didn´t matter most of the time. We also encountered two road blockades, where people were protesting the Peruvian governments decision to sell off resources to foreign companies. Our group was allowed through with our bikes just fine, but other groups doing the same thing had their vans following them to pick up the
Crossing the river via cable car!
The jungle trek to Machu Picchu was awesome, enough said. bikes at the end, and since the vans couldn´t get through, the people had to walk the rest of the way down (three hours in the dark). The only kind of bad thing about the first day was that Chine, this Korean girl in our group, did not know how to ride a bike (WHY she signed up for the bike option, noone knows) and basically went the whole way down with her feet on the ground. After the rest of us had been waiting for two hours at our destination, some people from the town went out in a truck to find her and our guide Miguel. Needless to say, she did not have a very good first day.
Day 2 - Hiking day! Today we did most of our hiking, through the very hot and very humid jungle (we were all drenched in sweat the entire day, it was very nice). We ate mangos off trees on the side of the trail, walked along an Inca trail on the side of a cliff and spent some quality time time Martin the monkey at one of the rest stops. Despite having applied a large amount of insect repellant
Butterfly on the Tracks
Some of the others in my group didn´t enjoy walking along the train tracks on the last day before Machu Picchu, but I rather liked it. We saw LOTS of very pretty butterflies (and lots of jungle plants too), like this one. multiple times through the day, by the evening I had loads of bites all over my legs that subsequently became swollen and looked absolutely atrocious. I guess I finally have found something I´m allergic to - whatever type of bug bit me! I actually found it exciting since I´ve haven´t had anything medically exciting happen to me yet here. In the evening we crossed a river via a very sketchy cable car (apparently a GUIDE died on the thing last month because he had his foot caught in the rope and was pulled over the cliff into the river...always a nice thought). We then arrived at the Santa Teresa hot springs which were absolutely fantastic, featuring natural gravel pool bottoms, CLEAN facilities (a rarity in Peru) and spectacular views of huge green mountains. It was a great end to the day.
Day 3 - This was a pretty relaxed day. We walked along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. In the afternoon, the guys (Michael, Joakim and Jonathon) and I decided to climb a mountain just outside of town to get a sneak preview of a side view of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu
This is my own version of the classic shot of Machu Picchu. It was phenomenal! The view was fabulous as was the hike up, which included climbing up these huge ladder like constructions, straight up! It was really fun.
Day 4 - The big day! We awoke at the delightful hour of 4am and were hiking toward Machu Picchu by 4:30 in order to arrive before the 6am opening time. It was a rainy and cloudy morning, and our first two or three hours at Machu Picchu featured incredibly low visibility, which had all of us a little concerned. However, the clouds soon lifted and we had a bright, sunny day. Miguel gave us a tour of MP in the early morning and then at 10am we climbed Wayna Picchu (the mountain in the background of the famous photo) to get a view from above. That view was amazing - you could clearly see the city of Machu Picchu in the shape of a condor. All in all, I´d have to say Machu Picchu surpassed all of my expectations and I´m very glad I saw it. Words and pictures can´t really capture it - if you can, I would highly recommend you go see it for yourself!
In the afternoon, we walked back
My Basic Health Campaign
This is the poster I made for the Posta about basic health along with the handouts I prepared for the students in Nilda´s school and mothers coming to the Posta. This particular exploit reminded me greatly of my advising days and you know what, I really liked it! to Aguas Calientes and hopped on the train back to Cusco. All in all, it was a great four days!
On a different note...
Today is my last day in Cusco - I can´t believe six weeks have flown by so quickly! I mentioned last time that one of the common themes I´ve been noticing in the Posta is the lack of education (or practice) that many people exhibit regarding basic health care. They don´t wash themselves or their hands (often), brush their teeth or eat properly (potatoes and corn will only get you so far). This of course leads to health problems, which are easily prevented! I decided that I couldn´t leave without doing something to address these issues, so I decided to run a program (not unlike rezlife programs) to attempt to educate some community members about basic health practices. I prepared handouts, a presentation and an activity for the five classes in Nilda´s school (and delivered them) and made a poster (passive program) and provided handouts to the Posta. Yes, I gave the presentations in Spanish and yes, the kids understood me! I think repeated exposure to this information is what will change behaviour, so
These boys want to be healthy!
Much to my delight, my presentation on basic health practices (washing hands, brushing teeth, drinking boiled water, eating a balanced diet) was very well received by the students at Nilda´s school. To my surprise, these grade 6 boys were among the most enthusiastic about it all and are pictured here with the poster they made. if I have contributed to this process, I think my idea has been a success. In fact I already know it´s been successful after seeing the reception and way that the kids in the school were actually thinking about some of these fundamental issues.
And with that, I sign off for now. I´m headed to Lake Titicaca tomorrow and then into Bolivia after that for the next month. I´m extremely excited!
And here are the Machu Picchu photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2233946&l=a3ea3&id=21003528
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2233986&l=a195a&id=21003528
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Callie
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Cloudy Machu Picchu
Hi Rebecca! So glad to hear you're enjoying yourself in Peru! Nance, Debra and I are following your adventures back here in sloppy/snowy Vancouver (it's not really snow, it is more like mushy chunky rain!). I agree with your sentiments regarding Machu Picchu - it's just too beautiful for words! We also had the same experience; awake by 3:30am to run to the top of the SunGate... only to have full cloud-cover for the first 3 hours of the visit! Oh well, when the sun finally poked through it was worth the wait! Take care of yourself and DO EVERYTHING! Cheers and see you in the spring, Callie