Trekking Companions

I was very fortunate to have a wonderful group of people to share in the trekking experience.

Eva and Lorna are a veterinarians from Ireland. They had come to do volunteer work on domestic animals in Iquitos, a large city on the edge of the Amazon. The work consisted of neutering thousands of stray and pet dogs. It seems as if every person here owns at least one dog, and the roam freely. As a fundraising effort Eva participated in The Great Amazon River Race . The race is 130 mile sprint down the Amazon on log rafts. She said it was the most grueling and awful thing she has ever done. None of her team of four vets had ever rafted before an none had been on the Amazon. After 3 days of rafting 9 hours, they came in 2nd place in the international competition. They finished a mere 3 hours behind the Peruvian team. Lorna watched the race from the relative safety of a spectator boat.

Andy is a network tech for a Canandian cable company. He is around the same size as me, and sticks out in the crowds of 5 ft men as much as I do.

Linda and Jim are a Australian couple living near Brisbane. Jim works in hardware store and Linda is an elementary school teacher. If you substitute hunting wallabies with deer hunting, growing up in rural Australia sounds much like life in the rural south.

Nicola and Alex are originally from Russia and now live in Canada. They both are excellent photographers and brought along the most expensive looking camera I have ever seen.

Tanya and Alex are another couple of Canadians. Alex wore shorts through almost our entire hike and Tanya kept asking why he signed them up for this.

Ara is a Armenian man who grew up in Iran and now lives in California. He owned a construction company and now works as an investor. Ara was my roommate/tent mate for the trek.

Linda is a Doctor from London. She seemed to a have an infinite knowledge of pharmacology and would have long conversations with the vets about what drugs they used on animals.

Cat is a web designer from Wimbeldon. She has a very funny laugh. We heard quite a bit of it after the combination of altitude and coca tea made her a little euphoric.

Umberto is our trekking guide. He life story is like something out a novel. He was the youngest of thirteen children. In the highlands, as soon as you are to big to be carried around by your mother you have to start working. At the age of five the career path for Umberto was shepard. At thirteen he went to live with an uncle in Lima. There he when to school and worked in a theater as and actor and folk dancer. 18 years ago he became an Inca Trail guide. He has made the 42 km walk almost once a week since 1988. His most amazing achievement is running the annual Inca Trail race in 6 hours and 30 minutes. The hike usually takes 4 days.