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Ep. 18: Bobby chats backstory of getting to the Inca Trail
69 Plays2 years ago
Join Bobby as he chats some of the details for the Inca Trail Machu Picchu trip. Recording is being done early in the am so he is whispering.
He chats cost, expedition group, medications and training for the trip. Logistics are also discussed on travelling to Lima and Cuzco.
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Transcript
Introduction and Motivation
00:00:00
Speaker
Hi there, y'all, and welcome to the Inca Trail Diaries. My name's Bob. You'll end up meeting Steffy Stuff along the way. I go by Bob or Bobby. I'm someone who lives in America, grew up in Canada, and decided that doing an Inca Trail track up to Machu Picchu would be something I'd be interested in.
00:00:24
Speaker
I want to take you along that little adventure and just kind of give you some insight. I'm part with Stuffy Stuff, a YouTube and podcast channel called Between Two Teeth. We're dentists. I'm an oral max facial surgeon. Stuffy Stuff's a periodontist. But we don't like to talk about teeth. What we like to talk about is getting out there and discovering things about yourself.
00:00:50
Speaker
discovering things about others and going on adventures.
Past Adventures and New Challenges
00:00:56
Speaker
We ride motorcycles. Last year at this time we did an Italian motorcycle adventure up into the Italian Alps and we like to get out there.
00:01:08
Speaker
For me, I'm kind of on the second part of life and trying to figure out, quite frankly, how to live my best life. Part of that is pushing myself, pushing myself to take adventures.
00:01:28
Speaker
This is 2023 and part of my push for myself this year has been to get out of my comfort zone and just kind of push myself physically.
Inspiration from Fellow Travelers
00:01:42
Speaker
we were doing a medical mission trip for Ukrainian citizens, Ukrainian refugees in the country of Poland a couple months ago. And one of our docs that was on the trip talked about the Inca Trail and just how big of a challenge it was, but how miraculous it was. And that sort of
00:02:11
Speaker
gave me the idea, gave me the incentive to consider this. So we want you to come along on the journey. As I said, you'll meet Stephie Steph. She's the more fun part of the two of us. I'm going to try to go through some practicality things. I'm a planner. That's what I do. I love to plan.
Exploring Lima and Barranco
00:02:32
Speaker
And so for us, we flew in from the United States to Lima. And we were in Lima for a couple days. Lima's right on the Pacific Ocean. Beautiful, beautiful little area. The weather's usually pretty nice. It doesn't rain a whole lot there. It
00:03:00
Speaker
It was safe to walk around, especially during the day. One of the things I was worried about was safety issues. But it was really nice, and we headed kind of in the southern part of Lima, a place called
00:03:17
Speaker
Barranco, B-A-R-R-A-N-C-O, and it's kind of a bohemian vibe. The dock that kind of had been on the Inca Trail from our mission trip had talked to us about that area and just said it was kind of a really neat feel and they've got lots of murals and great restaurants. And one thing that is difficult, it is difficult to figure out how to get beach access. They have a couple
00:03:47
Speaker
couple access points over freeways but you can figure that out on bronco and just get on google maps and kind of zoom in and you can kind of say oh okay that's how we get there um but it was a lot of walking our first day we did a nine mile walk from our hotel down to bronco and along the beach
00:04:08
Speaker
The beaches, there's a little bit of sand but lots of rocks and so taking some sandals can be a really good idea. But just gorgeous. And one of the things that was striking to me if you're sitting on the beach and you're listening to the water come in. I love the sound of waves crashing.
00:04:34
Speaker
listen to the waves as they go out especially on the rocks they just make a magical sound because they're the waves kind of throw these little tiny round rocks everywhere and it makes just a really really neat sound
00:04:50
Speaker
So we did that. We did that for a couple days. We actually loved that Bronco area so much. The second day, we went back and walked another 10 miles. Stopping at coffee shops and had some food. We ended up having a beautiful lunch at this place called Javier's, which was right in Bronco. It faces over the ocean. Had ceviche. Oh my gosh.
00:05:19
Speaker
I tell you, I hadn't had much ceviche in my life. Two of the best meals I think I've ever had were lunches in Barranco, just absolutely incredible food. And it was a weekday, wasn't busy at all. I think it was a Monday. And so we had the entire balcony overlooking the Pacific Ocean all to ourselves.
00:05:45
Speaker
So we finished off that day. We met with our group.
Travel Logistics and Preparations
00:05:50
Speaker
We ended up taking a travel, so I have no financial affiliation with the group. It's called Intrepid Travels. And it's a group of 11 people. Price-wise, it was actually fairly decent. It was about
00:06:08
Speaker
maybe $1,500 to $1,700 American for a guided trip. That includes hotels and food on the trail and that sort of thing.
00:06:22
Speaker
So we met with the group at the hotel and learned some logistics. And the plan was the next day to fly to Cusco, Cusco. So Cusco's high altitude, over 3,000 meters. That was one of my big worries. I've been at that elevation before in Colorado and stayed at that elevation overnight for multiple nights and not the easiest thing to do.
00:06:54
Speaker
From a logistics standpoint, I had actually started taking medication Diamox, prescription medicine, to help with altitude sickness. They also have coca tea, coca leaves, kind of everywhere. And that purportedly helps out. And we were there for two,
00:07:21
Speaker
Gosh seem like two nights. I think it was one night. No was one night What a neat town rich history I'd read a couple books or listen to a couple books going into that Going into this adventure to learn about Inca history
00:07:39
Speaker
And I'm not a historian. I won't bore you with my failed attempts at pronunciation of names and places. But for me, I'm a person that loves the planning and learning that information as I go into it. So if you're like that, get on there. A couple of the books were really, really long. One was Turn Right at Machu Picchu that
00:08:05
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Kind of talked about someone's exploration There's all kinds of books, but Cusco neat town. It's a little gritty. You know, you're gonna have panhandlers come up to you Some get pretty aggressive. I was offered marijuana and then cocaine in the first 30 seconds of walking down the street I'm fairly tall big guy and I stick out like a sore thumb and
00:08:35
Speaker
So I'm not going to blend in with anybody in Cusco. But it was really a neat spot. We ended up meeting a son of a friend to deliver something and watched a football game of Peru versus Brazil in a local pub. And it was just a neat, neat experience.
Experiencing Local Culture and History
00:08:57
Speaker
Great little coffee shops, beautiful little town.
00:09:01
Speaker
The next day, we went ahead and took a bus ride. And we took a bus ride that's a fairly bumpy bus ride. And I'm going to mispronounce this name. Olandom. Olandiambo. This is basically where most of the trains head out if you're taking a train up to Machu Picchu.
00:09:30
Speaker
And this is actually a beautiful quaint little town. It's not as high in elevation.
00:09:36
Speaker
I think it's maybe 2,000 meters. No issues really with altitude sickness here. But it's a smaller town than Cuscos. The views are absolutely beautiful. The sacred valley of the Incas is here. You can just look around and see some of the Inca facilities that were built into the mountains. Absolutely incredible and gorgeous. The streets are easily walkable.
00:10:07
Speaker
had incredible food. We had wama food, or no, alpaca hamburger. Figured, I gotta try that. We also had a little touch of guinea pig earlier on in the day, which is a traditional delicacy.
Packing and Gear Considerations
00:10:26
Speaker
so this is sort of officially the first day of our trek and it hasn't happened yet but the plan is we're going to take a bus ride to sort of the launching point one of our challenges we do have porters that are carrying things like our tents and our food they will carry a five kilogram duffel bag and that has things like our sleeping bag and then
00:10:54
Speaker
anything else that we need at the end of the day and that's actually a challenge to figure out what do you actually need what do you want and I think in life there's always that
00:11:12
Speaker
Issue of needs versus wants and I know when I was a kid and with my kid my kids everything is a Everything's in need But when you sit down at the end of the day you say well, you know, actually that's a lot We're not gonna have electricity. We have a YouTube thing that we need videotape and microphones and things like that so I have the solar panel that I'll
00:11:38
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let you know how that works out. I'm not overly confident that it's going to help a whole, whole lot, but we're going to give that a go. But so we have a five kilogram duffel bag and then our day pack.
00:11:55
Speaker
One thing I would highly encourage if you are considering taking the Inca Trail track or some other track is that you do some practice hikes with the shirts you plan on wearing and of course the boots you plan on using but also your backpack. I had purchased a smaller day pack
00:12:19
Speaker
And it just didn't feel right around my shoulders. I'm a pretty big guy. And the shoulder straps were not adjustable. And so I ended up using my full backpack that I've had for about 15 years. I know it. I've used it on several trips. I'm no hiking expert if I'm trying to.
00:12:42
Speaker
If you think I'm trying to make you believe that, I'm not. I'm the common hiker.
Final Reflections and Excitement
00:12:48
Speaker
I don't hike much. I've done some four-day trips in the Smoky Mountains with my boys that was backcountry. That does sound pretty tough, but it actually was a crazy, awesome experience that I wished I had of recorded that.
00:13:05
Speaker
I'm not in as great a shape as I'd like to be and this trip planning was about a month prior and so it didn't did not give me a chance to really well I ramped up my training too much and kind of hurt my ankle so that kind of tells you my mind frame shouldn't have done it
00:13:29
Speaker
But that's the way life goes. So I really look forward to kind of having you on this adventure. I'm using my regular old backpack, trying to figure out what should go in there. And it'll be an adventure. So I hope you come along on the adventure. As I said, this is sort of trekking day one before we've left. Come join us, y'all. Bye.