On the Trail of Gringos

Peru is the IT place to travel right now. There are people everywhere. Tons of Americans, which we have not seen in such high numbers since we started this trip 10 months ago, as well as the ever present English, Irish, Australian and surprisingly, a massive number of French. Of course everyone comes to see mythical Machu Picchu, but there are tons of other activities to do in Peru, which brings in the crowds. We spent a lot of time discussing where all these people had came from and decided that we might as well ’join the party’. After Cusco we hopped on the aptly named ‘Gringo Trail’ with the masses that move in both directions between Cusco and Lima.

First up, the Nazca Lines. Spread over 500 sq km of land, the Nazca Lines form a network of over 800 lines, 300 geometric figures, and about 70 animal and plant drawings in the Peruvian desert. Now a Unesco World Heritage Site, the lines remain shrouded in mystery. There is no absolute idea of who created them or why, only theories,. To properly see the lines your must view them from overhead by flight in a small, light aircraft. We decided you couldn’t come to Peru and not see the lines, plus who doesn’t want the adventure of a small plane ride, so we immediately added a visit to our itinerary. The town of Nazca is a dry, dirty place, not really where you want to linger around for long,. We arrived by 13 hour overnight bus from Cusco, and immediately hoped in a cab and headed to the tiny airport with a New Zealand girl we had met on our bus. With three of us we hoped to have some bargaining power on the price of flights, and 15 minutes after arriving we where signed up for a 35 minute over flight for an affordable $40/person in a 4-seater plane (Cesna 172) that left immediately. Talk about quick. As the plane took off, I was a bit nervous as I hadn’t been in an aircraft this small since I was a child. It did not help that one of our passenger doors popped open just as we were heading down the runway, but Chad helped calm my nerves. The flight was amazing. I absolutely loved being up in the air in such a tiny plane and it gave me a feeling of freedom that we rarely feel trapped in all the long haul buses on the ground. There is a certain sense of peace up in the air, and it reminded me of my dad. And the lines, well, they were interesting and odd. The lines are truly unique and are unlike anything we have seen on this trip. Most of all, they are simply puzzling. The pilot flew us in tight circles, banking on both sides of the plane so everyone could get a good view and in the process making Chad feel a little nauseous!

With the excitement of the flight over, we caught the next bus 2 hours north to the town of Ica. Ica is famous for one thing, a liquor distilled from wine grapes called Pisco. We decided to stay 5 KM outside Ica in the small town of Huacachina (pop. 200), completely surrounded by sand dunes and sitting on a tiny lagoon. Our guidebook said it was THE place for backpackers to hang out, so we decided to join in on the relaxed atmosphere. So, maybe it was a little too relaxed! Such a small town with literally only a couple of streets and chock full of travelers begins to feel claustrophobic. On our second day we rented sandboards and headed up on our own into the dunes for a little adventure. Neither of us had ever tried sand boarding before but discovered that it was a bit different from our beloved snowboarding and we got a good laugh out of each other falling down the dunes. That same day we decided to get a break from the small town and hired a taxi for the afternoon to take us Pisco tasting in some of the surrounding bodegas (wineries). We visited three bodegas in all, ranging from the oldest winery in South America founded by the Spaniards in 1640 to a small family run bodega which only produces a few thousand cases of wine per year. We sampled some great wine, and some that was so-so. The wine is all stored in centuries old large ceramic jars resembling WWII bombs and we were able to taste directly from the containers. All of the tastings were free so we bought a bottle at the conclusion of each bodega and that with the cost of the taxi only came out to $25 total for the afternoon. If only Napa were that cheap!

We then pointed ourselves further northward on a 4 hour bus to the capital city of Lima. We booked a hostel room in the trendy Miraflores neighborhood on the ocean and spent the next 3 days going on long runs along the cliffs by the ocean and eating at the very impressive westernized local supermarkets.

Relaxed and refreshed we boarded an 18 hour overnight bus northward to the Peruvian surf town of Mancora. Peru has surprisingly impressive beaches in the North accompanied with throngs of local and international tourists and surfers. We checked into a hotel and paid a couple extra dollars to have a oceanside balcony where we had the endless entertainment of the massive ocean waves and energetic surfers. We had planned to do some surfing ourselves but a recent storm in the pacific had brought with it 8-10 ft surf and all surfing lessons were canceled for our days at the beach. We took a rain check (maybe Uruguay?), bought a liter of boxed wine and enjoyed the view from the balcony, concluding our days in Peru.

Machu Picchu - In Pictures

Our first glimpse at Machu Picchu really wasn’t much. In fact we couldn’t see more than a handful of feet in front of us due to the rain and fog. We hightailed it up trail to a thatched roof hut and huddled inside for the next 2 and a half hours, trying to dry ourselves off, warm ourselves up and hoping all along that the rain would stop, the fog would clear and we would finally see something. Luckily for us, around 9AM, we were rewarded. First the rain stopped, then the sun fought it’s way through the clouds and eventually, what lay before us was this:

And suddenly, all the cold, rain and wind were worth it.

With our new found clarity, we spent the next 7 hours wandering and exploring the amazing Inka ‘lost city’. We had arrived early enough in the day to score one of the coveted 400 spots to climb Wayna Picchu, a set of hilltop ruins with an amazing overall view of the site. It is hard to put the beauty of Machu Picchu in words, we only hope the pictures below can do it some justice.

At the end of the day we hiked back down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, where we took the easy way out and caught the ‘backpacker’ train to a town called Ollantaytambo. From there a shared mini bus brought us the last 2 hours to Cusco where we had started a few short days earlier. Our way of doing Machu Picchu may have been different than the traditional route, but it definitely was an adventure and highlight of Peru.

The Trail Less Traveled

Another day, another border crossing. Lake Titicaca straddles the Bolivian/Peruvian border and we had purchased a bus ticket which would fist take us to the boarder crossing and then to a second bus that would drive us through the night to the city of Cusco, Peru. Upon arriving we were told that the upgraded seat we had purchased (upgraded in the fact that it reclines) was not available and that no refund would be given for the difference in prices we had paid. I ended up exiting the bus to argue with the bus agent while Colleen kept an eye on our seats and bags and received a small refund but had to cut my losses as the bus was beginning to pull away without me. We crossed the border with no hassles in a torrential downpour but were told that the bus company now needed additional money for the second bus, a bus we had already paid in full, due to a ‘strike’ among the bus drivers. Of course this was a load of crap and a scam but what choice do you have, either pay up or get off the bus in the middle of nowhere at midnight in a thunderstorm.

We arrived prior to sunrise in Cusco and waited for some daylight before sharing a cab with 2 German girls to a local hostel. Cusco is a beautiful town. It is famously known to most travelers as the staging point for trips to the ruins of Machu Picchu but it is also a sight in itself. It is said to be the longest continually inhabited city (and the head of the Inka Empire) in the Americas and offers wide plazas to compliment narrow cobblestone streets, centuries old churches and the backpacker comforts of cheap markets and corner pubs.

We had a couple main tasks at hand in Cusco. First, we wanted to pick up sleeping bags and a tent to do some camping over the last couple months of the trip, namely in Chile and Argentina. We had read Chile is quite pricey and limited on selection when it comes to equipment so we decided with all the tour operators in Cusco that we should take advantage of the selection. We ended up picking up two new North Face sleeping bags (absolutely fake but the agent insisted they were real) along with a high end used 2 person mountaineering tent at very respectable prices.

The second task at hand, of course, was to search out when/where/how we could reach Manchu Picchu. There are three main options when it comes to reaching this wonder of the world. The most well known option is to hike the historical Inka trail, 33 kilometers over 4 days at a staggering cost of $430 per person all inclusive. Option 2 is to take one of the available ‘side trails’ with a tour company and guide and pay around $250 for the experience. The third option is to go at it alone without a guide or company. For this final option, you must decide on which ‘side trail’ you wish to trek as the famous ‘Inka Trail’ has hiker quotas and permits required. Given the trails are well marked, our respectable experience trekking and finding our own way numerous times on this trip, we decided to go at it alone. Why would we pay several hundred dollars each just to have a guide show us to the nearest restaurant or hotel and point us in the general direction of the trail?

We settled on what is known as the ‘back door’ to Machu Picchu. The route is not highly advertised or mentioned in guidebooks but is a well known path for tour operators who sell the route to travelers on a tighter budget. We headed out on a 7-hour early morning bus to essentially circumnavigate the mountain range thus reaching the start of the ‘backdoor’ route. We crossed mountain passes nearing 15,000 ft and arrived at the dusty town of Santa Maria from where we caught an hour long taxi with a bunch of school kids using the taxi as a bus service to the village of Santa Teresa and our accommodation for the night. We awoke early the next morning, grabbed some local cheese empanadas to-go for breakfast and began our hike. The first leg of the hike had us descending down a cliff out of the village and across a small suspension bridge to a dirt path across the valley. From there is was a 2 hour hike following the river until we reached a hydroelectric damn. To the side of the hydroelectric damn we found the set of railroad tracks we were looking for and knew we were on the right track. We then followed the railroad for about three hours, twisting and turning our way up canyons, crisscrossing bridges and walking through multiple tunnels.

After a total of 5 hours and just over 20 kilometers of hiking, the village of Aguas Calientes came into sight around a bend,. We had spent $9 each on public transit to reach our destination and enjoyed the adventure of a lightly used path. The small community is only accessible by hiking trail or railroad and acts as the launching point for day treks to/from Machu Picchu. We quickly found accommodation for the evening in one of the numerous guesthouses and headed to the market for some much needed food.

Machu Picchu is perched on a mountaintop high above Aguas Calientes and is accessible either by a costly minibus or by way of a steep 6 kilometer hiking trail. Of course we opted for the hiking trail and found ourselves up before dawn the following day and hitting the trail with our headlamps. The trail was quite steep and midway up the mountain a storm moved in and a massive downpour began. Now we were wet, cold and could not see through the dense clouds how close we were to our destination. We trudged on upward through switchback after switchback and just as daylight was beginning to show we reached the ticket counter but were told Machu Picchu did not open for another 30 minutes. So we waited exhausted, soaked and shaking as the first busload of fresh, dry and cheery tourists appeared up the road. We must have been quite the site to them huddled in our wet clothes munching on some day old bread! Finally, the gates opened and we squished through the fog and into Machu Picchu…