Another early wakeup, 2:30am. This one slightly earlier than yesterday’s. But today’s was much more difficult but absolutely work the struggle in the end. Today we hiked to the top of Rainbow Mountain, standing 16,500ft above sea level. Upon waking up, we all rushed to put on layers and prepare for the cold and high altitude that would come for us. At 3am our journey began, and we were driven 3hrs to a location just outside the entrance to the hike to have breakfast and mentally prepare for the hike. We fueled up on bread and coca tea and were ready to go. We started the hike around 7:30am at 14,000ft above sea level. The area was beautiful, we were surrounded by alpaca’s eating in the distance, snowcapped Andes mountains on one side, and part of the Rainbow Mountain mountain rage on the other. We were told the hike was 6km in length, would take roughly 2 hours to get to the top, was 70% uphill. It wasn’t easy to breathe and 20 minutes into the hike we already needed a break to catch our breathes and drink water. Along the hike there is an option to take a horse to the top because of the difficulty. Proceeding onward, our group began to split as some proceeded at faster paces than other and our guide brought up the rear with her oxygen tank if anyone needed it. I learned during this hike that it is as much a mental struggle as a physical one. And what worked for me was to take it slow very slowly and breathe consistently. Nearing the end, you can see people at the top of the final hill who have already made it and are enjoying the view. This motivated me to give it all I had and push the final feet to the top. When I reached the top at around 9am, the view was incredible and reaffirmed that the hike was worth the struggle. Right in front of you is the 7 colored Rainbow Mountain and its range extending behind it into the distance. It is unlike anything I’ve seen, and our guide told us that the colors come from copper, zinc, sulfur, and iron in the mountain.
Opposite the mountain we saw the Andes and they too we incredible to see. It was very cold at the top and we had to reapply the layers we shed during the hike. Nonetheless, we still stayed at the top for an hour taking pictures and enjoying the views before hiking down. The hike back down was not nearly as difficult as the way up and we were back at the bottom in about 45 minutes. Afterwards, we got back in our van and headed to get lunch at the same place we had breakfast. Some of us were beginning to feel the symptoms of altitude sickness from the hike and were uneasy and not feeling well. The 3 hour journey home consisted of a lot of sleep and the rest of the evening was spent recovering and nursing sore muscles. Although we were not ready for the difficulty of the hike, it was well worth it and a great way to end our time in beautiful Peru. Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain were both great rewards for all the hard work we did volunteering the previous weeks in the jungle and I am very grateful for such an amazing experience overall.
-Chris Hudson
Once we passed through the gate of Machu Picchu, our tour guide began leading the group to all the perfect picture spots. The views were breath-taking, not only of the ruins but also the mountains surrounding Machu Picchu. We took no less than 1000 pictures: individually, in small groups, the whole group, with the Michigan flag, without the Michigan flag… After explaining the history, our guide left us to begin another tour and we decided to do some more hiking.
We began the ascent to the sun gate, which was once one of the main entrances to Machu Picchu. Along the way we ran into several llamas and proceeded to take many “llama selfies.” Slightly out-of-breath we reached the sun gate and were rewarded by more amazing views. We then returned to the ruins and headed in the opposite direction to the Inca bridge (the “secret” entrance to Machu Picchu). During this portion of the hike, some of us (Chris) faced our fear of heights as the path was next to a tall drop-off on the side of the mountain.
By the time we made it to the Inca Bridge, we heard thunder in the distance and could see a storm rolling in. This was not surprising as our guide had told us it rains 200 days out of the year at Machu Picchu. We were lucky enough to get the sun in the morning and capture some great pictures. It began to rain as we made our way through the rest of the ruins and down the 2,400 steps back to Aguas Calientes. Wet and tired we stopped at a restaurant for some food before getting on our train back to Cusco. We arrived back to our host family’s house around 8:30 pm exhausted but satisfied with the amazing excursion.
After a night of intermittent sleep on the cold bus to Cusco, we arrived around 7:30 am. We returned to our previous homestay, Josefina’s, and were greeted with a wonderful breakfast. Afterwards everyone spent 1-4 hours on some much-needed napping. Once everyone was up and ready for lunch, we all walked to Yala, a restaurant recommendation from Josefina. 
The rest of our afternoon consisted of a trip to the San Pedro market for fruits and snacks, the alpaca store for some unique sweaters, hats, and socks, and a quick orientation from the American Inca Trail company for Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain! Our next two days we will all be waking up around 3:00 am, so the night was short.
Before we got on the boat, we took several group pictures around Panthera wearing our EGL gear. We even got some pictures with the staff and the other volunteers that we had met during our week and a half in the jungle. The boat ride back to Puerto Maldonado took about 2 and half hours. Thankfully, the sun was shining the whole ride.
We had about 6 hours in Puerto before our bus to Cusco. During that time, we bought some snacks, played pool and foosball, and enjoyed some wifi. We had a great dinner at a restaurant in the center of Puerto and headed to the bus station to catch our 13-hour bus ride back to Cusco.
We came back to the common area of the reserve to take a break and eat lunch. I decided to take an extensive break in one of the hammocks where I was graciously kept company by the reserve’s monkey, Cappuccino. Cappu was very friendly and allowed me to pet him while he sat in my lap and finished his meal of yesterday’s unfinished spaghetti. He even spent some time hanging on my arm like a branch — quite the companion!
In the afternoon Cristobal led us in bird banding. We caught three birds in the afternoon – all different types of woodpeckers. We had to carefully observe the birds and reference to the Peruvian Birds book. The first bird I tried to identify was way off the mark. Cristobal was very happy as he had caught eight birds total for the day.
We woke up around 8:30 to make it to the Cabana Quinta’s breakfast that ends at 9:00. It’s crazy to think, but 8:30 is over an hour later than we have been waking up for the past week, so I guess you could consider it sleeping in. The effects of El Friaje are coming to an end, which led to amazing weather today: ~70 with a light breeze, blue skies with intermittent clouds, and warm sunshine. After checking out of the hotel, we gathered our fresh and great smelling laundry that most of us had cleaned at a full-service laundromat nearby and headed to the markets to buy any last-minute snacks / souvenirs. Afterwards, we all finally went to a ceviche restaurant! I got ceviche and fried rice, both of which were amazing. Once we finished our meal we went to the port to head back to Panthera and had a seamless trip back (infinitely better than the stormy ride to Puerto Maldonado. We spent the rest of the night doing our usual activities of playing games, reading, and enjoying the nice evening weather.
I woke up this morning around 5:30 am with the storm still at full strength. Knowing we weren’t able to go fishing the previous day because of choppy waters from some light rain, I attempted to go back to sleep before I heard the shuffle from everyone else getting ready. Turns out, if the taxi makes it there, you take it. I have to respect that because for the water taxi to get to Panthera before 6 am, he would have needed to leave his dock upstream about 2 hours beforehand. Despite the torrid rain, we were going to Puerto Maldonado, about a 3-hour trip.
I was ill-prepared for this boat ride in the pouring rain, but I think it’s safe to say that no one could have prepared well for this storm. I believe everyone had a rain jacket at the very least, but no one came off that boat dry. I managed to breeze through the first 45 minutes or so by reading, ignoring the cold rain on my back. But once it became too wet to hold a kindle, there was still 2+ hours of rain to endure. The boat did have a roof which limited some of the damage, but with the wind blowing cold and strong, it wasminimal protection. At one point, the driver gave us a large tarp to hold in front of us to cover our bags, so we did have that going for us. Still, the boat was a dreary ride with little talking, just all of us trying to stay as warm as possible. This was the lowest point of the trip, but we also knew we’d have a comfy bed and warm showers waiting for us as soon as we got to the hotel.
Once off the boat, we got to the hotel and picked up our new guy, Jason Ji, who was coming in for the last week of volunteering. We settled our rooms and got our jungle laundry to the laundromat, then settled in for warm showers. After grabbing lunch and some snacks from the market, we went back to the hotel where we spent the rest of the day as we did most nights, playing card games and getting to know each other.
My 5:30am alarm was surprisingly easy to wake up to considering our new sleep schedules. I had a particularly early start time of 6am for bird banding this morning. We hiked through the jungle and unfolded five various nets along the trail, intended to catch birds for monitoring. After making this half hour round trip, we circled back and began checking our nets. We repeated this loop three more times and ended up catching three birds. Each time, we identified, logged, and released the bird. Fortunately, an early start time means and early end time, so I had a long time to nap, read, and relax during the late morning and afternoon. Plenty of time for hammock snuggles with my monkey friend Cappuccino.
Weekends at Panthera do not fall on Saturdays and Sundays as they do back home, but rather, Monday and Tuesday are considered the weekend. This makes Sunday afternoon essentially the end of the week, so we spent the rest of the day until sunset playing ultimate frisbee on the beach. Sandy and exhausted, we eventually returned to Panthera to have dinner and pack up our things for our weekend vacation to Puerto Maldonado. Falling asleep was a bit difficult as the thunderous storms rolled in, but we all knew that we’d soon be relaxing in a hotel in Puerto Maldonado with warm showers and no bugs.
Navigating the aguajal was challenging to say the least. It kind of like an obstacle course. Trees and patches of grass or palm fronds made little areas of land where you could put your weight without sinking. You had to make your way from one to the other without falling into the water, which was deep enough to get mud over the rim of our knee-high boots. We carefully worked our way through, looking in the water for frogs. We found a few brown ones, but only got a quick glimpse of a green one. We couldn’t manage to track it down and identify it in the end unfortunately. Pierre’s birds were right about the heat by the way; the walk back was scorching. Pierre told us: “it’s a shame we came on a Saturday. You know on Fridays they have a food truck out in the aguajal. It’s got hamburgers, cold beer, espresso, smoothies… You have to order while waist-deep in water but it’s worth it”
In the afternoon my activity was to build a floor for a second kitchen which will eventually be located on the far end of the property. We carried some wood planks that Rahul and Aga had helped to cut out in the forest earlier that day to the construction site, where JasonK and I tried to nail them together to build a floor. We definitely made progress, but the wood we were using was amazingly tough. Jason and I bent many nails trying to drive them into the boards before we got the hang of it. Even when we did “get the hang of it” we still bent quite a few more. In the evening we played games as usual.
Later on we had a survival skills lesson in which we have learned that the most important things for survival in the jungle are: water, fire, shelter and food. In addition to that nobody should enter the jungle without a lighter, knife and a machete; real life is much different than the movies and it is not as easy as it looks like to make fire by rollingsticks against each other. The easiest way to get water in our jungle was chewing the core of the water cane tree at all times of the year or bamboo during winter. We have used dry palm tree leaves to start the fire and created the shelter out of sticks and big green palm tree leaves. Then we had some natural snacks which included a great source of fat and protein – termites as well as the core of the palm tree, which tasted like nuts. Burning termite nest kept the mosquitos and other insects away from us, to make sure that we were safe and sound! When we got back to the dorms, we had some dinner and enjoyed watching the beautiful sunset.
EGL Family Abroad 