Puerto Maldonado, Cusco, Machu Piccchu, and Out in the Nick of Time

I left the Amazon rainforest on Sunday, March 8th. On the bumpy 2 hour car ride out, I was on a race to finish a book that changed the way I saw the world. I had pulled it out of the LPAC bookshelf about a week before, thinking it's cover with redwoods towering over a few miniature people looked interesting. The back cover said it was about "trees and the people who understand them". It was called The Overstory, by Richard Powers, published in 2018. It begins as a collection of what appears to be short stories centered around a few families and individuals. These stories captured my undivided attention. Throughout the whole story, the author weaves in facts about trees that brought me to revelations about trees and the way humans perceive and treat them. I believe this book is well worth anyone's time to sit down and read. Perhaps it will change you too.

Almost everyone else at LPAC came to town that day. The first evening, the "LPAC Babes" went to a restaurant called the Cacao Center, which serves locally grown food and cocktails. We shared 4 different drinks, and I had my first taste of some classic cocktails.

The next morning, we went to the Amazon Rescue and Rehabilitation Center to see how they were running the place and help them for a few hours. Many of the animals that are there come from the pet trade. Monkeys, for example, are often bought as juveniles and then end up in the rescue center when they grow into adults and become strong and destructive. The goal of the rehabilitation is always release into the wild, but for some animals that is not possible, either because they are injured or because they have become so accustomed to humans that they no longer know how to act like a wild animal and releasing them would mean certain death.

This is Frank the tapir. He was rescued from a nightclub that was known for having wild animals. He is non-releasable because he is accustomed to human presence and would be killed very quickly for food by local people if he was released.

Howler monkeys are another very popular animal to have in nightclubs. They respond to low sounds, and so they will sit on the speakers and howl, to the entertainment of the people.

Here are several more inhabitants of the center, some, like the peccaries (5th picture), being prepared for release. Others, like the woolly monkey (last picture), are non-releasable. That specific individual was raised as a pet and has a habit of biting off fingers because he knows that being injured will get him human attention. Due to the loss of his fingers, he would not survive for long in the wild because he would either fall out of the trees or be too slow to evade predation.

After getting a tour of the facilities and an introduction to the animals, we split up to help with various tasks. I went off to help install new perches into the parrots' cages. Constant maintenance is needed all around the center, which relies on volunteers to help. I was partnered with a young man from Lima, and we had a great conversation in Spanish while working.

After lunch, we visited another amazing project. It was the property of an old man named Victor Zambrano who's life dream was to be surrounded by animals and have a forest on his property. He inherited the land from his father as a flat cow pasture. With no prior knowledge about reforestation or forestry, he began to do what felt right to him. The first step was to repair the depleted soil by planting leguminous plants on it that returned nitrogen to the soil and added biomass when they died. Eventually, he began to plant trees. The current school of thought had been that trees should be planted in straight lines, so he did exactly the opposite, observing what he saw in the forest. Now, 30+ years later, he has a thriving forest on his property, with many of the species that identify a species as a primary forest. He is also incredibly knowledgeable about the plants: their medicinal uses, when they flower and fruit, and what animals use them in what ways. His home is now a place where he brings others to show them around his forest and tell them how it came to be there. He has truly paved the way in reforestation.

That night, I said goodbye to the people I'd gotten so close to in the last month, and got on an overnight bus to Cusco. I have become pretty good at sleeping on transportation, and I woke up the next morning to watch the sunrise on the mountains of Peru. I arrived in Cusco around 8:00 am and took a taxi to the couchsurfing place/hostel I was staying at. I met Stefanny at the gate of her residence, and she showed me around her home. After leaving my stuff in a simple room with two beds, she made me some coca leaf tea and explained to me what the main attractions in Cusco are and how to get around. Around 10:00 I set off to explore the city.

I took a bus in the direction of the town center and got off when I deemed to be close enough. The first place I went was a textile market where a variety of sweaters, shawls, bags, and other souvenirs were sold. I went around the market asking how much several items were. The response of "it's 38 soles, but I'll give it to you for 35" cued me into the fact that it was expected to haggle. After having made my initial round and getting the lay of the land, I decided that this was a good place to buy gifts for my family, and so I went back and haggled my way down to a very good price on several items. I was happy to not have to worry about buying gifts for the rest of my time in Cusco.

Next, I walked up to the San Blas neighborhood. One of the other volunteers had told me that she thought I would like this area of Cusco, and she was right. I spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon just wandering around the neighborhood and seeing Cusco from above (San Blas is situated a little bit up the mountainside and has many sloping roads and stairways).

Pictures from the San Blas neighborhood.

1: A church.

2: One of the famous Peruvian "naked dogs".

3 and 4: An Inca wall within the city with the "12 Corner Stone".

5 and 6: Peruvian ladies with their llamas. They make their money by having tourists take pictures with them.

7 and 8: Cusco from above.

After lunch in a hippy restaurant, I decided to walk up to try to see Saqsaywaman, which is an Inca ruin near the city of Cusco. I walked up the hill to the first entrance, but there was no one official there at the time. However, a guy offering a horse tour of various ruins accosted me and offered to take me on a tour of various ruins for a decent price. I weighed the information and decided to go with it. However, I had the feeling I was being ripped off, but I wasn't sure how. I got into a car the guide waved down, and we headed up the mountain. The car dropped us off near a horse stable, and along with some other tourists I was loaded up onto a horse and we headed up the mountain. After about 20 minutes of slow riding, the guide I had been told would take me on more of a "private tour" stopped and said that I could get off here to check out some caves and that she would stay with the horses. I was very apprehensive, because this sounded like the perfect opportunity to get kidnapped. However, I went up and saw the caves and enjoyed the beautiful landscape, and, upon returning to the horses, we continued on.

Next, we visited the temple of the moon, and the guide came up and explained different religious symbols of the Incas to me.

Afterwards, we finished our loop down the mountain. I had not been kidnapped, so I was happy, but I also realized how I had been ripped off: I had not had the chance to see Saqsaywaman. However, I was fine with that: I had had a good afternoon outside on a horse and had seen some ruins, if not the most famous ones.

Once I got back on the bus for my way down to the city, I began to worry about the next day in earnest. I had bought an entrance ticket to Machu Picchu, but I did not yet have a way to get there. It was only 44 miles away, which I hadn't considered to be a huge issue in this day and age. I'd discussed with Stefanny that morning how to get there, and she had said she would ask some contacts she had in the tourist agencies. When I got back to Cusco, she told me to go to a certain agency and tell them I was her friend. I went there, and a very nice tourist agency lady helped me set up transportation for the next day. It ended up being more than three times as expensive as my entrance to ticket to Machu Picchu. Note to anyone going to Machu Picchu in the future: make sure to arrange transportation when you buy your ticket. It is much more difficult than you would expect to get there and back.

The next morning, I woke up at 3:00 am, got ready, and took an uber to where I would meet the bus at 4:00 that would take me to the train station. Although I slept for most of the bus ride, I did realize that the road was incredibly bumpy and curvy, as many Peruvian roads are. We arrived at the train station a little after 6:00. It was a very chilly morning, and I stood shaking in the train station until I was able to board my train around 6:30. The train ride takes an hour and a half, and carries the people going to Machu Picchu from the town of Ollantaytambo to the gateway to Machu Picchu, Aguas Calientes. In Aguas Calientes, I had to take another bus up a curvy mountain road to the entrance of Machu Picchu. After having left at 4:00 in the morning, I arrived at my destination at 8:45 am. Remember, Macchu Picchu is 44 miles away from Cusco.

Not knowing all this about the transportation, I had purchased tickets to enter Machu Picchu and the neighboring mountain Waynapicchu at 7:00-8:00 am. In an effort to control crowds, only 200 people are allowed to enter Waynapicchu between seven and eight, and another 200 between ten and eleven. I arrived to the gate shortly before 9:00, and was told I had missed my timeslot.

Dejected, I decided to just explore the ruins on my own instead. As I went back, I was stopped by multiple guards and told that I would have to exit and reenter the park. I also stopped to talk to a guide who gave me a crucial piece of advice. Upon telling him about my predicament --not having arrived by the entrance time to Waynapicchu-- he told me to go to the office at the entrance and "tell them I got a little sick and was therefore not able to make the entrance time". I did what he said, and was passed from official to official until, lo and behold, my entrance time was changed to 10:00! I now had a little bit of time to get back to the control before I was able to enter Waynapicchu.

As I was wandering around the ruins, I began to truly see them and wonder how they were built and what all the different constructions were for. There are no informational plaques in the ruins themselves, so I was left wondering.

I also saw viscachas, chinchilla-like animals, which absolutely delighted me!

At 10:00, I was able to enter Waynapicchu mountain and begin the ascent. It takes about an hour and a half of climbing to reach the top. It is a very steep mountain, and much of the climb is a series of narrow steps that the Incas carved out of the stone.

Once at the top, the architecture is stunning, and the views are breathtaking. There are agricultural terraces, but most of it was designed as a religious construction. The Incas revered the mountains and they all have names and individual gods that must be honored. The name Machu Picchu translates to "Big Mountain", and the name Waynapicchu translates to "Small Mountain".

The views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains made every bit of the arduous climb worth it. If you ever travel to Machu Picchu, I highly suggest making sure you climb Waynapicchu.

After climbing back down the mountain (which left my legs shaking but took about a third of the time it took to get up), I exited the park and ate a little bit of food I had brought for lunch (you are not allowed to eat within the park itself). Afterwards, I decided to hire one of the many tour guides standing around the entrance offering their services. I had so many questions about how Machu Picchu was built and what the different buildings were used for that I figured it was a good idea to learn about it while I was physically there. For 80 soles I had a private tour of Machu Picchu in Spanish (also great Spanish practice!)

1: The Inca Trail (with me on it), which is a 44 mile trail from Cusco paved with rocks the entire way.

2: Classic view of Machu Picchu.

3: Machu Picchu with Waynapicchu in the background.

4: Gateway to Machu Picchu (one of the only entrances to the compound, which was surrounded by a wall. The door was kept firmly locked with wood most of the time.

5: Temple of the Sun, whose windows let the sun shine in at specific angles on certain days of the year, indicating planting and harvesting times.

6: The main temple, whose bricks were displaced by an earthquake.

7: Condor temple; the two big diagonal rocks look like the wings of a condor.

8: A rock carved in the shape of the Southern Cross, oriented to the stars.

9: Water mirrors for viewing celestial events.

That night, I arrived back at the place I was staying at around 9:00, exhausted. What a day.

The next morning, I had had enough of people and cities for a while, so I decided to spend the morning hiking in the hills very near the house. I greatly enjoyed spending some quality time in nature on my own. The environment around Cusco is very beautiful. I would describe the ecosystem as "high scrub", meaning that the native trees are small due to the elevation (3400 meters above sea level). However, there are many eucalyptus trees there too, which were introduced in the 1800s.

At 2:00 that afternoon, I boarded a bus that would carry me to Lima in 22 hours time. I had heard mixed opinions about the safety of taking this bus: evidently, driving over the Andes is not the safest because of the roads and steep cliffs, and there had been a very bad bus accident in January with the very company I was traveling with. However, I decided to take my chances. I slept most of the way over the Andes, and enjoyed watching the mountains and landscape go by when I could see them.

I arrived on Friday, March 13th, around noon in Lima. My flight to Indianapolis was leaving at 1:00 am that night, so I had an entire afternoon to spend in Lima. Clemencia, one of the people from LPAC, had given me permission to leave my stuff in her apartment while I explored the city. I took a cab to her apartment, which was in the neighborhood of Miraflores. From there I decided to go to a nearby Pre-Colombian textile museum, get sushi for lunch, and walk down to the beach.

Around 7:00, I took a taxi to the airport. Traffic got inordinately bad as we neared the airport, because everyone wanted to leave the country. This was my first realtaste of the impacts of coronavirus. I had been hearing about it every time I had internet, and each time it got worse. I left Peru just in the nick of time. On the Monday after I left, they shut down planes to and from Europe, and have since put the country into a quarantined state of emergency. I was incredibly lucky with the timing of things, and was able to enjoy my last week in Peru without worry.