Hanging from a Mountain

I am not a fan of heights. I’m less a fan of ladders! But I guess if you are going to go all the way to Peru you might as well suck it up and stay a night in the Skylodge pods. Months ago I sent a link to Rebecca as a joke before we even chose this continent. Boy was that a mistake! 

The pods sit on the side of the mountain in the Sacred Valley, 1000 feet from the ground. Of course to get there you have to climb straight up. Metal grips and ladders make their way up the mountain in a sometimes zigzag pattern. Being short doesn’t help as sometimes I wasn’t tall enough to get up the next one without a bit of a leap of faith. Now of course we were harnessed in and couldn’t fall far if we slipped, but that doesn’t help much when you look down to see tiny little cars on the road below. There were multiple times I was chanting, “I hate this, I hate this.”

Shockingly the wobbly cable bridge was not the worst part. Our guides were amazing and gave advice as well as encouragement on our way up. In my panic I slammed my knees against the side of the mountain or into the metal pegs multiple times trying to stay as close to the wall as possible. My bruises will just have to be a short reminder of the fun! 

It took a little over an hour to get to the pods. We started in a larger group pod with tables for dinner and breakfast. I sat down shakily, thrilled to have made it with only bruised knees and some scrapped up knuckles. The view was amazing! And the pods felt incredibly secure even with ten people inside. 

Our whole group was made up of Americans on our Fourth of July. We all sat back as four courses of delicious food were served and enjoyed watching the sunset. After this we had to get to our individual pods which turned out to be a terrifying little set of pegs to maneuver in the dark. 

Our pod was amazing with a tiny bathroom and multiple beds. It had extra blankets to curl up in as the temperature began to dip. We sat up top on the platform to watch the stars as the clouds passed us. The whole view was incredible. 

In the morning we had a terrific breakfast followed by a photo shoot in our pod. The photographer had a drone and did a great job of getting us from cool perspectives. 

Then we all climbed a bit higher and started our decent. Zip lining! So much better than needing to climb back down. We all flew down the mountain and loved the ease compared to getting up there. 

In the end I’m glad I set aside my fear to tackle this one. It was absolutely terrifying and one of the scariest things I’ve ever done, but it was awesome! 

Mouse in my Treehouse

A mouse in my treehouse sounds like a great name for a children’s book. But for me, it meant no sleep. Staying in fun lodging seems like a great idea, but in reality it might not be. In Peru we booked a jungle adventure complete with two nights in a treehouse. Our first night in the treehouse I came back alone while Rebecca went to learn from our amazing chef. Our room consists of two small beds, a shower, two side tables, a chair, a sink and toilet. It’s very bare which is for the best. 

So there I was sitting on my bed doing some writing when I kept hearing a strange sound. There are so many sounds in the jungle that it was odd this one stood out. Finally I realized it was the crinkle of plastic and looked up to see a very round mouse on Rebecca’s table nibbling his way through a bag to get to our delicious trail mix. I think mice are cute, but not in my room! And his long creepy tail gave me shivers. Being a mature adult I decided to throw things at him to scare him off. But he won that battle. So instead I ran away. 

Rebecca asked me if I took the snacks out of the room. “No! He was on them, I ran away!!” Clearly, that was my only option. 

After dinner we went back to our treehouse to look for the furry snack thief. He was gone and left only evidence with a trail of cashews and torn plastic. Giving the room a good once over and making sure we had no other treats we were safe. Or so I thought…

I curled up in my tiny bed with the mosquito netting around me. For someone who travels quite a bit, I’m not great at sleeping in strange places and I feared I wouldn’t sleep with the jungle sounds and screaming rats, (yes, those are real!) But after a sleeping pill and long day I was done. While mosquito netting might keep out the bugs, it doesn’t protect from larger stronger animals just climbing on in. 

At about 4:30 I woke to a strange sound by my head. My mouse friend was back and on my pillow! I turned on my light as quickly as possible and looked for things to throw at him as I startled Rebecca awake. He backed away slowly just staring at me wondering what all the fuss was about. I tried tucking my netting into the bed for extra protection, but it was too late to feel safe. So now here I am writing this instead of sleeping because the thought of him crawling on my bed again has got me wide awake. Hoping the bright side will be electricity coming on soon so that I can shower and get the stink off of me! You’d think that would have deterred him in the first place.