Thanks to the construction of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, which is to be inaugurated in 2010, approximately 60,000 Brazilian tourists will arrive to Cusco's Imperial City every year.
Furthermore, the construction of the highway will allow farmers to sell their products to markets in the neighboring country, said Jean Paul Benavente, head of Cusco's tourism and foreign trade directorate.
He explained that one of the government's first goals was to generate more tourism from Peru's rainforest regions to the highlands and then to the country's coastal areas.
Benavente explained that to do this it would be necessary to create areas where tourists could rest and even shop. Among these key areas were the communities of Quincemil and Marcapata.
Aside from building the new highway, construction companies and government agencies are working on fostering tourism in the areas near the new road, said Benavente, explaining that projects were already taking place in the regions of Puno, Cusco and Madre de Dios.
Driving along this highway will be a very interesting experience for tourists, said the head of Cusco's Chamber of Tourism, stating visitors would be able to go from the jungle which is 200 meters above sea level to the Andes, which are 4,700 meters above sea level.
resource: livinginperu.com
Saturday, May 9, 2009
Peru: A walk in the clouds to Machu Picchu
Trekking to Machu Picchu traditionally means roughing it on the Inca Trail. But if you take the lesser-known Salkantay Pass, you can break your journey in comfortable lodges, says Anna Murphy.
There were a number of things that had long made me want to walk the Inca Trail: the idea of scaling the Peruvian Andes; of feeling as if you could reach out and touch the clouds with your hands; plus the thought of walking early one morning into the ruined city of Machu Picchu.
Added to which, this company seemed to take the risks of altitude sickness seriously, making you spend a day acclimatising at the first lodge (at 12,705ft) and from there doing a trial day trek to just over 14,000 ft to check that your body is up to the challenges ahead. It sounded just the trip for me.
We were to meet the rest of the group in the mountain city of Cuzco. It proved to be one of the most wonderful places I have ever visited. Clinging on to the mountainsides, its perilously steep cobbled streets were lined with pretty 19th-century houses with blue doors and balconies.
The foundations of many of these buildings were huge Flintstones-style rocks which once formed part of the earlier Inca city upon which Cuzco was built. What else made the place so special? Its pretty garden squares and rococo cathedral and churches.
Then there were the brightly dressed women down from the villages, leading a recalcitrant llama or two and carrying a baby (child or sheep) in a papoose over their shoulders.
There was the stunning Museo de Arte Precolombino, and the beautiful shops selling less precious versions of what was in the museum, bits of old Andean embroidery, and countless little carved stone animals – sheep and llamas, mostly.
And not forgetting the excellent restaurants and the pastry-producing nuns who sell their melt-in-the-mouth croissants for pennies at the Panaderia El Buen Pastor. But above all else it was just an atmosphere, an uplifting sense of serenity, that made it a difficult town to leave. Then again, that might have been something to do with the growing sense of dread I was feeling. And not just about the actual walking.
A group trip, my friend and I came to realise, as we gathered to meet our co-trekkers, is like an extended blind date. What if you don't get on? We were the only two English people, it transpired; the other seven were from the US. Our differences soon became apparent. Most obvious was our approach to altitude.
What was the highest altitude we had ever been to, the others asked. We were stumped. Well, what altitude did we live at? Stumped again. For Americans, it seems, altitude is something one knows about, and – in this context – talked about at length. They lived in high-up places like Denver (5,281ft) or went up mountains at the weekend.
In the UK, we told them, unless you are a mountaineer, you never thought about such matters. It transpired that we were also, by the group's calculation, woefully under-medicated. I know the importance of packing things like Dioralyte and Imodium, and I always have some paracetamol in my travel medical kit.
But suddenly we were with people who would put a high-street chemist to shame when it came to painkillers and God knows what else. We felt both afraid (was it really going to be that bad?), and relieved (well, if it was, we were with the right people). We drove for several hours, passing adobe villages, each house with a tiny cross on its rooftop flanked by terracotta animals, and women dressed in the traditional embroidery accessorised with many bits of different coloured knitwear. Some were wearing bowler hats, too, a sign of status. When we began to walk it was on an easy track, but already the views were epic.
The slopes were a scrubby brown colour, but above them were vast snowy mountains, one minute sharply drawn by sunlight, the next festooned with garlands of clouds. The first lodge, which we reached in about two-and-a-half hours, was situated on a high plain between two giant snowy peaks. We arrived just in time to watch the sun set, turning the snow as pink as bubblegum, and to watch the poor souls who were camping pitch their tents on a small campsite near the lodge. Even after a minute on the lodge terrace I felt as if my blood
was freezing.
The lodge, like all those we were to stay in, was architecturally stunning, built to reflect the environment with a multi-peaked roof and adobe walls. It was simply and comfortably furnished and, best of all, warm. The campers were long gone when we started out at 8am the next morning. Our two guides explained that campers generally became too cold to sleep, so start out as early as 4am. Most carried their own backpacks, too, which may not sound like much until you experience how hard it is even to transport your own weight at about 15,000ft. Today, the acclimatisation day, we would return to the same lodge, but for the days ahead our luggage would be carried by mule. But we had the "ambulance" with us, a saddled mule, should anyone find the altitude too much.
It proved to be a glorious day, as we walked up to a blindingly blue glacier lake, with giant condors circling high in the skies, looking tiny despite their 35ft wingspan. There were huge rococo cornices of snow hanging off the top of the slopes, as if a giant plasterer had gone crazy with the Artex, and beneath them, the icy glaciers crept and crunched their way imperceptibly down the slopes (sometimes you would hear one of them shift, or catch the deeper rumble of an avalanche).
Quickly we began to understand something of the mountains, the way the temperature can rise or fall with unbelievable suddenness depending on your altitude, as can your ease of breathing – just a few hundred feet making all the difference. A big part of the day was giving us psychological strength – the highest point of the trek ahead of us would be only 1,000 ft higher than we had gone today.
We had done this; we could do that, too. The next day would be, we were warned, the toughest. Within an hour of leaving the lodge we had climbed 1,000 feet – yes, my friend and I too were becoming altitude bores – following a serpentine celandine stream up through a series of flat, grassy plains cupped between the foothills of the mountains. Then we had an incredibly hard hour-and-a-half of ''switchbacks'', a series of zigzags and the only way to climb what at times feels like a near-vertical slope.
Physically they are tough, but mentally they are even tougher as at times, turning back on yourself again and again, it feels as if you are going nowhere. Even so, the isolation that I felt – a glorious kind of oneness in which there is just you and the breathtaking natural world – made it bearable. Finally we reached another much higher plain where we were to have a break.
And there, above us, was a truly magical thing – a rainbow encircling the sun, the sky within it a darker and more luminous blue than the sky outside it. We continued, climbing higher still, the ground now rocky scree and the temperature turning from hot to freezing.
However fit you are, you have to stop and take regular short breaks (but not for so long as to let your body temperature fall). But no one in the group, who ranged in age from twentysomething to sixtysomething, was suffering from any altitude sickness, thank goodness.
Every so often a couple of locals passed, leading mules laden with everything from gas canisters to giant boxes. Their mouths and teeth were black from coca leaves, which they chew for energy and to alleviate altitude sickness.
Clamped to their ears there was often a tinny transistor radio; sometimes the women spun wool as they walked, spindle in one hand, wool in the other. We reached the highest point, at 15,340ft, and had our photos taken at the Salkantay Pass sign, but it was far too cold to linger, and we were eager to begin to make our way down the other side.
The next two days brought many more wonders, like our walk through the cloudforest, a kind of jungle that is, as its name suggests, so high up as to be in the clouds. Here we saw countless orchids, myriad butterflies, and an iridescent hummingbird slurping nectar from a flower right by the path. Finally, on our last day, we glimpsed the reason we were all there: Machu Picchu, on a mountain directly in front of us.
Yet suddenly it dawned on us that Machu Picchu wasn't why we were there after all; it was the trek itself that had become the raison d'être of our trip. When we visited Machu Picchu the next day (the only disadvantage of this trail is that you can't actually walk into the ruins), we found it amazing but somehow beside the point. It sounds pretentious, but somewhere back there, up in the mountains, we experienced something else, something other, and none of us will ever forget it.
resource: telegraph.co.uk
There were a number of things that had long made me want to walk the Inca Trail: the idea of scaling the Peruvian Andes; of feeling as if you could reach out and touch the clouds with your hands; plus the thought of walking early one morning into the ruined city of Machu Picchu.
But there was a raft of other things that put me off. The horror stories about altitude sickness. The idea of camping, when night-time temperatures – even during the hiking season of May to September – regularly drop to below freezing. Finding yourself caught up in a peculiarly 21st-century commuter belt as you and up to 500 other people each day passed each other on a rubbish-strewn and erosion-stricken pathway.
Then last year I heard of the Mountain Lodges of Peru, a small company that had recently opened four Andean lodges, each a day's walk apart along a trail called the Salkantay Pass. Here was the chance to sleep in something approaching if not luxury then comfort, and to walk a trail upon which you might come across only one other group a day if you were unlucky.Added to which, this company seemed to take the risks of altitude sickness seriously, making you spend a day acclimatising at the first lodge (at 12,705ft) and from there doing a trial day trek to just over 14,000 ft to check that your body is up to the challenges ahead. It sounded just the trip for me.
We were to meet the rest of the group in the mountain city of Cuzco. It proved to be one of the most wonderful places I have ever visited. Clinging on to the mountainsides, its perilously steep cobbled streets were lined with pretty 19th-century houses with blue doors and balconies.
The foundations of many of these buildings were huge Flintstones-style rocks which once formed part of the earlier Inca city upon which Cuzco was built. What else made the place so special? Its pretty garden squares and rococo cathedral and churches.
Then there were the brightly dressed women down from the villages, leading a recalcitrant llama or two and carrying a baby (child or sheep) in a papoose over their shoulders.
There was the stunning Museo de Arte Precolombino, and the beautiful shops selling less precious versions of what was in the museum, bits of old Andean embroidery, and countless little carved stone animals – sheep and llamas, mostly.
And not forgetting the excellent restaurants and the pastry-producing nuns who sell their melt-in-the-mouth croissants for pennies at the Panaderia El Buen Pastor. But above all else it was just an atmosphere, an uplifting sense of serenity, that made it a difficult town to leave. Then again, that might have been something to do with the growing sense of dread I was feeling. And not just about the actual walking.
A group trip, my friend and I came to realise, as we gathered to meet our co-trekkers, is like an extended blind date. What if you don't get on? We were the only two English people, it transpired; the other seven were from the US. Our differences soon became apparent. Most obvious was our approach to altitude.
What was the highest altitude we had ever been to, the others asked. We were stumped. Well, what altitude did we live at? Stumped again. For Americans, it seems, altitude is something one knows about, and – in this context – talked about at length. They lived in high-up places like Denver (5,281ft) or went up mountains at the weekend.
In the UK, we told them, unless you are a mountaineer, you never thought about such matters. It transpired that we were also, by the group's calculation, woefully under-medicated. I know the importance of packing things like Dioralyte and Imodium, and I always have some paracetamol in my travel medical kit.
But suddenly we were with people who would put a high-street chemist to shame when it came to painkillers and God knows what else. We felt both afraid (was it really going to be that bad?), and relieved (well, if it was, we were with the right people). We drove for several hours, passing adobe villages, each house with a tiny cross on its rooftop flanked by terracotta animals, and women dressed in the traditional embroidery accessorised with many bits of different coloured knitwear. Some were wearing bowler hats, too, a sign of status. When we began to walk it was on an easy track, but already the views were epic.
The slopes were a scrubby brown colour, but above them were vast snowy mountains, one minute sharply drawn by sunlight, the next festooned with garlands of clouds. The first lodge, which we reached in about two-and-a-half hours, was situated on a high plain between two giant snowy peaks. We arrived just in time to watch the sun set, turning the snow as pink as bubblegum, and to watch the poor souls who were camping pitch their tents on a small campsite near the lodge. Even after a minute on the lodge terrace I felt as if my blood
was freezing.
The lodge, like all those we were to stay in, was architecturally stunning, built to reflect the environment with a multi-peaked roof and adobe walls. It was simply and comfortably furnished and, best of all, warm. The campers were long gone when we started out at 8am the next morning. Our two guides explained that campers generally became too cold to sleep, so start out as early as 4am. Most carried their own backpacks, too, which may not sound like much until you experience how hard it is even to transport your own weight at about 15,000ft. Today, the acclimatisation day, we would return to the same lodge, but for the days ahead our luggage would be carried by mule. But we had the "ambulance" with us, a saddled mule, should anyone find the altitude too much.
It proved to be a glorious day, as we walked up to a blindingly blue glacier lake, with giant condors circling high in the skies, looking tiny despite their 35ft wingspan. There were huge rococo cornices of snow hanging off the top of the slopes, as if a giant plasterer had gone crazy with the Artex, and beneath them, the icy glaciers crept and crunched their way imperceptibly down the slopes (sometimes you would hear one of them shift, or catch the deeper rumble of an avalanche).
Quickly we began to understand something of the mountains, the way the temperature can rise or fall with unbelievable suddenness depending on your altitude, as can your ease of breathing – just a few hundred feet making all the difference. A big part of the day was giving us psychological strength – the highest point of the trek ahead of us would be only 1,000 ft higher than we had gone today.
We had done this; we could do that, too. The next day would be, we were warned, the toughest. Within an hour of leaving the lodge we had climbed 1,000 feet – yes, my friend and I too were becoming altitude bores – following a serpentine celandine stream up through a series of flat, grassy plains cupped between the foothills of the mountains. Then we had an incredibly hard hour-and-a-half of ''switchbacks'', a series of zigzags and the only way to climb what at times feels like a near-vertical slope.
Physically they are tough, but mentally they are even tougher as at times, turning back on yourself again and again, it feels as if you are going nowhere. Even so, the isolation that I felt – a glorious kind of oneness in which there is just you and the breathtaking natural world – made it bearable. Finally we reached another much higher plain where we were to have a break.
And there, above us, was a truly magical thing – a rainbow encircling the sun, the sky within it a darker and more luminous blue than the sky outside it. We continued, climbing higher still, the ground now rocky scree and the temperature turning from hot to freezing.
However fit you are, you have to stop and take regular short breaks (but not for so long as to let your body temperature fall). But no one in the group, who ranged in age from twentysomething to sixtysomething, was suffering from any altitude sickness, thank goodness.
Every so often a couple of locals passed, leading mules laden with everything from gas canisters to giant boxes. Their mouths and teeth were black from coca leaves, which they chew for energy and to alleviate altitude sickness.
Clamped to their ears there was often a tinny transistor radio; sometimes the women spun wool as they walked, spindle in one hand, wool in the other. We reached the highest point, at 15,340ft, and had our photos taken at the Salkantay Pass sign, but it was far too cold to linger, and we were eager to begin to make our way down the other side.
The next two days brought many more wonders, like our walk through the cloudforest, a kind of jungle that is, as its name suggests, so high up as to be in the clouds. Here we saw countless orchids, myriad butterflies, and an iridescent hummingbird slurping nectar from a flower right by the path. Finally, on our last day, we glimpsed the reason we were all there: Machu Picchu, on a mountain directly in front of us.
Yet suddenly it dawned on us that Machu Picchu wasn't why we were there after all; it was the trek itself that had become the raison d'être of our trip. When we visited Machu Picchu the next day (the only disadvantage of this trail is that you can't actually walk into the ruins), we found it amazing but somehow beside the point. It sounds pretentious, but somewhere back there, up in the mountains, we experienced something else, something other, and none of us will ever forget it.
resource: telegraph.co.uk
Former Workington woman Julie takes on Inca trail for charity
Julie Hinchliffe, 40, spent her early years in Branthwaite, near Workington, and is a childhood friend of Clive Jenkin’s sister Louise. Clive, of Ennerdale Close, was diagnosed with the disease over a year ago.
Julie, who now lives in Paisley, Scotland, will walk the Inca trail in Peru to raise money for the Motor Neurone Disease Association.
She said: “Louise and I met 29 years ago at Derwent School, Cockermouth, and have been friends ever since. It didn’t take long before I felt part of their family.
“As our 40th birthdays were approaching, I suggested to Louise that we should do something different, like the Great Wall of China. I knew that Clive was going through tests at this time, but believed that he would be okay.
“When Louise told me that he had been diagnosed with motor neurone disease, I was devastated. I then looked online for the association to see what charity events were available.”
Julie signed up for the walk along the Inca trail to the lost city of Machu Picchu.
She must raise £3,000 before June 28, and has received help from Clive’s family to get the money.
Last month her daughters Emma, 12, and Cara, nine, took part in a triathlon with Clive’s daughter Rebecca, 10, and other friends.
Money has also been raised through bag-packing at a supermarket and further events are planned.
To donate visit http://justgiving.com/juliehinchliffeSaturday, May 2, 2009
Peru: Interoceanic Highway to be ready by 2011 first quarter
The South Interoceanic Highway, which construction will require US$ 1.6 billion, will be finished in the first quarter of 2011, reported the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MTC)
"Brazil has already built roads along the border. That means that in 2011 (once the road is completed) both countries will have an great interconnection", said Enrique Cornejo, the minister.
“This road will be a great contribution for all South America, because it will not only communicate Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but also allow commercial and tourism trade” he said.
The minister said that more of 50% from the budget has already been invested in the construction.
This 2,000km highway will cross the Peruvian regions of Arequipa, Ayacucho, Apurimac, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Puno, Moquegua and Tacna.
resource: livinginperu.com
"Brazil has already built roads along the border. That means that in 2011 (once the road is completed) both countries will have an great interconnection", said Enrique Cornejo, the minister.
“This road will be a great contribution for all South America, because it will not only communicate Pacific and Atlantic oceans, but also allow commercial and tourism trade” he said.
The minister said that more of 50% from the budget has already been invested in the construction.
This 2,000km highway will cross the Peruvian regions of Arequipa, Ayacucho, Apurimac, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Puno, Moquegua and Tacna.
resource: livinginperu.com
Cusco to present energy and tourism projects at Brazil-Peru Border Summit
Cusco’s governor, Hugo Gonzales Sayan, said that his region will present energy and tourism projects to Brazilian authorities attending Peru- Brazil Border Summit to be held in the city of Rio Branco on April 28.
"We are to promote travel packages to Cusco via the Inter-Oceanic Highway to attract Brazilians entrepreneurs --through Camisea's natural gas-- to invest in a cement plant," Gonzales told Andina.
The summit will be chaired by Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez and the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
It will be attended by governors of Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurimac, Ica, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna, regions linked to the Inter-Oceanic highway, as well as the Brazilian governors of Acre, Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
According to the regional authority, Cusco seeks to stimulate trade exchange of some agricultural products and promote initiatives to take advantage of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, built to accelerate the inter-regional development.
resource: livingperu
"We are to promote travel packages to Cusco via the Inter-Oceanic Highway to attract Brazilians entrepreneurs --through Camisea's natural gas-- to invest in a cement plant," Gonzales told Andina.
The summit will be chaired by Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez and the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
It will be attended by governors of Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurimac, Ica, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna, regions linked to the Inter-Oceanic highway, as well as the Brazilian governors of Acre, Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
According to the regional authority, Cusco seeks to stimulate trade exchange of some agricultural products and promote initiatives to take advantage of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, built to accelerate the inter-regional development.
resource: livingperu
Monday, April 27, 2009
Cusco to present energy and tourism projects at Brazil-Peru Border Summit
Cusco’s governor, Hugo Gonzales Sayan, said that his region will present energy and tourism projects to Brazilian authorities attending Peru- Brazil Border Summit to be held in the city of Rio Branco on April 28.
"We are to promote travel packages to Cusco via the Inter-Oceanic Highway to attract Brazilians entrepreneurs --through Camisea's natural gas-- to invest in a cement plant," Gonzales told Andina.
The summit will be chaired by Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez and the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
It will be attended by governors of Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurimac, Ica, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna, regions linked to the Inter-Oceanic highway, as well as the Brazilian governors of Acre, Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
According to the regional authority, Cusco seeks to stimulate trade exchange of some agricultural products and promote initiatives to take advantage of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, built to accelerate the inter-regional development.
"We are to promote travel packages to Cusco via the Inter-Oceanic Highway to attract Brazilians entrepreneurs --through Camisea's natural gas-- to invest in a cement plant," Gonzales told Andina.
The summit will be chaired by Peruvian President Alan Garcia Perez and the President of Brazil Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva.
It will be attended by governors of Ayacucho, Arequipa, Apurimac, Ica, Cusco, Madre de Dios, Moquegua, Puno and Tacna, regions linked to the Inter-Oceanic highway, as well as the Brazilian governors of Acre, Rondonia, Mato Grosso and Amazonas.
According to the regional authority, Cusco seeks to stimulate trade exchange of some agricultural products and promote initiatives to take advantage of the Inter-Oceanic Highway, built to accelerate the inter-regional development.
Saturday, April 11, 2009
On top of the world
Sinking Spring, PA - Kirstan Ulrich of Spring Township took a monthlong trip to South America in November, spending 10 days in Peru, four of them hiking on the Inca Trail.
Ulrich spent six weeks preparing her body for the trip, training with Shawn Stanislaw, an advanced personal trainer at Spring Valley Athletic Club in Lower Heidelberg Township.
Ulrich started her journey in Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire. Ulrich stayed in Cusco for two days, taking the recommended amount of time acclimating to the altitude of approximately 8,500 feet. From there, Ulrich took a bus to the start of the Inca Trail at 8,900 feet. She eventually got to 13,800 feet during the hike.
Ulrich, 34, was inspired to get fit for her trip due to the challenging nature of the Inca Trail. After speaking with a friend who works at Spring Valley about the trip, she was set up with an advanced personal trainer. Stanislaw proved to be the right person for the task.
"She needed to improve her cardiovascular and muscular endurance," Stanislaw said.
They worked out one hour per day, twice a week, for six weeks prior to her trip.
"I am so glad I took the time, effort and money to work with Shawn - when I was on the trail, I really felt it helped," she said.
Ulrich spent three nights and four days on the Inca Trail, typically starting her days at 6 a.m.
"We had porters who carried our tents, food and everything," she said.
She would hike four to five hours with her group before stopping for lunch, and then hike until dark before settling into a campsite for the night. Ulrich hiked from seven to 11 hours a day. Ulrich's tour group of six people was accompanied by one guide and 11 porters.
Overall, her muscular strength held up well, but it wasn't without some challenges given the high altitude.
"After the 12,000 mark it was hard - you literally took about 20 steps and had to catch your breath and then take another 20 steps," she said. "Your heart was kind of pounding out of your chest."
Ulrich planned the trip with her sister, Megan Ulrich, 26, of Brentwood, Calif. Megan always wanted to go to South America, and she put together the month-long trip through the Llama Path tour company.
In addition to the hike, they spent the rest of the month touring South America.
"I'm thankful enough to have a career where I have flexibility in my job," she said.
Ulrich is a financial advisor with Waddell and Reed, covering Berks, Chester and Delaware County for 13 years. She always wanted to see Machu Picchu, Peru, but never imagined getting there.
Ulrich and her group hiked the Inca Trail along the Andes mountain range before hiking to Machu Picchu, located at 7,800 feet. "Machu Picchu is fascinating and beautiful, but hiking the Inca Trail itself was the most extraordinary and challenging thing I've ever done in my life, without a doubt," she said.
Ulrich's trip provided a welcome relief from her hectic life.
"The sense of awareness that you were completely removed from society and everything we know of day to day - you have no choice but to be in the moment," she said.
She felt a great sense of accomplishment given the difficult terrain and high altitudes.
"I was really proud I made the hike," Ulrich said.
However, it didn't happen without a minor problem.
"I sprained my ankle two and a half days into the trip and that definitely made the last leg of the hike more challenging," she said.
Kirstan said she was able to work through her injury thanks to her training.
The program Stanislaw developed for Ulrich consisted of joint stability exercises and muscle strengthening.
"If you get injured, it's going to be harder to make it through, and it will be more difficult to get to you if you need to be rescued," Stanislaw said.
Stanislaw encouraged people to take as much time as they can to get ready for a trip such as the one Ulrich took, stressing the importance of preparing your body.
"The average Joe can't just get on the Inca Trail and accomplish what Kirstan did," he said.
Her hours spent working out were very hard, but it paid off when Ulrich was hiking.
"I saw the benefit of it for my own well-being," she said.
In addition to getting in shape, she also lost some weight, which she was happy about.
The highlight of Ulrich's trip was her time spent on the highest peaks, she said.
"When you look around and are looking across at the snow tops, you felt you were on top of the world," she said.
Resource: readingeagle.com
Ulrich spent six weeks preparing her body for the trip, training with Shawn Stanislaw, an advanced personal trainer at Spring Valley Athletic Club in Lower Heidelberg Township.
Ulrich started her journey in Cusco, the historic capital of the Inca Empire. Ulrich stayed in Cusco for two days, taking the recommended amount of time acclimating to the altitude of approximately 8,500 feet. From there, Ulrich took a bus to the start of the Inca Trail at 8,900 feet. She eventually got to 13,800 feet during the hike.
Ulrich, 34, was inspired to get fit for her trip due to the challenging nature of the Inca Trail. After speaking with a friend who works at Spring Valley about the trip, she was set up with an advanced personal trainer. Stanislaw proved to be the right person for the task.
"She needed to improve her cardiovascular and muscular endurance," Stanislaw said.
They worked out one hour per day, twice a week, for six weeks prior to her trip.
"I am so glad I took the time, effort and money to work with Shawn - when I was on the trail, I really felt it helped," she said.
Ulrich spent three nights and four days on the Inca Trail, typically starting her days at 6 a.m.
"We had porters who carried our tents, food and everything," she said.
She would hike four to five hours with her group before stopping for lunch, and then hike until dark before settling into a campsite for the night. Ulrich hiked from seven to 11 hours a day. Ulrich's tour group of six people was accompanied by one guide and 11 porters.
Overall, her muscular strength held up well, but it wasn't without some challenges given the high altitude.
"After the 12,000 mark it was hard - you literally took about 20 steps and had to catch your breath and then take another 20 steps," she said. "Your heart was kind of pounding out of your chest."
Ulrich planned the trip with her sister, Megan Ulrich, 26, of Brentwood, Calif. Megan always wanted to go to South America, and she put together the month-long trip through the Llama Path tour company.
In addition to the hike, they spent the rest of the month touring South America.
"I'm thankful enough to have a career where I have flexibility in my job," she said.
Ulrich is a financial advisor with Waddell and Reed, covering Berks, Chester and Delaware County for 13 years. She always wanted to see Machu Picchu, Peru, but never imagined getting there.
Ulrich and her group hiked the Inca Trail along the Andes mountain range before hiking to Machu Picchu, located at 7,800 feet. "Machu Picchu is fascinating and beautiful, but hiking the Inca Trail itself was the most extraordinary and challenging thing I've ever done in my life, without a doubt," she said.
Ulrich's trip provided a welcome relief from her hectic life.
"The sense of awareness that you were completely removed from society and everything we know of day to day - you have no choice but to be in the moment," she said.
She felt a great sense of accomplishment given the difficult terrain and high altitudes.
"I was really proud I made the hike," Ulrich said.
However, it didn't happen without a minor problem.
"I sprained my ankle two and a half days into the trip and that definitely made the last leg of the hike more challenging," she said.
Kirstan said she was able to work through her injury thanks to her training.
The program Stanislaw developed for Ulrich consisted of joint stability exercises and muscle strengthening.
"If you get injured, it's going to be harder to make it through, and it will be more difficult to get to you if you need to be rescued," Stanislaw said.
Stanislaw encouraged people to take as much time as they can to get ready for a trip such as the one Ulrich took, stressing the importance of preparing your body.
"The average Joe can't just get on the Inca Trail and accomplish what Kirstan did," he said.
Her hours spent working out were very hard, but it paid off when Ulrich was hiking.
"I saw the benefit of it for my own well-being," she said.
In addition to getting in shape, she also lost some weight, which she was happy about.
The highlight of Ulrich's trip was her time spent on the highest peaks, she said.
"When you look around and are looking across at the snow tops, you felt you were on top of the world," she said.
Resource: readingeagle.com
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