The Railroad

'Just follow the railroad, and you will get to Aguascalientes.' Says the taxidriver.
We have just had a an amazing 10 hour trip from Cusco to Hidroelectrica, which is a village called that way because there is a hydroelectric plant. I checked with the taxidriver. You never know in this country.
Follow the railroad. Doesn´t sound to hard. There's five of us, but only a little girl and me stop to eat a little. We go in a duo.
We leave after a short break. It is still light, but it will get dark quite soon.
We walk between two peaking mountains, filled with jungle plants. The air smells great, we hear the river's rage, and all around us grow plants I've never seen before.
'What's your name?' I ask.
'Stef'
'Where are you from?'
'Canada'
It is hard to make conversation, and Stef walks slowly. But I have the feeling I need to protect her, so I wait once in a while.
A bridge.
There is no ground between the sleepers (bielzen). No place to hold. Just a raging river deep below. Am I going to do this? Is she?
So here I go. Sleeper for sleeper. A long way. I can fall in between the sleepers. They are rotten. Do all tourists do this? The taxidriver said the government tries all they can to avoid tourists to take this road. They want them to pay the high prize for the train. Well I beleive them if I see this. I try to avoid looking at the river, but it is impossible. I see more water than wood. But on I go. Suddenly Stef crosses me quite fast.
'Huh?' I think, but when I see where she walks it becomes clear to me. A footpath. Fuck my determination to cross the bridge.
Go back, and take the footpath? It is impossible to reach from here. But going back involves turning around. And looking back. It's ok, I've made it this far, I can do the last part too. There's about 100 m left. Sleeper for sleeper I go on.
Slowly, but steadily, the adrenaline increases in my blood. Halfway the bridge, I look up. That's still a long way. Why didn't Stef say anything? Should I have gone back?
I try to focus, but it gets harder and harder. I can't remember ever heaving so much tension in my blood, and it keeps increasing. Keep kalm.
Sleepers pass, and so does the river. The rageing noise keeps calling my attention, but I know it shouldn't. Focus on the sleepers.
The five minutes it takes to the end of the bridge seem like an eternity.
The end is close. Keep focussing.
After a few more sleepers, I finally made it.
'That seemed like a hard task'
'It was.' I feel a little blood in my adrenaline, but I keep calm.
On we go. We have just left. Who knows what's ahead? About an hour and 40 minutes at least. The birds and trees around us help me get back to my senses really fast. The sky above is blue, but ahead it's blackish grey. No rainclothes, I think. But hey. It's gorgeous over here.
While walking I think back at the week I've had in Cusco.
My arrival at the Plaza de Armas was magical. I stepped out of the taxi, and saw a square which was easily the most beautiful one I had seen in Peru. The sun shone above a hill right ahead of me. A rainbow around it. This, according to the taxi driver, was the sign of the gods, that the rainy season had passed. I walked straight at it, and while doing that, a church on the hills lit up. Following that church led me to a hotel where I had never left eversince, despite of my initial plans to get to know a few of them.
On day three, I had left to Acopia. A friend of mine, Bas, from Droevendaal, had informed me there would be a conference there. Biodiversity, Culture and Spirituality. Something like that. My arrival, after an amazing busride, was almost celebrated, that's how welcome I was. Most of the conference was in Cechua, one of the few languages I don't understand, but the atmosphere was great. Important people from neighbouring villages had come to talk about how they could protect their culture, and what their culture really ment. The organisation was quite messy, but the food was nice, and luckily there were another Dutchman and an American woman who shared this feeling, so we had something to laugh about.
There were also two chamans there, comming from a place at one day's travel. They invited me to do a payment ritual to the earth. Back in Cusco, we left early in the morning to the Temple of the Moon. We walked a while through a gorgeous landscape, saw a bird that means good luck, and found the place where we would do it. The ritual took about two hours, and involved energetic cleaning, burning of lot's of stuf, including letter macaroni, smoking a pipe and eating lots of coka leaves. And you know what? I felt great after it. But I only trusted one of the two chamans totally. The other one made me think of Wouter. Sweet, but a little sneaky, and trying to benefit from the situation. The other one, Marcelino, was a really open guy who made space for me, and does not judge. Their father travels to Holland regularly, to heal people there.
It gets dark. And harder to see the sleepers. We get welcomed by fireflies. Lots of them. The darker it gets, the more little light points I see in the air. I try to share my enthusiasm with Stef, but she doesn't seem to like these little magical creatures that much. Well ok. We go on.
What also gets harder to see right now, are the ditches crossing the road. They can be distinguished, because they are darker than the actual road. There aren't a lot of them, I'd guess about one every 200 m, but they are deep, so stepping into one of them, would be entering a world of pain. It reminds me of a car drive in the dark with Luis, a few months ago. There were speed ramps on the road, which were almost impossible to see from far. I did hit one. So focus.
The rain starts. Just a few big drops at first, but I'm soon walking through a waterfall. My cloak is soaked. Do I still like this walk? I tell myself I do. Subconsciously I start walking faster. This two hour trip can be done in one hour and a half, I know that. But the next time I look back, I notice that walking faster just means waiting longer. I avoid thinking in terms of 'pain in the arse'. The girl does seem sweet.
We appoach a light. Are we walking for so long already? We can't be too far, I say. Stef has the clock. An hour and 15 minutes have passed. Around the corner, we see a little house, with a burning light. Oh. I knock on the door. A young guy opens.
'Que desea?'
'Nada... Curiosidad... Vive usted aqui?'
The guy laughs.
'Si'
'Ah, gracias'
I go back to Stef.
'There's a guy living here. Quite young.'
We go on.
There are no ditches in the next area. I notice that because of the water on the road. Lots of water. The two last dry parts of my body are now also soaked. When I reach a ditch again, I wait for Stef.
'Those ditches are pretty effective'. I say.
And on again. After about 40 minutes more, I see lights again. Will this be it? When I approach the place, I read a sign. Botanical Garden. A Botanical Garden? I thought we were walking through a botanical garden! It's not like there's a lack of plants around us. Fucking hell. Botanical Garden...
A railway station. But it's dark around it. It can't be it. But we do decide to go down the stairs and make sure. The road leads us back to the botanical garden, and to Museum Machu Picchu. Fuck. We're right below Machu Picchu. But we can't sleep here. So back we go.
The railroad goes through the rocks. Total darkness. Let's hope there are no ditches here. I decide to sing in a low voice. Make it sound as dark as possible. Suits the place. And it's fun. Hope it doesn't scare Stef. After the second tunnel, I see light again. Brighter, this time. Stronger. Aguascalientes. The place where we sleep tonight. My pace speeds up. A final tunnel. Be carefull now. You can make it till the end. Dark again. When I get out of the tunnel, I distinguish the houses and hotels of Aguascalientes. Releif. We're there.
My foot vanishes. O shit. Not again. Both knees hit the straight angles of the sleepers. I scream. Must it always be the moment where you're happiest, where things start going wrong? It might just be a new karmic cycle I've entered or something. I climb out of the ditch, and wait for Stef again. Soaked, limping, but now is no time for despair. Where here. A friend awaits, and tomorrow will be an unforgettable day.