HomeTestimonialsNeil Van Steenbergen (May, ...

Neil Van Steenbergen

(Inca Pathways + Manu Biosphere + Nasca, May 2004)

I got back from my 25 days in Peru just a week ago. My enthusiasm level for you and your help was high before I left, it was high during the trip and it continues to be high. I am so happy about my trip and about all that you did to make it happen.

I continue recommending you. Before I left, I asked you to send a catalog to two friends. Please send one to a third friend, you can use my name if you wish.

Back to the trip, I keep thinking I’ll forget something I want to tell you… I am very grateful for your pre-trip help and guidance and handholding. It was a pleasure to talk with folks who were not only knowledgeable and had been in Peru but who also seemed to be genuinely interested in me and care about me and my dreams. Thank you.

I liked the three separate parts of my trip: the Nazca extension was on my own (with support as needed), the Inca Pathways with a group, and Manu alone. It gave me a chance to experience Peru singly and in a group and that was a good balance. Entering solo and leaving solo also gave me a chance to feel comfortable at first with Peru and to leave with a chance to slow down and relax in Manu after the trail. It worked beautifully.

My arrival in Lima was about an hour late at midnight. I walked past the first line of taxis and got one from the second line quickly for $12 dollars, a somewhat broken down taxi with a delightfully decrepit driver who, after asking directions only twice, got me to the Hotel Imperial in great shape, a wonderful introduction to Peru. The guy at the desk welcomed me immediately and warmly showed me to my room and gave me a nice welcoming letter from Milagros.

I never did get to meet Milagros and I’m sorry about that. She came to the hotel in Peru the morning we left for Cusco and I was away from the dining room when she came. She apparently wanted to try the Amantari Island overnight. I did talk to her my first morning in Lima on the phone, I thanked her for her letter and asked her to give directions to the hotel guy and driver for Hogar de la Paz. She inquired immediately about the status of my injured right leg, thanks for passing that info on.

I wandered Lima the first day, Plaza de Armas, Cathedral etc., Parque Kennedy with a long and passionate parade/demonstration and a strong police presence. The second morning I went off with a driver, Max, to Hogar de la Paz, both he and the hotel guy said this was the most dangerous area in Lima. It was well worth it for me to go and to go inside and talk with a nun and deliver my duffle bag full of clothes, while Max guarded

the car, and kept murmuring, “tranquilo” as we drove! Only 9 points for the Hogar de la Paz trip.

I liked the individual contacts I repeatedly made, people on the streets and in a variety of places. Elias, a security guy at the Church of San Francisco in Lima and I talked and exchanged addresses, “why aren’t you traveling with a group?” “If I did, it would be harder for me to meet people like you.” That was repeated often and that is very important to me.

In mid-day of day 2 for me, my hotel pick-up came right on time to take me to the bus to Pisco. Bruno helped me check in, it was the first of many times when people you had arranged to help me were there in the right place at the right time, I never worried about it. I know that I could have made those arrangements on my own (drivers, bus, guides, places to stay, usually on the spot) and it was such a pleasure to see how beautifully you did it all for me. Thank you again.

Someone met me at the bus in Pisco and we walked the 2 blocks to Posada Hispana, a note on Hotels. I really liked the hotels you chose, not big 5-star, tourist places in the center of a busy business area. Smaller, delightful, family style places where I always felt expected welcomed and cared for, they were pleasures. The Imperiale in Lima (I was ther on 3 different occasions), the Posada Hispana in Pisco where I saluted and toasted the chefs in the kitchen (they all put on their stiff white hats for a picture), the Hotel de la Borda in Nazca, such a gem, away from town, peacocks, alpacas, horses, stars, solitude, the Q’Elqatani in Puno, again close enough to walk to restaurants and places to browse and not right on a busy street. El Balcon in Cusco (again, I was there on 3 separate occasions) had such helpful people, so willing to store luggage (as did others), so quiet and so close. El Sauer in Ollantay tambo with a room with such a fantastic view, and the Machu Picchu Inn in Aguas Calientes, a refuge after the trail. All the food was good at the complimentary breakfasts. All hotel arrangements were 5-star without, for me, the negativites of usual “5-star” places.

Again, perfect logistics in Pisco, and on-time bus pick-up for the Islas Ballestos trip. The guide Lucio, as I was on a bus and a boat with a bunch of other people, said 2 or three times to me, “you will have a private tour of paracas.” What did I know? I figured I’d just hang out with all those other folks for the Paracas bit, turned out Lucio knew more than me. After Islas Ballestos, he snagged me and found Nickolas, our driver, and darned if I didn’t get a private tour of Paracas. We had a good lunch together of fish soup and he told me about his family and little boy.

Again, is this an adventure Life pattern? Perfect connections on the bus from Pisco to Nazca and an immediate connection there with a driver/guide who took me off to de la Borda and more paradise. Leo picked me up the next morning and told me all about his Chilean wife, his 30-year-old daughter who is successful, and his 29-year-old les successful son. Leo is teaching himself Italian. The cemetery visit was awesome for me to hold a 2400 year old skull in my hands and wonder about who he/she was, was very

special. The Nazca over flight and the brief tour of Nazca were good, and another well organized bus ride back to Lima where Bruno picked me up. All of the local guides were well informed and passionate about Peru and very helpful!

Meeting the group in Lima the next morning was an interesting process for me. I always go through all of my old tapes, “Will I fit?” “Will I like them?” “Will they like me?” “Is the size just right?” I somehow know that the answers to those questions are all within me and I still create those anxieties to feed my long-time gremlin, Ralph, who delights in saying, “you’re going to screw up again!” Ralph, as he often is, was wrong. It was a good group, 10 of us (more, I think, would have been too much). Equal gender balance, at 77 I was the oldest and I think Erik, my roommate, was the youngest at 33. He and I got along very well. He’s Danish, my sweetheart is Danish, Erik’s grandmother came from the same village where Brigitte, my sweetie grew up and she thinks she knows the family. Brigitte and Erik are corresponding in Danish. We had a couple of people who liked to talk (actually, they were fairly stubborn and opinioned and judgmental- how’s that for a dispassionate, nonjudgmental statement?) And, after I blew them off during the first few days when one told the other, “just shut-up and get out of here,” things were really quite good. People got along; people supported each other and were concerned about each other. Mario was quite important in his role and he didn’t get sucked in on anything, and he was very aware of the process, he’s good. I have 3 long-term friends now out of that group and that’s a pretty fair average.

The transfers from Lima to Julican to Puno were a smooth one. A mistake I made was in getting dicmox for the trail and not thinking enough to know I might need it (and I did) for the altitude of Puno (12,000). Maybe a reminder of this in your literature would help. A few of us were light headed and the first 2 days passed up the Amanitari Island trip because of that. Your statement is the tour voucher for that day, “free afternoon to acclimate to the altitude, please take it easy,” didn’t really play up. By the time we drove from Julica to Sillustani and climbed those hills and then got to the hotel and got checked in, it was dinnertime, maybe you might want to revise the “free time” bit.

The Lake Titicaca-Amantani Island thing was a blast. I had tears in my eyes, “it’s me, out here on this lake, staying with a family on an island.” Actually I had tears in my eyes several times, celebrating the wonders of the trip and of me being in the midst of such glorious experiences. The family experience was good; the dance was good, it all worked well. A minor point, when we got to Taquile, my leg was hurting and I wanted to rest it as much as I could. I thought I’d walk up the trail a bit and go back to the boat and wait for the others. By the time I told Percy, our guide, that on the dock, the boat had left to pick us up on the other side of the island. I encouraged him to make the logistics clear another time so sore-legged folks could have an option. I was actually grumpy for a while, my limping and the ace bandage on my leg got me some sympathy and I finally told Ralph, my long time gremlin, to get lost and I had a good time on Taquile. The group waited for me now and then, as they did several times during the trip, without being impatient or patronizing, and I appreciated that.

The 10 hour bus ride to Cusco was outstanding, my initial thought as I read the literature was, “ok it’s a long 10 hours and we’ll see some good stuff and it will be a long day” I loved it, Mario is so good, we stopped in a variety of places and did a number of neat things. It wasn’t “a long day” after all.

Our full day in Cusco was also top line, Mario took us to several important places, saqsay woman was the first. Mario and I had a special connection; I deeply appreciate his wisdom and his passion and his knowledge. At one point I said to him, “you’re more than a tourist guide, you’re a spiritual guide.” He’s also a healer and part shaman, I talked with him several times about that part of him, no false modesty and not pretense on his part, both of us knew the truth of all that in our own lives and could see it in each other. He talked to me once on the trail, when he came back to see how I was doing, about his first experiences with a shaman and all of the “miraculous” (and not at all surprising) things that happened to him then, I appreciated his trust of me as he shared parts of his life. He told the group once, “you are no longer tourists, you are pilgrims.”

The Sacred Valley tour to Ollantay Tambo was also perfect, so much history and sense of solace. Lunch at a café in Pisac was outstanding, “so, Ulrike, can I take you home with me?” “You want to marry me?” “No, I just want more of your chocolate chip cheesecake.” And Mario found a way to get us up and around Ollantay Tambo and avoid most of the crowds, amazing.

And then there was the Inca Trail I loved it. It was a real challenge for me and I made it. I’ve done a ton of trekking and back packing and this was the hardest for me, largely because there was very little of the trail that was simply dirt. Those crazy Incans who thought they had to build a trail composed primarily of irregularly shaped stones and rocks often arranged in non-uniform steps of varying sizes obviously had no consideration for my 77-year-old legs. Actually my legs did well, the one I worried about didn’t hurt at all, my knees got sore, and I went slowly and I did it! The altitude wasn’t all that bad (I did Kilimanjaro 19,340’ when I was 67, and half a dozen times up Mtn. Whitney at 14,496’ and also 12,000’+ in the Himalayas in Bhutan a year ago). The mileage certainly wasn’t bad (only 28 in 4 days), twice I’ve done an 80 mile trail in the high sierras and once the 226 mile John Muir trail in 21 days with only one food drug, it was the rocks and without the rocks it would not have been the Inca Trail, so I’m glad it was that it was and that I had the opportunity, degenerating hip and all, to be there.

Ismael was the assistant guide on the trail. He and I walked together a lot and he was a delight, knowledgeable and supportive, gentle and thoughtful. The food was out of this world, broiled trout, chicken in elderberry sauce, yucca root, the porters were helpful and friendly and skilled. The individual basin of hot water, soap and towel for each meal, hot tea at my tent in the morning, afternoon tea, how civilized!! Marco was continually aware of each person in the group, he’s the best guide I have ever had.

Aguas Calientes was a welcome decompression time for me. I choose not to go back to Machu Pichu that morning and it was a good decision for me. Marco called once from Machu Picchu to check on me and that was good.

Then there was Manu!! It exceeded my expectations. Juan Carlos from the local company, met me in Cusco the evening before the trail to explain everything and to answer questions, I appreciated that. Fiorella, my guide, was another outstanding person, a real delight extraordinarily knowledgeable and helpful. Her 23rd birthday was the day we started the Manu trip. She knew her stuff and we got along well together. I had hesitated before the trip about the overland trip to Manu through the cloud forest because of the high single cost and I am so glad I did it that way. If you ever need my testaments about that approach, I’ll give them willingly. The two lodges along the way were excellent; good food, great birds and animals, superb jungle walks. At one point on our last day of driving before the end of the road, we passed a pre-kindergarten group of kids in a clearing amid trees, we stopped and I was greeted with “hola gringo” by 40-50 delightful lads, what fun. Manu wildlife center was also very special; tapirs, otters, monkeys, birds up the kazoo, all well-coordinated, excellent boatmen, good flight back to Cusco where Nicole, at Marco’s office, helped me wonderfully in sorting our my two remaining flights. When I told her how good Marco was, she said, “don’t tell him he already knows it” with good humor and affection.

A nice welcome back at the Imperiale, I had a day and a half in Lima and then home. So, how often do you get a ten-page letter on top of a fully filled out evaluation? Actually, I’ll copy all this for my scrapbook, I am just very, very grateful to Adventure Life and all of you for helping me have a fantastic journey, one of my very best, thank you!