In my last post, in January, I let those who have so much spare time that they read this blob, know that I was going to Peru for a 5 day trek to Machu Picchu.

As Priscilla was driving me to the train station, for the second time Monday (the first time we got there and I had left my phone at home) to catch the train to the airport she asked me a funny question. “Why Peru, and why climb for 5 days to Machu Picchu?” Well the question wasn’t funny, it was just funny it took her this long to ask. My answer was short and sweet – “because it is a place that has fascinated me since I was a kid.” That is the truth, but not the whole truth. The first part – the Peru piece is easy, that’s where the ancient ruins of the last great strong hold of the Inca peoples are. What Yale archeologist and the inspiration for the movie character Indiana Jones, Hiram Bingham called “the Lost City of the Incas.” So basically because – it is there.

The fuller answer is, as always a little more complicated, it is that I have always had a part of me that loved adventure but was afraid to act on it. Afraid of shirking my responsibilities as a husband and father, afraid to spending money that could/should be spent elsewhere and possibly a little afraid of failure (not my comfort zone). Well things have changed, the kids are grow (most days), I have discovered the shocking truth that Priscilla does just fine on her own and in fact she keeps a list of movies that I don’t want to watch and as for finance, you only live once and let me tell you I am not getting any younger. As for failing, I now know that the truth is in the adventure not the “summit” and my walk in Spain last year taught me that I am capable of some things that even surprise me and I expect that you are as well.

So here I am sitting in the courtyard of a very cool little hotel in Cusco, Peru at just over 10,000 feet acclimatizing for the next three days before we begin our climb. A climb that will reach nearly 16,000 feet on the second day.

I love to travel, I love to walk, I love to experience new and very different places but most of all I love having a wife who understands me, for better or for worse, for richer or for poorer blah blah blah…..

Here are a few picture from the journey so far and I’ll write some more in a day or two before I am in that rarest of all place – a WIFI free zone.