Memoirs from my first ever visit to South American continent, landing directly into country of adventures. This is land full of culture, variety of terrain from desert to mountains, weather oscillating between dry and wet season, rich sumptuous food for vegetarians as well as non vegetarian and warm people with gleaming eyes at each corner.
You ask for any terrain type and you will get it here, I landed in lima which is capital city established on banks of river, flew to Cusco which is 11000 feet above sea level to hike in mountains, took multiple mode of transport ending with boat ride to stay in remotest cabins in amazon jungle and witness wild life. Hold your beer, this is just a sneak peak to my lovely readers into power packed, thrilling experience for next 10 days. Exciting stuff, isn't it? They say You Only Live Once (YOLO), I say you live every day but die only once.
Inca people represented their country into three tiered architecture where each side consists of elements from heaven, earth, and underground, be it wild life like condor, puma, snake; life possessions of love, power, knowledge; terrain like mountain, jungle, coastal; concepts like heavenly, earthy, under ground.
This art on left side is inspired by knowledge I acquired from my wonderful guide in Machu Pichu; hike to multi colored Vinicunca mountain and traversing through medicinal leaves of Peruvian forests.
Talking about my wonderful guide, who accompanied us, a small group of 10 hikers of various ethnicity on this Inca trail for 2 days and night; he is a man full of inspiration, living his life on his own terms and pursuing his love for mountains and photography, guiding us on trail, educating us about Inca empire, Quechua language, Spanish reign, humoring us along the way urging us to smell baby alpaca pee to combat altitude sickness. (it was actually a kind of essential oil and smelled good;)). Our co-pilot was a lady full of life, smiling at every camera lens, carrying our poles on difficult stretch of 4 legged hike, showing dance moves for social media reels.
This is the ultimate picture of me, reaching at top, staring at world's wonder Machu Pichu (Old mountain), after long day of strenuous hike, totally worth it. At dusk, we reached our camp site which was surrounded by mountains from all side. Tents were already assembled by lovely people, we were welcomed with tub of water and soap to relax our sore foot, followed by fresh and healthy food prepared by chefs who carried ingredients all along the way. I should not forget about dawn when roosters woke us even before 4 a.m., and chefs served breakfast by 5 a.m. This is luxury of life to be surrounded by surreal view, witnessing rustic beauty, sipping fresh coco tea to calm nerves at this altitude but getting city like service when it comes to food.
That was first leg of the trip, next one was even tougher hike reaching altitude of 17000 feet to rainbow mountain. At this altitude with thin air, it is not easy to hike unless you acclimatize to the climate. Luckily all of us made it, though some had to use oxygen cylinder which our sherpas were carrying happily to make our life easier. Not only we covered rainbow mountain, but another stretch of red valley as well. In case, you get urge to attend nature's call, there was a real commode in that valley covered from three sides, open from fourth side facing valley. So you get to attend natures call while watching nature at its peak beauty ;).
Talking about Sherpas, our guides were taking care of us, giving coca leaves to chew, motivating us to steer forward and showing some talent by paying flute along the way. We had got 2 sherpas, one being silent dude and another the talkative, humorous one who wanted to be president of Cusco :)
This is me with alpacas, posing after my achievement for that day.
So what do you think so far? Wanna know more about this amazing country? Welcome to Amazon forest! I flew from Cusco to Puerto Maldonado to be received by another guide for last leg of the trip. We had to unpack and pack within 10 mins in those numbered bags they gave us as boats in remaining journey could not hold weight of our carry on. Our flights were delayed and hence this rush. Our sailor was well aware of the current and Tambopata river to anchor the boat even when it was pitch dark and brought us safely to the shore. Before getting into boat, we were in bus where food was given, I loved how they served us home made packed food in steel boxes in a cloth bag. Well aware about reusability, giving us a personal touch. Imagine how someone would clean those after us, serving food to others rather than using throw away plastic boxes.
We were introduced to another guide who remained with us for next 3 days. This picture you see is me trying to be Amazonian Gatito, painted by my guide with natural color from some special leaves. He took us to night walk which was easy one, where we saw some beautiful insects, venomous spiders and learnt about cicada tower, he ended it with a sigh stating we survived, seems we got another funny guide here. He dedicated a Spanish song Ojos marrones-lasso for my brown eyes at end of the trip;).
Our group consisted of a Swedish couple who would narrate their travelling stories from younger days on lunch table, Australian tall girl on month long break who was kind and caring and ended up scolding our guide for not being careful and being eaten by poisonous ants giving him rashes. Our cabins were beautiful where we got natural light in day and solar lights between 5 to 10 p.m., we woke up for early morning kayaking in back waters in search of pythons, enjoyed natural swimming holes in day time, took tour of local plantations, completed night boat ride to see caimans while turning off motor boat and meditating in middle of river, hiked for long hours in deep forest learning about medicinal properties of plants, witnessing mama earth biggest tree, hollow tree hitting which would produce sound travelling to many kilometers (old age telephone system :P), hearing stories about puma seen 8 years ago at particular spot ;). I got to see Amazonian mot mot, Macau bird, king vulture, condor family, asthmatic bird, capybara rodent weighing 50 kgs, porcupines with sharp quills which might pierced through my skin if I dared to touch it, sloths resting on branches, monkey on shore sipping water, cormorant, white banded swallow to name a few.
Overall worthwhile place to visit, I am glad I could make it, would love to continue my pursuit of travel!
P.S: They say out of all the books in the world, best ones are found between pages of passport. Yes, this is the one stamped on my passport forever.
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