Lessons in tourism

I have learned multiple things in the past few days. The first is that the internet cafes are wholly unreliable as far as service goes. yesterday it took me half an hour to just check my yahoo account. The second is that hiking as we know it is more of a way of life than a recreational activity. there are hundreds of scattered random footpaths all over the place that lead absolutely nowhere, at leat as far as you can tell, and thens uddenly you find yourself in someone´s backyard and then in the middle of an incan terraced field. there are hundreds and thousands of people who live several days´walk from anything.

the third thing i´ve learned is just how awful the inca trail tourism is. it´s comparable to sweatshop workers, only instead of being huddled over a tshirt, these guys are schlepping five and ten gallon jugs of water, all the tourists´luggage, tents, gas, etc. they have to do all the cooking, they don´t get to sleep, and the weather is wholly questionable. the father in my host family said that he has seen several porters die of hypothermia, because they can´t afford the tents and sleeping bags they carry for the tourists. they do all of this for about $10 for a five day trip. That doesn´t feed a family, but that´s also the only work around unless you can afford a car and become a taxi driver. Tourists pay $300 to go on the hikes, too, which makes it all that much worse.

Anyway, i feel better now about not being able to go. The dad from my family (he was an inca trail porter for 18 years) said he would take me and some other volunteers on an alternative trek and that we would hire some horses to help us carry things. it´hard to imagine hiking and asking someone else to carry your things, but i guess whatever way we can pay someone in a healthier way, i guess that´s better.

I´ve seen some amazing ruins so far. I´ll post all of teh photos when i get back and have higher speed connections. did i mention in my last blog that the incas were geniuses when it came to irrigation? THey definitely rival the romans.

After an hour, I´ve managed to get very little done here, but I can´t stand to spend any more time in front of the computer.