Monday, November 28, 2005

Too Machu

2 Hours South of Cuzco, Peru

We've spent the last 28 hours trapped in a surreal little room, slowly making our way from Lima to Cuzco to see the famed ruins of Machu Picchu. Somehow, we got stuck in the tiny 6-seat section in the belly of the Royale bus, separated from the other forty-odd passengers on the trip. On occasion, another passenger has joined us, and our bus-steward comes by every once in a while to give us sandwiches or watch Shaolin Soccer (dubbed in spanish) with us. But, for the most part, Mike and I have ben stuck in this poorly-lit piece of reality all by our lonesome. It's been kind of strange watching Peru pass us by wrapped in our hermetically-sealed prison. I, for one, am ready to get off.

Our original plan had us swinging by Cuzco a week or so from now, and then hiking the four-day Inca Trail up to Machu Picchu. For me, this was the real draw of coming up this way. Spending four days roughing it through the Peruvian jungles, passing by crumbling ruins, culminating in a sunset view of the ultimate in ancient cities. Pretty frickin' sweet.
But, alas, it is not to be.
Apparently, due increasing regulations by the Peruvian government, getting permission to hike the Inca Trail is both expensive and time-consuming. One person I was talking to said that we really should have started the process two weeks ago. But, because we were trying to do it so late, it was severely limiting our choices and forcing us to run around like idiots and jump through some possibly scam-laden hoops in order to secure our spot. Sufficiently soured on the process, we decided to give the hike a pass. For a while, I was considering giving Machu Picchu the pass altogether, but Mike convinced me otherwise. Coming to Peru ain't exactly cheap, so missing out on it's crown jewel while I'm here would be a shame.

Anyway, to sum up. Peru. No hikie. 30 hour bus. Prisoner. Almost in Cuzco. Go Machu Picchu! Damn.

4 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This weekend, Cousin Mike was relating his trip to Peru and MP - I think it involved shooting a few spitballs at the crystal people and downing a large number of Pisco sours...

Are you doing an Amazon trip from Peru? They've got several good Amazon river trips that leave from Iquitos, and plod up the Rio Negro or one of the others. Maybe you can go Anaconda hunting, just like JLo.

We had a lovely gathering at Charles & Diane's for Thanksgiving, and you guys were quite the topic of conversation... Consider this posting a group good-wish of 'Happy Thanksgiving, and we miss you!' from the various Gebos, Kentucky Laysons, Hana & Adam & Jacob, Tony, Felicia, Molly & Tom, and all the rest...

Stay safe, and watch out for the Shining Path guys! (you'll recognize them by the distinctive rat-tat-tat sound of their AKs)

11/28/2005 4:29 PM gmt

 
Blogger jason said...

> This weekend, Cousin Mike was
> relating his trip to Peru and MP - I
> think it involved shooting a few
> spitballs at the crystal people and
> downing a large number of Pisco
> sours...

Oh, the Pisco sours. I'll let Mike tell you about his love of all things Pisco.

> Are you doing an Amazon trip from
> Peru? They've got several good Amazon
> river trips that leave from Iquitos,
> and plod up the Rio Negro or one of
> the others. Maybe you can go Anaconda
> hunting, just like JLo.

Naw. Unfortunately, we need to get to the bottom of the world rather quickly (less than a month, now), so we can't spend too much time getting to Iquitos and doing the Amazon thing. We're going to hit the Picchu, then follow the gringos to Arequipos. Afterwards, we need to hoof it through Chile to make it to Ushaia by Christmas.
But, we'll have shitload of time in Brazil before Carnaval starts, so we'll fully embraze the rainforest then.

> We had a lovely gathering at Charles
> & Diane's for Thanksgiving, and you
> guys were quite the topic of
> conversation... Consider this posting
> a group good-wish of 'Happy
> Thanksgiving, and we miss you!' from
> the various Gebos, Kentucky Laysons,
> Hana & Adam & Jacob, Tony, Felicia,
> Molly & Tom, and all the rest...

Yeah. We ended up having Thanksgiving at the Marriott in Lima. The food wasn't that great, so Mike stole a pumpkin (Pisco-related mischief, I assure you). It was a'ight, but I wish I could have joined you guys in the KY.
Shout out to all my East Coast-ish peeps.

> Stay safe, and watch out for the
> Shining Path guys! (you'll recognize
> them by the distinctive rat-tat-tat
> sound of their AKs)

I ain't seen no Sendero Luminoso yet, but when I do... well... you know... I'm not too proud to wet myself.

11/28/2005 5:50 PM gmt

 
Anonymous Anonymous said...

The Inca trail is practically paved and infested with tourists. Around Machu Pichu there are lots of better trails with nobody on them despite the fact that the shrines seem to be covered in money. Is the Hawaiian New Years plan still on? I probably'd need to order this stuff in advance since its a bit out of season up north

12/01/2005 11:48 PM gmt

 
Blogger jason said...

Luckily, we did most of our MP touring in the morning, so we missed the gobs of tourists, who came in ~10-11am. As for the Hawaiian New Years in Antarctica... an email is on its way.

12/02/2005 5:53 PM gmt

 

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