Mary Ipser (83) from Bellville spent 36 days in the hospital after brain surgery and a fusion of three spinal vertebrae, just 10 months before travelling to Peru, ascending 2 430m and successfully reaching the Machu Picchu Inca citadel.
Peru, Cuzco, Machu Picchu, Inca ruins. Picture: Getty Images
According to TygerBurger, the trip had been delayed for three years due to Covid-19, it was a family affair, and Machu Picchu seemed too special to miss.
Damian, Mary’s grandson, travelled from London to join her, her husband Claude (80), sons Adrian and Jonathan and daughter-in-law Chantal.
Despite her reservations about the endeavour and the numerous challenges she knew she’d face along the way, including thin air at 2 400m altitude, Mary decided to take on the mountain.
‘I had great concerns about managing it,’ she confessed to TygerBurger. Mary is only 1.49m tall.
While the rest of their group hiked the Salkantay Peak trek in the Andes, Mary and Chantal stayed in Cusco. They then met up with them in Aguas Calientes, where they boarded a bus to Machu Picchu National Park. She was telling herself at the time that she would do her best, not expecting much from herself.
‘My confidence was low, but here was a chance to see where it should be,’ she told TygerBurger.
Mary says it wasn’t long after starting the summit before she had to stop and catch her breath, explaining that the rock steps to the highest levels are high and seemingly endless.
She came to a halt and told Claude to meet her on the way down, then sat on a step to wait.
Soon after, a guide appeared and encouraged her, saying, ‘You are a strong person. You know what you want to do.’ He took her elbow and guided her to a higher-level terrace.
She spotted Claude, and the unknown guide snapped a photo of the two of them.
Mary is very impressed with Peru, and told TygerBurger that it is clean and beautiful, the views are breathtaking, the history is mysterious and the people are friendly and helpful.
Claude and Mary are no strangers to adventure, having visited 76 countries and brought back unforgettable memories, ‘some wonderful, some crazy’.
She told TygerBurger that they were stuck between the border posts of Yugoslavia and Italy, with Mary’s visas for both having expired; they had fled gunshots in the Lesotho Highlands and were once lost on Namibia’s Skeleton Coast due to a lack of fuel.
Claude, she claims, encourages her to push her boundaries.
Reflecting on her most recent adventure, Mary says, ‘I am glad I did it. I have been enriched by visiting Machu Picchu, and I feel better about myself.’
‘And now,’ TygerBurger reports, ‘Mary has only one question: Where to next?’
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