Stolen Donkeys!! Wait, What?

October 25, 2012

Since our wedding/honeymoon was fuel for the IMG blog I find it only fitting that I give everybody some closure to what was surely a white knuckled, edge of the seat read…
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What a night! We couldn’t have asked for a better evening. Good friends and family, great weather, open bar, and just a hell of a time. Everybody did their all to squeeze every last minute out of the night.

4 hours later…we woke up and grabbed some breakfast and quickly doubled checked the duffel before heading to the airport for the honeymoon in Peru. Machu Picchu should be on everybody’s bucket list, but naturally we thought since we’re in Peru, why don’t we go on an 8 day trek. Seems normal right? Just me, Erika, our friend/guide Maximo, our cook Hacinto and our mule driver Robert (not Roberto!) out trekking for a week between 12,000ft and 16,000ft, on our honeymoon. And who doesn’t take a Sat phone on their honeymoon!  Normal, not normal, who cares, everything worked out perfectly – drivers with signs with our names on it at every airport, train station or bus terminal – pretty sweet.

First stop was Cuzco, an amazing little-big town and a nice place to acclimatize for the upcoming trek. After a couple days touring the countryside we made our way to Machu Picchu – amazing and absolutely unforgettable. The next day we climbed Huayna Picchu, which gave us breathtaking views of Machu Picchu, worth ever step. Up was no problem, though the steep stairs down and nearly vertical drop on the side (no handrail) was a little unnerving, nevertheless we made it down in one piece.

Onto Huaraz where we met up with Maximo. He showed us around and then we hit the road… Trekking season was winding down which was great – we didn’t see any other groups on the trail. The weather wasn’t perfect, but it stayed dry when we were walking, saving the occasional downpour for the evenings. We may have missed a few views of the mountains, but we wouldn’t change a thing – except maybe losing two donkeys along the way. We’re still not entirely sure if they ran off or were stolen (it happens) but we left word in the local village and pushed on having to load up the horse (aka our escape vehicle should we have had any medical issues). The trek continued without another problem and we couldn’t be happier.

I’m back at my desk now cranking out emails, blog posts and answering boot questions, oh how I missed the boot questions.

Thanks for all the well wishes and kind words now let’s all get back to work!

Tye Chapman