Speed dating...yes, lets start there. What a great idea eh, with everyone counting their precious minutes these days we all hate to waste time especially when it turns out fruitless, such as investing time into relationships that go no where, so to solve this we´ve invented speed dating, its perfect, its fast, its very faulty! In the world of solo traveling each interaction with another solo traveler ends of being a bit similar to speed dating...you meet someone in passing, you swap backgrounds, itineraries, similarities, and short anecdotes and in 5 minutes you have what seems to be enough information to make a judgement call to answer the question: Do we team up? often it works perfectly and you have a new best friend and partner in crime...the rest of the time, well, you meet people like Dora...
I finished 5 days solo on the trails in Huaraz Peru on Christmas day, waited 6 hours in a town for a 10 hour overnight bus ride, showed up in huaraz at 5 am, slept 4 hours, bought a bus ticket, attended cloths washing, showers, food and internet and left at 10 pm on a 10 hour bus ride to Lima, showed up at 8 am the next morning, bought a 2 pm 24 hour bus ride to Cusco (Machu Picchu area) and after a rough 24 hours the moving frenzie was finally over... AND i was now two, instead of 1. I met Dora during the lay over in Lima. She was from Portland OR, had heavy duty trekking boots, a tent, stove, water filter and the same exact itinerary and budget as me...the stars seemed to be aligning and it seemed only natural to pair up...and plus after 5 days of solo winterish trekking i was keen to share the weight/burden of tent, stove, filter, fuel and food...oh how things went sour!
i wanted to spend New Years in Cusco (they run around the central square in their underwear drinking all night - i mean honestely if that doesn´t have my name written all over it then i dont know what does), but Dora was keen to hit the trail - a 5 day alternative (to the inca trail) trek that left you at Machu Picchu, included a high mountain pass, and most importantly was free (not easy in an area spoon fed to you by tour companies)...after much deliberation on my part i decided having a buddy on the trail, especially one who seemed cool, would be better than going solo and i might as well just have at it...so off we went.
The night before we went out with some of her friends that were also randomly in town (but not trekkers) and i decided to have myself my own personal New Years Party, despite being 3 days early...i tied on a big one, poached free beers all night from an unattended stash behind an unattended bar and found myself zig zagging home at 1:45 am, roughly 2 hours from the 3;45am wake up we needed to make the first Combi (van ride) out to the trail head the next morning to start out 20K first day on the trail...oh boy was it rough, but very worth it!
Ill cut things short and leave most of the trail details to the pics...day one was shortend by 2 rides (the trail was a road to start) which was nice on my acheing and hungover body...night 1 was amazing and i poached a mountain resort hot tub and watched the moon rise over a 6000 m snow clad peak (Dora absent, claiming she didn´t want to get cold --in the hot tub Dora? i was confused on this one but if you´re not running to poach a free hot tub in the middle of the mountains after a big day of trekking then i´m not gonna twist your arm to join, you´re obviously crazy - which as it turned out, she was!!!)
So i´ll give you a quick taste of Dora: Grew up with a tough life, i´ll spare you the details, but she's had to fight her whole life through (Cash, 1967) and as such has developed a fiercly independent personality, she looks after number 1, does not let anyone in her bubble and even when "teaming up" she always has an escape route trailing close behind that VERY much influences her decisions within the group...essentially, even when in a group, she makes decisions only for herself, takes care of only herself, and more or less ignores the fact that her decisions affect others (that is, she's been ditched a lot in her life and has come to expect it and plans for and protects for it...get it? Got it¡ GOOD¡).
Right, so without any ability to make a decision within our little group i took advantage of the one power i did have...my opinion...Sure Dora, you make the decisions...i´ll just sit here and judge the fuck out of them...one of these days you´ll get tired of it, ask me what i actually want and then we can have both sides heard and meet in the middle...Dora didn´t budge though (seriously amazing) and my condensencion only grew thicker and deeper...yes i know, this is seriously imature but really, its also a lot of fun!
New years eve proper found us in a tiny little village (with beer, and thus with beer in us) and of course, following the great words of Richard Young - Sober thoughts make for drunk words - and me and Dora boiled over...it was clearly not working...i laid into her thick, she laid into me thick, it was really a great time all around and it was obvious the end was coming. Dora, who i now referred to as S&W (stove and water) because i had left behind my stove and water filter and we were sharing hers, and thus these were the two things which i relied on her for and which kept us tied together. SHe also brought her 1 man tent and insisted on using it, meaning i had to bring my 2 man tent and use it alone...so much for sharing the weight. Anyways, day 3 saw us on the other side of the pass and in a region with roads, meaning villages, meaning access to food and water, meaning Dora had an out..she could ditch me without leaving me high and dry in the backcountry with no way to cook or get clean water. The next section of trial dove back into the woods though so i was left with only one option, find rides out on the road to the end of the trail...so i did and in 2 hours i had driven what Dora would be spending the next 2 days walking.
The last section of the route is a 2 hour walk along rail road tracks which end in a town called Aguas Caliente, essentially the rallying place from which to visit Machu Picchu (the town sits 1000 ft below the ruins in a river valley)...To make a very long story short, i was running (walking fast) this section of trail trying to get to the Machu Picchu ticket office in Aguas Caliente before it closed so i could change the date of my Machu Picchu ticket to the following day, instead of 3 days from now (which would have left me sitting in Aguas for 2 fulls days twiddling my thumbs)...along the way i met three younger guys from Chico California. There were all in their 3rd year of Uni, were best friends from growing up and were all musicians of some sort (often randomly breaking out into a capella at any given time - awesome!)...the golden moment came when i was 15 seconds into explaining my story of the last 4 days, had only said "girl, oregon, crazy" and they pounced...."DORA, YOU´RE TALKING ABOUT A GIRL NAMED DORA"....i was fabergasted, they knew her!!!! whats more they knew her from 3 words! they had sat on the 24 hour bus with her from lima to cusco, she was unforgetable to them, she was crazy to them as well! Fuck Yea...i was so happy!
To continue making this long story short..these guys turned out to be awesome, we walked at the same pace, were on the same budget, shared the same humor, they took care of eachother, bickered with eachother but never took it beyond the incident at hand, shared everything together and whats more, they completely took me into their group at the drop of a hat...i cant tell you how much i enjoyed these times but for the next 4 days instead of them being 3 and me being 1, we were 4. We ate 2 or 3 dinners a night, played cards, drank, laughed a shit ton, RAN up the 1000 ft to machu picchu, falling only 8 minutes short of the 22 minute record and destroying the standard hour and a half it takes most people to do the walk. Essentially i was a pig in shit and had made some amazing friends and was grateful for Dora ditching me...so anyways...theres a lot of pictures of it all below...have a taste:
Lima...holy fucking coke batman
Cusco Plaza de Armas. Cusco turned out to be an amazing city, beyond the touristy bubble it had a lot of character and a great feel to it, and amazing architecture as it was the throne of the Inca Empire before the Spanish took it over and built their world on top of the stones of the Incans, often literally using the Incan foundations to build up from.
Ive got your nose...
Trying out wigs for when i've lost all my hair...pass on the poddle motif
Inca stones...this shit was tight, literally, water tight and all carved by hand¡
Tourist trap...suckers...you gotta pay if you take the picture from the front!
Day 1, crazy hangover day...beautiful lush mountains
The one and only smile shot with Dora...faked
Lush
Why walk on roads when you can ride on the back of a flatbed with locals...my hangover was happy at this moment
The long tedious trek in...
Day 1...done, in the valley between two beautiful mountains. the trek is named after the mtn on the right..Salkantay
Not much of a real back country experience when the local villagers build little shelters for the touro´s to camp in...oh well, it was free!
A snow capped beaut
The namesake of the trek: Nevado Salkantay
We camp for free, clients of the Salkantay mountain lodge dro 3G´s on the trek and lodging....as it turns out they have a very nice (and easily poached) hot tub
Camp!
Even though it was only a 1/3rd moon it shed enough light to light up the entire valley and i sat naked in the hot tub watching this guy do its nightly arch across the sky. I had of course set my sandals facing out into the darkness with cloths piled neatly next to them ready to bolt incase anyone came out and caught me...the image of someone yelling in spanish at a naked guy running off into the night with cloths in hand in the middle of the mountains kepts a smile on my face, i wasn´t caught though...well not until i had gotten out of the tub at least...The tub was so hot that after 30 minutes of sweating bullets i was done and escaped to a nearby glacial fed waterfall to shed some heat...still within the sights of the lodge but very much on free land i was spotted and very litterally spot-lighted...they had a massive spot light...still naked, in the center of their light, i did the only thing i could do...i waved hello. What a great night!
Dinner...this is before going eating...cheesy tuna pasta with peppers...one of my favorites!
Caught a shooting star on the right side of the pic...hard to see the mountains thought
Playing with the head lamp
cool dug out avi path
Even though it was only a 1/3rd moon it shed enough light to light up the entire valley and i sat naked in the hot tub watching this guy do its nightly arch across the sky. I had of course set my sandals facing out into the darkness with cloths piled neatly next to them ready to bolt incase anyone came out and caught me...the image of someone yelling in spanish at a naked guy running off into the night with cloths in hand in the middle of the mountains kepts a smile on my face, i wasn´t caught though...well not until i had gotten out of the tub at least...The tub was so hot that after 30 minutes of sweating bullets i was done and escaped to a nearby glacial fed waterfall to shed some heat...still within the sights of the lodge but very much on free land i was spotted and very litterally spot-lighted...they had a massive spot light...still naked, in the center of their light, i did the only thing i could do...i waved hello. What a great night!
Dinner...this is before going eating...cheesy tuna pasta with peppers...one of my favorites!
Caught a shooting star on the right side of the pic...hard to see the mountains thought
Playing with the head lamp
cool dug out avi path
Day 2...on the appraoch to the pass
At the pass
Not much to see in the clouds
At the pass
Not much to see in the clouds
Waiting for Dora, bored, jump shots
Dropping out of alpine into jungle
So many rivers!
New years eve, camp two, site of the break down
Ok..landslide which blocked the river, caushed a small lake behind it, backed up sediment, created a beach of small fines, just upstream of the landslide on river left, and then the dame broke leaving just the clues behind.
you go first!
Dropping out of alpine into jungle
So many rivers!
New years eve, camp two, site of the break down
Ok..landslide which blocked the river, caushed a small lake behind it, backed up sediment, created a beach of small fines, just upstream of the landslide on river left, and then the dame broke leaving just the clues behind.
you go first!
Landslides...everywhere
Jungle mist
Jungle mist
Sans Dora now, walking the tracks to Machu Picchu
Just about to meet the guys...they´re just at the top of the pic and i had no idea when taking this pic how good our meeting up would be!
Amazing rivers...hot damn
Aguas Caliente
Entering Machu Picchu...5 am!
Just about to meet the guys...they´re just at the top of the pic and i had no idea when taking this pic how good our meeting up would be!
Amazing rivers...hot damn
Aguas Caliente
Entering Machu Picchu...5 am!
The Picchu shit show!
The classic Shot...Jack, Russel and Tylan
the rest of the Picchu pics kind speak for themselves
ingenious inca steps...i want some of these in my house one day
K to the Ankles...one of the finest specimens i have ever witnessed!
After a bit of walking on these stone paths you sort of forget that these massive blocks were cut and dragged into place a thousand years ago, and even today without much issue you can cruise right down them in flip flops
the 45 minute fog rotation
And we'll put our quinua and yams over here
i dont know which one it was, but one of these massive blocks killed 2000 people in its journey from bedrock form to cut and placed form...Dont see OSHA anywhere round here
Safe belaying
The classic Shot...Jack, Russel and Tylan
the rest of the Picchu pics kind speak for themselves
ingenious inca steps...i want some of these in my house one day
K to the Ankles...one of the finest specimens i have ever witnessed!
After a bit of walking on these stone paths you sort of forget that these massive blocks were cut and dragged into place a thousand years ago, and even today without much issue you can cruise right down them in flip flops
the 45 minute fog rotation
And we'll put our quinua and yams over here
i dont know which one it was, but one of these massive blocks killed 2000 people in its journey from bedrock form to cut and placed form...Dont see OSHA anywhere round here
Safe belaying
When you dont know a knot...tie a lot?
The sacraficial platter!
No hard edges around here...just curves
Sun dial
Terraces...always terraces
Awesome roof architecture
Big guy
Gable ends in the mist
Terraces...everywhere terraces
We got some rain and things got angry
look at the cuts on those blocks...amazing..and they´re huge!
Carved in waterways!
So much stone!
Class VI street-side, im sure someone has run it
Serious gear explosion after days on the trail but still nothing to wear but stinky poly pro
The sacraficial platter!
No hard edges around here...just curves
Sun dial
Terraces...always terraces
Awesome roof architecture
Big guy
Gable ends in the mist
Terraces...everywhere terraces
We got some rain and things got angry
look at the cuts on those blocks...amazing..and they´re huge!
Carved in waterways!
So much stone!
Class VI street-side, im sure someone has run it
Serious gear explosion after days on the trail but still nothing to wear but stinky poly pro
The tourist trap of Aguas Caliente - in the low season though you can tak advantage of this and haggle prices, get free drinks with meals, etc...you can imagine what kinda deals get thrown at you when the server sees 4 hungry dudes about to move on to the next place because the prices just dont seem low enough!
And finally the walk out of Machu Picchu...mission accomplished, now just 12 hours of transit back to Cusco...first though, some fun train tunnels. We Flattened Pesos on the tracks when the trains went by to keep as our own homemade souveneirs
More Rage!! yes i know there are a lot of pictures of random rivers and rapids, but serious, it just doesnt get old...loooooook at that thing!
And finally the walk out of Machu Picchu...mission accomplished, now just 12 hours of transit back to Cusco...first though, some fun train tunnels. We Flattened Pesos on the tracks when the trains went by to keep as our own homemade souveneirs
More Rage!! yes i know there are a lot of pictures of random rivers and rapids, but serious, it just doesnt get old...loooooook at that thing!
Just your run of the mill landslide that triggered itself in the early morning heavy rain...they cleared most of the tracks with heavy machinary but did the final finishing touches by hand...in the States you wouldnt be allowed half a mile from something like that, here the workers actually stopped to let us walk on by (and gape and take photos!) Yea Mother Nature
Not sure why they decided the hydro diversion tunnel should emerge 150 feet above the river...but i'm glad they did!!!!!
Trying to convey the dodginess of a road via a photo is nearly impossible, but 1 lane, thousand foot drop, 2 way traffic, gravel, blind corners, fast drivers, bike tours with incompetent biking tourists and the occasional land slide or flooding side stream are all trying to be represented here...like i said, hard to do.
Pretty birdie....(whats that line from Dumb and Dumber)
Not sure why they decided the hydro diversion tunnel should emerge 150 feet above the river...but i'm glad they did!!!!!
Trying to convey the dodginess of a road via a photo is nearly impossible, but 1 lane, thousand foot drop, 2 way traffic, gravel, blind corners, fast drivers, bike tours with incompetent biking tourists and the occasional land slide or flooding side stream are all trying to be represented here...like i said, hard to do.
Pretty birdie....(whats that line from Dumb and Dumber)
For 2 hours we listened to this girl say...Uno, Dos, Diez...1, 2, 10 oh how we wanted to throw her out the window after the 736th time...we did try to teach her the numbers correctly tho to give us some credit, it obviously failed.
Pile O Mangos and a wait for our next leg of the trip back to Cusco
Red roofs of Cusco
That pretty much ends the Machu Picchu trip. I'll save the puking incident for the next write up, but ill tell ya now, i broke some records, had some firsts, and eventually ended up in the hospital trying to shit in a 1 inch diameter test tube...NOT easy to do my friends, not easy at all.
Red roofs of Cusco
That pretty much ends the Machu Picchu trip. I'll save the puking incident for the next write up, but ill tell ya now, i broke some records, had some firsts, and eventually ended up in the hospital trying to shit in a 1 inch diameter test tube...NOT easy to do my friends, not easy at all.
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