Those Inkas Sure Were Very Fit

Ladies and gentlemen-meet the coca! It´s actually quite unacceptable for me to be mentioning this plant for the first time after so many posts about South America. The coca leaves are everywhere. And, according to the locals, capable of almost everything. Helping adjustment to altitudes, alleviating headaches, stomach aches, helping digestion, you name it. There´s nothing this little plant isn´t good for. There´s some cocaine in coca which has caused controversies in the past and caused the Bolivian and Peruvian governments to spearhead campaigns with the slogan ¨Coca is not cocaine¨. It´s also rumored to be an ingredient of coca cola, which would help explain a lot of things. At any rate, Peruvians stick it in your face at every opportunity and expect you to like it. I consumed large amounts of coca tea during my hikes and not only was I not thrilled with the taste, I also saw no beneficial effects. But then again, I´m capable of consuming large amounts of caffeine and going straight to sleep so maybe I´m just weird.

At any rate, this is only one of the many plants we saw on our hike to Macchu Picchu. But I´m getting ahead of myself. A few words are needed re. treks to Macchu Picchu. In the last few years, the official Inka trail has become so wildly popular that the Peruvian government has decided to limit the number of people allowed on it. I had actually tried to get us on it, but 3 months of advance booking didn´t cut it either. So we decided to go instead on one of the ¨alternative¨ trails that tour agencies have come up with. Rikki & Omrit were interested in one called Salkantay, named after the nearby snow capped mountain of the same name. The high altitudes involved were the main deterrent for me. So Maya and I opted for another one called ¨the Inka Jungle¨ trail, which went through jungle like territory and joined the Inka trail at another point. The first day of this trek is actually on mountain bikes, but since neither Maya and I knew how to ride bikes, we decided to walk on the road where everyone else was biking.

We were told that it would be all sunny and warm during the hike and there was no need to bring our raincoats. Worse comes to worst, the idiotic man in the office said, you can buy a poncho for very cheap, they sell it along the way... Of course, 15 minutes into the walk it started pouring and continued for hours. No ponchos to be found anywhere. We were in a jungly area, so it was hot and sticky and rainy all at once. Not pleasant. We were not happy when we finally made it to the first stop. And to think we could have avoided it all if we hadn´t been told a blatant lie. The one thing that lifted my spirits was this little boy scurrying around the village-what is a blond eyed, European looking kid like this doing in a remote part of Peru???

We also managed to find ¨ponchos¨ here, which are basically colorful garbage bags with a hole in the middle for your head. Anyway, our second day of walking was slightly more interesting, with large trees and a lot of plants along the way. We discovered on this day that our party was full of energizer bunnies. All very young Europeans and all of them running ahead at full speed. There was some climbing involved, but it wasn´t too difficult. Maya had some stomach trouble which meant that I had the wonderful opportunity to walk in the middle-in front of Maya and behind the energizer bunnies-which allowed me to enjoy the beautiful scenery by myself.

At some point our guide picked up a fruit which the locals use as a natural dye and painted everyone´s faces with it. Everyone, that is, but me. Should I be worried that even random Peruvian tour guides are scared of me? The truth is that the guide soon proved to be extremely sleazy so my conscience is clear. He kept making up excuses (¨but this is how we say hello in Peru¨) to touch and/or give us kisses and we were pretty disgusted with him.

Thankfully the scenery was much more pleasant. For my part, I really enjoyed being able to eat fruits we picked up straight from trees along the way. Oranges, sabras, tangerines, papayas (ugh!), avocados...

We also saw some gorgeous butterflies along the way-as much as I tried to run after them, they proved too elusive to capture on camera, so here´s another colorful creature for you:

In stark contrast to the beauty of the 2nd day, we spent the morning of our 3rd day walking on boring railroad tracks which brought us to Aguas Calientes, probably one of the most touristy towns in the world. The walk itself was uncomfortable and uninteresting and we had to keep stepping aside to allow the trains to pass.

Once in Aguas Calientes, Maya & I were put in a room together and before we knew it, everybody had left the hostel. We found out later that we had walked the railroad tracks due to a change in plans, requested by the energizer bunnies, who wanted to save time so they could climb another hill. Nobody bothered to consult us. I think they were concerned that we couldn´t handle the climb. Nobody consulted us for that either. The problem is that at this point, we had grown completely tired of our sleazy and incompetent tour guide and couldn´t even be bothered to complain.

So it was in that very negative light that we decided to skip climbing the thousands of Inka steps to Macchu Picchu and opted instead to take the bus to the top of the mountain. Honestly, we just wanted to get the whole hike over with and make it back to Cusco before Shabbat. Which was not as easy as you might think. But, first, a picture of the ruins:

I´m sorry to report that I belong to the group of people who are not wowed by them. Before anyone can go ahead and repeat the mantra that it would have been a completely different experience if I had climbed the stairs, I would like to remind you that I had little interest in Inkas before getting there. The only reason I went to Macchu Picchu was because I felt it would be stupid to make it to Peru and not see one of the wonders of the world. I don´t see why climbing thousands of stairs at 5 am in the morning should make a difference.

It is not clear what the purpose of Macchu Picchu was. Some claim that it was a spiritual center, which is also the theory that the guides´ explanations center around. The guides were very anxious to point out that Hiram Bingham, the man who supposedly ¨discovered¨ the ruins, was not the first person to find this site. Apparently there were some Peruvian families living there long before. They also talked a lot about the artifacts that Bingham removed from the site, about which they are very bitter. And rightly so I think. We have many cases of removed artifacts from Turkey-a problem accounted for, I believe, by the fact that original archaelogists were ¨westerners¨ who took advantage of the loose conservation laws in place in the less developed places of the world.

We had an unpleasant surprise on the way back from Macchu Picchu. We had requested to get earlier train tickets in order to be able to make it to Cusco by Shabbat and somehow they had mucked up Maya´s ticket. After a few very stressful hours, we finally managed to get on the train and were very happy to leave Macchu Picchu and our guide behind. At any rate, I leave you with one of the few pictures I have from Aguas Calientes. Quite wondrous, isn´t she?