After a 4 hour hike UP the mountain we finally reached the Salkantay lake with Salkantay glacier in the background.  This is one of the most amazing places we have witnessed. This is what you call pure natural beauty!  While we were there we had the honor of having a religious ceremony performed by two descendant of the Inca Indians.  Even though we couldn’t understand a word they were saying, it became a very powerful experience.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=z78D2ppIqhA

Here is a video of some of the ceremony

Just a quick FYI, the Inca’s believe that the gods live in the mountains and the mountains control everything (weather, crops, etc..). During the ceremony, they give food back to mother earth by burning it in a fire. They also do a something with the Coca leaves, which they passed around to all of us to try. Little did Marc and I know, but you are not supposed to swallow them. Needless to say, my tongue was numb forthe following 2 days. We spent about 1 hour in total, enjoying the scenery and taking it all in. From there it was back down the mountain to the lodge. Just a quick footnote, the Inca Indian’s that performed the ceremony  also hiked up the mountain with us. I wont mention they did it in flip flops, no hiking poles and played the flute the entire time, while we huffed and puffed every 10 feet.

Once we finally made it back down to the lodge we were all in pretty good shape. Lauren was throwing up uncontrollably, Brian was about a white in the face as you can get, eventually he was hooked up to an oxygen tank.  Jeremy & Rob still had their headaches from the day before.  As you can imagine we were all very excited to hike the next day. This hike was rated a 3 out of 5 in terms of difficulty. The next day’s hike was going to be a five!

That evening we had our daily hiking briefing by our guide Pepe. He started off the meeting by letting us know the next hike would be 9 hours and we would be climbing up to 15K+ feet, at that point we all busted out in laughter.  It was that moment when I realized I was going to retire my hiking boots and polls for good. The decision was made, Lauren and I would be throwing in the towel and we would have a new itinerary made for us which would take as around Peru and eventually we would meet up with everyone in Macchu Picchu. To make a long story short, by the next morning. Jeremy, Lauren, Marc, Lilly, Brian & Rob were all in a van together heading down the mountain on our new itinerary.

I wish I could say the ride down the mountain was easier than the hike up the mountain. Lets just say we were always 12 inches from death the entire time. There are no real roads heading down, we were constantly on bumpy and I mean bumpy dirt roads, on the edge of cliffs with no guard rails. The closest thing we had to guard rails were the mules that we had to pass along the road.  We had to make an emergency stop so Brian could regurgitate, but he couldn’t. He even tried to stick his hand down his throat to throw up but that didn’t work. I must say that was one of the funniest sights I have seen in a long time!   After a few hours 3 to be exact we finally  made it to the regular roads. Our next stop was a small town called Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley.

Our second day in Ollantaytambo started out with a tour to see the Ollantaytambo Ruins.

This place was incredible, for those that really want to know the story behind these ruins click here -- Ollantaytambo Ruins

Salkantay,Ollantaytambo Peru 2009

Click here to view as a full screen slideshow

to head to the starting point of our adventure,  a picnic lunch in the middle a a cow pasture with manure every few feet.  Great setting for lunch!  On our way to the starting point we drove through a bunch of tiny towns, all with their own town square.  Farming seemed to be the main trade throughout Peru. No machinery was used, just hard working men, women and children.  The scenery was amazing, the Andes mountains were always in view. We got to see a few of the famous peaks named Salcantay (20,581 feet) & Veronica (18,872 feet).

Along the way we stopped at one of the tiny towns to visit a food market. It was pretty interesting to see what they eat or should I say didn’t eat.

As you can see they ate everything. There is not a part on a cow that they throw away! The best part about the market was the tables they had next to the dead cows to eat what you bought.

After we left the “Fresh Market” we headed to our first set of remains built by the Inca Indians

(If you look closely you will see a flower pattern in the Inca wall, which was common for them)

(The crew)

After this stop we continued on our journey through small towns to get to our starting point. Along the way we stopped for tea and coffee. While there we got to see their guinea pig collection.

This is actually dinner! Guinea Pig is a common food there.

Here are a couple more shots we took along the way

Hairless dog

After our relaxing tea break it was non-stop until we reached the manure picnic. The ride to the top of the mountain was just a bit nerve racking. The roads (if you call them that) were made of dirt, rocks, ditches & streams. These were the conditions as we drove up to 10,000ft along cliffs with no guard rails. Along the way the roads got so bad that our tire was knocked off the rim.

(This was our last sign by the Inca gods to turn around that we ignored)

From here we basically started out first 5 hour hike up to our first lodge. Here are a few facts that were left out before we signed up for this.

1. The altitude we are hiking in is so high that we will only have about 70% oxygen in the air (normally 100%)

2. No matter what kind of shape you are in if you don’t get acclimated to the altitude, the hike will kick your a#$

3. None of us will get acclimated to the altitude arriving the day before hiking!

4. Don’t fill your backpack with every camera lens you have, because 30lbs on your back gets very heavy after 5 hours!

Its hard to describe how difficult it is to hike uphill at these heights, you basically lose your breath going up any type of incline.  So the first day’s hike was supposed to be about 3.5 hours, it ended up being closer to 5 hours. I dont think any of us could have been happier to arrive at our first lodge in Salkantay. The lodge was amazing. The cooked us delicious food and it had great accommodations.

Here are some pics of the views from the lodge

(at dusk)

That  evening we a had a great dinner, then our guide Pepe took us outside for some star gazing. Its hard to imagine how many stars can be visible in the sky, but we were able to witness a view like no other.  We were easily able to see every constellation in the sky. The Milky Way galaxy was clearly visible. It made the first days hike worth the pain to be able to get here and see the stars at night.

Here are some pics I took that night. The lines in the pictures are stars moving across the sky. The pictures I took had a 5 minute exposure which means the stars moved that distance in 5 minutes.

(complete darkness)

and that was the end of day 2…….

Here is a full slideshow of all the pics we took that day

Salkantay, Peru 2009

Click here to view as a full screen slideshow

This is the definition of altitude sickness which pretty much summed up the first few days of hiking on our trip. We began our hiking journey on a redeye flight from Miami to our destination of Cusco. We were forewarned that we should arrive in Cusco at least 2 to 3 days before our trip to get acclimated with the high altitude. (Cusco’s altiltude is 11203 ft. (3395 m) above sea level),  but we took this advice with a grain of salt.  Once we (Lauren, Jeremy, Brian , Rob Stone, Mac & Lilly) arrived we immediately starting drinking coca tea and plenty of water to counteract the effects of the altitude. The hiking part of the trip did not start until the 2nd day of the trip so we had a full day to check out Cusco. Our day in Cusco, started with a  great lunch. As you can see below Marc enjoyed it so much he decided to save some for later.

After lunch is was off to see what Cusco had to offer, here are few pics taken during our day in Cusco

(Typical entrance to family homes)

(Lauren’s new friends and pet)

(Downtown Cusco)

(All the poor people are trained to ask for money after taking their pictures)

(4 of the most feared men in Cusco)

(Lauren’s last smile sighting during the 1st 3 days of the trip)

(It was very typical to have children selling goods to bring home money for the families)

(This lady wasnt happy with the 2 soles (local currency) I gave her for the picture)

(Walking back from lunch)

Cusco was extremely interesting, nothing was modernized at all. There are no chain stores of any kind. The city was very clean and the people were always friendly and ready to help out.  That night we had our 1st briefing on what the hiking part of the trip would entail. We met the rest of our hiking group and our tour guide Pepe. After that it was off to dinner then to bed to get ready for our 1st hiking day.

More to come….(The good stuff)

Here is a full Slide show if all the pics from our day in Cusco

Cusco, Peru 2009

Click here to view as a full screen slideshow

On Thursday at 11pm, we are off on another adventure to see the world. We will be trading in the chopsticks for Trekking poles, tour buses  for hiking boots & mules, days of relaxation for 5 hour hikes, massages for sore legs, suntan lotion for bug repellent. All this so we can experience Peru like the Inca Indians did when they discovered Machu Picchu. We are off to hike from Cusco to Machhu Picchu for the next 10 days.  We will be facing days of 5 hour hikes, altitude of up 16K feet, exploring 9 different ecosystems and  many other variables we will be writing about.  This should get very interesting! So sit back, relax, while we face these extreme conditions to bring you some more humorous blogs posts from around the world!

Your explorists,

Lauren & Jeremy