The Inca Trail, Cont´d (and Puno, Day 1)

Ok I´ll just start off again where I left off. I´m in Puno now and am just catching up on some internet time.

Journal continued:

´This morning my group and I got up at 3.30am, trekked up hundreds of ancient stone steps through a rainforest in the Andean mountains, reached the Sun Gate by 6.30am, a sort of pass in the mountains that looks down on the city, and continued down a shallow stone path through the mountains to the city entrance. We travelled here on foot, carrying what we needed for the day, through a forest of hummingbirds, butterflies, gnarled mossy trees, hanging vines, tiny colourful orchids,and nothing could be better. I know what the Andean cross means now, with its 3 levels of lowlands, mountains, heavens and their corresponding animals, snake, puma, condor, and as I have one (I bought it from that boy in the mountains) I will wear it proudly.

The only way to see Machu Picchu is to hike one of the roads of the Inca first, for only then can you appreciate and understand what it means. Without Jose and Alex, and without the shared experience of the group I travelled with, I would not be writing this now, and my experience would not have been so powerful.

The group is split up for a few hours as we do our own thing, but I´m meeting everyone for lunch at 2 in Aguas Calientes, the neighbouring town. It´s 12.57 now so I´m going to wander around a bit more. My muscles are sore, I haven´t slept enough, and I need a shower, but my mind and my soul are well and happy, and that´s what´s important on this journey. This is a magical place and I will be sorry to leave it.´

I actually wrote a lot more about the whole experience, but it´s just too much to write. I´ll just mention the legends Jose, our guide, told us about one night:

´1.12pm - Friday 06 October 2006
...
At the end of the third day while we were all sitting in the dining tent, Jose dimmed the light and told us a couple legends about the Incas and coca leaves... One was the legend of the Flying Head --

Apparently years ago the porters had to travel the trail alone sometimes to book campsites etc, but were afraid to because of this legend. Lone travellers, when crossing a pass in the mountains, would apparently sometimes see this head in the air above the pass. If it didn´t see you, you could run away with no trouble, but if it did you´d have to use certain tricks to try to escape it and the bad luck or accident it brought. You´d have to throw things behind you so they´d turn into hills or rivers, creating obstacles in the Flying Head´s way.

The other story was about the Green Woman. She was all green, very beautiful, with almond-shaped eyes, and whoever looked into her eyes immediately fell in love with her. Men killed themselves when she ignored their pleas of love. The Inca (king) fell in love with her, too, but his advisers convinced him that she was a danger to the population, so they killed her, quartered her, and buried her in the 4 corners of the kingdom. At those 4 corners the coca plants suddently grew, with leaves the colour and shape of the Green Woman´s eyes. The Inca, upon discovering this new plant, had an overwhelming desire to chew the leaves, and despite warnings from his people, did so. He discovered that the leaves made him feel like a new man, relieved his hunger, his pain, and they have been sacred to the Inca culture ever since...´

Again, there is more to write, but I´m just not up to it at the moment. I really enjoyed the trip and am so glad I had the group I did. There was only one girl I wasn´t so keen on, but the rest of us got along famously and I don´t remember the last time I laughed so hard.

This morning I caught an 8am bus to Puno, so now I´m here by Lake Titicaca, trying to figure out when to go see the islands. I decided to take it easy tomorrow, see the sights, all that, then Monday and Tuesday I´ll be on the islands for a mini tour. I´ll get to stay the night with a local family in a reed house and eat their food and it will be wonderful I´m sure.

Now, however, I´m gonna get back to my hostel. I´m still lacking sleep and need to catch up. The hostel is much more basic than the one in Cuzco, but very clean, has hot water, and is all I need.

Oh, and Happy Thanksgiving! It completely slipped my mind until someone emailed me about it.

Chao babes.