Machu Picchu. G'zuntheit

I´m writing this dispatch from Arequipa, Peru. It is the country´s second largest city and the launching point for journeys into the deepest canyons in the world (something I will begin tomorrow morning). When we last left off, I was asking you to say a r´fuah shalemah (prayer of healing) for my camera. I am happy to report that she is back to full health.¨Now, the picture viewing and uploading on this computer leaves something to be desires, so I will try to have a photo email with pics from the end of Galapagos and more from Machu Picchu when I return from the my trek (We´re gonna need a montage).

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu is one of the most famous hikes in the world. The four-day, three-night adventure on the stonepath crosses ruins and high mountain pass on the way to Machu Picchu. For those who complete, it is an unrivaled experience. For those of us who didn´t plan three months ahead (I fall into this category), you have to do an alternative to the traditional Incan trail.

In the highland city of Cusco, the former capital of the Incan empire and my favorite Peruvian city, you can´t even leave your hostel without someone trying to sell you on an Incan Trail alternative. I decided to take the five-day, four-night Salkantay Trek, which takes you under the summit of one of the holiest and most beautiful mountains in the Incan Empire.

Let me give you a brief overview of the trek before I get into the play-by-play. After waking up at 4:00 from your hostel in Cusco, you take a three-hour van ride to a small village for the beginning of the trek. The first day of the trek rises slowly through a forested mountain landscape. There are awesome views of the valleys below and condors flying overhead. You camp the first night at the base of the 6,200 meter Salkantay, Quechua for ¨savage mountain.¨ The next morning, you climb to about 4,700 meters (It´s difficult to tell the exact altitude because the signs that are supposed to tell you the altititude give about three different readings) before spending the rest of the day descending into the cloud forests. On the third morning, you continue to descend into the jungle regions before arriving at a small village for lunch and a one-hour bus ride to your campsite. On the fourth day, you walk 20 km to Aguas Calientes, the city below Machu Picchu, and spend the next day exploring the ruins. (Wow, that reads like I took out of a travel brochure. I didn´t try to do that or copy it from another site.

From class pet to dinner

In Peru, guinea pig (or cuy) is considered a delicacy. In Mrs. Drewes´s first grade class, it was the pet that you took home for a weekend when nobody was at school to take care of it.

On the first day, we ate breakfast in a small, family-owned restaurant at the base of the trek. The barn behind the restaurant was filled top to bottom with guinea pigs, or, as the family refers to them, dinner for the next three months.

Trekking, in luxury

Normally, when someone says they are going on a trek, it means they will be carrying all of their gear and cooking equipment. I searched for an Inca Trail alternative of this variety but couldn´t find one.

On this trek, a horse carried my backpack and a chef prepared all of the food. Hey, in my defense, I still walked the entire trail - well, except for when we took the van.

You think that´s cold ...

The first night of the trek, it got very cold. We were sleeping in an exposed valley at about 3,800 meters. By about 5:00 p.m., I was already in my long underwear. A few minutes later, I looked like I was ready to go to class in the middle of February. Judging by my water bottle, the temperature dipped below freezing that night.

I slept in all of the clothes I brought and was fine. The Dutch guy in our group was not. He was what I would define as hilariously cold. Not only did he sleep in all of his clothes in his sleeping bag, he also slept with his hiking boots on (and was still cold).

The Dutch guy also had trouble figuring out our guide´s name, for the entire five day trip. So, he just gave up and started calling him by a pet name. Our guide, Urbano, doesn´t have the most difficult name in the world. But Rob could never quite figure it out. So, he just called him Ubu - the entire time. Ubuuuu!!!

¨The point is not to feel your face¨

Peru has a reputation for being one of the world leaders in cocaine production. But in addition to being used in narcotics, coca leaves have been used by natives as a way to ease the adjustment to high altitudes. Either chewed or infused with tea, the medicinal power of the leaves is released.

So, obviously, when we were approaching the highest pass on the second day of our trek, the Peruvian guides pulled out a small pile of coca leaves (it felt like the chewing tobacco scene from Sandlot). You´re supposed to chew it by biting into the léaf´s veins to release the juices. After a little while, it will have a similar numbing effect as novacaine at the dentist office.

Or as one of the other guides so correctly put it: The point is not to feel your face.

Standing on my head

I like playing soccer, but I like playing soccer more in remote locations. So, when we finished the trek on the second day, after climbing 1000 meters and descending 1800 more, the locals at the village we were staying challenged us to a soccer match. (Village is a bit generous. It was a collection of five houses about a two-hour walk to the nearest road that a car would drive on).

In a game up to four, we fell behind 2-0 out of the gate. This was mainly because they didn´t explain that we could have a goalie. So, I stepped between the pipes, or, in this case, rocks.

From that point on, we hung tough. It was a pretty even match, never mind that two of their players were about 11 years old (those two were still better than 80 percent of our team). I was seeing the ball well and made, what I thought were, some tremendous, game-saving blocks and catches. I never think I have cat-like speed and reflexes but on the pitch in Collapata, I did.

At that moment, I thought back to the Michigan Daily Sports Broomball team´s playoff victory over the School of Social Work´s team. When our goalie went down early and I had to fill in. Although I was criticized on the blogs, I gave our team a chance. And as Michigan hockey coach Red Berenson says, that´s all you can ask from a goalie.

Back to the Peruvian wilderness. The sun had already set and the game was tied at four. Next goal would win. After fending off the rush, I pounced on the ball and looked for an open teammate. The only one I could see (or barely make out in the limited light) was the Dutch guy standing near the other team´s goal. I tossed it up in the air, and it tipped of his foot.

If you´re keeping track of my great soccer triumphs, this would rank second to the Jewish Academy´s win over the Kibbutz Ketura preschool about four years ago.

And if you´ve ever talked goaltending with me, you know how much I like the phrase ¨stand on his head.

Hidden from the Spanish

While the Spanish conquistadors defeated the Incan Empire they were famous for taking the Incan gold and stones to build cities and cathedrals. One place the Spanish never conquered or exploited was Machu Picchu. This allowed it to remain intact and become the major tourist destination that it is.

It was not until 1910, when Yale professor Hiram Bingham was searching for the last city of the Incas (Vilcabamba) that Machu Picchu was known to the Western world. Perched on a hilltop between two mountains at the edge of the Andean highlands as they fall off into the jungle, Machu Picchu is one of the beautiful settings. In fact, when Bingham ¨discovered¨ Machu Picchu, there were two native families living in the ruins.

Because the Incans didn´t write anything down, nobody knows exactly what the purpose of Machu Picchu was (beyond general awesomeness, of course).

Nothing like it

With words, I can´t really capture what it´s like to see clouds around Machu Picchu. Luckily, my camera can capture the light at that moment and relay it to you in a picture. It reminded me of the scene from Motorcycle Diaries when they arrive to the fabled ruins at dawn. Probably, because it was almost exactly that moment.

Right in time

Currently, there is no park entrance fee to do the Salkantay Trek. The only registry of any sort is a guy in a cowboy hat who carries around a clipboard with a notebook and speaks broken English. Apparently, the government just announced that it will charge 140 soles for people to enter Salkantay.

This fee will make the trek much less popular, and Urbano predicts that the horsemen might organize to boycott the new policy because horsemen are all from the villages at the start and finish of the trek. Their livelihoods depend on the trek, but if there is a 140 sole fee (about 45 dollars), their income is going to go down.

Well, I´m off to pack from my trek. Great to see the Tigers back on track. My friend in Minneapolis says the Tigs are rallying. So hopefully we don´t fall back to .500.

I´ll spare you the details about how great it feels to take a piss in the middle of the wilderness, in pitch black, when it´s below freezing outside. Damn. I didn´t.