Heading back to Lima today from Cuzco. Went over to the airport and posted up in another terrible airport lounge. Eventually the scheduled departure time for my flight rolled around and there was no indication as to what was happening or where to go for that on any of the boards. So, I nervously wandered around the whole airport to individually check each gate. On the second lap I ran into someone from the airline (finally) who informed me that the flight had been delayed for an unknown amount of time. So I returned to the lounge for a few hours and this time the thing actually came up on the board and informed me where to go to get on my plane. Win! It’s an easy flight back to Lima, just up and down. Endured the annoyance of trying to track down an Uber in the chaos of the Lima airport and then headed home. Even though it was a short trip I was still pretty exhausted from the weekend so I went right to sleep.
Category: Lima
Day 297 | March 19
Since I was already missing the Inca Trail hike I was going to be damned if I was going to let a bunch of tourists ruin my Machu Pichu photos on top of it. Thinking myself clever I resolved to wake up at the crack of dawn so that I could head up at 5am and be waiting at the doors when they opened. Sadly… about a hundred other people had that same idea. While getting in was chaotic it was still quite empty as I was walking around.
I had bought a ticket to hike up Wayna Pichu (apologizes for all this spelling, too lazy to look it up) in the 7am wave. So I walked around for a bit and then made my way over there. The hike was arduous as you’re basically doing stairs the whole way up but it wasn’t long, I’d say it took maybe 40 minutes to get to the top. The views were very worth it too. I continued to follow the loop off the top of the mountain and fairly quickly found myself completely alone. I hadn’t done any research so I had no idea where I was going at this point but I figured it had to take me back to something I knew. So… on I went. This was actually the best part of the hike as no one else was around. But it seemed to add quite a bit of length as I later discovered I descended well below my starting point and so I had to climb back up to get out. By the end I was exhausted and pretty wrecked from tromping through mud, the cloud forest and… possibly… falling off a ladder.
Made it back and wandered around some more before heading down around noon or 1pm. I had some time to kill before my train back so I grabbed a huge lunch at Mapacho Craft Beer & Restaurant which was surprisingly good. I ate alpaca… Then it was to the train station and a train and a bus back to my hotel in Cuzco by 9pm where I crashed immediately.
All in all, I have to say this is one of the few things I’ve seen that’s really lived up to the hype.
Day 296 | March 18
Today was a pretty uneventful day spent by slowing working my way closer to Machu Pichu. During the rainy season (now) apparently trains don’t run all the way from Cuzco so I had to begin the morning with a two hour bus ride to the nearest train station. The drive (the parts I didn’t sleep through) was gorgeous, though. Then I boarded a train for the remainder of the journey and more great views. The train was very well done, good service, good snacks and the extra large windows were great for the ride. The town at the base of Machu Pichu is called Aguascalientes (because of the hot springs) and it’s a funky little place. Much like Cuzco it’s got a very international feel because of all of the tourism coming in from all over the world. But it is a tiny little place tucked along the river. I had lunch at a neat place called The Tree House which had excellent food. I was unusually tired, though, so I basically just rested for the remainder of the day as I had yet another early start in store for tomorrow.
Day 295 | March 17
Leaving for a very compressed trip to Machu Pichu today. My timing couldn’t have been better, either. Peru has been experiencing massive flooding lately and the word was that running water was getting cut off to Lima. I had enough time to pack and get some work done before heading to the airport and right as I was finishing up to leave our water ran out. It’s an easy flight to Cuzco from Lima, just over an hour. Spoiler alert, the domestic lounge at the Lima airport sucks. Made it to Cuzco and then met up with another Remote for an extremely important event, St. Patricks Day! It just so happens that “The World’s Highest 100% Irish Owned Pub” was only a ten minute walk from my hotel. As we both had early days the next day things didn’t get too crazy and it was still a relatively early night.
Day 294 | March 16
Another early start to the day and I headed right over to the work space. I had a lot to do to try and clear my schedule for my departure to Cusco tomorrow. Broke for lunch at a mediocre sandwich joint across the street, J. J. Sandwich. I intended to work through the rest of the evening but got distracted by a dinner invitation so I ended up heading back over to the JW Marriott with a fellow Remote. Then called it a day.
Day 293 | March 15
Another productive day. Was up and at the work space early. Broke for lunch at this little place Smutis across from the office. It was alright but I don’t know that I’ll return. Basically worked right through until eight or nine and then called it. On the way home I stopped at this sandwich place La Lucha Sanguchería Criolla that had some of the better fries I’ve ever had.
Day 292 | March 14
Actually did get an early start to the day today and was up and a beacon of productivity at 5am. Which was good because I got a little bit distracted around lunch. Some of the other survivors of our weekend trek were going to my favorite, La Mar, so I had to go as well. Killer ceviche at this place. Then it was back to the workspace to work for the rest of the day. Around eight I was really hitting my breaking point so I headed over to the bar at the JW Marriott, my hangout at home in these situations. The one here is nice, looks out over the ocean but the really great thing about this place is they have excellent live music every night. Worked there until around ten or eleven and then called it a day.
Day 291 | March 13
Still pretty worn down from the weekend. I had intended to snap right up and get to work but that didn’t happen. I wandered around and got breakfast at La Bonbonniere which is in this really nice mall that overlooks the ocean. Not a bad spot for breakfast. Secured some replacement clothes at that mall and then headed over to the work space for the rest of the day. On the way home I got sidetracked by a small Italian place that was just ok and then called it a night.
Day 290 | March 12
Between being completely freezing and laying on the rock-hard ground I didn’t get much sleep. Somehow the wet clothes I set out in my tent managed to get even more wet over the course of the evening as well. This made me very reticent to leave my tent even though I couldn’t sleep and was terribly uncomfortable. The upshot was the moon setting over the mountains was also gorgeous. And an even bigger win, one of my companions managed to scrounge up some coffee from some of the better provisioned folks about. That got me moving and we took a walk through the ruins and shot some photos of the sun coming up. We didn’t linger for long, though, and broke down the hike to begin the walk back. The return journey was much easier. Downhill obviously. We got more sketchy lunch in the ghost-town at the trail head and then headed back to the car. The best part was that the road was in much better shape today and we didn’t have to get out of the car constantly to make repairs before we could pass. We made a stop in Huaral where we ended up sitting in a little bodega drinking beer. After that it was just the long road back to Lima.
Day 289 | March 11
An early start to the day to shower and gather the few things that I can actually carry in the small pack I brought with me on my travels. I have no idea what to expect from this hike so I’ve skewed the things I’m bringing with me toward food and water so we don’t actually die. There are four of us on this expedition, three of us Remotes and one poor girl who literally landed coming in from Philly about midnight the night before. It’s a drive of several hours before we have to begin walking.
We stopped in the town of Huaral on the way. Lima, especially Miraflores, feels like a pretty modern city. Or at least a city on the way to being modern. Huaral, two hours north, is a totally different story. It felt like being back in Africa. Or better to say a cross between Africa and the outskirts of Mexico City.
From here we pressed on into the mountains and up. The ascent is all a dirt road which in decent conditions is another 90 minute drive. However, it’s currently the rainy season. So naturally the road is a complete wreck. A van of tourists in front of us ended up getting stuck so we did the hospitable thing and brazenly passed them, literally touched their car and left them for dead. Further on the road was washed out. But we had come too far to let a thing like that stop us so we got to work rebuilding it. Literally moving dirt and mud around with branches and rocks until we had graded things out enough to pass. We had to do this several more times. We finally made it to a small town where we were given some semi-questionable rice and chicken for lunch.
From here we transitioned to hiking. This was a gorgeous, surreal hike. Everything is incredibly green, you’re walking on the side of pretty dramatic cliffs and the clouds are so tight around you that you can’t see maybe 50 yards. Midway through it started raining hard so we were soaked even despite having ponchos. We finally made it to the top but without the exertion it got cold very quickly. We tried to start a fire but it was so wet that we couldn’t even get tissues or toilet paper to burn as kindling. At this point I was shaking violently but then the sun started to set and it was all worth while. It was easily the most amazing sunset I’d ever seen. Clouds below us in the valley accenting the peaks all lit up orange as the sun hit them, and there was a rainbow behind us over the peaks above us. Unable to get a fire going and still freezing we “went to sleep” early. It’s a real testament to how old I’ve gotten that I was so uncomfortable sleeping on the ground. I don’t think I got more than 20 minutes of sleep at any one time that night.
