Peru 16 - Escape from Eco Truly

Nov 4, Friday, Eco Yoga Retreat, near Vichu, Peru

Last Monday (Oct 31) was my planned escape from Eco Truly Park. The night before I discover one of the kitchen helpers is also heading to the Lights of Lima (future book title) – perhaps we could share a moto-taxi in the morning to take us to the Pasamayo bus stop? I cannot call to reserve a moto-taxi – the community phone is out of money again – they pay bits here and there – kind of like pay-as-you-go phones in North America. But as luck would have it, the kitchen helper has a cell phone and will reserve a taxi – I wanted around 6:30am – she says something like probably no one will show up until 7ish. So I plan for a 6:30am departure. I'm awoken around 5:45am as a moto-taxi whizzes by the volunteer “temple”. That's odd, I thought. I get up, pack, and say goodbye to the early risers, including Pancho who has been in the temple since 4am (the life of a devotee!). By 6:45am another moto-taxi shows up, but my ride companion is nowhere to be found – I suspect she snuck out with the 5:45am taxi.
At the bus depot in the tiny hamlet of Pasamayo, I find yet another popular twin calendar combo on the shacks wall – one calendar with a religious motif (some saint), the other calendar a busty pin-up girl from some other country. I have seen this calendar combo before – sex and saints. It reminds me of Tibetan art, where the profane and sacred hang side by side, although I must confess the Tibetan art tends to be of a somewhat better artistic quality.
My bus ride into Lima goes smoothly – thankfully the ubiquitous in-road movies (twin CRT TV sets hanging from the bus's ceiling) are not blaring out at 7:15am – one is off, the other is flickering a slow disco death. I arrive at the airport with plenty of time to spare, so call up my amigo Ulises (from couchsurfing) and meet him for a brief visit. Ever the don Juan – he was busy setting up some cheap accommodations for three Swedish girls arriving that afternoon, and he said his girlfriend (from Denmark?) was arriving in a few days as well.
Flight to Cusco was cloudy, but I did get my first glimpses of the Andes – a fantastic mountain range that I've been dreaming about seeing most of my life. Cusco is nestled in the Andes at around 12,000', so coming straight from sea level meant I wasn't running around too quickly or very far. I did get light-headed and some mild head-aches, but overall was not bed-ridden nor require those portable-oxygen chambers they use at Everest base camp (I jest). Cusco is an amazing cultural centre in the Andes – the complete opposite to Lima. Concrete is to Lima as Cobblestones is to Cusco. Huge churches soar above many fountain-filled plazas. Hostals and great restaurants are by the dozen on every street. Inca ruins at the top of the hill, a mere 30 minutes walk from the central Plaza del Armas. Painted doorways and stone walls and curved roof tiling everywhere. I am in love with Cusco, and my camera battery is soon dead. I stay at Hostal Felix ($6 for private room) – recommended by resourceful Ulises that morning – and immediately bump into Trina, an American volunteer that I met a couple of weeks ago at Eco Truly Park. Not only was that meeting an amazing “co-incidence”, but she soon told me she was off tomorrow to Eco Yoga Retreat in the Peruvian Sacred Valley – exactly where I was going tomorrow – and she could show me the way. As usual, life just unfolds so smoothly that I cannot believe it. We spend that Cusco night out on the street, where zillions of tiny trick-or-treaters have flooded the plazas and cobble stoned streets. One family is fully decked out in pirate costumes and stand in front of a cross in front of the huge ancient church – I snap off at least a dozen photos.
At sunrise (5ish) and with 4 solid hours of sleep, I hop into the hot shower again for a luxurious soak – recall that I haven't had a hot shower for the past month at Eco Truly – and then slowly walk uphill to visit the ruins just above the city at sunrise. A solitary grass-munching alpaca completes the Peruvian scene – I'm not in Kansas anymore. At the morning market (in a roofed plaza about the size of Walmart), vendors sell all types of food, and I almost get bowled over as this small Peruvian comes running by me with a full sized dead hog (must have weighed about 200 lbs – the hog, that is) on his back.
Later I meet up with Trina, and we walk to the bus depot to catch a ride to Eco Yoga Retreat, near the tiny hamlet of Vichu. We discover the regular buses are not running – for it's a holiday, but somehow find a Toyota minivan that is heading to San Salvador, near Vichu, and we pile on board. Before we reach the city limits, the “bus” has stopped and picked up many more riders. Now this van is equipped with 15 seats, but I counted around 25 people – there may have been more under the seats, but it was totally hilarious, as both Trina and I had our first ToyatoVan Yoga session as people pressed in and out of the van – we required some odd contortions to fit people in. Somehow we made it to Vichu, and we both ejected ourselves from the van and proceeded up the stone steps to Eco Yoga Retreat, deep in the Peruvian Andes, beside the Urubamba River.