Mornings on the trail are strange for someone like me, a night person who never sees 6am unless I haven't been to bed yet. But when the sun goes down there is no light, and nothing to do, so I have to sleep...at like 8pm or so.
Daybreak rolls around slowly and I wake many times during the night. I'm in this damp tent wishing for the sunrise, hungry, and never quite comfortable. I hear Stephan sleeping peacefully, so I just wait and somehow drift into a light morning sleep full of strange dreams until the heat of the morning sun wakes me.
At this point I am so sore and dirty that my clothes and aches feel like an old lap dog, stubborn and comfortable. I know something about everyone in the group and feel happy with their presence. I've always lived in a tent and worn the same clothes everyday haven't I? These people have always been distant and good friends of mine.
The land is more expansive and distant here, more jungle-like. It is the first time I've really seen a proper jungle. It is true that the Amazon is hundreds of miles from here, and there are no piranha or orangutans....but it still has that distinctly jungle look to it: dense matted forest, large, colorful flowers and plants, and vegatation everywhere...not one inch of land is not engulfed by plant. The terrain changes dramatically as we move up and down the mountain inclines from valley to ridgeline.
Walking is very satisfying to me. I enjoy being far away. Vacations are a controlled, event driven portion of your regular life. Travel is a not a part of regular life anymore...it is a ticket off the planet....a vacation from myself, which, as much as I love myself, is very necessary.
I am now three days from civilization. Civilization before that was Cuzco for a week....which was itself a step back from civilization: a city at the top of the Andes with thin air and blue sky, the seat of the Inca empire, the Peruvian cultural capital, and a focal point for travelers all over Latin America. It resembled nothing of my life in the US in every positive way possible.
At around 2:30 we made camp and I lied down for a nap with my tired, barefoot feet hanging out the end of the tent. It rained ever so slightly for 20 minutes or so, cooled everything down and made it fresh. From the tent we could the see the river valley below and a ridge beyond which we were told lay the Famous Inca Ruins of Machu Picchu.
Camp on the last day had a hot shower, and I took full advantage. It was satisfying in every way despite the fact that the water leaked from the shower head with little pressure. I scrubbed every inch of my body that I could think of very carefully and put on my one pair of slightly clean clothes to wait for dinner. I had nothing to do so I enjoyed the peacefulness that 3 days of hard walking into the jungle can bring by wandering around a bit and practicing my Spanish with the Porters.
As a general rule, Peruvians hate the Spanish. Even though many are now of mixed Spanish descent, and the European influence brought Peru kicking and screaming into the 20th century without which they would still be living in the Stone Age......they still hate the Spanish.
The porters and my guides expressed the same bewildering sentiment that the Inca were some benevolent, technologically advanced world saviors that were raped and pillaged at the hands of the evil Spaniards.
The fact of the matter is that the Inca were formerly a minor people in the technological backwater of S. America that rose to prominence only after its own bloodbath that united the Inca Empire under Pachacuti in the early 1400s. The Inca were by no means benevolent. Empires are never handed over voluntarily. They are built on blood.
It is true that the Inca built great stone structures in a style that I think even today would be hard to duplicate. This is evidenced by many locations in Cuzco that the Spanish attempted to rebuild after sacking the city, only to find they couldn't do it. It is very easy to see what the Inca built and where the Spanish patched onto the buildings to suit their purposes.
Regardless, however intricate and deft the Inca were with stacking rocks.....Europe was in the throes of the Renaissance at a time when the Inca were still hefting stones around the jungle. The Egyptians had done the same thing with bigger rocks over 3000 years earlier.
My final point is the most interesting and where the Peruvians get the "deer in the headlights" look if you bring it up: Pizarro and the Spaniards defeated the great and might Inca empire with less than 200 drunken, tired sailors and a few horses.
The Inca were so mighty that they went and hid in the jungle for the next 200 years until their great civilization fizzled out and locals invented stories of lost cities high in the jungle that the Spaniards never found.
Really, that is embarassing. My guess is if there are such cities, that the Spanish never found them because they didn't want to....after hiking 3 days into the jungle to get to Machu Picchu, I understand why: It takes too long to get there only to arrive at more jungle and rocks.
When I brought the point of the 200 Spaniards against an Empire up to the Peruvians I always got the same two responses: 1) A shoulder shrug or 2) Nos enganaron (they tricked us).
Really?? They tricked you!?! Shame on the Spanish then. They should be spanked by their mother and forced to give back your Empire of Rocks.
Anyway, the last campsite is basically the entrance to the Machu Picchu reserve, and though a little primitive, it has a restautrant, beer and music. I thought I was excited to have some beer and see some chicks after three days of the trail life. I wasn't.
Actually, I did enjoy the beer and talking to the folks in my group....but later on the place turned into a sort of Club. Crappy music with a monotonous, generic bassline and a bunch of drunken twenty and thirty-somethings hitting on each other and their Peruvian guides. Everyone looked like shit from days on the trail and the whole scene was sort of pathetic.
It stuck me that a week ago in Cuzco that this same thing seemed like such a good time to me.?. The whole thing was so bizarre and puzzling that I turned in early to enjoy the stars on one of the blackest nights I ever remember.
Posted by kelliottdykes at May 28, 2005 05:33 PMAnother extremely interesting entry and very descriptive writing. It put you right there in your mind.
Posted by: Dad at June 3, 2005 08:00 PM