And what a trip it was... the colors of Aguas Calientes, the food during the trek, the people of Lima, the cobbled stone streets of Cusco... one of the best trips yet. It was so good that most of the time we couldnt remember what day of the week it was. All we could remember was...'ohh, its the 2nd day of the trek' or 'the 3rd day of the rainforest'! :)
And yes, for those of you holding your breath to know the answer to this.. Yes, I did notice the flush... and I am happy to anounce that its true that the flush spirals down in the other direction in the southern hemisphere! :) Yeah, Yeah, I know... my sis says that you can make it rotate anyway you want... it only applies for hurricanes or air movement and apparently she is correct. But if I am a bee, the flush is definitely as big as a hurricane is to humans! And if I am northern hemisphere bee visiting below the equator, your flush just confused the hell out of me and possibly killed me!! :p Btw, if you have no clue what I am blabbering about, you probably werent holding your breath to begin with and you can go Bing for 'Coriolis effect' or 'flush hemisphere'!
Inca trek...
briefly this was the trek... it was tough but doable and definitely worth it...
1st day 10kms at arnd 10k feet,
2nd day 12kms at arnd 13k feet,
3rd day 16kms at arnd 10k feet,
4th day 6kms.. Macchu Pichu.
The most surprising part of the trip was the awesome food and the service we were provided. We had 3 course meals in addition to tea times and popcorn... popcorn on a 4 day trek! And I celebrated one of my best birthdays ever. The chef made a huge cake out of pancake flour and hand mixed icings. It was impressive how resourceful they were given we were out on a moutain trek.
Other noteworthy and interesting aspects of the trek were...
- the super strong porters who carried double what we were carrying and walked at double our speed!
- our super-duper guide Rueben and one of the porters who supposedly has 5 wives!!
- on our way back, my friend forgot her camera in the train. The train left the station and was about 100mts away and what does our heroine do?! Yes, she yells "Stop, stop" and voila, the train actually stops! We couldnt believe that its so casual in those rural areas and a train stops if you just yell at it - like a taxi!
- hot springs at Aguas Calientes.. its actually, as a friend puts it, just a leaky pipe and it definitely was not hot. I think they should call it Stink Springs, coz you notice the stink more than the heat! btw, this town had no public transport. You walk everywhere and goods are moved using a trolley!
- the winter solstice celebration at Cusco was impressive. The cobbled stone streets and the colorful displays were impressive - though I dont know why all the dancers were old - looked like the minimum age requirement was 80! :)
Amazon rainforest...
- the 4 hour boat ride in the river to lodge was interesting and boring at the same time.
- we saw a bunch of animals like the caymans, capybaras, macaws, squirrel monkeys
- the wooden lodge had power only for 4 hours a day which was interesting... the lodge had hammocks and countless bugs and now I have a ton of bug bites all over my arms and legs! :(
- in entire Peru, all they seem to drink was the watery beer called Cusquena or the horrible soda called Inka Kola or the very good national cocktail called Pisco Sour.
- and in the middle of the jungle, so far away from modern civilization, we ran into a Shahrukh Khan fan! Apparently SRK is popular there, so are Bollywood movies.
Lima...
- Lima definitely surprised us with a lot of lover-couples and romantic spots... It was surely a romantic city.
- ohh and we were walking along one of the streets and we heard hindu bajans out of some church building window... after some debate and deciding that the worst that could happen is a police visit, we decided to knock on the door. Apparently it was a private residence attached to a church and this Peruvian guy was doing pooja! He was happy to see us and showed us arnd inside his house... No idea how he picked up Hinduism though... we didnt see a lot of Indians in Peru.
- Riding the private buses in Lima was fun.. there were no government buses! They were very cheap too! For 1.5 soles they take you on a 30 minute ride!
- After 2 weeks following the path of the Incas on the trek and visiting countless ruins during the trek, what do we do in Lima? We went to an erotic museum that displayed the erotic side of the Incan empire. Thats something you dont see quite often - an erotic museum! :)
