Our Trip to Peru -- The Hike Begins

On Thursday evening we met the others in our hiking group (all Americans, save for two English couples) and our guide, whose given name was (I kid you not) -- Washington. His father had been and admirer of George Washington and named his Peruvian son after the first American President.

Early the next morning we began our trip. Our convoy headed out and the cars let us off about three miles from our first night's lodge. And so we began our walk. Over the next 6 days we would go approximately 39 miles and climb more than 2 miles up and down in elevation change.

The lodges were a chain operated by the Mountain Lodges of Peru. Each one is constructed at distances that are a day's walk from each other. Only the first one is accessible by road. All of the remaining lodges were constructed using materials that were carted in by hand or by burro.

Despite their isolation, the lodges are models of hospitality. They were, in a word, spectacular. When we arrived at the first lodge (pictured above) after a short 3 hour acclimatization hike we were met by staff who gave us a cup of hot tea and a cold towel to wipe off the dust and grime. They took our poles and carefully put them away, and then took our boots away, to be returned to us after they had been cleaned. The next morning they were all carefully laid out by the door.

The other service at the lodge was gracious. Each had a small bar (the local specialty is a drink called the pisco sour which is an absolute killer) and a hot tub. The view on the left is the view from the hot tub at the first lodge of Mt. Salkantay. Our goal, in the hike was to cross the pass below Salkantay's peak -- basically walking through the notch on the left side of the photograph.

After a fine meal (our chef followed us from lodge to lodge and his cooking could easily match up against some of the good restaurants in Washington DC) we retired to bed, there to find that our towels had been twisted into an origami of swans and that two hot water bottles had been put in the bed to keep our feet warm. Talk about being well treated. If you ever want to go on a hike but have a nice place to stay each evening, this is the way to do it.

And so, our trip began. The next day we took a second hike to get the feel for the thin air. The lodge was actually at about 12,200 feet. On the second day we took a short 4 hour hike to a glacial lake up at about 14,000 feet. As we walked we could see the tops of Salkantay and her companion peaks -- all at about 20,000 feet. Remarkably, we could see an Andean Condor circling the top -- at a guess the condor was up around 22,000 feet. Even at that distance and through binoculars you could see how magnificent he was.

The glacial lake was well worth the trip. You could see the moraine left by the glacier and the ice-blue water of the lake was stunning. We found the trip up and back a challenge -- it was not so hard on the legs, for we were well prepared physically, but the thin air was quite a noticeable factor. Still, after two days of preparation work, we thought we were ready to climb across the Salkantay pass.