As you may have read in the last post, the goal for the weekend was to see an awesome sunrise. I left on Saturday, the shortest day of the year, with Rob, Jenny, Dave, and Stephanie, 4 other teachers, for Tres Cruses, overlooking the Amazon. The bus ride was pretty dramatic. Not long after leaving Cusco, we left the paved road for a narrow dirt one, that wound up through the mountains. I got a little nervous when I looked out my window to see that the road had disappeared beneath me. I felt like I shouldn't even be leaning towards the window, for fear that I would upset the balance of the bus and cause it to tumble down into the ravine. No such thing happened.
Three hours later, we arrived in Paucartambo, the last town before Tres Cruses (and a complete dustbowl. I was filthy before the trip even really began). We had to do some bargaining to get a taxi driver to take us the remaining two hours, and who would promise to pick us up Monday morning. We arrived at our destination just before dark, which gave us just enough time to set up camp. I had borrowed a sleeping bag and rented a tent and a heavy down jacket (which I was very grateful for) before we left, so I was all set.
When we got there on Saturday evening, all we could see was fog. As we were sitting outside our tents, we had about a 10-minute window where the clouds broke and all we could see were millions of brilliant stars, ala Lake Titicacca, but the clouds rolled in again. Still, we woke up at 4:30 am, ever the optimists. Only to be disappointed. It was clear overhead, and the moon was so bright, it was casting a shadow. But overhead is not where sunrises happen, and the horizon was much too cloudy. No sunrise this morning.
For most of the day, we were completely socked in, with a slight drizzle (it's wet inside a cloud). And we were completely alone. It was kind of like being in a horror movie. Wet or not, we headed down into the jungle for a bit of a hike. The trail was awesome, full of little canyons and cool foliage. We went through a couple eco-systems in one hike. After returning from our hike, an amazing thing happened: the fog cleared! We could see the sky! And the mountains surrounding us! It was beautiful! Of course, there was still a layer of clouds over the forest below, but it's a cloud forest, so what can you expect? We had very high hopes for the morning sunrise. Only to have them dashed- again. By morning, the clouds had rolled in again, and it was not to be.
Despite the sunrise disappointment, it was a good weekend away from the Cusco craziness- until the bus ride home. Because of Inti Raymi, everyone wants to go to Cusco, so the bus was standing room only- for 4 hours. At first, I sat myself down in the middle of the aisle, but I didn't like that so much. Soon, the extremely bumpy, windy roads, combined with the airless bus filled with, shall we say, fragrant Peruvians, began to take their toll, and I began to turn various shades of green. Luckily, I never needed the plastic bag I rummaged up, thanks to the woman next to me, who got up for about 20 minutes (doing what, I have no idea). Just that time that I was able to sit down and close my eyes was enough to make me feel somewhat healthy, but I was very, very happy to arrive in Cusco. Just in time to march in a parade! (details on that coming later...)
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