Wow, am so excited that I received so many complaints about not having written in such a long time! Fantastic! I wasn´t sure that anyone was reading it.
After the Galápagos we went to a little rasta surf town called Montañita, where we drank bad piña coladas, got bitten by fleas and….. went surfing!!!!!! OMG I LOVE SURFING! We took lessons from this tan local whose butt crack was hanging out the entire time. I soon discovered why. I think the people on the beach that day got more of a view than they bargained for. You get tossed around pretty badly by the waves, and every time I jumped up on my longboard, my bikini skirt did not want to come with me!
Well I was very excited because, while our teacher was helping someone else, I decided to go for it, so I waited for a wave, turned my board around and started paddling like mad, somehow managed to push myself up (this is not easy!), jumped on my feet and TOTALLY SURFED ALL BY MYSELF! Our teacher said I didn`t need any more lessons and that he had never seen someone do it so fast. I said to him all casually, “Yeah, well, I was born by the ocean, you know.” He he.
Want to take it up when I get home…. but that`s one expensive habit!
Anyway, we had a few more days in Quito and then flew to Peru. After a looooong, painful layover in Lima (many of you got emails that night, I believe) we arrived in Cusco, the jumping off point for the Incan Trail. They tell you that you have to arrive a few days before your trek begins so that you can acclimate to the altitude (10,859 ft) so you don`t get altitude sickness.
Cusco is beautiful. It`s nestled in beetween many tall mountains that have this red clay color and all the roofs of the houses have the same color. The churches there are old and rustic-looking. Quite obnoxiously, they charge entry if you aren`t attending mass. I was considering going to mass just to beat the system because I was annoyed (it`s a church!), but didn`t really ever get the chance.
When you walk around Cusco there are all these young girls who follow you around and say “Massage lady?”, and all the taxis seem to think that, because you are white, you must want a lift and they honk at you. It`s quite annoying, actually, how much you get hassled to buy things. People will follow you a ways down the street with their postcards and drawings and waxing offers.
But I suppose that it is with good reason. I did my research and found out that 53% of the Peruvian population is below poverty level, and it does show. As with everywhere it seems, it is the indigineous people who have it the worst. A little indigenous boy asked me for my water when I had it out as we walked by and, when I held it out to him, he snatched it from me and ran away and hid in a corner, draining it in about 2 seconds. He was that thirsty.
I also found out that Peru has a president, 2 vice presidents AND a prime minister. I don`t know how they get anything done with all those people in charge!
So anyway, Cusco has amazing shopping - tons of jewelry, crafts made out of giant seeds, knit things, roasted guinea pig and, of course, coca leaves as far as the eye can see. Jillian and I were feeling a bit naughty and bought some at the market, along with this hard black seed thing that you chew with it, as the accelerant. We snuck off to a park and started chomping away…. it`s quite foul, actually. Doesn`t taste good at all! Just makes your mouth go numb.
Well, I`m nerdy and googled “chewing coca leaves” after we were done and found out you aren`t actually supposed to chew them. We were doing it all wrong! Anyway, you just kind of gum them for an hour and then spit it out. And it doesn`t ever get you high or anything, it is medicinal – helps people with toothaches, that kind of thing. I`d send you some if I felt like being locked up for 25 years, but I don`t! Here, though, it`s perfectly legal and, really, you can`t do much with them without processing them into cocaine, so it`s pretty harmless.
So… the Incan Trail… was INCREDIBLE! The views the entire way are just indescribable. We were in a fairly small group – 9 people. 5 Australians, one girl from Finland, an English girl and then Jillian and me. It turned out we were all a fairly good match and had some funny conversations…. when we weren`t wishing we were dead. Seriously, it`s not easy! I HATE the downhill. I become a big baby and think I`m going to twist my ankle, so I was always at the back then. But on the uphill, I kicked ass! I was the first one to the top for most of the uphill legs. At the highest point on the trail, I passed the entire group ahead of me – awesome!
There were 14 porters who would stay behind after we left, pack up our tents and all the food, throw it on their backs, PASS US ON THE TRAIL, keep going and have camp all set up, hot water for us to wash our faces, and dinner bubbling on the camping stove by the time we got there. Incredible!
It was really funny because our porters wore uniforms – bright red ones – and our guide called them the “Red Army”. He`d be like, “Here comes the Red Army! Everyone clap!” so we`d cheer for them and make Communist jokes.
Along the trail there are 6 Inca ruin sights, other than Machu Picchu itself. They are seriously impressive! I do not know how they figured out how to build these incredibly advanced, intricate cities on the sides of sheer cliffs. Amazing! Machu Picchu is more impressive in person than it is in the pictures. If you just go straight there and don´t do the trail, you have to line up and pay the entrance fee and there are cafés and it´s a bit commercial, but if you do the trail you are anticipating seeing it for 4 days and you are not disappointed.
Our last day on the trail, we got up at 3:30 in the morning, after a HUGE storm all night long with the loudest, scariest thunder I have ever heard. The last day is kind of ridiculous. People line up at the last checkpoint on the trail about an hour before they actually let anyone in and everyone is chomping at the bit to get going. Our guide, who must feel competitive with the other guides I think, reprimanded my friend and I for using the bathroom before we left because it meant we were the second group in line. Once they let you in, there are all these psychotic men who have something to prove and go RUNNING down the trail. Keep in mind that there is no railing and you are on the side of a 12,000 foot mountain. The trail is about 3 feet wide in many places. If you fall off, you´ll DIE and there were all these guys pushing and shoving each other to be first. It was ridiculous!
One guy tried to run past me, tripped, fell and one of his feet went over the edge. Everyone gasped and then started laughing at him because he was such a dumbass. He just kept running down the trail. WOW.
Back in town, we went out with our Incan Trail friends to a 3-for-1 night. We were making fun of everyone, saying that it sucked to be them because they all had to get up early the next day to catch flights, and we were going to have the whole day to relax and unwind. Then we woke up in the morning, hurting a little bit I might add, and realized that we were supposed to have left about 3 hours before. We had completely missed our flight because we are DUMB.
We were running around town looking for a travel agency that could help us and finally found one who told us that we had to go to the airport and buy a new ticket from another airline, and to hurry, since the plane was taking off… in 40 minutes. We were all over the place – Jillian went to shove our stuff in our backpacks and pay the hostel while I finished up with the travel agent. I got in a cab to go to the hostel, and the cabbie got pulled over just as I was saying that I was in a big hurry. I had to jump ship and run all over the main square looking for another cab. I had a major headache and realized that my pants were splitting at the crotch (do not know why) and you could kind of see my underwear. But no time to change, or brush our teeth or shower out the cigarette smoke from our hair. In our hurry, we left behind my hiking boots and our photo bank at the hotel.
… but we made it. Thankfully, our flight was delayed by about 2 hours, so we went back for my shoes. Cannot find the photo bank, however…. goodbye all the photos we never posted online.
You know what I love about Perú? How they let you wander around on the runway.
We landed in Lima and walked down the stairway… and then there was no path or anything. We were sort of meandering around looking for an entrance to the airport and dodging buses. There were runway guys sitting there, watching us and not being helpful at all. Now there is something that would not happen in the U.S.! We could have wreacked all kinds of havoc, had we wanted to.
HERE IS MY ANGRY RANT. I´m starting to have a real problem with the way that women are sometimes treated in Latin America. There are many men who are total gentleman, and whom are more into opening doors, etc., than your average first world guy, but then there are all these PRICKS who yell shit at you, or chase you down the beach while you are trying to go for a jog. I had one guy run up behind me and grab me, actually, that little shit. At least it gave me the chance to finally use, “Pendejo! Chinga tu madre!” which basically means, “Asshole! Go fuck your mother!” That felt nice.
And then sometimes it gets taken to a whole other level. There was our Incan Trail guide, whom we were paying, and whom basically harrassed me for 4 days. I was so pissed by the end of it. I went to the agency and complained and then they were trying to give everyone on our trek free t-shirts. Seriously, though, this jackass made comments like, “You girls are going to dance around the tent poles tonight,” and said that he and I were going to live together and some other stuff. Who does that?
I cannot tolerate the general lack of respect for women. If you use Llama Path (which is a great company, actually, and treats their porters excellently, while some other companies are basically slave drivers), stay away from Casanio if you´re a woman. Or, go with him on a trek and give him a swift kick in the ass for me.
Well, anyway, we are in Santiago, and leaving for Easter Island tomorrow night, where we will be for a week. So exciting! Though the island is expensive. Signing off for now…
