South America

Scott and I made it back from our 3 day adventure from Cusco to Machu Picchu so here is the recap...

On Friday night we packed our bags with the essential items. Tent, sleeping pads, sleeping bags, about 2 days worth of food and approx. 5 liters of water. We were not sure when and where we would be able to buy food and water so we decided to play it safe and take more than usual.

On Saturday morning we left Cusco in a shared taxi headed for the small town of Santa Maria. There is not much to see in Santa Maria but it was a perfect starting point for our hike. We set up camp on a concrete slab inside a hostal courtyard and then headed to dinner. The reastaraunt we chose only had one dish...chicken. I was skeptical but it turned out to be some of the best chicken I've ever had, no joke. If you're ever headed to Santa Maria let me know and I'll tell you were to find it.

We woke up a little sore and wet on Sunday due to the concrete slab we were sleeping on and the rain in the middle of the night. Within an hour we were hiking towards the next distination, Santa Teresa. As I mentioned before we had decided to do this trek without a guide so we didnt really know what we were getting into. After about 2 or 3 hours the trail got a bit tricky and we were started to wonder if we were going the right way. We saw a mountain hut and decided to go ask if we were on the right track. If not, we were prepared to turn back and find another way (taxi) to Santa Teresa. About 20 minutes after we arrived at the moutain hut a guide showed up leading 2 Spanish guys. We decided to follow them for the next leg of the trip because the path was so confusing.

Bridge ruined by a landslide on the way out of Santa Maria. Landslides are very common here.

During the next few hours we hiked an Inca trail along the edge of a mountain. The view were amazing. See photos below.

Just relaxing and enjoying the amazing view.

Scott headed into the dense Jungle

Me near the highest point of the trail for the day

Scott carefully navigating the narrow path along the Inca trail.

After a few more hours, a few bridge crossings and a rickety cable car river crossing we made it to Santa Teresa. We found a legit campsite with actual grass (we were thrilled to have a grass campsite after the concrete the previous night). Take a look at the view from our tent on Monday morning. Notice the family of chickens walking past.

We expected Monday's hike to be less challenging than the previous day and that turned out to be true. The day started out with another cable car crossing. The only difference was that this time we were solo (without guide and Spanish guys) which made the crossing a bit more exciting. See picture below of Scott in the tiny little basket crossing the river.

Here is a pic of Scott as we were hiking towards Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu.

Half way to Aguas Calientes we reached the hydroelectric plant where the road stopped and we had to decide to wait 2 hours for the train to Aguas (8 USD), or just walk along the tracks. We decided to walk along the tracks and we made it to Aguas shortly after the train.

Taking a break along the train tracks on the way to Aguas.

Here Scott is trying to use commando tactics. He thought he could calculate the trains distance from the vibrations in the track....what a dork.

On Tuesday morning we decided to get up at 330AM so that we could start our hike by 4AM. Our hope was that we would be able to make it up to the MP gate before the first tour bus arrived. Without our large backpacks we were able to make it up to the gate in only an hour and 20 minutes. We were first in the line!!! It was great because the tour group behind us had hiked up early as well because they REALLY wanted to be first in line. They sounded pretty disappointed that we beat them!!
When the gates opened at 6AM we ran up the path which rose in elevation a few hundred feet in order to get the first pictures. The goal was to get some pictures without any schmucks in the background.

Check out these pictures from around 6AM before the clouds had lifted. It looks like we are floating.

After the first couple shots we headed to a lookout point on the other side of the ruins. We were with some Ecuadorian kids and we had the whole area to ourselves so we broke out the Fiesta Caja and played some Radiohead and some techno for about 45 minutes as the clouds lifted......Amazing....

Next we up another 1000 or 1500 feet to Wayna Picchu. There were quite a few ruins up there as well and the view of MP from up there were great.

Below are some other pictures from between 10AM and 2 PM that turned out pretty decent...

Trying to be fancy with the camera....I don't really know what I'm doing though.

In the afternoon we just chilled out on one of the lower terraces and listened to music. Here is a pic of Scott dancing....the Fiesta Caja was really pumping out some killer base hits that afternoon.

This view shows the road that the bus takes up to MP. We hiked right up the middle of the switchbacks (through the jungle) instead of following the road.

Another view of MP.

We are leaving Cusco today to head towards MP.
I'm really excited because we decided to do it without a guide. Yesterday we rented camping gear and went grocery shopping for food. Today we leave by collectivo taxi to a small town about 5 hours away. We will camp one night there. The next day we plan to walk about 7 hours and camp at another town. On Monday we will spend a few hours walking to a hydroelectric power plant and then probably catch a quick 3PM train to the town at the base of Machu Picchu. The alternative is to just walk alongside the tracks for a few more hours (depending on how our legs feel). Early Tuesday morning (4AM) we will walk up to MP for the day!!

FYI...Scott and I Hasselhoffed the computers in the Hostal last night.

Below are some pictures from the last week in Arequipa and hiking down in Colca Canyon

Arrival in Arequipa

View of Arequipa

On the way to Colca Canyon we stopped for a night in a small town called Chivay. In this area much of the mountain has been ¨terraced¨
I was told yesterday that much of this work was done between 800 and 1300 A.D. I didnt take this picture but it was the best I could find to show the terraces.

Here is a view of the Oasis that we were hiking down to. Believe it or not this picture was taken after we had already been hiking down for about an hour. The Oasis was over 3000 vertical feet below the town were we started out that afternoon.

This is what it looked like at the bottom a few hours later.

Picture of Scott hiking back up the following morning around 8:30 AM

Scott and I with our bamboo walking sticks. Some of you liked the camel shadow picture from Morocco a few years ago so I though I´d try it again.

And we thought we were the only ones with a party box. This guy had his own... although it was pumping out static rather than killer techno beats.