Crazy 5 day hike, Machu Picchu, and more. Oh My! (8/11/2011)

8/11/2011

This blog entry has been way overdue. I just returned to Cusco after 5 days in the wilderness. But I have some interesting stories before that.

The day I arrived to Lima, on the 4^th of August, I was kindly shown around by Juan. We went to several museums and he put me up in a nice hotel.  It was fantastic. I got him as my personal tour guide without having to worry about how to travel around Lima or about getting pickpocketed. I also had a chance to see an old friend of mine, Molly Colman, who’s studying abroad in Lima.

Molly and I in Miraflores, Lima

The next day I flew to Cuzco, saw the beautiful Coricacancha (ex-Sun Temple turned into a Church in the classic Spanish let’s-destroy-Incan-idolatry mode) and before Shabbes got this amazing Boleto Turistico (a pass that gets you into most ruins and museums in the area for free.)  Friday night at Chabad started amazing but ended with me feeling super uncomfortable.  I arrived and heard two young guys singing the Baruch Levine song that I love called V’zakeini. I hadn’t heard it since leaving Penn and it really brought me back into a Shaleshudis mood, which G-d willing, I’ll be in charge of this year.  It was the first time since arriving in Peru that I was in an Orthodox environment and it felt good to be “home.” Everyone had kavanah and knew the words and melodies and it was amazing. At the Friday night dinner, I realized there were 100 Israelis (secular and religious) and the Chabad Rabbi only spoke in Hebrew. Yes there were 5 Americans, but we were neglected and every announcement was in Hebrew with no English or Spanish supplement. I understood very little of what he was saying because he spoke really fast. Nonetheless, I stuck it out and decided to come back Saturday morning for services and lunch. Then, I was the only English speaker at my table and not a single Israeli would talk to me. I awkwardly sat with Israelis surrounding me trying to strike up conversation in my mediocre Hebrew and when that didn’t work in English. I decided to join another table that had 2 young Brooklyn Chabadniks.  The conversation ended up with Israeli politics and I soon realized how hateful their rhetoric was. “We should kill the Arabs in Israel. We should kick them out to Jordan” were some the worst of the things they were preaching. It is because of narrow-minded people like that that we don’t yet have peace in the Middle East. I said what I had to and left lunch frustrated without waiting for the communal grace after meal. I wouldn’t listen to such hatred being spread.

I left lunch and here’s where my silliness begins. I decided to walk 15 miles that afternoon to a few Incan ruins that I could get into with my Boleto Turistico (so I wouldn’t need money.)  I didn’t ask whether there was an eiruv. I kinda knew there wasn’t one, but since I didn’t know for sure, I didn’t want people to see a religious Jew carrying on Shabbes. But I needed my ID card just in case something G-d forbid happened to me and I carried along my little piece of paper that was the Boleto Turistico. But, I didn’t wanna carry anything that people could see. So I didn’t bring a water bottle, let alone money or a camera. The end of the story is that I ended up essentially hiking for 5 hours in the outskirts of Cusco in my Shabbes clothing, while getting dehydrated and not having water or money to buy a drink. Pikuach nefesh?  Shabbes ended with me walking back to my hostel and passing the Festival of San Cristobal where 100s of Cusqueñans were dancing with colorful masks and getting drunk. What a scene!

My patent-pending method of not getting sunburnt-wear a towel in the form of a hijab.

On Sunday my 5 day hike through the Salkantay mountains began at 4:15am. On the first night of the hike we camped at 4000 meters (12,000 feet) and I literally thought I would get frostbite or die. I was awake and shivering (which I guess was good because I knew I was alive) from 10pm to 2am. I was having difficulty breathing and had a headache too. I couldn’t find my Tylenol because I didn’t have a flashlight. At midnight I put on every pair of shirts and socks that I had just to try and warm myself. It didn’t work. The 25 degrees Fahrenheit was brutal in a tent at that altitude.

Me nearly freezing to death and wearing every article of
clothing that I had with me

The next few days improved and we moved from the High Pass of the mountains to the jungle and it was warmer and I suffered less.  Monday night till Tuesday night was Tisha B’av, the 2^nd most important fast day in the Jewish calendar. You’re probably wondering why I chose to do a 5 day hike over a fast day. It was a careless error that I couldn’t correct once I had reserved. This Tisha B’av was pretty special. No, I couldn’t fast because it would have endangered my life. No I didn’t hear the reading of Eicha, and I later realized that the only pair of shoes I have hear contain leather.  You’re probably thinking, Wow Daneel’s a bad Orthodox Jew. Maybe I am and maybe I’m not. But this Tisha B’av was particularly meaningful. Everyone else on the hike had chosen to use a horse to transport their hiking backpack. I decided to challenge myself and hike with 15 pounds on my back. I thought it’d get me into the Tisha B’av spirit-suffering, sore back, etc. And it did. And while I was struggling to hike up steep ridges with my giant backpack, I sang kinnot and sad zemirot, and as much of Eicha as I knew by heart (1-2 lines.) This is more than I usually do to prepare myself spiritually for Tisha B’av.  Would I ever do this again over a fast day? Absolutely not. I’ll be more careful when making reservations not to think, “There are no real holidays between Shavuot and Rosh Hashanah.”

We were about 15 people who all spoke different languages. It was really tough to communicate at first because there were people who knew no Spanish and people who knew no English. We had 2 Hebrew speakers, 4 Germans, 2 Spaniards, 2 Brazilians, 3 French guys, and 2 Americans. Dinner conversations were awkward because we had difficulty communicating. We got better in the last 2 days once the Brazilians started to teach us silly words to say in Portuguese. We bonded over the difficult trek and over these silly words.

Our tour guide Nico was so sincere but his English was so broken. If he is considered a bilingual tour guide in Peru then I should be able to give 5 day tours in Hebrew. J  Nonetheless, at one point during the trip I poured him a cup of Coke and I saw him spill a little of it on the floor intentionally. After studying the Incas for a while, I’ve learned to pick up on signals like these. I asked him whether he was making a sacrifice to Pachamama (Mother Earth) and he nodded and explained that whenever he eats or drinks anything he pours out or breaks off a small portion of it for Earth Goddess.  It reminded me of what Jews do when they bake challah and separate out a part of it that isn’t for us to eat.

Finally on Thursday morning at 4:30am, we hiked up to Machu Picchu, which was breathtaking like nothing I’ve ever witnessed. The grandeur and sophisticatedness of the structures are difficult to express with words. Pictures will have to suffice.