So, it’s day three in Peru... I think, they’re all merging into one big blur of colorful people harassing us (well, mainly Carlyn) to buy useless trinkets (not to say that we haven’t bought way too many alpaca items as is, but you know what, hats are much more useful than carved gourd things whose only redeeming feature seems to be that they don´t break)
Yesterday, we shopped (this appears to be all we do... as I mentioned earlier I can now completely outfit myself in alpaca).
We also tried the menu. That would be the price fixed four-course meal for the US equivalent of $1.30. The soup was amazing, the juice (although served luke warm, and tasting more of clove than any recognizable fruit) was good, and then came the main course... Carlyn chose the vegitariana menu while Dave and I decided to step out on a limb, we went with the carne. If i knew what type of carne it was I would tell you, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t beef (If I had to put money on it I’d go with alpaca) whatever it was it was drowned in the equivalent of taco seasoning, served over some type of yellow bean and rice. While questioning exactly what it was I decided to eat all of it and round out the meal with a dessert of rice pudding (all the while wondering if these are the things I’m not supposed to eat)
Well, no one got sick. But frankly no one felt all that well till about 10 hours later. It felt more like having a brick in my stomach.
Lunch was followed by a trip to the Museo Inka which is about how I would imagine a museum to be if I were in charge of exhibits, given a glue stick, construction paper, and some corn to make dioramas. But we did get to see mummies, so I was happy.
The trip to the museum was followed by a meeting with our trek guide, Gerson a very nice 25 year old, born in the jungle but studying tourism in Cusco. The three of us are the only people on the trek, and we will be accompanied by (for the first 3 days) 2 horse men, 3 horses, a guide, a cook, and an assistant cook. The first day we only hike 11km or so in about 5 hours (that would be tomorrow) The third day will be the longest, hiking 18km up lots and lots. We´ll hit the highest point of the trek, at 4,900m or some where near 14,000ft. So, we all have altitude meds.
The fourth day we´ll be hooking up with the traditional inka trail, dropping the horsemen and picking up 6 porters. We were informed last night that all we need to carry is a day pack with snacks, camera, water, etc., and everything else will be carried by the porters. Good news after realizing exactly how far and high we’ll be hiking, but it would have been nice to know in advance. It appears the porters will be carrying our backpacks and we’ll be carrying our day packs (and I have the worst day pack for a long trip ever)
Long story short, we reach Machu Picchu on day 7 (Sept 25th) we’ll get up at 4am to be some of the first people in, then spend the day and take the train back to Cusco. We’ll sleep there then take a train at 8am the next morning to Puno to visit Lake Titicaca, which brings me to what we’ve been doing today...
Sitting in a train station forever attempting to buy train tickets (absolutely horrible number calling waiting system... if you have to buy a perurail ticket I highly advise doing so online)
We spent most of the morning getting out enough money for tips for our porters and guide, and buying train tickets.
We then ate lunch at the Inka Hut and I made the mistake of again ordering the price fixed menu and ordering the mystery soup (which appeared to be mostly butter) eating way too much and being uncomfortably full. We’ve been shopping for last minute trek gear since. You know, all those little things you forget, gloves, hats, sweaters (apparently it gets cold at 4,900m, go figure)
Oh yeah, and of course we have to buy the essentials, chocolate and rum. We were specifically told to bring these by our guide. Something tells me it’s going to be a fun time. So we’re off to barter for those last minute items (cause saving 2 soles- the equivalent of 60 cents- is oh so important,) pack, and get some sleep before we have to wake up at the but crack of dawn to take a bus for 3 hours to then hike for 7 days and hopefully not be hurting too badly.
I’ll let everyone know how we did sometime next week. Wish us luck.
