Back in Cusco

9/25/09 – 11:40 pm. Cusco, again. Haggard and delirious, Mike and I walk up to our wonderful hostel, and shockingly enough, the owner doesn´t have a room for us. As much fun as it would be to scour the streets of Cusco at midnight with 50 lb rucksacks looking for another hostel, we have plans to meet everyone at a the bar – ten minutes ago. Keep in mind we not only wrote down the date of our return, but we also stored bags at the hostel. Great. Mike and I stare him blankly in the face, while he  furls his brow. With a wave of the hand he exits the hostel and beckons us to follow. He leads us a few blocks further from town to a condemned building empty hostel. We don´t care. We take it. A shower revitalizes us and gives us a second wind to go out with the gang for a celebratory/goodbye drink.

We pull up to Siete Angelitos and see the Spanish couple from our group waiting outside. Oscar, the non-english speaking guide walks up and his expression quickly turns to panic when he learns that Washington hasn´t arrived. After a few minutes we decide we might as well wait for everyone inside. As we enter we immediately see Washington. Turns out everyone was there the whole time, but in a side room all to themselves. We almost didn´t recognize them without all the hiking gear.

Rosie cheecks and toothy grins all around. We sit down and order drinks.

A live band belts out Manu Chau covers.  The lead singer has a tribal design tattooed across his forehead.

The music draws everyone into the main room and we start dancing. Thank you Oscar for possibly being a worse dancer than I.

A great end to a great trek. We met some great people I can only hope we cross paths in the future.

We saw stunning views, had great weather, toured Machu Picchu and made it back alive.

Hands in. On the count of three, ¨Salkantay!¨ And with that final cheer we complete the first part of our journey and the next chapter begins. The trek was the only event scheduled on our agenda. Now all we have is a few guidebooks, a general idea of where we would like to go and a lot of time. Time to head south to Chile.

Up Next: Motor Bike Arequipa