Day 3 and 4 - May 7th and 8th Lake Titicaca

This was our first day of planned activity.  We left the hotel and were taken to the dock by "Peruvian Limo" .  It was great fun and I seem to have been able to throw my natural caution to the wind and enjoy riding down steep hills and cutting off motor traffic.  I felt like I was in the Amazing Race.  Our limo was second to arrive with only the guide beating us!  We hopped in our boat and started across the lake, passing the Uros Islands which we would stop at the next day on our way back.  It would be easy to feel like you were on the ocean - the lake is so large.

We reached Tequille Island and set off on our first hike.  We were quickly humbled.  As a group we didn't really know each other yet and all tried to keep pace with the guide.  Being at altitude for less than 24 hours it didn't take long before we were all huffing and puffing and agreed that none of us were in the shape we thought we were.  After we slowed down a bit we fared better and were rewarded with a most excellent lunch with a spectacular view of the lake.

After lunch we returned to the boat and headed for our home stay village.  We were greeted by a band and escorted up to the school where the men played soccer against the locals and actually won.  They were rewarded for their win by "getting" to play the other tour group that arrived after us.  Amazingly they won that game as well.  They were helped considerably by our two guides Henry and Martin.

After soccer we were dressed in traditional attire and the villagers demonstrated a traditional dance - then we got to try it.  It was great fun but exhausting at 3,800 metres.  When we had finished partying we retired to our homes for an excellent supper and an early bedtime.  The next morning we were able to help with chores after breakfast.  I'm not sure how much help we actually were but we herded sheep, harvested wheat, and our youngest helped haul the fish for lunch.

Altitude and slight dehydration were kicking my butt by this time and I was relieved when it was time to say good-bye to our family and return to the boat.  On our way back to Puno we stopped at the Uros islands and had a demonstration of how these reed islands were built.  The rest of the day was more or less lost on me as I just wanted to get back to Puno and go to bed.  The boys took an extracurricular hike up to the Condor that oversees the city.

Day 2 - May 6 - Lima to Puno - Lake Titicaca

We left Lima early this morning to fly to Juliaca.  From there we got on a bus to travel the hour or so to Puno.  Puno's altitude is 3,800 metres above sea level.  We took it easy, going on a walk around town, to the market to buy gifts for our home stay family and then out for supper.  The altitude effected most of us to some extent so it was good to take it easy.

May 5 - Day 1 - Lima

After arriving in the middle of the night we got up and explored the city a bit.  The concierge at the hotel set us up with a cab to the Plaza de Armas.  Truly one of the most terrifying driving experiences of my life.  First of all there were two spoons jammed between the dash and the windshield.  I really have no idea what they were for but I am fairly certain they weren't just there for the cab driver's lunch.  It appears that there are no traffic rules in Lima other than he who has the loudest horn has right of way.  At one point we turned left from the far right lane cutting off two lanes of traffic to the left of us and a city bus that was travelling in the opposite direction.  At that moment in time I didn't think we'd have to worry about how difficult the Inca Trail was!

In the evening we had our first group meeting and met our group leader Martin for the first time.  I had expected to be the oldest in the group but our group was sixteen people ranging in age from 21 to 73.  Most of us were from Canada but there were five currently living in the UK.

Peru Panorama May 2012

When we decided to hike the Inca Trail I did what I usually do.  I searched the web for information and blogs.  I found plenty of blogs but very few from the perspective of middle aged hikers.  I decided to document our family trip with G Adventures in case there were others out there looking for the same information I was.  Our family consists of Neil and I (both 52) and our 23 and 21 year old sons who had just finished university.

After reading about how difficult the hike was I decided that the best thing I could do was to be in good physical shape.  To that end I started going to a fitness boot camp twice a week and trying to fit in at least one more cardio session each week starting in January before our May 4th departure.  One thing I didn't do was train stairs specifically.  First of all I don't have access to a stairclimber or multi story buildings and secondly,  I was a little nervous about wearing out the knees before we trekked.  I did do many many squats and lunges to build up muscle in my four months of training.  I also walk daily with my dogs.

Neil didn't do anything specific to train but he does have a job where he does a lot of walking and stairs.

Neither of the boys felt the need to train (plus they were pretty busy with school).

We chose the Peru Panorama trip because I wanted to do the home stay and also because I felt that the extra few days at altitude would help with the trek.  From my talks with some others who had spent less time at altitude I think it was a good choice.