Game ON.

Cripes. What a 7 days it's been!

Since the last time I posted: Daisy turned two, went to her very first theme park and had her first day at pre-school; our new couch arrived; and I got the opportunity to cross yet another bucket-list item off.

Let me elaborate on the latter.

I'm grabbing my purse on Wednesday afternoon, getting ready to pick Daisy up from school for the very first time. I had butterflies in my tummy, Hubby was antsy, and both of us were a little groggy from an impromptu afternoon snooze on the new couch. (We took the day off - we don't slack like that on work days.)

My phone rang and I saw that it was my L.A. friend, E (of The Gurly Life fame). My first thought was: "Oh, how sweet, she called to see how Daisy was doing." So I picked up.

"Weeeeeeeeeeell..." she said, at length. "Remember that contest you told me to enter for a trip up the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu?"

"Uh, huh," I said, absentmindedly. My brain was on my kid waiting for me in the school yard, so I admit I wasn't 100% tuned in. Plus, it was an odd beginning to a conversation - like it started in the middle. So, I was thrown.

"Weeeeeeeell..." E said again, waiting for me to take the bait.

Slowly, the cogs in my mine turned and I tried to switch gears from Momma to friend. Which is when I stopped at my front door. "No way! You won!?"

"Way. I won! And you're coming with me!"

{GULP}

That's right, folks. My friend won a 4-day trek up the Inca Trail and I am to be her plus one!

Right about now you're thinking that I'm all kinds of lucky and am not going to deny this but let me pick out one word that should bring you up short, as it did me: TREK.

trek/trek/

Verb: Go on a long arduous journey, typically on foot.

Arduous. On foot. And they're not kidding. Here is a description of the trip from the tour provider's website, Global Basecamps.

Inca Trail Classic
This is the classic four-day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. This magnificent hike is for travelers who are in condition to hike up to ten hours, with breaks, in a single day. The pace may be daunting for some...

Um, did I forget to mention that, in an ironic stroke of fate, both E and I share the same hip and S.I. joint issues? We even had the same hip surgery, within 3 months of one another. When we go on our legendary photo jaunts, one of us invariably has to sit down to rest our back at some point - and I'm talking after an hour or so. 

So, hiking for ten hours a day, at a "daunting" pace does not sound like something either of us are cut out for.

Funnily enough, when I suggested she enter the competition (which is something I frequently ask my friends to do - enter vacation sweepstakes in case they win and decide to take me) we exchanged laffs on Facebook about how it was totally likely that one of us would win because, you know, we can barely walk some days, let alone hike.

Yeah. Funny. That's the word.

Further, the winner's email that E received, mentions that the trip includes the following:

• Camping Equipment:
• Spacious North Face tents
• Dining tent
• Toilet tent, tables and chairs
• Oxygen bottle
• Cooking equipment. 

Like we should be soooo relieved that there is a tent for pissing in.

I'm sorry but I just can't help but have visions of sitting in the toilet tent, half-dead after ten hours of hiking, hugging my oxygen bottle.

So, not only will be hiking 10 hours a day but we'll be sleeping our bad backs on the floor, in a tent, and going potty in a toilet presumably small enough to carry up a mountain.

Did I mention E and I also don't like to rough it?

But I say this all in jest (well, not totally, I am a bit concerned) because, really, who gets this opportunity placed in their lap? Not everyone. And if you know anything about me, you'll know that I'm up for a challenge, especially when it comes to traveling. If it means I have to hire a personal trainer to get my sore ass in shape, just so I can make it up that hill, then that is what I am going to do. Machu Picchu is on my (as yet to be revealed/completed/published) bucket list and, dammit, I am going to scale that mountain, take my awesome pictures and come back victorious (or paralyzed... one or the other.)

GAME ON!

Image Courtesy of http://www.travelphant.com/2010/05/manchu-picchu.html

You can read E's amusing account of her epic win here: http://thegurlylife.typepad.com/gurly/2011/04/machu-pichu-really.html