New trip, new country.....Peru

The hike in Scandinavia was awesome, even with the troubles. I would do it again for sure. It also helped prepare me for my next adventure....hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru. This is a long post with lots of pictures - so hope you have a few minutes :).

A brochure of our four day hike that illustrates the distance and elevation

This trip would be different. We were a private group of friends and friends of friends. There were nine of us and all of a sudden I became the most experienced backpacker. First though, I had to get there. I had one night in Sweden before I boarded my 6am flight in a town up north, Kiruna. Land in Stockholm and hustle to my connection after rebooking luggage.  9am departure from Stockholm to Newark. Had about two hours in the US before boarding my flight to Lima, Peru. I arrived in Peru at 10pm the same day, just a few time zones go the west. Long day :). 

My friend Mary was there already and I met her at the hotel. She done a bit of exploring the day before and the next day we hit up the mall for a new water bottle (I left mine at security in Sweden accidentally), did some much needed laundry, had amazing ceviche and other local food at lunch and some churros con chocolate later in the day. It was really nice. The next morning we flew to Cuzco where the rest of our party had gone directly during the night and early morning. 

Laundromat

 

Ceviche and tacu tacu (rice and bean dish with seafood) for lunch

Paragliding along the coast in the cloudy weather of Lima (we just watched)

We had a couple days to explore Cuzco and acclimate to the altitude. We did a tour of the Sacred Valley and saw Inca ruins, I went to Sunday mass at the cathedral, we did some last minute shopping and gear check. It was weird going from the least experienced person (Sweden) to the only person who had done a multiple day hike. I shared my knowledge learned and maybe too much in some areas (bathrooms in the backcountry). 

Narrow streets of Cuzco 

Traditional dish of guineapig, which was pretty good (they brought it back cut up and sans head)

Cathedral in Cuzco 

We visited and fed grass to llamas and alpacas on the way to the ruins

Our guide for the day showing us how to get the animals to pose for a picture with us (I can't remember which were alpacas v llamas)

They demonstrated how their wool was used to make things 

Our group at one of the ruin sites

Our guide showing us how potatoes are harvested and dried for the winter - after being out overnight, you can squeeze them like a sponge to remove the water

Here's a local lady who uses her feet to squish the water out 

We did a final group dinner, packed and were ready for our 4am pickup the next morning. However I started to get a sore throat and very tired that night. I didn't sleep well and by morning was with a sore throat, congested and very tired. The guide looked at me and said sinus infection...we will stop at the pharmacy. We did and I got amoxicillin pills in a very quick and cheap transaction. I got better with each day and was thankful for the stop. I think I may have had a fever that broke on the second night as I almost passed out hiking the last bit of that day, had no interest in anything but crawling into my sleeping bag and woke up soaked in sweat in the middle of the night when it was maybe 35-40 degrees out. 

It was a four day hike - very different from Sweden. We hiked two to three times the distance, much higher elevations, carried little weight and did no work. There were like twenty porters that came with our group of nine and two guides. These porters are amazing. They practically run up and down the mountains with as much as 60lbs on their backs....and these are Peruvian men who don't have a very large stature. They may do 70 trips in a year! They were amazing and always had a smile. It was fun to see them pass us on the trail, laughing and joking around. The chef was pretty top notch as well. We had soup and hot drinks with every meal. There was chicken and beef, rice and quinoa, potatoes and even a birthday cake. The spread each day and night was very impressive, especially after what we had cooked in Sweden. 

Porters getting their packs ready and carrying a bunch of our stuff too

Brian and Mary ready to go

We stopped for an early break and the porters passed on by

All of them in a train

The cook's portion of the tent

Our jumping picture at the highest point, which I think is Dead Woman's Pass

I made it!!

Another view from our third day

A couple people in our group got altitude sickness too, one really bad. I don't know how he made it because he had no food in him. The second guide stayed with him and carried his stuff but I can't imagine the mental strength to continue with the physical efforts. On our last day we were up at like 3am to get an early spot in line for the entrance to the trail of the Sun Gate.  Our group was second. I've never hiked so fast and I maybe kept up for the first hour. Then I needed to shed some clothes and catch my breath and they were gone. I think I will always just be the slow hiker. But I made it, crawling up a rock wall halfway through, using my hands, and ultimately reaching the Sun Gate to see......clouds. Lol. We could see some of Machu Picchu but it wasn't the picturesque sunny view on the postcard. We didn't care though - we did it and the view was perfect for us! We spent the morning touring Machu Picchu. It was so impressive and amazing to think what they accomplished and then were pretty much wiped out as a civilization. 

Cloudy view of Machu Picchu 

Our group - we made it!! And the clouds are starting to clear a little

One of our guides, Edy, as we toured Machu Picchu 

The structure were built without mortar, perfectly carved blocks stacked up - so impressive

Our group

Machu Picchu 

Aerial view of Machu Picchu from the mountain next door 

The mountain next door is on the right, I only made it halfway; two people went all the way and it gets crazy steep and scary

The next day we took the train back to Cuzco and I said goodbye to everyone because I was staying a few more days. I took a day tour to see another Inca ruin as well as some old salt mines. I also took a cooking class and spent more time exploring Cuzco. I had an extra day in Lima and went to the Cathedral and explored in that area. Then the long trip home. 

The specks you see on the upper rings are the tourists - they think this was used for Ag research 

You can just see the steps that are built into the sides as long stones sticking out

Me at the salt mines, all done by hand and mostly used as a tourist attraction now

The local families in town each own several of the mines and earn money from them. They are fed by a small spring from the mountain that is 70% salinated (so I was told, as compared to the ocean at ~20% salination). 

A local artist I bought a picture from - one of the birds

The chef from my cooking class

Grinding my own quinoa flour for the soup we made 

Lomo saltado! A beef tenderloin dish with tomatoes and onions over fries. 

A mural in Cuzco 

Inside the Lima cathedral - bamboo is at the base of the structure to help protect against earthquakes

Outside the Lima cathedral

An archway into one of the 'tombs' in the cathedral - not my best side but gives some perspective on size

Skulls found under the altar

It was a great trip - one of those bucket list items. I loved the Peruvian food! I also dusted off my Spanish skills and was pretty comfortable in my ability to get around, though a little rusty. Definitely built confidence for any future trips to Spanish speaking countries. 

Final comments on Scandinavia

I finally moved my pictures around so I can upload some highlights here. I kept sort of a journal when I was on this trip - usually just bullet points of what we did and anything of note. I've used that to jog my memory and add some more details here. 

Along the trail and river near the lodge we stayed at the day before leaving. 

Before heading out into the "backcountry", we had to prepare the food to bring with us for two weeks. The supplies were all set out and the instructors had put instructions on how much (i.e. grams) to put in bags for each group. We were in groups of three. We added the first weeks' food to our stuff to pack and someone would meet us in the field with our re-supply for week 2. 

This is one table of food. There were like 7 tables this size I think - lots of food. We had trail mix, flour, rice, bulgar, quinoa, lentils, polenta, pasta noodles, rice noodles, packets of powdered soup, spices, butter, peanutbutter, pancake mix, brownie mix, chocolates, powdered milk, hot chocolate mix, tea, blueberry drink mix, cheese (white and brown), tube cheese (way better than it sounds), onion, garlic, nuts, crackers, cookies, dried vegetables, yeast and I'm sure I'm still missing something. 

One of the instructors showed us all the things she was packing and how to pack it all. Besides our own clothes, toiletries, etc., we had to carry between our three man team the tent, the kitchen (stove, pot, fry "bake" pan, pliers, spatula), two fuel canisters and three duffel bags of food.  

Here is where I laid out all my things, tried to trim things down and then pack up. I took one set of hiking clothes that I wore each day, rain clothes that came in super handy, a set of pjs, one pair of hiking socks, one pair for camp and one to sleep in, three pair of underwear, a mug, bandanas, small Tupperware bowl, camp shoes, hiking boots, hiking poles, hat and gloves, headlamp, book, sleeping bag, sleeping pad, sun hat, sunglasses, sunscreen, sit pad and I'm sure some other items. When fully packed, my bag weighed 55 lbs. 

Each day we mixed up our hiking groups, usually four or five plus instructor. Here we are on day one ready to get started. I'm in my pink hat :).

This was on like day five I think. It was colder more often than not. 

We made pizza one night for dinner - I forgot we got tomato sauce also. This is the fry bake atop the stove. 

I started using my self timer to take hiking group pictures from each day. This was a particularly great view. I think day six. 

Some days we had classes to learn about different things - this was one of our coldest days and fittingly we learned about hypothermia. One person's body heat can not heat up someone in hypothermia. You're more likely to get two really cold people. So hot drinks, body movement, then wrap in layers - two sleeping bags. Put a hot water bottle in with the person, but not near their skin as it could be too hot. It was really hard for the volunteer to unwrap himself that morning :). 

Making pancakes one morning. We had breakfast and dinner each day but just took snacks in our Tupperware to eat during hiking breaks during the day. 

Our second to last day had a very perfect rainbow. 

We cooked under tarps. Other days we made tarp city and all cooked together. There were definitely some of us better than others in the "kitchen". I was at the bottom of that list :).  

Towards the end of our two weeks we did solo hikes. Our instructors camped with us but allowed us to hike by ourselves during the day, using the map and compass to reach a designated campsite. 

Other random highlights from my notes:

Day two was "hell" day. It rained all day, two lightning storms that we sat through (sit on your pack away from people, running water and your metal hiking poles), white out conditions, not finding our way and backtracking, hiking until 10:30pm and not reaching camp, waking at 4:30 to get to our first river crossing by 6am (the first of three that day). The next day we hiked 7km or so and reached the rest of the group by 1pm. That day put the rest of the trip in perspective. It only got better :). 

By day five I was feeling pretty down. I was one of the least experienced hikers. I was physically slower than everyone. I didn't know anything about trying to cook. I was a slow packer in the morning and felt like everyone was always waiting on me. On day five it was too much. I wasn't use to feeling like I couldn't excel at anything. It was a really rough morning. However I got on with it and things improved during the hike. Shortly thereafter one of the instructors said she was impressed with my navigation skills. It meant so much to me. 

One location: mosquitoes killer

One night we did a potluck dinner. 

I had some crazy dreams but slept well. 

Was my favorite day - we did it ourselves. (I was referring to navigation without the instructor help and making it to the campsite!)

Cinnamon roll breakfast

Quesadillas for dinner (rice, cheese, sausage)

Ran into other groups - river crossing not possible; rapids at exit, wait for I-team (aka instructors)

On fire during night (love sleeping bag) take off layers

Maiji's b-day! Woke her up with singing, collected flowers (Maiji -pronounced Maya- was our Finnish instructor)

Beautiful sunset set mountains "on fire"