Saturday morning was rafting day! I was supposed to be at the meeting point at 9am. I got up at 8 and wandered out for breakfast. Well, there was no breakfast, instead there was a bar full of shit-faced hostel staff and guests. The party from the night before was still raging. Ahhh, to be 21 and able to drink for a solid 12 hours. Denied my complimentary rolls and coffee, I was forced to venture out to an amazing cafe, Yuca Mama. I had a darling table on a Romeo and Juliet-style balcony overlooking the Plaza de Armas.
I ordered and received a perfect English breakfast of scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried tomatoes with onion and hand made miniature bread loaves, with a clay carafe of orange juice and adorable little butter and marmalade dishes. Everything was beautiful, there was a whole square of people out and about to entertain me, and the Catedral across the square has a clock that let me relax in the knowledge that I had time to spare. I wish every day could start like that!
At the meeting point for the rafting trip, I met up with an English couple, a couple from San Luis Obispo, and 2 girls (possibly a couple) from Athens, Georgia. Everyone was in a great mood and we passed the 2 hour drive out to the launch site by swapping travel stories. We didn´t go so far as to sing, but it was a close call. The best story was told by the San Luis couple. They had already done their Machu Picchu trek. Apparently, they waited until they got here before booking anything, not realizing that all the reputable companies sell out months in advance. Well, they found a company that offered a 4-day trek that would end up in Machu Picchu. It wasn´t the Inca trail, but on the plus side, it was only $180/person (mine cost $400) and the first day was supposed to include 5 hours of down-hill mountain biking. Sounds great! But then...calamity struck! There had been a landslide on the trail a day earlier, and so they weren´t able to do the mountain biking. Instead of turning around and trying to take a bus around the slide, they decided to be macho and climb over it. Well, after about 9 hours, they were lost. They had no water and people were drinking from the streams without purification tablets, hello Guardia! They ended up finding the trail again after another 4 hours, but at this point, one guide and three Italians all deserted the group. The Italians were apparently not much of a loss due to their non-stop complaints and bitching about Americans, but the guide´s desertion was a little more serious. The 6 people left still had one guide, but what if he left, too? Anyway, it all worked out, they had a wonderful time, and now they have an awesome story.
After whiling away the journey with stories, we got to the launch site on the river Urubamba around 11am. Looking at the river, we were slightly sceptical regarding the claim that this would be a class 2-3 trip. Honestly, an inner tube looked like it´d be fine going down that river. We all changed into our stylin´wetsuits, windbreakers, life vests, and safety helmets. We were a gorgeous group. Then we got into our 2 rafts and received our lesson in: forward, back, left back, right back, jump left, jump right and inside. I was in a raft with the two Georgia gals and two guides. The other raft had the two couples, one guide and the guide´s Danish girlfriend. Apparently, she went on a two-day rafting trip with Joselo 3 months ago, got very drunk the first night and ended up moving in with him. She seemed a little confused as to how this had all come about, but still happy with the situation.
Anyway, our guide who was steering did an awesome job, he made that class 2 river seem like a class three by having us all jump to the side as we were hitting bitty rapids or taking us down a two foot fall backward. It made the whole thing much more exciting. Just to make sure that we all got into the spirit of the day, each raft was a team (we were the gringas, later changed to las gringas locas) and when told, "attack!" we got to splash each other with our paddles. Unfortunately for Ramon, our second guide, we were having a bit too much fun and when told to jump to the left, I seem to have pushed him in. I swear that I didn´t touch him, but suddenly he was in the river and I was the only one nearby. Whoops!
Ramon wasn´t the only one to enter the river. About 3/4 of the way down, there was an old wooden bridge which we were all invited to jump off of. I´m sorry to disappoint you all, but I was the only one of the paying guests who refused the jump. Honestly, I was wearing flip flops, the rocks were sharp and the water was absolutely freezing. I had no intention of catching a bad cold right before my 4 day hike. Of course, this let me in for a bit of ribbing, which I was able to quash by asking if any of them had ever tried the flying trapeze. Hah!
All things have to end, and we ended up at a little local restaurant where I was served chicken broth with ramen noodles as my vegetarian meal. Luckily, this was followed by some spaghetti, so I didn´t starve to death. We were all pretty wiped by the time on the water and mostly snoozed on the way back to Cusco. The two couples and I made plans to meet up at a full moon party later that night and we parted.
I was unable to keep that date. Oh my god, it gets COLD in Cusco. It dropped to around 15 degrees last night and there was no way that I was dressing up in a skimpy outfit and going to a psytrance rave, even if it was in a mansion in the hills. I know, I´m weak. I didn´t even go to the pre-costume-party at the Loki hostel. I got dressed and then stalled. In fact, I couldn´t even seem to leave the blankets long enough to get something to eat and I was starving. Finally, at 10, I accepted that I am old and lame and was not going to the party. I threw on long underwear, polar fleece pants and a sweatshirt, a scarf, hat, and gloves and went out for pizza.
Back at the hostel, I sat around in the lovely, warmish TV room on a bean bag chair with a blanket and watched Hostel. Yes, a group of backpackers staying in a hostel decided to scare ourselves silly by watching other backpackers be murdered in extremely gory ways. EEEEK! Good times though. The hostel was pretty evenly divided between the brave souls who risked pneumonia for a good drunk, and those of us who put on our warmest clothes and huddled together.
Yay for rafting day!
I ordered and received a perfect English breakfast of scrambled eggs, baked beans, fried tomatoes with onion and hand made miniature bread loaves, with a clay carafe of orange juice and adorable little butter and marmalade dishes. Everything was beautiful, there was a whole square of people out and about to entertain me, and the Catedral across the square has a clock that let me relax in the knowledge that I had time to spare. I wish every day could start like that!
At the meeting point for the rafting trip, I met up with an English couple, a couple from San Luis Obispo, and 2 girls (possibly a couple) from Athens, Georgia. Everyone was in a great mood and we passed the 2 hour drive out to the launch site by swapping travel stories. We didn´t go so far as to sing, but it was a close call. The best story was told by the San Luis couple. They had already done their Machu Picchu trek. Apparently, they waited until they got here before booking anything, not realizing that all the reputable companies sell out months in advance. Well, they found a company that offered a 4-day trek that would end up in Machu Picchu. It wasn´t the Inca trail, but on the plus side, it was only $180/person (mine cost $400) and the first day was supposed to include 5 hours of down-hill mountain biking. Sounds great! But then...calamity struck! There had been a landslide on the trail a day earlier, and so they weren´t able to do the mountain biking. Instead of turning around and trying to take a bus around the slide, they decided to be macho and climb over it. Well, after about 9 hours, they were lost. They had no water and people were drinking from the streams without purification tablets, hello Guardia! They ended up finding the trail again after another 4 hours, but at this point, one guide and three Italians all deserted the group. The Italians were apparently not much of a loss due to their non-stop complaints and bitching about Americans, but the guide´s desertion was a little more serious. The 6 people left still had one guide, but what if he left, too? Anyway, it all worked out, they had a wonderful time, and now they have an awesome story.
After whiling away the journey with stories, we got to the launch site on the river Urubamba around 11am. Looking at the river, we were slightly sceptical regarding the claim that this would be a class 2-3 trip. Honestly, an inner tube looked like it´d be fine going down that river. We all changed into our stylin´wetsuits, windbreakers, life vests, and safety helmets. We were a gorgeous group. Then we got into our 2 rafts and received our lesson in: forward, back, left back, right back, jump left, jump right and inside. I was in a raft with the two Georgia gals and two guides. The other raft had the two couples, one guide and the guide´s Danish girlfriend. Apparently, she went on a two-day rafting trip with Joselo 3 months ago, got very drunk the first night and ended up moving in with him. She seemed a little confused as to how this had all come about, but still happy with the situation.
Anyway, our guide who was steering did an awesome job, he made that class 2 river seem like a class three by having us all jump to the side as we were hitting bitty rapids or taking us down a two foot fall backward. It made the whole thing much more exciting. Just to make sure that we all got into the spirit of the day, each raft was a team (we were the gringas, later changed to las gringas locas) and when told, "attack!" we got to splash each other with our paddles. Unfortunately for Ramon, our second guide, we were having a bit too much fun and when told to jump to the left, I seem to have pushed him in. I swear that I didn´t touch him, but suddenly he was in the river and I was the only one nearby. Whoops!
Ramon wasn´t the only one to enter the river. About 3/4 of the way down, there was an old wooden bridge which we were all invited to jump off of. I´m sorry to disappoint you all, but I was the only one of the paying guests who refused the jump. Honestly, I was wearing flip flops, the rocks were sharp and the water was absolutely freezing. I had no intention of catching a bad cold right before my 4 day hike. Of course, this let me in for a bit of ribbing, which I was able to quash by asking if any of them had ever tried the flying trapeze. Hah!
All things have to end, and we ended up at a little local restaurant where I was served chicken broth with ramen noodles as my vegetarian meal. Luckily, this was followed by some spaghetti, so I didn´t starve to death. We were all pretty wiped by the time on the water and mostly snoozed on the way back to Cusco. The two couples and I made plans to meet up at a full moon party later that night and we parted.
I was unable to keep that date. Oh my god, it gets COLD in Cusco. It dropped to around 15 degrees last night and there was no way that I was dressing up in a skimpy outfit and going to a psytrance rave, even if it was in a mansion in the hills. I know, I´m weak. I didn´t even go to the pre-costume-party at the Loki hostel. I got dressed and then stalled. In fact, I couldn´t even seem to leave the blankets long enough to get something to eat and I was starving. Finally, at 10, I accepted that I am old and lame and was not going to the party. I threw on long underwear, polar fleece pants and a sweatshirt, a scarf, hat, and gloves and went out for pizza.
Back at the hostel, I sat around in the lovely, warmish TV room on a bean bag chair with a blanket and watched Hostel. Yes, a group of backpackers staying in a hostel decided to scare ourselves silly by watching other backpackers be murdered in extremely gory ways. EEEEK! Good times though. The hostel was pretty evenly divided between the brave souls who risked pneumonia for a good drunk, and those of us who put on our warmest clothes and huddled together.
Yay for rafting day!
No comments:
Post a Comment