Cusco!

Well just returned from my trip to Cusco this morning; love that city!

Thursday morning we arrived, acclimatized, and conquered! After a nap in the morning we explored Cusco checking out some Incan walls and a great little store near the rock with twelve angels. Then Ella and I went out to dinner with Melvin and Marion (our site directors) to a little hole in the wall pizza place that was really good. Friday morning we awoke early and began our tour of the Valle Sagrado (sacred valley). We stopped at a site above Cusco, a llama/alpaca petting zoo, some ruins by Pisac, a chicharia(where they make chica-a drink from fermented corn) and some more ruins in Ollaytambo. After all of this exhaustion we boarded a train and headed to Aguas Calientes for the night.

Saturday we woke up in Aguas Calientes and got on a bus and headed up to Machu Picchu. The ride was incredible, through rainforest covered mountains. Machu Picchu was incredible mostly because of the location and the extensiveness of the ruins. Though it is extremely touristy with about 3,000 tourists EVERY DAY! After our tour most of us headed off to hike up Wayna Picchu(young peak), the mountain you see in the typical image of Machu Picchu. It is about 45 minutes of zig-zag stairs straight up, I definitely was not expecting to find a little village at the very tip top though. There were some amazing views down on Machu Picchu from there. Next time I go I will definitely be taking the Incan Trail, I can only imagine how awesome it would be to walk through the sun gate as the sun is rising and see Machu Picchu.

After that we returned to Aguas Calientes and boarded our 4 hour long train to Cusco. Ella and I got to sit together and it was a hilarious ride for the most part. We returned to Cusco where I met up with my cousin Cara and we went out and had some amazing Argentinian wine. After we met up with everyone at a hostel party then continued on til 4am to two different dancing spots. And now I am back, missing the sun already!

 Incan walls in Cusco

 dressing up

 dinner

 above cusco

 bigggg incan walls

 scary

 oh jaaa, wingspan like a condor! (also that is Wayna Picchu in the background, went to the very top of it!)

 some duck like things, we miss you U of O!

 at the top of Wayna Picchu, the city of Machu Picchu is behind me

Cusquenas on the train ride back, had to celebrate a 100 yrs of Machu Picchu

Getting High

As this title suggests, we got high this weekend. I'm talking physically, approximately 15,748 feet above sea level.

We arrived in Huaraz Friday morning at 6am and went straight to our hostel, Jo's Place, which was more of a quirky colorful guesthouse. There were tents set up in the courtyard and we met some really cool people including a couple who are biking from Lima, to the tip of Sur America, to Buenos Aires. Amazing people, check out their page here at inspireout.com and read their journal entry specifically about the Santa Cruz trek(Emily, all I could think was how you would have loved them!).

Anyway without wasting anytime to acclimatize to our new height of 10,000ft above sea level we hopped in a van and headed higher to ride some horses. Lets just say we didn't really know what we were getting into. Riding ponies up and up, in the beginning we joked about riding them to the glacier covered mountains above us...and then we actually did it. Unfortunately I wimped out when we were about 40mins from the top because my head hurt too much, but apparently there were some beautiful lakes at the top. Also I hit my head on a branch..not too funny at the time but now it is.

After this little adventure we realized we needed to acclimatize better, so we napped and drank lots and lots of coca.

The next morning we awoke with the roosters and went to a cute cafe for trekkers/backpackers, Cafe Andino. Where we ate huge banana pancakes, delish. Then we headed out to some hotsprings, which turned out to just be a tepid muddy pool and then these really hot sauna caves. I just did the cave thing, I think we did the coolest one and it was still too much for me.

Sunday morning we headed out at 6am to Huascaran National Park, it was about 3 hours away, on some crazy dirt roads. Driving into the park we passed some pretty teal lakes. Then we began our 6 hour hike. It started off alright, there were some struggles on the valley which was by far the easiest part looking back. The valley was soo majestic there was a river running through and just as we started about 7 horses came running down the hill to drink out of the river. After 30mins of walking on flat land we began our ascent, zig-zagging up the mountainside. Amazing views the entire way, of waterfalls and Huascaran, which is like the tallest peak in Peru, I think. Then we finally got to another flat part which I like to call Hot Poop valley, the name is self explanatory...there were probably 30 cows in this valley..I have no idea what left all of that poop though! Then started the hour and a half long scramble to the top which was literally the hardest thing I have ever had to do because of the lack of oxygen. But it was as they say 'vale la pena' when we saw laguna 69...I have never seen those colors of blue before in my life! It was just incredible I can't even explain it..the pictures do a pretty good job but still the color is not perfect.

To sum it all up I will just leave you with a myriad of pictures from my trip!

inside the sauna cuevas in Choncos

we had a cowgirl with us, thankfully

hello sun!

see that mountain..that's where we went

our first glimpse of glacial lakes

we went up there

ahhh

meghan, me, ella and emily at laguna 69

besos