1-19-20 - Preparing for Machu Picchu

Thanks so much for reading along and forgiving a misspelling here or a grammatical error there. There will be plenty of time to edit this tome once we are back at home. Thank you for being so forgiving of a participle left dangling or an errant pronoun here and there. You get the point!  Thanks for being here right with us. We love you! 

We are still very much adjusting to Cusco’s 11,000 feet elevation and we all seem much better off than we were in Tibet thus far. If you missed that, we all had to intake oxygen at local Tibetan hospital in early October. Although Tibet got to a much higher altitude, we just rode in the van through the Himalayas to Mount Everest. However, here in the Andes, we will be exerting ourselves much, much more. 

Today is Sunday.  And although God rested on Sunday, this clan is not afforded that luxury. We have a 4 am and 5 am starts on Monday so today will be a workday getting stuff done. The day consists of packing for Machu Picchu, laundry and preparing and shipping a “shed” box for home.  With Antarctica in the books, we don’t need our heavy duty cold gear and can ship it back to the states.

In the afternoon, Justin and John are keen on watching the Sunday NFL playoff football game.  They have found an Irish pub that is an expat hangout that shows futbol Americana.  Kyle, Justin, Corey and John arrive first.  The pub proudly displays a sign alerting us to the fact we are in the highest “100 percent Irish-owned” pub in the world.  Kyle immediate notes that there must be a higher Irish pub that is not 100% Irish owned. A quick Google search reveals that is a higher Irish pub in Nepal but apparently the owners aren’t 100% Irish.  Yes, as we have seen, it’s all about marketing spin and everyone loves their moment in the sun. Or maybe their day on the top of Trip Advisor. Note: Trip Advisor is definitely a clan fav app and the standard in the travel world. We have yet to be disappointed with a TripAdvisor Certificate of Excellence site. Recommendations are superb!

Leanne and the girls join up for the end of the game and some food. After the game, we walk through the main square to the Alpaca Expedition office for our briefing meetings with our tour operators.  There we split up.  Kyle, Justin and Corey meet their local guide Robinzon. The first thing he says is, “I hope you’ve been training; this is going to be really hard!” Kyle face turns an ashen grey and he grumbles something about his training being 20 years sitting at a corporate desk. 

The hikers will be accompanied by 11 porters who will carry 25 kg (50+ pounds) on their back, set up camp, make meals and other various tasks.  A support team of this size is required for the is trek — in fact it’s standard practice.  We learn the hikers will be on Robinson’s 100th trip as a guide on the Inca Trail.  

The Inca Trail is the messenger path that was set up to deliver messages to and from Machu Picchu during Incan times in the 1400s and 1500s.  The 42 kilometer, 26 mile route between Cusco and Machu Picchu that is an arduous journey for four days but it is definitely one that comes with major bragging rights! 

For the other group, Leanne and John meet Reynaldo who will be their guide for the week who will take Leanne and the rest of the crew on a very different route to Machu Picchu and other excursions.  Their expedition involves trains and hotels instead of hiking and tents.

As we walk through Cusco, we are approached every three steps by folks selling everything from massages to paintings to textiles. We’ve become fairly immune now to hawkers but let’s just say none of the penguins last week in Antarctica tried to hawk us anything or requested expected modeling fees! The Peruvian hawkers are certainly giving the India hawkers a run for their money for the country hawking title. 

Back at the hotel, Kyle is completely stressing out, “I couldn’t even make it up the hill and the guide said we should have trained for this because it was hard. I have a bad feeling about this one.” While we have done a fair share of hiking of in Patagonia and Antarctica, it was all flat and sea level.  Hiking steep hills at altitude is something different t altogether.  In addition, the week’s weather report shows nothing but rain predicted for Machu Picchu. 

Kyle is so stressed out he can’t get to sleep but manages to finally doze off around 1 or 2 am. Leanne is getting picked up for her expedition at 4am so they are awoken to her alarm at 3:15am.  Kyle has a logged a grand total of 1-2 hours sleep.  Great way to start the Inca Trail! Not!