Apologies again for the lack of pics. As I give detailed descriptions of my recent hike along the Inca Trail, I'm slightly embarrassed to think of myself as a photographer and not put pics in this post. But when 1 picture takes around 7 minutes or so to upload with these slow internet speeds throughout South America, I would rather keep all of you readers up to date with my travels and show pictures at a later date. Call me anal, but I is who I is.
Doing any kind of tour with a group can lead to various levels of enjoyment depending on the personalities of all parties involved. I was extraordinarily fortunate during my 4 months through Africa to meet people who have now become friends for life and was equally fortunate in meeting friends for life over my recent Inca Trail adventure which culminated on 11/11/12, one of the best days of my entire life. Not just during my RTW travels this year, but of my ENTIRE LIFE.
Here in the southern hemisphere, summer means rainy season in Cusco, which should have meant miserable conditions during some portions of the 26 mile hike. For centuries, the Incans and the Peruvians have prayed to the Sun God, Mountain God, and Mother Earth God so that their farming and livelihoods are prosperous. I'm not a religious man, but I am a man who likes to take alot of photographs in relatively ideal conditions, so there was nightly praying to these Gods so that my Nikon d700 got as much of a workout as my quads, calves, and buttocks did while hiking to elevations which topped out at 13,860 ft (4200m). The hike itself spanned 4 days, and as I previously stated, was the length of a marathon race. Having run a marathon last year, I can definitely say that that experience was more grueling given all of the training which was necessary to ensure my success, but this hike was a real close second, given the altitudes where it took place. There was lots of huffing and puffing and burning lungs. Lactic acid filled muscles rudely greeted me each morning during my first few steps following each 5am wakeup. But you know what? None of that stuff mattered.
I was with 16 other amazing people (guides included) who filled each day with companionship, laughter, and encouragement. My Swiss friend Anina was by my side every step of the way. The Australian Las Chicas Locas always managed to keep the mood light and put smiles on the faces of everyone while at camp. And the Wolfpack members combined all 3 of those aforementioned qualities. Every person in the group added a unique quality which made this group dynamic something special. As I've mentioned in previous posts, good company can make mediocre experiences more enjoyable and turn amazing experiences into something more memorable than words can explain. Consider me speechless. I am forever grateful to all of you.
As for the scenery. There are times during most hikes when I often wonder to myself why I'm bothering to go on that particular hike. For me, I need a payoff. I need amazing views to make a hike seem more like an experience and less like exercise. The Inca Trail was littered with whiplash inducing, jaw dropping payoffs. I even found myself laughing at times because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. There were moments when I literally felt as though I was on top of the world. With each passing beautiful weather day, I kept hoping that our final day at Machu Picchu wouldn't be the day when the rainy season finally got the memo to, well, rain on our parade. In talking to Anina, I just kept saying, "Just give me 10 minutes of sunshine at Machu Picchu." Enough for me to see it, photograph it, and get a feel for the grand city nestled in the Andes Mountains. And while I would have accepted a rainy fate on that final day, given the metaphorical pedestal I had placed this day on my RTW trip, I would have been highly disappointed if rain and wind was the story of the day more than Machu Picchu itself. Not only did the weather cooperate, it came through in spades.
11/11/12: 3am wake-up. Pitch black. Sky full of stars and a sliver of a crescent moon. Valley full of fog. Legs feel surprisingly good following a day where we climbed down nearly 3000 steps over a 1000m elevation change. I was antsy to get this show on the road, but the gates didn't open until 5:30. Just before waiting in line (queue) for the better part of an hour, the fog in the valley started to clear, revealing jagged mountain peaks. An encouraging sign, and a really good photo given I had to use a tree stump for a tripod. As the gates opened, after about a 90min hike, including a section of the trail known as 'gringo killer' due to the steep incline of this wall of stairs, every hiker converged on The Gate of the Sun from where Machu Picchu could first be viewed. The initial clear views were followed by an eerie rolling fog, which obstructed the city for a few minutes, until it rolled out of the valley for the remainder of the day a few minutes later. Our tour leader said in his 200 or so hikes to this point, beautiful sunny weather has only happened about 30% of the time, at best. Not very good odds, but probably better odds than 4 consecutive virtually completely sunny days. And so, at 7am, I had my 10 minutes of sunshine and was satisfied with my Inca Trail experience. But 7am does not a day make. The next 5 hours wandering down to the city and then exploring the city, left me giddy. Ancient ruins, mountains, and blue skies with strategically placed clouds made for a photographer's dream. So as noon rolled around, and we left the ancient city, we had a relaxing and reflective lunch in the town of Aguas Calientes. At around 3pm we boarded a train for a 90min ride along a raging river at the base of the Andes. The train also had sky light like windows which allowed for clear viewing of the surrounding scenery which included many snow capped peaks. You would've thought that sitting on comfortable seats for the first time in 4 days would have trumped any desire to view the passing scenery, but you'd be wrong. Once the train ride ended, we boarded a private bus for our ride back to our hotel in Cusco. By 5pm we were on our way home, but the sights just kept on coming. I've been bragging since I witnessed Namibian sunsets nearly 6 months ago, that those were the best sunsets of the entire trip. However, I could make a really strong case that what I witnessed during this ride to the hotel was equally as good, if not better than those bright orange Namibian sunsets. The setting sun illuminated the snow capped peaks, and when the sun finally dipped behind the horizon, the sky lit up in deep dark oranges and blue, which served as the perfect backdrop for the jagged mountains in the foreground. We even made our driver stop the bus so we could get out, marvel, and drool. Giddy, yet again. Dance music filled the bus for the remainder of the ride home, and following a tasty dinner of pisco sours and guinea pig, yes, guinea pig, we all headed out for a night of dancing. I'm not usually much for dancing, although my African travel buddies may disagree, but I'd pretty much been dancing all day anyway, so taking my rigid hips and superb white man upper body dance moves to the clubs wasn't that much of a reach considering my mood during this 'once in a lifetime' type day. I danced my portion of the night away until 3am, completing the 24 hour challenge which so many hikers undertake on this final day of the Inca Trail hike. The perfect end to a perfect day.
And at the end of the night, as I unknowingly said a premature goodbye to Anina (I ended up staying in Cusco an extra day just to spend time with her and my other hiker friends who lingered in town for another day), one of the things she said to me struck me as the most poetic, genuinely nice things anyone has ever said to me. She used my words in a way which really encapsulated how I should feel about every single day. She wished me many more days filled with 10 minutes of sunshine. It really was the perfect metaphor for both this day and for those days when not everything goes my way. It is a message we can all take to heart. We should all look for those moments in each day which can fill us with happiness and embrace them. So, whether it is something which makes you laugh for a fleeting second or an entire 24 hours filled with goose bump moments, may all of your days be filled with 10 minutes of sunshine.
Doing any kind of tour with a group can lead to various levels of enjoyment depending on the personalities of all parties involved. I was extraordinarily fortunate during my 4 months through Africa to meet people who have now become friends for life and was equally fortunate in meeting friends for life over my recent Inca Trail adventure which culminated on 11/11/12, one of the best days of my entire life. Not just during my RTW travels this year, but of my ENTIRE LIFE.
Here in the southern hemisphere, summer means rainy season in Cusco, which should have meant miserable conditions during some portions of the 26 mile hike. For centuries, the Incans and the Peruvians have prayed to the Sun God, Mountain God, and Mother Earth God so that their farming and livelihoods are prosperous. I'm not a religious man, but I am a man who likes to take alot of photographs in relatively ideal conditions, so there was nightly praying to these Gods so that my Nikon d700 got as much of a workout as my quads, calves, and buttocks did while hiking to elevations which topped out at 13,860 ft (4200m). The hike itself spanned 4 days, and as I previously stated, was the length of a marathon race. Having run a marathon last year, I can definitely say that that experience was more grueling given all of the training which was necessary to ensure my success, but this hike was a real close second, given the altitudes where it took place. There was lots of huffing and puffing and burning lungs. Lactic acid filled muscles rudely greeted me each morning during my first few steps following each 5am wakeup. But you know what? None of that stuff mattered.
I was with 16 other amazing people (guides included) who filled each day with companionship, laughter, and encouragement. My Swiss friend Anina was by my side every step of the way. The Australian Las Chicas Locas always managed to keep the mood light and put smiles on the faces of everyone while at camp. And the Wolfpack members combined all 3 of those aforementioned qualities. Every person in the group added a unique quality which made this group dynamic something special. As I've mentioned in previous posts, good company can make mediocre experiences more enjoyable and turn amazing experiences into something more memorable than words can explain. Consider me speechless. I am forever grateful to all of you.
As for the scenery. There are times during most hikes when I often wonder to myself why I'm bothering to go on that particular hike. For me, I need a payoff. I need amazing views to make a hike seem more like an experience and less like exercise. The Inca Trail was littered with whiplash inducing, jaw dropping payoffs. I even found myself laughing at times because I couldn't believe what I was witnessing. There were moments when I literally felt as though I was on top of the world. With each passing beautiful weather day, I kept hoping that our final day at Machu Picchu wouldn't be the day when the rainy season finally got the memo to, well, rain on our parade. In talking to Anina, I just kept saying, "Just give me 10 minutes of sunshine at Machu Picchu." Enough for me to see it, photograph it, and get a feel for the grand city nestled in the Andes Mountains. And while I would have accepted a rainy fate on that final day, given the metaphorical pedestal I had placed this day on my RTW trip, I would have been highly disappointed if rain and wind was the story of the day more than Machu Picchu itself. Not only did the weather cooperate, it came through in spades.
11/11/12: 3am wake-up. Pitch black. Sky full of stars and a sliver of a crescent moon. Valley full of fog. Legs feel surprisingly good following a day where we climbed down nearly 3000 steps over a 1000m elevation change. I was antsy to get this show on the road, but the gates didn't open until 5:30. Just before waiting in line (queue) for the better part of an hour, the fog in the valley started to clear, revealing jagged mountain peaks. An encouraging sign, and a really good photo given I had to use a tree stump for a tripod. As the gates opened, after about a 90min hike, including a section of the trail known as 'gringo killer' due to the steep incline of this wall of stairs, every hiker converged on The Gate of the Sun from where Machu Picchu could first be viewed. The initial clear views were followed by an eerie rolling fog, which obstructed the city for a few minutes, until it rolled out of the valley for the remainder of the day a few minutes later. Our tour leader said in his 200 or so hikes to this point, beautiful sunny weather has only happened about 30% of the time, at best. Not very good odds, but probably better odds than 4 consecutive virtually completely sunny days. And so, at 7am, I had my 10 minutes of sunshine and was satisfied with my Inca Trail experience. But 7am does not a day make. The next 5 hours wandering down to the city and then exploring the city, left me giddy. Ancient ruins, mountains, and blue skies with strategically placed clouds made for a photographer's dream. So as noon rolled around, and we left the ancient city, we had a relaxing and reflective lunch in the town of Aguas Calientes. At around 3pm we boarded a train for a 90min ride along a raging river at the base of the Andes. The train also had sky light like windows which allowed for clear viewing of the surrounding scenery which included many snow capped peaks. You would've thought that sitting on comfortable seats for the first time in 4 days would have trumped any desire to view the passing scenery, but you'd be wrong. Once the train ride ended, we boarded a private bus for our ride back to our hotel in Cusco. By 5pm we were on our way home, but the sights just kept on coming. I've been bragging since I witnessed Namibian sunsets nearly 6 months ago, that those were the best sunsets of the entire trip. However, I could make a really strong case that what I witnessed during this ride to the hotel was equally as good, if not better than those bright orange Namibian sunsets. The setting sun illuminated the snow capped peaks, and when the sun finally dipped behind the horizon, the sky lit up in deep dark oranges and blue, which served as the perfect backdrop for the jagged mountains in the foreground. We even made our driver stop the bus so we could get out, marvel, and drool. Giddy, yet again. Dance music filled the bus for the remainder of the ride home, and following a tasty dinner of pisco sours and guinea pig, yes, guinea pig, we all headed out for a night of dancing. I'm not usually much for dancing, although my African travel buddies may disagree, but I'd pretty much been dancing all day anyway, so taking my rigid hips and superb white man upper body dance moves to the clubs wasn't that much of a reach considering my mood during this 'once in a lifetime' type day. I danced my portion of the night away until 3am, completing the 24 hour challenge which so many hikers undertake on this final day of the Inca Trail hike. The perfect end to a perfect day.
And at the end of the night, as I unknowingly said a premature goodbye to Anina (I ended up staying in Cusco an extra day just to spend time with her and my other hiker friends who lingered in town for another day), one of the things she said to me struck me as the most poetic, genuinely nice things anyone has ever said to me. She used my words in a way which really encapsulated how I should feel about every single day. She wished me many more days filled with 10 minutes of sunshine. It really was the perfect metaphor for both this day and for those days when not everything goes my way. It is a message we can all take to heart. We should all look for those moments in each day which can fill us with happiness and embrace them. So, whether it is something which makes you laugh for a fleeting second or an entire 24 hours filled with goose bump moments, may all of your days be filled with 10 minutes of sunshine.
WOW- so glad you had a wonderful time on this latest leg of your trip. Dancing until 3 a.m. that must be a first! I'll look for my 10 minutes of sunshine tomorrow.
ReplyDeleteHappy Travels
MomG
Awesome stuff man. I'll be honest, Machu Picchu had been a bit ruined for me by just hearing about to non-stop in the travel/blog world for so long, but you have TOTALLY put it back on my must-do list, and this is without the pictures. Really happy you had that kind of experience too!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, that sounds like an absolutely amazing experience and one that you were fortunate enough to appreciate so much as it was happening! And Anina sounds so incredibly insightful and wise - I'm glad you got your 10 minutes of sunshine!!
ReplyDelete