Peru - Chapter 5

We decided to take it easy that night and get some actual rest. Our big 5 day trek was coming up Monday morning and we wanted to try to conserve our energy. We ambled around the square, had some local pizza for dinner, and watched some TV back at the hostal.

On Sunday before we were set to meet our guide, we spoke with Amerigo, the coordinator, who was a native Peruvian but spoke with an English accent. It was very interesting, because he grew up in Cusco, but had been dealing with tourists for so long that he had developed his English with an accent commensurate to someone from the Commonwealth. We also met Tim, a 22 year old South African student who would be joining along with our group. Tim was a perfect fit. He was a slight fellow, even a bit gangly, but only about 5'9". He had long, stringy pale blonde hair and a few long whiskers on his chin. His demeanor was unparalleled to anyone I've ever met. He was extremely pleasant, always happy, very sharp, low key, and quite funny. He could not have been a better addition to our excursion. I hope the feeling was reciprocated.

The real prize though was Jaime, our trek guide. Jaime was a short, athletic, middle-aged native of Cusco who was as full of life as anyone can be. His straight black hair fell down on his forehead as he spoke animatedly, introducing us to the rigors of the trail and he would flail his head back and whip the hair out of his face with his fingers and laugh. "Es crazy, no?" was the end to nearly every sentence, and from the minute he met us, he only referred to us as "my friends". When telling us about our stops along the trail, he would pause, become very passionate and say, "And then my friends, we will come to our first stop for the day, and then......a-llluuuunch." He was adamant that we understood when and where we would be stopping for lunch each day of the trek. Even for the fourth day out, he made sure to tell us when and where the lunch break would be. It was quite the schedule, which by the way, was completely broken by the end of day 2. In fact, as the trek ended we really did not get to our destination via the original plans whatsoever. At least the effort was there.

So with every step of our lives for the next 5 days planned out, just like Derrell liked it, we set off to get some sleep. The bus would be arriving to pick us up at our hostel at 4:30 a.m. the next day, not that that is early or anything. When it did arrive, we were ready to roll. It was very cold there the entire time, but 4:30 a.m. is about as cold as it gets at an altitude of 11,000 feet. Bundled up and tired as possible, we got on the bus and embarked for the trail head. Sleeping most of the way the first half of the trip, we stopped at a house that doubled as a convenient store/restaurant in a sparse mountain village around 6:30 a.m. for some fresh breakfast. This was the beginning of what would be some of the most enjoyable prepared meals I've ever experienced. We were introduced to the deliciousness that were Peruvian panqueques, grilled pancakes that were made from some sort of sweet batter. We also had fresh squeezed orange juice, fresh coffee, coca tea, and we saw a room full of guinea pigs that were bred to later become what is considered a Peruvian delicacy. We did eventually obtain first hand experience of this delicacy and it was honestly the most disappointing part of the trip. As it turns out, guinea pig is about 5 times more expensive any other entree and about 1/1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 times as enjoyable. No worries though, in case you were, because we didn't experience that horror until after the trek. It was better that we saw all the cute, living guinea pigs as a high note to begin the trip because as it turns out, a fully intact boiled guinea pig is not awesome.

After the delightful breakfast we got back on the bus to finish the second half of the mountain ascent. Daylight was starting to break through the fog and we were getting our first real looks at some amazing terrain. This would also be our first experience with the less than domestic mountain roads, which were really not roads at all, more just dirt clearings, sort of, but it would certainly not be our last. Several times going up the mountain our cook, Laurinito, had to get off the bus to create small bridges over gaps in the path with rocks and sundry available mountain items in order to navigate the bus over the rugged terrain. After 4 1/2 long, hard hours, hours that proved to be harder than most of the physical trekking through the mountains themselves, we arrived at the trail head, unloaded the gear, loaded up the burroughs with the tents and heavy equipment, and headed up the path.

I remember looking up through the first mountain pass and being totally mesmerized. The pass was wide open and the mountains came gracefully down from each side to create a perfect opening to crystal blue sky. In the distance we could see the snow capped glacier that was the water source to that entire portion of the Andes and it was amazing. Our first climb was a steady, very gradual incline, but we were all immediately struggling for breathe. The combination of the extreme altitude, the first physical activity in some time, and probably a few too many Lucky Strikes in the immediately previous days added up to a rough first hour or so. We did soon find a rhythm and were making our way steadily up the mountain. The first day climb was the most challenging regardless as we covered the most ground (13 km) and ascended to our highest peak (almost 15,000 ft). By the time we reached the high point of the pass, I had an incredible altitude headache. We took some great pictures by the Salkantay Pass sign, had a shot of whiskey courtesy of Jaime, and even had a small ceremony with some rocks we had collected from the mountain along the way. I can't be sure what the ceremony signified exactly, so if any of my colleagues do in fact recall, please leave it as a comment on this post. Also at the top of the pass, the fog had rolled in extremely thick and it was really not possible to see more than a few feet in front of yourself in any direction. We trudged along and started to descend immediately, which turns out it much more difficult on the legs, particularly the knees, than climbing the inclines. But it was a great deal of fun and very challenging. At one point, we passed through a large open portion of the pass that was almost like a field, but again, the fog was so thick, unless you stayed right behind the person in front of you it was hard to determine where they had gone. This became mildly distressing for a moment as after we passed the area and were back into the narrow mountain passes, we seemed to have lost Derrell. He had fallen behind and then been amiss as to what path to take through the open area. Eventually Jaime used some whistle calls to track him down, and we were all back together. When we got to our first camp point, the rain was coming down very steadily and it was extremely cold. We were fortunate to have great equipment men who got our tents and food tent set up rapidly and got us warm and dry with a propane heat lamp. By the time we reached camp though, I had such a bad altitude headache I could barely stand and could not even think about eating. I curled up in the tent and slept for a few moments until the meal was prepared, but the second I had a cup of hot Coca tea, it was like an instant cure. It was amazing. We drank Coca tea and chewed the leaves the rest of the trip, and I have honestly never felt naturally better. Coca leaves produce a very low level stimulant, but they are very important to the Peruvian mountain dwellers. They literally use them as a cure all as they help with everything from aches, pains, headaches, and illness to digestion and mental alertness. Like I said, amazing.

We had another great meal and Jaime took this opportunity to tell us a few mountain ghost stories. We also talked about all the different nationalities of people he had met and all the different ages. He said he once guided a man in his 80's on the Inca trail and it took an extraordinarily long time to finish each day of trekking because of how slow his pace was, but he did in fact make it the entire way. We also got to know Tim much better and Jaime deemed him "the Sacrifice" because he was the youngest of the group. The rest of the trip, he never called Tim anything except "the Sacrifice". I would venture to say there was at least a small portion of this that made Tim uncomfortable because we all knew that Jaime was borderline shit crazy. It was very entertaining.