Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Peru



There are not many places on Earth which are quite the testament to human tenacity as Machu Picchu in Peru. I mean, they built their city on top of the mountain! Only people would do that, or animals that depend on people after people have built up on the top of a mountain. Or eagles. I think eagles live on the tops of mountains, or possibly just very large trees. Some of those trees are massive! But anyways... I digress.

We walked straight up the mountain and saw what we saw (pictures above). Testament, I say again, to human tenacity. We, in this case, includes myself and Mannouri (I have no idea how to spell that). Her name got shortened to "Manni". She decided, after making it to the top, to take the "scenic route" to get back to camp.

Let me tell you something about travelling. Travelling is about the scenic route - travelling, in fact, is the scenic route. If you haven't seen it before, it's scenic, especially if you're in a mountain range. Scene, scene, scene as far as the eye can see. Let me tell you something else; that mountain looks almost exactly the same on the other side looking back as it does from here. My point? The "scenic route" on a mountain is not a good way to go. People go the way they go because it's easy to continue living while doing so. I think someone forgot to explain to Manni that the reason that the Machu Picchuvians built their city up there is because it's really hard to get to it.

So, we climbed, and let me tell you, climbing down sucks. It's no fun. I've never had so many blisters as when I climbed down a cliff face. If we'd been willing to throw a bunch of equipment away, we could have rappelled, but that stuff is expensive.

There we are, anyways, in the jungle on the complete opposite side of the mountin. Manni decides that it would be wise to follow the river back to town. Now, it's a good 10 or 12 miles back to town, because we have just done all of the following:

a) walked up a mountain
b) explored the top of said mountain (cool)
c) climbed down the opposite side of the mountain
d) made out a little bit (mmm... french girls)

It's getting on to night time, so we have to decide whether we are going to sleep under the stars or walk back. An argument ensues. Manni argues that we should walk back.

So we're walking back and we're not making the best time because we're both fairly exhausted when I realize that I can hear something up ahead. I point out to Manni that we really don't know this area very well and that we're really just about stumbling around in the dark. She agrees that maybe in a half hour or so, we should lay off and go to sleep.

We continue walking along the river. The sound is getting louder, and I'm pretty sure that I know what it is - it's a combination of freight train and airplane take-off that you only hear in places where large quantities of water or falling large quantities of distance. We're coming up on a waterfall.

Now, unfortunately, on this same trip, we had been to see Angel Falls. Earlier in the year, I'd been to Victoria Falls. Niagra Falls is something I grew up with. The tone quality of these waterfalls is slightly different than the one that we were encountering. Long story short, this waterfall was fairly small (not all that high, not all that wide) and so it was not the same sort of angry-train-plane-takeoff sound that I was expecting.

We came upon it a little unexpectedly.

Manni tripped over a rock and stumbled forward. I caught onto her backpack and it's a good thing that I did; she would have stumbled and fallen to her death, or at the very least, continual vegetative state. We stopped walking, set up camp for the night and enjoyed a leisurely walk out the next day.

The lesson learned here is twofold. The first? Don't travel too much at night in a place you don't know when you're tired and there are possible waterfalls. Okay, that might be just a little bit specific, but you get the idea.

The second lesson? Tenacity is a great thing that can lead people to many great heights, but eventually those heights will be abandoned. Tenacity may also lead you over the edge of a cliff if you're not careful. I'm not sure if apathy every killed anyone... and to be honest, I don't really care.