Peru – Day 4

This morning, we woke up with no real set plans. We had two ideas of what we wanted to do but it was essentially Plan A and Plan B if Plan A failed. To our surprise, Plan A actually happened and it was much better than expected! So what was Plan A??? Let’s just say my butt cheeks hurt now and my arms too!

• Breakfast buffet in the hotel restaurant at 7:45am
TIL – Peruvians also eat pink sausages!!!
• We waited patiently to find out if we could go horseback riding and zip lining!!!
We wrote Soto Adventure last night for a last minute trip
If they didn’t respond by 9am, we figured it was a no go and we’d go to the Salt Mines instead
• Load and behold, Soto Adventure agreed to pick us up at 10:30am from our hotel for $99 a person
• We rode horses in the mountains, having a very pleasant time and taking in the scenery until I almost bonked my head
• And then WOO HOO…zip lining was so much fun except when I got stuck…uh three times!!!
• After all that excitement, my friend got too tired to do another activity so the guides drove us back to the hotel
• I sunbathed on the balcony of our hotel room and text people
SIDE NOTE: Did you guys know that you can turn Airplane Mode on and log onto WiFi and still use the Android Messaging app??? I use Viber, What’s App and Android Messaging so having WiFi is awesome.
• My friend let me make the call on what to do next, so I decided we would take a walk to the river
• Afterwards, we did yoga following Adrienne on YouTube
• Dinner at the hotel restaurant and oh what did we eat, you ask???

I never thought I’d have the gumption to go zip lining but I did it today!!! We first went horseback riding and were lucky that Soto Adventure responds to emails. They replied at 7:14am and again at 9:09am, 9 minutes after we had given up, to tell us they could take us on our last minute trip and would pick us up at 10:30am. We were stoked and that gave us enough time to enjoy the sun that had decided to grace us. I decided to hand wash some of my clothes and then afterwards, I grabbed my book and read a few pages laying in the hammock. My friend drank her new favorite tea, Coca Tea, while going live on Facebook. She made me go live earlier at breakfast and I had enough of that for the day though I think she took some more videos with me in it on her GoPro. Two dudes showed up to pick us up on time, and as it turned out, we were their only clients today! Private tour!!! 15 minutes in to the trip, we pulled over to drop off the passenger dude who went to go set us up for zip lining though we didn’t know that at the time. He hiked up the mountain with our gear.

The horseback riding was a lot of fun and the views were breathtaking. You can see the snow capped Wakay Willque in between the ridges of the Andes Mountain super clearly. The last and only time I rode a horse was when I was 12 and I was a nerd in the club Math Counts in the 7th grade, or maybe it was 8th grade. Mrs. Essex took us on an end of year trip to Point Reyes and we got to ride horses. Anyhow, so today, I rode a horse again and it was all fun and games until I almost got knocked off the horse. Our guide was behind us after we looped back around and we were to go up the hill towards zip lining but the horse wanted to turn around. As it kept fighting to go up the hill, it decided to run downhill and ran towards a tree. I grabbed the big branch and ducked. I’m pretty sure if I hadn’t done that, I would have been knocked off but I was okay. I felt bad for the horsey and she finally came to a stop corralling around the other horses. Calmate, damn it!

We rode the horses uphill for about 5 or 10 more minutes and then we got off to get ready for the zip lining. The guide sent our horses on their way home alone. Caballos son muy intelligente! jajaja…I’ve been practicing my Spanish down here in Peru and I’m not so bad, for reals.

From there, we had to hike a bit up the mountain. As you can see in the pic, my friend had to take a breather. She was out of breath and doesn’t have the patience to read my blog so I can tell you that. hahahaha…I write too much according to her but whatever, I’ll write in my own way to share my experiences. Then we turned a corner and there was a zip line suddenly a few feet ahead of us with all our gear organized and laid out on the ground! The guide helped us put on our gear and then the other guide showed up from going potty or something. We were shown how to go down the zip line crossing our feet and where to put our hands and where not to. The first guide went down the zip line and then we realized the other guide only spoke Spanish. Luckily, I could make out what he was saying and then after the first guide radioed that it was all clear, it was my turn to go down the zip line!

And oh no…I got stuck on the zip line. Yes, it really happened to me. I had to use my arm strength to repel down the wire from where I was stuck. Apparently, the wind causes some people to stop short of the end. This happened to me on three of the four zip lines and all I could do was laugh about it! I made it to the end on the second one because that one is fast but on the other three, I got stuck and had to repel down the wire or they had to come out to help me. hahaha…It was still amazing though and I held on with one hand at times and waved at the people below me. They always waved back and I laughed and giggled literally saying “Woo hoo!” out loud. The experience of zip lining from up so high and so far is a spectacular feeling. I highly recommend the tour to most people and when I say most, it’s because there are some very real reasons I wouldn’t suggest it.

TIPS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
• Bring your passport because they ask for the passport number or at least have the info on your phone. I suspect if you’re injured, they want to be able to report it and find your next of kin easily.
• It’s probably best that you’re somewhat fit to go on this Soto Adventure Horseback and Zip Lining tour because after riding the horse, you do have to hike uphill and you also have to hike downhill to the other connecting zip lines. It’s quite strenuous. As I said, my friend who is only a little bit bigger than me and used to run marathons still had difficulty at times.
• You should also have fairly good vision because there’s a lot of cow and horse manure to navigate around when you’re hiking.
• If you have a fear of heights, DO NOT sign up for this tour. You will go up fairly high on the mountain and there isn’t a fence or handrail to keep you from falling down the ridge. If you don’t believe me, check out the photos I took.
Even if you think you can be carefree and ride the horse up, and then simply not look down the cliffside, you will eventually have to hike down with your feet.
• Wear comfortable, sturdy shoes or tennis shoes because the hike is a bit of a trek and the terrain is rough at times.

Once we hiked back to where we started, we rested on the swinging chair which reminded me of the days in Lakeport. I think my parents still have their swinging chair on the deck. It was probably about an hour of resting at their house staring in awe at the Andes Mountains. Plus, their property that we rested at is pretty cute with a small makeshift soccer field. The guides had to hike up the mountain to round up the horses because they didn’t return home like they were supposed to which is the reason they left us there to rest longer than expected. After the horses made it home, the guides drove us back to the hotel because my friend said “to the hotel” when they asked where we wanted to go. Even though they would have driven us somewhere else, she poo pooed the idea and told me one activity for the day was enough. [Insert emoticon with eyeballs that go back and forth sideways and mouth drop.]

It is our last night here at this lovely Tierra Viva resort so returning to this oasis wasn’t a bad idea. The resort is very serene and the sun was blazing, so I sunbathed and got a tan on the balcony of our room while I used WiFi to text my family and friends. Eventually, my friend said that I could make the call to do whatever, and I took her up on that offer, and we walked down to the river which was only a short instance away from our hotel. We ran into some cows and bulls on our little venture and had to step aside for them to pass. Back at the hotel, we did a 30 minute Yoga for Stress video following Adrienne on YouTube on the hardwood floors of our room looking out the sliding glass doors. My butt cheeks are really hurting from the horseback riding and we thought yoga would be a great way to stretch out our tight limbs. We did yoga in Sacred Valley!!!

To round out the night, we had an early dinner at the hotel restaurant for our final night at Tierra Viva and we ate…wait for it…wait for it…Alpaca. I know, I know. How could we??? They are so cute and fluffy, right? At least we didn’t eat the ones walking around the grounds of the hotel. The Alpaca meat was quite flavorful and tasted like beef but was much tougher even though we had it cooked medium and there was red juices seeping out. I can say I tried alpaca meat now and I likely won’t have it again because there’s nothing special about the meat and frankly, I’d rather look at a live fluffy alpaca than eat it.