Two of my favorite countries suffered tragedies within the last month. Peru was struck by massive flooding in the beginning of February and Chile just experienced a massive earthquake followed by a tsunami.
The flooding in Peru was in the news mostly because almost 1000 travelers were stranded at Machu Picchu due to washing out of the train line. The travelers were rescued, the train is under repair, and the Inca Trail was untouched. The real tragedy, however, was the devastation to villages and fields in the Sacred Valley, which is low-lying land along the Urubamba River.
In Chile, a massive 8.8 earthquake hit off the coast of southern Chile. This was followed by a tsunami that wiped out several villages along the coast. The death toll as of this writing has reached 799 people and the economic cost of reconstruction will be staggering. Luckily, none of our Chilean tour areas were affected much and our local guide and other partners are all safe.
Including Haiti’s 7.0 earthquake, that makes three big disasters this year. We all want to help and those of us at Zephyr received a personal plea from our Peruvian partners to help the small native village of Cachiccata, located in the Sacred Valley and the home of most of our porters and cooks on the Inca Trail. It turns out their water system was destroyed and their crops are now in peril. For $1500, we can purchase a new electric water system that will be a vast improvement on the old, destroyed one. Want to help? We will match your donations up to $750. For full details, see our new blog at www.IncaTrailHiking.com/blog.
Two posts about food in one week? Unheard of for me but true with this post. Some of you might know we have co-organized the 
Wow. What an amazing weekend. First off, there were three positive, outgoing, fun Pathfinder candidates: Kim Kuchycki, Lotchana Sourivong, and Margie Tosch (who provided some of these photos). These three were selected from among 10 randomly-drawn names from the more than 2,500 people who applied to join us on the trail. Then, we added in three amazing chefs: Rodelio Aglibot from Chicago, Scott Beale from New York, and Tim Kirker, also from Chicago.
with an aji pepper sauce over a shrimp cake from Scott; a complex dish of both pork and lamb over quinoa from Tim, and a shredded-chicken, egg, guacamole, and aji pepper sauce from Rodelio. Each dish had been constructed to pair with a Firestone wine.
Chef Rodelio Aglibot from 
First a little background. The Incas were a small tribe located in what is now Peru before their 9th Emperor, Pachacuti, in the year 1438 began a series of conquests of neighboring peoples. Pachacuti built a network of roads and waystations to connect his growing empire. He also built three royal enclaves in the outskirts of Cusco, one of which was Machu Picchu, essentially a royal resort built in a phenomenal location high above the Urubamba River.
So why don’t people trek along the Original Inca Trail? Certainly the higher trail has a number of benefits but I think, more than anything, it is simply tradition. By contrast, the Original (Royal) Inca Trail also has several advantages.
