The Trails of the Inca
Posted by Rick Taylor
on Jan 17, 2014
The guest speaker at our January 16th lunch was club member Cheryl Schmidt. She showed us a beautiful slide show of a hiking trip in Peru that she did with her travel partner, Liz MacArthur. Her story outlined their walk with a small group along a trail used by the Inca many years ago - this was overseen and catered by local guides. This area is considerably higher than here and it took awhile for them to acclimatize to the elevation. Even so, what they found a challenge seemed to be easily done by the locals. She described a lifestyle there that we may see as 'poor', but people who were happy and very much welcomed visitors.She said there were three specific things she learned from following the trails of the Inca, and they are:
-1. The value of good friendship, and how good it is to be able to laugh and laugh.
-2. Our bodies are meant to be active, and trekking will definitely be included in holidays of the future
-3. We have nothing to complain about – our problems are for the most part “first world problems”. And yet we have lost something along the way – traded in some essential spirituality for our possessions and lifestyle. We could all learn something from the Incas and their strong connection to the earth and the world around them.
She also noted that Peru was one of the best trips of her life – and while for her the hike was fantastic, it would be a great trip even for those who don’t want to take the hike on.
Cheryl and Liz have another adventure planned - they are auditioning for the next Amazing Race Canada; their audition video can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z1GxKTI-Ukg