Peru

Mandy and I have been quite busy since the start of our tour moving to a new place almost every since day so far. First off, I can NOT believe that we are only 10 days in--it feels like so many more! So here is a quick summary of the trip so far:

Day 0- So we were actually able to leave on the same flight on the 13th, albeit it when we arrived in Bogota our flight was already boarding. So upon getting off the plane, onto a bus taking us to the terminal I start yelling like a mad woman conexion a LIIIMMAAAA¿!?¡ Fortunately they had held up the flight for a few of us with late connection flights, so we made it on the flight, but quite unfortunately our bags did not. Thankfully we were staying with my friend Virguit at her sweet place in Miraflores so she took care of us.

Day 1- Walking around Miraflores then headed to Barranco for some ceviche, a Peruvian potato stuffed with lobster dish and Cusqueñas for lunch. A massive siesta bc we didn't actually get to her place till after 3am till about dinner time. Then pollo a la brasa and other amazing brasa meats feast with some pisco sours. Appletinis as we waited till after midnight for our bags to arrive, then off to dance the night away until 3ish.

Day 2- Lazy morning, then headed to our hotel to check in and drop off our bags. Then went to the city center to meet up with our Canadien (eh?) friend Allison near la plaza de armas to have lunch consisting of family style peruvian dish feast accompanied by of course cusquenas. Then to the Hotel Bolivar to have the original pisco sours- la catedral. Then partied the night away at Virguits before going home around 2, to make sure we got a nap in before waking up at 530 to catch our flight to Cusco.

Day 3- Mandy and I die on our way to Cusco. Low key day trying to not feel terrible and pack for the Inca Trail.

Day 4- The Sacred Valley tour. Visiting the Argoyos a small Quechua community to learn about local textiles, where we purchased some cute alpaca wool hats. Visiting the Pisac ruins and as well as the ruins in Ollantaytambo. Relaxing in Ollantaytambo trying to recover for the start of the trek!!

Day 5- Day one of the Inca Trail!! Seeing that we hadnt eaten very much in the prior days, we were very weak and struggled a bit on this "easy day", but were beginning to feel better. On our 11k hike to the first camp ground we saw some sweet ruins, amazing agave plants, and stunning mountains including some glacier capped mountains.

Day 6- THE hardest day of the Inca Trail. 8km straight uphill in the rain with an increase of elevation of over 1200m to the Dead Womans Pass (it almost was renamed dead womens pass, but we made it somehow).  Then another 4km straight downhill along a slippery rock path, where Mandy fell about 10 times with the bruises to prove it. Our chef did make us an amazingly delicious cake as a rewardmust be a magic chef bc I still do not understand how he made that cake at our campsite).

Day 7- The longest day of the Inca Trail, yet our favorite day. A relatively  flat day with a few ups and downs along the dense cloud tropical forests. We enjoyed the 16km hike along the mountains, forests and ruins taking our sweet time.We celebrated our accomplishment with some beverages at lodge near our campsite.

Day 8- Machu Picchu!!! We were awakened at 3:30 am in a crazy downpour to get ready to hike to Machu Picchu aka try to be first in line when the park gates opened at 5:30 aka waiting in the dark for 1.5 hours. Hiking the 6km to Machu Picchu in the semi dark surrounded by clouds was interested. The torrential downpour of the night had caused some mudslides making part of our trek a bit treacherous. Nonetheless we made it to the Sun Gate (in our case cloud gate) and finally to Machu Picchu. Nothing can describe the feeling of walking down the path and then seeing before you amongst the clouds the amazing Inca city. We spent most of the day exploring the great city, then headed down to Aguas Calientes for our final lunch together as a group. We stayed relaxing in Aguas that night, and even got to barter for a cheaper dinner at a restaurant!

Day 9- We took the train from Aguas Calientes to Ollantaytambo, where a GAP van picked us up (and some friends we had made along the way) to take us to Cusco. Feasted at Los Perros, picked up our bus tickets to Puno, the relaxed the rest of the day.

Day 10- 7ish hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno. Booked some tours to visit the floating Uros Islands and the Taquile Island in lake Titicaca, then chilled in our hostel.

Sorry for the lack of better pictures, eventhough raw pics are great for photoediting, them seem impossible to upload anywhere...back to jpeg!