We were just gonna go hiking, and then we got high...

15,200+ feet.  The highest we've ever been and, yep, it was a pretty cool accomplishment.  What Antonio called "D-Day" was indeed easily the toughest day of hiking on the trip.  From Salkantay Lodge at ~12,700 feet, we went up to ~15,200 and then down to ~12,800 feets.  Antonio's words of encouragement included telling us to treat it like Jack the Ripper ("take it piece by piece") and Johnnie Walker ("just keep walking!').  At times the going was slow, but eventually (7 and a half hours later), we got 'er done. 

Looking back down at the Salkantay Lodge.

Our mules "911" (in case of emergency) and "912" (in case of BIG emergency).

Getting higher.

Here's Rhonda going up a particularly brutal sequence of switchbacks.

Taking a well-deserved break.

It was at this point that I started feeling a little "off".  Sluggish and cold, with no appetite for lunch (definitely not the norm for a Combs).  I ended up having a bit of a fever and bundled up for a "sweaty nap" for an hour or so before dinner at the end of the day.  By the time breakfast came the next day, I was good to go again.

Not a bad spot for a snack break.

Post-snack, the pass beckoned.  Before too long, we were getting pounded with wind, snow and rain.  To be on the safe side, I had to put the camera away for a few hours.  The first thousand feet or so on the other side of the path were navigation of various temporary and permanent creekbeds; good thing we had guides along!

Finally out of harm's way, here's a look back up at toward the pass a few hours later.  Nice and peaceful down below; back up top, not so much!

Home sweet home!

After I shook off the fever, I had much more of an appetite for supper than I'd had for lunch.  Another evening of good food, good company and a glass or two of Cusquena beer, the miracle cure-all. 

Humantay Lake hike

"Humantay" apparently translates to "really damned cold".  How do I know?  I'll get to that in just a moment...

We started off this day with what would become a familiar part of our routine: an enormous breakfast.  Oatmeal, omelets, meats, cheeses and toasts were enjoyed each morning; serious hiking means serious fueling up!  Even though I ate a ton- 3 huge daily meals with desserts at lunch/supper, plus a variety of snacks like nuts, raisins and chocolate on the trail- I ended up losing a couple of pounds by the end of the trip. 

The day's hike would take us "only" up about 1,200 feet through high pastured land, but we started gaining a lot of elevation in a hurry, with a nice snack break along the way.  Ponchos and rain jackets came in handy for everyone on this day, as we got hit with intermittent cool showers.  The rain pants actually became a staple regardless of weather, as they're great for repelling both mud and horse and mule crap!  Almost as handy were the gaiters we brought.  Hose the stuff off at night, and you're good to go in the morning.

I'm not sure the picture above does the steepness of this hill justice.  I was looking uphill here, and the lake is somewhere up over the round foggy peaks.

Break time.  This pic shows the elevation a bit better.  The lake is between the green peaks and the foggy ones.

This is the ridge on which we took a snack break.  Up near the top, you can just see the water spilling out from the lake.

Looking back down on where we've hiked so far.  Landslide on the right.

I'd pretty much decided I was jumping into that glacial lake the moment I found out I'd have an opportunity to do so.  Bravely(?) I wore swimming trunks underneath my rain pants, and I fielded a few "our you really gonna do it?" inquiries on the way up.  Fog, rain and a stiff breeze were overcome by testosterone, adrenaline and, just maybe, a touch of foolishness, and in I went.

2 other fools, er, brave souls also took the plunge, but had the good sense to basically go thigh deep, dip down and run back out of the water.  Did I do that?  The look on my face here should give you the answer. 
















This is the look of a man who just realized he doesn't have any damned sense.

The combination of adrenaline and holy-crap-never-felt-anything-like-this-before cold was quite a rush, but I was glad to dry off (had the foresight to bring a small towel) and get dressed, sparing the group from continued blinding light bouncing off my pasty skin.

Before we headed back down, we had the privilege of attending a small religious ceremony lakeside conducted by 2 local mystic shamans.  I'd already been struck by the spiritual feel of the landscape; as I mentioned to Antonio, it occurred to me that the mountainous landscape was a cathedral, one more majestic than any formal structure with four walls like the one we'd seen back in Cusco.  As the shamans prayed to their 4 sacred peaks (one of which seemed within arm's reach), this point was really driven home.  I'm honored that we had this small glimpse into an alternate spirituality, and happy that we didn't cheapen the moment by making it a photo op.

Our last evening at Salkantay Lodge featured some hot tub time, a great dinner, a few Cusquena cervezas (the cure for what "ales" ya), and yours truly featured as a guest bartender during the Pisco Sour demonstration.  (For the record, shaken is better than blended, and I look pretty good in an apron.)  In our pre-meal briefing, Antonio stressed the fact that tomorrow was "D-Day", so rest up!

Peru: The 'warmup' hike

Almost forgot: Here's a link to some pics for the tl;dr folks.

After an early breakfast, we got picked up at 7AM and embarked upon the more adventurous part of our journey.  It was several hours til we got around to the hiking part of things; in the meantime we had a drive of several hours that was broken up with a couple of stops, the first of which was a tiny village.  Kind of a 'show and tell' to give us a sense of how things operate outside (yet in some cases quite close to) the touristy areas.  This is inside the colorful market.
















Our next stop was at a small Inca ruin site called Tarawasi.  Our lead guide, Antonio, referred to it as the "mummy hotel", as the mummies in question were trotted out of storage for temporary stays in these niches during religious ceremonies.

Rhonda trying on one of those niches for size.























Check out the construction of the wall.  The Inca used no mortar and, instead of carving stone 'blocks' of uniform size, cut each stone to match up with the one previously laid.

Another example at the same site.

And back in Cusco, here's another example.  When the Spanish set up shop here, they destroyed most of the Inca buildings, but were wise enough to leave the ingeniously constructed foundations behind.  All over the Cusco historic district, we saw original Inca foundations below Spanish buildings.

Time to start heading up into the high country now.  Before too long, we got a firsthand look at one of the area's main problems, landslides.  This wouldn't be the last time we had an 'interesting' road situation to deal with.

After another mountain village visit for some Alpaca wool shopping and another couple of hours of dirt road driving, things "got real" in a hurry.  Time to get those spiffy hiking clothes dirty!  (Like, seriously dirty.  And crappy, too.  Lots and lots of horse and mule crap up in the high country...)  Here's my REI model before we got started.

Our warmup hike to the Salkantay Lodge was only about 3 hours, but it's important to ease into things to get used to hiking at altitude.  "Easing" in this case was a short time, but going up from 11,000 to almost 12,700 feet.  There was definitely a little huffing and puffing going on, but the scenery more than made up for it.  Kinda reminded me of when we took the helicopter flight in Hawaii, only actually standing that far up in the air instead of flying!

The warmup hike was a good opportunity to start to get to know the folks we'd be spending the next week with.  Pretty good mix of personalities.  We especially hit it off with the four folks from Alabama.

Here I am at the Salkantay Lodge.  We'd spend 2 nights here, with a nice excursion/sidetrip to take place the next day.  That pouch around my middle is where I carried the "big" camera, a choice that I'm sure led to a few extra calories being burned; our guides kept stressing the importance of travelling as lightly as possible.

Peru trip: Acclimation time

15th anniversary = "big deal" and "big deal" = "big trip", so after months and months of planning (not to mention hours and hours of flying and layovers), we found ourself in Cusco, Peru at the tail end (fingers crossed) of their rainy season.

Initial acclimation to the altitude proved not to be as big a deal as we'd feared.  There are a wide variety of reactions which can include such discomforts as headaches, but other than a bit of "sleeping like a pancake" (flipping over and back again during the night because the air seems a little thin), we were in pretty good shape.  Before we embarked upon our hiking adventure, we had the sense to book 2 nights of lazy time in Cusco just to get used to the altitude; after all, it's a long way up to the Andes from Greenville, SC. 

Luckily our hotel offered option the option of oxygen pumped into your room to accomodate lowlanders such as us.  Some hotel, too; the Hotel Monasterio started out as, you guessed it, a monastery.  It was originally constructed in 1595 and underwent extensive renovation after a major earthquake in 1650.  It's a truly serene and peaceful place, counting impressive architecture and original paintings from the Cusquenian Art School among its charms.

Courtyard at the Monasterio:


One of the original paintings in the chapel at the Monasterio:
























Unfortunately, the tiny chapel at the church was the only house of worship we visited that allowed photos.  The Catedral del Cusco in particular was quite imposing and impressive, with an astounding array of shrines and art.

















Getting around the historic center of Cusco was pretty easy, and very tourist friendly, especially to those like us who speak a bit of Spanish.  (OK, my expertise en Espanol is mainly limited to ordering food and beer, and asking how much something costs, an essential tool in opening the doors to a bargain!)  The further away from the plazas we got, the more English became a luxury vs an expectation. We did pretty well, though.  Although both of us took some Spanish in high school, I'd love to give a conversational course a try.  Seems that would come in really come in handy for just such occasions. 

On the second night in Cusco, we met with our trekking tour group at Green's Organic, a nice spot we'd end up visiting again before we headed home.  It was here we had our first taste of two of Peru's specialties: ceviche and the Pisco Sour.  The former we'd had before, only Mexican style; the latter is a delicious cocktail featuring Pisco, a brandy distilled from Peruvian grapes.  We found the Peruvian food in general to be quite appealing, with loads of fresh veggies, fish and meat. The ceviche at Green's is a good example, loaded with explosively fresh pink trout, onions and mango. 

Our 2 guides got everyone introduced and began the process of mentally prepping us for our trek along the Salkantay Trail, which would take us as low as 6,600 feet, and as high as 15,200.  Mountain Lodges of Peru has 4 lodges along the trail with limited accomodations.  Our group (a full house) was only 12 tourists, plus the 2 guides and our mule porters.  There are Mountain Lodge employees staffing each of the lodges.  With such a small group, we'd soon get to know the others- from Phoenix, Alabama, Kansas City and Cambridge, MA- within a day or so. 

Smokies Trip

Holy mackerel, has it really been 4 months since I posted something?!?

We finally took Fran and Jack on their long overdue first East Coast road trip, a nice long weekend up in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park followed by a mini-reunion with Aunt Candy, Uncle David, Cousin Erin and the grandfolks in Franklin for a couple of days.

Here's a link to some pictures from the trip.

On the way up to the park, we stopped for lunch in Gatlinburg (AKA the Myrtle Beach of the Smokies, and that's not a compliment). We were pleasantly surprised by the Smoky Mountain Brewery's above-average brews, tasty pizza and affordable prices. 5-ounce samples for a buck each? Sure, why not?

I grew up with the Smokies literally in my backyard, but there's nothing like driving an underpowered crackerbox at 40mph up a steep, slow climb to make you appreciate just how high you are. The view's worth it, though.

The 2 pics above are up at Clingmans Dome, the highest point in the Smokies and along the Appalachian Trail.

The next few are from Cades Cove.

The 11-mile Cades Cove loop (and really the whole park) are tailor made for driving the bus. No rush, take it all in.

The captain and the first mate.

We had a nice mix of scheduled sightseeing and hiking with spontaneous R&R. For instance, on the way up a gravel road to a hiking trail, we found a perfect flat picnic spot by the river and ended up skipping the hike and spending and entire afternoon catching up on some napping/reading/swimming instead.

On the way over to Franklin, we swung through Bryson City to hit the Nantahala Brewing Company, housed in an old Tennessee Valley Authority warehouse. Very open and relaxed atmosphere (since no food is served, Jack got to come inside). It kind of reminds me of certain spots in Portland, and in fact one of the brewers was anxious to talk to us about his semi-annual trips to Portland for inspiration. Very nice selection of brews here, and fine folks working there as well. This won't be our last visit.

Back at the ranch, the tomatoes exploded on us while we were gone. To provide a sense of scale, that fence on the left is about 5 and a half feet tall. Somewhere in the background are okra and cosmos, but my tomatoes are going bonkers. Looks like it's gonna be a summer of tomato sandwiches, salsa and Caprese salad.

All these ripened on us. Now I'm picking several of the bite-sized ones daily, plus at least one or two of the bigger fruits.

Hmm, what else has been going on? Well, the azaleas we planted last spring grew and bloomed nicely.

The row of hydrangeas we planted last year doubled in size.

We turned this...

into this...

(azaleas and rhododendrons, hopefully more impressive this time next year)

We brought down a few tiger lillies from Franklin. I'm learing how to cultivate them, so hopefully we'll have a lot more next summer.

Some of you may recognize this dusty, dirty old cabinet from Papaw Liner's back porch.

Rhonda has rescued and repurposed it for use as a garden tool cabinet. "Shabby chic", I think you call this kind of project.

More updates on the way soon. We're heading back to Portland as tourists the last week of July, so we're sure to have some stories then.