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Location: Urubamba
Today we went white water rafting for our last day in Ollantaytambo. We dressed up in wetsuits, helmets, windbreakers, and dish gloves before setting off to pick up trash in the river. We coasted down the river, paddling occasionally, enjoying the sun, until we got to our first stop. There was an unbelievable amount of plastic to pick up buried in the ground, stuck in tree branches, and prickly bushes. Somebody found a full spider’s nest in one of their bags. After our boat leader found out were afraid of spiders, he thought it was funny to tell us there were spiders on us every 30 seconds. At our next stop, we saw another group. We later found out that Urubamba translates to “place of spiders.” After picking up a decent amount of trash, we moved to the next spot. As we stood next to Gabi, she lifted a plastic bag, and a rat ran across. Three of us, including myself started screaming hysterically after this. When we finished, we went over the rapids to the restaurant where we would eat lunch. We all felt very accomplished to have collected so many bags of trash and extremely relieved to be out of the bug and rat infested bushes by the side of the lake. After lunch, we drove 2.5 hours back to Cuzco to our first hotel.