Jungle Trek

Get ready this is going to be a long one.

I left off in Cuzco. We booked our four day jungle trek slash downhill biking expedition and we were going to be leaving the next morning at 7am. They were true to their word and they had a driver come pick us up at our hotel early in the morning and dropped us off next to a van down town that had 9 bikes strapped to the roof. I saw the bikes and a few people with backpacks sitting on the curb... ¨I think we´re in the right spot.¨ The nine bikes were for myself, Prati, two 19 year old girls from England, one Canadian girl and her Australian boyfriend, two Peruvian men celebrating Santiago´s 50th birthday, and our Peruvian guide named Abigail. We were all there packed into this little van... with had no idea what adventure was coming and how close we would all become in four short days.

Day one

The ride out through the Sacred Valley to our downhill biking destination was so wild I had to take a motion sickness pill! Going up, down, around, and sitting in the back of the bus with little window view was a personal recipe for what I like to call ¨throwing up in a van.¨ Sweet Poncho (Peruvian man) could sense my nausea and gave me a handfull of coca leave to chew on. Must be a Peruvian trick because it worked! Or maybe it took my mind off the windy road and made me focus on not swallowing the coca leaves. We started the downhill part on the actual road which was a little sketchy because there were buses and cars on the road and no one follows the "stay on the right side of the road" rules. The views were astonishing! I'm glad we started on the road because I was able to look around and not concentrate on the bike path. Karis took a digger at the beginning and broke her handlebars. Then she took digger number two in a huge puddle below a waterfall. Poor girl! Nothing too crazy about the biking portion except that is was absolutely gorgeous... waterfalls, jungle, mountains, sunny, windy! I think the name of the little town was Santa Maria that we spent the night in. Santa Maria had the largest avocados I have ever seen... cantelope size! I bought three for 50 cents! We played soccer with all the little kids at 5:00. Girls vs. boys and we tied. At dinner the crew all got to know each other pretty well. The two peruvians didn't speak much english but with many sound effects and hand motions we all got along just fine! Except that when they asked me what I did for a work in the states I said "deseno interior." Come to find out "interior" in spanish means panties. So I have been telling everyone for the last two weeks that I work in "panty design" instead of interior design. Could be worse I guess. I think I passed out at 8:30 that night.

Day two

Our first trekking day started at 7:30am. We hiked for about 8 or 9 hours. This trek was no joke! We hiked for a portion of the Inca Trail and stopped at a teeny weeny village for lunch break. When we stopped we were absolutely ATTACKED by "sand flies." These little beasts are a light brown orange-y color and when they bite or sting you can't feel it. They seem harmless... at first. The bite mark is hardly noticable but leaves a tiny spot of blood. Tiny. And it doesn't itch. THEN two days later it turns into a hard huge red welt that itches and makes you want to go nuts. That's what attacked us on the first hiking day. I got about 30 bites and Prat got at least 90. Come to find out they only like foreign blood! Anyway, the trek was awesome and my clothes were soaked. We stopped at some hot springs for a few hours. They were the best hot springs I have ever been to. We were there past sunset so we had to take a minibus the the next town, Santa Teresa. We had dinner, mojitos, cuba libres, and pisco sours which soon lead us to the discotech. At midnight we started the celebration for Santiago's (aka Tago) 50th birthday. The dancing here is way different than in the states. Even the boys can move their hips. I was trying to teach Prati some salsa moves and how to move his hips. He made some progress, but it was pretty funny!

Day three

The second trek day. We trekked from Santa Teresa to Aguas Calientes along the train tracks and then some. Aguas Calientes is the town at the base of the Machu Picchu mountain. It's 99% tourists, but a real gem of a town. The word Aguas Calientes means hot water in spanish and we definitely did NOT get that at our hostel. But the cold shower was perfect after our hike up the Putucusi mountain. We cheated. We hiked up this mountain and saw Machu Picchu from afar the day before we were supposed to. This area is UNREAL!!!

Day four

Machu Picchu day!!! I brought three shirts for four days of trekking (dummy) and all three shirts were still soaking wet with sweat. So I had to put on an old shirt for the final day and I might have to throw that shirt away. We woke up at 4am to start the climb. We were within the first 50 people at the gates. Gates opened at 6am just in time for sunrise. This was probably one of the most beautiful places I have EVER seen! If heaven doesn't look like this I don't know why people would want to go. I'm kidding, but really, this IS beauty! Aaaah the views! The Inca's really know how to choose a home. I don't even know how to describe it but if you get a chance to come here I would HIGHLY recommend it! We hiked around all day then took the train back to Cuzco that evening. This was such a highlight and the friends we made will be friends for ever. I will never forget these four days! I don't even care if my sand fly bite marks scar...