My heart went out to this delicate girl. "Surely," I commiserated
politely, "that must have been a hard thing to watch?"
"Six weeks without protein," said Amanda. "I would have butchered
it myself."
Earlier that same day, Becky Warren, another member of our group,
had been hit by a taxi.
"I got up," said Becky, "and everything seemed to be fine, so why
not just move on?"
No doubt these are folks not prone to whining, good news
considering what lay ahead. Our itinerary: fifteen days traipsing
through
Peru's southern highlands. We spend some time touring
ruins, shopping at outdoor markets, or traveling by bus to the next
trailhead. But most days we are on the run, anywhere from four to
eighteen miles, most of them at altitudes ranging from 7,000 to
16,000 feet.
Something else about altitude. It requires climbing to get there.
"There will be a few climbs," warns Devy Reinstein before we start.
"Nothing is completely flat in the Andes."
Owner of
Andes Adventures, purveyor of this unique tour and
traditional hiking trips as well, Devy proves to be an
organizational genius. Wherever we go, Devy is barking into radios
and
cell phones, managing hotel and restaurant reservations (seven
nights of the trip are spent camping, the remaining nights in towns
along the way), setting up bus and helicopter shuttles, and
orchestrating the movements of fifty-seven porters who somehow have
camp and a hot Peruvian meal ready and waiting when we arrive in
nosebleed places.
Though possessed of the
energy and organizational skills of George
Patton, Devy apparently lacks the gene for judging difficulty,
time, or distance.
Eventually we settle on a system for deciphering Devy's assessment
of our upcoming day.
"Take anything he says and double it," suggests
Bob's wife,
Betsy.
The fact that we might be longer on the trail than Devy suspected
bothers no one. Like any wise adven-turers, my companions recognize
an elemental fact of exploration. The longer you are out there, the
more time you have to enjoy it.
And there is plenty to enjoy. We spend our first two days in Cuzco.
Once the capital of the Inca Empire, Cuzco remains South America's
oldest continuously inhabited city, a place where present and past
swirl about each other in a sea of red-tile roofs, 500-year-old
churches, and even older stone streets. We tour cavernous Spanish
churches heavy with gold and wander about museums where mummified
royal families squat in the fetal position so that they might be
easily reborn.