As we turn our backs on the "Lost City" of the Incas we start to realize our journey is over. Before we can even let it all sink in, we are on a bus taking us rapidly down the mountain. The bus driver is once again driving like a bat out of hell. Its almost as if something mysterious happens on top of that mountain and he is rushing us to the bottom so we don’t witness it. Or maybe he just wants to go home to his wife and kids. Or to a bar, who knows. Next stop, Aguas Calinentas where we will catch a 5:00 train back to Cusco. – Side note: I didn’t take a lot of pictures after Machu Picchu, so the rest of the blog will mostly be story time....
Before we catch our train, we have a little down time in "Hot Water,” so naturally we grab a bite to eat...and of course indulge in some celebratory beers. We all share our favorite moments on the trail, and some of the more seasoned traveler’s compare it to other trips they have been on. They are all in agreement that this was among their top 2 trips. Steve ranked it as his favorite while Nick and Beck place it in a close second behind the South African safari they went on a few months back. Nick and Beck are coming up on their 11 month away from home. It’s hard to imagine being away from friends and family for that long, but they seem so content, so at home traveling the world living out of a backpack. This is rather inspiring to me and I quickly decided that at least once in my life I am going to experience something like that. Maybe not as long as them because in our society you cant just take off for 10 months and expect to come back to a job. But one day I will do it, and when the time is right I will know.
After we eat, we part ways with Nick and Beck as their train departs at 3:00. I really enjoyed their company and learned a lot of things about their cultures that I will take with me back to the states. The rest of the group spreads out and does our own things for the remaining 2 hours. Steve and I head to an internet cafe and jump on a computer with "high speed" internet. This is where I learn about Swine Flu. I had heard about it before I left the states, but didn’t pay much attention to it. We start to fear that we may have a hard time getting back into the states without being detained and held for examination. I continue internet surfing, checking my email, and of course facebook. As I am reading my facebook messages I hear something poking around under my chair. Of all things, its a freaking chicken. Now, you have to picture this place. It’s not like your normal little town where everything is inside behind closed doors. Its almost like we are in a big market. Only curtains shield the inside of these stores from the natures of the Peruvian jungle. Unless you’re a "wealthy" store, then you have the luxury of a wooden sliding door, or better yet glass!. Now, my brain doesn’t process the fact that swine flu and bird flu are two different things at first, so my instinct reaction pushes me away from the computer and away from this disease ridden bird. Still, after reading about Swine Flu, I don’t want to take any chances. I sit there for a second and let the chicken do its thing. I figured it would peck around a few times and be on its way. Not this guy, he has found something in my pack. My last granola bar, and ill be damned if I let him have it. This is when I wish Jason was with my so he could kill it in a "PETA certified” way, but instead I just kick it out the door/curtain and it goes clucking along its merry way. I half expected some Peruvian restaurant owner to come yelling at me for abusing his live stock, but no one seemed to care. It must have been a homeless chicken. If you’re a chicken, homeless is better then live stock I guess, but I doubt he knew that.
I leave the internet cafe and head toward the train station, stopping in a local market to try and pick up some last minute souvenirs. Every market vender is selling the same worthless crap. Fake Alpaca blankets, hats, sweaters, coco candy, T-Shirts (after 1 wash I now have a belly shirt, and its for sale if anyone wants it), smoking accessories, bracelets. Again, none of this appeals me, so I leave and head to the train station where I meet up with the rest of the crew. 5:00 is rolling up on us fast and we are all ready to get on the train and try and take a short nap. But less we forget we are in Peru and nothing is on time. We wait a good hour before the train even arrives. Then the trouble starts.
We are on a "backpackers" train. This is basically a trolley car with old crickety benches screwed down to the floor. They pack us in there tight. And to make it comical, they situate it like most trains where we have to all sit facing each other. I’m in a leg lock with a dirty 22 year old hippy chick from England who just spent 10 days on the trail. Needless to say, it wasn’t pleasant. Here we sit, in an intimate position waiting for the train to start moving. no A/C, no lights, no movement. It gets hot in there real fast, everyone smells like hot garbage at this point. The sun begins to go down, and it’s starting to get dark in the train. This is where we learn that our engine has broke down and we have to wait on another one. But the one we are waiting on is having problems of its own. "10 minutes" the train instructor tells us. 10 minutes becomes an hour and a half. And just to mock us, an empty Orient Express train pulls into station right next to us, just glowing with its leather seats, mahogany molding, crystal Champaign glasses, and LIGHTS! Finally the half busted engine car arrives and we lock up to it and begin to roll out. Not 100 yards out of the train station does the thing stall on us. Granted, it starts right back up, but this is rather troubling. Its approaching 7:00, we still have a 2 hour train ride ahead of us, and we plan on partying back in Cusco. The damn train stalls out about every 15 minutes along the way. One time for about 30 minutes in the middle of the Peruvian Jungle. We begin to wonder is this thing is even going to make it to Cusco. At least we are all prepared to camp out again if we need to! But finally, the thing finds another cylinder or something and makes it the last hour without incident. It doesn’t go over 15 miles an hour, but at least we are moving at a constant rate.
Its 11:00 by the time we make it to Cusco (it’s really a small town outside of Cusco, but I cant remember the name of it) where we have a van waiting to pick us up and take us back to the hotel. It has never felt better to sit in a seat that has cushions. By this point I was so tired from the last 5 days that the van ride is just a blur to me. We make it back to the Hotel where we find our room just the way we left it. We all take long hot showers and head out to the bars. First stop, a nice gringo bar where we play darts and relive our trip. Hutto, Justin and I were kicking ass until Greg lands a bulls-eye to seal the deal from 10 feet behind the line. I argue it doesn’t count, but to no avail. We were out of beer and ready to hit another watering hole. I prefer another laid back dive bar, but some how we get swooned into a Cusco discteca. It was rather first class the way we got into this dump. We were just walking through Cusco's main square when we are all of a sudden surrounded by Peruvians begging for the chance that we grace their night club with our presence. Promises of free drinks and many beautiful women is what grabs our attention, so we follow some kid into his night club. Once we are in I turn to him to ask him about these free drinks, but he is no where to be found. Bastard. He probably wasn’t a day over 13 either. We got shunned by a pre-teen Peruvian punk. Whatever, we were in so we decided to stay and check it out. This place was pretty amazing....I will try to paint a picture for you….Carrollton’s TC Rose in Panama City in early April full of 16 years olds. That’s where we were. It’s like high school spring break, people! I have no idea where these kids came from. Not once on my trip did I see anyone that looked younger then I was, but here we were at a discoteca full of high school kids. At least they looked to be high school kids. I didn’t want to take my chances. We did a "frat lap," as Hurme called it, to check the place out. It didn’t take long to come to the conclusion we should leave. Not without another drink though. We all throw one back and headed home. We didn’t realize it until we left, but it was a little over 2am. All of a sudden I was dog tired. I couldn’t wait to get into my bed. Tomorrow we head out for our long layover filled journey back to the states.
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