As many of the followers on this blog know, our big long trip from the top of the world, to the bottom, and back, ended back in October. Many people have asked me "Where is your last blog post?! I need a wrap up!" Well, here it is. This post will not only cover our last days in South America, but also our thoughts about the whole experience.
When I left off we were on our way north and had just gotten to Cuzco, Peru! There we stayed at a hostel for the night before starting the trek to Aguas Calientes (the city at the bottom of Machu Picchu). Since there are no roads going into Aquas Calientes, the only way to enter the city was via train, or your own two feet. So we set out and drove as far as we could ourselves before hiking our way along the train tracks to the city. Thankfully we were able to leave our Jeep at a home nearby the train station overnight for only 10 SOL!
The city of Aquas Calientes is not large and there are no vehicles in the city. Everyone walks everywhere, and any of the supplies needed are shipped in on the trains! Our first order of business was to find the place where they sold tickets for Machu Picchu. Once we were there, we were interested in purchasing an additional ticket to climb Montaña Picchu. This cost an additional $20 per person, but would give us sights of the ancient city only 200 people per day are able to see (a small number in comparison to the 2,000-5,000 people that tour the city everyday!). With our tickets in hand, we decided to find a hostel to stay at. Months earlier, while we were at Frog Hostel in Huanchaco Peru, they had told us to visit their "sister hostel", Super Tramp Hostel, later in our trip. So, we found our way to Super Tramp Hostel and thankfully they had beds available!
In the morning we arose at 5:30 am to get ready to make the ascent to Machu Picchu. Since we didn't want to wear ourselves out prematurely by hiking up to the city, we decided to shell out an extra $15/person and take one of the many busses. Once we got there we immediately went to the entrance to Montaña Picchu. Since it was so early in the day-- and at such high elevation, it was cold and drizzly, and we were among the still sleeping clouds. To our surprise, llamas started to appear out of nowhere! Now, we aren't sure if they were llamas or alpacas. But, part of the fun for us is still arguing over which animal it was, so please don't spoil it for us! If you must know, I'm team llama, Seth was team alpaca, and Mat didn't really care... Classic.
Now for the climb up Montaña Picchu... Where do I begin? It was awful. And amazing. And so exhausting. But so worth it. Imagine being up at 10,000 feet elevation, looking at a flight of stairs that is steeper than normal, made of slippery, wet rocks, and takes you an hour and a half to climb up. Then add in twists and turns, and in most places 1,000 foot cliffs off the edge with no railing or anything to hold onto. That is Montaña Picchu. When we first started the climb, it wasn't so steep, and we had fresh legs for climbing. Then, it got steeper, and narrower, and slipperier. Early on, Seth kept up his pace and went on ahead, while Mat and I stayed at our own pace. After climbing about an hour and a half, Mat's knee was done for and the descent back to the city was going to be even worse so we ended up turning back. Although we didn't make it all the way, we did see some AMAZING views of the ancient city below and the jungle surrounding us. At one rest stop along the way we witnessed the clouds parting and they revealed the iconic view of Machu Picchu we have all seen from textbooks and NatGeo documentaries.
We spent the rest of the day winding our way through the various parts of the city and trying to listen in on the tour guides as they walked past. Although we didn't hire a tour guide (we heard bad reviews about how some just make up their information) and we didn't have time or money to research good one, we still were amazed by the construction of it all.
Once we were done exploring we walked back down to Aguas Calientes. Since Mat's bad knee was bothering him, Seth walked back to the Jeep, and we stayed one more night at Super Tramp Hostel. In the morning we made the 5 mile trek back to the Jeep where Seth was waiting with breakfast made. From there we drove to Ollantaytambo where we discovered more ancient ruins.
From there we kept camping and making our way north and stopped at the Nazca Lines in Nazca, Peru. These are depictions of animals and nature that were carved into the desert floor by ancient peoples. The lines are most easily seen by airplane, but the tickets cost over $100 per person! Although we really wanted to do it, we just decided it wasn't in our future. Instead we went to a lookout point where we were able to pay $9 per person and see a lizard, tree, and hand. Off in the distance we could see more of the lines, but since we were not at a high enough vantage point, we couldn't make out what the lines made up.
The night before while deciding if we were going to take an airplane to see the lines, we were also talking about our trip home. Since we had already been driving for about five months and crossed many borders, we decided we were going to ship our vehicle from Cartagena, Colombia, to Miami, Florida. This allowed us to skip over migrating between six more countries if we were to drive back through Central America. The aduanas we had experienced were stressful and frankly, we didn't want to have to deal with them. We sent out an email to the shipper we had used to unload our Jeep in Cartagena previously, and found out we would be able to get on a ship in just two weeks! But we had a long drive ahead of us.
The drive that had taken us about two weeks when we were heading south, had to be cut down to 5 days so that we had time to meet with the shipping broker and get all of the paperwork done (which takes about a week to do!) Since we already knew business runs inefficiently and slowly in Colombia we needed all the days we could get to board this ship in two weeks! Mat and Seth drove through the night and stopped for only 4-8 hours at a time to sleep. After some intense driving and being stuck in traffic for hours on end, we made it on time.
From there the following week was filled with Seth doing paperwork and running around the city getting all of the approvals he needed to safely ship our home back to the U.S. Once the ship had left, the was a small scare because of hurricanes that had hit northern Colombia, but all ended up being well. We spent another five days in Cartagena eating at our favorite Indian restaurant we had found. By the end of our time there we were on a first name basis with the owner and we will forever remember eating Indian for days on end and never getting sick of it.
On October 14th, we flew from Cartagena, Colombia, into Miami, Florida. There was a bittersweet feeling as we left because we knew it signaled an end to our adventures. We spent four days waiting for the ship to arrive in Port Everglades, Florida. Once it arrived, we were on our way! Since our shipping broker in Miami took care of all of the shipping/unloading documents, all we had to do was pick up the Jeep at the port (this also revealed the huge differences in the way business is handled in the U.S. vs. South America)!
We left Port Everglades and made the three day trip up the East Coast to make a surprise visit to some very special friends we hadn't seen in way too long. We made it into Boston, MA, at about 5:00 on the 20th of October. We had been in touch with our friends, Roberta and Maxine, to surprise their mom and dad, but it proved to be too difficult and we had to visit Steven (Dad) at work before surprising Sally Ann (Mom) at a local restaurant. It was simply wonderful. We stayed at the restaurant and talked for hours before going home and continuing the conversation. Over the next few days we got a tour of downtown Boston where my mother went to college, ate at the Union Oyster House (and sat in JFK's designated booth) and visited Salem, MA the weekend before Halloween! We were sad to leave, but we had people waiting for us back home.
When we left Boston, we drove to the western side of Pennsylvania to stay the night at Dave Weider's house (another family friend). We got our first home cooked steak dinner in months and Seth got to relive a whole bunch of Army memories with Dave. one the morning we left, and drove the last 16 hours home. We arrived back home at the cabin at two a.m. on October 25th, marking the end of our Pan-American Adventure.
The next day it was surreal to be home. It was surreal to think we had just spent the last six months traveling the western hemisphere-- that we had jumped in the Arctic Ocean, spent the majority of our night sleeping in our jeep, visited 12 countries, and made it to the bottom of the world and back. There are no words to describe the feelings we had in the days following. In a way it was a relief to have a day where we weren't driving, but life seemed to be on pause for us. Life was back to normal. But, was it?
We had started to question what our normal was. After being together, just the three of us, every day for the last six moths, we had to adjust. What had become our normal, was taken back from us just was quick as we had created it. We spent the next few days telling friends and family of our adventures and would excitedly say "Oh! Do you remember ____?!" and we would relive the memories over and over again. But life still goes on, and in the end, once we had told people about our trip, we could tell they didn't truly understand it like we did. There was a disconnect between the three of us and the people we were talking to. This was more than a vacation. This was more than a trip on the Pan-American highway. This was our way of life.
One of the most common questions we got asked is, 'How did you decide to do this?!'. I admit, we did something quite out of the norm for the majority of people, so they had to ask, because to them, it was just never a possibility. It all started when Seth was in Afghanistan. He spent his time researching overloading and thought up the idea to travel Europe for two months, and had asked Mat to come with. Well, I was obviously going if Mat was! But, two years was a bit unattainable. Then, it turned from traveling Europe, to traveling the Pan-American highway. There were many factors leading to this decision, mainly money, but in the end I couldn't have asked for anything better. At the time, Seth was getting out of the military and wanted to travel. While I had just graduated six months earlier, and Mat and I were just working at jobs we didn't like, in a town where people were content with the daily grind. We weren't content. We needed to go out and see the world. Even though everyone's lives calls them in a different direction, we knew our lives were calling for adventure.
One of the biggest reasons why we had to go for Seth and I (and Mat, in a way) is because if we had told our mom about this trip when she was alive, she would have made sure we did it-- probably even funded it. This was our testament to her adventurous spirit. I remember one night before we had left for the trip, we were talking at the end of a grueling day for Mat and Seth of designing and constructing our living system in the Jeep. We were starting to feel like people were doubting us, that it wouldn't be as amazing as we had expected, but we were resolved, and Seth said "I can't live my life without doing this trip, because I know it's what Mom would have wanted". Mat and I were in 100% agreement with him.
Now, on the one year anniversary of when we left to start the most memorable trip of a lifetime, Mat and I are living in North Hollywood, CA, and Seth is living at the cabin while going to school to become a paramedic. Do you recall the saying that is usually said when someone loved passes away? "I think of them everyday." But usually it's just an expression, but not actually true. However, we truly do think of the trip every single day.
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