Day 4: Ralfing up to Camp Salkantay

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Today was Mike's day, No really! It was Mike's special Day!!! It was Mike's day to be the Co-Lead with Liz and share his BIG, which was what to do when he retires along with the poem that Liz shared at Breakfast with the following:

Mike’s Strength: Perseverance and True Compass:

Breaking Surface ~ Mark Nepo Let no one keep you from your journey, no rabbi or priest, no mother who wants you to dig for treasures she misplaced, no father who won't let one life be enough, no lover who measures their worth by what you might give up, no voice that tells you in the night it can't be done. Let nothing dissuade you from seeing what you see or feeling the winds that make you want to dance alone or go where no one has yet to go. You are the only explorer. Your heart, the unreadable compass. Your soul, the shore of a promise The sun goes behind the clouds and all the colors turn to brown, then gray…then black. We’ve gone afield on purpose. In this darkness, we know Still we know That this is the place. This place here - Way out here - where grace and alchemy roam amid the shadows where creativity and meaningful work are forged out of a rough togetherness.

After reflecting on the message, the Team packed up and headed out finally on the road to Machu Pichu!

The Game plan for the day was Liz was taking the Team by Bus to the Town of Mollepata for a special event, then to the Inkan ruins of Tarawasi. From there, they were going to hike a up a couple hours on the Inkan Trail up an gently incline to the first stop on the Trip, Camp Salkantay, right at the base of the Pacific side of the Peruvian Andes.

On our way to Soraypampa!!

The Team trekked in the Bus for a couple of hours with Mike and Bone in the back guarding the luggage kibitzing with Mike Stephanik and Bruce Tyler. It was a fairly uneventful ride that ended around noon in the mountain Town of Mollepata.

Liz, and one of our new Friends at the Women's Shelter

The first stop was Mike's opportunity as Co-Leader for the Day for a Team "Giveback"! Liz had developed a relationship with an Abused Women's Shelter in Mollepata. Women would go to this shelter to escape abusive relationships and learn skills that would allow them to become self-sufficient. The Team walked into what felt like a store front which in fact it is what the front of the Shelter is! The skills the women learned were those to make clothes and tourist gifts that help fund the Shelter. As the Team looked around, it was all high quality items.

Liz and Mike, The Team Co-Leaders giving a Donation

Since it was Mike's Day as Co-Leader, He and Liz contributed the Giveback funds that each member gifted in the beginning of the trip. The really good thing is if you give 100 bucks here is like a $1,000 dollars in the States, so the Team's contribution was not only appreciated, it would make a really impact. The gift ensured that every Team Member received kisses and hugs from all the women in the shelter that day.

The kisses and hug, were not only wonderful and heartfelt, they were great marketing! Most everyone on the Team bought at least one gift at the Shop! Afterword's Liz took the Team to another place in the Village for a box lunch in a very cool place.

"Rotten Tomatoes is more than a Movie Review Aggregator!"

The Team had their box lunch in a picturesque outdoor piazza in the center of town with the Andes in all their glory in view. Everyone was in a great mood from the moving ceremony at the Women's shelter, everyone chit-chatted and enjoyed their lunch, except Bone, he was not too wild about the tomato on his sandwich, but more on that later...................................... Next was a archeological tour,,,,, then the Inkan Trail!

"Straight Outta Compton! .... er.... IBM!" in Mollepata

The 20 minute trip west of Mollepata took the Team to the very cool Inkan archeological site of Tarawasi!

Touting Tarawasa

Tarawasi is an archaeological complex that is admired for its typical Inka architecture and remarkable location on the Inkan Trail. The Town was used as a ceremonial center and a resting place for the Inka chasquis (Inka runners who delivered messages over long distances). In Tarawasi they have stone altars ("usnu"), agricultural terraces, fountains and irrigation canals. Tarawasi consists of a large platform with walls of carved and joined stones in a cell type style.

Touring Tarawasi's Flowering Walls ("!?!")

Tarawasi is a compound word of Quechua, "Tara" means spiny shrub that bears fruit and "was" means house. The historical tradition says that this place was ordered to be built by the Inka Pacahacutec with the objective to establish a resting place in the area on the road to Chinchaysuyo It is about 2,925 yards long, on the left bank of the river Limatambo.

The walls of Tarawasi are exceptional examples of Inkan polygonal retaining walls, noteworthy for its 28 human-sized niches, is in itself worth the trip from Cuzco. On the wall below it, look for flower shapes and a nine-sided heart amid the patchwork of perfectly interlocking stones.

After exploring Tarawasi for about an hour, the Team started to stretch their hammys and put on their hiking gear, the whole purpose of the Trip was finally gonna start,,,,,,

Everyone took off down the Trail with amazing energy and enthusiasm! The path was wide enough for several hikers and a team of horses, which is exactly what the Team had with all their gear on a team of 4 horses and two asses (Mike and Bone) who were not good as pack animals and started their typical Mike and Bone wise-ass dialogues and associated nonsense to a mixed response audience. The gender-specific audience of girls (who thought it nonsense) and boys ( who laughed their asses off) tolerated and taunted Mike and Bone up the hill.

Unfortunately, the stomach-churning humor was soon replaced by real stomach churning!!

About an hour in the easy walking Trail Bone started having a tough time keeping up with everyone and turned whiter than an albino in a chalk factory. Little did he nor his Teammates know that his earlier lack of respect for the Peruvian Gods of the Mountain,,,,,, or the bad tomato on his lunch was provoking an attack on the European sensibilities in Bone's belly!

Montezuma's Revenge is a diarrhea experienced by tourists after drinking water or eating food in Mexico as a result of a bacteria strain to which native Mexicans are immune. The illness is usually caused by drinking the local water or eating food that visitors aren't accustomed to, like unwashed, rotten tomatoes. It is a bacterial illness, always uncomfortable, and occasionally serious. Most cases are caused by the E. coli bacterium. Its name comes from Montezuma, the last Emperor of Mexico from 1502 to 1520 and was in power when the Spanish began their conquest of the Aztec Empire. The revenge element of the phrase alludes to the supposed hostile attitude of countries that were previously colonized by stronger countries, which are now, in this small but effective way, getting their own back. Since Bone was in Peru and Atahualpa was the last Inkan,, it hadda be Atahualpa's revenge!

Liz had a very kind junior guide Raul, stay with Bone, who fell behind the rest within a hour the first base camp.

Fortunate shined down on the Team and Bone, for as soon as the Team got out of view, Bone unloaded his stomach in a green soup-Exorcist style projectile fashion. Ironically it was as he was walking over a very narrow cliff on the Inkan Trail and ensured no one would have to suffer the results of his emptied stomach!

Unfortunately what took the Team only 40 minutes to finish, it took Bone and poor Raul 3 hours to get back. It fact it took so long that it was getting dark and Liz was ready to send out a search party. Boney walked into a VERY cool, posh place with the Team munching on tasty appetizers and enjoying cocktails, for which Bone would take no part in.

Mike and Liz helped the broken Bone into his bed to sleep with the Roxy Music song "Both ends Burning" cycling through his head during the frequent "runs" to the bathroom through the rest of the night.

It is interesting to note that was the FIRST time Bone threw up on a Mike and Bone adventure, dang it! Worse, he hadn't had one darn drink! Mike went out, enjoyed dinner with the Team and finished his day as Co-Leader with a great meal and drinks.