Camp Champions Blog

In my 25 years as a summer camp director, the one question I hear the most is a simple, but important one:

As promised, I have decided to write a blog about the Inca Trail with the benefit of 2 days of reflection. As I think about it, my thoughts drift to 4 categories:

We have finished our second day of the Inca Trail and I can confirm that it was not as hard as the first, but only slightly so. We did, in fact cross over “Dead Woman’s Pass” (that is the picture I open with) at 13,800 and even learned the origin of the name. It turns out that someone deemed that a foothill below looked like a dead woman. How this imaginative person could ascertain any gender when I could not even see a human form is beyond me, but that is the source of the name.

“This is definitely a once in a lifetime experience.” – Wiley Baskin

The three oldest Baskin children and I have finished the Inca Trail.  We have rejoined Susie and Virginia returned from Cusco to Lima. In fact, we will be on a plane to return home in less than 1.5 days.

When we were in Lima, we marveled at how much that city of almost 10 million felt like a small town. Despite our great affection for the city, we decided to curtail our shopping until we got to Cusco. As a general rule, we have found that smaller places often have better deals and more authentic crafts and memorabilia.

Years ago, my wise mother shared an observation with me.

We continue to find the charm of Lima. Liam [Note: I find myself constantly typing “Liam” when I mean “Lima” and vice versa] wanted to do something edgier. So he suggested that we go paragliding.

Susie loves Lima. OK, we all truly like it, but it is proving to be heaven for Susie.

We like Lima. I was expecting a smallish city, but I was not really thinking. Certainly at 9.8 million, Lima is smaller than Buenos Aires at 14.1 million, but it is still bigger than Chicago or Houston.