Day 68: Saturday, December 8th

Day 3 of Machu Picchu Jungle Trek

Dear Obiwan,

The day began with ZIP-LINING. I love zip-lining so much Obi and today was just phenomenal! There were 4 zip lines, the first 3 were from MOUNTAIN TO MOUNTAIN over a river!!! It was exhilarating! They said the first 3 ‘no upside down or tricks’ but said that the last one we could. I let go a few times and leaned back a little but we had to STOP OURSELVES. Which I don’t think I’ve ever had to do before. Each of us were given these huge gloves with rubber padding and THIS IS HOW YOU STOP! You wait for the guy to give you a sign which is either ‘stop’ like a normal stop or SUPER STOP which you put one hand in back of the thing and one in front.

I arrived at the last zip which was the longest. I asked if I was allowed to lean back and go upside-down. The guy thought I asked SOMETHING ELSE and goes “yeah uh okay upside down? One sec,” and waves over another guy. They then tell me “don’t hold onto to anything or do anything until the guy tells you too,” I then am clipped to this other man, who then proceeds to FLIP ME UPSIDE DOWN. So I was like, backwards spread eagle. THEN WE FLEW AND I FLEW UPSIDE DOWN WITH NO HANDS or anything holding onto anything and fly across the zip line!!! It was amazing!!!

Here’s a video:

(Side note Obiwan, not like IT MATTERS, but we saw Carolina later and she said she did 8 ZIP LINES and said they went UPSIDE DOWN AND SUPERMAN and a million other cool things that we did not do. So obviously they got the fancy Jungle Trek.)

After this amazing zip-line we…had… to hike! They just lied when they told us at the agency the only hike was day 2. We had to hike 3 fricken hours to our final stop, Aguas Calientes. Unlike our death hike yesterday, this time we had to carry all of our stuff. I don’t understand WHAT I brought but my bag weighed the weight of a 10 year old child. We were following the train tracks and I died. As always, I was last. As always Edo the jerk guide passed me angrily, and as always I would catchup to the group and then Edo would guide them to leave the moment I arrived.

BUT, I MADE IT. And it was quite beautiful! And I was so ignorant, I thought this town was going to be some small town at the bottom of Machu Picchu but it was a big happening place! With ATM’S and restaurants! I was STARVING due to the meals all being pretty gross. So I went and had some mediocre pizza but it honestly, in that moment, was the best pizza of my life.

After showering and relaxing it was time for a meeting then dinner with the group. I was so exhausted and full I planned not eat dinner with the group.

The schmuck guide Edo told us in the meeting that we can either walk the 45 minute or so steep hike from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu or we can take a van, and when he said this, STARED AT ME and widened his eyes saying non-verbally ‘yes you Carly, you better take the van.’ I stared at him back and said that I was going to hike, it didn’t really matter, but I just wanted to for some reason. Some people were like “it will be worth it!” Some said, “you have to!” Others said “no way!” But my heart thought, YES, I CAN DO IT. I told Edo that since everyone was starting at 430, I will start at 330 to be safe and take it slow.

Since he is a schmuck his response was a stone-faced, “no.”

I felt my face turn red immediately, I just was done with this jerk. “WHAT, WHY, I’M DOING IT.”

Edo, “ha no, you can’t.”

I was two seconds from crying or screaming when the nice other guide who didnt’ speak much English explained that the gates don’t open until 5am, so the earliest you can leave is 430 to walk the 20 minutes from here to the entrance.

OH THANKS OTHER GUIDE (who I forget his name) Why couldn’t Edo just say that? OH BEDAUSE HE IS A SCHMUCK.

So I was determined at this point. My hatred for this man and that he didn’t believe in me even more fueled my decision to walk in the morning. He said a million times, “you have to be there between 6:00am and 6:20am, WE WILL LEAVE WITHOUT YOU.” This gave me so much anxiety you have no idea Obi. I will have ONLY 20 MINUTES TO SPARE.

This still ddidn’t matter, I AM HIKING EDO, and I am going to make it! He also told us then that WE HAVE NO GUIDE FOR THIS MORNING TREK. Which just made NO SENSE to me and Natasha. The crucial most important and supposedly steepest part of our trip…we have to do alone? WHAT DID WE PAY FOR WHY DO THE GUIDES EVEN EXIST.

Also, some really nice people from my group told me during this interaction that I can do it and that it isn’t supposed to be “too hard.” I really appreciated them!

Finally I left the group and tried to go to bed around 7. Sadly my anxiety did not let me sleep too well but I tried to get some sleep before MACHU PICCHU!!!

Goodnight my Jedi,

Love tu Madre,

Carly

P.S.- Happy Chanukah Obiwan!