Semi-Charmed Life

This was the first day of our hike. I made the terrible mistake of bringing my DSLR with a whole bunch of lenses, which ended up making my backpack weigh about 24lbs. I know it may not sound like much, but this made my first day absolutely miserable. It felt like a ton of bricks on my back. This was probably one of the first pictures we took as a group. From left to right, it's me, Ridge, Danny, John and Kellie Thames. John and Kellie are father and daughter hailing from Texas. It was a great hike with them. Two of the most physically active individuals I have ever met. Kellie has ran in 4(I think) marathons, and John has competed in over 20!

This was taken on day 2 of our hike. The terrain was by far the most challenging of our 4 day hike. Luckily for me, I had already gotten rid of my DSLR and left it with the porters to carry, so although this was an extremely tough hike, I felt like it was easier than my first day. I believe the altitude was about 3800 meters. It's amazing how winded you get with each step you take at that altitude. It was very challenging but I loved every second of it. On the far right btw, is Alex, our guide. He was extremely informative and an overall awesome guide!

I think this was the same location as above.

After reaching the peak on the second day, we began our long stretch of downhill. Going downhill was a lot more fun than going uphill, although it was a lot more dangerous.

This was taken at the campsite we stayed at during our second night on the hike. Our first night, the skies were completely clear so that all the stars shone bright and beautifully. Our second night only had cloudy skies, but it was still a breathtaking view regardless.

This is a view of the same campsite as above but taken at dawn during our third day.

These are some of our porters and the chef on the left. His assistant chef is on the right. I thought the company we did it with, Llama Path, was extremely professional. Everything ran smoothly and the porters seemed enthusiastic. Our guide told us that Llama Path is a fairly new company, but they have recently developed an outstanding reputation for the treatment they give their porters. Not all companies treat their porters with the level of respect they deserve, but apparently many in the profession have jumped ship or want to jump to Llama Path because of this. The founder of the company was a former tour guide, which might explain why it's such a great company to work for.

I honestly did not expect the quality of food that we got during the trip. Breakfast, lunch and dinner was prepared every single day of the trip and each meal was pretty awesome.

In addition to dinner, we also have a "happy hour" that's sort of like a snack time that's right after we reach our campsite but before we eat dinner. We basically sat around the table where we were served coca tea, milo, coffee, crackers with all sorts of spreads, and popcorn. Peruvian happy hour is awesome.

Usually after dinner we'd play a game of cards around the dinner table before we headed back to our tents.