Peru: Days 7-9, Jungle Trek

---

---

I woke up early, nervous and excited for my three day "Jungle Trek" to Machu Picchu. It was actually happening! I left my luggage in storage at my hostel, and made my way with my smaller backpack and water skin to meet the tour group. Our group consisted of 9 people: a Portuguese couple (he from Portugal, she from Brazil), a South Korean guy, two Belgian girls, and five English guys, two of whom were only with us the first day. After getting our bikes and equipment, our bus made its way through Cuzco to the Sacred Valley. The two hour drive was incredible and I was immediately overwhelmed by the beauty of the Sacred Valley. We made a quick stop here to use the bathroom and get some snacks before heading up, up and up to the Abras Malaga - a pass through the mountains at 4,350m where we would begin our descent on the bikes.

Day 1 - Bike Ride

While the ride up was incredible, even better than the way into the Sacred Valley if that is possible, it was raining on the other side of the pass. I had brought my hiking sandals for just such an occasion, but it was also quite cold so I kept my regular sneakers on; I really should have just worn the sandals with socks. Anyway, after a brief safety discussion, we were off! Down, down down 2500m of elevation. You really barely pedaled. And once I got used to the bike and the roads, I used less and less of the brakes. The only part that was not so fun, besides the cold, was the rain. It kept getting in my eyes, and was not helped by the fact the bikes don't have fenders so the spinning tires just spun mud and water into your face too. But oh my god - the scenery was breathtaking; I can't even begin to describe how beautiful it was. I kept telling myself that I would stop at the next waterfall to get a photo, but I was worried about getting too far behind. In actuality, I was in the middle of the pack and doing pretty well.

At our rest stop about two hours into the ride, we waited for the group and this is when the other three girls decided to ride the bus the rest of the way. I was oh so tempted as it was cold and I was tired of the water in my eyes, plus I was scared when the guide says we would be crossing 6 streams, one of which was very swift and potentially dangerous. But I was already wet and I didn't want to quit. So I did it. I followed close behind the last guy in the group pretty well and used him as my guinea pig when we came to the streams. A couple of them were a little nerve wracking, but I did it! And there were more than 6 - I think I counted 9. Then, when we actually had to do some pedaling, I had some trouble with my gears, not helped by another tour group's bus pulling right in front of me forcing me to slow down significantly. I was angry about that, and when the guide came to show me the gears, he didn't believe that I knew how to use them and could not accept that maybe, just maybe, the old bikes might have a potential problem. I made it to the end just a few minutes behind, but it was so much fun.

We got into the bus and had a quick ride to the village of Santa Maria, where we got a late lunch and got set up in our hostel. The hostel was very basic and I shared a room with the belgian girls and the english boys. The two bathrooms in the courtyard had see-through doors! Cold water showers only, so I skipped. While my roommates went white water rafting, I laid down and read and relaxed.

It's funny - every single meal (aside from breakfast) for the trek started with a bowl of soup. I honestly got a bit sick of soup, but it definitely was better for my tummy than other things could have been. However, I did not eat too much the whole time on the trek - I was very worried about getting sick with nowhere to go! Not to mention, smelling the food and eating too much of it made me a bit nauseous. However, breakfast was quite nice - I just got a fruit salad with bread and tea. Perfect.

Day 2 - 19km Hiking

And so begins the hardest day of the trip. This day seemed to last forever! First, we walked through the old town center of Santa Maria, which used to be closer to the river banks until the El Nino event of 1998, when the waters rose and flooded the town, mostly destroying it. Thus the town was moved to its present location. We stopped to drink some Chicha Morada or some variant of it. Apparently they also make this as an alcoholic beverage and it is made of fermented purple corn. The Quechua men tend to like it and supposedly ensured many children.

Most of the first couple of hours was along a dirt road and alongside the Rio Vilcanota. Soon, we turned off onto the trail, which eventually turned into a portion of the Inca Trail and continued up for most of the rest of the day. Even though our guide, Carlos, was great and stopped every ten to twenty minutes for a quick break, it was hard, especially in certain spots where it was straight up. Keep in mind, unlike the portered Inca Trail and Salkantay Trail treks, we had to carry our own stuff (though we stayed in hostels, not camps). During our quick breaks, Carlos often told us information, like the Ayucoche (?) seeds which when squeezed have a red dye, which we later used to put on our faces (not now as Carlos said we were going to sweat a LOT more and we would wait until we were at the high point - yikes!). He also showed us some of the various plants grown in the jungle, such as corn, maca, cassava, and others, in particular the coca plant. The coca leaves are used to help cure altitude sickness amongst other remedies, but in large quantities it is what is used to make cocaine. According to Carlos, Peru and Bolivia have now surpassed Colombia in the production of cocaine, but you need a lot, LOT of coca plants to do this; the entire plots of coca plants we saw along our way would only produce one gram of cocaine. As such, there is now heavy enforcement in Peru about growing the plants.

We continued up until our first long break, approximately 30 minutes. Here there was a small monkey, who we were warned was a little clepto. He was tied to a pole (poor thing!), but if you strayed too close, he took advantage. He took a branch one girl had used as a fan for the hot weather. Another time, and my favorite, was when he took an empty water bottle and ripped the plastic off the front and when the glue that held it onto the bottle prevented him from fully ripping it off, he put the plastic in one hand and started slamming the bottle down on the ground and benches. Hilarious.

After the first big break, it was basically straight up hill along the Inca trail, much of which was steps. After about two hours of this excruciating pace, we wound up at our next big break where we stayed for almost an hour. Here we were able to get snacks and enjoy the view as we were almost at the high point of the trail. There were animals here, such as a parrot, a monkey (Emperor Tamarin), and a giant rodent (Capybara?). Carlos also laid out a bunch of food, herbs, and drinks and told us about some of the native items here. We tried various types of chocolate as well as took a shot of "Inca Tequila" which had a snake at the bottom. Eek! I was able to get a nice cold gatorade, which helped me get something into my tummy too. The bathroom was also quite clean here as well. Carlos painted our faces with the red dye plant for the rest of the hike.

Then it was a little more up - well, about 40 minutes more - and the girls and I took our time and stopped to take some photos of the absolutely amazing views. We soon caught up with the boys at the highest point of the trail where we took photos at the edge. For the next hour it was up and down, mostly along steps and then straight down to lunch. Here we had more soup and spaghetti. I was so excited for the spaghetti until it came out and as soon as I smelled the tomato sauce, I thought I was gonna puke. I ate the plain pasta that I could and then gave the rest to the hungry boys. We had an hour to hang out here and I actually fell asleep briefly while laying on a bench.

We continued on towards the river, stopping at one point at a beautiful set of small water falls. We were the first group there, quickly followed by the next group (Brazilians and Argentinians). The boys in our group got into the water and the girls soaked their feet. Group 2 mostly just stood around watching and resting. Then Group 3 came. Oy. They were the loud group; yes, somehow they surpassed Group 2! It included one girl who proceeded to take off all of her clothes except her thong the went splashing around the rapids, pretty much putting her boobs in everyone's face. She went right over and sat next to one of the boys in our group; the look on his face was priceless. Then I guess it was too cold so she came over towards me. Then she frolicked around in the lower pool with her group catching fruits and stuff. Ugh. I guess she paid a lot of money for her boobs and wanted to show them off. It was offensive; this ain't Brazil! Of course, the guides loved it. After that little show, we followed the river to a swing bridge and across the rapids via a cable car, a journey that took another couple of hours.

Day 2 - Santa Theresa

We reached the hot springs around 5:30pm and what a welcome site it was! I was done. We paid 5 soles (about $1.70), changed, and went into the pools. The springs increased in heat the higher you went, so while I started at the larger, bottom pool, I soon moved to the top and soaked my aching muscles and joints. Aaaah. After about an hour soaking, I got out and got another gatorade while we waited for our shuttle to town at 7:30pm.

We got to our hostel, with the girls able to have a small room to ourselves, before making our way a couple blocks through town for dinner. Of course, we started with soup and then I got some kind of fried chicken thing which was ok, but as per my usual, I gave away half my food. My tummy was better, but I still felt nauseous.

While the crazy Brazilians and Argentinians from the other group (including the couple from ours) went out for a night on the town, the rest of us headed back to the hostel for some sleep. The outer door was locked, so we knocked. No answer. Knocked again. No answer. Just after the Korean guy knocked hard for the third time, the door opened and the guy was angry that we knocked so loud. He took us to task, telling us to wait and then said to come in, though he wouldn't get out of my way. I was so annoyed, especially, especially!, since that night his brat kid kept us up until after midnight screaming and crying. This wasn't a baby, this was a child old enough to know better. I was not impressed with the hostel, which looked promising at the beginning. I was also disappointed because the guy who had recommended these guys seemed to have much better hosts on this night where they went to a home / farm stay and said the hosts were fantastic.

Day 3 - Ziplining

The next morning, we went zip lining. One of the guys, Jonny, asked me if I was scared. I said no, I like falling and heights. Well, I did til we got to the first point. Holy crap were we high! I think just about everyone freaked out a bit, especially the Belgian girls. But we did it and it was awesome. Five lines all fun. We ended on a swing bridge; I asked to go in front of the Belgian girls and was glad I did because they were quite scared and while I was halfway across before they got more than ten steps, another group of English guys behind them were frustrated at their slow progress so began swinging and jumping on the bridge, which only served to scare the girls further. I was dying of laughter the rest of the way across.

Day 3 - 12km to Aguas Calientes

After this, we were driven to the hydroelectric station for lunch (more soup but the best of all of them - quinoa based) and to get ready for the final hike. From here we walked 12km to Aguas Calientes, the city at the base of Machu Picchu. Sounds simple, I know. It was so tiring. 12km. And it was so hot. I was soon overtaken by everyone but the Belgian girls. At the first rest point, when I sat, everyone asked me where they were and I told them I had lost site of them twenty minutes before. So the guide let everyone else go, including me who just wanted to get this over with, while he waited for the girls. One thing about my group, aside from the girls was, they were all moving so fast that I didn't feel like they were truly appreciating all the sites; this was true throughout the trek. Around one bend, I came upon my first glimpse of Machu Picchu up in the hills. THIS is what we came for and many of the guys did not ever even see this awesome view. I personally got a little teary eyed here - I just couldn't believe I was so close and worked so hard to get here.

At the final break, we had just a half hour more and when we got to town, Carlos took me to my hostel, where I got the key to a room I would share with the girls with our own private bathroom! I decided to quickly take a shower before they returned while I could. They arrived about an hour later.

We kept thinking that we it was pouring rain outside due to the sound in our room, so on the way to dinner we got dressed up in our rain gear and headed out. It was completely clear! It turns out, the sound of the rushing water from the river is so loud, you hear it all through town. Amazing. We went to our final dinner together and it was by far the best of all. It is called a "tourist menu" which gave us three courses: appetizer, soup (of course), main. I got avocados with vinegarette (YUM!), tomato cream soup, and grilled trout with garlic sauce (pretty good if overcooked). They also gave us a bag for our breakfast with bread, cheese, banana and cookies (biscuits) as well as peach juice. We paid our guide a tip and went on our back to the hostel for a good night's sleep due to the early morning. First though, Sophia and I bought a shuttle ticket because we were done hiking; everyone else bravely opted to hike the steps up to Machu Picchu.

Next post: Machu Picchu!!!!

---

Photos

Mountain pass
The bike ride down hill was similar to this on the other side of the mountain but in heavy cloud cover and rain

Emperor Tamarind on my shoulder
He peed on the bench early, so I was a little nervous...

Group photo at the highest point of trail
"Please don't knock me off!!!"

Inca Trail
You can see the Belgian girls on the steps. And if you look closely at the river, you can see the path/road we started from

Waters where half the people jumped in
I took my shoes off and soaked my feet. One girl took off all her clothes.

Swing bridge
It looked sturdy until you walked on it!

Santa Theresa Thermal Baths
perfect way to end such a long day!

Cable car
Paid 5 soles to cross

First glimpses of Machu Picchu
I admittedly teared up a little!

Comments

[D MJ Binkley]

Ready to ride
great photo