Adventure

This afternoon was the most relaxing part of the Salkantay hike; but it was also the most stressful so far, because we were hindered in our truck ride by a landslide, and because two groups' worth of us were piled into the back of a rickety pickup. However, we sang our way to our destination, the town of Santa Teresa, in the end. Hence, the story of the truck, the landslide, and the singing.

There's one thing I can say about today, that really sums up the day's hiking: it was a bitch. We walked for almost 9 hours today. We left Soraypampa at 7:30am this morning, and the quicker people among us (myself included) didn't get to tonight's campsite of Challway until 5:30pm. The morning may have been hard, but the afternoon was long. It was one really long downhill slog, that just dragged on and on forever. Today really was not for the faint-hearted.

I knew that today, day 2 of the Salkantay hike, was going to be tough; but nothing could have prepared me for the massive ascent that we made this morning, from Soraypampa to the edge of Nevado Salkantay. We literally walked almost 1000m uphill, in less than 3 hours. By the time we reached Paso Salkantay, at 4,600m asl, we felt pretty damn proud of ourselves. Although a little more oxygen would have been good.

Today I started the 5-day Salkantay hike, which is an alternative to the (massively overbooked) Inca Trail hike, and which also ends at the Lost City of the Incas, Machu Picchu. The journey started with a 5am pickup from the Loki hostel in Cusco, and a 2-hour bus ride to the starting point of the hike, the village of Mollepata.

I did river rafting for the first time today, and it was fun. Very fun. A big group of us went down to the lower reaches of the Urubamba River, near Cusco, and spent about 2½ hours braving the cold, fierce rapids. Tumbling along the river, mounting and crashing into churning waves, dodging scary rocks, and being so cold you can't feel your hands, is an experience like no other.

With Cath and Gaz gone today, and with Abimael working, and with my bus out to Cusco not leaving until the evening, I had one day on my own to spend here in Ayacucho. I decided to spend the day visiting the village of Quinua — a tiny place about 45 minutes from Ayacucho, reachable by regular combis — where I unexpectedly found myself horseriding through a beautiful, jungle-enshrouded cataract.

Three days ago, on Wednesday, I tried to go paragliding on the seashore in Miraflores, but was thwarted by a lack of wind. Today, I decided to return and to try my luck again. This time I came really close — the wind picked up, they strapped me in, I was running for the cliff edge — and then the bloody wind died again!

One of the few recreational activities available in Lima itself is paragliding. You can do this just down the road from Miraflores, taking off on the tall cliffs that overlook Lima's pebbly, polluted beach coast. This afternoon, I decided to give the paragliding a try. Sadly, it turned out that paragliding today was not to be.

I hired a bicycle yesterday, and this morning — despite the weather still being rather sub-optimal — I decided to take it out for a spin. Turns out that this wasn't such a smart move. About 5 minutes into my first ride of San Francisco, I rode over a messy intersection of cable-car tracks in the road, and my bike simply toppled over. As a passer-by said to me, "when they get wet, those tracks are deadly, they turn into black ice". Fortunately, I wasn't going very fast at the time, and neither myself nor the bike were seriously injured. But I did get a bit of a flesh wound, on my left palm and my left knee (some of the usual suspects in bike prangs).

This afternoon I finally did something that I've been meaning to do ever since I got to Mexico: I hired a bicycle, and went and explored the town on it. For just 25 pesos an hour, it's the best and most fun way to see San Cristóbal.

San Cristóbal is also perfectly suited for cycling, as:

• It's big but not huge.
• It has flat as well as fairly hilly bits.
• It has varying grades of road so you don't get bored (sealed, cobblestone, and unsealed).
• It has a nice variety of scenery (mountains, "colonial bits", slum bits, church bits).