Blog

To say farewell and thank-you to me, for all my work on the Hampy web site, Jorge ordered in an absolutely massive pizza tonight; and myself, Jorge, Ashley, and Stephan managed to team up and devour it at the Hampy office. Half chicken, half pepperoni. And a superb bottle of Argentinean Mendoza red wine to go with it. Couldn't ask for a better way to finish up my time with Hampy, and with Cusco.

After our visit to the Inca ruins of Moray this morning, we of the Hampy crew continued on this afternoon, and walked the short distance from Moray to the Salinas (ancient salt mines) near Urubamba and the Valle Sagrado ("Sacred Valley"). I already visited the Salinas about a month ago (with Jesus); but it was definitely worth visiting them a second time. With over 4,500 man-made salt pools on the side of the mountain, it's both an ingenious and a breathtaking site to behold.

For a nice little Sunday day trip, this morning we of the Hampy crew (including the complete Pilcopata jungle crew) went on a visit to the ruins of Moray, between the villages of Chinchero and Urubamba, about 1½ hours north of Cusco. We grabbed a local bus that was headed to Urubamba, then got off just before the descent into the Valle Sagrado ("Sacred Valley"), and flagged down some taxis to take us the rest of the way to Moray. Spectacular set of ruins, as well as an intriguing and ingenious example of ancient scientific experimentation at work.

After yet another day spent madly trying to finish the Hampy web site, this evening I went once again to the village of Chocco, to help celebrate Terese's despedida (lit: "farewell party"). Terese has been teaching English in Chocco (with Hampy) for the past two months or so (as well as partying and drinking like crazy every single night in Cusco, like a good Irish girl should); but now, she's finally finishing up and going back home. She will be sorely missed.

Cusco was cold when I got here (almost 8 weeks ago!), and it's been getting progressively colder ever since; but everyone warns me that my next destinations, Puno and La Paz, are even colder. In preparation for this, I visited El Molino this afternoon, and bought myself a new jacket. Warm, waterproof, and reasonably stylish: and all for just s/40!

I learned a lot of Spanish during my time at Amigos, but I still have a huge thirst to learn more. And what better way to continue my learning, than to start reading some Spanish books? So, today I bought my five primeros libros en Español (lit: "first books in Spanish"). At s/10 for the five of them, total bargain. And they should certainly keep me busy for at least the next few weeks, whenever I have spare time to kill on my trip.

For all of us, the trip to Pilcopata and to Manú was not quite what we expected. The jungle was great; seeing the communities there was great; and the food and accommodation was great. But the trip itinerary was not followed; the tour agency did not communicate very well when we asked what was going on; and (this really killed the trip for many of us) our main guide was 100% useless. I don't regret going on the trip. But it certainly could have been better.

If you want to face death on the side of a forested cliff in the middle of the night (and possible live to tell the tale), then catch the night bus from Pilcopata to Cusco. It was the same incredibly bad road that we took to get to Pilcopata on Monday; but it was wet, it was uphill, and it was pitch-black. Massive unsealed pot-holes, in the dark. Hairpin cliff-side bends, in the dark. Passing oncoming vehicles on a road thinner than Kylie's waist, in the dark. Next time, I think I'll walk back.

Once we were done with the morning's jungle tour and lunch, this afternoon we returned from our trek, to the farm near Pilcopata, via river raft. The rapids were supposedly "class II"; but compared to my three-day Apurímac rafting trip last week, they were a class-zero romantic pleasure-ride. Barely a splash the whole way along — little more than a light current to keep us going, really. But a good bit of fun, nonetheless.

It might look safe and easy and fun in the movies; but in the jungle, things break. On this morning's jungle hike and tour, we found a hanging vine, perfect for swinging on. We all had a go. I was fine, Ashley was fine, Stephan was fine, and Chris was fine. Then Wil went, and the vine snapped off. And down came Wil, from a height of about 1½m, and crashed onto his backside. Could have been any of us, but it just so happened that it was Wil. Anyway, be careful next time you're swinging in the jungle, OK?