123 km later...

We suvived nine days in the peruvian Andes and it was Amazing! I think forsure it was the highlight of our trip! We climbed four passes, the highest being 4600 meters, or around 16000 feet... the air was thin!! and what goes up must come down... and we did! Everyday we would acend and decend almost 1000 meters or more a day!

Day 1...
It all started at 4:45 am on april 5th... we were picked up in a car with our guide, cook and driver... and statred off into the mountains. The first stop was Cachora. Along the way, about an hour into the drive, we came along a huge rock slide that completly covered the road.

There were busses full of people throwing rocks everwhere to try and create enough of a flat area so that bus could pass, we watched for about twenty minutes as our car found a diffgernt route ( which was the river...) Anyways we trampled though the crowed and caught up with our car down the road, we later asked our guide if rock slides were a frequent occurance and he said that they happen all the time... we were a little nervous for the last few hours of or drive! Once we arrived in Cahora we met the mule guides, had lunch an started the trek, we thought we were wlaking 5 km, but ended up walking 20... a little language barrier with the guide, we soon found out that there would be many more suprises like this along the way! We camped near the river the first night, had a great dinner and were sleeping by 830, with no electircity it gets dark and we got sleepy early!

Day 2...
We woke up at 5am and packed up, had some Breky and hit the trail, we climbed down to the river and then started the trek up! up up up... that was the day, it was beautiful, waterfalls, the mountains everything was outstanding! From the river we climbed about 1500 m to the pass and then came down a good bit to the second nights camp. We saw some amazing terracing this day as well, it was really neat to see how the agriculture works here, and since there is no flat open space, the terraces are all over! We set up camp and just relaxed as the sun went down, we were looking out at the river and mountains in the distance, a really cool spot!

Day 3... On this day we explored the ruins of Choqecoaraw, a Inka city that has just recently been restored. It was amazing. The terraces and the buildings taht were built on top of this mountiain were unbelievable. We spent the whole day looking around the site, it was impressive!

Day 4... Today we had another hard day, we went down down down, then all the way up again, this time we were in the joungle, we say a huge terancula and some snakes, and the path today was a little scetchy... but we made it, and slept very well, we were really tired by the time camp came at 5pm, it was a good 10 hours walking today!! more beautiful sights, and so quiet, no cars, no villages, hardly any people, Gods creation is so beautiful. The ultimate artist, what we have seen in the last few days only reconfirms this! Wow, there is not words to describe it!

Day 5... more up, today we passed 4100 m, a difficult one, but rewarding at the end of the day!

Day 6... the last pass, and the highest, 4630m, 15 300 ft


It was going ok, and slow, we were almost at the top, when I relized that my sunglasses had fallen out of my pocket... Jeremia being the trooper that he is went down almost 300m to look for them, what a guy! He found them and climbed all the way back up! Something that I could not have done! The altitude did not effect us a lot, I mean we got the light head, head ache, short of breath thing, but nothing serious, we were very thankful for that! We also passed some huge glaciers and snow caped mountains today, all around 6000 m, now thats high!

Day 7... Today we followed the river, so it was not a lot of steep hiking today, for which we were very glad! We endded up in Playa, a small village that was connected with a road to Santa Teresa, this is where we wnded up spending the night, we got into the back of a big truck with about 30 other people from the villiage and rode it into town, another suprise for us... but a good one, it was a experiance thats for sure, I´ll just say that we were glad that we made it to Santa teresa safe!!

Day 8... Today we walked to a hydro station and then on to Agua Calienties, the town which is the closest to Machu Pichu. We followed the rail road tracks for most of the day, so again not to steep, although long!! We arrived in the town and were in shock with the amount of tourists and people, I wouldn´t want to be here in the busy season!! We stayed in a hostal, a shower was warmly welcomed after all the rain and mud that we had!! We also thought we would go to the hot springs, although that was a bad idea. We payed and started to walk up, and once we say them we knew... it was not worth it! since we didnt want to completly waste 20 soles we changed and went in the springs, it was horrible!! We now refer to the hot springs as the urination springs, since that was the putrid smell that permeated the air.... I shudder just thinking about it! we stayed for 10 min, all that we could handle, 1 soles a min... and not one more! Well needless to say, that was a let down!! We went to bed early and tried to get some sleep for the early morning to come!

Day 9... Machu Pichu! We woke at 3:55am to start the walk up to Machu Pichu, it was so dark and we were the only crazy ones on the trail, we wanted to beat the hoard of busses that start coming at 6am when it opens! It was a VERY hard climb to the top... 1717 stairs and 5Km that we climbed, all Inka, all uneven stone, all in the dark! It took a little over an hour, at a very fast pase set by our guide! We made it to the top and the sunrise was beautiful! There is no dought in my mind as to why people from all over the world come to see this lost city of the Inkas!

The stone work alone is enough... I can not begin to explain! We spent the morning walking and exploring, and then set off on the last peak... Wanyanupichu, the famuse mountain that you see in all the photos of Machu pichu. It was another hard climb, but once at the top, the view was well worth it! We had beautiful weather for the day and came all the way down by foot in the ealy afternoon, to catch the train back to cuzco, we arrived in cuzco at around 830pm. It was a long but wonderful day!

Over all the trek was great, we got rained on everyday, but always at night or in the early morning, The peruvian guys that were with us were great, we had yummy food, and were really able to see how thew people live in the mountians here, so different from home, so isloated. It was a really cool experiance! We are glad to be back here in Cuzco for Semana Santa... or easter as we say, we are thankful for a few days rest before we head out to the sacred valley early next week.

Ok Thats all the writing I can do for now, Its hard to explain what we saw in words, so Jer will put up some pics on webshots! See you all soon, Only 11 short days left.

lots of love, Anya and Jeremia