Another Exciting Day!

Yesterday (Day 5) ended with the group enjoying a cold beer on the patio when we arrived to the lodge. Everyone is generally healthy, except for a couple of foot (blister) issues. None of us have had stomach issues primarily due to the fact that we have gone through several small bottles of hand sanitizer and we have avoided fresh vegetables. Antonio arranged for a tour of a local coffee plantation but after settling into our room, and hearing rain on the lodge’s tin roof, we opted to rest instead of taking the tour. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the coffee beans being roasted.

At dinner that night, the discussion centered around a dead horse that we hiked past on the trail. This was actually the 2nd dead horse on the trail in 6 days. Our guide, Antonio, said that most likely the unstable soil after all the rains had caused the horse to fall to his death. Another exciting event during dinner, was the spotting of a bat inside the lodge. It was seen behind a picture on the dining room’s wall that just happened to have a clear glass mat. It caused quite a bit of excitement as the trekkers scrambled for their cameras.

Day 6 began with lots of excitement that we would finally see our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, from a distance. It had rained the night before, so we were excited to see blue skies as we began our day. Part of our trek today was on the Inca Trail (not the Royal Inca Trail). This is the kind of trail that we had expected more of (fairly smooth trail, rather than stream beds with lots of unstable rocks, mud, and poop).  We even got to cross a swinging bridge.  Everyone had their own technique for this crossing, some approached it with fear and either walked cautiously or "ran like a girl" all the way across.  Others skipped along or felt safety in numbers and crossed together (although we'd been told to go no more than 3 at a time). 

We hiked upwards for approximately 2000 feet in the first few hours to Llactapata, which gave us a view of Machu Picchu across the gorge (maybe 3 or 4 miles as the crow flies). There, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of trout, salad, and fruit under a covered pavilion. This park like setting came also equipped with an outhouse complete with a flushing toilet!!!! I haven’t elaborated much on this subject, but let’s just say this was really special to me!

After lunch we descended around 3000 feet over a couple of hours to a stream which led to the Urubamba River. 

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There we boarded train for the 30 minute ride to Aguas Caliente.  We checked into the Inka Terra Lodge, which was situated near the train station but in a beautiful tropical setting. It seemed very out of place in an otherwise depressed town.

The only vehicles we saw here were buses that would take you to Machu Picchu. The only way to get to this town is by train or by foot. If Machu Picchu hadn’t been discovered, this town likely wouldn’t exist.

We learned that our assistant guide, Whilder, was leaving us here due to feeling sick over the past couple of days, and that we would have a substitute guide at Machu Picchu tomorrow. Our group had a great dinner at the Inka Terra this evening and called it a night.

One more thing that I can now publish (that is, after we get back home safely), is that one of our Alabama foursome misplaced his immigration card that he had been given at the airport upon arrival. It was believed to have been left in Cuzco, but all during this trek, this issue had to be resolved, or he wouldn’t be leaving Peru with us in two days! We managed to contact our hotel in Cusco to have them open up a suitcase we’d stored with them. Since the luggage was ours (and not his), the hotel did not want to open it up. Instead, they said that they’d made a copy of the immigration card upon check in and that they could fax it to Mountain Lodges Peru. However, a photocopy would not be good enough to get him out of the country. It would have to be taken to a local bank when we reached Aquas Caliente to be notarized. But since we arrived there on Sunday and the bank was closed, it would be Monday (the day before we were scheduled to depart) before it could be resolved. So, what do you do? See one of the seven wonders of the world, the purpose of this trip, or stay in town and get your paperwork in order so that you can leave the country the next day? So, at dinner on Sunday night, we asked the guide if they could call Hotel Torre Dorado (back in Cusco) again after dinner and personally ask them to check inside the luggage. The hotel clerk informed our guide that the original immigration card had been found in the safe in their room! Crisis averted! On to Machu Picchu!