Inca Trail Day 1

Up early, picked up by our tour company (Peru Treks), bus trip to Ollantaytambo and beyond to Kilometer 82, the starting off point of our trek.

We had a lovely group of 16 hikers, 2 guides and 21 porters. The Peruvian government has done an admirable job of regulating the safety and working conditions of the porters, but man, do they work hard. They carried virtually everything - tents, tables, chairs, kitchen supplies, food, etc, etc - so that we only carried about 10 pounds in our day packs (water, snacks, extra layers, a rain poncho I never used).

The path is well used and well maintained. Day one was mostly on dirt and gravel paths in open brush. It was dry, dry, dry. We followed the Urubamba River for awhile then veered off into a smaller canyon up into the mountains. It was a relatively easy hike, beginning around 8000 feet and gaining about 2000 by days end. All uphill but not very steep.

This part of the trail is on the edge of the national park area so there are small villages and settlements so we could buy water and snacks and pay our one soles for the use of the bathrooms.

7-11, of the Inca Trail variety

The views of the Andes peaks were breathtaking.

By late afternoon we arrived at our campsite, a small flat area at the edge of a cluster of farm houses. We were well fed then trundled off to bed where we spent a chilly night (unsuccessfully) relearning how to sleep on the ground.

We went to Chinchero this morning. The Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco was magical, for weavers (me!) and non-weavers (Lee) alike. They sat us down on a bench and walked us through each step of the process, from wool straight from the sheep and alpaca, to washing the wool, spinning, and plying. Then we were shown all the different natural sources of the dyes - leaves, sticks, berries, cochineal beetles taken off the cactus. We got to stir the wool around in the cochineal dye as our guide added different minerals to set the dyes. Lee's pot turned orange and mine was a deep red. Very cool.

Cochineal beetles live on the cactus and when crushed make the most beautiful colored dyes.

We used cochineal to dye wool crimson and orange.

We also saw how they warped and wove on their backstrap looms, including the addition of a woven trim that's added to the edges of many of the fabrics. I could have sat and watched that step for quite awhile, as that's new for me. But they were ready for us to move onto the showrooms, where we were happy to spend a bit of money.

On our trip back to Cusco our driver stopped so we could take some pictures of the nearby mountains. I'm looking forward to seeing more of them tomorrow when we start our hike.

We've been in Cusco for just over a day and walked about 10 miles. Plaza de Armas is usually the center of our forays but we've also been to Plaza San Blas and San Pedro. San Pedro is home to a massive market with trinkets, flowers, every part of a slaughtered animal (the snouts were a new thing for me), foods stalls with soups and smoothies. It was reminiscent of our favorite market in Kaohsiung.

San Pedro market

We visited both the Precolumbian and the Inka Museums, which were pretty much the same thing, but both interesting enough. My favorite exhibits were, naturally, the textiles. There was a piece of woven cloth in one exhibit purported to be from 800 BCE.

An Inca wall at our hotel

I've had the chance to watch a number of women weaving on blackstrap looms, which has been fascinating. The intricacy of many of the designs is awe inspiring. All from a two shed loom (with a lot of pick-up work). Makes me want to take a workshop and really learn the process.

Tomorrow we're going to hire a taxi to take us to Cinchero, about 45 minutes out of the city, to see a weaving studio and hopefully see the process from alpaca to cloth.

We've arrived at our hotel, had a cup of coka tea - when in Rome, after all - and walked to the Plaza de Armas for lunch. That's a lot for being at 11,000 feet and just off the plane. Walking on the flat ground isn't so bad but there doesn't seem to be much flat ground. Walking to our room on the third floor was easier the second time than the first, but my heart was still pounding by the top of the stairs.

The goal today is to stay hydrated and take it easy. So far, so good.

Our hotel - Rumi Punku

Cool little items adorn many of the roof lines, including our hotel.

View of the Plaza des Armas from our lunch spot.

So it's been another six weeks of summer training. Many miles in the saddle and what feels like nearly as many in hiking boots. We've seen moose and deer, too many snakes and seven black bears. We've hiked Bear Mountain three times and the Housatonic River twice, both on the Appalachian Trail. We found a nice seven mile loop in New Hartford and explored the M&M Trail ridge walk to Tariffeville.

There's been more hiking than biking but we've done a 30-mile loop along most of the bike path south of here and gotten back to the quiet roads of Granby. One of our bear sightings, which included a mom and her two cubs, was on one of those rides.

In this last week before we leave for Peru we've planned a 12 mile out-and-back hike to Tariffeville, a 36 mile out-and-back ride to Westfield along the bike path and a reprise hike at the Jesse Gerard Trail that got rained out yesterday. (Not ones to sit around, at least not this summer, we hiked 6 1/2 miles in the rain at Maclean instead.)

Here are a few photo highlights:

The view of New York's Taconic Mountains from the top of the Macedonia Brook hike near Kent, CT

Cool fungus - it's been a wet spring so there's been a lot of interesting plantlife

Pond along the Jesse Gerard Trail in New Hartford

Zach and Cierra joined us for the Penwood Hike to Tariffeville

Lunch along the Housatonic River near Kent

Mount Monadnock - you can't see them in this photo but the rocks were a-swarm with snakes, thus inducing a first-in-my-life panic attack and an aborted trip, as I could not continue on past every snake, or stick that looked like a snake. 

Yesterday I did an hour long ride (about 12 miles - a nice, easy pace to get back into the saddle) on a long loop mostly along the Farmington River. I only had to stop once for traffic. It helps to be doing a clockwise route so virtually all the turns are right-hand. What a joy to just pedal and pedal and pedal. That's something I really missed in Taiwan. There was only the one long, unbroken stretch along the edge of Cijin Island, about 4 miles, where you could pick up speed and settle into a rhythm. The rest was city streets or, at best, the bike path with many obstacles and cross streets. Yesterday was lovely.

Hiking Sunday turned into biking Sunday instead. Cross-training is a good thing, right? For the first long ride of the season we biked north on the bike path for an hour - turned out to be 12 miles - and turned around. On the way back we stopped for coffee at Little Red Riding Hood, a very nice and well-situated restaurant right on the bike path. A little chilly, a little windy, but lovely none-the-less.

July marks our next world travel trip, this time to Peru. We plan to hike the Inca Trail and visit Machu Picchu, which will be four days of hiking at altitude. So this spring is get-in-shape time. This week we've had two great hikes on the Appalachian Trail.

On Thursday (April 27) we drove to Salisbury and hiked up Bear Mountain, the highest point in Connecticut. It was overcast all day and the summit was in the clouds so the view was not worth a photo but the hike was lovely. (With the exception of the section just past the summit where we scrambled down some very steep rocks. Next time we'll climb up that section, under the theory that it's easier to climb up tough sections than it is to climb down.)

 Today (April 30) we drove to Kent for a different section of the Appalachian Trail. This one was a flat trail along the Housatonic River. Very easy walking (we averaged 20 minute miles) but it was the longest hike (8.5 miles) we've done all spring. It was another overcast day and another lovely hike.

This section reminded us of the Bamboo Forest in Kyoto.

It's hard to tell but that's a bald eagles' nest up in the top of that tree. One of the eagles landed in a tree nearby as we ate lunch along the trail.

This post is a place-holder for a trip we took to Kenya in December 2016. Some day I plan to upload posts and pictures. Some day...