Last Day in Peru

This is our last day in Peru. We are leaving for the airport at 5 pm so we have
time to go shopping for last minute gifts and visit the chocolate museum to do
a workshop. Yum Yum!

We went to the San Pedro market one last time. We bought our travel blanket,
a few trinkets, and off we went to look for a stamp. You see, we like to send
ourselves a postcard whenever we travel. It’s nice to receive it once you are
home and settled back in.  You should try it! Anyways, it took like what
seemed forever to find a store that had stamps. Every store that supposedly
sold stamps were closed.

You see, Sunday’s here are something else. There is always a celebration
of some kind: it can be religious, related to school, like today, or just to
have one I guess! We did find a shop that had stamps so we bought our
postcard and stamp and mailed it.  We had a bit of time for lunch. Peru is
not Canada. People fight for your business here! We had two women
running after us with their menus. One was quite aggressive towards the
other talking over her, pushing her, covering her menu. I just said whoa!
I will look at both menus and then decide but you both need to get out of
my face. We went to the restaurant of the less aggressive women.
I’m thankful Canada is not like this! It would drive me crazy! Remi had an alpaca burger and I ate his fries.

It was time for our chocolate workshop. Yummy! Sophie, Melissa and Liz
joined us. We first learned about the whole process. This lesson was
followed by us making different drinks, roasted and crushed beans, and
poured and decorated our chocolates.

funny washroom sign at chocolate museum

Once that was done it was unfortunately time to head back to the hotel
to grab our bags to get to the airport.

We now sitting in the airport, reflecting on this amazing adventure.

Seems like there’s an emergency problem at the airport in Lima.
No flights are leaving. We should hear soon what’s going on.

still having a good sense of humour

Update! Flight is canceled. It’s about 8 pm I guess. Everyone that works
for Latam Air seems to have disappeared into thin air (funny how that happens).
They did give us a phone number to call before disappearing… Yeah... OK…
Call with what? And of course, the three other canceled flights are calling
as well, no way to get through. Paul was able to reach Carly our travel
agent in Canada. She did what she could and passed it on to the manager.
He was not much help.  Here in Cusco, you are kicked out of the airport
at 12am -whether you have a place to stay or not. Odd isn’t it?

We were able to reach Magical tours, the Peruvian company that organize
things here.  They sent us this young fellow to help us. Poor kid felt so bad!
It wasn’t his fault… Meanwhile, Liz managed to get us booked on a flight
to Lima for tomorrow afternoon, at least we will be one step closer to home.

By 12 AM magical tours had found us a hotel and moved us there the night.
It sure was beautiful. Let’s see what tomorrow will bring. Will we be stuck in
Lima? Or will there be room on the flight to Toronto? Time will tell.

Machu Picchu

We get to visit Machu Picchu today and Inca treasure. We had breakfast at 5:30 and
lined up for the bus at around six. Oh my God! What a lineup! There are hundreds
if not a thousand people in line! It took over three minutes to walk to the end of the
line from where we were at the hotel, the beginning of the line. We waited over an
hour to take the bus that would bring us to Machu Picchu. Walking might have been
faster -only problem, it’s uphill! I’ve done enough of that in the past five days!

The road up the mountain was 13 switchbacks on a single lane. When you meet the
bus that is coming down it can be a bit scary, as one of them has to back up to a wider
part, or a corner. You always hope you are not the one that has to back up! It’s almost
like playing chicken! What a ride!

We finally get to the top about 30 minutes later. There are no washrooms once you pass
the gate. What?? No washroom? That’s pretty ridiculous… How are you supposed to
hold it for possibly all day when you are taking Diamox for altitude and you’re
supposed to drink like a camel? Well we shall see…

Remi, Sophie and I spent the day with Jason and Tracy. We started with the washrooms
of course! Two Soles to use the public washrooms. Once out of “el baño”, Tracy
noticed she had lost her bus and entrance ticket. She was going to wait for the bus
to return. I told her to go ask if they could call the driver to see if it was on there
instead of waiting for what could be hours. Instead, they just re-printed it for her.
Off we go.

Machu Picchu was a bit of a disappointment for me. Is it beautiful? Absolutely!
Problem is, there are thousands of people crowding the place. After spending five
days with about 25 people, this was a major shock.  We had some time before our
guided tour and so we decided to walk the path up to Sungate. You read that correctly
- up for about an hour. The path consists of huge uneven steps. It was pretty tough
but we got excellent views of the city.

Went arrive at the Sungate, another disappointment.  I expecting some sort of
pyramid or sundial. You know, something. Nope. Nothing. Two walls. That’s it.
  The one good thing was the view. Breathtaking. After spending a few minutes taking
pictures, getting yelled at for doing a jump shot, and changing into shorts, we went
back down to meet our guide. It was much faster to get down! 45 minutes or so. 
I really, really had to go pee… I may or may not have peed right there in the middle of
the path while my partners in crime intercepted people who might have seen me, had
they not been intervened.

Our guides name was Victor Hugo. He was not a great guide. He spent most of his
time on his phone and didn’t really answer any of our questions. It was a painful
2.5 hour tour. Bright sun, difficult to understand the guide, but… beautiful views.
The Incas are interesting, I will have to research them on my own.

After our tour, it was time to get on the bus so we could go catch a train back to Cusco.
Tracy and I had time to walk around the market while Remi and Jason had a beer at
a restaurant.

The train ride was fun! We sang and danced, watched a fashion show, and just chatted.
We arrive in Cusco at 9 pm. I was so tired I went straight to bed. Until 9 am the
next morning -the last day in this beautiful place.

Last Trekking Day

Today was pretty uneventful. We walked through a beautiful valley until we
reached our vans. Remi, hobbling along as his big toe is now afflicted with Gout.
When reached the vans, it's with heavy hearts and tears that we said goodbye
to our wonderful Peruvian team as we needed to get going to live a new type
of adventure: Machu Picchu.

We first had four hours to drive to get to the train station. Scary winding roads
with very steep cliffs - meeting a truck is not fun! It’s a little harrowing at times...

but wow! The beauty... On the way, we stopped in a small village to give the
fruit and toys we had brought. Talk about overwhelming feelings! Droves of
kids came running towards us. They sure don’t look or behave like the most
Canadian kids! What I mean by that, is they were happy to receive an apple
that just made their day!

We arrived at the train station in Olyotambo. Had a snack while we waited
and onwards by train to Agua Caliente; the Machu Picchu village.

The Longest Day Ever

It is now August 16. Today will be our fourth day of walking. We’ve been told it will
be your longest and most difficult day - but also the most beautiful. We got our
wake up call at 6 am Nelly singing at our door, again, I didn’t hear a thing.
We had breakfast, packed our bags and off we went.

We have two mountain passes to do today. We reached our first pass at almost
5000 m. It was a difficult and long walk. We were walking so slow that a turtle
could probably have passed us. Going this slow is not by choice.  You just can’t
physically go any faster. As I mentioned before (I think) altitude is no joke!
We Had a little ceremony at the top of this mountain to keep us safe on the
rest of our journey.

When we got to the top, we could finally see the Rainbow Mountain in the
distance. What a sight!! but oh my God we have to walk all the way there?! 
Yup! We do! That photo is cropped -seems closer than it really is.

We descended the mountain as slowly as we ascended.  It was a very narrow
trail covered in ice, mud and snow and so it was very slippery. One step at a time.
Near the bottom, Remi decided to slide down the hill -sitting on his jacket -
Weeee! Down he went! We stopped for a short break when we reach the bottom.

We arrived at our lunch spot where we would have lunch. While waiting for the
others to catch up to us, we decided to slide down the mountain. This time,
we had our ranchers and cooks slide down with us! They had so much fun! T
hey were saying again, again! You should've seen them - in their sandals, going
down the mountain -sitting on our jackets, wearing our gloves... something I will
never forget!

Lunch today was not my cup of tea - again - surprise, surprise. We ate well, people ate, and off we went.  We walked for about 30 minutes before arriving to a spectacular sight. The Rainbow mountains. This is a sacred place you don’t walk on it. Just across the way, there is another little "mountain" you could climb to get a different view.  Once at the top the view is simply incredible - a mountain of red and green all formed naturally.

It was so windy at the top that we quickly took our pictures and headed back
down. Again, going down is not easy either it’s deep with steps made in the
ground all uneven.  As we waited for the rest of the group to arrive, we were
getting a little worried (so was Holger) because we could see a storm coming.
Nobody wants to be here in a storm… 

Once the rest of the group arrived, we hurriedly took a group photo with the CLK
flag and off of the first group went.

Because our group of 17 people, of various abilities, illnesses, altitude issues…
we always end up being two or three groups. Good thing we have three guides!

We left rainbow Mountain and arrived at the Red Valley all the mountains here
are red. It’s beautiful! We managed to get a couple pictures here -just the front
group.  After the Red Valley, the trail became quite scary for me. The path was
covered in snow and it was very narrow - it was also a very long way down.
I was going extra slowly, tears in my eyes (height is not my thing -so why am
I there you are thinking? Because in life, you have to challenge and push
yourself -or else you will miss all sorts of beauty!)   Thank goodness I was right
behind Holgar our guide and Remi was behind me. I guess Holgar could tell I
was not comfortable here so he asked to hold the end of my pole and asked Remi
to hold the other end. I held the middle - this formed like a barrier - thank God!
I think I would still be there otherwise!

After this very difficult part, the trail  remained very similar just on sand instead
of snow - not so bad.  If you fell down, you probably would’ve just slid down the
mountain -that wouldn’t be fun, but I don’t think you would’ve died...

From Rainbow Mountain to our next Tambo was a three hour walk. We had to get
moving if we didn’t want to get stuck hiking in the dark -that would not be fun. 
Picture is -very narrow trails, on steep hills…in the dark. Everywhere you look
you see beauty - including the sunset. Lucky for the head group we had about
15 minutes to go. The second group would not be so lucky and would need to
make their way on these treacherous trails in the dark.

When we were about 30 minutes from the lodge we could see little lights bouncing
up and down towards us.  That’s when we saw our porters and animal ranchers
come running with lanterns. What a relief to see them on their way to help us out. 
They were sent on their way to help the others as we were getting very close to the tambo.
As a parent, I was relieved to see how well these people cared for us!  Having Sophie
in the second group - I never worried because I knew she was in good hands.

Our group made it just before it got really dark. Holgar took as many headlamps
as we could give him and he headed back out to meet the back group. What an
amazing team we have we are truly blessed!  

We kept looking out the windows to see if we could see them arriving when all of
a sudden, the lodge guardian blew the conch shell to welcome them. Out in the
distance, one light, two, then three and so on. They had another 5 to 10 minutes
before reaching the temple. This I think is an experience they will never forget. 
The second group arrived about an hour after we did.

This was the longest day so far. They were right. It was beautiful, overwhelming,
terrifying, every emotion you can imagine.

Again, I can’t really explain.  It’s something you need to experience for yourself
to truly understand. This journeys means something different to everyone here. 
Each of us is living his or her own adventure -same place, different meaning.
I’m sure Remi, Sophie, and I will all have found a different meaning through this...

A Perfect Day

It's August 15th.  Wow! What a day today was!  As the title says, it was just perfect!

It started with a beautiful ceremony with our llama handlers and guides.  The object was to give an offering to Apu Ausangate (Father Ausangate).  It is believed that this will keep us safe on our journey.  The guides placed all sorts of little trinkets and food in a paper wrapping.  We each placed 3 coca leaves in the package after asking Apu and his children for safe passage.  We also gave wine I think it was to Pacha Mama and the mountain.  To complete the ceremony, we burned our package of offerings so the smoke could go up to the mountains.  It was quite beautiful and emotional for many of us.  My description of it doesn't make it justice... it is in my memory for ever.

After our ceremony, we headed off the mountain to complete our first and highest mountain pass: 5200m.  Mattias was the front guide today.  He's great at making sure the pace is perfect.  I was able to follow him all day.  Anyway... back to the story.

It was quite the hike!  we climbed 300m -I would guess about 1km - which took us about 2 hours.  2

hours to walk 1km... really?! yes, really!  We did stop a few minutes here and there to catch our breath, but we literally took 2 hours to walk 1km (it should take on average 10 minutes or so to walk 1km).  Lucky for me, the horses carried my daypack until lunch today -Holgar's orders.  I'm certain that made a huge difference.

When we reached the top, an overwhelming feeling of I don't know what came upon us.  I can't explain it in pictures or words.  It's just something you have to experience for yourself to understand. It's a feeling that just takes over, tears stream down your f

ace -not tears of sadness - I'm not sure what kind of tears they are!  Pure accomplishment? Pure joy because you finally arrive? The beauty you see is just too much to take in?  A bit of all that? I don't know how everyone else felt, but many of us had tears of some kind. 

After spending about 10/15 minutes enjoying the beauty, taking photos... we started our descent.  That was not any easier than going up!  Physically it was ok - very slippery as it was ice and snow covered.  It was also quite steep!  I sure was glad I had walking poles.  They saved me a couple times! 

The first group got to the bottom pretty quickly so we decided to make snow angels and leave our prints in the mountains.  That sure was fun!

The views today were most spectacular.  We saw colourful mountains, rocky mountains, blue skies, clouds, we felt wind and that was all part of the adventure.  We arrived at the bottom of the mountain
and were greeted by this cute little boy.  We gave him a soccer ball, food, and chocolate.  He was just so cute!  He sat down beside Remi and Remi shared all sorts of treats with him.  He sure got spoiled today!

Nearby was a hill where we could see 2 other boys waiting in the background- were they shy? too old to come and get things? I'm not sure.  Sophie was going to give our little boy more treats but I suggested she go give it to the two other boys and so off she went to hand them a granola bar.  They seemed grateful and happy. 

We started walking again.  To get to our lunch spot we still had about 1.5 hours of walking to do - uphill for some of the way of course!  Again, just as beautiful as ever!  We arrived at our lunch site.  It was now cold and windy.  Today's soup sure was welcome!

We had lunch, another pee break (probably the 100th so far today!) and off we went... about 1km to go - that's 1.5 to 2 hours of walking.  Sounds crazy doesn't it?  That long to walk 1km... I still can't believe it... and if someone told me it took them that long I would think they were crazy! Let me tell you - it's very difficult in extreme altitude!

This last bit was extremely slippery as the very narrow trail was covered in this red mud. It was quite tricky not slipping down the side of the mountain.  Are you ready for another emotional moment?  Here it comes!  We got to this little pass- it was a very long way down a cliff...I couldn't go through - luckily, Jodi and Mattias were able to help me get through it (At this point, Remi had gone back to meet with the back group to take pictures I think, or to give Sophie a pole?).  Thank God I had these two or I think I would still be there bawling!  With help, you can do anything...

We could see the tambo from about 100m now.  What a feeling!  We are doing 2 mountain passes tomorrow.  I have a feeling it will be another difficult day full of adventure!  We can do it!  We will do it!

Keep on hiking

Guess what!  Another early morning!  Our wake up call was at 6:30 - the wake up call is Nelly singing at our door.  -what a nice way to wake up!  Breakfast this morning was fruits and oatmeal made from quinoa.  It tasted better than oatmeal at home - and the texture was way better.  I was able to eat my portion!  After breakfast and before heading off, we had the women from the nearby village demonstrate their weaving.  I bought a beautiful hat that intend on wearing all winter!

We began our trek at about 9am.  The first part of the walk was fairly easy, offering beautiful views of the mountains.  We had a bit of a hike up to a house where we had lunch - soup and some sort of egg and potato thing.  It was actually quite tasty.  This house belongs to the manager of the past lodge - or something like that - I'm not too sure.  It's very simple "mud hut".  I really don't think I could live here - it must be freezing cold at night - worse than the lodges...  The "washroom" if you can call them that

are pretty awful.  The door is holding on my a thread and is just a couple planks holding on I don't know how!  Inside is a little hole that is quite disgusting.  I couldn't take a photo of it as I was not going to stay in there any longer than needed!  The hole wasn't quite big enough for people to aim in... if you know what I mean... argh - gross.  I prefer to pee in nature - Thank God I didn't have to poop!!  I would not have been able to!

After lunch, we refill our water supplies and off we went to continue our journey.  Our next lodge is called Macharacay.  I was really happy to see the lodge as the journey was a difficult one! Had a headache for most of the day as we continue to climb in altitude.  By dinner, I was feeling a little nauseous and my headache wasn't leaving even with strong meds.  I decided to sit on the couch next to the fire as I just wasn't able to eat.  A few minutes after sitting by the fire, I was really feeling like crap.  Eric checked my oxygen and it was just a bit low.  Said he would check it again after dinner.  I decided to go to bed and try to sleep it off. 

Once in bed, I guess people noticed I had "disappeared".  Remi came to check on me and saw I didn't look too good I guess as Eric quickly came and checked my oxygen again.  He decided to put me on oxygen - told me to take deep breaths for 10 minutes.  Let me tell you - 10 minutes of oxygen was like a miracle!  I'd say about 15 to 30 minutes later all my symptoms were gone - headache -gone! Nausea -gone!  I felt really tired, but that I can handle!  I didn't feel like I was dying anymore!

I wasn't the only one feeling like this tonight.  I believe 3 or 4 of us received oxygen tonight.

What a day!  I sure hope tomorrow will feel better!

First trekking day

Another early morning rise - 6am - Aug. 13th.  Today's the big day! We head off to the middle of nowhere to start our 5 day trek through the mountains - to see the rainbow mountain.  We have 2 vans to accommodate the 17 trekkers and 3 guides -Holger, Mathias and Eric.  We set off, in the same direction we went yesterday for birdwatching.  I recognize the little villages we passed by - the guinea pig village, the bread village and the pork village!

It was nice to have a tour guide on board as he told us all sorts of things about what we saw.  We first
stopped at a little market.  Here I had a new Peruvian experience.  Let's say it wasn't necessarily a pleasant one.  Our first washroom with no toilet!  At the back of the market, you pay a man 1 soles, he hands you a couple squares of toilet paper, he points to a door (at least there's a door).  You enter, see a very dirty floor and a hole in the middle.  Ok.  How will my body react to this?! Let's just say it's easier to just squat down outside - I'm happy I just had to pee!  You leave the "washroom" and the man throws a bucket of water behind you, all over he floor.  Let's just say I wouldn't go in there barefoot... We had a few minutes to buy a few gifts for the children we would encounter along the way.  I got some hair clips for girls, Rémi got little soccer balls and Sophie got apples.  We had time to have some fun and get some jump shots in.  I managed to talk Tara into them as well.

Our next stop was at a different village where we went to the washroom again (cleaner this time).  We stopped here to visit a beautiful church.  Peru has a very interesting and sad past.  When the Spanish came to conquer Peru, they were not quite kind... Like when the Europeans came to Canada - let's say the indigenous people had seen better days... Similar to Canadian history, children were taken from families and
placed in "schools" -the guide had a special word but I've forgotten what it is.  They build this amazing church.  It's not easy converting people to believe what you believe in - especially when they don't speak your language.  To convert the children to christianity, they filled the church with beautiful artwork to help with communication.  For example, Jesus is black and he wears a skirt.  There is a whole history story here, but again, I don't remember all the details.  I do know that the gold is real gold.  Sadly, the Spanish stole the Inca treasures, brought them to Belgium to be melted, turned into gold leaves and returned to complete the church.  I'm sorry -I find this absolutely tragic...

After hearing all about the history, we went outside to see a reconstruction of  an Inca bridge and other things - pretty cool.  A few pictures, videos, a little break and back we head to the van to a nice surprise... little snack bags!  Yum!  We will use these bags everyday on our trek as we will refill them every morning before leaving.  We are off again to continue our journey.

The road we took was... let's just say... an adventure in itself!  OMG!  You don't want to fall off the edge!  No gates, it's wide enough for one car - don't want to meet anyone - there are really tight corners - the driver honks the horn before each one... Poor Beth!  She's sitting on the side and she doesn't like heights!  The view though... wow - takes your breath away! This bit reminded of the roads I had to drive in Iceland. 

We finally arrive at a house in ruins where we see a beautiful little table set up in the middle of the field.  We had a very good lunch of vegetables and chicken and cheese, had our first pee break in the wild and off we went - walking this time.  We are going to be walking for the next 5 days.  Hard to believe, we are
actually doing this. 

Today is a short walking day -about 2.5 km.  It takes a long time to walk 2.5km in the mountains.  Especially when it starts a bit rocky!  Had a few tears, I did manage to walk the very narrow path on the side of a cliff.  It wasn't very long... thank God!   I'm also happy I have my human rock with me... I thank him for believing in me.

The first 40 minutes or so we walked in between two mountains, longing a little river.  I can't even put in words the beauty I see.  There are tiny little flowers here and there, ferns have found the weirdest places to grow, vegetation is sparse - a few hairy cactuses here and there. 

We eventually turn a corner and again, O.M.G. The narrow path turns into a beautiful valley.  Off to one side, a small village in the distance, along the snaky river.  About 1.5km ahead, our first Tambo (lodge)!  It's just a speck at this point...

Before getting to the lodge, we saw a boy -probably a teenager fishing with a net.  We cheer him on each time he throws his net in.  he's probably thinking what a bunch of weirdos... as he probably does this everyday...

Not much further, we arrived at a gate where we were greeted by little girls.  So beautiful and shy!  Unfortunately for us, they only speak Qechua.  Let's just say they lucked out and got quite the loot today!   We finally arrive to the tambo!  We are welcomed and given a beautiful pair of slippers. 

It's quite cold in the tambos - there is no electricity and no heating - except for a wood stove in the "living room".  Everyone is tired, excited and sitting near the fire. 

Our first dinner - we had soup, trout and potatoes.  Orlando serenated us with his beautiful voice as he played his Peruvian harp.  Wow - more tears...

Lucky for us, Nelly, our Peruvian helper puts a hot water bottle in our bed....I would've like to have 5 or 6 of them!  Brrr!  Not much sleep to be had... but oh well! What will tomorrow bring?