Peru

We arrived late to Lima and flew out the next morning to Cusco. Here is a picture from the plane of the mountains below.

In Cusco, there was a big parade and festival in celebration of Inti Raymi sun festival.

We loved the costumes and watching the dancers. The groups were from different high schools. There was so much energy.

We found a great place to eat lunch and watch the festivities. We were seated outside on the balcony overlooking the square. It was fantastic.

Today we joined our group to tour the Sacred Valley. This is a huge agricultural area. We started our drive by stopping at an Inca ruin. At this site, along with many other sites, they used terracing for their crop setup.

We traveled to GAP adventures (our tour group) Women's Weaving Project. We were able to see the women working and purchase goods directly from them.

They use different flowers and parasites to dye the wool into different colors. Here the yarn is drying in the sun.

The children in Peru were adorable. I loved this little girl because she was holding her baby doll in a fabric "backpack" like the women do in the area.

The women were very kind. It was amazing to see their work.

We love this picture!

We next drove to the local bar. The local drink is Chicha which is made from fermented corn. It only lasts 3 days and then needs to be thrown out. Here is the women who made the Chicha for us to try.

It was good. There was an even better Chicha with strawberries.

We also enjoyed playing their frog coin game. Alan wants to make one for tailgating. This picture is our guide playing frog. Very fun!

We arrived at our overnight site of Ollantaytambo. Here is a ruin that combines pre-Inca and Inca ruins. It was beautiful. At the top there were 5, 70 ton granite stones. It is truly amazing construction.

Colleen walking through an Inca entryway.

This is the view looking down at the city from the ruins.

It was a steep climb but nothing compared to the Inca Trail!

Today we left Ollantaytambo and drove 40 minutes along a dirt road to the start of the Inca Trail.

Gearing up for the start of the Inca Trail:

We got our passports stamped as we entered the trail. The trail is restricted to 500 people per day to start.

Here is a picture of our group. We had a wonderful group for the trip.

Crossing the bridge to start the Inca Trail:

We gave our bags to the porters who carry all of our camping and cooking supplies along with our personal items. We are each limited to 3kg for our baggage. The trail is well regulated and porters are not able to carry more than 50 pounds. However, after doing the trail with only a day pack with some clothes, 50 pounds is a ton to carry on the trail.

Here are a few porters:

Along the trail, we saw different Inca ruins. Here is the first one we saw:

Today was considered the easy day but was still a challenge. It was great to get to stop for lunch and finally at our campsite. Here is a picture of the entire crew and ourselves. Our guide was Victor who was outstanding.

At the campsite, Alan played soccer with this adorable boy who was about 4 years old. Too cute!

This was our second day on the trail. We started hiking around 7:30am. The trail is very regulated with how much gear the porters can carry. Here the porters are weighing their gear at the checkpoint.

In the beginning of the day, we entered the cloud forest. This was very pretty with streams and pretty trees. We even saw a deer along the trail.

Our guide told us that today would be hardest day. It was very tough. We hiked about 12 km (about 7 miles) total today. We went up to 14,000 feet at the top of Dead Woman Pass...named for the shape of the mountain, not all the hikers that didn't make it. Going up this pass was difficult because the altitude made us so out of breath.

Looking up the trail to the top of Dead Woman Pass:

Colleen almost to the top!

We made it!

After this pass, we hiked down which presented it's own challenges. We could breath much more easily but you had to watch your step so you didn't go tumbling down the trail. But, the views were great.

Colleen on the trail down to the campsite

Alan on the trail

We reached our campsite and had an amazing view. The clouds kept rolling in and out of the mountains. It was beautiful and so peaceful.

Our campsite

The view from our tent

Once we arrived at our campsites, the porters gave us cold drinks. We had an afternoon tea with hot drinks and snacks. For lunch and dinner they always made a hot soup and then we had our entree. The food was good. It was also wonderful that they set up our campsites and tore them down. They provided us with clean drinking water too. The service was great. At night we played cards with people in our group. We taught our new friends, Bob and Marina from California and Simon and Kate from Wales Euchre. It was great fun. The porters also played cards in the tent. But the language barrier prevented us from being able to play a game together.

Playing cards at night:

We started off around 7:30am. We started up to Runkuraqay Pass. This was high but the altitude was not as bad as during Dead Woman Pass.
Heading out:

Stairs up to Runkuraqay Pass:

View from the top of the pass:

This ended up being a very long day. It also rained a little more. We hiked until 5:30pm and we were exhausted. The stairs going down were more difficult because they were wet and very large stairs.

As the rain stopped, the area turned more green. Here is a view of the stairs as someone is starting down.

View of another Inca Ruin along the trail:

On the trail after the rain:

Alan in the clouds:

We were very happy to reach our campsite that night. We had a farewell dinner and thanked the porters. They would be heading back to our starting point as we continued to Machu Picchu.

Tomorrow we will be leaving early to finish our hike to Machu Picchu.