Category: Elsewhere

Day 3: Over The Pass

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The group met in the lobby pretty early on Day 3 for a little extra instruction on our climb to the top of the Salkantay Pass.

Before we start, a little bit about the Salkantay trail.  Salkantay (meaning “Savage Mountain” in Quechua) is the highest peak of the Cordillera Vilcabamba part of the Peruvian Andes.  It lies directly to the South of Machu Picchu and is one of three main trails that lead from Cuzco to Machu Picchu.  The Salkantay trail is less traveled than the Inca trail and, with higher passes, is known for being a more challenging route.

Salkantay and Humantay (the glacier responsible for the glacial lake the day before) lie next to each other, and the Rio Blanco valley (through which we were about to hike on Day 3) wraps around Humantay Peak and along the West side of Salkantay, through the pass.

So everyone was a little nervous, we’d be hiking about 2,600 feet in the first 2 or 3 miles to the pass it up over 15,000 feet in altitude (the highest I’ve ever been).  After that, we’d be heading back down hill towards lodge #2, which was at approximately the same altitude as the first lodge.

So we set out…

…into the mountains.

As mentioned above, we started our hike up through the Rio Blanco valley.  The first hour or so was similar to the previous day, gradual uphill on some grassy slopes.  We passed a few signs letting us know that we were headed the right direction.

About an hour and a half into the hike we hit the Seven Snakes, a particularly grueling set of switchbacks up the side of the mountain.

It was no joke.  The group took a break about halfway up.

Upon arriving at the top of the Seven Snakes we found ourselves in a really cool open, grassy plateau with a small, green, glacial lake.

It was here that Leo (our leader) told us the hardest part was coming up, that from here on out it was probably a good idea to shut up and save your breath for breathing (not that anyone needed that reminder) and just focus on getting up to the top.

Leo

So as we climbed into increasingly rocky terrain, that’s exactly what we did.

And before we knew it, we were there.

We celebrated…

Gimp Arm

…and took it all in.

We actually didn’t get to hang out at the top for too long, the leaders wanted to make sure no one stayed at that altitude for more than about 20-30 minutes.  So we snapped a group shot…

AT THE TOP! it was pretty chilly

…and began our descent…

…down into the Scottish Highlands.

OK no not really, but that’s what it looked like.  Complete with the stone walls and fog.

After another 30 minutes or so heading downhill, we arrived at a yellow tent set up in the middle of nowhere.

Lunch.

Yes, seriously.

We were served an amazing meal of pasta, hot tea, and a horror story from Leo about a woman on one of his trips who suffered severe altitude sickness at the second lodge…where we were heading…and how he and a few staff from the lodge had had to literally run her down the mountain on a stretcher, in the rain, in the dark, with an oxygen tank, giving her shots of epinephrine so that she didn’t go into cardiac arrest.  It was horrifying and did a wonderful job of freaking everybody out.

Stuffed and hyper-sensitive to any sort of headache we might feel coming on, we continued heading downhill into a wide, flat, green valley.

After crossing a few rivers…

…we arrived at the lodge.

Wayraqmachay.  Gate of the Wind.

The lodge sat on a ravine…

…through which a river ran…

…and over which Salkantay loomed.

Next up: Day 4–The Downhill Begins

Day 2: The Glacial Lake

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View out our window, morning of Day 2

Our stay at the first lodge was 2 nights, to allow the group a little more time to acclimate to the altitude before we hiked over the 15,000+ foot pass on Day 3.  So on the second day of the trek, anyone feeling up for it had the option of doing a shorter hike (4-5 hours) to a glacial lake not too far from the lodge.  I brought my bikini.

After the first day a few people in the group were a little bit nervous about exactly how strenuous the remainder of the trip would be. So as we set out, everyone was ready for a repeat of the near-hypoxic situation that had occurred the day before.

We had to cross a few rivers, but the majority of the hike up was a very gradual uphill on a kind of grassy/rocky terrain.

About an hour and a half in we took a break…

…and hiked a little more…

…and then…

…we arrived.

The water was crystal crystal clear and so blue, it looked like something out of a beer commercial.  So inviting.  …but it was also coming off a glacier and about 40 degrees Fahrenheit.  And we were pretty high up.

But two of us decided to go in anyway.

And, after hyperventilating, we dominated.

We hiked around the lake a little bit, took few pics…

…then started heading back down…

…to the lodge…

…were the staff was playing a pickup game of soccer.

Day 2 was much easier than the first day for everyone, people were more apt to go their own pace, and I think it instilled a little more confidence in the group as a whole that we might actually make it over the pass the following day.

That night we had a delicious dinner, went to bed early, snuggled up with our hot water bottles, and got ready for an early morning.

Next up: Day 3–Over the Pass

Day 1: The Hiking Begins

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The next morning we were picked up by Johann, our assistant leader, in the hotel lobby at 7am.

We had 13 people in our group:

  • A German couple from Dusseldorf.  Very German.
  • An international businessman / man of mystery and his British lady friend
  • 7 guys from Michigan on a Mancation
  • Me and Susie
The whole group, minus our leader, Leo
Because our group was so big we had two mini-buses to take us to the trailhead.  Susie and I rode with Johann, who picked us up along with the Europeans.  We drove about an hour and a half along some paved roads and through some mountains….
…and stopped in a small town for a bathroom break.

After about 15 minutes hanging out in town (the locals were thrilled to see us, if you can’t tell from the lady’s face in the above picture) we hopped back in the buses and headed up a narrow, windy, dirt, mountain road for another two hours to a town called Mollepata for lunch.  It was here in Mollepata that we saw our first guinea pigs being fattened up for slaughter.

After lunch we hopped back in the van for another half our or so, we pulled over where the trailhead hit the road.  We got out, covered ourselves in sunscreen…

…and finally, started hiking.

The first part of the hike was rolling green hills with cows and horses wandering around, surrounded by mountain ranges.  Much of the group (before they started keeling over from lack of oxygen) re-enacted numbers from the Sound of Music.

I would like to pause here and take a moment to note that at this point we were somewhere around 10,000 feet: lower than Cuzco, and significantly lower than the pass we were going to be crossing, and still you could feel the altitude (the lodge we were hiking to was at 12,690 feet).  Like, really feel the altitude.  Uphill was not easy.  Many a Michiganite was struggling.

Back to the hike.  After about an hour and a half of uphill hiking we stopped to take a break and got our first good view of Salkantay (the snow covered mountain in the background.)

As we continued we walked along some aqueducts originally built by the Incas…

…and parts of the trail were a little precarious (picture 6 inches of sometimes wet, loose, rocky trail and long vertical drops to the bottom of a ravine.  With more rocks.)

It cooled down, shadows started getting long…

…we had some amazing views…

…and finally, after about 4.5 hours, we arrived the lodge, cold and tired.

Everyone was excited to be there.

We were greeted at the front door with hot tea and warm towels, instructed to take our shoes off, and go relax by the fire.  We obliged.

The lodge also had a jacuzzi…

…and hot water bottles in the bed (which freaked me out the first night when I jumped into bed).

Amazing.

Next up: Day 2–The Glacial Lake

First Installment: Pre-Trek report

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OH MY GOD IT’S FINALLY HAPPENING!

It took me a while to get this going, but I finally got around to it.  No promise it’ll be good, but it’s better than nothing.  So with that, here is the first installment.

Day T-3: We Depart…and Arrive

My flight went Cincinnati–>Miami, where I met up with Susie.  We flew down the Atlantic coast of Florida alongside a really awesome electrical storm that was happening just off the coast (even the stewardess got her camera out).

My attempt to capture it was a fail.  But you get the idea.

Landed in Miami, hung out with Susie at the Admirals Club (um, they have showers in those things…I had no idea) and caught our overnight flight to Lima.  I took an ambien and tried to stay awake while I ate dinner on the plane, which was fun (couldn’t tell you what I ate, or if the food made it into my mouth).  Landed in Lima at like 4 am and finally caught our flight to Cuzco around 9am.

Flight into Cuzco

After landing and a short nap we decided to go check out the city and get acclimated to the altitude (>11,000 feet).

Cuzco is pretty awesome, we wandered around the Plaza de Armas, where both Inca leaders Tupac Amaru I and Tupac Amarau II were executed (thank you Kim McQuarrie, Last Days of the Incas)…

Plaza de Armas

…and walked to Plaza San Blas, which is up some ridiculously narrow streets.

Up there we had some delish cous cous soup, and Susie first learned that Peruvians eat guinea pig.

Day T-2: The Sacred Valley

The next morning we woke up to gorgeous weather and were feeling pretty good, so we decided to make a trip into the town of Pisac in the Urubamba Valley.   Instead of taking the minibuses (which costs about $1.50) we went through the concierge at our hotel and got a car and driver for the whole day for about $60.   Traveling with Auntie Susie has its perks.

After a 45 minute drive down through the mountains and into the Sacred Valley, we arrived at the ruins at Pisac.

Our driver told us the Incas planted crops like this for three reasons: 1.) they could test how well different crops grew at different altitudes (apparently the variation in height from one level to the next makes a difference); 2.) it was easier to irrigate this way; and 3.) it looked nice.

We did a little hiking to prep ourselves for the upcoming trek…

…heard some good mountain flute music…

…and then made our way down to the open air market that happens every Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday.

That night Sue met a couple in the hotel bar that had just returned from the same Mountain Lodges of Peru (MLP) trek that we would be embarking on in 2 days, and they invited us to come tour some of the local Cuzco ruins with them the next day.  So we did.

Day T-1: Sacsayhuaman, Tambo Machay, Puca Pucara, and Quenqo

The next morning we woke up to absolutely BEAUTIFUL weather again.  We met up with the couple and a friend of theirs, Maribel, who was a local. She agreed to be our guide for the day.

After a minor debacle of trying to get four gringo tourists onto a packed, public minibus, Maribel decided it wasn’t worth the trouble and the 5 of us squeezed into one taxi, whom we paid to take us around to all 4 ruins.

There are four “ecological sites” surrounding Cusco.  First up was Sacsayhuaman (aka “sexy woman”):

This place was awesome.

It has the biggest rocks in the area.  Apparently some of the rocks were actually moved to the site from across the river, but they don’t know how the Incas managed to get them across.  There are theories that maybe they dammed the river up, but no one is sure.

And of course, they had llamas.

Next up was Tambo Machay, the sacred bathing place of the Inca rulers.

This place was equally as cool, and apparently the water in these springs hasn’t dried up since the time of the Incas.

Next up was Puca Pucara, a smaller fortress that was probably used to defend Cuzco.

…and finally, Quenqo.

We heard two stories about what Quenqo was.  One said it was a temple where death rituals and sacrifice took place, another that it was a temple for fertility.  Who knows.

Inside the rock is a series of tunnels and waterways

On the way back down we got some nice views of Cusco.

That night we said goodbye to our new friends and went to the pre-trek meeting for Mountain Lodges of Peru (MLP), where we met our second group of new friends who would be joining us on our trek.

Then we went home and packed.

Next up: Day 1–The Hiking Begins

AND WE’RE OFF!

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You’d think after a year and a half of waiting to go on the Machu Picchu trip I won in the winter of 2009 and the amount of hiking I do that I’d be SUPER PREPPED with my packing and ready to go for what will in all likelihood be the most awesome hike I’ve ever done in my life.  Well, you’d be wrong.

I leave in 10 min for the airport and just finished packing.  Fingers crossed I didn’t forget anything important (I checked, my passport is not expired, so we won’t have John and Elisa wedding 2009 part deux.)  Because Paul is now in med school and can’t take the time off, he won’t be joining me.  Fortunately, Aunt Susie was more than willing to take his place and accompany me on the journey to Peru for our most massive hike yet.    We’ll be gone for about 2 weeks (the actual trek is 7 days), not sure if I’ll be able to update while we’re there, but I’ll do my best.

THANK YOU AGAIN to Zozi and CEO TJ Sassani for the trip, Tech Crunch for sponsoring the contest, and Mountain Lodges of Peru for all of their help with the  reschedule.  We are beyond excited.

Run like a girl

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Finished the NYC Fitness Magazine Women’s Half Marathon this weekend, 2 laps around Central Park.

mile 11.5.  shoot me.

It was my first “women’s” race, and I don’t know if I’ll ever opt to do one again (I have never seen so much Lululemon in one place before in my life…and we all know how I feel about them.)  Did you know, though, that the race legally can’t exclude men, so there were some men who ran with us (as highlighted in the above photo.)  I don’t know what they did with the purple goodie bag full of Weight Watchers shakes and Tampax.

Went a PR, which was good, but it didn’t feel awesome (largely due to some poor decisions made the night before regarding food and hydration.)


post-race, in margaret’s apartment

But I did get to see some old friends and hang out in New York on a beautiful Sunday…it was great.

view from margaret’s window

For a full race report, go here.

Weekend Home

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After a harrowing trip back that involved an attempt to fly through some nasty thunderstorms in the South only to turn around and head back to Chicago, sharing a hotel room with a stranger from my flight, and over 20 hours of delays, I am back in Kentucky.  Though it rained on Friday, there was no snow in Santa Barbara while I was there, and Saturday and Sunday the weather was BEAUTIFUL…

…as was the bride at the wedding we attended.

Saturday morning we woke up to clear skies, so first I went for a run along the beach…

…then joined my parents for stadiums at SBCC…

…then met up with another old friend who just happened to be in town at our old stomping grounds…

…for a swim.

Then we headed to the wedding and reception down at the Bathhouse…

…and the next morning drove back down to LA to begin the 36 hour trek back to Kentucky.

Also got to make a trip to Trader Joe’s (exciting) since there is no TJ’s in the state of Kentucky (a sad truth), see some really good friends for the first time in years, and enjoy the sun.  What more could you ask for.  Hope to be back soon.

Escape

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Oh, Santa Barbara.

I’m heading home this weekend to attend the wedding of a dear old friend.  Since I left Santa Barbara over a decade ago for a number of cold, snowy climates, I have received weekly calls from my parents throughout the winter months, usually from the beach, just letting me know that it’s sunny and 75.  Every day of the year.  So I was pretty excited to head back and run outside on non-ice covered streets, swim outdoors, and maybe, possibly, even lay out and give myself a pre-spring sunburn (you have to build up a base.)

Santa Barbara weather forecast for the weekend of February 26, 2011:

Cloudy with rain.  High in the low 50s, lows in the low 30s.  Chance of snow.

CHANCE.  OF.  SNOW.  For the first time since like 1948.

Hell no.

VROOOOM!

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Welcome to Thunder Road.  Feel the thunder.

Colleague and I traveled down to Charlotte, NC…home of Bank of America, bars that don’t open on the weekends, the NASCAR Hall of Fame, and Carolina barbecue void…to run our half marathon this past weekend.  After hitting up the expo (above) and carbo-loading the night before (beer, fried pickles with ranch, and gravy cheese fries) we woke up the next morning rarin’ to go…and promptly missed the start of the race.  Along with about 1,000 other people.  But we followed the mad crush and it eventually carried us across the starting line at the very rear of the group.  We were off!

…and then we were stuck behind everyone who made it to the starting line on time, including all the walkers.  Because we started so far back, the first 6 miles were exceptionally crowded and consisted of a lot of dodging and passing.  But, when it was all said and done, we were both well under 2 hours and right on our best times.   The fried pickles did their job.

After a shower we headed out in search of some real Carolina barbecue, something we had been looking forward to for months.  We found the Tourism Center downtown and asked where we could get some.  Blank stare from the lady who works there.  Apparently it doesn’t exist in Charlotte.  But we ended up finding an awesome soul food place that also served beer and red velvet cake.   So.  Happy.

After more fried goodness, we went looking for a bar where we could relax and talk about how awesome we are and how weird it is that Charlotte has no barbecue.  We were surprised once again to find that almost all of the bars in town are closed on the weekend.  What.

We finally found one that was open…and stayed there for 5 hours.  Until we both went home and fell asleep at 7pm.  Thanks to the snow storm in the middle of the country the trip home was a nightmare for both of us, but I’ll spare you my rant about a 12 hour wait in the airport and Colleague’s 3-hour train ride to Raleigh because apparently there were no flights out of Charlotte to Boston.

Overall:  success!  More or less.  Disappointments included the barbecue situation, not getting to go to the Dale Earnhardt Jr bar, and lack of revving engine noises broadcast over loudspeakers throughout the race (though they did play a really loud, prolonged one at the start.)

Next up: Marathon.  Probably.  (And probably another half before that.)