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!
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