The Day I Rode Many Things

I write this from Arequipa, with sincerest apologies for my extended absence. I've been traveling like crazy and barely have time to turn this computer on, let alone write anything.

I did celebrate a birthday a few days ago and to ring in my 21st, we decided to take to things of high adventure in the grand city of Cusco. Picture this Sunday morning:

9am: Picked up by sketchy taxi and taken to “ranch.”
9:30am: Realize that “ranch” translates to field of horses.
9:35am: Realize that “guide” means cute old Peruivan who doesn't care a bit about ruins
9:45am: Are dropped off and sent walking to find the temple
9:48am: Have found a cave (left) that may or may not be the temple
10am: Decide that we don't care about the ruins either
10:01am: Communicate that we don't care about ruins and gallop through fields (with the provided helmets)


11am: Realize the taxi driver has abandoned us (and taken my Snickers bar!) and start walking towards the main road. We caught a taxi back to town and had a great lunch!
11am-1:30pm: LUNCH/shower


2pm: Arrive at ATV office and climb in sketchy taxi #2
2pm-7pm: Dusty, dusty, dusty ATV riding.

Riding ATVs is a sometimes challenging affair even in the US. Paths are sometimes not clear, machines sometimes break, and vision can be a bit misconstrued. Now I want you to imagine a line of 14 ATVs driving down a road. Not just any road, but a big road with cars and taxis and buses. Peruvian traffic is not the most predictable of situations and so I was a bit shocked as we took to the highway. Not to fear though, we were just changing trails.

Peru, in the winter is dusty. No, no, you don't understand. DUSTY. There isn't any rain and the dust is absolutely everywhere. In fact, the ATV trail is made of dust and as I close my helmet over my eyes (see Mom, helmet!), I wonder exactly how dusty I'm actually going to get.

The answer is REALLY DUSTY (see below). Our group of 14 spends four hours riding ATV trails, crossing small rivers, and jumping things. At one point, we got stuck behind a cow crossing and spent considerable time waiting for all the cows to get across the small path. Seven of the fourteen riders made it before the cows decided (of course) that the grass was greener on the other side of the path. So we waited another 10 minutes for them to make their way back across.

Returning to the base, there was a nice gentleman with a hose. One by one we went up and he used air to blow the dust off our clothes, bags, hair, etc. I went last. The guy looked at me and started laughing. So did Amos. He gave me a few puffs of air and shrugged his shoulders. There was little he could do to help me. I was a mess.