| It was a crazy two weeks, going straight from St Thomas to Peru was quite the vacation flip (not complaining at all... just very different "gears"). Ryan met up with me in Miami and we took a red-eye to Lima. After waiting in the airport, we met up with Rachel, we were on our way to Cuzco - sort of. We accidentally booked Peruvian national tickets... whups! So we paid the difference and were on our way. Arriving in Cuzco, we already had trouble breathing. At 3,400 m in elevation, walking up a small hill gave us a run for our money. I had been super nervous about the altitude and getting sick, so this made me even more nervous! We grabbed dinner and I even tried Alpaca. Super game-y and I probably wont be ordering again, but hey, I was adventurous. After we met with Salkantay Trekking and got a briefing about the plan for the next day. A night at Pariwana Hostel (ranked 3rd hostel in the world!) and an early morning we were off! |  Lobby of the Pariwana Hostel; the rainbow flags are from the flag of Cusco! The hostel was super nice with computers, clean rooms, plenty of bathrooms, movie theater, nightly activities and even a bar! |
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Above are Ryan and Rachel in the main square of Cuzco (a UNESCO World Heritage site), the square was super lively with market stalls, religious festivals (the first Sunday of the new year, church goers take the baby Jesus from their nativity, change the clothes and bring to church) and music.
4:30 AM | Early morning wake up call... taken to a whole new meaning. I scared myself so much when the alarm went off that I sat straight up and got super dizzy, following it up by getting sick shortly before leaving. Looking back I think I was just psyching myself out. |
| After getting picked up the three of us (and 5 of our newest Norwegian friends) headed out. Stopping for breakfast, and eventually the beginning of the hike. To the left is the first of our family pictures. This was before we started the hike... and barely before I had my first thought that I wouldn't make it. Hiking up a hill can be tough with a backpack and poncho, hiking up a hill at elevation, I thought I was going to die. But after making it up the hill 20 minutes, we had about a 2 hour walk to our first campsite. |  |
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10:30 AM | As we were walking into camp, we were told that we could take a nap. Many of the people on the trip were able to sleep on the bus, so this seemed silly to me. No one had any problem passing out prior to lunch and it was glorious. |
Our first meal with the trek was more than I expected. Both in the amount of food and quality of food. As we sat in a hut covered with a blue tarp, they brought in our first course. On tiny metal plates sat a pile of fresh guacamole with a llama and mountain pita chip propped on top! Easily can say from there on out I looked forward to meals.
Post Siesta | Remind me again why we don't have hour post lunch naps in America? There really isn't an excuse! After our Siesta, we hiked up a mountain in Soraypampa to get to the glacial lake at the base. It was a tough hill and took nearly 3 hours round trip, but the views were worth it. After dinner we were off to bed by 8:30! |
Day 2: Rachel's Birthday and Salkantay Pass9 hours of hiking, sounds like it wouldn't be terrible, but this was the second time I thought I was going to die (spoiler alert: I'm alive). We woke up and had cake for breakfast to celebrate Rachel's 24th, then we were off to the races. The Salkantay Pass was quite the feat. It took up 2 hours gaining elevation, then another 2 hours gaining elevation all before we had an hour hike downhill and lunch. Post lunch we had a 4 hour hike to our camping spot for the night. Our guide, Roger kept encouraging us through the rain: "almost, almost." | |
It's all downhill from here (dual meaning)
| We said "Adios" to our horseman Walter. But much to our pleasure, we still didn't have to carry our extra gear! The hike was the most pleasant stretch thus far. Waterfalls galore! This section of the hike was in the cloud forest. Not only was it warmer, but it wasn't raining either! We were doing great, on time to hit La Playa, the lunch spot about 30-40 minutes early. Here I was thinking we would get a siesta, then we came across the landslide. After a few minutes, we decided the landslide wasn't crossable, and our guide convinced us a cable car, used by local villagers was a safe way to cross the 1000+ foot gorge. | |
 The mudslide we needed to cross |  The "cable car" we used to cross. |  Rachel pulling her and Kent across! |
Post Cable Car | After we crossed the cable car we continued our way into town via the road. Once in La Playa we were able to take off our hiking boots and put on sandals for the afternoon. We took a bus to drop our stuff at the campsite, changed into our swimming suits and headed off to the hot springs! It felt so good to finally shower and be able to sit in a massive hot tub. My blisters were thanking me! |
Day 4: Ziplining & hike to Aguas Calientes
 One of the most welcoming sights of the trip: the town that contained hot showers and real beds!  | For some reason ziplining was more terrifying than the cable car. Maybe it's because you were all alone, or maybe it was because they made us hike straight up a mountain then gave us a 30 second safety briefing. Ziplining was really fun, despite the rain, our guide was joking around with us and we were even able to go "superman" style on our last zipline. Definitely a highlight of the trip! We got back in the van and worked on warming up as we ate our boxed lunches... who knew beef stew was a boxed lunch? After arriving in Hydroelectra, we began out hike to Aguas Calientes. It was a flat trek along the train tracks, but the rockiness and rain really had me looking forward to a hot shower upon arrival to our hotel! That night we had dinner and were allowed to shop around the markets for a bit. We had to rest up... 5:00 AM role call en route to Machu Picchu!  |
MACHU PICCHU
Here are some photos from our morning at Machu Picchu. When we walked in, there was this sense of quiet that I have never experienced before. It was so magical.
Post Machu Picchu we got $16 massages, which were exactly what our legs, back and shoulders ordered. With lunch, dinner and a little more shopping we boarded the train to Ollantaytambo where the trekking company picked us up and dropped us off at our hotel in Cuzco!
Last Day: LIMA
| | On our last day, we had an early morning flight to Lima. Once there we checked our bags for our flights that night and took a cab into the city. We were able to get lunch and walk around a bit before boarding the Mirabus for a 2 hour open bus tour of the city. It was an easy way to see the city! We had dinner after the tour and finalized the trip with happy hour of pisco sours (and they even played the New England Patriots for Ryan!) Overall it was an amazing trip and we had a fantastic time. Peru was a beautiful country, but as we were leaving an older man said we have to go back to Boliva... hmmmm. |