Day 6:  Sauntering to 15,234 ft on Pacchu Mama

Big ole Mama Picchu!

Everybody  put on their mountaineering gear such as walking sticks, gloves, and heavy jackets. Wobbly Bone was put on a Horse for a part of the early morning climb, his Blood O2 was still pretty low and had eaten only once in three days. No need to have him break down on the path to the top.

 

The Amazing View from the Lodge!

It was a glorious morning! Despite being around 35 degrees, the sun made it comfortable, and the hike uphill, kept everybody nice and toasty. The party start to head up the Inka Trail around 10:00 AM which was not much more that a two track through the mountains.  It was an amazing panorama, there were boulders the size of a house along the trail. Remember, this trail was over 5,000 years old, and had been walked over by man and beast (mostly mules) and was a trail, not a paved superhighway! Slowly but steadily everyone moved up into the increasingly thin air!

 

The Team on the Inkan Trail to Pacchu Mama!

As Liz led the Team, it did not seem to take that long, while people were sorta paired off for the trip, everyone took the time to chat with the rest of the Team.

For example Mike and Bone spent a quite of bit of time chit-chatting with Regine and Kat. Ron and Bruce inevitably talked to Bone and Mike S about the evils of Big Blue. All in all was a grand hike.

 

Peruvian Peaks Paradise!

 

No Trail of Tears Here!

During the trip up Liz talked about the Mountain and its religious significance. Mount Salkantay is the highest peak in the Vilcabamba mountain range in the Peruvian Andes. It is 40 mile west-northwest of the city of Cusco and is the 38th-highest peak in the Andes, and the twelfth-highest in Peru. However, as a range highpoint in deeply incised terrain, it is the second most topographically prominent peak in the country, after Huascarán.

The name Salkantay is from sallqa, a Quechua word meaning wild, uncivilized, savage, or invincible, and was recorded as early as 1583. The name is thus often translated as "Savage Mountain.

"Why does the Trail pass Mount Salktankay?" Location, location, location Mount Salkantay is in the path from Cuzco to Machu Picchu. In Machu Picchu lies directly north at the end of a ridge that extends down from Saltanktay.

When viewed from Machu Picchu's main sundial, the Southern Cross is above Salkantay's summit when at its highest point in the sky during the rainy season. The Incas associated this alignment with concepts of rain and fertility and considered Salkantay to be one of the principal deities Pacchu Mama, controlling the weather and fertility in the region west of Cuzco.

 

Religiousity

It would make sense that Pacchu Mama who is a goddess revered by the Quechan people in the Andes as a provider. She is also known as the earth/time mother. Inca mythology, Pacchu Mama is a fertility goddess who presides over planting and harvesting, embodies the mountains, and causes earthquakes. She is also an ever-present and independent deity who has her own self-sufficient and creative power to sustain life on this earth.  Her shrines are hallowed rocks, or the boles of legendary trees, and her artists envision her as an adult female bearing harvests of potatoes and coca leaves. The four cosmological Quechua principles – Water, Earth, Sun, and Moon – claim Pacchu Mama as their prime origin. Inkan priest sacrificed llamas, guinea pigs, and elaborate, miniature, burned garments to her. After the conquest by Spain, which forced conversion to Roman Catholicism, the figure of the Virgin Mary became united with that of the Pacchu Mama for many of the indigenous people. Quechan's that they passed on the trail would often be wearing local Pacchu Mama symbols with their Catholic crucifixes.

Between chit-chatting and Liz's story, the Team did not realize that it was two and a half hours in and ready for a lunch break!

 

 

 

 

The Team lunched and munched in Alpine scenery and serenity! There was a constant cool breeze running through the mountain which created a sonic experience at altitude. A very cool place for lunch. For the final push Bone was well enough to walk (and quickly lag behind) Mike and the rest for the final push for the summit.

The higher they went, the more the breathing was louder and the quads aching, finally around 3:30, success! They peaked!

 

It was a glorious moment! The high point of the Trip!

No really! It was the high point of the Trip!!!

The rest of the Trek was downhill towards Macchu Pichu! The Trail at this point is 15,234 feet (higher than Mount Rainier!) and is the highest place on this part of the Trail.  So the light-headiness was not to the giddy attitude of victory, but the giddiness of the altitude!

The Team Trekin' in a Downward Spiral

As the day began to wane, the breeze picked up and got cold quick! Fortunately the laws of gravity, so old and resolute proved yet again that going down is easier than going up. and the Team boogied quickly down to the Camp for the night in an unbelievably iconic scene of a solid granite wall on the south end of the Mountain, a simply amazing site!

 

The Unbelievable Wayra Lodge!

The Wayra Lodge was their accommodations for the night and had an amazing location around 12,000 feet on a bluff with an amazing cliff protecting the Lodge, the Team marched in for the evening festivities.

 

The Astonishing Power of a Pisco Sour!

After an amazing meal with the Team still glowing about the hike to the Peak, Mike and Bone learned about another of Roju's many skills, that of Bartender. Especially of the Peruvian treasure called the Pisco Sour! A Pisco Sour is an amazingly tasty, creamy of Peruvian. The drink's name comes from pisco, which is its base liquor, and the cocktail term sour, in reference to sour citrus juice and sweetener components. The Peruvian pisco sour uses Peruvian pisco as the base liquor and adds freshly squeezed lime juice, simple syrup, ice, egg white (which gives it its creamy texture), and Angostura bitters.

Although the preparation of pisco-based mixed beverages possibly dates back to the 1700s, historians and drink experts agree that the cocktail as it is known today was invented in the early 1920s in Lima, the capital of Peru, by the American bartender Victor Vaughen Morris.  Morris left the United States in 1903 to work in Cerro de Pasco, a city in central Peru. In 1916, he opened Morris' Bar in Lima, and his saloon quickly became a popular spot for the Peruvian upper class and English-speaking foreigners. The pisco sour underwent several changes until Mario Bruiget, a Peruvian bartender working at Morris' Bar, created the modern Peruvian recipe of the cocktail in the latter part of the 1920s by adding Angostura bitters and egg whites to the mix.

Cocktail connoisseurs consider the pisco sour a South American classic. Chile and Peru both claim the pisco sour as their national drink, and each asserts ownership of the cocktail's base liquor—pisco; consequently, the pisco sour has become a significant and oft-debated topic of Latin American popular culture. Peru celebrates a yearly public holiday in honor of the cocktail during the first Saturday of February.  

On this evening, the Team celebrated, the Day, Pacchu Mama, each other and after 5 or 7, Mike and Bone toasted the Pisco Sour!!! The Boys were the last to leave the blessed blender as the booze ran out and turned in around 11:30.