After my fantastic trip to Italy in February of 2002, I completely caught the travel bug. I spent the next few months scouring every travel book I could find, trying to figure out where I wanted to go next. I made a short list, and then called my travel agent and asked her which one had the cheapest flight. Peru was the winner, scheduled for the last 2 weeks of summer. This was my first real backpacking trip, and although I had done plenty of hiking, canoeing, and camping with my family growing up, I wasn’t prepared for the adventure I would have. This trip was perhaps the best one I’ve ever taken.
As with Italy, unfortunately I don’t have many photos of this trip. Somehow, on my way back home, the memory card in my very early era digital camera got wiped clean. So I was left with a handful of photos that I had taken on a disposable waterproof camera, and a few photos I managed to get from some other folks that I met and traveled with in Peru.
I started my trip in Lima, where I spent I believe 2 days seeing the main sites of the city. In general I don’t care much for cities, and tend to pass through them on my travels, unless they have something really outstanding that I want to see. I prefer to get out into the countryside to see the less urban sights, and lives of the local people. From Lima I took a bus down to Nazca and took a hair raising flight over the Nazca lines. I’m very glad I don’t suffer from motion sickness, as this tiny plane dipped and dived and turned sideways to give us some splendid views.
From Nazca I boarded a bus to Cuzco. From the map it didn’t look like it was too far away, so I thought that the 8:00 arrival time on my ticket meant 8:00 that evening. Well, I neglected to account for the fact that the Andes mountains sort of run down the center of the country. Oops. So I had a terrible nights sleep on the bus and it wound its way down south and then back north up through the mountains. I awoke sleepy but excited at 8am the next day. Worried about altitude sickness I decided to take my first day fairly easy, and just walked about town, sat in the square and had some coca tea. I’m glad I didn’t venture far as after about 2 hours all of a sudden it felt like somebody had just drilled straight through my skull and was stirring around my brains. I spent most of the next 48 hours throwing up and sleeping. I spent a few days after that exploring temples and ruins both in and around the city, before starting the first of my big adventures for the trip, rafting the Apurimac river. This was a 3 or 4 day trip, I forget exactly, but was one of the most exciting excursions of my life. I made friends, ate amazing Peruvian food, thought I might die, climbed cliffs, rappelled down said cliffs, fell out of a boat, played camp games, and generally had the time of my life. One of the best parts about this trip was that it costs a whopping $100, including all of the equipment, meals, transportation, and a few side excursions.
Upon returning to Cuzco I spent another 2 days exploring the city, and venturing out to a few of the clubs with the folks I’d met rafting. Clubs don’t seem to ever close in Cuzco, and I remember leaving on night, only to find out that it was morning. We hadn’t been drinking too much, just having so much fun we didn’t realize the time. After all of this it was time for my final adventure of the trip, hiking the classic Inca trail. Once again on this trip I thought I might die, not out of danger, but out of complete exhaustion. Dead Woman’s Pass seems like an appropriate name for the highest pass of the trail. It was all worth it though to see the sun rise over Machu Pichu on the final day. I wandered around the ancient city smelly, dirty, and exhausted, but so proud to have made it. I’d love to go back, but I’m honestly not sure I could do it in my current shape. I’d need some time to prepare, that’s for sure. Word of warning for anybody making the hike, do be sure to take a few days to acclimatize to the altitude before you head out. I definitely would not have made it in the state I was in when I first arrived in Cuzco. I made a quick hop back to Lima and the spent the day just sitting by the ocean and writing in my journal before heading home to start the new school year.
These are the few surviving photos from my rafting trip, thanks to my trusty Kodak disposable camera. At one point on this trip we got out and portaged around a rather nasty rapid. Our guide pointed to a rock in the middle and said they didn’t run this rapid anymore because 2 years ago when one of the boats flipped a girl got trapped under that rock and died. Later in the day when we were surveying a class V rapid and each given the option to either run it, or portage around, I wondered if they’d be perhaps telling a similar story while everyone portaged around this rapid next year. I chose to run it, though I’ll admit I spent a good half of the short journey down crouched down in the screaming. We didn’t flip there, thank goodness, though we came close. We flipped once or twice in class IIIs, and those few moments when you’re under the boat reaching up for the surface but finding only a hard barrier, are terror at it’s purest. No major troubles though. We did plenty of cliff jumping and swimming during stops at the end of the day. Somewhere, probably in my parents attic, I have a VHS tape that the rafting company put together from the trip. It’s pretty sweet, they really mastered the star wipes.
These pictures I cannot take credit for. They were taken by two fellows that I traveled with, both on the rafting trip and the Inca trail hike. They had actually been our kayaking safety guides on the rafting trip, having been working there for the summer, but were about to head back to school and were taking the hike before heading home.
Ryan and I have talked a few times about taking a trip to Peru together. I hope that we do, I would love to relive some of these memories, and make new ones. Hopefully with more and better photographs.