Big Five – FeedWe are one month and two days into our 51st year, and this week I am reflecting on our beginnings in Peru 31 years ago. My father was so excited when it happened. I was a child in school in Long Island New York and sadly couldn’t pinpoint Peru or Botswana on a map. In fact, my father would ask me regularly about the locations of Machu Picchu and the Okavango Delta. Not carrying out a world atlas bigger than my head, and Google Earth not yet invented, I had no chance. It was embarrassing especially as I came from a travel family.
In the years since, I spent countless visits to Peru exploring northern Peru. In 2018, some of you may have read about a minor train accident on the way to Machu Picchu. I was on the second train, and our very own Gisela Polo was on the train in front of me. To this day, my father and I say that she was partying for her birthday, and the conductor was distracted which caused the accident. We knew the reason had more to do with locals on the track, however we won’t tell her that! My wife, children, and our famous guide, Cris, who many of you know, were on the train with me. Ten hours on the track later, the conductor apologized that we would not reach Machu Picchu. I was grateful for having 10 uninterrupted hours with my family and was not bothered that we missed Machu Picchu. It wasn’t until a few days later, when we were exploring parts of northern Peru around Kuelap and Chachapoyas, that I became infatuated with everything other than Machu Picchu. In every visit since the focus has been to explore new areas from Illescas to Huaraz and beyond. In fact, my planned trip this October will blaze a new trail again and I cannot wait! I’m sure my father and his avatar will have something to say about it just like it did in this week’s video.
When the team here started to develop new glamping experiences in remote areas of Peru, including Waqra Pukará, you can imagine my excitement. This is the Peru I love exploring, and it doesn’t matter if I’m climbing up the side of a cliff on via Ferrata or hiking around glacier lakes that easily belong in Patagonia. I even cracked the so-called undestroyable rear axle of a Toyota Hilux in Illescas in search of a new path to the peninsula which was a little moment of pride. I wrote to the Toyota engineers who said that the axle couldn’t be cracked and said… whoops. It’s still a source of laughter for everyone here.
Stay tuned for some exciting products coming out soon on the best lesser-known hikes in Peru, customized in #bigfivin fashion, vs standard group hikes. This even includes a few true glamping experiences that make even the most challenging of historic treks even more rewarding. Enjoy this week’s video from Waqra Pukará that one of our country managers, Nico, recently summited.
Time to go “Back to the Future.”
