Strike Two

We left Aguas this morning on the 530am train to Ollantaytambo as planned amd that is where our plan started to fall apart. Wouldn´t you know it, a strike was planned for today to close all of the roads to and out of Cusco. Luckily, it was still early in the day and there was one country road that a taxi driver believed would still be open. We worked out a deal for him to take the three of us and three other American girls we met on a previous train (we kept running into them over the past two days) to the promised land, Cusco. We tore out of that small town, Ollantaytambo, like a saint out of hell--really, what does a bat have against damnation? I felt bad for the droves of people stranded in Ollantaytambo´s main plaza as we passed by but there wasn´t really anything we could do aside from be grateful for our transport. We still were not sure if the road would be open the whole way. There was one point we came to a log laid across the road. The driver jumped out to quickly move it but it was too big for one man. Zach and I immediately followed out of the van to move the log. We later debated the possibility of having significantly harmed our back or neck in the process but we got the log off the road and our van was on the move again. From then on we made it to Cusco without problems!

Instead of taking a bus out of Cusco at 11am for Lima, our voyage is delayed until this evening, giving us enough time for the blockade to be taken down (for the farmers to go home and let buses through) by the time we reach the perimeter of the strike.

This means I have an extra afternoon in Cusco. Let´s try to upload some photos!

We hired a boy to carry our packs for a half a mile or so. We hired four or five bikes throughout the hike, none able to help for more than half a mile, unfortunately. Some bikes were even threatened or attacked by the strikers at the road blocks. The indigenas on strike did not want anyone helping us on our way. They let the air out of one poor boy´s tires. That made me mad to the point that I pushed one of the farmers away from the kid´s bike. Then this old farmer got in my face (more like my chest cause of height issues) and we grabbed our packs and split without looking back.

One of the blockades had trucks backed up for about half a mile. Locals had painted the sides of the buses and trucks with their propaganda.

The afternoon on Choquequirao. Chillin on the terraces.

One of the glaciers we walked by on our trek. The highest pass that we crossed was about 14-15,000ft above sea level.

Uploading is taking WAY to long. Esto es todo por ahora. chao!