ハイキング - 芦ヶ久保

マチュピチュ目指してのインカ道ハイクのためのトレーニングとして週末ひまがあればハイキングに行っています。
今日は西武秩父線沿いの芦ヶ久保駅から4時間程のハイキングコースをハイク予定。今電車の中でブログを書いています◎

インカ道ハイクはテントで3泊4日の標高2000-4000mのハイキングになるので富士山や八ヶ岳並みの山を登らなきゃ実践的なトレーニングにはならないけど・・何もしないよりはましということで・・
毎日ダンベルでスクワットとかした成果を試してきますっ・・！

感想とかはまた後ほどアップします^^

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

●ハイク終了後●
12時半～5時の約4時間半(内昼食休憩40分)のハイクでした。
おそめの昼食は標高960mの山頂で。

以下はハイキングコースで撮った写真↓

▲巨大岩を木が支えている 
Massive rock suspended for the time being by a tree!

▲なかなか素敵なハイキングコース
Lots of ceder tree-farms and well maintained trails.  Many river crossings~

▲広葉樹（左）と針葉樹（右）の境目
Finally, deciduous growth! 

▲丸山頂上（960m）
Taken from the giant stone observatory 
build on the top of "Maru-yama"

▲モミジイチゴ（黄苺）。

いろんなところにたくさん生えてた。

食べてみたら結構甘くて美味しい！

Didn't kill us.  

▲野生のあじさい（？）がそこらじゅうに群生していた
These are wild hydrangea -
not as flamboyant as their domesticated brothers

▲カワセミの標識もいろんなとこで見られました

帰宅後・・・
ハイキングをした日の夕食はだいたいいつも作るのが簡単なメキシカン♪
Mikeがアメリカ行ったときに買ってきてくれたローストサルサが美味しかったﾟ+.

Post hike Taco Party!

Kaori and I have done lots of hiking in the mountains of Saitama, north west of our home in Tokyo.  It seems like every stop on the rural train lines out here have a trail head with a few good loops.  We've hardly done the same hike twice!  One of my absolute favorite things about hiking in Japan: there is a temple or a monument of some kind on the top of every freaking hill and ridge in the entire country... This makes hiking in Japan especially rewarding because there's always a surprise waiting for you at the top~ 

Since deciding to hike the Inca Trail, we've been upping the difficulty and carrying more weight on our weekend hikes.  Some of these hikes have been a "gear test" so that we can get used to our equipment too. 

These are pictures from last weekend.  Kaori uploaded them from her phone on the train home while I was trying to figure out if we had just eaten yellow raspberries (pictured) or something deadly (totally imagined)..

予防接種 - Vaccination

５月の終わりに予防接種に行ってきました。
受けた予防接種は・・

The lonely planet's "greatest hits" of required vaccines for South America.
・Ａ型肝炎 - Hepatitis A
・腸チフス - Typhoid
・破傷風 - Tetanus

の３つ。Ａ型肝炎と腸チフスは主に汚染された食物・水などから感染。破傷風は傷口などから感染。
最初の二つは衛生環境が整っていない地域が多い国に行く時に推奨されるワクチンで、破傷風は、破傷風菌が自然界の土壌に存在するみたいで、私たちは４日間キャンプしながら｢インカの道｣をハイクしてマチュピチュに行くため受けました。（ちなみに破傷風は日本では三種混合で子どもの時に受けるけど、１０年以上経つと免疫が弱まるためそれをまた上げるために受けました） 


この三つのワクチンを受けただけで

計：約￥４４，０００　（１人）

二人で約￥８８，０００。かなりの出費になったけど、命には代えられない・・。苦しみたくないし・・（´д｀；）


あとは黄熱病の予防接種を受けるかどうか・・・
黄熱病は蚊から感染する病気で、私たちが南米に行くのは向こうが冬の時で主に標高２０００～４０００ｍくらいのところを旅するから（標高２３００ｍ以上は蚊がいない）、黄熱病ウィルスを持っている蚊に刺される可能性はかなり低い。
お医者さんも私達が行く場所を考慮して時期的にも大丈夫だろうと言っていました。
そして1回で1人¥11000という痛い出費・・もちろんお金は命に代えられないけど・・・

どうしようか今だに夫婦で悩み中・・・

So yeah..  I would file this one under "unexpected costs" - it's not that had a figure in mind, but I didn't expect to pay about  $550 per person for vaccines and altitude sickness meds... Japan has an amazing heath-care system.  But we had to act outside of our insurance to get these shots for luxury travel.

Going to get our shots in Shinagawa was an experience in itself.  We got to sit down with a doctor and talk for about 20 min. all about our trip.  He told us all about the safety risks and was very easy going and knowledgeable.  We talked about water purification (a must), food-born illness, and how to avoid  mosquito bites.  He accessed the CDC and other online resources like Travax to show us maps of risk-areas for yellow fever and malaria.  You can guess we probably saved another thousand dollars by steering clear of the Amazon Jungle Basin.  In fact, we'll be spending most of our trip above 2300 meters and hence, above the native habitat of deadly-disease carrying mosquitoes.  I wasn't all that interested in braving the Amazon just for a chance at bird spotting and a chance to eat piranha, thank you very much.

Anyway, we ended up with the three shots you see above and a stock of altitude sickness meds and antibiotics to use in the case of a severely troubled stomach.  Then I got dizzy and had to lie down and wait out a panic attack.. smooth..

We're still on the fence on Yellow Fever.  We would have to go to a different, government run site to get that shot.. some sources say it's required for entry into some SA countries, but the most recent information seems to say that they don't require it if you travel outside of affected areas.  Then there's always the risk of actually getting yellow fever.. and that's not one you want to get, folks..

One month to go

We're now less than one month away from our departure date!  Instead of spending the weekend working through our (still quite long) list of things to do before we leave Japan, we spent it celebrating Kaori's Brother's wedding!  It was a splendid affair~

In other happy-family news, Kaori's sister has (finally) set her wedding date for the end of March next year.

When Kaori and I started planning this trip, we were actually dreaming of taking a year off and hopping around the globe on a one-world ticket.  But then our plans started taking shape in the midst of all this matrimony...  Soon our plans got trimmed to a 3 continent, 5 month trip.. then ultimately down to a summer vacation abroad.  (Advantage: ALT - 6 weeks in the summer, unpaid.  Don't even have to quit my job.)

With a little over a month to work with, we were on the fence between doing the Eu-rail around Europe trip and doing a greatest-hits South America.  What finally tipped the scale was the physical demands of the trip.  Machu Picchu was number one on our SA bucket list (as I'm sure it is on most people's).  I remember being totally floored by the story of the "Lost City's" discovery and gaping at the photo in my 4th grade social studies text book.   I made the case that the only way to really discover the site for ourselves was to do a proper 4-day hike on the Inca trail.  Naturally, we should tackle this trip while we're still young.  We can always potter around Europe in our old age, right?

Even though logic won in the end, there was still a fair amount of speculative cost/benefit analysis done on the EU v SA decision making.  This was mostly inspired by the difference in airfare costs.  At one point, there was a $700 round trip ticket to Paris from Tokyo on South China airlines.  We eventually paid $2750 for round trip to Lima - almost 4 times the cost..  There are still lost of unknown costs lurking in this spread-sheet, but I thought it would be interesting for everyone to see...