Peru, day 14 (Sept 22)

Day 14 in Peru, our last day in the mountains. Ahead of us we had a full day of descending, descending, descending! We were going to come down from the mountains, following the valleys until we reached the Urubamba River where we would spend the night before hiking into Aguas Calientes. After a VERY cold night we woke up to ice on our tent. Wilbur warned us that we would be descending into the high jungle and it would be hot...but it was very cold in the morning. So we were all about layers. I was extremely cold that night, and barely slept. My cough was also at it's worst. In retrospect, I think it was edema, my lungs filling a little bit and the cough that you get at higher altitudes. Luckily just the beginning. That night there was also a fabulous lightning storm (without the thunder). I really wanted to stay out and watch it, but with three different layers on I was still much too cold.

Here is a view in the morning back up towards where we came from. What a beautiful sky!!!!

Breakfast that day was nice and hot, thank god! Quinoa mash, bean milk and these fried thingies. I know, it doesn't sound that good...but it was great! :) It really was quite amazing how much water we all drank, and how much food we consumed and continued to lose weight. Or at least I did.

After we'd cleared everything up, we posed for a nice group shot. I had the hat that April made for me and everyone loved it so much that a couple of them want her to make them one. Nice work April...it really is a nice hat! :)

And then Rudolph ripped his pants! :) He'd bought this pair really cheep...and now you see why! He fixed it with duct tape. Duct tape is very handy, you know.

Here is our outhouse. They didn't set this up every time, just twice that I can remember. Only when there really was nothing else to hide behind. Gotta tell ya, it was the most amazing view to squat there doing whatever looking our over this fabulous Andean valley. Simply stunning.

Mom and I starting out on our last morning high in the Andes. Our path lies right behind the two of us. Down, down, down.

Here we are starting to come into the jungle. The vegetation was completely different the lower we went. Lots of vines, Birds of Paradise, orchids...and the humidity!!! Whooboy! At this point we haven't completely stripped down, but we're down one layer.

After about 3 1/2 hours we came to this sacred mineral spring. The locals believe that it has magical powers and can help heal. We were encouraged to "wash" ourselves with the water. Here's mom dunking her head. It felt wonderful...it was also warm, which was a really nice addition.

Here's a good shot showing the thick vegetation, and the fog that was created by the cold air coming down into the hot valleys. This was the first time we all really felt like we were in a jungle. Not quite like on the other side in the Amazon basin...but vastly different than where we'd just come from.

Wilbur taking a break. By this point it was about 1:00 we'd been hiking since about 7:30. No breaks...and no food. This was the other day where the times and distances were WAAAAAAY off!!!! I really think Wilbur thought we'd be going faster than we were, and that by this point we'd be at the lunch area. We were no where near it! We passed some locals, and we gathered from what they said that where we were headed was another 3 hours. The horses with the food had gone on ahead, so we had nothing. Smarter ones of us had bars and snacks every day, just in case...but it was a tense day. Poor Wilbur, he really heard about it this day!

Also by this point the trail was very difficult. Technical and very slippery. Tons of mud and streams in the trail. Almost everyone slipped at least once, some two or three times. My pants were filthy!!!! I really thought that after so much descending my knees and legs would be sore, but I was feeling really good. I think I may have been in that "beyond hungry" stage so wasn't feeling the hunger pangs etc. Either way, I felt fine. I'd stripped down to a tank and shorts... it was 97 degrees!!! We went from freezing to 97 degrees in one day. We were walking through the dense jungle, when all of a sudden...we hear "Gobble, gobble, gobble" we stopped, looked around, then it came again, "gobble, gobble, gobble." Such an odd sound to hear in the jungle. You expect parrots, other birds...but not a turkey! We look down into the small valley to our left and there was a very small farm, complete with an old lady and man sitting rocking on their porch.

Finally we reached our lunch spot. It was about 3:30 and by the time lunch was ready it was after 4:00. And there were so many of those nasty little biting black flies that we all had to put our clothes back on! I had almost no bites up until this afternoon. And by the next day my legs were horribly bitten. Lunch was good though. Then we had to wait for the truck to come.

Here the horses would turn back. We were to take this truck about 20 minutes to the town of Saint Teresa, right on the Urubamba River, which we had to cross to get the trail to Aguas Calientes. Here's the truck. Jammed in like sardines.
While it was a fun ride...the 20 minutes were WAY off. After a 50 minute ride we finally came to Saint Teresa where we camped at a soccer field just outside a local school. The cable car that we would use to cross the river was right there, so we were hoping to be the first ones in line.

We had seen no one except for us for the last five days, so it was very weird to be around other people. But we were closer to Machu Picchu, the whole reason we'd all come so far. It was getting exciting...