Aventuras del Camino Inca, Cusco

LIVING THE HIGH LLIIFFEE IN PEERU

Judy and Harold Osborne may be in their 60s, but they won't be tied down

Posted By ANDREA CRUMMER, FOR THE EXPOSITOR
Posted 7 hours ago


Judy and Harold Osborne have a passion for heights. It's an obsession that has grown with age and, at 60 and 68 years old, they still can't seem to get enough. Harold, a barber-hairstylist by trade, has completed more than 800 skydives; Judy works as a flight attendant out of Pearson International Airport.
The den in their German School Road home is covered with panoramic posters of mountain ranges they've climbed together over the years: the Dolomites in Italy, Mount Washington in New Hampshire, Yosemite's Half Dome in California, and the Blue Mountains in Australia are all in the collage.
In May, Harold, Judy and their son Lee added to their collection when they travelled to Peru and spent four days trekking on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, one of the new Seven Wonders of the World. In that short time, they covered 49 kilometres and crossed three peaks in the 4,260-metre Andes range, though they admit they weren't always leading the pack.
"We were with a young group," Harold says. "At 32, our son Lee was the third-oldest. Guess who No. 1 and 2 were?" he says with a chuckle.
But age doesn't seem to be a factor in anything the Osbornes do. Though he's a full three years past retirement, Harold still cuts hair at his salon on St. Paul Avenue in Brantford. On his day off, he rock-climbs with a friend in Milton. On weekends, he and Judy travel across Canada and the U. S., where they compete in bike races.
The notion of laying low on a vacation has never really appealed to them. "Wherever we go, we try to do something active," Judy says.
So when the opportunity to climb Machu Picchu came up in February, it didn't take long for them to take out the mandatory insurance required to visit the site and book their trip.
"It's always been on our list," says Harold. "The price was right, and we said to ourselves, 'If we don't do it now, we're never going to do it."
The Osbornes hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu with a group of 12 adventurers from Canada, the U. S. and England. They were accompanied by two cooks, two guides, and 17 porters who carried tents, cooking supplies, and food to each overnight stop.
The couple arrived in Lima on May 9 with son Lee and his friend, TV documentary maker Diliana Alexander. Twenty-four hours later they reached Cuzco, where they spent three days exploring ruins and enjoying the colourful religious festivals the predominantly Catholic city has to offer. On May 13, their four-day, three-night trek to Machu Picchu began.
The trail is much shorter than some of the others the Osbornes have hiked -including Ontario's own 782-kilometre Bruce Trail but its elevation makes climbing of any kind much more taxing.

"It's all about the altitude," Judy says. "I was tired just walking the steps in the hotel! I thought, 'If I can't make it to our hotel room, how am I going to climb Machu Picchu?'"
"The problem is, we live in Brantford," Harold adds. At 248 metres above sea level, compared to Machu Picchu's 2,400, training for altitude at home was a challenge.
The altitude was only one obstacle. The Osbornes battled rain on the first morning of their hike (with rain gear at home in Brantford in order to lighten their packs), and endured 5:30 a. m. start times, but they wouldn't have had it any other way.
"The hike made it all the more worthwhile," Harold says. "The satisfaction of getting over the passes is something you can't beat."
For most of the hike, Harold and Judy allowed their trail mates to go on ahead, while they brought up the rear of the group, enjoying the changes in landscape at every level they passed. Slowing their pace and stopping to take extra breaths when needed helped them make it to the top.
"I liked being at the back of the pack," says Judy. "It was nice to be able to look over my shoulder to see the view I had left behind. The scenery was phenomenal!"
The views varied from lush cloud forests to sub-tropical jungle, and the thick photo album on the Osbornes'-dining room table vouches for its beauty. Llamas and alpacas dotted the trail and seemed unmoved by the hikers' presence.
The ever-changing scenery, combined with the rich history and culture of the Incas, is what made the trek really stand out for the Osbornes.
Built in 1450, Machu Picchu ("Old Peak") is often referred to as the lost city of the Incas. The Incas were master stonemasons and constructed temples, agricultural terraces, and dwellings out of finely cut granite blocks on a mountain site 50 kilometres from Cuzco, the Inca capital. Remarkably, the entire city was built without using mortar between the blocks, and has been able to withstand several earthquakes over the years that many modern-day buildings have not.
When the Inca Empire collapsed under Spanish invasion in the 1500s,
Machu Picchu was abandoned. The
Spaniards neither found nor destroyed
it, as they did many
of the other Inca sites.
Machu Picchu was not discovered by modern cultures until 1911, when Yale University professor Hiram Bingham came across it. Seventy-two years later, it was declared a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is the most visited tourist destination in Peru and one of the most important archaeological spots in South America.
While taking a train up to Machu Picchu would have been a possibility, the Osbornes opted for the full trekking experience and, despite some minor knee pain, their bodies held up well. And it's a good thing, too. Because of the steepness of the trail, it's virtually impossible to bring animals past the first stop to rescue injured or spent hikers.
"You can't just throw in the towel when you're up that high!" says Harold.
They describe their awe and appreciation for their porters, who wore simple flip-flops and carried tents, propane tanks, and food supplies for four days up the jagged, uneven stone pathways. Though they left the camp site each morning after the hikers, staying behind to pack and clean up, the porters raced on ahead and arrived in plenty of time to set up camp for the next night before the first weary travelers began to trickle in.
Harold explains the porters are usually farmers who work on the trail in order to earn extra income for their families. But because of the strain on their bodies from the heavy equipment they carry, most only perform the backbreaking labour for a few years, with the average term of a porter being in the six-year range.
A typical day on the trail for the Osbornes began at 5:30 a. m. Most days, the group hiked until lunch, took a break, and then to the next campsite where they arrived around 2:30 p. m. On the second and most challenging day of hiking, they passed the highest peak on the trek at 4,260 metres -Dead Woman's Pass -
and raight through to their campsite without breaking for lunch. When they finally arrived, they collapsed in their tents, and were rewarded in the evening with a surprisingly extensive meal prepared by the cooks.
"We had grilled trout, soup, green beans, rice and fresh fruit," says Judy. "But because your metabolism slows down with the increase in altitude, we weren't very hungry."
The fourth and final day, they began their hike an hour earlier than usual -in almost complete darkness -in order to reach Machu Picchu before sunrise and beat the tourists arriving by bus from Cuzco.
"When we got to the sun gate (the first point on the trail that lends a view of Machu Picchu) I knew we had finally made it," says Judy.
"The mountain was in exactly the right place, the sun was just coming up, it was quite remarkable," Harold says. "If you don't get there before sunrise, I think you miss a big part."
The Osbornes spent a large part of the day exploring the lost city and enjoying the fruits of their labour, n boarded a train to take them back down to Cuzco, where they arrived close to 10 p. m. local time. With an early departure to look forward to the next morning, there was little time (or energy) to celebrate their achievement.
Judy and Harold are already looking ahead to their next adventure. Judy's set on Kilimanjaro, Africa's highest peak, while Harold's holding out for a Tans Himalayan mountain bike race that starts at the highest point of the Mount Everest base camp in Tibet.
"Wouldn't it be cool?" he says, pleading with his wife in what appears to be an uphill battle. It's clearly their favourite kind.
. . .
Andrea Crummer, a Brantford-based freelance writer, is entering her fourth year in Laurier Brantford's journalism program.