Peru Wonders and Tribulations

The bachelorette party in Vegas was absolutely fantastic. I am actually quite amazed how organized everything was despite the fact that there were 16 intoxicated girls present. The photos from the weekend are a bit too scandalous for this medium but they will definitely get much MySpace action in my friend circles.

To say that my Peru experience was one of the best vacations I have taken would be a giant lie.

The trip was off to an unpleasant start when expecting a 2.5 hour flight I finally landed in Houston 8 hours after boarding the plane in Vegas. The time was spent circling the airport for an hour or so, getting diverted to Corpus Christi and sitting on the runway for 3 hours while refueling, in addition to the hour flight there and back to Houston. Needless to say, I missed my connection flight to Lima, was given a voucher for the neighborhood Marriott, and told that I have to fly stand-by the following day (flights to Lima leave once a day). To make the long story short, I spent the following day in at least 4 lines and talked/yelled/pleaded with every supervisor I could get to, finally getting an actual seat on the flight.

The next challenge was re-booking my flight from Lima to Cusco, which had already missed, which was on a Peruvian airline for which I had no contact information on hand. Thankfully Zhila's Google skills saved the day and after spending 6 hours at the Lima airport I was finally on my way to Cusco.

After meeting up with my friends we took a tour of the Sacred Valley (picture to the right) and the city itself, walking around the ruins and snapping away lots of pictures. By 7pm I was utterly exhausted and passed out at the hostel while my two friends went to buy some thermal pants for the hike, telling me they are coming right back and bringing me some food. I woke up a little after midnight, noticing that I was all alone and immediately starting to freak out because my friends were missing and we were getting picked up for the trek in a mere 4 hours. IWillMakeIt was online and helped me get hold of my mom, who calmed me down a bit and told me to get some sleep - as if I could sleep! I was having visions of appearing on CNN and showing the pictures I took that afternoon of my missing companions. At 3:30am the door swung open and the drunkards wandered in reeking of tequila. I really wasn't sure if i was happy to see them alive and well or if I wanted to kill them for making me worry. I do think that they learned their lesson when 30 minutes after crashing on their beds I woke them up for the first day of the hike.

Instead of going on the original 4 day Inca Trail we decided to do the 5 day Mollepata Salcantay trek. I had heard that the Inca Trail gets very crowded this time of year and that it is steps the entire way to Machu Picchu, hence we decided on this alternate route. Our group consisted of the three of us and a crazy 52 year old woman from Colorado who made the 5 days an absolute nightmare. She NEVER shut up with her stories of her 5 year old son that she had in-vitro, her ex-life on Wall Street, and her current career as a Spa owner. She was constantly complaining about our guide and the food and was basically a huge downer. The four of us had a crew of one guide, three porters who carried all our stuff and cooked our food, and a guy with a horse who also helped carry the supplies.

How is the trip sounding so far?

Having had only 24 hours to acclimate to the altitude I had horrible altitude sickness. On the first day we walked for about 5 hours with a break for lunch and camped out at about 12,500 feet (3,800 meters) in Soraypampa. I don't think I have ever felt so sick in my life. Chewing on coco leaves was pretty worthless, as was inhaling the oxygen from a $60 bottle I bought from the crazy wench we were traveling with. It was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit (-10 degrees C) at night as we cuddled up in our tents and sleeping bags with ski jackets and alpaca hats and gloves.

Day Two I was still feeling wretched. It felt like the worst state of a hangover with horrible nausea and a pounding headache with every step I took, not to mention the fact that I was out of breath every 5 minutes. Realizing that there was not way I could hike the hardest part of the trail - 2 hours up the Salkantay Mountain to the highest altitude of the hike at 15,000 feet (4,600 meters) - I paid the horse guy $10 to bring me up there on his horse (which by the way had NO name and I thought that was totally weird). Amazingly having made it to the top via a super narrow passage on the edge of the mountain in one piece, I got off the horse and started my descent to the lunch site to wait for my friends. As the altitude decreased, so did my sickness and by the end of the day I was back to feeling great and actually being able to breathe. Even with my cheating on the horse, the second day was over 7 hours of walking through the mountains and into the jungle.

Day Three was probably my favorite hiking day. As we continued though the jungle, we saw amazing flora and fauna all around us. The wild orchids were all around and amazingly beautiful. I think I took at least a third of my pictures of just the flowers along the way. The water falls and the natural hot springs were not to shabby either!

The Forth Day was very chill. We took the bus to Santa Theresa and from there took a taxi to the local Hot Springs, which were heavenly after the 3 days of intense hiking. From there we walked a few hours to Hydroelectric and took a train to Aguas Calientes, where we spent the night at a hostel.

Day Five was our final destination - Machu Picchu. Hoping to see the sunrise, we got to the mountain at 6am but were faced with a whole bunch of fog. Once the fog cleared up the sights were amazing. We hiked up Wayna Picchu for beautiful views of the ruins and then walked all the way back down to Aguas Calientes at lunch time. A train ride back to Cusco and the trek was over.

The next few days were spent south of Lima, on the beach of Paracas, relaxing, laying out by the pool, eating fantastic seafood, and watching DVDs in the evenings, though not without a few unpleasant mix-ups with our hotel reservations.

I am sure that in a few months time I will forget all the mishaps, (the crazy lady stories are already becoming amusing inside jokes) and only remember the fantastic sites and the great times. A few suggestions if any of you are planning a trip to Peru in the near future:

*Make sure you have enough time to acclimate!!!!

*Don't use a local travel agency - at least my experience was far from pleasant

*Research the weather in every city/area you plan to visit

*and DEFINITELY bring a dictionary because nobody speaks any English