We got to Cusco, and naturally had not made any plans regarding our trip to Machu Picchu. We scouted out different travel agencies, fully aware that we were too late for the classic Inca Trail trek. We decided on the Inca Jungle Trail as a fun alternative....mountain biking and hiking through the Peruvian jungle. There were seven of us including me, Megan, Fallon and Jason (visiting from SF), two Dutchies, an inbittered English girl and our guide, Diego. We had no idea how exciting the next 4 days would be....

DAY 1
We were picked up at our hostel early in the morning and boarded a regular tour bus full of other passengers for what was supposed to be a five hour bus ride to where we would start biking. The bus climbed steep windy cliffs, rapidly gaining altitude and thus altitude sickness (no, just my volatile stomach prone to car sickness. blah). After about 4 hours of climbing, the bus suddenly stops. This is actually no surprise - we had already stopped an hour before after driving over a boulder and popping a tire. Because its the rainy season, there are many mini landslides along the highway. Well, this time it was no mini landslide - in front of us was a massive pile of earth and rocks. The highway was completely impassable and behind the bus another landslide was starting. After standing around for a bit, watching the locals make a dash for the other side as the mountain continued to crumble in front of us and assessing our options, our guide decided we should run for the other side and hop on the bikes early. So we geared up and the 4 guys in our group took their bikes over the slide, as rocks were still falling, and came back to grab ours. Seeing the slide from the other side and having to scale the rocks and debris, we probably would not have decided to cross, it was much more precarious than what we had thought. In the mad dash, one of the Dutch guys in our group sliced his hand on a rock, enough to clearly need stiches. We watched a heavy tree stump fall on an old woman. She was rescued by immediate help of bystanders and was ok though you could see her bone through her skin at her fractured ankle. The nearest town and where we would be spending the night, was a 2 hour bus ride or a 5 hour bike ride. Because the buses were a bit inhibited by the slides, we decided it would be best to just get on the bikes. Stiches should be applied within 4-6 hours. Because of the emergency and our guide´s poor leadership skills (only to get worse as the trek progressed), the group split up. The first hour of riding was beautiful - we were racing down an abandoned highway way above the river, in the middle of nowhere. I was slightly ahead of Megan and Fallon and we were decending fast, and thus completely unaware of the accident behind me. A lonely car was racing up the highway and barely cleared Megan. She turned to see the car side-swipe Fallon and watch her fly through the air and land on her back in the ditch. Fortunately, Fallon was fine, just badly scraped up and a bit shook up. Megan of course thought she had surely broken her back. The girls waited for the next bus and headed to town. I rode alone for about an hour until our guide caught up with me and told me the girls had hopped on a bus. I asked if they were ok and he said yes, so I just assumed they were being lazy and couldn´t hang with the bike ride - of course I was uninformed and disappointed. We continued riding on the bumpiest road on the planet (i know i exaggerate), but let me tell you, this was not comfortable! Finally, 4 hours later we get to town. The boys had made it to the clinic and were successfully stiched up, thanks to Megan, our translator. The next 4 days, we went to a hospital in every town for various exciting reasons, and not once did Diego accompany. Thank god Megan is fluent enough in Spanish to lead these expeditions. After dinner and drinks, we slept at a hostal in town.

DAY 2
We got up at 6 and started our eight hour hike through the jungle. It was a beautiful hike, with spectacular views and it was certainly challenging. In fact, I´ve never sweat so much in my life (i´ve definitely said that before and will again). The jungle was hot and humid and we were scrambling steep uphills for a majority of the time. So to cut to the chase, the excitement of the day was when Fallon was attacked by a potentially rabid dog in the middle of the jungle. After violently barking at most of the group as we passed, he bit Fallon in the leg, puncturing the skin. It immediately turned black and blue. Diego´s reaction, ´´its alright, lets go´´, completely careless. We had 4 more hours of hiking and tried to pretend it wasn´t a problem. Once getting to town, Santa Teresa, Fallon and Megan headed to the local clinic. Naturally, there was no rabies or tetnus available. The doctors laughed and said, ´´all the dogs are vaccinated´´. Right.

DAY 3
Well besides our upset digestive systems from something we ate the day before, day three was pretty uneventful. In fact, painfully so. Fallon, Megan, and the English girl had to take the hour train ride to Aguascaliente because of illness and injury. So I joined the boys for the short 3 hour hike. Diego had told us the day before that today´s hike would be on the Inca steps. Something got lost in translation, as we walked on railroad tracks for 3 hours. Though exhausted from the day before, there couldnt be anything more boring - we couldn´t even look up at the scenery around us for fear of falling off the tracks. Which was a shame, because when we would pause to look around, we were missing glimpses of ruins high above us in the surrounding mountains. What we didn´t realize until the next day was that we could actually see Machu Picchu above us. We made it to Aguascaliente meeting back up with the girls. We told them a puma had attacked us and Diego almost fell of a cliff. Naturally, they believed us. We had the rest of the day to relax in town. Unfortunatley, Aguascaliente is a dreadful little tourist town at the bottom of Machu Picchu. We did our best to reflect and regain some positive energy for the next day. Moral was low, but we had great expectations for our climb to MP in the early morning.

DAY 4
Machu Picchu! I can´t say much more. It was truly incredible. We climbed up early in the morning to make sunrise. It was foggy so there was no sun, but we climbed Huayna Picchu early enough to watch the fog clear and the sun break on Machu Picchu below. They only allow 400 people up Huayna Picchu a day and its a steep but short climb and as you get to the top, you hear equally enthused travelers speaking their various languages, anticipating the brilliant and somewhat mysterious site below. The experience really is something else! We accidently took the ´´back way´´ down, which had we not been so physically spent from the past few days, would have been great. We barely had the energy to make it back up, as we realized we had only climbed down to climb back up Huayna Picchu. Obviously we made it though, and as we came around the bend to get back to Machu Picchu, there was a bear happily and carelessly eating on the side of the mountain! I think it was the first time I´ve seen a bear in the wild!

So I dont remember if the Chevy Chase vacation movies finally end happily, but ours did. The tour and our guide really was a bit of a disaster, and I can´t say what company to avoid as they all collaborate. Really, in the end, everyone was ok and it´s funny looking back on it now.

Peru has been interesting. It´s an incredible country, full of mystery and things to explore. Sadly, Megan and I have been sick more often than not, which unfortunately slightly skews our perscpective of our experience here. What we have seen and experienced is beautiful and awesome. I leave Peru having visited my first ´´World Wonder´´, learned about a culture whose ancient history is still intact and influential, and gained certain personal enlightenment that I will take with me as we continue on. We leave tonight for an overnight bus to Bolivia. Unfortunately, our American status has recently gained us a visa requirement at the border. But we hope our dollar will be thorougly stretched here as we explore a country whose indigenous people is the popular majority.