By Emma Pennington
Firstly, what a magical country! I have been in Peru for almost a month now and have loved everywhere I have visited. We started in Lima and then, through a company called PeruHop, made our way through Paracas, Huacachina (a desert oasis), Nazca, Arequipa, Puno (on Lake Titicaca) and finally Cusco. The cities are beautiful, rich in history and the people are kind, gentle and deeply intent on preserving their ancient culture.
Amidst our travels, while in Arequipa, we came across the option of doing a two-day, one-night Colca Canyon trek. The promise of hiking the 2nd deepest canyon in the world, seeing the Condor in flight and being surrounded by volcanoes sounded appealing. Day One started with a 7km sheer descent, an alpaca stew lunch and then 7km up and down to our accommodation. Before starting our hike, our guide Raphael told us he had been doing this for 33 years and estimated he had done over 2000 treks. I was obviously impressed, but numbers that large are often difficult to comprehend, at least until Day two of the trek. We woke up at 4am, dressed and immediately started walking without so much as a “Good Morning”, let alone a much-needed cup of coffee! From the get-go we were hiking uphill. It was dark and I couldn’t see where we were going. After an hour and a half of uphill switchbacks without a single level area, we were halfway when Raphael said we could go at our own pace to navigate multiple uphill’s, false summits while contemplating one’s life’s choices, when I pondered….Raphael has done this 2000+ times, multiple times a week without as much ‘career’ choice, an unbelievable achievement as I battled to put one foot in front of the other. In Peru they call what I would call a hill, an ‘Inca flat’ which I think encapsulates the grit that Peruvians and Raphael possess, given their life0style choices!
The major bucket list item when visiting Peru is of course Machu Picchu (pronounced Pik-chu) and the many trek options you must get there (or the train if that’s more your style). True perseverance is required the Salkantay Trek. Five days, 75km and reaching our highest point at 4 650m. On the second day, after being woken up with Coconut tea, we started walking in mud towards a very snowy, ice-capped mountain. We were passed often by donkeys and horses casually carrying the bulk of our kit oblivious to our huffing-and-puffing hikers. On the way down a member from another group who was walking with us, Joseph, was badly injured, luckily one of the group members was able to medically check him out – after which he insisted on continuing and that the rest of us stop stressing about him. Joseph is a South Korean who has lived in Los Angeles for 30 years teaching tennis. Joseph is 68 years old, solo travelling South America because as he said, his whole life has been a battle between money and time. He demonstrated great determination and grit for the rest of the trek despite his injury, and I was very relieved to see him sitting behind me, still in one piece, on the bus home.
Travelling at a young age and given my privileged socioeconomic status has taught me much about what perseverance really means. While climbing a mountain will always involve determination and grit, doing it every day like Raphael does, doing it injured as Jospeh did, was an example to me. I learnt more about appreciation from Raphael and Joseph that I had anticipated, Two special people who live lives of harsh necessity and take it in their stride!
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