Trouble on the Trail

It rained on and off all during the night.  When we woke up, various things that were around the edges of the tent were wet, along with Brook's sleeping bag.  The hiking trail was very slippery and muddy from the rain.  Unlike trails in our country, there are no drainage bars constructed here, so it doesn't take much rain for the trail to become a mud flat, a rocky stream, or an erosion nightmare.

About an hour into our supposed four hour walk, I stepped on a rock and turned my ankle badly.  It really hurt and didn't want to bear any weight for a few minutes.  I walked a short distance, leaning on Eydie's shoulder, to catch up to Guido to borrow his poles and see if he had an ace bandage we could wrap the ankle with.  When I took off my shoe and sock we were all shocked to see how much the ankle had swollen.  It immediately became clear that I should not continue walking any further than necessary.  I knew that icing and elevating my ankle as soon as possible would impact my recovery time considerably, but that wouldn't be possible for at least a few hours given where we were.

Ironically we had said goodbye to our horsemen and emergency horse after breakfast.  They were taking the road to our next campsite to drop our stuff and head back toward the pass for another group in a couple of days.  There wasn't any cell phone coverage and we had no way of contacting the horsemen.  Guido didn't have an ace bandage in his first aid kit and our first aid kit was in our bags on the horses.  Fortunately we had ibuprofen with us and this helped tremendously.  We decided to turn back and try to get a ride on the road that we had left at the beginning of today's walk.  Guido went ahead and quickly came across a group of trekkers that were better prepared.  We got an ace bandage and an emergency riding horse from them so we decided to continue on the trail as planned.  Eydie wrapped my ankle (Guido offered no help) and I got on the horse to ride it the remaining 3-4 hours.  It turned out that this decision to ride ahead rather than walk back to the road would later come at a price.

The folks we borrowed the horse from were a large group of American clients trekking from one fancy lodge to another, not camping.  We learned about this company, Mountain Lodges, from a woman in a restaurant in Cusco before we had settled on our outfitter.  Their trip is six times more expensive than ours.  The American clients didn't speak with us and their Peruvian trip leader treated us like we were dirtbags scrounging off of his far superior company, rather than fellow trekkers needing a helping hand. When his group stopped for lunch and we were to continue on with their emergency horse, the Mountain Guides trip leader told us in an unpleasant tone that we had to pay for the use of the horse. We said, "sure, we're thankful for the help, our trekking company will pay," and Guido quickly agreed. The only problem was that they were charging 100 US dollars, about five times what it would normally cost.

Guido should have had our own horses with us.  That demonstrated poor judgment on the part of whoever took this calculated risk to save the money that would have been paid to our horsemen.  We may never know whether it was Guido's decision or the company's policy.  Now Guido was going to have to pay these guys who were taking advantage of our unfortunate circumstances; Guido who would have to go to our booking company, perhaps with his tail between his legs, to ask for reimbursement.  To make matters worse, Guido had to promise payment upon our arrival in the town below, and the Mountain Guides trip leader later sent men running ahead to catch us and remind us that they were very serious about receiving their payment.

Riding the horse for 3-4 hours was not easy on my swollen ankle, as the downhills were so steep that it required virtually standing up in stirrups that were set up for only my toes to get a good purchase.  But all was well once we arrived at our campsite just short of 3:00, nearly two hours later than we had told our cook Icidro to expect us.  Finally now I was able to ice and elevate my ankle as I had been wanting to do since the injury this morning.  We then proceeded with lunch, tea time and dinner all concentrated into about four hours!  We're enjoying popcorn and card playing at tea time each day.  Today I did so with my foot up on the table.

I know I won't be joining the others on the Llactapata hike tomorrow.  I just hope I'll heal quickly enough to climb up and down Wayna Picchu the day after tomorrow.

- John