The ‘Picch

February 20th, 2009 by Leilah Feinstein

Monday: Me and 3 friends woke up and took a scenic 4 hour bus ride to (where? don’t remember). When we got there, we hopped on (gigantic) mountain bikes and started our tour. Of course, within a half hour I ate shit and now have some brilliant bruises to show for it. Made me feel like a pretty big badass though. Anyway, we biked about two hours through some amazing mountains and past the river. The most interesting detail to me on that route was the massive amount of red and black butterflies. I don’t know if they were mating or what, but we committed some serious mariposide as we drove through heaps of them on the road. Traumatizing but unavoidable. Anyway, after lunch we biked another two hours to Santa Maria. My ass still hurts, no joke. We spent the night in a very cute little hostel and to ensure my blood didn’t congeal I danced to the reggae playing at the bar as I took a below-zero shower.

Tuesday: We trekked out of Santa Maria with all our stuff on our backs (thanks to me and Ben’s S/50 backpack investment my spine still works) and proceeded 6 hours through the jungle. It was incredible, and my favorite day in Peru so far. Though going uphill was more than challenging, we did get to see a monkey and two other animals whose names I don’t even know. I have a camera now, and the pics to prove I’ve seen a monkey. We had corn and coffee in a tiny hut on the Inka trail, and continued on down extreme cliffs (seriously. About 12 inches wide with about a 3 million foot drop), and philosophized about Inkas and other ancient peoples, as well as science and religion, until lunch. Afterwards, we hiked on the riverbank and took a rickety cable car over the rapids. After another half hour or so, the half hour in which I wasn’t sure if my feet would keep moving (not to mention the ever-familiar parasitical cramps that had started about 3 miles back), we reached the most amazing hot springs. There was never a better-earned two hours of hot-springing than those following our 10-hour hike.

Wednesday: Obnoxious 4-hour walk along train tracks, where we couldn’t take our eyes off the slats without tripping. That was boring, no way around it. We arrived in Santa Theresa at about 1, but it rained that afternoon, so we couldn’t hike Putucusi, which was fine with us because we were pretty exhausted. So we stuck around a cafe and played cards and chess.

Thursday: 5am wakeup, we waited for the bus to Machu Picchu. We reached the ‘Picch as dawn broke across the insane mountain view. I haven’t seen anything as ominous and amazing as the Andes at dawn. We took a three hour tour around the ruins (you kind of have to take the ‘Picch with a grain of salt; it tends to be a bit theme-parky what with all the tourists) and then relaxed on the grass with some llamas. My three friends hiked Wayana Picchu, but I’ve heard about enough people pitching off that mountain, so I stayed down and read “To Kill a Mockingbird” and a travel book on Argentina. I am now kicking myself for not doing Wayana Picchu, but okay, now I’ve got a reason to come back. We finished our trip by climbing up to the Machu Picchu guard tower and looking down on everything for about twenty minutes.

Mountains have some pretty profound things to say, if you learn how to listen.