*Continued from: 48-Hour Adventure Day Review: Machu Picchu: Part #1*
12:00-5:30AM: We finally made it to our first hostel stay of our World Race adventure, we just happened to be showing up in the pitch black of night and didn’t actually know where we were. We were putting full faith in God and our driver. We quickly climbed in to our llama-quilted beds and fell fast asleep to the jungle humidity. 5 hours later, we arose to begin the adventure we had been merely dreaming of for a week.
5:30-7:30AM: We climbed back into the van and started to weave our way around the Andes, following the riverbed, bumbling along the dirt road. Honking before we turn every blind corner. We crossed streams, fell asleep, and after hitting a pothole 5 minutes later, jolted awake. Our quoted “1-hour drive” quickly turned into a 2-hour drive, but thank the good Lord we finally made it to the “trail head”.
7:30-9:00AM: I say, “trail head” very gingerly because it is actually just a train depot in the middle of the jungle, where normal people hop on and take the train up. Instead, we ducked into a very small tent where a small Peruvian served us “breakfast”. “Breakfast” being chicken, rice and beans, a nice lite way to get the day started.
9:00-1:00PM: Our hike towards Machu Picchu commenced. We hiked for 2 long hours along the train tracks, turning ankles in the gravel.In awe of the mountains that surrounded us, while mystified that we were going to attempt to climb them as well. Then, came THE STAIRS– the dreaded stairs we had only heard rumors about.
We went STRAIGHT UP them for an hour. My legs had the shakes real bad by the time we made it to the top.
1:00-4:00PM: The top was well worth the burn in my glutes and calves. The colors were indescribable. All I can say is that the Lord had a good deal of fun creating this place. Hands down the most beautiful sight I had ever seen.
We toured around for 3 hours or so checking out the sights, checking out the llamas, checking out the Inca ruins, the usual. My favorite moment was right before we started making our way back down the mountain, it was thunder storming. We had pulled out our raincoats, put away the cameras, strapped the duck covers on, and were just watching the lighting strike on the mountains around us. I screamed out over the mountains, “God is good!” my squad leader Brittany echoed back, “All the time!” in which I followed with, “And all the time!” in which she responded, “God is good!” Our shouts seemed to just slowly dissipate over His vast creation.
4:00-6:00PM: We had a grand total of 2 hours to make it all the way back down the mountain to the “trail head”. Reminder, that it took us over 3 hours to get up and it was thunder storming. Stone stairs + water = awkward-gallop-please-don’t-let-my-ankles-snap down the mountain jog. I put on my Duerr walking stride, and said “Meet ya at the bottom”. But alas, we made it.
6:00-6:30PM: We meet our driver at the “dining tent” we took off from. He told us that we had 20 minutes to scarf down the dinner the Peruvian woman was serving us. After 18 miles of hiking this wasn’t even a challenge. I finished my plate of beef, potatoes, carrots and rice in 3 minutes flat; helpful Duerr trait I picked up.
6:30-1:30AM: The van ride back down. Our tour guide and his son did not accompany us. It was just 9 sore gringo girls, their daypacks and 1 Peruvian van driver that spoke broken English. We all piled in and started our descent. To say sitting in a van for 7 non-stop hours after 18 miles of hiking was uncomfortable would probably be the equivalent to saying the Grand Canyon is a small little dent in the ground. Feet sticking through head rests, trying to stretch out made for an interesting ride. Not to mention that it was pouring rain out and those little stream crossings we made on the way in were now but little rivers. I remember waking up from my delusional sleep to our driver going, “Ut-Oh”, I looked out the window to find that we were in the middle of river crossing, not moving. Thank the Lord we somehow managed to gain some traction on those river stones and made our way out. Lightening was lighting up the sky every 30 seconds. Our van driver didn’t know what a defroster was, so we had to help him out on that one. Also, for some reason he decided that it would be a good idea to drive with the windows open the whole time. I mean we were a little sweaty and ripe, but come on! That mountain air was no joke. Highlight of the ride was when the whole van was asleep except for Brittany and myself, and we were cruising through this town. This was the fastest we had been able to go the whole ride, and we hit a speed bump at approximately 40 MPH. Every single person was lifted from their slumber and slammed back down in their seats, Esther slamming her head against the roof. Our driver turned around and muttered “Lo-siento” and kept on his merry way. Good times, good times.
1:30-4:30AM: We somehow made it our hostel. The lady that ran the place did not speak a lick of English. She handed us two keys and shooed us away. Esther, Kayla, and myself snatched up one of the keys and made our way up the rickety steps and found our room. Our room decided to have no running water. So, we couldn’t brush our teeth, take a shower, or even flush the toilet (use your imagination of what that bathroom smelled like after 3 dehydrated girls used it). The windows were left open that night even though it was freezing out. Just as Esther and Kayla were snuggling into their double bed and I into my single, we heard a knock at the door. We opened it and there stood Jodi and Sally, two of our other squad mates, one with a tear-streaked face. Apparently one of rooms we had booked had been given away, because we showed up “too late.” So, we were short beds for 4 people. We invited them in and assured them that we would make room. As I scooted across the bed to make room for Jodi to join me, a loud “CLUNK” sounded from the bottom of the bed (that was a nice confidence-booster).
After many years of bunk-bed sleeping I knew how to fix the bed, so I promptly did. We made the most of that night snuggled up close and laughing our tails off because of the situation we found ourselves in. We slept for approximately 2 hours. We woke, feet dragging and eyelids drooping flagged down a taxi and took off towards the airport. Nothing like fitting 5 stanky girls, their 5 day packs, and 1 taxi driver in 5 person taxi at 4:30AM.
4:30-8:30AM: We arrived at the airport. As I slid across the seats of the taxi to climb out, Esther promptly slammed the door shut on my head and knees. Classic “me” situation. Exhausted from laughing and just the general lack of sleep, we checked in to our flight. We boarded. I woke up to a nudge on my knee from the flight attendant waking me up for a snack and drink. I don’t even remember taking off. I scarfed down the muffin and saltine crackers and promptly fell right back to sleep. Woke up dazed after touch down. De-boarded on the tar mat. Hopped on a bus and 30 minutes later we were back at the base.
