To MP: D2 P3: Back to Santa Maria

After leaving Vilcabamba on Friday, we drove back to Santa Monica:

Leaving Vilcabamba

Many mountainsides had these nearly vertical fields worked into them. They often held crops such as corn, and I can only imagine the farmers have to wear some kind of rope system when tending their crops of the steep hillside.

Tropical-looking leaves tell us we are in the "high jungle"

My camera had a difficult time trying to capture the vastness of the mountains. Can you see the road we are traveling, on the left side of the image?

These were taken while driving along, so these darn trees kept ruining my shots!

Here's a closer image of the road carved into the mountain. We are taking a similar turn while I'm taking this picture, our van hugging the curves of the mountain.

More mountains!

Here is a small town nestled into the mountainside across the valley. 

"The drive back was quicker, I think because it was early in the day  and Fernando wanted to get back to Cuzco. We got to Santa Maria and immediately got out of the van along the Urubamba river. We were going whitewater rafting! (Keep in mind, this is a few hours after we explored Vilcabamba!)

Our boat came about 15 minutes later, strapped to the roof of our van with our rafting guide. We had a crash course in rafting, and suddenly got into the water. Basically, we were sitting on the very edge of the raft sides, practically hanging out in order to row properly. Our guide gave us simple directions in English to follow (such as "stop" and "forward") Our feet were smashed underneath the big yellow cushions in the center of the raft that I originally thought we were to sit on, and this was how we were to stay aboard. I was sitting behind Derek, in front of Katie, and we had to try to follow Derek's pace and the instructions from our guide. Derek and Travis, in front, had to paddle in unison as well. When the water got really rough, our guide would yell "down!" and we'd have to hold onto the side of the raft and duck our bodies low to avoid falling overboard.

The water was relatively high since we were still at the beginning of the dry season. The water was murky brown from mud and mudslides up steam (I wish I had pictures from this part of the trip, but my explanations will have to do!) Some parts of the river were quite calm, some very rough, but it was a good mixture of both. We were tossed around and then had a few minutes to recuperate before being rocked around by the waves again. We all got soaked after a few good waves crashed into the raft. We were floating down the river in the valley of some grand mountains, so the views were stunning from all angles and there was something new around every river bend. Our trip lasted about 45 minutes downstream, and we all wanted to keep going.

When we got out, we met up with the van and quickly changed out of our suits. We dropped off the raft guy so he could get ready for his next tour, and went into Santa Maria for lunch. Fernando left us here, after lunch, and headed back to Cuzco."