Monday, December 22, 2008

The Inka Trail to Machu Picchu

Quite possibly the most famous trail in the world, the Inka Trail begins at Kilometer 82 in the Sacred Valley and finishes at Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inka´s located on a remote mountain top in the middle of the Andes mountains. It was 4 of the most amazing days of my life.
We were packed and ready to go. There were 6 of us in our group, groups range from 6 to 25, so we lucked out in that department. Only 500 people are allowed to enter the trail per day, and generally 200 are tourists and 300 are porters. The porters carried the tents, food, and cooking supplies.
Each time we stopped for lunch or dinner, our tents would be set up and hot food would be cooking in the tent kitchen, it was amazing. We had to carry our own backpacks with our sleeping bags and mattress, snacks, clothes, personal items, ect.



The trail begins....It would take us over 3 mountain peaks, each slightly more challenging then the next, along valleys, across rivers and streams, through the Jungle, around lakes, next to magnificent waterfalls, right through the mountains, and would lead us to 4 different Inca Archaeological sights along the way. Inca lookout towers, agriculture centers, check points, and towns would begin to prepare us for what we would see the final morning with the sunrise.


















Crossing rivers....















Climbing from the valley....(Yes that´s the trail I am pointing at)














Through the Amazon Jungle....














Above the cloud forests....















At times it was so beautiful all you could do was put your hands up....















Exhausted after reaching an Archaeological sight....














Sure enough, I was camping in the land of the Inca....















More Archaeological sights along the way....





























Could you build a house, a city, on the side of mountain and have it last over 500 years!?















I would guesstimate that for abut 92% of the trail if you fell off the side, it would be certain death. You would either fall thousands of feet off a mountain, tumble uncontrollably down a steep hillside, or fall into class four rapids in the river below. Fortunately for me, I only fell about 8 feet.
I suffered some minor scrapes and cuts, but the most damage was done to my ego. I landed on vines and branches that prevented a fall off the side of the mountain. Lucky to say the least!
This is a picture of me over the side of the trail laughing at myself, waiting to get pulled back up.















The morning of the 4th day the porters woke everyone up for ¨"tent service" with tea at 4am. Breakfast was at 4:30am, and we are off for the final 2 hours of the trek to Machu Picchu at 5am. The last 2 hours was all up hill and it was a race against dawn to make it to the Sun Gate before the Sun did. Watching the sun rise over the last peak and shine through the sun gate onto Machu Picchu was incredible. We had made it, and began our descent into the lost city.

A view of Machu Picchu city from Wayna Picchu Mountain, the sharp peak in the background of the next two pictures.


Machu Picchu city and Wayna Picchu Mountain. (the big peak in the background)

















Machu Picchu city was discovered by Hiram Binham in 1911, an American who was looking for Vilcamamba, the last stronghold of the Inca´s, which was supposed to have untold amounts of gold and silver treasure. However, the remains of Vilcamamba are actually much further in the jungle and were found without any treasure.
Leading theories for Machu Picchu claim the city was both a home for the Nobel educated class, and as an outpost for conquering the nearby jungle. However, the city was abandoned and with it all evidence for it´s exact function. An estimated 500-1000 people lived in the city, based on the amount of the houses and terraces for supplying food.
Machu Pichu was never found by the Spanish, and thus remains in remarkable condition. It was abandoned as the Spanish advanced into the Sacred Valley, but houses, storage buildings for crops, temples, sun dials, and much much more are all still present. A small quarry still exists in the city as further evidence that the city was still being constructed.


Doing a little heavy lifting in the quarry.














A picture from inside the city.













Descending into the city after four days of hard work was amazing. Being inside the city you could feel a certain energy, it´s hard to describe but it´s a happiness in your heart, a smile on your face, and buzzing in your soul.
















Sunday, December 14, 2008

Over Due Post






Puno:
Lago Titicaca is the seconds highest navigable lake in the world and the largest lake in South America. The lake is the birthplace of the first Inca´s and it seemed a fitting place to visit before heading to Cusco and the Sacred Valley.




A cradle for early civilizations, the Pukara people settled in Puno and on Lago Titicaca in 200 B.C. and it has been inhabited ever since. The Uros culture lived on the shores of the lake in pre Incan times, and in an effort to escape the Inca´s created floating islands out in the lake made of reeds that grow in and around the lake. The culture constructed hundreds of floating reed islands where they also built their houses, schools, stores, boats, and clothes all out of the reeds. The islands are continually rotting and sinking, thus a top layer of reeds is added weekly. I took a boat out to the Islands to experience them first hand, and have never seen anything like it. They are all connected by ropes and anchors and the people have removed the reeds in the middle of the islands to create mini fisheries for food. It was crazy.

Sillustani:
30 minutes from Puno, nestled high on a peninsula above Lago Umayo massive funerary towers were constructed to house the most important Incan royalty on their way to the next world. Over 36 feet tall, the cylindrical structures are an engineering mystery. Archaeologists have been trying to rebuild and duplicate similar structures, using today's technology, without success. The pieces of rock are too big, the structures too high, and the quarry too distant to transport the rocks.









Cusco:
I have settled in Cusco. The closer I got, the less I could resist is magnetic pull. And once I arrived, I immediately knew why. It is a magical city with endless ruins, markets, and museums to explore during the day, and parties every night of the week until sunrise.
After much haggling, I negotiated a room for a month for $100 and have been enjoying having my bag unpacked and a place to call home for more than a few days at a time. Cusco is full of old Incan fortresses, temples, and ruins of a lost time, suffice it to say they are all amazing and awe inspiring and it is beyond me to give them all due descriptions.


Here I am happy and with a full beard in Cusco.

Saturday, December 6, 2008

Unexplained mysteries....


Thousands of miles into the desert the small town of Nazca exists for only one reason, to provide a place for visitors to the mysterious Nazca lines to sleep, eat, and leave.
Spread across over 500 kilometers of desert, with over 800 straight lines, 300 geometric figures, and 70 plant and animal drawings the lines encompass a huge area. So many of the lines overlap, intersect, and are of such huge proportion, they cannot be viewed from the ground. Only when seen from above can one interpret the striking network of shapes, animals, channels, and figures that all seem to radiate from a central starting point. The animal and humanoid shapes are sketched into the sand using one continuous line, as though the artist never picked up their pencil from the desert floor, despite the fact that some of the designs are kilometers long, and the triangles and shapes make perfect right angled triangles, rectangles, or perfect straight lines running kilometers through the desert.
Questions are abundant, where as agreed up explanations are harder to come by.
Why would a culture go through such extravagant means to create such intricate designs when they could not see them to appreciate them and, they could not see what they were doing. Without being able to look down on you´re canvass, it seems impossible to make such perfect creations.
When were they created? Estimates range from 900 B.C. to who knows. Radiocarbon dating proves the Nazca people lived at the same time the lines existed, but provides no prove they actually constructed them. Many theorists suggest the Nazca people were as baffled as present day scholars.
Why were they created? Theories range from an advanced astronomical implication, to offerings to the God´s, to even a landing strip for Extraterrestrials. (Notice the drawing on the rock. Alien, or just a dude with a big head?)
In any event, they remain one of the greatest archaeological mysteries in the world.


Many of the Andean peoples myths and legends suggest an ancient civilization, pre Inca, pre everything, that lived in what is now Peru and Bolivia thousands of years ago. This was a civilization made up of giants, which one finds oneself believing after viewing the massive rocks and stones used for construction of ruins littered all over Peru and Bolivia. No ordinary person, or even persons could move such huge stones such large distances. Could they? Does a civilization of giants explain the Nazca lines?
Proof for an ancient civilization much older than leading theories suggest is said to lie in a desert isolated high in the mountains. I was on the next bus...
I got off the bus in a very small town, compass and map handy and began walking away from what little civilization the town provided. Armed with sunscreen, water, and insect repellent I began hiking into the desert. 30 minutes later I was above the town looking down at endless fields of rice and corn. I turned back and continued hiking further into the desert, eventually reaching a stone structure indicating the path had ended. I was confused, where were the special stones. Had I come all this way for nothing? In fact, what was I even looking for. I surveyed my surroundings, I was in a bit of a valley between small mountains, with rocks, of all sizes, as far as I could I see.
I took a closer look at a large rock before me. Amazed at what I saw, I looked again at my surroundings, but this time with bewilderment. Everyone of these thousands of rocks, spread over several kilometers, some as small as a soccer ball, others as large as houses, were covered with petroglyphs! Carved drawings of people, animals, plants, birds.

Best guesses date the site at 1200 years old. In reality, no one knows who or why the site was constructed. As I walked around exploring the carvings, I couldn't help but be reminded of the lines in Nazca. The carvings were small ( especially for giants) but what was really interesting was the scale of the humans with the animals, suggesting humans were as large or larger than the animals. Speaking of animals, dinosaurs and other currently extinct animals were drawn! Does this suggest the culture that created this site lived at the time of these animals, or equally as far fetched, somehow they had knowledge of animals thousands of years extinct.
Hmm. Interesting, no?


Wednesday, December 3, 2008

To the roof of the world and back...

It´s impossible not to see El Misti from everywhere in Arequipa. It looms over the East side of the city, only 17 kilometers away, it is a towering presence that´s impossible to look at without thinking to ones self, I wonder what the world looks like from up there.

At the summit, looking down into the active crater stands a cross ten meters tall, suggesting making it that far would require additional help.
At over 19, 133 feet, about 5,000 feet higher than the tallest Mountain in the Continental USA (Mount Whitney, CA) El Misti is a true test of skill, endurance, and what I would soon find out, will power.

As the 4x4 drove off in the other direction, and my guide starting walking towards the hulking presence that now took up my entire field of vision, I felt confident and excited, not a problem I said to myself. Yeah, right.

After 6 hours of hiking up- over, rocks, sand, and through volcanic ash, we arrived at base camp. We had made good time, so we pushed for the higher of the two base camps at 15,748 feet, we were already higher than Mount Rainer, Washington´s highest peak and that much closer to the summit the following morning. I felt good, we had kept a steady pace, and I had consumed an equally steady pace of coca leave products, as I knew altitude sickness would be my worst enemy, 7 out of 10 mountaineers who attempt El Misti experience it and don´t make it past base camp.

The sun sets early in the mountains, and we ate a quick meal of of spaghetti and coca de mate tea around 6pm, before taking refuge in our tent and sleeping bags. At 15k feet, without the sun, the temperature drops fast and I quickly layered up for the night. I expected to fall fast asleep, as both my body and my mind were exhausted from the day´s climb. It wasen´t to be though, as my Nemesis, altitude sickness began to take effect.

I knew I needed a good nights sleep for the assault on the summit the following morning, and the more I tried to will myself to sleep, the less likely it was to happen. It was below freezing outside, but I stripped down to one pair of pants and a t-shirt and lay on top of my sleeping bag as I battled the fever that had now taken over my body. I tossed and turned restlessly, listening to my guide sleep peacefully next to me, and the family of fox´s that had a taken interest in our tent. I could not have slept for more than 15 mins at a time and a total of two hours all night. My headache was getting worse and I knew I was running out of time. We needed to get started.

At 3:15am, my guide made me a special tea, and lacking an appetite he forced me to choke down a piece of bread with jam. We stepped out of the tent and into a movie, the entire city lay illuminated in the darkness straight down below us, and to our left a stream of light was breaching the horizon. The sun was on it´s way, and feeling slightly better, so were we.

As we left our ice covered tent behind, the true accent began. Life was no longer present at this altitude, where as before moss covered boulders or reeds growing out of the sand provided proof that life was meant to exist, here there was none. The freezing wind, lack of water, and bitter cold at this height are not meant to support life, and I felt those facts all the way to my bones. I pushed hard for the first hour, and we made solid progress. Only 4 more to go I said to myself.

I don´t know when or where exactly it happened, but I could no longer breathe. It wasen´t the headache or drowsy feeling from the altitude sickness, it was something different. There was no oxygen in the air. I panicked for a moment, but turned around sat on a rock and watched the city slowly wake up and the sun rise. After a couple of minutes, I had my breath back, but it would be a long time before I could breathe normally again.

The lack of oxygen didn´t just effect my lungs, but my whole body. I no longer had oxygen for my muscles in my legs, or for my brain to work properly. I could only answer the guides questions in one word answers, or with a thumbs up. Both were always lies. I couldn't´t take more than 10 steps without losing my breath. I was fighting for every breath. And so it went, ten baby steps up, sit down for 30 seconds to catch my breath, and on and on the process went. Somehow the minutes turned to hours and we were actually making progress.

We were still an hour from the top and I was ready to quit. 10 steps had turned to 5 before needing a break, and I had begun falling asleep while sitting down to catch my breath, which was making me nervous. I was scared I wasen´t going to be able to make it. The guide was telling me we were making good time, and to continue to rest as needed. It wasen´t possible though, I wanted hot chocolate, a sauna, and a bed, not an extra five minutes of rest on the side of what felt like the moon. Incredibly, and I think this is because the lack of oxygen had rendered me stupid, after each rest I would continue to stand, and walk up towards the summit. Each time I was literally surprised.

After 5 grueling, without a doubt most challenging hours of my entire life, we crested the summit. I iimmediately laid down and took a 30 minute nap. I was a zombie, but the views were ridiculous. We were on top of the world. We explored the summit for a while, took some pictures, but I needed to get to lower altitudes, as I still couldn't speak in complete sentences and the wind on the summit was surely of hurricane force.

From past eruptions, huge alley ways lead straight down the mountain covered 2-3 feet deep in soft volcanic ash. This was our route down, as we ran, slid, and slipped our way straight down the mountain. I was greeted at base camp with a clear head, an incredible hunger, and to my surprise a gigantic rainbow circling the sun. It was a beautiful site, and capped a beautiful experience.