doctor mcbeth: The attack of the near-killer Peruvian plant.

At least I didn't have problems with my intestines while in Peru, but getting cuddly with some Peruvian flavor of poison ivy wasn't exactly my idea of a good time either. Sho enuf, while hiking down the back of Huayna Pichhu, I found my own special souvenir from Peru that I'm still dealing with over a week later. But, that's ahead of the story. We got up this morning at about 3 AM and left at around 3:40 so that we could drive the hour north to Ollantaytambo where the train leaves for Aguas Calientes, the town at the base of Machu Picchu. The stars were still out and absolutely stunning. I was feeling at about 53% that morning and on the bumpy ride there, it quickly plummeted to about 12% as I was three second from yelling "ALTO!!!", dashing over Jonny or Tom to open the car door, and well, be carsick . . . which as my parents will tell you is a time honored tradition for me. Tomas leaned over and asked if I was okay, and I had them roll down the windows. Ahh sweet relief of fresh air. This whole time I was thinking . . . um, I don't think I'm going to hike up Huayna Picchu which is the huge mountain you see in the back of almost all Machu Pichhu pictures. We got to Ollantaytambo and lined up behind some school kids that were there from Juliaca (a Peruvian city near Lake Titicaca in the south). We boarded the train and sat it what has to be the most comfortable public transportation seat I have ever had the honor to enjoy. About thirty seconds later, most of us were asleep despite the Highway 2-esque beauty passing by outside the windows. We arrived in Aguas Calientes which exists due to one of the 7 Wonders of the World being perched on the hillside above. Here's an Incan to greet us.

We caught the bus which does steep switchbacks up the hillside and comes dangerously close to crashing into all the other buses. Intersante! Arriving at MP, we made our way across the complex so we could sign up for the Huayna Picchu (HP) hike. They only let 400 people up per day. 200 starting at 7 AM and 200 starting at 10 AM. So, you pretty much have to get there crazy early in order to hike it. Being about 175th etc. for the first group, they let us start the hike at about 8:30a. Here's our first view of MP with all the morning clouds breezing up the hill and into the complex. Amazing.

Okay, so here's the deal with HP. It's incredibly safe . . . but . . . realistically speaking, if you stumble once, trip once, take one false step . . . I'm fairly confident that your chance of surviving is about 24%. Almost the entire hike is steep, narrow, deep stone steps with precipitous cliffs being your constant companion. If you stumble, there is about zero room for error. You would try to catch yourself on nothing available and tip over the edge to the valley floor. Or, if someone behind you trips and falls into you, you're both goners. I'm sure a few people on the trip (i.e., the three boys) would disagree with me but really, anything goes wrong, you're done. Here's an example of how steep it is.

As part of my evidence, a poor woman died on this hike a few months before we got there when she fell off the trail. Fortunately, we were entirely fine and the only downer was all the up and down of stairs. And no oxygen. And the heat. And the poison ivy. But, IT WAS AWESOME!!! Here's the view back towards MP.

If you go, go on this hike. It was worth every step. After we climbed to the top of the ruins on HP, we decided to go on the side hike (supposedly 40 minutes) to the Grand Cavern. If you go, do not go on this hike . . . unless you like Chutes and Ladders, the Live Action Version . . . or you just enjoy stairs. Also, wear pants. No shorts. Here's part of the hike down.

Yup, those are tiny stone steps angled downwards followed by a thirty foot ladder. It was actually quite fun. Down near the bottom (after some time wondering if we had taken the wrong trail and would ultimately end up in Aguas Calientes and after some time talking about the Tahoe Death March) we came upon the cavern.

Tomas thought it was cool. I decided that I may or may not slow down my car if I was driving past it on the side of a road. Despite that, I'm still glad we went down to see it because we still had enough time to see MP and make a grand day out of the whole thing. As we were climbing up and out, we came across only a few other hikers that informed us they had been climbing down for thirty minutes already. Wow. Well, the US National Park service grossly overestimates hikes (2 hour hike is really about 20 minutes), the Peruvian service grossly underestimates. So, all in all, there is balance in the universe. We were on HP for about 4.5 hours instead of the estimated 2-3. I think they were a little worried about us. Here's another view from the top before I talk about MP.

After HP, we sat outside the gates (no food allowed in the complex) and rested, rehydrated, and rested. I think all of us were thinking . . . hmm . . . maybe we've seen enough already? But when you're at MP, you gotta do the whole thing. So we hired a guide (absolute must for MP!!!) to take us through the complex. She only spoke Spanish which meant that I probably missed a lot of detail, but I got the gist and I thought, "meh, when in Rome!" She was fantastic, here she is!

Peruvians are such a friendly and beautiful people. As she took us through the complex, she explained that Machu Picchu was probably a mountain resort of sorts for the Incan emperor. Only his BFFs were allowed to come up and stay with him. The complex housed hundreds of workers,farmers, artisans, builders, etc. to support the sweet digs. Several cool things and then lots of pictures. First, they built most of the complex in rough stone work but when it came to their temples, they switched over to extremely fine and tight jointed masonry work. Here's the "rough" stone work that is typical of most of the complex (still nice after 600 years huh?)

Here is an example of the stone work that would be reserved for the temple building.

The second cool thing is that they had a series of pools and fountains that you ritually washed in as you ascended the hill towards the temple.

Finally, the Incans believed in three worlds. The condor represented the heavenly or celestial realms. The puma represented the earthly world and the serpent represented the world below the earth. Hmmm . . . sounds vaguely familiar. They also had a large grass plaza for staging large ceremonies and dances but is now home to llamas.

And here's a pretty picture of the complex and a llama (this place is just beautiful everywhere. I took about 50 pictures because with digital, why not?)

And a beautiful tree where a couple of years ago, they found a gold Incan bracelet. Wow!

At this point (about two hours later) the tour was over, the guide took off, and Tommy and Steve decided to climb the hill the guard house. Jonny and I decided to head toward the bus and wait for them there. While we're waiting, I discovered scratches (bites) something on my legs. At the time, I thought they were plants, but since I'm writing this about a month later, I can tell you that they were chiggers. And I still have dozens of scars. Exfoliate! Vitamin E!