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Inka Trail - day 2

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Campsite tonight: Pacaymayo (11,808 ft - 3,600 m) Distance: 8 miles (12 kilometers) Good morning Peru! Very early wake-up call - 5am. The guide gently knocked on our tent and offered us coca tea - a traditional Peruvian drink that not only wakes you up immediately but also helps with acclimatization to the altitude. The valley below was waking up as well - rosters crowing, dogs barking, from time to time you could hear a bay of a donkey. From our campsite we had a view of the the small village Wayllapampa (“Grassy Plain”) below. It’s a permanent settlement with approximately 400 inhabitants. Perfect morning to start another adventure. After hearty breakfast of quinoa porridge and pancakes we are back on the trail. Today is gonna be a hard day - first a climb to the Dead Woman’s Pass, than steep downhill to our camp. Today we are gonna get our asses kicked by famous Inka steps. And I’m so looking forward to it! Many hours later... Did I say the first day wasn’t bad? Than the sec...
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Inka Trail - day 1

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Campsite tonight: Wayllabamba (9,840 ft - 3,000 m) Distance: 7 miles (11 kilometers) The greatest news ever: no altitude sickness! (so far). It hit me hard on the first day in Cusco, with very bad headache and nausea, but after forcing myself to drink two liters of water and extra strength Talenol I was fine. From time to time I have a tingling sensation in my hands - kind of like when your foot falls asleep and you try walking, and ants are going under your skin. Never experienced that in my hands before. It's hard to tell if it's from the altitude itself or the medications. We arrived to Piscacucho early in the morning, welcomed by an amazing rainbow. All of us decided that if there is a pot of gold at the end, none of us is gonna carry it (although now, after the adventure, I think that I would just hire one of the porters to carry it for me...) After assembling our gear, putting on tons of sunblock and insects repellent, we where ready to tackle the mountains. Last pic...
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Ceviche, anyone?

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Cooking is not my forte unless it’s part of the adventure. Today that was the case. Although the main highlight of the day was the cooking class, shopping for ingredients at the local market - San Isidro - was a great beginning. We had a chance to pick out our ingredients, and experience local fruits and learn some interesting facts. Apparently Perú has 82 microclimates (the whole world has 140), so they can grow absolutely everything - from bananas, kiwis, through cucumbers, apples, strawberries to dragon fruits and grapes.  And much, much more. They have 2000 kind of potatoes! (Although they don’t use them for making a moonshine; my polish heart just sunk...) For our dinner we hade a choice of a flounder and a seebass, and meet (which is not good in Peru since the cattle is constantly walking up or down - no flat spaces for grazing) and nice variety of vegetables and fruits. The interesting fact about a flounder- it’s white on the one side and black on the other and have both e...
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Just mozing around...

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Mozing (Urban Dictionary) - the act of being physically or actively lazy Day two in Lima. One more day before the arrival of the rest of my group (aka my favorite Canadians). Since next two weeks are gonna be packed with adventures and activities I decided to take it slow - not planning anything, just mozy around the city, wherever my eyes and busy streets take me... of course my definition of taking it slow is slightly different than any normal person’s - yesterday I “mozzied” for almost 10 miles, today I’m expecting double digits as well. Middle of the mozing... It’s not even noon and I already have 6 miles under my belt. I went to the Ermita de Barranco - a very bohemian, very posh, probably expensive, part of the city, that was recommended to me by Maria - a friendly consierge at my hotel. Maria suggested a taxi, but once she mentioned that it’s only 10 minutes ride, I knew that walking is the way to get there. I was rewarded by the most amazing path, a hikers dream, with p...
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How good is your geography? Apparently mine sucks...

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I landed in Lima, the capital and the largest city in Peru, yesterday late at night. I was welcomed by a balmy 76 degrees an loud Latino music. Immediate after I left the airport I was shocked by the amount of people on the streets. It was close to midnight but streets where extremely busy, people walking, talking, driving - I can’t even imagine how busy it is during the daytime. Apparently Lima is one of those cities that never sleeps... The language was another story. I couldn’t understand one word; I wasn’t able to answer hundreds of questions that where throwed  in my directions. Granted, it was way beyond my bedtime and I was exhausted, but the cacophony of the foreign words was overwhelming. Than I saw a familiars word on the billboard ahead: “Zumba”. Yep, I’m gonna be OK here... On the way to the hotel the driver tried to show me some of the Lima attractions but since it was completely dark I couldn’t fully appreciate his efforts. His English was even worse than my Span...
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'Cause I'm leavin' on a jet plane...

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The song is playing in my head since I landed in Miami. For some reason the first leg of my travel didn’t seem like anything special - just another flight to another city. But now I’m waiting for my connecting flight to Lima... in 30 minutes I’m leaving the country! In 30 minutes the adventure begins... I’ll be arriving in Lima two days before the rest of my group. Based on my unpleasant experience in Quito last year (I fainted and went down an escalator faster than I planned) I decided to arrive early and try to acclimatize to the higher altitude. Of course Lima shouldn’t be a problem - at the altitude of around 5000’ I should be fine. The real challenge is awaiting a lot later - at Cusco, where we are gonna land on day 5. But I still strongly believe it would be easier to go higher from 5000 feet instead of my native 500’ (200 m). After Lima we are flying to Puerto Moldano and from there, using motorized canoes, heading to the Tambopata, an eco lodge deep in the Amazonian jungle. ...
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