My alarm goes off at 2:55 AM. I gather my back pack, and find my way to the designated pick-up spot, waiting for the tour van to pick me up at 3:30 AM. At 3:50 I wonder whether they've forgotten about me as I sit on the sidewalk, shivering in the darkness. The pick-up was a special arrangement made by my AirBnb host and her friend who owns the travel company, enabling me to save time by not having to travel downtown Arequipa even earlier.
5 minutes later the van finally appears. I climb in, fifteen others packed inside, one seat available. We drive 3 hours arriving at the Colca Canyon, the world's second deepest, close to 7 in the morning.
Stopping at a look-out, several eagle-eyed adventurers spot Andean condors circling high in the sky, describing them as tiny black dots. They point in their direction, but alas, they're too distant for me to distinguish. I turn my attention back to the depths below.
Scrolling down you'll find a few videos, followed by photos of the Colca Canyon experience. In my next post, I'll describe the "Drama in Malata" (the tiny, tiny town inside the canyon) where we lost our guide for the afternoon and entire night.
Enjoy the visuals.
Colca Canyon from above, a few different angles
waterfalls near the bottom of the Colca Canyon
first view of the canyon
a river at the bottom of the gorge
Colca Canyon
a cactus patch
in the distance
the gorge below
a dog from a local village keeps us company
it's been a dry year
cactus at the bottom
flowers grown at a village at the canyon's bottom
scenery always looks better with a little green
still pretty awesome
one of my favorite shots
pretty cool shot if I say so meself
annual fiesta dancing in the tiny town of Malata
the church in Malata
fiesta time
the Colca Canyon near the bottom
This is about 5:50 AM, notice the lighting difference as the sun rises
again, part of the mountains are still shaded at this early hour
a cactus flower near the top
agriculture- steps with water
maize (corn) a Peruvian staple with the high Andean peaks in the background
Travel within Peru is grueling.
The first thing that will wallop you are the high elevations of the Andes Mountains, where oxygen deprivation and altitude sickness are one and the same. Outside of the mountainous region, you still have to deal with roads which are not exactly of Autobahn quality, impassable jungle, frequent delays, and a lack of reliable infrastructure.
Merely attempting to plan your trip inside the country can be a stressful, headache inducing experience.
We (by which I mean me) have come to rely on the internet to make last minute lodging or transportation bookings, and WiFi here is about as reliable as telling a napping cat to go pick-up your pizza order. Even if you order a meat-lovers.
Of course, this challenge is usually easily overcome by connecting to a cellular network, and we have a T-Mobile subscription which let's us access data on any of the local networks! ... Except, there is no data to be had, it simply does not work. There is zero data available. Nunca!
When I arrive back in Cusco in the evening following a 4 day trek to Machu Picchu, it's been 48 hours since I was last able to access the web, this time due to a power outage from a fallen power-line (electricity was not expected to come back online in the area for several more days.) Thus preventing me from arranging the next leg of my trip, or even lodgings for the evening.
So your perpetual motion travel hero's first stop- any restaurant with internet; I successfully gain access to a working WiFi network on my 3rd attempt.
"Hello, what is the password?" type it in, "Not working." Walk out and find the next restaurant, repeat ... neither fun nor efficient.
So now I'm finally connected, sitting down at a table, looking up flights on my smartphone. An elderly Incan woman leans over my shoulder, warning me not to display my phone so publicly; always have to keep the proverbial "one eye open" I guess.
Attempting to heed her advice, I operate with the phone in my lap. She approaches me again, admonishing me for continuing the activity (you'd have thought I was breastfeeding a child at the Republican convention.)
I'm a little bewildered, I look around and see no one suspicious, so I go back to furtively gazing at the screen. I kid you not, she warned me a third and a fourth more time. You think she'd have given up and let me get robbed. Even today I'm not sure if she was a guardian angel or a demon of annoyance.
My furtive glances at my screen reveal no evening flights to Arequipa (Peru's second biggest city,) and the only direct flight in the morning is outrageously expensive. Inter-country airfare within South America is even more ridiculous, explaining why most tourists opt to travel by bus.
Speaking of the bus, it takes almost 13 hours to traverse the 300 miles between Cusco and Arequipa, Peru's second largest city, about the same amount of time it would take to fly from Los Angeles to Tokyo. Nevertheless, taking the overnight ride will be substantially cheaper, I'll arrive before the flight would, and hopefully I'll be able to sleep on the bus rather than find and pay for last minute lodgings at this hour.
Throw my bags over my shoulder, hail a cab, hurry to the bus station.
the loud chaotic bus station of Cusco, Peru
Predictably, the bus is packed; a father traveling with two young children, one on his lap, the other seated beside him literally repeats the words "Papi, Papi, Papi," for the first hour of the journey. The man is doing nothing to control his son, perhaps too worn out to even make an attempt.
The man next to me snores, our arms touching, the bus lurching to and fro.
My only goal is to get to sleep, which I manage only after "Papi, Papi, Papi," finally runs out of steam.
We're woken before sunrise by a bureaucratic mess; required to exit the bus and have our smaller carry on bags (not the larger ones in storage for whatever reason) X-rayed by some distant agricultural inspection outpost; the government workers not even bothering to look at the screen as our luggage passes through.
Climbing back on board, a man listens to music he has stored on his cell phone, no headphones of course. Apparently he's made the decision that everyone's done sleeping,
The bus has emptied along the way. I'll gather my stuff and find a place to sit with an empty seat next to me.
Oh God, where are my hiking shoes?! Took them off to sleep, now I can't find them! Not going to survive Peru without them. Hopefully they're under a nearby seat, rather than (gulp) stolen. Can't quite reach/see under the chairs so I get on the floor to look. Alas, I don't have enough room, the man beside me is awake, he can tell I'm avidly looking for something, it's obvious I'm lacking sufficient space. Nevertheless, he doesn't rise to give me room. I wait several beats.
"Excuse me, would it be possible if you stood-up?"
He hears me, but chooses to play deaf, rolling his eyes as a giveaway. I'm on a mission of quasi-survival. "Could you please sit over there for a second so I can search under the seats?"
He begrudgingly rises. I don't want him to feel offended, "Please excuse me," I state.
"No," he answers with a slight emphasis, as he takes the other seat.
'No?!' fucking 'no' ?? I'm shocked, but don't pursue discourse any further.
The ride from the outskirts of Arequipa into the center of town is excruciatingly slow, 180 second traffic lights plus being stuck behind slow moving freighters. At last, we pull into the station.
I find an AirBnb with a washing machine so I can send my dirty, dirty, dirty clothes on a spin cycle. There is a one dryer in all of Peru- it's called the sun.
the of the mountain- 4,910 meters- 16,108 feet
Two days later, having trekked the Colca Canyon, I'm at 16,000 feet of elevation. Walking around for a few minutes, I feel light-headed, my lungs seemingly breathing fire, letting me know they're not taking kindly to these extremes.
the view at 16,000 feet- no trees, too high
flying over the
Amazon basin
Having gone round trip via night bus to and from Arequipa, I opt for fly from Cusco to the Amazon and Puerto Maldonado. Buying a roundtrip ticket you won't use the return leg of on the Internet websites is often 30% cheaper than a one-way ticket; Einstein couldn't explain the logic.
I get to the airport an hour early, alas my plane takes off 3 hours late.
I'm not saying flights never depart on time in Peru (it happened once in 1998) but you'd be well advised to leave a large buffer zone in connection plans.
Now that we're in the Amazon, travel becomes water logged. Once you're off the one main road, you need a 4x4 truck to traverse the muddy dirt roads.
Below is a video of us using a heavy pick-axe and wooden boards to dig ourselves out of the mud.
pick-up truck stuck in the mud on Amazon road
Peru has some of the most spectacular, diverse scenery of any country in the world, and its well well visiting. My only advice about traveling within boils down to this: EXPECT DELAYS. And if you're there and have a similar experience, don't bother sending me note to tell me I was right. You're unable to connect to the Internet anyways.
For anyone who loves to travel, Machu Picchu should be at the top of your list of places to see. Go ahead, reshuffle, I'll wait.
me and the trekking crew
For my group, it was the culmination of a four day trek, and literally the top of the mountain after a 4 AM start time- making the cherry even sweeter.
I can objectively state that between the ancient city and the nature surrounding, it's the most impressive and inspiring area touched by man I have ever seen.
Many believe Machu Picchu to be a very "spiritual place," where the energy of the world runs strong, often describing the area as liberating and freeing.
My question is, are there zones of the world which can function as "battery storage" for spiritual energy, or is it like electricity, which must be used at the moment generated, or dissipate?
I think the power of Machu Picchu lies in our connection to the ancient civilization which once existed here, having left evidence of its presence, and the natural splendor of the Andes surrounding. It's my belief, that in the dual presence of such stimuli, thoughts of lack, worry, or limitation leave our mind much more easily, and are replaced with an intense focus on the beauty of the area, the beauty of life. It is at that moment that dormant potential energy reawakens within us. These are moments of presence and connection with something beyond the mind, but that potential exists at any moment, in any place. It's just easier and far more likely to be triggered in area like Machu Picchu.
So go ahead and chew on those thoughts, and look through the photos and videos below of Machu Picchu. Hopefully some energy might stir inside you as you do.
not much to be seen @ 6 AM
heavy early morning vapor
the shroud of fog lessens
Machu still shrouded in fog
ancient railing
the "wings" of the condor temple
the head of the condor temple
video: Temple of the condor inside Machu
early morning still
a window of Machu Picchu
Machu walls
in the morning we thought this as good a shot as we might get
the ancient city- the veil of cloud coming off
the shroud of fog starts to lift
should I make this my FB photo?
my Chilean friends look out over Machu
really great shot of Machu Picchu
video: breathtaking view of Machu Picchu
walls of the ancient city
llamas on the far side of Picchu- part of the exhibit, not wild
trekking group photo 2- nice people
some of Machu Pichu's crumbling walls
gazing out the window
the area surrounding Machu is breathtaking
Incan agricultural steps
so lush, so green
the mountains surrounding
all fired up
spectacular scenery
Wayna Picchu? Picchu means mounatin by the way, Wayna means 'young,' Machu- 'old'
the river far below
yup- that's what you see. Machu is so special
video: the mountains surrounding and the backside of Machu Picchu
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