The eagle has landed

I've been back for a couple of days, and only now am I starting to feel normal and rested.

The four-day trek up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu was awesome. It was a full service guided trek, with porters, cooks, and all. The company provided the tents, sleeping pads, and all the meals. For an extra $15, they rented sleeping bags. They also provided a personal porter service, which I did not elect. Bad move. Almost everyone paid for the porter, meaning they only had to lug around a small pack - like a college backpack sort of thing. The personal porters took care of the sleeping bags, pads, and I think 5 kilos of whatever gear you wanted to give them.

I, on the other hand, humped it for four days with a 41-pound load in a full-size Kirezzian hand-me-down backpack. The other trekkers took pity on me, but I still beat most of them on most legs of the trek. And the porters seemed to have a lot of respect for me, since I was carrying nearly their load. Or maybe it was because I was the only one who could speak much Spanish. Anyway, I've never backpacked before (defined by Joe as hiking overnight with a large, heavy pack), so I learned a lot of little things.

At least half of the 14 trekkers in our group were British, and most of those were students, before or after "uni" (pronounced yooney), as they refer to college/university. Apparently, it's quite customary for British students to travel the world for a year or so after graduating from college (or right before commencing college). One of the students was particularly impressive -- she was in great shape, being the first to arrive at every checkpoint or campsite, and very tough -- all while battling stomach problems. I think there's something about the British that makes them great at rough travel, expeditions, colonization, etc. They seem to transition so bloody easily from the haughty norms of British tea culture to roughing it in the boonies.

We all chewed on coca leaves (with a bit of a charcoal-like catalyst) to help prevent altitude sickness, and also drank coca tea. The coca leaf is a huge part of the Andean culture, and I brought back t-shirts saying, in Spanish, that the leaf of the coca is not a drug. Apparently, Bush was trying to get Peru to make coca leaves illegal for all purposes, which simply ain't gonna happen. Coca leaves are just too embedded as part of their day-to-day lives. Surprisingly, George Bush came up a lot, everywhere. I guess it's true that people around the world have reacted very strongly to his presidency.

My arrival in Machu Picchu was slightly dampened by my not having slept at all for two straight nights -- that was a bitch, and I felt very zombie-like when we arrived at the culmination of the trek. Still, it rocked.

My time in Lima and Cusco was filled with food. I ate alpaca, cuy (guinea pig), and lots of delicious chicken dishes (pollo a la brasa and ají de gallina). As expected, the Peruvians infiltrated potatoes into lots of dishes, but I survived. I also tried the pisco sour, pisco being Peru's version of tequila.

On my way to the airport in Lima, about to fly home, I was almost robbed by the taxi driver (a persistent risk in Lima). It was a very close call, and I should never have placed myself in such a tactically vulnerable position. I think he was going to deliver me to some people who would have taken everything I had. That would have sucked, especially if I had fought back (which would be very hard to resist) and I had gotten hurt. I think I steered him away from his plans by lying to him about some friends I had waiting for me at the airport, and pointedly asking him where we were. He then got back on the regular streets.

I'd like to go to Peru again, next time with a girlfriend or some buddies. I'm perfectly happy to travel alone, and can amuse myself to no end, but traveling with others is more secure, and makes dining out more fun.

Take a look at the pictures below -- click on them to get the full-size image.