One crazy ride
Trip Start
Unknown
1
5
6
Trip End
Ongoing
Quillabamba, Cusco, Peru
Sunday, July 25, 2010
Peru's Independence Day is celebrated July 28-29th, and the city has been pretty festive (i.e. fireworks going off at all hours of the day and night). However, this past weekend, I got a head start on some of the celebration. The city of Quillabamba, which was founded on July 25, 1857, has an annual festival which draws thousands of Peruvians each year. A few friends of mine decided to take a trip off the beaten path, leave the rest of the gringos in Cusco, and check out the festivities in the mountains. I was going to stay in Cusco this weekend, but decided this trip sounded too enticing to miss. So, in the matter of 90 minutes, I got home from work, packed my bag, and hopped in a taxi to the Terminal de Santiago which lies on the outskirts of Cusco, to buy a 45 sole ticket for a ride to Quillabamba in a combi (van). Quillabamba is located in the Andes and its population consists of Andean and Amazonian migrants. Little did I know as I boarded my van packed to the brim with Peruvians skipping town for the festival, that in order to reach Quillabamba, one needs to drive for 6 hours through the mountains. (Since my friends had properly planned their trip, they were in a full combi, leaving me the only non-Peruvian in my van), Having not done a bit of research on this city, I had no idea what I was getting myself into, which, in retrospect, was probably for the best, as I have never felt so close to death as I did on my journey to and from Quillabamba.
Our bus left at 1:40 (1:00 Peruvian time), and the first hour was pretty tranquil. We drove through desolate towns scattered in the mountains above Cusco. I had ridden the same route a few times on other excursions out of the city, and thought this ride would be pretty similar. By hour two, we were trudging up a dirt road and the landscape was rapidly changing. We began winding up the mountains, and suddenly our route turned into twists and turns on narrow, often dirt roads that were barely made for one way traffic, let alone tour buses going in both directions. The next 5 hours consisted of heart pounding turns at 60 KM/Hr alongside the edge of cliffs that were way to close for comfort. Every time we reached a sharp turn (which was approximately every 45 seconds), our driver would honk his horn continuously to warn any oncoming cars that we were coming around the bend, and if they didn't stop or slow down, we wouldn't both make it through. Basically, the ride was like a 7 hour long game of chicken, and our driver was determined not to be the chicken. He had no problem passing up to 3 cars or trucks at a time, and I was holding on for dear life. By hour 5, we were so high up in the mountains, that clouds surrounded us to the point of 360 degree zero visibility. The climate changed from warm, to really cold, to hot as we road through places in which motor transportation seemed to go against natural instinct. I don't think whoever put those mountains there meant for roads to be built right smack in the middle. Below is a photo I took from the back seat of the combi:
All I can say is we survived by the sheer grace of Jesus.
After all was said and done, including traffic for a total of an hour (during which my fellow passengers and bus driver purchased dinner through our bus windows from people selling rice and tamales on the streets) our near-death experience ended at around 8PM when we reached our final destination of Quillabamba.
I didn't have a room booked, and I knew all of the hostels in the city would be packed for the festival. I was prepared to sleep on the floor of my friends' 4 bed dorm, but lucked out big time when we found out the receptionist at our hostel made a mistake and overbooked my friend's reservation. So we had an extra double, in which I slept soundly. The room was utterly depressing, but it was a room, so I couldn't complain.
Our first night in Quillabamba was pretty much a quick stroll around the Plaza de Armas, Peruvian pizza and beer, and an 11:00 bedtime for me. Two of my friends went hardcore and stayed out till 3am at various disco-techs, but I did not regret my decision to retire early; the next day was jam packed with adventure.
I got up at 7AM on Saturday and did some Yoga in my room to get some of the kinks out from my long bus ride the day before, and I also had the hopes of making the karma in the room a bit more zen-like. I then showered in the hottest shower I have had since I've been in Peru, got dressed, and attempted to wake up my hungover friends. It was all but a failed attempt, as the party-ers kept sleeping, while the other girl in the group who went to bed when I did was up and at 'em. She and I went out for a walk, checked out an internet cafe, and decided we couldn't wait for breakfast any more, so we insisted our friends get up. We indulged in delicious cafe con leche, huevos revueltos (scrambled eggs) and a ton of pan tostada (toast). With full bellies, we hopped in a cab (yet another wild ride up the mountain) to a trail-head that would lead us on a 2 hour uphill hike to some pretty impressive cascades. We knew getting a cab back to the city would be tough to impossible so we made a promise with our cab driver that if he would return for us in 4 hours, we would pay him double what we paid to get there. Well, needless to say, we were in Peru, timing means jack here, and apparently promises do too- our cab driver was a no-show.
After a 4-hour hike up and back, we waited on the side of the road, starving since we hadn't eaten since our huevos revueltos 6 hours prior, until finally a friendly cab driver showed up and offered to drive us home for the same price we paid to get there (15 soles). We were pumped, and right when we got in the cab, we knew we were in for a treat. Check out this dude's makeshift stereo:
Well, we didn't have music, but we did laugh hysterically all the way back to Quillabamba, mostly out of sheer terror (going downhill a mountain in a speeding car is much scarier than going uphill in a car with no horsepower...). It was also pretty funny when we stopped to pick up 4 more Peruvians to squish into the trunk of the hatchback, making the total number of passengers in the car 9.
Back in Quillabamba, our lives securely intact, (our mental state only sightly damaged), we had a 4PM lunch, showered, got dressed, and hit the town by 6PM. I, of course began my night with a Cusquena Malta, my favorite dark beer here. We met up with a friend from Cusco and his Peruvian tandem language partner, checked out a street parade, went to a great bar, had some more beer and margaritas, and then went for some more pizza. The pizza was so good I didn't even miss a bite when a cockroach crawled under our table.
After dinner, we headed back to our favorite bar, and then around midnight, hopped in a cab to the main party which was being held at the town square. This is where things really began to get interesting. We were the only white people for miles. Literally, it appeared as if we were the only tourists out of 3,000 party-goers; and the Peruvians had no problem making it incredibly obvious that we stuck out like sore thumbs. They were staring, taking pictures, asking us to dance, crowding around us. And this attention was not only for the ladies in my group, the men got just as much of it. I felt like a cross between a celebrity and an alien (although I guess there isn't much of a difference between the two anyway).
The party was definitely a taste of authentic Peruvian culture. At the top of the park there were rides and games set up- similar to a carnival from 1957 (things are a bit outdated here). As we walked down a road deeper into the park, we came across two swimming pools with water slides. No one was actually swimming at that hour, but you couldn't pay me enough to swim in that grayish brown water at any hour. Of course, my first stop was the bathroom. It took me two attempts to gather up enough courage to actually use the bathroom. There was a men's side and a women's side, both of which had an area of toilet stalls and an area of shower stalls (to be used to wash of the grayish brown water after braving the pool). However, the entire bathroom was a free-for all. People were peeing and pooing in both the toilets and showers, and the floor had an inch of liquid all over it that resembled the liquid in the pool outside. Let's just say I don't think it was only water on the floor, and I was incredibly happy that I had on knee-high boots. (Many people were wearing flip-flops- i.e: contracting diseases). I made sure that my one bathroom experience was my only bathroom experience.
The main attraction at the festival (other than us) was the bands that were playing. There were two or three bands that came on singing traditional Peruvian music and we all danced the night away. By around 2, we had our fill and left, but it seemed as though for the Peruvians, the party was just getting started.
I retired to my double bed dorm (solo, of course) and slept soundly. The next day was a bit groggy, but nothing that some strong coffee and some huevos revueltos couldn't fix. We headed to our bus and left at 11:40 (11AM Peruvian time). Coincidentally, I had the same driver on the way home as I did on the way there, and not coincidentally, the ride home was just as terrifying as the ride there. The only differences were that I was sitting in the front seat and had a full view of the wild ride. We also had a box and 2 bags of live chickens on the roof, and we stopped twice to pick up some Peruvians trying to hitch a ride back to Cusco.
We made it back by the skin of our teeth and I was glad to be back on solid ground. I hopped a cab back to my house, ate two dinners and two desserts worth of food, and slept like a baby.
The past week back in Cusco has been lovely. I only had one day of work because of the two days of Independence Day that is observed here. Today, I took a 7 hour day hike- more about that next time. I am sure by now, if you've made it through my entire blog, you are ready for a break, so I will relieve you now.
As always, thanks for reading! More adventures to come.
