Agents of Feeling

During the past ten days I have digressed from my normal traveling mode. In fact, going into the past fortnight, I was slightly weary of what I was going to be doing, if for no other reason than because of money. Thankfully hindsight sees no regrets on my part. The reason behind this digression was the visit of a good friend of mine from Chicago.

Ben and I have known each other since university and I was very much looking forward to seeing a friendly face – someone with whom I have a history with and not just a fleeting, anonymous week that ends with an exchange of emails and the very slightest possibility of a future face to face meeting.

Due to the extremely dictatorial, rigid, and inherently selfish vacation allowances that US companies give, Ben only had ten days to soak in the flavors of Peru. Like most people who are given a hard choice, he consolidated his options and chose to spend his time with the hardest-hitting and most rewarding things in Peru…namely a five day trek to Machupicchu and me, of course.

After two days exploring Cuzco and acclimatizing to the altitude we struck out on a five day, 60 km trek over and around Salkantay Mountain…the second highest in the Cuzco region (6275 meters). We spent a bit of money and went on an organized tour and lucked out in a big way. Not only did we have a great group to hike with, but the guides, organization and, especially, the food were great. Nothing beats sitting outside, being overlooked by a six thousand meter, glacier-clad, mountain and being served an absolutely delicious gourmet meal.

We walked for four days, reaching a top elevation of 4650 meters, camping each night, and passing through uncountable climatic and vegetative zones. Our second day was, possibly, the most amazing. After waking up in our tents at 4100m (15255 feet), we climbed, huffing and puffing, to the pass which was cold and windy and little or no vegetation. We had a mostly sunny lunch a little lower and watched the clouds float in from the Amazon basin only to hit the mountains in front of us and dissipate into the thin air (excuse the pun). Then, from the high altiplano-like zone we were in, we descended into the clouds and watched as slowly shrubs, bushes and small trees started to appear. Eventually we found ourselves in the high jungle and were completely surrounded by a cornucopia of flowers….every color that you could imagine. We camped that night somewhat below 3000m and wrapped ourselves in the warmth of the lower elevations.

We followed rives down toward Machupicchu for the next two days witnessing a myriad of plants, flowers, bugs and interesting characters, two of which merit mention. On our third day Ben and I took a bit of San Pedro, a cactus that grows locally and is used by shamans. It is great for walking in the bush because it gives you energy and enhances colors and other senses. It was an interesting and mostly benign experience because of the small dose that we took, but we met two people that day that provided much color to the rest of the trip, for both us and the other people in our group. The first character was part of an older group of people walking the trail (I don’t think they hit the altitude like we did). She was maybe in her fifties and as she walked by I commented that she had more paint on her face that the Mona Lisa, which was true but not the whole truth. As we discovered upon later sightings of her, she couldn’t move the upper half of her face due to God knows how much Botox and face-lifts. It was actually scary to see her…the bottom half of her face was smiling, the top half (was covered in makeup) didn’t move or have a wrinkly on it. Who blow-dries their hair on a jungle trail? We saw Mona many times after that and it got scarier every time. Unfortunately we failed to get a picture of her.

The second notable hiker we met that day was a young man from San Francisco. He walked with us for a while and told us he was going to see all Peru in five weeks. He thought that was pretty bad-ass and thus asked a member of our group, Tim, how long he is in Peru (thinking it would be only a week or two). Tim, an American PhD candidate lives in Peru, in Cotahuasi! The young guy, slightly humbled, asks Tim was he does…Tim replies that he is an anthropologist and then asks the same question back. The guy says, “me?, I’m an Agent of Feeling here in Peru”. Not sure what to make of that, Tim asks what he does back in the States? “There?, I’m an Agent of Feeling there as well.” We ran into the Agent of Feeling, as he became know, later while watching a caterpillar emerge from his cocoon and the Agent only let us watch if would ‘send it our love’. It certainly takes all types….

We finished the trek, our fifth day, at the ruins of Machupicchu. It is very touristy and expensive but for reason….not only is it an amazing archaeological site both in its grandeur and preservation, but is situated on top of a steep mountain in a most dramatic setting and surrounded by jagged, jungle-clad mountains and deep-cut river valleys. What amazing engineers the Incans were! We were blessed with both Mona Lisa and the Agent of Feeling at the ruins…no day would be complete without them.

After Machupicchu Ben and I went back to Lima for two days and saw a small bit of the city before he returned to Chicago. All in all, it was a great trip….I would recommend the Salkantay trek to Machupicchu to anyone not interested in walking the over-populated Inca Trail and sharing every campsite with 500 other people every night.

Tonight I’m going to pick my little sister up from the airport here in Lima. Guess where we’re going? You got it…back to Machupicchu!