Preparing for Machu Picchu
May 17, 2010 at 3:01 pm 4 comments
Ben and I have decided that we will be hiking to Machu Picchu for our honeymoon. That means we have a lot of preparing to do. Not only do we have to go out and get hiking/camping supplies, but we also have to get in shape. The road to Machu Picchu is called the Inca Trail. The part of the Inca trail that we will hike was built to provide the Incas with “easy” routes to Machu Picchu. It goes through all kinds of environments including a cloud forest (sounds cool to me!). Most of the trail is a neatly groomed path made hundreds of years ago. That sounds easy, right? Well, the trail goes anywhere from 13,000 to 15,000 feet above sea level. For those of you that hiked with us on Franconia Ridge, that was only around 5,000 as is Mt. Washington. Altitude sickness is definitely a possibility!
There’s nothing you can do for altitude sickness, but in preparation of the 4 days of hiking the Andes, Ben and I are trying to follow a strict exercise routine. We’re trying to go to the gym and do the stairs every day possible. On the Inca Trail, where they couldn’t build a path because of the steepness, they carved steep stairs into the side of the mountains. We have to prepare ourselves for days of climbing stairs.
In addition to going to the gym (or playing softball or ultimate) we’re going on hikes most weekend. Since the Fells are close, we’ve been going there, but there isn’t too much challenging terrain there. We’ll be visiting the Blue Hills, and also want to plan a Mt. Washington trip this summer (who’s in???).
Yesterday we went to the Fells and it must have been Lady Slipper bloom weekend. Lady Slippers are orchids (I love orchids!!!). They had been in steep decline because they are such a unique flower. Like all orchids, the actual flowers are unlike anything you’ve ever seen before. Here’s the first one I saw in the Fells.
It was so amazing to see this growing in the wild. My dad showed them to me when I was a kid, and ever since then I have been searching for them in the woods. They were so mysterious for several years…then we ran into this
Holy Cow! So many Lady Slippers!
I was soooo surprised to see so many in one group. Little did I know that we would see HUNDREDS that day! Almost everywhere we looked we found groups of 10-20 Lady Slippers. I was so excited and will never forget the experience. It made me really excited for all of the plants we might see in the Peruvian Andes. What kinds of plants grow there? What are the really special plants to look out for? What is poisonous? What can we eat? I’m so excited to learn the answers to all of these questions. I’m such a nerd.
Entry filed under: Uncategorized. Tags: .
1. Joe H | May 17, 2010 at 3:10 pm
Gym exercise on the honeymoon? I guess Ben’s got to look good in that speedo that burns my eyes every time you lead me to this site
2. Dave H | May 20, 2010 at 2:23 pm
Priceless…</em
(PS, Machu Picchu sounds awesome!)
3. John C | May 18, 2010 at 5:02 pm
I don’t know that you’d really want to do this, but my housemate Daniel slept in a rented oxygen-deprivation tent for a few weeks before he went hiking near Everest. It’s a plastic bubble you surround the bed with, with some kind of pump that pulls out oxygen. You could ask him for more details.
I know it’s not super cheap, but it gets your body used to ‘high altitudes’ at least somewhat. He said it worked for him.
4. jenibenivici | June 1, 2010 at 3:52 pm
I’m late on commenting here, but I actually talked to Dan about that at games once. He said it was a few hundred bucks. From what I understand, even if you do that you don’t necessarily decrease your chances of altitude sickness, you just make your body used to the altitude so that your aerobic activities are easier. I’m feeling pretty confident that we’ll be ok in that respect since we’ll be staying in Cusco for a few days before the hike. At any rate, hypoxic tents sound like an awesome idea but might not be necessary for the hike we’ll be doing.