A local north country resident I have hiked with was on a recent extended hiking trip down in Peru taking the "back way" to Machu Picchu. I believe this route (or a similiar one) was recently publicized in the travel section of New York Times http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/06/2...incan-ruins-along-the-way.html?pagewanted=all and was represented as the non tourist route to Machu Picchu that visited other ancient sites and avoided the standard route. The times article made it sound like quite an adventure, although I suspect the described adventure probably wasnt the what they had in the brochure. I have removed the names but I can verify that this is a real person that was on a trip to Peru (this wasnt his first trip).
"Hi XXXX...hopefully this would never occur in NH...
Hello and good morning from Cusco, Peru. The trip was
amazing...lots of challenging hikes...several days of elevation
gains of 6,000 plus feet...total hiking days were fifteen.
Lots of stories to tell . Now that I am in a safe place I can
tell you this story. During this trip on 8/10 our camp was
invaded by the Communist Party of Peru. We had been out all
day hiking (day ten of seventeen) to our next camp,
approximately eight hours of hiking. We washed up in the
nearby stream and started dinner, it was pitch dark. Three men
entered our tent and announced they were from the Communist
Party of Peru. They had Russian made AK 47 automatic rifles
and they were pointed at us. They wanted supplies, two tents,
food, a camera, a memory card and of course our cash. I gave
them all my money as did the other eleven people.
Women were crying and upset. Strangely enough, maybe because
of military experience, I was really calm and not worried.
They took all this stuff and left us, We were worried they
would come back later in the night so we organized a rotating
walking watch guard among the men, including the camp staff. We
found out the next day there were eleven others hiding in the
woods.
The camp staff never experienced anything like this. We were
three days hiking time from anything nothing we could do at
that time.
We left early the next morning and hiked two days to a safe
place. I am OK...REPEAT...OK. Just wanted to alert you in
event this makes the USA news. Don´t worry about me...hope to
see you soon...heading back to Lima this afternoon for two days
then home on Friday...
XXXX you can do what you like with this...thought other members
would like to see it. Thanks...XXXX"
Knowing him, I dont think he is dramatizing the event.
A local climber commented a few years back regarding a trip to go climbing in similiar rural south american area that the net worth of the members of their small party probably exceeded the net worth of the entire population of the district.
"Hi XXXX...hopefully this would never occur in NH...
Hello and good morning from Cusco, Peru. The trip was
amazing...lots of challenging hikes...several days of elevation
gains of 6,000 plus feet...total hiking days were fifteen.
Lots of stories to tell . Now that I am in a safe place I can
tell you this story. During this trip on 8/10 our camp was
invaded by the Communist Party of Peru. We had been out all
day hiking (day ten of seventeen) to our next camp,
approximately eight hours of hiking. We washed up in the
nearby stream and started dinner, it was pitch dark. Three men
entered our tent and announced they were from the Communist
Party of Peru. They had Russian made AK 47 automatic rifles
and they were pointed at us. They wanted supplies, two tents,
food, a camera, a memory card and of course our cash. I gave
them all my money as did the other eleven people.
Women were crying and upset. Strangely enough, maybe because
of military experience, I was really calm and not worried.
They took all this stuff and left us, We were worried they
would come back later in the night so we organized a rotating
walking watch guard among the men, including the camp staff. We
found out the next day there were eleven others hiding in the
woods.
The camp staff never experienced anything like this. We were
three days hiking time from anything nothing we could do at
that time.
We left early the next morning and hiked two days to a safe
place. I am OK...REPEAT...OK. Just wanted to alert you in
event this makes the USA news. Don´t worry about me...hope to
see you soon...heading back to Lima this afternoon for two days
then home on Friday...
XXXX you can do what you like with this...thought other members
would like to see it. Thanks...XXXX"
Knowing him, I dont think he is dramatizing the event.
A local climber commented a few years back regarding a trip to go climbing in similiar rural south american area that the net worth of the members of their small party probably exceeded the net worth of the entire population of the district.
