Tawantinsunyu - The Inca Empire and the Inca Trail

Our trip to Peru was anything short of amazing! Primarily due to our guide Miguel, who is sort of a renaissance man, proud of the Quechua culture and really a great guy. We were fortunate enough to spend a whole lot of quality time with him, since it was only Alison and I in the group during our 4 day hike along the Inca trail. It was a tough hike but it was an experience of a lifetime.

Instead of putting all of it down in a long narrative, here are the highlights:

• Altitude sickness - headaches, fever, elevated heart rates, indigestion
• Coca leaves - went on a quest for some leaves, drank them in tea, chewed them
• 25 lbs on our backs? - both of us carried our own packs (~80% of hikers do not!)
• Highest elevation - dead woman's pass at 14,000 feet!
• Microclimates - the mountains presented us with: humid, hot, dry, cold and rainy weather
• Porters - the heroes of the hike: with >55 lbs on their backs, they leave later and arrive earlier to cook and setup camp
• Ruins - beautiful and amazing ruins that are part of a grand vision of the Incas that radiate from Cusco, the navel of the universe
• Machu Picchu - the most beautiful and spectacular experience after ~26 total hours of hiking

Day 1 - at the start of the hike

Day 2 - at the top of dead woman's pass

Day 3 - close to campsite (Winay Wayna)

Day 4 - Machu Picchu 

IMD MBA is going to start... today?

This week, pre-work has been posted in the IMD MBA 2011 portal. The classes that will require some work to be done before January are:

1. Leadership - a book and some articles to read and a personal and professional narrative (PPIN) to write.
2. Finance - two chapters of a finance book to digest
3. Entrepreneurship - a book to read and an assignment to prepare
4. Global political economy - a book to read

So here it is, a couple of books to start reading, some questions to prepare, and an essay to write. Clearly, as my work winds down (9 days left!), my MBA program will start to ramp up. Although I would have liked some real down time before school begins, I'm starting to enjoy this self paced learning and eager to open my mind and soak up all there is to absorb and experience all that I can in this once in a lifetime opportunity...

Cheers! We're off to Peru tomorrow, catch you all when we get back!

Pleasant surprise, great company!

Last Friday, my wife and I met with a future classmate right here in Minneapolis! It turns out that in order to meet up in the Twin Cities, we had to both be planning a life changing trip to Lausanne, Switzerland. We also found out that they lived within minutes from us. We were anxious to meet them and wondered if they would be good company. We were optimistic and this was yet another step that moved us closer psychologically to Lausanne. It was great fun! We chatted about our interview process, other future classmates, plans and our hopes for next year. It was a fun double date and it helps to have a familiar face when we jump-in in January. I'm becoming more confident that my classmates will be great and our intereactions will form lifelong bonds. 14 working days to go!

Count down

I've begun to count down the work days... 17 days! It's slowly started to sink in that we will be in Lausanne in about 2 months. In the mean time, we are still scambling to get the visas, our finance in order and insurance for next year! By constantly checking the school portal and chatting with future classmates, I feel like I'm somewhat in control and that I have not slipped up on any major dates.

On another note, we are considering getting a pair of Kindles so that we will not have to haul books all around the world. We are considering the WIFI only, and it seems reasonable that we download books only in hotspots. Anyone has Kindles out there? I would love to hear some thoughts and reviews!

My first article

"Finding the right match in B-School" by Howie Chan

I found it really hard to actually find this article. The MBA Journal section does not really link to the new articles! Perhaps, they are still trying to revamp the MBA Journal page. I stumbled upon my own article while surfing the web. Enjoy the article nevetheless!

IMD Contest

Do you want a fully paid trip to IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland to take part in the Orchestrating Winning Performance Conference and an iPad? Take part in this easy contest for a chance to win any of 9 prizes!

Click "Here" for the video that explains the contest.

Back in town

Back in the cities and the first article on BusinessWeek is out! The trip out west was fantastic, we drove west from Minnesota through South Dakota, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, then south through Utah, Arizona and then back east through Colorado, Nebraska and Iowa. The road trip covered 9 states, 6 National parks and we probably collected over a thousand bugs on the windshield.

Badlands - South Dakota

Yellowstone - Wyoming

Grand Tetons - Wyoming

Grand Canyon - Arizona

Zion - Utah

 Arches - Utah