Friday, October 10, 2008
Monday, 9.22: Amazon River Basin to Cusco
The next morning, we got to sleep in until 6 a.m., which felt like a luxury after our super-early wake-up call the day before…to Heather and me, that is. Bri, meanwhile, was fighting a massive hangover and probably could have used a few more hours of sleep. We met Jorge for our last (semi-awkward) breakfast, then boarded the boat with the rest of the group to head back to the airport. The gaggle of Germans was particularly loud that day, which I’m sure only increased Bri’s hangover pains. I did my best to drown them out with my iPod as we cruised down the river.
At the airport, we checked our luggage, bid an awkward farewell to Jorge, paid the stupid departure tax (at least there wasn’t a huge tax line at the tiny Puerto Maldonado airport!), and got in line to go through security. While Heather jumped out to buy some “jungle nuts” (don’t ask) from a nearby stand, Bri realized that she’d accidentally left her pocket knife in her carry-on bag. Fortunately for her, the X-ray machine was down that day, and the security check amounted to nothing more than the security guy asking whether you had a knife in your bag, then giving a cursory glance inside. Bri feigned ignorance and was able to get her contraband goods through undetected. While we waited for the plane, we chatted with one of the few non-Germans from our rainforest group, an Irish guy from Boston whom I thought of as Rob (I have no idea what his actual name was, but it seemed to fit him). We were having a nice conversation until an older American lady sat down next to us and began blathering on and on about what she was doing in Peru, despite the fact that no one had solicited this information. Fortunately, we boarded the plane soon thereafter and freed ourselves from her.
After a short flight (during which we watched the same blooper show and reminisced about our favorite parts), we landed in Cusco, where the sight of the oxygen tanks at the airport immediately made me nervous. My fears were for naught, though—except for when we were walking uphill, I never had much trouble breathing. In fact, I think the coca tea that I had that morning in the rainforest (at Cusco native Jorge’s entreaty) affected me more than the altitude did—I was feeling jumpy and jittery all day. Anyway, we hailed a cab at the airport to take us to the Niños Hotel, where we’d made reservations for before and after our Inca Trail trek. In my research, I’d read lots of great things about the hotel, and it did not disappoint—all of the cheerfully painted rooms encircled a sunny courtyard with a fountain burbling in the middle. Not to mention, our room had four walls and a hot shower, which seemed beyond luxurious after our rainforest digs.
Bri wanted to do nothing more than sleep off the remaining dregs of her hangover, so Heather and I set off on our own to find something for lunch. A short stroll took us down to the Plaza de Armas in the center of the historic district, and we decided we’d like to eat overlooking it to soak up the Cusco vibe. We managed to find a pizza restaurant (our first encounter with the ubiquitous Italian food in Peru) with a table overlooking the square, and shared a pizza topped with local cheese while dishing about the events of the previous evening.
We needed to pay our balance for our Inca Trail trek before the Peru Treks office closed for the day, so after we finished our late lunch, we headed back to the hotel to pick up Bri. I couldn’t find the map of the office I had printed, but I thought I remembered the address, so we set off. It turns out my memory was a little faulty, so after wandering for a little while, I stopped at an Internet café to look it up. Back on the right path, we located the office without trouble and paid our balance. While looking over our orientation materials, however, we realized there was still a ton of stuff we needed to stock up on before we left, and resolved to dedicate the next morning to getting everything we needed.
Having missed lunch, Bri was getting hungry, but my lack of sleep and hot showers was starting to catch up to me, so I volunteered to schlep all of our trekking materials (sleeping bags and pads, plus the duffel bag for the porter we’d hired) back to the hotel while Heather and Bri searched for something to eat. I was glad to have some time to myself (especially to take as long as I wanted in the shower without feeling guilty about hogging the bathroom), but jealous when Bri and Heather came back to the room with alpaca hats that they’d purchased while walking around. They promised to take me back to the place where they’d bought their hats the next morning while we were running errands, so we all turned in pretty early to get ready for our big day of shopping.
Continue to Day 5: Cusco
The next morning, we got to sleep in until 6 a.m., which felt like a luxury after our super-early wake-up call the day before…to Heather and me, that is. Bri, meanwhile, was fighting a massive hangover and probably could have used a few more hours of sleep. We met Jorge for our last (semi-awkward) breakfast, then boarded the boat with the rest of the group to head back to the airport. The gaggle of Germans was particularly loud that day, which I’m sure only increased Bri’s hangover pains. I did my best to drown them out with my iPod as we cruised down the river.
At the airport, we checked our luggage, bid an awkward farewell to Jorge, paid the stupid departure tax (at least there wasn’t a huge tax line at the tiny Puerto Maldonado airport!), and got in line to go through security. While Heather jumped out to buy some “jungle nuts” (don’t ask) from a nearby stand, Bri realized that she’d accidentally left her pocket knife in her carry-on bag. Fortunately for her, the X-ray machine was down that day, and the security check amounted to nothing more than the security guy asking whether you had a knife in your bag, then giving a cursory glance inside. Bri feigned ignorance and was able to get her contraband goods through undetected. While we waited for the plane, we chatted with one of the few non-Germans from our rainforest group, an Irish guy from Boston whom I thought of as Rob (I have no idea what his actual name was, but it seemed to fit him). We were having a nice conversation until an older American lady sat down next to us and began blathering on and on about what she was doing in Peru, despite the fact that no one had solicited this information. Fortunately, we boarded the plane soon thereafter and freed ourselves from her.
After a short flight (during which we watched the same blooper show and reminisced about our favorite parts), we landed in Cusco, where the sight of the oxygen tanks at the airport immediately made me nervous. My fears were for naught, though—except for when we were walking uphill, I never had much trouble breathing. In fact, I think the coca tea that I had that morning in the rainforest (at Cusco native Jorge’s entreaty) affected me more than the altitude did—I was feeling jumpy and jittery all day. Anyway, we hailed a cab at the airport to take us to the Niños Hotel, where we’d made reservations for before and after our Inca Trail trek. In my research, I’d read lots of great things about the hotel, and it did not disappoint—all of the cheerfully painted rooms encircled a sunny courtyard with a fountain burbling in the middle. Not to mention, our room had four walls and a hot shower, which seemed beyond luxurious after our rainforest digs.
Bri wanted to do nothing more than sleep off the remaining dregs of her hangover, so Heather and I set off on our own to find something for lunch. A short stroll took us down to the Plaza de Armas in the center of the historic district, and we decided we’d like to eat overlooking it to soak up the Cusco vibe. We managed to find a pizza restaurant (our first encounter with the ubiquitous Italian food in Peru) with a table overlooking the square, and shared a pizza topped with local cheese while dishing about the events of the previous evening.
We needed to pay our balance for our Inca Trail trek before the Peru Treks office closed for the day, so after we finished our late lunch, we headed back to the hotel to pick up Bri. I couldn’t find the map of the office I had printed, but I thought I remembered the address, so we set off. It turns out my memory was a little faulty, so after wandering for a little while, I stopped at an Internet café to look it up. Back on the right path, we located the office without trouble and paid our balance. While looking over our orientation materials, however, we realized there was still a ton of stuff we needed to stock up on before we left, and resolved to dedicate the next morning to getting everything we needed.
Having missed lunch, Bri was getting hungry, but my lack of sleep and hot showers was starting to catch up to me, so I volunteered to schlep all of our trekking materials (sleeping bags and pads, plus the duffel bag for the porter we’d hired) back to the hotel while Heather and Bri searched for something to eat. I was glad to have some time to myself (especially to take as long as I wanted in the shower without feeling guilty about hogging the bathroom), but jealous when Bri and Heather came back to the room with alpaca hats that they’d purchased while walking around. They promised to take me back to the place where they’d bought their hats the next morning while we were running errands, so we all turned in pretty early to get ready for our big day of shopping.
Continue to Day 5: Cusco
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