Trekking to Macchu Piccu, Sleeping on Water and Punctuation.

Punctuation on this "blog" will be incorrect and that is not my problem. As I have already stated keyboards here are stupid. The shift key on the left is the size of a letter button so I miss it constantly. Also the question mark is located next to the zero, above all the letters. In it´s place is the Ñ. In the apostrophe spot is Ç. Again, not my fault, not my problem.

macchu piccu....4 day trek was CRAZY. so you start off the first day, its kinda a normal hike, some decent uphills, nothing crazy, just getting used to it. Since I love being prepared for things (its a little boyscout esque and nauseating).. i had packed extra food, water, a huge first aid kit, plus sleeping bag, all that kinda junk you need. So my pack was like 30 pounds on the first day..mostly cause of about 12 pounds of water. So we are all kinda in one big group the first day, not too fast, but Aaron and I easily have the biggest packs. except for porters. Porters are incredible people. These dudes would RUN uphill, with 60 pounds on their back...in SANDALS. It was one of the most incredible things i´d ever seen. By the time you get to a rest site or camp site, they´ve been there, set up tents, cooked lunch...its completely insane. they are amazing. Anyway, we get to day 2. Now in all the guidebooks and such, day 2 is supposed to be pretty hard. I figured this to be for the average Joe. Call me average. Day 2 was insane. You climb to 4200 meters, on what feels like an endless, endless incan staircase. The view is immense, and breathtaking, but unfortunately..the stairs are also breathtaking, so as you sweat, and gasp for air, every once in a while you can glance around and see some nice views. Oh and when you start day two its sunny, hot, and 80 degrees. When you reach the summit on day 2, it´s rainy, cloudy, WINDY and 45 degrees. Its a glorious swing. Day 3 is a beautiful trek, and you end up at this place called mirador which is unbelievable. Huge terraces carved into the mountain side for incan farming. For the last 3 hours of day 3, we went down a section called the "gringo killer" which is just over 2000 steps downhill. For this section i paced with porters which essentially meant running down the mountain. They are outrageously fast, and I was completely exhausted when we reached camp for the night. Fourth morning you get up at 345 am, and line up at the gate for the final stint to macchu picchu. Its basically a race because only the first 400 people to arrive at macchu picchu can get tickets to climb Wynapiccu, the huge mountain next to macchu picchu with spectacular views. So after an early morning sprint, stopping to see pictures of the sungate, you see this unreal postcard view of macchu picchu, all covered in fog and mystery. (haha..had to laugh at that line) Its a pretty surreal site. I was number 338 or something for wynapiccu and the views from the top were moderately terrifying (your climbing wet, vertical steps where one wrong step and you plummet 4000 meters to your death) but absolutely worth the ascent. When we got back to aguas calientes at the base of machu picchu, i proceeded to get in bed at 3pm and sleep until 8am the following morning.

Next we went back to Cusco for a day. Relatively uneventful, some st patties day drinking, but pretty much just more sleeping.

2 days ago we headed down to Puno which is on Lake Titicaca. There we took this old, supposedly seaworthy boat out to some reed islands called "Unos". The islands are literally made of piles of reeds stacked on top of each other and little reed huts on top of that. We stayed there for the night which was to say the least..interesting. It was freezing, and you are in this little hut, in the pitch black. Now at midnight when it starts downpouring, you start to ponder whether the island is going to sink, you are going to freeze, or the islanders are going to sell your kidneys. All seem plausible. In the morning we sat and waited for a boat, for about 6 hours before finally paying someone on the island to take us back on another "seaworthy" boat.

Today we are in Arequipa which is probably my favorite spot thus far in terms of cities. The center plaza is beautiful, there is no one asking me to buy things for the most part which is an appreciated break, and the food is delicious. Tonight should be fun, although from walking around last night, the downtown club areas seem to be filled with what looks like gangs of 14 year olds. It honestly looks like every high school and middle school kid in town shows up. But what can ya do. Tomorrow afternoon we go white water rafting, then Monday morning we go mountain biking down a volcano. Should be intense. More info to follow.

16 hour bus rides are as fun as they sound

I´ve come to realize i´ll have quite a bit of morning time since apparently no one does anything here before 10 oclock am. This being said i´ll beef up these entries a little....but not much..that would mean i have a blog...and blogs are stupid.

So last we were in huacachina sandboarding which was a incredible. Then we headed to nazca to see the famous "nazca lines". Upon arriving in Nazca, we got into a cab which was to take us to the airport. Now, aaron and I typically just converse normally in english since for the most part no one around us can understand what we are saying. After we started heading to the airport, we realized we were going to be there 3 hours early, since we thought our flight was in the afternoon. I started trying to ask the cabbie, who had been arranged by the tour agency, what time our flight was¨..."a que hora es" (at what time is) then i look back at aaron and say "do you know the word for flight? The cab driver just looks over at us and then back at the road. Aaron says to me "I don´t think he is going to know, hes just the cab driver." So then i start trying to ask again...and our cab driver (carlos) turns and says in PERFECT english "oh, do you want to know what time your flight is?" jaw..floor..glad we kept our mouths shut. Carlos was cool.

the flight over the lines was alright, minus the fact that I was sitting in the co-pilots seat in a rickety old 5 seater cessna. I mean with all my flying experience i guess that makes sense. Then we were taken on a tour of these ancient lines which were probably quite interesting if our pilot wasn´t tilting the plane 90 degrees to each side and then screaming over the headsets which direction to look. "TO THE RIGHT TO THE RIGHT, ASTRONAUT TO THE RIGHT" oh really...so you didnt want me to actually look the the left, into space and see a real live astronaut...which...also..come on..your trying to tell me back in 500 AD these guys were drawing astronauts in the sand? Call it what it is...a bald dude waving at space. Calling it grandpa would be a decent description.

next we took a 16 hour bus ride to cusco. 16 hours to cover 300 miles. think about how many curves that is. Needless to say we didn´t get much sleep. Also, they only had one ticket in first class, and one regular so i let aaron take the first class since he is taller and peru isn´t really built for people his size. Although the two arent all that different there are two distinct differences. First is that the seats are much wider in first class, so im guessing he didnt have a very large peruvian man elbowing him at every turn. Second...i was the second row from the front on a two story bus with an all glass front. So as we twisted and turned through the fog on elevated mountain roads, i stared at our inevitable death while aaron wasn´t able to see this from the first class compartment on the first floor. neither of us slept much, and were pretty happy just to get here alive, and get some sleep.

Now we are in Cusco, which is a beautiful little city nestled in the mountains. cobblestone roads. beautiful blue skies and sun. We´ll be learning some spanish here, mountain biking, and heading out friday for a 4 day trek to macchu picchu. I´ve also fulfilled my life long dream of owning an alpaca wool hooded sweatshirt, with alpacas on it. Couldn´t be happier.

having issues with uploading pictures. apparently they have keyboard which can make signs like ¿¡Ñªº €ç but can´t download picasa to their computers. as soon as i can get them up i will. hope you are all doing well. im a blogger now i suppose. im so disappointed in myself. what a sell out.

first week

Lima- intense, pretty nice, cool party scene on weekends which i didnt see. nice ocean views
Paracas-beautiful ocean fishing town, nice beach, hostel los frayles, sea lions and candelabra.
Huacachina-awesome canadians who own hostel, cada de arenas is out-cultish, cool people, good stories, delicious beverages, sandboarding, dune buggying. pictures to follow soon.