Meet our Andes support team
Our Lares Trek support team. From left: Primativo, Grigorio, Ezekiel, Francisco and Odon
Thank goodness we didn’t have to blunder through our Lares Trek unsupervised. Oh no, we had a support team of five and they all were amazing.
I’ll start with Odon, our remarkable guide. Odon is Quechuan and the Peruvian Andes are his territory. He speaks Spanish, Quechuan, Italian and English. Odon has been a guide on the Inca Trail and Lares Trek for 11 years, and I was constantly amazed by his knowledge of the region and its/his people. He is so proud of Peru and has every right to be. It was a true privilege to share our Lares journey with him. In another blog entry, I look forward to sharing his insight into the Quechuan communities of the Andes.
Primavtivo (gosh I hope I spelled his name right) was our genius cook. Every day he churned out breakfast, lunch, happy hour and dinner, plus snacks for the trek and plenty of boiled water for drinking. He had a couple of gas burners, a pack horse full of pots and pans, bags and bags of fresh meat and produce, sharp knives and a chef’s uniform. How could he go wrong? His meals were varied, filling and delicious. And I managed to get the basics of one of his inventive potato dishes—we had at least two kinds of potato for almost every lunch and dinner.
Grigorio chases a horse/mule out of the potato patch and around the barn
Francisco was assistant cook. He is a whiz with the knives and it was impressive to see him chopping vegetables on a cutting board that was casually balanced on his knees. Francisco played another important role on Day 2. That was the day we trekked 10 kilometres uphill (then 4 down). Francisco, bless his heart, was in charge of the horse/mule that had been relieved of pack duties that day to cart anyone who became sick or who needed assistance up the steepest parts of the climb. More about that in Day 2.
Ezekiel and Grigorio (another spelling challenge) were the horsemen, as well as great hands in the kitchen. We were travelling through their ‘country’ and actually camped at Ezekiel’s home at the end of Day 1. These two men made sure the horses (actually they were mules but always referred to as horses) were well packed and doing the job best suited to each beast. Each morning they rounded up the horses, which had grazed freely through the night (except for one that had to be tied—must be a bolter). Although Grigorio spent the first evening keeping one horse out of one of Ezekiel’s potato patches. Grigorio also had the most amazing hat, and suffered a badly injured toenail, thanks to a rambunctious horse.
All these men made us their top priority and we could not have made the journey without them. I will always be grateful.
Where to next? 
Peggy, I hope you can recreate some of those potato recipes – Peru, cradle of the potato – I am waiting hopefully!
duonyte
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I hope so too duonyte. The potatoes have been amazing. We just got back from a home stay on an island in Lake Titikaka. We had potatoes,potatoes and potatoes. 🙂
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