On thursday (last thursday that is) I was told that I would be picked up at the hostel to go to machu pichu between 7:30 and 8am. And such was my drive to go to machu pichu, that i was even out in the lobby having breakfast around 7. As it happened nobody came to pick me up until about 8:30, at which point an animated if not violent discussion ensued between the consierge and the picker upper: apparently the consierge had told the picker upper at 7:30 am that there was no one out and about... which is rather strange considering the only separation is glass and i was clearly visible. maybe he was just tired. In any case, hoping that the people who had been sitting in the bus for the past hour are not going to chew my head off i finally got to head off, leaving a bunch of my stuff in hostel storage.
The drive was interrupted after a couple of hours, when we were allowed to go get some coffee or food or bathroomate or whatnot. At that point we were accosted by about 5 women all of them selling a) bags of coca leaves, which are supposed to help with altitude sickness, and help you with the hard parts of the trail--you´re supposed to make a ball of them and chew them i think. another version involves dumping a bunch of leaves into hot water to make te (or ma-te), the effects of which are dubious but which does not taste nearly as nasty as the leaves; b) walking sticks of bamboo with embroidered handles--since i still haven´t figured out how to use a walking stick to make me walk better from the previous hikes, i´d definitely passed on this one, but a lot of people did invest in one and some in two. i kept waiting for starwars-type fights to break out, but that never happened. maybe i should´ve got one just for that purpose, to induce starwars type fights that is. c) water bottle holders--pretty much everyone except i think for me invested in those only to find out that the lock holding the adjustable strap held nothing at all, so they had to improvise the whole way through. I just used the side pockets of my pack. am i smart or what. d) hats--for the sun that is. i dont think i saw anyone wear one after the first day though. The ladies selling these marvelous goods moved around about 1 m of space, repeatedly offering the same stuff to the same people. Hope IS the last thing to die isnt it...
After another hour or two of exhausting travel on the bus (or something) we were introduced to what was to be the trend for the rest of the trip... the multicourse camping meal. And we´re talking soup, main course, desert, tea coffee etc etc. and that was lunch of day one before we even STARTED hiking.
And did i mention how incredibly cushy this trip is? There are porters to carry your tent and the mess tent, the cookware and the food and the plates and silverware and cups and such and gas canisters since fires are not allowed on the trail. Oh, yeah, and of course they COOK for you too. The biggest worry remains not to break a nail on the zipper of your own sleeping bag (or in my case on the zipper of my rented sleeping bag).
The first day we hiked for maybe 3 hours, which was not bad at ALL. The weather was lovely, the road was mostly even, it was not too hot or too cold... it was PERFECT as far as i was concerned so i was pretty surprised to hear a brit who looked like he could probably bend a car in two complain about how hard that was. By the time he complained at dinner at receiving fried fish with veggies and rice about the quality of food (uhm.. ·i· have never had such a spread campin... ever!) i figured he just liked complaining. When we first hit the camp site and whipped out our chocolatey snacks to restore some decent level of sugar we were accosted by a few locals, in whose apparently backyard we were camping--and by we i dont mean just my group. there were at least 15 groups stretched out along several houses worth of backyards. The locals consisted of 1 (one) cow (or perhaps a bull, i didnt check), 3 (three) at least that is chickens, 2 (two) sad and scared looking dogs that would walk up to you to look miserably up at you with their tail between their legs and 2 (two) disinterested donkeys.... and last but not least by the kids. The kids would walk up to you and literally stare you in the mouth while you chewed whatever chocolatey snack you stashed. Pretty much everyone ended up handing out some snacks. On the second round however just staring proved an insufficient technique, and kids had to insist on their right to sugar over your exhausted self by pressing¨"regalame tu chocolate!!" (give me your chocolate). As far as i was concerned that was the best phrase of the trip right there. Regalame tu chocolate.
Oh and while i´m describing the beginning of the trip, the make up of my group: a rather loud british couple who procured two large bottles of beer on the first night (and which included that strongman i had already mentioned), a less flamboyant british couple from sidney, two sweizerdeutchers, an ecuadorian, an israeli guy whose name no one could remember until i literally asked the guide to look it up in the roster, myself, and my travelmate will. I managed to avoid the latter pretty well during the trip since there was such close association with so many other people. I even got into a tent with someone else. Mental health gallore.
Regalame tu chocolate.
The drive was interrupted after a couple of hours, when we were allowed to go get some coffee or food or bathroomate or whatnot. At that point we were accosted by about 5 women all of them selling a) bags of coca leaves, which are supposed to help with altitude sickness, and help you with the hard parts of the trail--you´re supposed to make a ball of them and chew them i think. another version involves dumping a bunch of leaves into hot water to make te (or ma-te), the effects of which are dubious but which does not taste nearly as nasty as the leaves; b) walking sticks of bamboo with embroidered handles--since i still haven´t figured out how to use a walking stick to make me walk better from the previous hikes, i´d definitely passed on this one, but a lot of people did invest in one and some in two. i kept waiting for starwars-type fights to break out, but that never happened. maybe i should´ve got one just for that purpose, to induce starwars type fights that is. c) water bottle holders--pretty much everyone except i think for me invested in those only to find out that the lock holding the adjustable strap held nothing at all, so they had to improvise the whole way through. I just used the side pockets of my pack. am i smart or what. d) hats--for the sun that is. i dont think i saw anyone wear one after the first day though. The ladies selling these marvelous goods moved around about 1 m of space, repeatedly offering the same stuff to the same people. Hope IS the last thing to die isnt it...
After another hour or two of exhausting travel on the bus (or something) we were introduced to what was to be the trend for the rest of the trip... the multicourse camping meal. And we´re talking soup, main course, desert, tea coffee etc etc. and that was lunch of day one before we even STARTED hiking.
And did i mention how incredibly cushy this trip is? There are porters to carry your tent and the mess tent, the cookware and the food and the plates and silverware and cups and such and gas canisters since fires are not allowed on the trail. Oh, yeah, and of course they COOK for you too. The biggest worry remains not to break a nail on the zipper of your own sleeping bag (or in my case on the zipper of my rented sleeping bag).
The first day we hiked for maybe 3 hours, which was not bad at ALL. The weather was lovely, the road was mostly even, it was not too hot or too cold... it was PERFECT as far as i was concerned so i was pretty surprised to hear a brit who looked like he could probably bend a car in two complain about how hard that was. By the time he complained at dinner at receiving fried fish with veggies and rice about the quality of food (uhm.. ·i· have never had such a spread campin... ever!) i figured he just liked complaining. When we first hit the camp site and whipped out our chocolatey snacks to restore some decent level of sugar we were accosted by a few locals, in whose apparently backyard we were camping--and by we i dont mean just my group. there were at least 15 groups stretched out along several houses worth of backyards. The locals consisted of 1 (one) cow (or perhaps a bull, i didnt check), 3 (three) at least that is chickens, 2 (two) sad and scared looking dogs that would walk up to you to look miserably up at you with their tail between their legs and 2 (two) disinterested donkeys.... and last but not least by the kids. The kids would walk up to you and literally stare you in the mouth while you chewed whatever chocolatey snack you stashed. Pretty much everyone ended up handing out some snacks. On the second round however just staring proved an insufficient technique, and kids had to insist on their right to sugar over your exhausted self by pressing¨"regalame tu chocolate!!" (give me your chocolate). As far as i was concerned that was the best phrase of the trip right there. Regalame tu chocolate.
Oh and while i´m describing the beginning of the trip, the make up of my group: a rather loud british couple who procured two large bottles of beer on the first night (and which included that strongman i had already mentioned), a less flamboyant british couple from sidney, two sweizerdeutchers, an ecuadorian, an israeli guy whose name no one could remember until i literally asked the guide to look it up in the roster, myself, and my travelmate will. I managed to avoid the latter pretty well during the trip since there was such close association with so many other people. I even got into a tent with someone else. Mental health gallore.
Regalame tu chocolate.
posted by Irene @ 1:09 PM
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