Hello everybody, and welcome to episode three of The Dean Lounge.
I'm thinking like Amex Lounge, Dream Lounge.
Yeah, the Centurion Lounge, the Chase Lounge, Delta Lounge, the Delta Lounge.
How many lounges have you been to?
Just hanging out in the Dean Lounge. Mostly, as you've noticed by the angelic voice on the other side of this room, Kaylin has returned from the DMV and she is now gracing us with her presence on this episode of The Dean Lounge. I was lamenting on the last episode, just before you returned, about that name and about how I need to find a new name for this episode for this part. I don't. I hate it. I hate it so much, and I know I'm the one that thought of it, so I feel comfortable saying that I
absolutely hate it. I was going to bed last night and I was trying to think of things that I could change it to. By any deans necessary, that's not really traveling.
Yeah, it's like you're getting to any destination.
A Dean's to an end.
How is that travel exactly?
It's not. But I'm trying to imagine like a cool play on words that also is traveling the Dean Lounge is okay, I'll give you like a five six out of ten, maybe like a five and a half out of nine.
No, we don't do half numbers here anyways.
So that's where we're at with the Dean Lounge. If you haven't listened last week's episode, go ahead and listen to that, because I was kind of the precursor into this one. This episode, we're gonna be talking about that same trip that I was on, but just a different destination. And I feel like they both kind of warrant separate episodes because they're both pretty big aspects of that whole trip as a whole. This week on The Dean Lounge, we're taking a trip south of the border. And then
we're taking a trip south of that border. Oh wow, we're going to Peru. Ooh, and just like in Peru, we're going to be drinking some all back.
I was wondering why you bought that.
Yeah, well, I got this for us to drink for the Argentina episode, but you weren't here, obviously, and so I saved it for this. Actually, I don't know what Peruvians drink. I'm gonna let the microphone hear this.
Little ASMR.
There you go.
Thank you so much.
Well, look at the light on the mountains behind you.
By the way, Dean Lounge has some great views.
Great views, free drinks.
What could you just like the MX Lounge?
That's right, what could you just like about that?
Cheers cheers to Peru drinking Argentinian wine.
Well, I don't know if I mean. Malbick might also be Peruvian, although this was made in Mendoz, Argentina, so it would have been more perfect for the other episode.
I'm so sorry I had to go to the DMV, but.
I'm not going to drink a glass of Malbeck by myself, especially or a quarter at ten in the morning.
So this is great.
Yeah, so we're keeping it on the same continent at least. But yeah, so, as I mentioned in the last episode, after the w track in Patagonia, I flew up to Cusco, Peru, And I haven't really done much prep for this, so I can't give you any specifics. But it was early December, I know that, in twenty eighteen, and originally what I wanted to do is just visit Machu Picchu. Have you
heard me talk about this at all? I want to know, because it's nice to know if you're asking questions genuinely or if you're asking questions just to kind of keep the conversation going, like.
A certain podcast where yeah yeah, where the co hosts just ask silly questions.
Have you heard me talking much about Peru?
No? Okay, no I haven't. I mean, I know you said it changed your life.
That was the w track that changed my life. But this is an extension of that same trip. So this one had less of an impact on the life changing aspect, but it was still an amazing trip.
Yeah, I haven't heard you say much about it.
Great, let's keep that energy going. Yeah. So I flew from Portinatalis back to Santiago, and then from Santiago, I took up a flight from there to Cusco, which is where I would imagine ninety five percent of people that visit Machu Picchu fly into. Because it's still kind of a bit far. It's got I can't remember. It was like an hour or so on a train and then
like a thirty or forty five minute cab. But so, what I was doing when I was planning this trip was I was talking to my good friend Ben Higgins, who had been to Peru randomly. I didn't even know this, and he said that he had hiked the Inca Trail many, many years ago, and I was like, oh, my gosh, I'm going to Machu Picchu. It's been on my bucket list, like it's on everyone's bucket list. Obviously it's a modern mart Well, it's not a modern marvel. What would that be?
A a historical marvel? Sure, we'll call it that. And I was like, I'm going there. I've always wanted to see it, you know, I've heard incredible things and it's something I've only seen in photographs, so I would love to see it with my own eyes. And when I was telling him that, he was like, well, have you ever considered doing the Inca Trail? And at the time, I was willfully uninformed, and I said, I've never even I heard of this Inca Trail before.
I'm surprised by that.
Well, this is a long time ago. This is five years and two months ago, So right before we started dating, sixty two years sixty two months ago? Was it right before? It wasn't right before, but it was probably about six months before, seven months before.
It's tracks because we're coming up on five years, okay.
Okay, and and so he was like, I did this thing called the Inca Trail. It's a I'm going to get this wrong kind of like I did in the last episode. It's a four day hike, starting in Peru obviously and ending at the ending at Machu Picchu. And he just raved about it. He talked about how he had like a spiritual experience on it, and just the whole endeavor itself was amazing, like he was really proud
of himself for having done it. And so then, obviously, naturally, I went online and looked up what it would take to go do the Inca Trail, and I found a tour company. I'm pretty sure don't quote me on this, but I'm almost positive that you have to have a tour guide for the Inca Trail.
I was just about to ask if you did it by yourself.
Unfortunately, I don't think they'll let you do it by yourself, but there probably are workarounds. There is another trail called the Salcona. I think that is not the Inca Trail, but it still pops you out in Machu Pichu and it's a little bit longer, a little bit further but that one, I don't think you need a guide for it, but I'm almost positive on the in Co trail you
need a guide because it's all sacred lands. And so he was telling me about his experience about how he's up there for four days, and I think even though he had a guide, he like was he's either by himself or with a friend, and he just said it was like the concept of being isolated and alone and doing all that stuff was amazing for him. So he raved about it. I then got online and started doing some research, and I found a tour company relatively affordable.
I'm curious what you think a guided trip to the to the Machu Picchi through the Inca trail it would cost, because I was surprised by the.
Price today or five years ago.
Yeah, I guess it's probably a little bit more expensive today.
Let's go today, I would say fifteen hundred.
Oh what would you say five years ago? Thirteen hundred, Yeah, you're pretty good. It was it was like ten fifty, like so one thousand dollars and a thousand and fifty dollars, which I was surprised by. They you know, they carry your food, they bring your tents, they feed you. They they inform you, they like set up your bed and everything.
It's pretty nice.
So thousand dollars for four days, that's like staying in a nice hotel for two hundred and fifty bucks a night. Yeah, which I guess now that I said out loud, is kind of expensive. But you're getting a big experience out of this. So I looked it up, I coordinated everything and got it all booked, and then after Patagonia, I flew up and I think I spent like one day
in Cusco. Cousco itself is an incredible city. It's very hilly and it's got cobblestones everywhere, and I did slip on these like steep cobblestone roads a couple of times and kind of hurt myself. I think I like busted open my toe once, like the right before even going on the Inca trail, which was obviously a bit of
a bummer. But I the guy the company comes and picks me up, takes me to the trailhead, which I could not even come close to telling you where it is, but it was probably about an hour drive from Cusco, and I get introduced to the guide obviously, and then there's one other guy, this younger German boy, guy young man is hiking with me, and he was really cool.
It was one of those situations where I was expecting it to be a group of like ten of us, but it was literally just us three the guide, me and him, and then the shurpas, which were pretty essential. They're pretty amazing. They're so strong and so fast. They carry all your stuff for you, Like if you were to go on a hike, that's what you would want to do.
Oh yeah, well you're my shirpa.
I'm your shirpa, but I am no shrp. But I can't hold a candle to these guys. They're pretty impressive physically. So we get there and start hiking. This was also the first trip that I bought a camera for. I bought a Nikon D thirty five hundred for four hundred dollars from Best Buy. Use the kit lenses, which, if you word ask me nowadays, never use the kit lenses. They are the biggest piece of rubbish you could possibly get.
And I was shooting an auto mode, I think, or I was like just learning how to use manual mode, but I didn't know well enough, so I would just revert back to going to auto just because that's I wanted to pretend like I knew what I was doing by using a nice camera even though I was only using an automode.
What inspired you to buy the camera? You just want to take photos on the incato.
I think my inspiration for the camera was I wanted to if you listen to the last episode, which obviously you haven't, unfortunately for.
You hasn't even hurd.
I knew that I wanted to be I knew that I wanted to take traveling seriously and travel to a lot of new places, and I knew that I would regret not getting nice photos, and so I was like, I need to get a camera and figure out how to use this thing.
Do you ever look back on those photos.
All the time and they're awful?
But can't you can still appreciate it.
At the same time, too, though, I looked back on photos from another trip that I did, and I was like, these photos are so much better than the photos I take now. It's so weird how I feel like I've regressed a lot in terms of like my photography ability.
I totally disagree. But we did also talk about moving to Colorado and how that's going to spark our creativity a bit more.
I sure hope. So we haven't really been taken many pictures while we've been here though, which just moved. That's true, we're still moving in. But yeah, that's why I got into photography, And honestly, if you're thinking about getting into photography, don't do it. It's an expensive hobby.
Don't discourage people. But it's also a very fun hobby. You can buy lenses used, you can buy cameras used.
It's a money pit, and if.
People aren't wanting to switch, like say someone's committed to Nikon or Canon and they want to switch to Sony, you could get lucky with everyone selling their gear. Just have to hold out for that.
Buying used is definitely the way to go. I think I sold my last camera for like half of what it would have been brand new, So definitely look for
those deals if you're interested in getting into it. So I brought my camera up to the Inca Trail and I remember walking through these like big val and there's like these old ink and ruins and they were just like set in the most picturesque valley I've ever seen in my entire life, and it's just so cool because you would literally stop and explore these ruins for you know, thirty forty five to sixty minutes and then just carry on and then in an hour later you'd see another one,
and then an hour later you'd see another one, and it was it was cool. I don't think I had the same type of spiritual experience that Ben said that he had, but I was also kind of like my dopamine levels were already kind of spiked from the trip that I had just went on, so maybe that's why. But yeah, so that was it. And then, like I said, this tour company, as I'm sure most tour companies are going to, they feed you every night, every morning, and they give you lunch, and it's just so nice to
don't have to worry about any of that stuff. Like kind of similar to the w Track, where they you would go to like a refugeo and the would look free there, but this way it's like kind of like a traveling circus with you. There's probably like five porters or something like that, and they'll just be like, all right, we're setting up here, and then they two hours later, an hour, an hour later, you're eating some delicious soup.
And eating some Pruvian food and porters different.
Yeah, I would say porters. I think it all just depends on geography. I think Shirpas are like maybe more Asian, and porters are more North and South American. If I were to guess, all fact check you Asian, African is a Shirpa. No, I don't even I don't want to say Africa, but mostly Asian. Like if you were to go to Nepaul, it's okay, you don't eat easy your phone, if you were to go to Nepal. If you were to go to Nepal and do everest, you would have a shirt, but you wouldn't have a porter. But if
you were to say porter, you wouldn't be wrong. You would just I think it's just a dialect thing, but I could be wrong, who knows. I went back in fact check some of the things I was saying on the last podcast, and I got a lot of things wrong after listening back to it. So it's kind of embarrassed by that. But but yeah, there was one day there. The hiking is pretty easy. There were people of all shapes and sizes on the hike, which was cool to.
See how many miles, is it.
I want to say it was like thirty five, okay, could be it for four days. One of the things Where'm going to FactCheck and be like, oh, it's actually twenty. Yeah, you know, it's not a lot, it's less than it's less than you think. But like I said, there are people of all shapes and sizes, people of all speeds. So like while we weren't hiking with these people, you would kind of all camp in the same area, and then the next campsite would also be kind of in
the same area. So you would occasionally see the same person over the course of a few days and not really interact with them much other than like the friendly nod. But there was one person in particular I remember, who's very, very slow, and you could tell that she was like struggling a lot with it. But what was cool was by the end of the trip in Machu Picchu, I sell her again in Machu Picchu. So it's like it's just very clear that you could you don't have to.
There are certain limitations again obviously, but like you can make it just it just you're going to take a little bit longer, but your your pace doesn't really matter, as long as you make it.
To the end.
Goal. I remember on the second day is the second day was the hardest day. I think there's like the most of her I can't remember the name of this this section of the trail, but it's pretty steep and pretty long, and I like hustled up to the time of this pass that you have to cross over and then descend on the other side. And I really wanted
to fly my drone. And this was back before I knew anything about drones and like where you can fly them, where you can't fly them, what's legal, what's not legal. And I don't think it was technically illegal to have flown my drone, but it was definitely frowned upon, like it's a sacred valley and the last thing they want is people like infecting it with noise and all that stuff. So I jumped over the side and I kind of hid myself in the bushes and I like got out
my drone and I was about to fly it. And not like a marshall, like a ranger. Oh no, they didn't actually see me. Someone else, like another I think it was another guide, was like you definitely should not fly that there. I look it for like thirty seconds, put it back to my bag, and you know, gracefully
left and understood. And then the next morning I woke up to rangers shaking my tent, like asking if I was flying a drone, and of course I said yes, and they're like, delete all of the footage right now, like you have to delete all the footage, like it was a big no no. So if you're thinking about flying your drone, they've even cracked down more.
To say, this is five years ago. I bet now it's way harsher.
Yeah, they've definitely, at least in North America, I imagine it's got to be the same elsewhere too. They've cracked down quite a bit more with the drone laws. So just be very aware of that. You can't fire a drone in every country, Like we just went to Tanzania couldn't even bring the drone, So just keep that in
mind when you're doing that. But then on the last day when you're into Machu Picchu, you what you do is everyone lines up on at this gate right before Machu like mile four miles right before Machu Pichu, and they can't open the gate until a certain time in the morning. And we me and my German friend who I was hiking with, and the guide obviously he was asking. He's like, yeah, like it's kind of up to you guys. Tomorrow. You can wander in whatever time we want, or we
can be the first ones into Machu Pichu. And both of us were like excited and eager, and so we're like, we have to be the first ones in there. So he said, Okay, we're gonna wake up at three. The gate opens at five. We'll get to the gate at like three point thirty and just wait for an hour and a half for them to open it and we'll be the first in line. So we wake up, we go to the gate, and we are fortunately the first in line, but like within twenty minutes, it was probably
one hundred people behind us. So thankfully we got there when we did. They opened the gate at five on the dot, and we like sprinted the next four We didn't sprint, but we were at least jogging for half of it, which was hard for me because I'm not
an endurance guy. So jogged for the last four miles and got into Machu Pichu as the sun was rising and there wasn't a soul in the park and it was the most incredible thing because normally when you see Machu Pichu and immediately following like once they opened the main gates too, it just is crowded and so packed, people everywhere bumping shoulders. But we had it all to
ourselves for like thirty minutes, which was really cool. And if you have the chance to get there and do the contrail, I highly suggest you try and do something similar because that's a that's an experience that you can't really replicate, Like you can go visit Machu Pichu, but being there alone is something that you kind of have to work for and earn or somehow get incredibly lucky, I guess. So if you're thinking about going, consider doing that.
It's definitely worth it. There's another thing, wal Quina Piachu or something right next door to that you can like elect a hike if you want to. Did that, and that's really cool too because it brings you up an adjacent peak and you can look down into Machu Pichu and just kind of see it from a different anglet you're not really used to seeing. So that's my advice with Machu Pichu afterwards, I went into the town I think it's called Machu Pichu City, like literally right at
the base of Machu Picchu. I've said Machu Pichu so many times. It's starting to feel like such a weird word to me now because I've said it so many times. Machu Pichu City's at the base of Machu Pichu. And I got a hotel there just so I could like relax and enjoy the area.
Hotel not a hostel.
It was a hotel room, I think, not shocking for you. Yeah, I can't remember why, but I don't know if there are hostels in that town, maybe that's why. And the hotel was like fifty bucks, and so it didn'tally make sense for me just to share a room. And I was stinky, just want to shower and lay in my
bed naked kind of thing, you know. And I remember going to a restaurant in Machu Pichi City and like looking at the menu and there was guinea pig on the menu, and just out of pure curiosity, I was like, give me the guinea pig please, And if it came out to me as like a cutlet or like some sort of drumstick or something I think I would refine.
They literally flash fry a guinea pig and it's on your plate, and it literally looks like it could just be like a skinless or a hairless guinea pig, you know, but it's like it's fried and you're just expected to take a fork and knife and start cutting away into it.
So you didn't eat it.
I think I took a bite of it, and then they were like, if you flip it over and rip up in the rip cage, you'll see the heart and you can eat the heart and that's really nutrient dense and you should eat that.
Oh my gosh.
I think I had two bites of it, and I was like, yeah, i'll take a I'll take a salad please, no vegetarian. Yeah, but I will say I ate alpaca that same trip in Cusco, and it was delicious serve more like a patty style thing, so I didn't feel like I was eating an outpaka. There's a thing, there's like a disconnect that we have with our food. We feel less guilty about eating, like chicken nuggets, for instance, you would eat a chicken nugget, but you would never eat a chicken.
Yeah, Like if they flash fight a whole chicken and expected me to cut into it. Yeah, Or imagine like if you just well, we eat rotisseery chicken and that's basically just a headless chicken.
That's true, I guess, but I just I find it hard to picture you eating like a chicken, like skinning a chicken and then cooking it and then eating it.
Yeah. Well I'd only recently started eating chicken again, so yeah, that wouldn't work for me.
Even a fish, Like, even if I were like catch a fish, I would don't think I would have the heart to cut it up and cook it.
Well, like those fancy places or if you're broad, they typically serve you fish as a whole, entire fish, eyeball and all. Yeah, and you just have to go into it.
Yeah, you hate that when the eyeballs oh yeah, oh yeah. So just keep a lookout for those guinea picks because they might sound tasty.
But that does not sound tasty.
But it's something you gotta try.
You can never have a guinea pig as a kid, No, we only had a dog.
What's something you gotta try. I didn't want to go to Cusco and not get the guinea pig and then like I get home and my friends are like, you drow the guinea pig? And I couldn't say, and I have to say no.
But it's not like Peru is known for its guinea pig.
I know. But when are you ever going to get the chance to eat a guinea to see? When are you ever going to see guinea pig on a menu?
That is something that's great about you is you do you'll try anything once it like pigeon.
Yeah, that was your decision to order the pigeon, wasn't it? And the alpaca. I will voucher alpaca. It was delicious. In that same trip, I also journeyed out to Montana's de las Semana Colores. I actually don't remember the name of it, but it's the Rainbow Mountain, which I'm sure you've seen pictures of, have you.
I think so, yes. It's just the way that you said that reminded me of Bridesmaids when she's like in Las Celeas and La Biblioteca, when she's like trying to speak Spanish but she can. Yeah, that's not that you can't speak Spanish. But by the way that you said, it was similar to her.
You're right, I have no idea what I'm saying. It's like the Las Montanya's de Colories or something like that. I'm trying my hardest here.
Okay, great, it just reminded me of it.
And oh, so I guess just to backcheck a little bit. So I took the train back from Machu Pichu City into Cusco because obviously I didn't end where I started because I had hiked forty miles or however many, and so I took a train for like an hour, and then I was still like an hour forty five minutes away from Cusco from the train station, so I had to take a cab the remainder of the time. It was like it was more expensive than it should have been.
I was like forty bucks on the on the taxi ride there, she would like pick other people up and like it was like an uber share ride, but she would just pick other people up. And she was very nice. She had a whole family. I was trying my best Spanish to, like, you know, be nice and friendly to her.
And then I had done prior research on how to get to Rainbow Mountain, and you can only go there with tour groups as well, at least like getting there, cause it's like a two or how long was it three or four hour drive from Cusco to get to the trailhead for the Rainbow Mountains, and I wanted to be there alone by myself and beat everyone else there. And so I knew if I went with the tour group, but they would leave later and there would be a big bustload of people that would get there with me.
So on the way to Cusco in this taxi, I asked the girl, Hey, could you drive me to the Rainbow Mountains tomorrow morning at like two am? And she like reluctantly agreed. And it was expensive that time. I think that was like one hundred and twenty bucks or something just for her to drive me out and then drive me back, which I guess for eight hours of driving, that's actually a really good price by American standards. But
got to the trailhead, hiked up. It was dark for who knows how long, and Rainbow Mountains high it's probably like twelve thirteen, fourteen thousand feet, so similar to like a mountain peak here in Colorado. And I'm hiking it's dark, I can't see anything. I go over this pass. I'm huffing and puffing and just keep on trucking along. And like an hour or two later of hiking, I like passed by a random hiker and I was like, hey, do you know where don de sta las Montanes de Corodes?
He was, ah, I'm ego, I e any points behind me where I just came from. And I was like, oh my god, I walked past the Rainbow Mountain. I didn't even realize it.
Because it was still dark.
It was dark, and like, I walked over this mountain pass and I was like, this might be it, and I looked around. I was like, ah, there's no colors here.
Like, whip out your phone, it's your flashlight.
No, I should you have a head lamp? No? I should have and had I walked past the freaking Rainbow Mountain. I was so so mad at myself because, like, I spent all this money to hire a taxi cab to bring me out there so I could be alone on the top of the mountain by myself for however long it took for people to arrive there, and I could have been there an hour before.
Oh you were an hour past the mountain.
I walked an hour past it.
I thought you were just like just missed it.
And then I had to walk an hour back, so I was two hours later than I should have been. I was so mad, and I walked back. I walked an hour past, but it probably took me thirty minutes to get back because I was like walking with a purpose, you know what I mean. And so I got to the summit or at the past I guess you could call it again, and there was like these two older, definitely native people, like making some tea or something up there.
Just them too, like they look like they were almost like setting up a shop to like sell goods to the tourists that were visiting. And thankfully I still had it to myself. I actually looked down passed from where I started the day, and then I saw like the droves of people coming up, like you know, dozens hundreds of people coming up. It still would have taken them like another forty five minutes, so I still had it to myself for a good thirty forty five minutes. But
that was a great experience. I would say if I were to do it again, like if I were to do it with you, I would probably just go at the tour company because it's I want to be alone. It's it's like a twenty dollars bus ride with them or one hundred and twenty dollars taxi ride.
That's not so bad. And how long does it take you to go to the top when you don't miss it.
It'll probably take forty five minutes to an hour.
That's crazy because it for the fourteen ers you've climbed, it takes you hours and hours an hour.
Yeah, well, you're driving, you're driving up like twelve thousand feet. You're driving up pretty far. The road is pretty scary. Even the girls like, I've never driven up here before and it's dark, and she's like, I'm kind of scared.
Like one of those one lane roads where yeah, well too, and you could fall off the cliff.
Yeah, there's like big cliff on the one side, obviously no guardrail, but I yeah, I mean, I don't know if i'd necessarily advise it. Of course, if you're if you have the means to do it, it's a one hundred percent worth it. But it wasn't like, you know, I guess that's not true because I guess once the crowds rolled in, I got really annoyed with having people around,
so I left right away. So I guess that being said, if you're kind of the similar way to me, get there early before everyone else does, because I wasn't able to enjoy it with other people around, I guess kind of thing.
I'm curious about the drive down because that's when all the tour buses were coming in. Yeah, probably massive, So how like, how are you going down technically two lane but it's one lane road and.
Clear it's wide enough, I think. And those people are so they're just like so naturally skilled at driving those scary roads. I feel like too, like they're so their their awareness of their car position is so much better than Americans were the worst at that. And also I ended I also did like some side hikes and stuff, and so I got back down at like ten am. And at that point I'm sure no more buses are coming up because they're probably already gotting get up there
by like eight am, you know what I mean. So so yeah, so I did Machu Pichu and Rainbow Mountain and then just before that too, I did the w Teck. So I think on that hike, I on that trip, I hiked probably like one hundred miles or one hundred or so miles, which was at the time, hands down the most I'd ever walked in my entire life.
Look how far you've come.
Yeah, I mean I still couldn't walk one hundred miles today, but I could do it. I could do it eventually. It was just a lot for some for a novice like myself, for an amateur, if you will. But yeah, I mean, I would say, if you're going to South America and you don't have Machu Picchi on your list, put it on your list, because it's amazing. There were some other things in Peru that I really wished I had done, like gone to Wakachina. I said that earlier,
No I didn't. The Wakachina, I think is a town. It's like a town in an oasis with like these. It just beautifully picturesque. I wish I could go back and do that. And there's a few other like mountains that I want to climb out there, but maybe save that paranlether time. But yeah, trip changed my life. Between Patagonia, Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountains, it was hands down the best trip of my life. Even to this day, I always advise people to visit those areas if they can.
It's it's tricky because Machu Pichu is obviously so well known, and so it's so trafficked, and so any chance you can get to like avoid being around crowded people in a typically crowded area, I would say, take it, which is kind of contradictory to what I was saying earlier about the Rainbow Mountains, But but yeah, that's my two cents on those, on those two places.
Do you think after these two trips you became the Dean that I know you as versus bachelor Dean.
Yes, that's what I kind of mentioned in the last trip. This was like around the last episode. It was like a turning point for me, and I don't know why. I really do think it was Patagonia that that turned turned something around in me, but I'm not really sure what specifically it was, but yeah, it was, it was. It was a good, good chance. It was a long time comment because I needed.
To do something, you know, I don't know, I didn't know you then, but any TV. Yeah, and that guy sucked, he thought, but he was he was a little lost.
I was going through my camera roll to like figure out when I went on these trips and like what exact dates I was there, And so I would see a picture like a selfie I took myself like five or six years ago, and I was like, dang, that guy is hot, like so hot. And then I look at the mirror and I'm like, that's I don't even look this. I'm not the same person.
It's ridiculous.
I'm serious, I look so different. Well, you're right, it's I look so similar but so much less attractive than I was back in those days.
You're way too hard on yourself.
It's just crazy. Man. Time is a cruel mistress. Anyways, that's gonna do it for this week's episode. Next week I will talk about something and so I sure hope you don't make it.
Maybe Guatemala maybe no.
No, I appreciate you going in, but I'm gonna go chronologically on the WHOA Yeah, and I might like, you know, two Destination episodes and then like one photography episode two Destination three. Maybe it'd be three and one, but yeah, I still need to figure that out. If you guys have any cool names for this podcast besides the Dean Lounge, please let me know. Just slide into the DMS.
Slid into the DMS.
Oh, DMS, that's not a potential name, but it's a good, good play on the place.
With Dean, but very few that are travel worthy.
That's right, all right, that's gonna do it for this week's episode of The Dean Lounge. Please do in next week, where maybe we suck just a little bit less. I wanted to jump back in here real quick and just run over some, uh, some facts about Machu Picchu. Do you have any I'm gonna ask you like questions and see if you can answer them and obviously feel no responsibility to to them correct because I don't think many
people know these. Do you know what Machupicchi means? If you were to guess, you like macho.
Big peak?
Oh really close, it's old peak. Huh yeah, that's a really good job. If you already guess how many buildings are on Machu pit or in Machu Picchu, what would.
You guess, I'm sorry, buildings, Yeah, like in the in the ruins, I'd say like.
Twenty five, yeah, one hundred and fifty. Isn't that crazy?
And then I thought, knowing nothing about it, what do you.
Think Machupicchi was made for back in.
The days temples. Uh, it's a sacred temple land.
Yeah, I mean that's that's pretty much what it says here on the internet. It says a royal estate and a secret ceremonial center.
Pretty smart.
What year do you think Machupicchu was discovered in the modern world?
I mean, the first time that came in my head was eighteen twenty, but I'm gonna go with seventeen fifty.
So pretty well known fact, I guess, but little known unless you look it up. So maybe it's not a well known fact. It actually wasn't discovered for a long time. It was built. Let's see what year was it built? Fourteen fifty a d. So, I guess that's actually more recent than I was expecting. So it's six five hundred and seventy five years old. Let's say five hundred and seventy four years old. It was discovered most recently. How would you say this? It was discovered by white people.
Let's say that because that's kind of how white people's track history when we start discovering things.
It was discovered by a version of Christopher Columbus.
Yeah, it was actually a professor Hiram Bingham in nineteen eleven.
I'm surprised he didn't name it after himself, just call it Bingham.
Yeah, Bingham chew. I wonder if he like discovered it and then maybe did some more research and discovered that already had a name Manchu Picchu or something like that.
But I feel like, yeah, white men are so yeah, stick with.
A name like Hiram Bingham. Though, I'm wondering if he was white.
Yeah, maybe not.
He sounds more Indian to me. Hiram sounds Indian Muslim. I don't know, it sounds Muslim to me.
Um.
Oh wait, well, the next one almost answered one of our questions. A long standing dispute between Peru and Yale University, where Haram was a professor at has existed over the artifacts collected by Bingham during his exploration of the site. Yale maintains that they own the items, while Peru insists they were given them on loan. So it's pretty much exactly what you're just saying. The guy that discovered it wants to keep the items well, or at least the university belongs to.
He discovered it, but like, yeah, those items are not his definitely sacred.
So like give them back, they're definitely perus.
I don't know who owns them now, so still Yale.
I think he'll still probably hasn't Yale.
This is quick. Tangent sucks. Have you heard about the twin the triplet? Uh controversy? No story for another time, A story for pop culture.
Kailin sounds good. Did you know that Machu Picchu was also used as an observatory to look at the stars.
Oh wow, that's amazing. Where the star's beautiful?
Oh? I don't remember. Oh, but I'll tell you what I'm sure they were. I mean, like I said, Rainbow Mountain is up that fourteen thousand feet?
You never looked up.
I don't look up, only down. Machi Picchu is probably It's not that I would. I would guess nine thousand feet for Machi Pichu. Let's uh, I'm going to google that real quick. Eight thousand feet? What did I say? I think I probably said nine thousand. You weren't listening, It's okay, I was. I talked so much sometimes I chee myself.
No, but al's making noise. I thought I was getting into something.
Oh he might be Anyways, those are my Machu Picchi facts, fun little snippets. If you ever had a dinner party and you tell someone about him, Haaren Bingham, karam Bingham, karam Bingham. I don't know anyways, Thanks,