The Peruvian Misadventures of Zach and Paraag, Season Finale

I left out a very important detail from my first e-mail. We were not alone during our rafting trip - we had the company of billions and billions and billions of mosquitoes. And just like most folks and chicken, the mosquitoes proved to prefer white meat over dark meat. I, for one, was not complaining. Poor Sack and Colon though - their faces and hands were littered with mosquito bites. Zach even had a mosquito bite on his palm. Unreal. So, my last story ended on Friday, the last day of our rafting. We were about to embark on the greatest hiking adventure known to man, a 7 day / 6 night hike through the Andean mountains, culminating with the Inka Trail to Macchu Picchu. Sounds exciting just writing about it. Funny scary story... on my flight from Atlanta to Lima, I had an exit row/bulkhead seat on the aisle, with a flight attendant seat across from me for takeoffs and landings. This friendly gentleman asked me about my upcoming trip and and the hike and asked if I had been training for it. I had to think about my training regimen and it boiled down to this: Diet: Eat healthy. But if you decide to stray from time to time, this is okay, since you can make it up by exercising more and burning the calories. Exercise: Just do it. But in the end, it's really the thought that counts. Having the full intention to go downstairs to the little condo gym as soon as you got home and run a few miles on the treadmill is half the battle. By that logic, thinking about it twice was the whole battle. It's simple algebra. Net: I was in the worst shape of my life and had gained a good 10-15 pounds or more since moving to the New York area. And after being asked about my training regimen, I really began to get a little concerned about my ability to make it. Friday, August 27th (continued) Friday night, our tour guide, Oscar, for our hike came by the hotel to give us a briefing on our trip. We soon learned that the Salkantay portion of the hike (days 1-3) normally goes via a route that reaches 5000 meters, and that there was snow above 4200m. So we would be going via an alternate route that reaches a max of 4300m instead. This alternate route was clearly not right near Salkantay mountain from the map that Oscar was showing us. Unfortunately, we were having a bit of trouble understanding Oscar, and he was having a difficult time understanding us. So, as he was explaining that the main route was under half a metre of snow, we were understanding that we would be hiking through a half metre of snow. And we were getting a bit scared and feeling a tad slight bit on the unprepared side. We also learned that we had been upgraded to a "private" tour meaning that it would be the two of us and an army of attendants: tour guide, cook, waiter, horsemen, porters, etc.. "Private tour" was fancy-speak for "no one else signed up for the tour". Immediately following the briefing, we ran over to the Q'ente office to set the record straight and find out what we were getting ourselves into. They assured us that we would not be hiking through half a metre of snow. But due to the mis-information and a smidgeon of language barrier, we were still a little on edge, and unsuccessfully set out to find some waterproof hiking boots and waterproof pants in the town. Dejected and quite a bit on the apprehensive side, we returned to the hotel and attempted to go to sleep. By the way, at the Q'ente office, I learned that the fabric-lined ceiling would not have met fire code in the US. Thanks Zach. Saturday, August 28th Neither of us slept at all last night. No sleep for me because I was worried sick about the upcoming hike. And no sleep for Zach because he was just sick - I think he may have spent more of the night in the bathroom than in the bed. After a mild breakfast and a morning on the crapper, Zach declared that he was ready to go on this hike. Zach is one of those people who will rarely call it quits and will do everything he can to gut it out instead (like running a marathon with an injured foot). So, only he knew at this time what he was feeling. And I knew that he had his mind made up already and that there would be no changing it, so off we went on our expedition. On the ride to the hiking trail, we met our cook, Rolando, and our waiter/assistant cook, Wilbur, who were riding in the van with us. The first hour or two were on paved roads, but they were still quite windy since we were traveling up and down mountains, and it culminated in a small little town where Rolando and Wilbur hopped out to buy our food for the trip. Zach was still not feeling so well, so he looked for a bathroom. Upon examining the condition of the bathroom, he left the bathroom area and looked for somewhere else to attempt to spew his guts. The next two hours of driving were mostly uphill, but more importantly, on a very unpaved and narrow road. We believe this road may see traffic only once or twice a week because it was in very poor condition, and pretty much weaved in and out of the local farmer's lands. It was also only wide enough for one vehicle, so in the rare occasions that there were two vehicles on the road going in opposite directions, my guess is that the smaller vehicle would have a lot of backing up to do. We finally reached our launchpoint around lunchtime, a location which pulled double duty as the local elementary school's front yard. And all the kids and locals were out and about to stare at the foreigners. I figured that I blended in with Andean folks a bit better (being short and of darker skin tone), so I opted to turn and stare at Zach too. What strange, tall, and ugly untinted folk stands before me? Must be the devil! This last portion of the drive really took it's toll on Zach and he was quite visibly not feeling well at all. After visiting the local outhouse (I got a picture of that), he lay down in the van and moaned and groaned for a while. I mustered enough Spanish from my high school memory banks to explain to Antonio, the elderly van driver, what was the problem and he was convinced that he knew exactly what to do - Zach spent the next ten minutes lying on the ground with Antonio holding his feet straight up in the air and breathing deeply (I got a picture of that too). Oscar and Antonio both declared a small victory when some semblance of color returned to Zach's face. And the locals got a good show out of it. After having some lunch, Oscar and I walked about 1/2 kilometer to the nearest phone to call and talk to the Q'ente office about options. I wanted for both Zach and I to return to Cusco, and just do the 4 day hike instead. However, since we were the only tourists, this would mean that the crew would be disbanded and would likely not get paid at all. So, Oscar was trying to convince me that Zach should return alone and rejoin us for the Inka Trail, and I would do the first part of the hike alone with the crew. As we were walking back to the elementary school discussing options, Zach pleasantly surprised us and met us halfway, declaring his wellness and that we would go on with our hike. Fortunately, this solved the dilemma at hand. We hiked for two or two and half hours straight uphill. And I really mean straight up hill. There was no real trail either - it appeared as though we were hiking through people's property. Rolando and Wilbur made us look like fools, since they were virtually running up the hill with backpacks, whereas we were huffing and puffing each step of the way. With very high altitude (we were going from 3400m to 3700m or so), it really doesn't take much to get winded. The sun was out as well, so we got hot quickly. Weather and temperature in the mountains is a funny thing - when the sun is out and unhindered by pesky clouds, you feel the heat from the sunrays. As soon as cloud interrupts, the cool breeze becomes a chilling wind. Throughout the trip, we were cycling through layers of clothing at a very rapid pace. After what seemed like an eternity of hiking, we reached our campgrounds. Rolando, Wilbur, and the pack-horses had long passed us, so all of the tents were set up and ready when we got there. Quick aside - when signing up for the trip, neither Zach nor I had any intention of playing it pansy and having an entourage of folk at our beckon to do everything for us. I knew that I wasn't quite in the shape that I'd need to be to be able to carry my own backpack at this altitude, but that's all I was expecting: a packhorse for my backpack and some food. We had a dining tent, a kitchen tent, food galore, a bathroom tent, and our sleeping tent. Clearly, this is a large quantity of tents, so we clearly needed a tentmaster, Lucio Leon. And to carry all of this stuff, we had four packhorses and the dude who owned and operated the horses, Mario. And since we would pretty much be out in the middle of nowhere far away from civilization, Q'ente hires an additional "emergency" horse to walk with us, complete with its own attendant Pedro (who doubles as Mario's extremely arthritic father-in-law). You got it, counting tour guide Oscar, that's 6 people to attend to us. The campsite this evening was stunning - we were on a flat area protruding out of the mountainside that jutted out enough to give a nice wide panoramic view of the landscape below and beyond. Really just wonderful. There was a near full moon as well, rendering our headlamps useless and giving the entire place a glow of sorts. Just stunning. Sunday, August 29th Overnight, Zach got up and helped fertilize the landscape a wee little bit, so this morning his stomach was feeling much much much better. From what I could gather, the hike yesterday wasn't the greatest feeling in the world for him, but he tried his best to complain as little as possible, and succeeded. After breakfast, we had a nice leisurely 2-3 hour stroll along the mountainside, heading away from the inhabited and farmed valley and towards the higher altitude mountains inside. The stroll was mostly flat, and went along without issue. Even so, it didn't take long for Rolando, Wilbur, and company to race past us and have the lunchsite ready by the time we arrived. It appeared as though this would be the standard pattern for the coming days: we get up and start on our way, the staff clean up, pack up, race by us, and set back up by the time we reach the next stop. This really was a serious blow to our manhood. Having emptied his stomach out, Zach was struggling at this point more from lack of energy and probably some minor dehydration, and less from his churning stomach. By lunchtime, exhaustion had set in and some rest was in order. The temperature today was definitely a bit chillier than yesterday, owing partly due to the higher elevations and partly due to the cloud cover sky. Amazingly enough, even in these steeper mountains, there were still locals out and about - but only tending to livestock, not farming these lands. After lunch and some rest, we started on our way again. Unfortunately for us, the second half of the day resembled the hike from the previous day - mostly uphill. In fact, it was so steep that we were mostly doing switchbacks to get up the mountain (a trail that meanders right and left up a mountain for less steepiosity, but at the expense of length). As we rose up the mountain, it was getting colder and colder, and there was even a light dusting of snow on the ground. As the elevation increased, the air got thinner, and Zach took a turn for the worse. We later realized that he wasn't getting enough oxygen, but at the time all we knew was that he was experiencing splitting headaches. So, at long last, the emergency horse came to the rescue and Pedro and Gringo (the horse's name) were put to good use. The last stretch was particularly trying - very very steep, and I was already exhausted and sore - I was literally stopping every 25 meters to catch my breath. The top couldn't have come soon enough, and at long last we reached a plateau and a campsite waiting for us at about 4100 meters (about 13,500 feet). Soon after arriving, it began to snow and the wind picked up mightily. Even with every stitch of clothing we could manage to get on, we were still freezing. And yet the feet of Pedro and Mario were managing to get by with only sandals. You would think that they must have been suffering from a serious case of frostbite. It's possible, but my guess is that they had no feeling in their feet at all, coupled with an extremely thick layer of skin that had been building up since birth. Tonight was hell night for Zach. His description of his headache in his own words: "I feel like someone is driving a nail through my skull with a sledgehammer". I've never experienced a nail through my skull with a sledgehammer, but I could gather that this was probably not a good feeling. He even managed to mention that this was more pain than when he had to pass a kidney stone. Ouch. Very quickly, we set up a mattress pad and sleeping bag in the dining tent for Zach so that he could lie down in between attempting to eat. As his head got worse and worse, we decided to try some oxygen. Two 3 minute doses of oxygen later, Zach felt better. Then we got him working on some very deep breathing to see if that would work, and it helped a little more. From our collective deductive reasoning, we reasoned that Zach was in such good athletic shape that his normal resting heartbeat and breathing pattern on normal (to us) elevation was so low that this was actually causing him to have more problems in this higher elevation, especially in light of being dehydrated and energy-less from the stomach virus. And to add insult to injury, when dinner was ready and Zach had to get up, he stumbled head first into the gas lamp and burned a rather sizable upside down triangle between his eyebrows (you should be able to make out the burn mark in the pictures later in the week). That night, we froze to death, except without the dying part. But it was pretty darn cold. I distinctly remember getting up because I had to go to the bathroom, but I really didn't want to go outside since I knew it was going to be very cold. So I actually sat there in my sleeping bag for a good half an hour trying to convince myself that I could hold it until morning or come up with some alternative option even though I knew that there were none. Monday, August 30th It was cold. And we really didn't want to get out of the tent at 7:00 in the morning. After procrastinating as long as we could (only about 15 minutes - the staff is very persistent), we packed up and headed over to the dining tent for our standard breakfast: a pancake, a bowl of porridge, tea, and fruit. Oscar informed us that by 11pm or so last night (we had long before gone to bed) the snow stopped and the clouds disappeared, giving a phenomenal view of the night sky and Salkantay mountain in the distance. In the pictures I sent, there's a group picture with Oscar on the emergency horse Gringo - and in the background is Salkantay mountain. Looking at it this morning made us mildly disappointed that we had to go through the alternate route and not be close up by the mountain for this 3 day portion of our hike. After breakfast, Oscar advised us of the perils that lay ahead - we would be climbing to 4300m to the mountain pass before descending rapidly into the valley below. As we left the campsite, Oscar decided that we would be best served to go down by about 150m first to climb up the other side of the valley to get to the pass. We couldn't really argue with his choice, but we were less than thrilled. During this morning's hike, Zach did pretty well up to the mountain pass. We took it slow and steady and therefore didn't have to stop too frequently at all. Once we got to the pass, the scenery was stunning in all directions - lots of snow-peaked mountains, and views of the valleys on both sides. But it was windy and cold, so it didn't take much cajoling to get us going. Fortunately, the climb portion of the day was over, and the rest was downhill - but there was a lot of downhill to go. And again, Zach's headache got the better of him, and Gringo was put to use once again (and this time I got pictures!). :-) At this point, Oscar and I decided that if Zach didn't feel better by the morning, we would call it quits on the hike and head to the nearest town (still 1.5 days away) and pharmacy. Another dose of oxygen after lunch, and 4 Advils later (for Zach), we continued on our journey. We walked a good 2 kilometers on flat land along Canal Inka - an aqueduct that was built in ground by the Incas to channel water. The channel was lined with rocks along the sides and bottom and, for the most part, had withstood the test of time. An hour or so later, we passed by our first real Incan ruins - this one was a trading outpost that was built to manage the local traders. These outposts were built wherever valleys met, and watch towers were built and manned in the mountain peaks to ensure that all trade was regulated. There were all sorts of very interesting engineering features that Oscar pointed out to us, from trapezoidal doorways to help resist earthquakes to the rock extensions from the walls to tie the grass thatch roof to. Initially, we were supposed to camp here for the evening, but we were about a 30 minute hike from Huayllabamba (the "Huay" was deemed excessive and dropped for the movie "La Bamba"), which is the hometown of Rolando and Wilbur (our campsite was Rolando's backyard). Huayllabamba also serves as the first campsite for many tour groups on the Inka Trail. By this time, Zach was feeling quite well as well - I think the 4 Advil did the trick. I know what you're thinking, and I'm thinking the same thing: why the heck would you take 4 Advils when the recommended dosage is 1 tablet? I don't know. I just work here. Overall, we had hiked something like 13 kilometers today, down 150m, up 350m, and then down 1,300m to Huayllabamba (at 3,000m). My legs were killing me. Downhill really takes a toll on your knees and quads - quite a work-out indeed. Try it sometime if you don't believe me. That night, there was a festival in Huayllabamba and a band had come to town to play music. We soon learned that festival songs all sound the exact same - Oscar told us that all of the songs start out the same, but the middle is different. We had to take his word for it, because we couldn't tell a bit. Imagine listening to a Wilson Philips song or an Air Supply song over and over and over. And then take out the vocals and replace it with loud brass instruments that are, at times, out of sync. It's just that annoying after a while. We also quickly learned that festivals are a good excuse for the locals to get wasted. They did. Tuesday, August 31th We woke up and took our own sweet time this morning. We were waiting for the porters to come and bring a fresh supply of food for the remainder of the journey. From here to Macchu Picchu, pack horses are not allowed on the trail as the government tries to maintain strict control over the number of people on the trail (500 per day) as well as manage the cleanliness of the trail. And so, we would be bidding adieu to our horses and Mario and Pedro. We had heard from others that prior to government intervention a few years back, the trail was filthy and overcrowded and the controls had really helped to preserve the trail. After breakfast, Oscar and the others got a soccer game going - they actually had a good size field up here in the mountains. What a stunning backdrop to boot! I didn't get too much exercise while playing, since I was stuck at goalie for virtually the entire match. But Zach was out and running with the rest of them as best he could. This was a very good thing. Finally, we had lunch and were introduced to our new porters: Pablo, Juan Carlos, Antonio, and another fellow named Pedro (who we promptly named Pedro 2). So, now we had a crew of 8 people to tend to me and Zach. We were royalty. The thing is, 7 or 8 is basically the minimum number of staff per group, just to carry the basics. From there, the rule of thumb is to add 1 porter for every additional 2 tourists. Since Zach was feeling so well, he opted to continue with the trip instead of heading out to civilization, the town of Ollantaytambo, which was about a day's hike away. Though he was feeling great, we weren't sure he was completely out of the woods, since we were at a drastically lower elevation than the night before. The agenda for this afternoon was an uphill hike for about 4-5 hours to go up approximately 850 meters. But we were both feeling really, really good, and made it up in 2.5 hours flat. In fact, we beat the porters up the hill, as well as Oscar. Of course, Oscar was weighed down by his backpack today, but we surprised them all by only stopping when Oscar needed a breather. In fact, I think we probably gained a little bit of respect from the fellas. As the rest of the tourists made their way up the hill and to the campsite, it was strikingly clear that we would no longer be able to enjoy the scenery in absolute solitude. But that's cool - after so many days on our own, I was ready to see and meet other people. Zach was getting on my nerves and he smelled funny. Wednesday, September 1st We got up early this morning to get on the trail before anyone else did. Oscar knew that we would have an advantage with being a small group, and was trying his best to take the opportunity to ensure that we weren't subjected to the clutter of tourists. We had another 400m uphill to get to the first pass of the trail at 4200m, and it can get really slow and cumbersome to have to continually try and walk around people who were going slowly. The scenery along this trail was already a ton more spectacular than the 3 day Salkantay portion, and we could clearly see why all of the tourists flocked to this trail. Even Oscar agreed that the scenery on this hike was the best around. There was the sun, some livestock, snow-capped craggy mountains, valleys, a village, and our trail back to the bottom all in view from the same point. I think Zach took something like 30 pictures of all of the different viewpoints, and a number of duplicates. At this point, I was just happy that he was feeling enthused enough to be taking way too many pictures to begin with. We reached the first pass before the majority of porters and in front of Oscar again. After relaxing a bit, we had our first sighting of "The Leprechaun", or at least that's what we called him. He wasn't dressed in green either, he was in all black. But he had this beret on and longer than necessary sideburns, and you could smell his cologne from a mile and half away. Okay, the cologne doesn't add to the leprechaun-ness, but I couldn't really leave that part out now, could I? Throughout the remainder of the trip, we passed The Leprechaun and he passed us - many, many times. And each time, we laughed to ourselves, as I am doing now. In true Zach style, he took 3 pictures of the guy. Descending down flagstone steps takes a serious toll on the knees, and takes a lot of time (for me at least). It didn't take long before my quads were screaming and my knees aching. The porters passed us pretty quickly as they ran, no... glided down the steps and into the cloudy murkiness below. The visibility on the other side of the pass wasn't the greatest, and there was a light mist in the air. After descending about 700 meters, we stopped for lunch at 3500m and relaxed for a bit. I admit - I was playing the part of a pansy a bit, since my knees were just killing me. But the next section was uphill, so it would be easier on the knees. Before long, we were on our way - there was a nice stopping point halfway up at a small set of ruins called Runkurakay. I don't recall what the significance of this place was. My mind was elsewhere. I think there must have been a heavy dairy product of some sort in our lunch, because I'm lactose intolerant and I really had to go and bad. And going out in the bushes just wasn't going to cut it. I continued up the hill, and was extremely frustrated to reach what I thought was the second pass on at least three different occasions. When the second pass finally arrived (at 3900m), it came and went quickly for me, as I was again off to the races. Oscar had informed me that the next set of bathrooms was at the next campsite (these campsites had nice constructed bathrooms instead of holes dug in the ground), and I was determined to get there as quickly as possible. After a descent of 300m, I passed the camera to Zach, who with Oscar headed to a beautifully preserved set of ruins called Sayaqmarka a mere 20 meters away. I virtually ran for the next 15 minutes to get to the campsite and achieve my relief. The porters were all surprised to see me so soon, as I waved hello and goodbye in a blur running by on my beeline to the crapper. Now you might be asking why I have opted to go into such exquisite detail of the resultant of my lack of tolerance for lactose. No real reason. I just have nothing better to talk about at the moment. Sue me. Thursday, September 2nd I slept horribly. I lost my dinner last night and spent most of the night awake, and to and fro the crapper. Fortunately for me, the crapper was very close by. When it was time to get up, I couldn't. I was exhausted, completely out of energy, a tad bit dizzy, a mild headache, and my stomach was still queasy. I just couldn't muster up the energy to move. But we still had to hike up to the third and final mountain pass today (at 3650m) and then down to our final campsite at WinayWayna (at 2650m). I don't particularly remember much of this day - I just remember it taking a really really long time, probably because I was stopping a lot. I do know that the trail passed through two tunnels carved by the Incas through stone because there was simply no other way to go around. My guess is that had I felt better, I probably would have appreciated this a bit more. And perhaps I would have discussed this appreciation a little more with you, my readers. I guess you'll just have to go for yourselves. At WinayWayna, I went to sleep in the tent, while Zach and Oscar went on another short trip to some nearby ruins. This makes the second set of ruins that I missed. However, I was able to experience most of it, thanks to the 200 or so pictures that Zach took. After a brief sleep, I felt much much better. Hot showers were available here, so we indulged of course. It took quite a while to scrape off the caked on layers of sunscreen and mosquito repellent. Yecch. I also learned that the electrical wiring for the hot water heating source would not have met NIOSH safety standards in the US. Thanks Zach. Friday, September 3rd We got up at 4:45 this morning so that we could be the first ones into Macchu Picchu. The park rangers open the gate at 5:30, and Oscar was determined to be first. We were. As soon as they opened the gate, we ran for a good half hour straight to be the first ones to the ruins. This would permit us to see the ruins without the plethora of tourists who would very soon descend on the site. From the Inka Trail, the entrance to the site was through Inti Punku, the sun gate. On the summer solstice every year (December 22nd - remember, it's the Southern hemisphere), the sun rises directly through this gate and hits the sun temple in Macchu Picchu. And the sun gate was an excellent place to get a postcard picture. For the next few hours, Oscar gave us a guided tour of the place. It was quite phenomenal. Apparently, the stone used here is extremely hard on the official hardness scale (something like an 8 out of 10). And the Incas carved these stones to perfect alignment to build the structure, since they had no real mortar. Macchu Picchu was built atop a mountain that is wrapped around on three sides by the Urubamba river. This offered the Incas excellent protection from enemy invaders. In fact, the city was only known to the royalty and clerics, and was vacated when the Spanish conquistadors arrived. The Spaniards never found Macchu Picchu. From far below, the city is virtually impossible to see as well. The site itself appears as though the area was literally shaved clean to build a city. It is just seemingly coming out of absolutely nowhere. By the way, there are very few artifacts at all located at the Macchu Picchu site. Hiram Bingham "discovered" the city in the early 1900s and took everything back with him to Yale University. Currently, the Peruvian government is trying to get Yale to return them, but no luck so far. Stupid Ivy League universities. Before long, we were exhausted from lack of sleep and the many days of hiking. We were ready to sleep in a proper bed. So we headed to the town of Aguas Calientes on the first possible bus to see if we could get an early train back to Cusco. We soon learned that we could not. Aguas Calientes is named for some naturally occurring hot springs that many choose to relax in. Having nothing better to do, we decided to check it out. These naturally occurring hot springs appeared to be nothing more than a glorified kiddie pool. We did not partake. So what else could we do? We headed to a smoky pool hall to play some pool with Oscar. Except that the pool tables were actually snooker tables, but we were playing with the standard-sized balls (snooker tables have much much smaller pockets). Even funnier were the posters hanging on the wall - most were of skimpy (and mildly unattractive I might add) bikini models from girlie mags. But one poster was of, I kid you not, Leonardo di Caprio. I'll leave it to you to come up with your own joke. The train ride home was long and boring and for the most part uneventful. Except that I lost my fleece somewhere along the way. And it wasn't just any ordinary fleece (and no, brother Neeraj, it was not an Old Navy performance fleece either), it was the fleece liner to my American Eagle ski jacket that I had at home. So now I'm bummed. Oh yeah - at one point, we actually did a pair of switchbacks on the train itself (forward, backward, then forward again), presumably to get up the mountain a little further or something. Very strange. Back at Hostal RumiPunku, we were relieved to finally be back in civilization. And we were anxious to get some food reminiscent of home. Somewhere along the way, all of the food started tasting the same. It seemed as though Peruvian food used the same spices in absolutely everything: cinnamon, oregano, and cloves. Don't get me wrong - it tasted good. But not good enough to only have this taste for every meal for a straight week. So we went to a restaurant to have a Western burger. Unfortunately, it tasted the same as everything else! Ack. Saturday, September 4th Had a wonderful wonderful sleep last night. Just exquisite. And relaxing. Very nice indeed. We were heading back to Lima this afternoon. In the Cusco airport, we met up with "The Leprechaun" and chatted for a bit. Apparently, he was from New Zealand. I guess we were a tad off on that one, eh? After arriving to Lima, we had a lot of time to kill - it was 3pm or so, and our flight home didn't leave until midnight. So, we headed back to Miraflores to eat at a restaurant we had eaten at two weeks before - because the food was good, and because the waitress was really pretty. Well okay - one of those reasons was Zach's rationale for returning, and the other was mine. We also both bought some insanely cheap original artwork from local artists there. We probably got ripped off, but it was still a ton cheaper than anything to be found in the States. On our way back to the airport, we took a detour to go to the P&G Lima plant. Zach's brand new plant manager had just been the plant manager at this plant in Lima, and told Zach to swing by, no matter what the hour or day, and someone would be able to give us a tour. Well, security and the shift supervisor at the plant didn't feel the same way. So they called the new plant manager at home on a Saturday night, and Zach had to talk and explain his way out of this one. And then they kept our business cards. We left thinking that the first thing we needed to do when we got back to work was to talk to our own plant managers and explain the whole thing, just in case the new Lima plant manager was pissed. As far as I know, we are both still employed. Alas, we have come to end of my tale. I hope you enjoyed it and didn't fall asleep too much. And Zach, hopefully I didn't miss anything or humiliate you too much. Until next time, adieu. Next time may not be that far off - my brother and I are headed to Costa Rica for a week in December. And for those of you who have had the pleasure of meeting my brother, you know that I'll have plenty of stories coming from that one. As always, please let me know if you want me to add someone else or subtract you from the distribution list. I'd hate to be categorized as spam. -Paraag Tidbits: 1. Peruvian establishments accepted both the local currency (Soles) as well as US Dollars. My recommendation is to always go with the local currency, to ensure that you are not subject to the whim of the establishment with regards to exchange rate. For the most part, people wouldn't accepted bills that had the slightest rip in them or that were old or worn. And older coins that had become a bit more rounded and smooth were also not acceptable to many. I think I saw nicer US Dollars there than I ever have over here. 2. Brand names often do not cross borders well. Our guide for this portion, Oscar, sported "N_gga" brand sunglasses, as in The Chappelle's Show's "N_gga Please" brand cereal flakes. I took a picture of the glasses for your viewing pleasure. Another example? Bimbo - a bakery company like Entenmann's or Wonder or Pepperidge Farms. Every morning, we'd get up and say, "Ain't nothing like some Bimbo cakes and Anis Tea to get your day started" (Anis is a type of herbal tea, that we purposefully mis-pronounced for the humour of this phrase). 3. What is up with European guys and capri pants? That's clearly a fashion statement that didn't need to be made. We must have come across at least 5-6 guys wearing these, and every time it took every ounce of energy to keep from making fun of them out loud. So we made fun of them to each other. And now I am making fun of them to you. Isn't life grand? 4. In Huayllabamba, Rolando's nephew (couldn't have been more than 3 or 4) was crawling all over the place (up on rocks, in and around a 4 foot sink, etc.) and at one point got hold of a knife and was carrying it around. No one seemed to be concerned at all. My sister's house, on the other hand, is completely baby-proof - from cabinet latches to gates to padding on every conceivable furniture edge, and so forth. Now I can completely understand why she is doing this, but certainly at some point we do more harm than good with childproofing everything. At some points, kids have to learn by experiencing. At some point, we've sanitized our lives so much that we can't live in the real world anymore. Ever wonder why the locals aren't the ones getting stomach viruses or blisters or colds or flus or anything like that? They've built up their immunities. I'm sure that I'll continue the trend and fall right in line with everyone else (a la childproofing and whatnot), but it makes you wonder. Or at least, it made me wonder. 5. If you want more info about our hiking trip, you can visit www.qente.com. For the most part, I would recommend them. From what I could gather, they paid the porters well (some outfits pay extremely poorly) and they were a class company. And the gear was top-notch. We had top quality tents, top quality sleeping bags, and top quality mattress pads. They certainly didn't skimp on price or quality.