The Inca Trail - Day 1

Yes, we did it! 4 long days of hiking in stunning mountains, along the same path that the royalty and spiritual leaders of the Incas walked, followed by a full day of touring Machu Picchu, which is quite a hike in and of itself. We can't express how amazing it was - the views, the history, and the accomplishment of doing something we didn't think our bodies would let us do.

On the first day, the tour company was smart: the trail is a gradual climb, they fed us a fabulous lunch and dinner, set up our tent and our Thermarest sleeping pads for us, and convinced us that we could survive Day 2. Our guide, Juan, picked us up in the plaza in Coya and we drove to Ollyantaytambo to meet our 4 porters and our cook. Then it was off to Kilometer 82 to start our trek.

There are believed to be 8 Inca Trails to Machu Picchu, but only 5 have been discovered so far. From Kilometer 82, there are two. One runs along next to the river, and is now the train tracks. This was used by everyday people, and it is much more direct! The trail we took was used by royalty and religious leaders, and it is definitely a pilgrimage, not a road for people in a hurry.

Highlights of Day 1 were:
- smearing mushed insects on our faces to ward off spirits of the dead
- eating tuna (which is cactus fruit, not a fish)
- eating cuy (guinea pig)
- the snow capped mountains that peeked out at us and kept me inspired as we walked
- having someone else carry everything, cook everything, and set up our tent
- camping out under a clear, starlit sky

La Isla de Monos (reprise)

We loved the Monkeys so much that we asked to go back a second time. We are seriously considering returning to volunteer. Either that or Mary wants one as a pet, which sort of defeats the purpose...
The red faced monkeys are caged because they are aggressive towards the other monkeys. The little one is 3 months old and SO cute.

Coya, Peru

Our home for the month of April is a guest house in Coya, Peru. Coya is a small town in the sacred valley, between two larger (but still pretty small) towns: Pisac (which boasts a thriving artisanal market...photos coming soon...and a grocery store that sells peanut butter, tostitos, and Trident gum) and Calca (which boasts a thriving food market every day, but especially Sundays). The stores in Coya are the common mercados that carry everything from fresh baked bread to Inca Cola to toilet paper. There is a central plaza and a well-respected medical clinic that provides outreach and free services to the Quechua community that lives in town and in a small village "mas arriba" (2.5 hour walk up the hill above town). Our house is also "arriba", but only a 30 minute walk. "Why is everyone walking?" you ask...well, most people cannot afford cars, and even if they could, the road is dirt and it floods/mudslides every rainy season. We arrived just in time for it to be fixed enough to be passable in a 4x4.

The people who live here are so strong. It is incredibly humbling to be huffing up the hill, only to be passed by an elderly woman, carrying a stack of corn stalks on her back, herding her cows. Agriculture is the family business here, and every day we see chanchas (pigs), vacas (cows), gallos (chickens), ovejas (sheep), burros (donkeys), and many many perros (dogs). The whole family participates, and it is not uncommon to see children as young as 8 watching the chanchas or vacas as they graze along the hillside during the day and then herding them home for the night. Corn and quinoa are the main crops. The valley is known for it's corn, and it seems to be one place that Monsantos has not taken over - all of the farms are individually owned, and those familes have a co-op that sells together to the big cities like Cusco and Lima.

When we first arrived, it was the start of Semana Santa (Saint's Week), and our taxi had to stop to wait for the procession to pass - it seemed as if the whole town was there in the street, with candles, chanting and walking along behind a large crucifix on their way to the church.

The church is on one end of the main plaza. In the plaza, there is a statue of a Dr who donated a bunch of money to the town in 1988 (which I suppose is better than a statue of some Spanish conquistador). I liked the way it looked against the green of the mountains. There is also a huge tree trunk, big enough to stand in.

Everywhere you look there are the mountains. Or only hills, I suppose - the foothills of the Andes - but to us, they are huge and majestic.

We celebrated Semana Santa by coloring eggs - using crayons because Paas is not sold here. In fact, Easter is not a thing...no bunny, no jelly beans, no chocolate eggs. Nada. Zilch. Luckily, we have an in with the American easter bunny and he did come and leave a basket for G and hide our colored eggs. Three children from a neighbor's family helped with the egg hunt (Jose-8, Jocelyn-8, and Brando-5). We also took a hike up the hill, which is our favorite way to celebrate easter/spring. In this part of Peru, we are moving into "winter", sort of. There are two seasons: wet and dry. We are moving into dry. It is cold (and clear and starry) at night and hot (and stunningly beautiful) during the day.

Swimming...

In the Amazon (okay, wading!) and in the beautiful pool at the lodge. We ALL loved the slide!

Flora and Fauna in the Amazon

There are a gazillion medicinal plants, a bazillion birds, a heck of a lot of butterflies, some sloths, and a few pink dolphins in the Amazon. We saw many of them!

Noelani and G at the end of the boat is when we were on a lake, searching for a prehistoric bird (the Hoatzin, pronounced "Watson"), which we did not find. We did find sloths and pink dolphins, but there are no photos. Sloths live too high up in the trees to see well, and the dolphins are much too fast to catch in a photo.

Visiting a (touristy) tribal village

I am very curious about indigenous cultures (I have this romantic idea that they have life all figured out and if the Europeans hadn't messed it up, the world would be a better place), so I wanted to visit the tribal village, but it was more of a show put on for tourists than a true picture of their lives. Kindof like going to a hawaiian luau - people used to dress like this and dance, but they don't anymore, except for tourists.

The true picture was a part of the village we passed through, where people were hanging out in their homes listening to pop music on the radio. Not so different from other places, except that for half of the year their homes have land under them and the other half of the year they have water. There is a social divide between the "river people" (people of mixed indigenous and Spanish blood, who have lost track of their indigenous roots, and live along the edge of the river) and "tribal people" (people who know their roots and still live in their tribal communities, inland from the river). My sense is that life is tough for both groups - they struggle to get a good education, to raise their crops and animals, and their job opportunities are limited. In the native village we visited, their income came from tourists paying to see their traditional huts, to dance in their traditional dances, and to try blowing a blowgun, and from those tourists buying handmade crafts. The main job opportunities for the river people seem to be tourist related: guides, restaurant workers, etc.

I am not sure what Gabriel thought about all of it. In the hut as we waited for the dancers to gather, he was most interested in the kitten. He enjoyed the blowgun part, and loves to shop. He bought himself a fan and me a bracelet. At the lodge which was our starting point and lunch place, he liked beating the drum. Hollowed out from a single log, the drums were used to communicate over long distances. Now, at the lodge, the drums announce mealtimes to tourists.

La Isla de los Monos (Monkey Island)

This was the most special experience. These monkeys have all been rescued - mostly from a market in Iquitos where they are illegally sold as pets, or the Moms have been killed for meat.  We want to go back and volunteer on our next trip.

Canopy Walk

We chose the Explorama Lodge because of this Canopy Walk, and we were not disappointed! We rose up and up and up into the canopy level of the forest, going from platform to platform. The highest platform was 118 ft tall. The walk was built for scientists, so that they can observe and measure the plant and animal activity. Now it is also used for tourists. Creatively constructed so as not to hurt the trees, the platforms were very stable. The bridges, though, felt like walking on a board laid over a metal ladder. It was very dramatic and we enjoyed the view big and small - looking out over the treetops and also talking to the butterflies and ants.