Eye of the Jaguar

Hey y’all!

Mary

Nora

Missy

Tejal

Friday night we took an amazing bus ride on Cruz Del Sur from Arequipa to Cusco leaving around 9 pm. The trip took a total of ten hours and wow for three guys who can’t sleep on buses, trains, planes, or airports without a fan and a couple of cool pillows this trip was a pretty doggone long one. The bus food pretty much made everyone sick who attempted to take a stab at it, and Chris couldn’t even finish up the extras from everyone else. When he doesn’t eat everyone else’s food you automatically know that something is definitely wrong. Some got some sleep, mean while CB and Nate Fry laid wide awake speaking in quiet tones about Becca’s not so pleasant yacking in the downstairs and upstairs bus toilets due to her untimely motion sickness. She obviously chose a terrible time to fix to watch the featured is movie that was playing on the bus, the movie was none other than “War Horse.” Most of us including this late night duo of bro-skis did not bother to watch the ending. We wouldn’t recommend this film so don’t waste your time, but it may be better in good ol English k.

Becca

Chris

Jess

Courtney

Nate B.

Nate F.

Sam

Adrienne

Come early top of the morning around 6AM we finally arrived in Cusco. Cusco seemed to be a wonderful little town full of early morning worker outters as we encountered many peeps jogging, doing some yoga, and working on their fitness doing high intensity plyometrics with the park benches, good for him. After being picked up from the bus station we arrived at our hostel and had 2 hrs to burn before heading on out to the mountains for a fun filled day of ziplining and learning about the Incan culture with our tour guide David. When we got to the zipline which was called “Eye of the Jaguar” some of us were fixin to pee our pants. The bros at the top of line were primed and eager to hook us on up to the harnesses and get us movin on down the zipline to reach our final destination 1.3 miles down the mountain. We were told that the top speed of this zipline was 68 mph, and FYI the eye of the jag is the longest zipline in the world y’all. Mary volunteered to go first without hesitation, and dang she did it on up, no fear, no looking back, simply breathtaking. The remainder of the team went without any mishaps until Nate F. Originally specified on the zipline website, the weight limit of 190 pounds was exceeded by 50 pounds so there were no intentions of him going on the zipline. However, upon arrival the operator of the line said that one or two people had gone before that were around this weight, and a certain technique needed to be used so that the legs would not scrape the ground during the descent. Current thought running through his head-“I’m only in Peru once so why waste the opportunity”. So as Nate F. was strapped up by the operator and the owner/translator discussed proper techniques to “slow the descent” s since the normal weight limit was exceeded and excess speed may incur a disagreement existed between the two in Spanish. Meanwhile Nate F. and Becca looked at one another in concern as they were the only two left to go down the zipline. Current thought at that time- “Well it’s too late now so let’s just do it”. To top it off there were no helmets large enough to fit Nate’s excessive external occipital protuberance (aka back of head) so a properly fitted beanie woven from llama was used instead to support any trauma that may exist with impact. Fortunately all worked out well and everyone made it to the end of the line- minus Becca who had some problems while attempting to film the adventure from the air (i.e.-she accidentally let go of the pull line and the poor man at the bottom had to chase her to catch her again). 

Next we all were very hungry as our tummies were rumbling like bears in the wilderness looking for a little snack to hold them over before a long long hibernation. So David suggested a buffet to make us feel better, and wow did he know where the grub was! This particular Peruvian buffet was awesome, filled with wonderful vegetarian and meat lover options. We ate to our contents with the beautiful mix of live Peruvian flute playing in combination with jungle parrots squaking in the background. From there we went to sacred ruins named Ollantaytambo which was amazing and so gorgeous to experience and walk through. The ruins were so interesting, as there were terraces built upon one another leading up to breathtaking lookouts down upon the valleys and mountains in which the ruins were established. David was great during the tour as he shared cool facts and kept us guessing to his secret answers to the million questions he asked throughout the tour. He had a cool way about him as he would ask a million questions to us then either not answer the question he posed or just say “let’s go, you’ll find out in a bit.” We learned a great deal about the Incan culture from our buddy, and couldn’t have done the tour without him, he was simply the man and much appreciated by us all.

  

After the tour was over and dozens upon dozens of pictures taken, we were ready to eat again and fill our tummies. We decided upon a little spot to eat some Italian pizza done right, wood fire oven style. The pizza was great and the live entertainment was a cool twist to the Peruvian night out on the town. From there we were ready to hit the hostel after catching a midnight train ride to Aguas Calientes, a town closer to Machu Picchu. We were all exhausted and primed and ready to get some shut eye before a long day at Machu Picchu in the AM.

Much Love,

Nate Fry + CB