Machu Picchu!

Machu Picchu. The Inca citadel located high in the Peruvian Andes where superlatives crash and burn in their attempt to describe the beauty and awe of this magnificent site. Where history and natural beauty combine to create what was recently named one of the new 7 wonders of the world. With such stunning descriptions, we would have been remiss not to visit this world famous site while we were in Peru. For that reason, after cleaning out the sand from my ears from my previous adventures, we set out for Cuzco, the city high in the Andes which would be our jumping off point for visiting Machu Picchu.

Just to give everyone a brief history lesson, the Incas were a South American civilization that at their height covered almost all of South America. They were one of the most advanced civilizations of their time and built impressive cities such as their capital at Cuzco and other sites such as Machu Picchu. Unfortunately though, they were no match for the Spanish Conquistadors who eventually took over.

Bird's eye view of Cuzco

Back to the present, upon arriving in Cuzco I soon realized that this was one of the most magnificent cities that I had visited in South America. The city was absolutely breathtaking, with cobbled streets, and gorgeous old building and architecture everywhere I turned. It almost seemed as though we had stepped back in time. The natives talk off the earth giving off special energy here and I could definitely see why. What's more, we arrived in the middle of Carnival, a month long Peruvian celebration punctuated every Sunday by ever increasing intensity of celebrations until the final Sunday of the Month. To celebrate, the city turns into a huge water fight of sorts. People throw water balloons, buckets of water, and even shoot each other with silly string! Needless to say, being blonde haired, Elizabeth and I attracted quite a bit of attention, and proceeded to be doused in water and silly string. Not to take this lying down, we purchased a couple of cans of silly string and water balloons and joined right in the fight! It was an absolute blast, and while I was completely soaked by the end of the day, it was highly worth it!

Soaking wet and covered in silly string!

Click here to see all of my pictures from the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu!

Water balloons thrown and silly string depleted, the next day we prepared to set off for Machu Picchu. Now there are basically two ways to visit Machu Picchu, either by taking a train directly to the ruins or doing a 4 day trek through the mountains to eventually arrive by foot. Obviously, we were not about to be wimps and take a train directly to the ruins. Thus, we setup a trek along the "Inca Trail" for four days that would take us to Machu Picchu. The trail is aptly named the Inca Trail because it was used by the Incas to travel between Cuzco and Machu Picchu. Nothing quite says history like hiking along a trail that was used by a civilization over a thousand years ago. 

After renting our gear and getting setup with a group we were ready to go. Our group consisted of our native guide, Roger, a cook, and 3 porters who would help to transport the gear needed for the trek. While I would have much preferred to complete many of these tasks ourselves, the Inca Trail is currently heavily regulated by the Peruvian Government and requires that tourists use these resources. Apart from our guides and porters, we also had two other tourists in our group, Dave and Joanna, a couple from Ireland and England who would make our four day trek one of the most memorable experiences we've had in South America!

The whole crew!

After passing through the government regulated entrance and ensuring that our papers were in order, we started on our way! The first day was a relatively easy day in terms of hiking. The weather cooperated and we were able to make it to our first campsite without incident. At every campsite, the cook and porters, would setup a makeshift food tent and would make us some absolutely delicious meals! While quite different than the usual camping experience, I was not complaining by any stretch of the imagination. We would always eat and pass the time with Dave with Joanna with whom we immediately hit it off. Dave and Joanna were recently married and are currently traveling the world for their honeymoon (oh how I want their lives). While hiking, there is often a lot of downtime, and as a result you get to know your traveling companions quite well. We had a blast with Dave and Joanna and even found out some interesting facts about the English language of England. For example, when in England, never use the word "fanny" to describe your rear end. As we found out the hard way, in England it actually has a completely other meaning..

Differences in English aside, we set out for the second day of our hike. The second day was slated to be our most difficult, as we had to climb over 4,000ft to go through a pass of nearly 11,000ft before climbing down to our campsite for the night. The climb was difficult but after a lot of huffing and puffing we were eventually rewarded with some beautiful views!

Elizabeth and I at the top of the pass

View of the mountains from our campsite!

After eating some more delicious food and playing spoons (a simply amazing card game) with Joanna and Dave, we headed to the tent for some much needed sleep. Unfortunately, that's not what we were about to receive. A mere few hours after falling asleep in our sleeping bags, I awoke to the sound of a deluge of rain on the tent and the odd sensation that my sleeping bag was just slightly damp. Headlamp on, I soon saw that our tent was not exactly what one would call "waterproof".  Water seemed to be flowing into the tent as it pleased which needless to say presented a slight predicament. It was 2am and we still had 4 hours before we were set to get up and set off. Thus, we did our best to improvise and make our own rainproof tent. We put rain jackets, backpack covers, and anything we could find that was rainproof, as a make shift rain cover under our sleeping bags. We then (attempted to) sleep and await the morning until we could finally leave. Our setup worked reasonably well, but the sun still arose to find us pretty soaked. However, as someone once said, when all else fails, Laugh. Elizabeth and I took that advice to heart and we had a hearty laugh at our soaking wet sleeping bags and tent.

The mini lake in our tent!

After packing up our wet things (which of course about doubles their weight), we set off for the third day of hiking. In spite of the continuing rain, the hike continued to be amazing as we passed vistas that would make even the most experienced hiker take pause. After 6 hours of hiking we eventually made it successfully to our final campsite. We enjoyed our final dinner on the trail and went to bed early as we had to get up at 3:00am so we could arrive at Machu Picchu the next day to see the sunrise. 

We arose and hiked our final few hours to finally arrive at Machu Picchu. Regardless of what you may have heard or pictures you have seen of Machu Picchu, I assure you they don't do it justice. Seeing the citadel for the first time was absolutely breathtaking. I left my thesaurus at home, so rather than trying to conjure up adequate superlatives; I'll simply let the pictures (attempt) to do the job.

Elizabeth and I at Machu Picchu!

The mountains surrounding Machu Picchu

The crew at Machu Picchu!

Machu Picchu

While we could have easily just taken a train from Cuzco to visit Machu Picchu, seeing Machu Picchu meant so much more because we had hiked for four days, through the mountains and rain, with incredible traveling companions, to get there. At the risk of sounding cliché, it was truly an incredible experience to know that we had walked the same route to get to Machu Picchu that the Incas did over a thousand years ago (although I'm sure they did it much faster!). 

More importantly though, this experience once again illustrated that it’s often not what you do but rather who your with that counts. My traveling companions, Elizabeth, Dave, and Joanna made what would have been a memorable trip, absolutely unforgettable. Dave and Joanna were an absolute blast, and Elizabeth and I feel so lucky to have met them! After assurances that we would visit if we ever make it to Dublin, we bid adieu to Dave, Joanna, and the city of Cuzco and set off for our next adventure, Lake Titicaca which (apart from the interesting name) is the world's highest navigable lake. More to come soon!

Dune Buggies to Wine Tours

So as the title of this post implies, the past week in Peru has had quite an interesting mix of activities and sights. I've done everything ranging from sand-boarding down 100ft sand dunes and toured local wineries, to coming within feet of penguins and sea lions on the Peruvian coast.  

It all started after I left my breathtaking adventures in the mountains of Huaraz and headed south to Lima, the sprawling metropolis that is the capital of Peru. Now I was excited to visit Lima for a number of reasons ranging from the incredible cuisine to the bumping night life. However, probably the most important reason for my excitement was that it was here that I was to meet up with my first intrepid traveling companion, Elizabeth! As you have probably discerned from reading my blog thus far, traveling alone is an incredibly rewarding experience and one that allows you to push yourself far outside your comfort zone. That being said, it does at times get a tad lonely so I was really looking forward to having someone to share this great experience with!

Thankfully there wasn't an issue to be had with picking Elizabeth up from airport and we lost no time exploring the many sites of Lima. We toured many beautiful sites including the Palacio de Gobierno (aka the Peruvian White House), the old historic colonial district lined with gorgeous architecture, and visted the trendy, upscale Miraflores section of the city that is located on cliffs right along the pacific ocean, awe-inspiring to say the least. One of the most memorable items from Lima from a completely selfish perspective was that we celebrated my birthday here on the 28th! Needless to say, I got a proper taste of what all the talk about the Lima Night life was about, and I have to say that it lived up to its reputation and then some. 

El Palacio del Gobierno (aka the Peruvian White house)

To see all of my Pictures from this past week click here!

After forcing ourselves to get up at the god-awful hour of 9am after my birthday (i know, i know i lead quite the difficult life), we caught a 2 hour bus down the pacific coast to our next destination, Paracas, where it was rumored that beautiful coastal vistas and intriguing animals awaited us in the natural wildlife reserves located there. Paracas is a very small coastal fishing village that in of of itself isn't that impressive, but the main attraction is actually a small set of islands, the Ballesta Islands, off its coast that a whole host of animals call home. 

The next morning, Elizabeth and I hopped in a small boat with some other travelers to take a look at these islands for ourselves. It was incredibly impressive with colonies of sea lions, birds, and even penguins abounding. There was also a plethora of birds flying around, ranging from Pelicans to Black Footed Boobies (come on now, get your heads out of the gutter). 

Penguins in Las Islas Ballestras!

After returning safe and sound to Paracas, we then headed out to national park located right on the coast that contained some absolutely gorgeous vistas. 

Elizabeth and I with the national park in the backround

While I absolutely loved the beautiful views and animals, it should come to no surprise to those who know me that I was ready to do move on to something a tad more exciting. To that end, we set out the next day for Huacachina, an oasis town in the middle of the Peruvian desert surrounded by mountain high sand dunes. It was here that I read I could get my adrenaline fix by flying over the dunes in dune buggies and even trying our hands at sand-boarding (think snowboarding but with sand dunes).

When we arrived in Huacachina I was absolutely blown away. Surrounding this picture perfect lagoon were huge sand dunes the likes of which I had never before seen. The word dune doesn't quite do justice to what I saw, the dunes where better described as small mountains that seemed to be on the verge of swallowing the oasis. After taking in the sights of the oasis, we signed up for a dune buggy to take us on a thrilling ride through the dunes where we would be able to try our hands at sand boarding.

The oasis of Huacachina

Now I'm a big fan of activities that get the heart racing, but racing through the desert on the dune buggy was pretty intense even for me. We flew over sand dunes at breakneck speed and came precariously close to tipping over one too many occasions. The more the people in the buggy screamed in fright, the faster and crazier the driver of the dune buggy seemed to get. Never mind you that the driver evidently thought seatbelts were unnecessary and was jamming out to his Ipod the entire time. Probably the best way to describe it was like a rollercoaster without the safety features.

Our fearless dune buggy

After having the bones in my hand almost broken from Elizabeth squeezing my hand in fright, we finally arrived to the site where we were going to try sand boarding. Sand boarding was an absolute blast. After getting the hang of things on the "bunny hill" of sorts, we progressively tried bigger and bigger dunes. Now just like in any sport or activity, it takes a while to get the hang of it. Thus, I took my fair number of spills as I "learned" how to sand board and proceeded to get sand in probably every nook and cranny of my body (I know what a pleasant thought).

Me attempting to sand-board (don't miss the spill at the end)

After finally getting the hang of it (after falling about 100 times, thankfully sand's soft!), we finally arrived at the last dune, more aptly referred to as a mountain, which was easily 100ft high. I waxed up the sand board and best I could and let it rip. I flew down the dune, and came precariously close on a number of occasions to absolutely tanking it. My heart racing, I made it to the bottom of the "sand mountain" without incident. After another hair raising ride in the dune buggy, we finally made it back to Huacachina, but we thankfully slowed down just enough to watch a beautiful sunset over the desert.

Sunset over the desert

After the adrenline pumping adventures of the dune buggy and sandboarding, we decided the next day to relax a little bit and enjoy some of the finer things in life, namely wine. Unbenounced to most of the world, Peru actually has a great wine industry and Elizabeth and I thought it would be cool to visit some of the local wineries to see what all the fuss was about. We toured a number of small, local wineries and I have to say that the wine was excellent. We also got to try home grown Pisco, the national drink of Peru, which is similar to a very smooth vodka. What's more though, at one of the small, family owned winery we even got to stomp the grapes!

Doing my part for the Peruvian wine industry by stomping grapes!

After filling ourselves full of delicious Peruvian wine and Pisco, we set off for our next destination, Cuzco, where we're set to hike to the famous ruins of Machu Picchu!

The Summit

The wind howled and seemed to cut right through my jacket. The snow peppered my face, making it almost impossible to see my guide located only a few yards ahead of me. My heart was pounding out of my jacket, in part due to oxygen deprivation and in part due to sheer adrenaline. There I was at 18,000ft, standing on the glaciated slopes of Mt. Pisco in the Andes Mountains, so close to the summit it felt like I could reach out touch it. I prayed that my guide wouldn't say the words I was dreading to hear, "We have to turn back." As the weather deteriorated around me, I couldn't help but think back to how I had come to be in that precarious position..

It all started last week when I departed from the coastal city of Trujillo and took a rickety bus past the desert coast, up through the winding Andes Mountains, to finally arrive in the mountain town of Huaraz (elevation 10,000ft). As the insane bus driver took the corners of the dirt road through the mountains at break neck speed (in the way only a South American driver can), I got my first glimpse of the breathtaking mountains of the Cordillera Blanca, the world's second highest mountain range, eclipsed only by the Himalayas in Asia.

Huascaran, the tallest mountain in Peru (elevation 22,000 ft) 

Mt. Vallajaruna (elevation 18600 ft)

To see all of my pictures from my hikes in Huaraz click Here and Here!

From the moment I stepped off the bus I could feel the affects of the elevation, it seemed liked my heart raced and I was gasping for breath after every few steps. Of all the advice that you hear about climbing in the Cordillera Blanca (or any mountain range for that matter), the most important is to leave adequate time to properly acclimate to the elevation. The last thing I wanted was to get the nausea and splitting headaches that often accompany altitude sickness. For that reason, I took a few days to acclimate before attempting to summit any of the breathtaking peaks surrounding Huaraz. This turned out to be a blessing in disguise as it gave me an excuse to do a number of acclimatization hikes and activities which turned out to be great in their own right.

For the next 3 days I did some amazing things ranging from hiking up to a high altitude lake (elevation 14,000ft) and flying 20mph down a mountain biking "trail" with sheer cliffs on either side of me, to ice climbing a 60ft cliff!

In front of high altitude lake "Churup" 

Biking down the "path"

Ice climbing on "dead ice" (dead because of the layer of dirt over the ice)

Unfortunately, on the third night my rush of activities finally caught up to me and altitude sickness hit me with all its might. Feeling like someone had punched me in the stomach and then proceeded to place my head in a vice, I soon realized that being sick and alone in a foreign country is probably one of the worst feelings a person can experience. Sometimes you just have to deal with it though, and thankfully after a night spent mostly in the bathroom (too much info?), the next morning I awoke feeling like a brand new, albeit exhausted, man.

After passing through that bit of unpleasantness, I finally felt that I had acclimated enough and was ready to do what I had come to Huaraz to do, summit a high peak. To that end, I hooked up with an expedition agency that rented out all necessary equipment (boots, harness, crampons, ice pick, etc) and set me up with a local guide who would shepherd me up the mountain. This experience epitomizes why I love South America. I didn't have to sign a single waiver, didn't have to put down a single emergency contact, nada. The attitude down here is along the lines of: You know exactly what you're getting yourself into, if you don't like the risk, don't do it. No red tape, no law suits, exactly the way life should be.

The next day, I arrived at the expedition agency early in the morning to meet my guide and set off. My guide was Johnny, an indigenous native of Huaraz who could give Lance Armstrong a run for his money in cardiovascular fitness. We decided to hike Mt. Pisco, a decent sized peak (elevation 19,000ft) that was well suited for someone like me who isn't an expert in the technical aspects of climbing but still relatively fit. That's not to say it wasn't without risk though, in fact Johnny informed me that two hikers met their death just last year on this very same mountain.

Mt. Pisco, as viewed on the hike to basecamp

That day after packing up all our gear (about 25lbs per pack) we got dropped off at the trail head and started off. The hike was scheduled to look something like this: Day 1 - Hike to base camp (15,000ft); Day 2 - Hike to summit (19,00ft) and return to base camp; Day 3 - Return to Huaraz (10,000ft).

At the start of the climb (only about 6,500ft more to go!)

The hike up to base camp was relatively uneventful as expected. We climbed for about 5 hours, passing some gorgeous waterfalls and surrounded by mountain vistas that were reminiscent of scenes from Lord of the Rings. Now this was obviously the "easier" part of the climb, but as I soon learned climbing with 25lbs of gear on your back in a high altitude environment is anything but "easy". After huffing and puffing (and even taking a quick 15min nap), we finally arrived at base camp around 4:00pm.

Taking a (much needed) rest on the trail!

The base camp consisted of a small lodge that normally housed mountain officials / guides during the high season. Unfortunately, January through April is the rainy (aka snowy) season with extremely unstable weather. Due to this, very few people choose to climb, making Johnny and I the only people at base camp. 

Base Camp (elevation 15,000ft)

After throwing our sleeping bags down and getting our sleeping arrangements set, we decided to make some food. Unfortunately, the portable cooker that we brought decided not to work. Thus we had to do things the old fashion way, light a fire and cook:

Johnny getting the fire ready and doing some cooking

After filling up on pasta and tea, Johnny gave me a brief tutorial on mountaineering. I learned the necessary knots, how to work my harness, and what to do in case of an avalanche and/or if one of us were to fall into a crevasse in the glacier. Afterwards, we decided to hit the sack as the next morning we had to get up at 1:00am to start the summit! We had to make it the summit early in the morning, as the weather often becomes much too unstable and dangerous in the afternoons. To that end, we went to bed at 7:00pm and woke up (an all too quick) 6 hours later. Unfortunately, we awoke to find that a small storm had deposited a new layer of snow all around base camp. That didn't bode well, as if it's snowing at base camp it's probably far worse on the mountain. However, we decided to set off, knowing that if the weather took a turn for the worst we would be forced to turn back.

Trekking out from base camp at 1:00am (and without coffee!?!?)

We hiked for about 4 hours, over boulders, up and down gullies in complete darkness, lit only by our headlamps. At about 5:00am we finally made it to the glaciated slopes of Mt. Pisco, where the boulders and trails end, and the snow and glacier begin. The sun was just coming up as we arrived and the small amount of light through the clouds turned everything a beautiful blue color.

Where the glacier (left) begins, as the sunrise turned everything blue

Things got much more intense when we finally arrived at the glacier as this is where serious mistakes can be made. We put on our harnesses and connected ourselves to each other through about 4 yards of rope. That way if one of us fell on the slopes or into a crevasse, the other one could dig in with the axe and (hopefully) stop them from falling. We strapped on our crampons (metal spikes that go on the bottom of boots to give traction on the ice), did a quick spot test of the equipment, and were off. As we set off, in the distance I heard what could only be described as intense thunder. After seeing the bemused expression on my face, Johnny explained to me that that was the sound of an avalanche on a nearby mountain, but no too worry as it is "common" to have avalanches on that mountain. A little unsettled, we began climbing.

Climbing up the glaciated slopes of Mt. Pisco

We climbed and climbed for hours, always keeping an eye on the weather, which at that point was snowy and cloudy but nothing too bad. Now I've done some relatively difficult athletic things in my life, but this has to be right up there with the toughest. Hiking on very steep slopes, through the snow, with gear on your back, with little to no oxygen made my heart feel like it was about to jump through my jacket. After huffing and puffing some more, we finally came to a plateau at about 17,00ft and decided to take a quick break before moving on. Looking around at the views here as the sun was coming up was absolutely breathtaking. I won't even try to describe it, so I'll let the video below do the talking:

At the top of the plateau

After our quick break we climbed some more, but we couldn't help but notice some ominous clouds gathering in the distance. We continued to climb more and more, but the clouds kept approaching with ever increasing speed. 

Beautiful view, but with clouds gathering in the distance

Unfortunately, 30 minutes later those clouds hit with all their might; throwing snow down upon us, whipping up winds that cut right through us, and reducing visibility to almost nothing. We were at about 18,000ft, so close to the summit it felt like I could touch it. I wanted to get there so badly, but I knew the inevitable was about to happen. Johnny screamed at me, "It's way to dangerous, we have to turn back NOW!" No I thought, we had come so close we couldn't turn back. I would later think of Jon Krakauer's book, Into Thin Air, about the deadly summit of Mt. Everest in which multiple people lost their lives because they failed to turn back just short of the summit when bad weather hit. I remember thinking when I read it, how stupid could they be, was it really worth risking your life for a mountain? On the slopes of Mt. Pisco I came to understand how those men felt, I was right there, I had put in so much time and effort, we just couldn't turn back. Unfortunately though, Johnny gave me a look that said we didn't have choice, put his hand on my shoulder and said, "We need to leave". Devastated, we turned around and headed back.

We trekked for hours back down in silence, eventually out the storm, and finally arrived back at base camp. Johnny, sensing my extreme disappointment, looked at me and said, "You can tell your family that you didn't make it to the summit, two men last year never got that chance," a sobering reminder of just how high the stakes really are.

While I ultimately came up short of my goal, I know that sometimes that's just how life goes, or as the Spanish would say "Asi es la Vida." I have no doubt that this will end up being one of the most incredible experiences of my life, and one that I'll never forget, for as someone once said, you always remember the one that got away.