Lares Trek

From September 21-23, we left for our Lares trek, but not without a few obstacles along the way. Obstacles included protests in Cusco causing us to leave early for the trek and road work closing the road from Lares back to Cusco causing us to wait 4 hours for the road to open to traffic (once we got on the road we were practically 4-wheeling for an hour). The trek itself was a great insight into the rural, Quechua way of life. On top of beautiful scenery, we were able to interact with the local people and see llamas peeing! Also, Adam caught 2 delicious breakfast trout. We were rewarded at the end of the hike by wonderfully relaxing hot springs in Lares.

Moray and Ollantaytambo Ruins

After returning from Macchu Pichu, we took a day trip to some more Incan ruins. Pictured are the stonework from Ollantaytambo, including the handholds they used to move the enormous stones, and from Moray the terracing and floating steps. The terracing at Moray were believed to be used as agricultural laboratories... or as alien crop circles. ;)

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu! After waking up at 3:30 am and booking it to make the sunrise on the fourth day, our group was the first to arrive at the sungate to Machu Picchu. Unfortunately, she was obscured by clouds when we arrived, but we were soon rewarded with a rapid clearing and we could make out the olde girl in all of her mystical splendor. We then tried to stay awake while the guides did their guiding and gave us some history of the site. Later we explored the ruins and enjoyed the spectacular scenery. A marvelous setting for such impressive ruins.

Ruins

Along the Incan trail were many ruins of the Incan empire. They included religious temples, farming terraces, astronomical observatories, store houses and living quarters. All the buildings were very impressive and demonstrated the Incans ingenuity and ability to build into the steep natural landscape.

Incan Trail!

After 7 months of waiting, we finally made it on to the Incan Trail to Machu Picchu! We were lucky enough to have a fantastic guide, Roger, and a great group of people from England and Australia to hike with us. The trek took 4 days and 3 nights and is a total of 43 km (which is close to the length of a marathon). The trail also included tons of steps, too many to count. The hardest day was the second day, where we climbed Dead Woman´s Pass which was at 13,779ft above sea level (the pictures are of our climb that day).

Cusco and Sacsayhuaman

Finally, we arrived in Cusco to prepare for our Incan Trail hike to Machu Picchu. Our freind Chris came to join use for some time in Cusco and for Machu Picchu. On our first day, we happened upon a parade for the ¨Virgen¨. The parade involved dancing ladies, men, and children and also bands playing music. And what parade (for the Virgin) would be complete without gorillas and Darth Vadar. We didnt get it either. ´
We also got a chance to see several Incan ruins near Cusco, including Sacsayhuaman (sounds like Sexy Woman). Sacsayhuaman was a temple for the Incans. It revolves around 3 levels. The lower level is symbolized by the serpent and represents intelligence. The middle level is symbolized by the puma and represents strength. The upper level is symbolized by the condor and represents balance. We also got to slide down the rainbow temple.

Pastoruri

Our last day in Huaraz, on a whim, we took a tour to Pastoruri in the Cordillera Blanca mountain range. Little did we know we would hike to Pastoruri glacier located at 17,200ft above sea level! We also saw a natural bubbling, effervescent spring and the huge Puya Raimondi plant, a huge looking feather duster or maybe something else.

Quebrada Quillcayhuanca

We went camping on the Quebrada Quillcayhuanca in Huasacaran National Park. We had some beutiful views and were able to see how the local indigenous people live.

Huascaran National Park and Laguna 69

On August 31 and September 1, we camped at Huascaran National Park at 12,000 ft. From here, we hiked not once but twice to Laguna 69, a glacial lake at 15,100 ft. Laguna 69 is the highest elevation either of us have hiked to thus far! The lake was an amazing blue color (even without the help of the sun) and a "breath" taking reward to the strenuous hike. On the way back down to Huaraz, we stopped by Lagunas de Llanganuco.

Willkawain

On August 30th, we arrived in Huaraz, Peru. That day we took a little side trip to the Willkawain ruins, dated from AD 700-1000 and part of the Huari empire. We had our first experience on a combi (minivans that take as many as 12 people at a time to where they want to go) to get to the ruins. It was an eye opening experience on the ride up to the ruins, seeing the Peruvian countryside and the rural way of life. When we arrived at Willkawain we discovered that the ruins were closed because it was a holiday. Luckily for a us, a local boy offered to give us a quite inciteful tour of the ruins.

Cajas National Park

On August 25th and 26th, we stayed overnight at Cajas National Park near Cuenca, Ecuador. Cajas has over 250 lakes and while hiking around we saw some wild llamas and Adam caught a trout! On the second day, we hiked up to 14,000 feet (cerro San Luis) and were rewarded with the excellent view of the inside of a cloud :) On the way back though we saw a huge bunny (probably a chupacabra) to make up for the view.