25 Junio
To save time when I am online, I will sometimes copy and paste from singular emails, just to try to keep people somewhat informed. The first part of this I wrote to our German friend Thomas, with whom we have been traveling. He got back from the traditional Inca Trail, and we had dinner with him last night, went dancing, and then had breakfast this morning. Then parted ways.
—————————————————————————————- Tim and I laid fairly low today. We priced flights for next Thursday, but they are too expensive. I am looking online now too. We may have to hope for the strike to be over and otherwise rely on Juan´s help. I am a bit anxious to move on as we have dallied too long and need to move on badly. We may skip Puno. Well, the flights were to La Paz, which is only a nice 1.5 hour ride to Copacabana, which I really want to go to and which is also on Titicaca. But I don´t know that it is going to end up that way. While I support the strike, I think I might stop saying Viva la Paro.
We had our briefing for Salkantay tonight, and it was kinda lame. They weren´t able to tell us our guide´s name or who else was on the trail with us. I figure this is because, like last year, multiple agencies work together to form a group with up to 11 people and one shared guide. I think it will be ok, but more than that, I believe Tim and I can handle nearly anything at this point.
————————————————————————————– Some of you may have seen on Facebook, but our first night in Cuzco, I ended up throwing up from an allergic food reaction. It was pretty cruddy. This was ironic because last year I threw up my first night here. Though that was alcohol and altitude related. I am totally fine now. Unfortunately, then Tim got ill- throwing up and a fever. He is recovering but is not fully well yet. He has kept down dinner tonight though, has had no fever all day, and has had more energy. HOWEVER, we start our Salkantay hike tomorrow. Tim is tougher than most people, so I have little doubt he will make it, but a few prayers are good. All types of people go, and they will wait for us if for some reason we need to go slow.
It´s a 5 day hike and we will be primarily totally off line. We get picked up at 430 tomorrow morning, and I am up WAY too late. It´s been a low key day though, and we will sleep on the bus to Mollepata where the hike begins. It will be utterly gorgeous, but not entirely easy. Happy thoughts and prayers appreciated. We will share the beauty with you as well as we can when we return. Blessings!
