A Magical Journey: Dia Uno y Dos

I am officially an intense person!

That is correct. Last night I successfully completed the Inca Jungle trek. Which isn't necessarily the most intense trek in its own right, but we supplemented it a bit to make it more intense.

The first day was MOUNTAIN BIKING. I am not really a mountain biking sort of person, to be honest, but I was still pretty excited. We took a long and winding road up a mountain; definitely the naked version, there was no soothing Spector effect at work. That's a Beatles reference for all you non-fans. What I am trying to say is that it was a very uncomfortable and bumpy bus journey that made me quite nauseous. So I was quite relieved when we started biking.

We started out on the road. It was all downhill and the road was lovely and smooth but it was kind of spooky, because there were rather a lot of hairpin bends and such. I ride my bike in Perth quite a lot but generally I do not have the opportunity of falling off a cliff so this was a bit more frightening. Later we found out that a girl died on one of these bikes in February. She was hit by a truck coming around a corner. I don't think she was with our company though. The road was beautiful, anyway. It was freezing at first, with cold cold winds coming from the mountains, but after an hour of riding you could feel the first hot breaths from the jungle rising up to the road. So it was kind of odd, alternating between going "Ooh that's a bit chilly" and "Ahhh well now that is just lovely".

We rode like that for a couple of hours but then it was time for some hella intense biking! The scenery changed from alpine to JUNGLE and the road switched from asphault to bumpy old rocks that jolted you around like nobody's business. I was kind of spooked, but actually I found it much less scary than the road section. Reason being that there were no longer the huge drops from the side of the road, and the hairpin bends lessened just a little. Also the cars had to go slower. So after clutching the brakes desperately for the first two hour, I finally CUT LOOSE. Man, was I awesome! Barrelling all over the shop like a ROCKET with my cycling gloves making me look like someone incredibly tough.

We stayed at hostels the whole time, which was sort of nice and sort of disappointing. Tents are more intense.

Okay! I hope you are not too intensed-out because it is time for me to tell you about DAY TWO. This was the first day of hiking! Actually it was a pretty chill day. We hiked along a road for a bit. Then we hiked up a hill, which was sweaty work in the hot ol' jungle but fairly manageable, and then we hiked downhill. There is not much else I can tell you about the hiking so instead I will tell you about the CASA DEL MONKEYS.

We stopped at a great little hut high in the jungle for a rest and to buy snacks, if you wanted. It had been a steep old climb up until there so we were happy for the rest and were reclining on the ground with another tour group when we saw an odd creature come galumphing up to us, looking exactly like a cross between a beaver and a wombat. He leapt onto a wooden stump and seized hold of a waterbottle full of purple liquid in his little paws. Then he stood on his hind legs and poured it into his little buck-toothed mouth. I still have no idea what type of animal he was.

I noticed that the other tour group was looking at something and wandered over and there was a MONKEY! He was tied to a tree on a sort of bungee cord, so that he could scrabble up the wall and fling himself between trees. He didn't really show much interest in the tourists, but there was a cute American girl patting him when he came close and feeding him banana and asking people to take pictures of her with the monkey and I watched her primate progress with jealousy. But then a sweet little kitten came up to me and sat in my lap so I happily patted it and didn't mind too much about the monkey.

Then the tour group got bored and wandered away to lie in the hammocks, so I wandered down to watch the monkey in action. He flung himself about the trees for a bit and scrabbled for food. Then he started glancing at me with those big funny disconcertingly human eyes, then flung himself about a bit more. Then he crawled onto a rock near me. Cautiously I stretched out my arm a little closer to him. I thought he would probably try to bite me, but I had my rabies shots and besides he was the family's monkey and I have incredible reflexes (not really though). Instead of biting me, though, he grabbed my arm and wrapped his arms around it, like he was hugging it, and pressed his face to it gently, almost like he was kissing it.

I was kind of ecstatic and sat there a while longer, watching him wander off and jump around some more. After a while the señora who lived at the house came up to him and removed the bungee cord, so the monkey was free to move around where he liked. At first I had thought the cord was so he couldn't escape and run away, but actually I think it was just so he didn't crawl though the tourist's bags and steal things (I saw him trying this). The monkey came straight up to me, hugged my arm again and then crawled into my lap. He then stayed there for the next ten minutes, sometimes scrabbling for food and sometimes flopping relaxedly. Ohhhhh he was so great! He let me scratch and pat him and he was so sweet and soft and small I thought I was in love.

Our tour guide Frank called us all together and told us it was time to move on, and by that stage the monkey (Marty I believe he was called. Or perhaps Ma-Ti, like in Captain Planet) hopped his way out of my lap. The señora picked him up and picked up one of his paws to make him wave goodbye to me. "Ciao, Señorita!" she said. "Ciao, amigo!" I said to the monkey, and reached out an arm to wave. But he grabbed it and hugged it again and then climbed on my shoulder and nuzzled into my neck. Everyone laughed indulgently and the woman went to gently remove him and he curled his tail around my arm to make it harder for her to pull him off. Unfortunately she eventually succeeded and we were at last to be parted. But I guess that what I am trying to say is: Mark, it is over between us. I am sorry. But I have met someone else.

More details of the journey to Macchu Picchu coming soon! Unless I get lazy and can't be bothered! Quite possible.

Love love love
Lion