Arriving in Cusco

When we arrived in Cusco, a representative of Sun Gate Tours was waiting for us at the airport with a sign that said "Julia."  This was very exciting to me because I've seen many folks with signs at airports but the sign was never for us before. 

That's because we've never booked a tour like this before.  Our normal way of travel is to explore the area on our own.  However, that's not possible if you want to hike the Inca Trail.  Peru requires all hikers to be accompanied by a government-licensed guide and to have an Inca Trail government permit.  These permits are highly sought-after, and one generally needs to get a permit months in advance.  

The easiest way to get a guide/permit is to sign up for a tour package. The tour company then handles everything: airport transfers, booking the hotel, booking day excursions, hiring Inca Trail guides, cooks, and porters, transfers to and from the trail, and transfers back to the airport at the end of the trip.

Isn't that expensive, you might ask? Probably, yes.  However, to pay for this trip, Julia used credit card points that she earned from paying for stuff over the course of thirty years of operating her business.  Peru was on her bucket list, so my frugality had to be set aside.  Besides, I was getting to hike in some very cool mountains so I kept my mouth shut about costs.

Flying from Lima to Cusco, we were changing in elevation from sea level to over 11,000 feet.  We immediately noticed the thin air, and our tour company representative advised us to avoid any alcohol, to take it easy for the first couple of days, and to drink lots of coca tea.  One makes coca tea by dropping whole leaves of the coca plant into hot water.  Our hotel kept a big glass container of leaves in the lobby, along with hot water.  When we arrived at the hotel, we did as we were told.

While the leaves of the coca plant are the base for making cocaine, coca tea is only a mild stimulant.  I'm not sure how much it helped us to adjust to the elevation, but it tasted pretty good--much like green tea.  After a  long travel day to Lima and only a few hours of sleep, the tea was just what we needed before heading out to explore Cusco on our first day.

Peru: the Backstory

When I was in middle school, a young couple moved in next door.  Dick was an instructor at the local technical college.  Dick met his wife, Chi Chi, while serving in Peru for the Peace Corp.  

Normally, I wasn't all that interested in who the neighbors were, but Dick and Chi Chi were looking for a babysitter on date nights, and my mother volunteered me to serve in that role.  It was my first and only baby-sitting job, but it was generally a good gig.  They would put baby Pablo to sleep and go out on a date, while I would listen to tunes on their nice sound system in the living room and hope that Pablo slept the entire time until his parents came home.

I had no idea how to change a diaper or quiet a crying baby.  My   mother was next door to bail me out if necessary, but Pablo was a very good sleeper.  The first diaper I ever changed was many years later for my daughter Allie.

A second baby Mark eventually arrived, and he was not as good a sleeper as Pablo.  My time as a babysitter ended.

Later, I got to know Dick a little better.  We played one-on-one basketball on his garage roof rim, and I also played pick-up games on  Sunday mornings with Dick and his friends at a local playground.  Somewhere along the line, I learned about cuy (guinea pig), one of the national dishes of Peru.  Dick and Chi Chi would have family/friends gatherings when they grilled cuy  in the backyard.  I would peek through the fence in mixed horror/fascination.  

Dick and Chi Chi would go back to Peru every couple of years. Chi Chi was from the city of Arequipa.  If I recall correctly, her father owned a big factory there. 

In college, I had a friend named Daniel who was Jewish but born and raised in Peru.  Daniel aspired to be a novel writer, but I don't think that ever happened. For some reason, it sticks in my memory the day that he told me he had his first dream in English.   I ran into him years later when my kids were young.  He was married and working for a tech company in Madison.

After that, I didn't think much about Peru until Julia began weaving with a loom that a friend owned but didn't use.  There are weaving villages in the mountains of Peru, and Julia put it on her bucket list to visit a weaving village in the Sacred Valley, the Inca Trail and  Machu Picchu.  That trip was supposed to occur during the year after Julia retired, but the pandemic shut down Peru's tourism economy in 2020.

In fact, the Inca Trail itself was shut down during the pandemic, and the jungle started to take the trail back.  Our guide told us that when hiking resumed, two porters died after separately being bitten by very poisonous snakes who normally avoid he trail.   

Inca Trail hiking slowly resumed in 2021 with just a few small groups.  Our guide told us that things were pretty much back to normal in 2022.  The government allows 200 hikers per day to start the four day trek to Machu Picchu.  By contrast, 5000 visitors per day are allowed to travel by train and bus to Machu Picchu. 

On September 24th, we drove to Chicago and took American Airlines to Dallas and then to Lima.  Our flights were perfectly on-time, and our luggage arrived safely.

 

 

We slept for a few hours at the hotel across from the Lima airport and then boarded a smaller domestic plane to Cusco, elevation 11,152 feet.  Here, our Peru adventure begins. 

Back from Peru

Yesterday was a very long travel day, starting at 3:30 a.m. in our Lima hotel, flying to Miami and then Chicago, and then driving back home, arriving at 10 p.m.  

But the time we spent in Peru met all of our expectations and more.  I'm beginning to organize my thoughts and the photos from our trip, and the blog will focus on that content for awhile.  

In real time, we will be moving Justin and all of his possessions tomorrow to his new apartment in Madison.  We had time for a short hike late this morning after retrieving Callie from the kennel.  

Hopefully, this weekend will be a time to decompress and put together the first post about the Peru trip.

Peru Preparations

We are getting closer to the time for our Inca Trail hike and have started final preparations.  

Getting there may be the most problematic.  I've talked to lots of people whose travel plans via air this year have been cancelled or who have been stranded mid-trip--unable to get to their final destination in time for their excursion.

On this trip, we will be flying from Chicago to Dallas to Lima.  Then boarding the next day on a Peruvian puddle jumper (or mountain hopper) to Cusco, where we will acclimate to the 11,152'  elevation for a few days. Once the hike starts, there will be little to do but put one foot in front of the other for about four days.  This will be Julia's first multi-day hike where she will be sleeping on the ground in a tent.  I've been dreaming about my Appalachian trail thru-hike twenty-five years ago.  I guess those are called flashbacks.

Peak elevation will be at Dead Woman's Pass (elevation 13,828').  Should be interesting.  Will take a break from the blog until I get back.

Yellow soy bean fields--close to harvest

The Sun is Shining

Devil's Lake State Park

After three days of rain and nearly six inches of water in the rain gauge, the sun is shining today.  The birds are singing.  And after years of being told "no,", Justin received state approval for a care budget/home care agency which will meet his increasing health and safety needs without being forced into a nursing home.  

It's a good day for a hike, and I'll be sleeping better tonight.

Late Summer Update

 

The highlight of the last few weeks was winning the local pickleball tournament.  Yeah, it's been a little slow in the travel and hiking department. 

Not that we haven't traveled.  Last week, we drove a couple of hours to the Appleton area to attend the funeral of Julia's stepfather, Bob.  Both of her parents have passed, and there is just one stepmother left.  Bob lived a very full life and to the age of 93, passing quietly in his own home surrounded by family.  You can't ask much more than that.   

We also had some Justin-related travel, which resulted in securing an apartment close to Justin's doctors and the hospital in Madison.  With one step forward, we immediately took a step back when the state balked at Justin's agency's care giving plan.  At this point, we are putting our faith in the agency's experience in getting similar plans eventually approved.  Otherwise, we make be starting from scratch again in that department.  We shall see.

Hiking has been limited to daily training hikes for the Inca Trail, which is coming up later this fall.  We are getting the miles in, but we will not be able to replicate the altitude.