So…the last couple of days have been pretty full on Indiana Jones. Me and Evan saw some more ruins around Cusco, including the subterannean ¨labyrinth¨of Quenqo, and the fortress of Sacsayhuaman. In all instances we find ourselves wondering, ¨What the hell were the Incas thinking? Why would they carve this shit out of a mountain or haul insanely heavy rocks up here and stack them like this?¨Well I thank them for their labors of love because the ruins are always pretty breath-taking.
Sacsayhuaman was an interesting adventure. We got there just a bit before dark and in the rain, because we spent the whole day shopping for handicrafts like girls and it got late. Some highlights of the markets of Cusco were the cheap alpaca hair clothing and getting to play some crazy Andean stringed instruments in a luthier´s shop, like the churrango and another one I forget the name of but sounded completely awesome. Anyway, we had seen pictures in a book about Sacsayhuaman of an area in the ruins that is proposed to be modelled after Atlantis. We were hooked on this place.
We hiked up into the ruins, which consisted of a long zig-zagging tier of classic inca wall, built with such precision that you cannot insert anything into the cracks between the stones. This fortress was the site of a huge battle between the Incas and the Spanish Conquistadores that ended in a bloodshed and defeat for the former. The ruins were deserted yet again, mostly for the fact that it was raining and getting dark. We owned the place. There were waterfalls pouring down the steps and we darted between walls and ¨rooms¨within. After marching across a soggy meadow and up a steep pyramid of earth we stumbled upon the famed Atlantis section, which looked like a giant amphiteater of concentric rings, just like Atlantis was supposed to look. There was also an amazing smooth rock feature that was almost like a waterslide leading down into it, we rushed it and slid down in the rain and I can totally imagine the Incas doing the same here-it looks to obvious!
We were enjoying our Atlantis discovery when suddenly we see flashing police lights across the fortress from the road, it was police yelling at us over loudspeakers to get out of the ruins! I guess we had overstayed our time and it was really dark. We signalled our departure, when a mysterious figure popped out of the stones about 5 yards away and told the police to chill! Tranquilo, tranquilo! We had no idea we had company, and just as suddenly he dissapeared…maybe it was a guard or something? Anyway, we got out of there and went to get pizza in a cool little restaruant down below in Cusco.
The night out in Cusco got a bit late, regrettably, as we chased the party around town and crashed around 3am, not nearly enough sleep for our 3 day jungle trek expedition set to leave the next morning. We felt it the next morning, but it was nothing a few helpings of Coca tea could help, minus Evan feeling a bit worse then I. The tour was late in arriving , and packed us into a van with some Germans, Danes, Argentines of course, and 2 guys from LA. We were going mountain biking and it was gonna be awesome, and we had time to sleep in the car while we drove high into the Andes.
The ride quickly became amazingly scenic as we dipped into impossible deep valleys and around sheer peaks with llamas grazing the sides. Every lateral mile travelled (äs the condor flies¨) became 5 as we made switchback after switchback, taking in the stuff that Earth´s Natural Wonders calendars are made of. Just as were rounding the turn to the drop off for biking we came head on with a tour bus coming strait for us, and swerved away with a few feet to spare! Thats why you stay to the right, at all times up here.
Mountain biking was ridiculously fun. The trip was a 3 hour downhill run, from the top of the barren Andes at about 12,000 feet down into the cloud forest and jungle below at 4,000. Sound fun? Yes, we really didnt have to pedal once, you could just blaze down the highway at 50 mph, sweeping around curves and seeing amazing things. I got out my flip cam and got some point of view footage before dropping it accidentally. Amazingly, it still worked and only a few cosmetic dings. The temperature quickly rose and we stripped off raingear for t-shirts and got lunch halfway down in a small hacienda. After that, we had a few run-ins with deluges of water spilling over the road and had fun making daring crosses on the bike, getting soaked in the process. The smooth highway gradually gave way to hard packed dirt and much bumpier conditions, necisitating close watch for potholes and puddles. Halfway through that, my bike chain came completely off and the gears bent into the wheel, totally disabling everything and earning me a free ride in the van that followed behind. I chilled and listened to Coldplay with a bunch of mountain folk in air-conditioned bliss watching the rest of the group struggle through the remaining terrain.
We finally reached bottom and were vanned through the town of Santa Maria, where the majority of our group got off because they were doing an extra day of hiking. Me and Evan got tranferred to a another van packed with aussies and made the seemingly treacherous journey around the kind of mountain roads you hear about that are inches from the cliffside and plunge thousands of feet down into a wattery death abyss. We did that for about 2 hours, passing through the occasional jungle town and thick vegetation, around gorges and always descending. We made it to the town of Santa Teresa, the jump off point for Macchu Picchu, and a queer little town next to some amazing hotsprings. The hotsprings were pretty gorgeous, nothing you would expect from seeing the poverty and third world style of the town of Santa Teresa. This was more like a resort, and it was open for the public! The whole town was there! The water was perfect and warm, and we watched bats fly overhead as it got dark.
That brings us to today, a 6-hour jungle trek through the town of Hydroelectrica (great name right) to the town of Aguas Calientas, which is basically Macchu Picchu Village. The trip was awesome, minus our initial confusion as to who and where our guide was and who was in our group which had dissolved. We finally got organized and set out along the most furious chocolate milk colored river imaginable. The rains had really come down I guess, and the rapids were sure instant death if you fell in there. We hiked through some serious jungle, but amazingly there were really no bugs. This was ideal hiking. It got hot enough, but would cool down every so often with breeze from the river and mist, and never went uphill. Getting to Hydroelectrica, we had officially entered the Macchu Picchu Preservation Area, and hiked along a railroad track for another few hours.
Eventually, our guide learned that some part of the trail was impassable and we´d have to take an alternate route. The group was pretty confused and hesitant about this, but apparently it happens all the time in the rainy season, which this is. A high point on the trek was seeing Macchu Picchu from behind, and the peak of Huayna Picchu above it. Theres no indication there is an ancient Inca city up there and anyone would pass right by it unaware. No wonder it lay hidden for so long. We kept going.
Finally, at the breaking point, we reached Aguas Calientas and got our much deserved bed and shower. Its been a long day and were glad to seriously rest. Aguas Calientas is situated right on top of the raging Urubamaba river, about an hour and half hike from Macchu Picchu, our destination early tomorrow morning. Should be a trip, got the cam on full batt, and an hour on the flip….Ciao til later Hombres.
