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Published: August 25th 2008
Today is our last day before we begin the trek - we went to Peru Treks office last night to get our briefing - there will be 16 hikers total in our group plus about 30 porters, 2 guides, assistant guides and a chef. The porters carry everything we need except for our daypacks - they haul our sleeping tents, dining tent, all cooking necessities, food water, etc. over the trail. Our only job is to carry our packs and hike from one campsite to the next each day.
Yesterday we took a horseback riding tour of 4 different ruins - I was really looking forward to this, because while in Lima I picked up a magazine that had beautiful pictures from Peruvian Paso Fino horse farms in the area. So I was picturing riding a beautifully groomed, smooth gaited horse with nice equipment. Well, apparently, they don´t have Paso Finos in Cusco, just Andes mountain horses. These horses had not seen a brush in quite sometime, and were pretty thin. But it was a beautiful experience, to ride through the Andes mountains through herds of sheep! The ruins here are amazing, some with huge stones as big as a
house - how did the Incans do that so many thousands of years ago?
The hotel we are staying in is really nice - not fancy, but very homey, they make breakfast for you in the morning before you head out for the day, and there is always hot water available for tea, coffee or coco tea - you use the leaves of the coco plant, so it tastes kind of like dried grass? But it is supposed to help with altitude sickness, so I have been drinking that a lot. The only heat in the rooms is an oil heater that you turn on in the afternoon. But they have these wonderful Norwegian thermal blankets on the beds that are so heavy you can barely move once you get into bed! The only altitude problems we have had is difficulty breathing the first evening here, and we both get winded very easily when walking up the millons of steps in Cusco. (that makes me a little nervous about how we will handle the trek!) Speaking of steps, I have been so careful to warn Doug about all of the little steps while walking around Cusco - he tends
to gawk while walking, and what did I do tonight? Coming out of the restaurant we ate dinner in, I caught my hiking boot on a step and did a complete wipe-out right on the stones in front of the Inka Grill. Sheez, how embarrasing!
Today we toured two different museums, one of the Cathedrals, and watched a large celebration in the main plaza in Cuscos. There were so many people in costumes, marching, bands playing - it was very festive! I tried to find out what the celebration was for - something about a flag raising, it wasn´t completely clear what it was all about. I do know they start early, though - we woke up at 6am to what I thought was gunfire, but really was only fireworks.
After the parade, we came back to the hotel to pack our things for the trek - very challenging, as the weather during the day will be very sunny and warm, while at night it will be freezing when we arrive at the campsites. So hard to figure out what to take without taking everything that we packed! The hotel here will keep the rest of our luggage while we are hiking.
We have an early start in the morning, the trekking company will pick us up at 5:30, then we have an hour and a half bus ride to the start of the trek. They tell us that the first day is fairly easy - relatively flat terrain and only about a six hour hike (ha!). The second day is the killer - we have to hike over ¨Dead Woman´s Pass¨ that day!
I will update this on Friday when we return to the hotel - send some positive hiking prayers our way!
Kim & Doug
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Uncle Dave
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Wish I could be there
that's very interesting, Kim! I enjoy reading about your trip and wish I could be there too. I read the book "Inca" last year and enjoyed it. I guess at my age a trip like that is out of the question so I will do it through others. Keep the updates coming and enjoy every minute of your youth! love, Uncle Dave.