Well I think it's best to start this post of where the other one finished, the overnight bus trip to Cuzco. That was a bad time. It should have been really easy to get some sleep becuase we were in nice, comfy, first class seats that had lots of room. However, not long after our jouney began they decided to blast the heaters for the whole night. It was like a sauna on the bus and it was very uncomfortable. Needless to say I didn't get much sleep that night.

Even with the lack of sleep we still had a busy day once we arrived in Cuzco. We were going on a Sacred Valley Day Trip. On this tour we went into the Vilcanota River Valley where we got to see what is apparently some of the most well preserved archaeological ruins in Peru. We got to look at, take pictures of, walk through, and learn about the ancient Inca civilization that once built and inhabited what is now ruins. I dont know if you can really call it ruins though, most of it is still standing with only the roofs missing, which is understandable because they were made of straw and grass.

On this tour we got to go through five villages; Pisaq, Calca, Urubamba, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero. They all had there own unquie features, but every stop along the way there was lots of places to buy alpaca wool products and other hand crafts for souviners. The best part though was getting to walk though the two Inca ruins sites. It was quite amazing to see the stone work they accomplished. It did baffle me though throughout the whole tour how the Inca people managed to cut the big stones and move them. At one site in particular the stone quarry was located on the mountain beside the inhabited mountain. Now I understood how they got the huge stones down the one mountain, gravity of course, and then the waited for the dry season so the river in the valley was less full so they could get the stones out. But how did they get these stones, some as big as a truck, up the mountain to where they needed it. On this particular tour this issue was left untouched.

I learned quite a bit on this tour and got quite a few pictures of the ruins and the scenary around it. Besides seeing the ruins we also got to look at a couple catholic catherdrals that were along the way. These churches and quite different from catholic churches at home. These were filled with statues of various biblical figures, the entire inside of the churches, including supporting beams and everything else, were intrequetly painted, and there was gold, or gold coloured/gold plated, things everywhere, surrounding the statues and all over the walls and everything else at the front around the alter. It was quite a different view of a catholic church then the ones at home.

Our next adventure was the three day and two night Machu Picchu by Train tour. All the first day consisted of was staying in Cuzco and getting a debriefing of the up coming events in Machu Picchu. That took about 20 minutes so the rest of the day was our own which was very nice, we used it to relax, read and catch up on our sleep. Day two was a little more interesting. We got up early and took a large van two hours to Ollanta which is the main city in terms of the train. Once there we got on the train for a couple hour trip to Agua Calientes, which is a small town at the bottom of Machu Picchu mountain. The train was pretty cool, it was nice to change it up from always being on buses. The train tracks followed along the river so it was a nice view, I even saw some people white water rafting. Once we arrived we decided to check out the hot springs, they werent as warm as the last ones we were at, but they were still nice. We met this older couple there from Florida and they knew about the Saskatchewan Roughriders! That was pretty neat I thought. As part of our Machu Picchu tour we got a free supper and a free lunch, so after the hot springs we went for supper and I had a very yummy pizza and then we called it a night.

Day three of the tour was by far the best, we actually got to go to the Inca ruins today. It was an early morning and we started out by just walking around by ourselves looking at the whole village and taking pictures. Next up we got a guided tour which I really liked. We also met some fellow Canadians, they were part of our tour group. From our guided tour I learned so much, I learned how they cut the stones and how they moved them. Luckily this Inca village had a rock quary on the same mountian so they didnt have to move the stones quite so far. We were told that they use magnetite, because its made mostly of iron, to make lots of smaller holes in the stone. Then they would put pieces of dry wood into the holes and pour water on them. The wood would then expland and it would break the rock. This method apparently took quite a long time. I also learned that Machu Picchu means "old mountian" and that only important people lived in the village thats on it. Not just ordinary people lived there, but instead priests and other people of higher power. However, the king didnt live there, he lived in Cuzco, because it was the capital, but he visited often. I realize I am starting to ramble on about this tour, but it was so interesting and beautiful. I was sure to take lots of pictures, but I dont know it they will do it justice. Its very cool to know that this city was abandoned by the Inca poeple when the Spanish arrived, because they didnt want the Sapnish to find it and steal all the gold and silver, and it sat unknown for over 400 years. When it was found it was covered in jungle growth, but even after all that was cleared away the structures are still standing strong, just missing their roofs.

Now for the most adventerous and exhilerating part of the day, the Huayna Picchu Trek, which means young mountain by the way. Basically, I climbed a mountian! It was quite the climb, it wasnt the easiest thing I have ever done in my life, but very worth it. All the way up this mountin there is narrow, steep stairs that are used for getting both up and down the mountain. Thank goodness they have a limit for how many people can climbe per day because there is not very much room on those stairs. Now most of you reading this know how well stairs and I get along, usually not well. The trek was, luckily, an exception to the stairs and I ongoing feud and I only managed to stumble once when we were almost all the way down only minorly hurting my ankle, I would call that pretty lucky for me! The ticket said it would be about a two or two and a half hour round trip. Alyssa and I were up the mountian in roughly 40 minutes, it was definetly tough, we stopped for a lot of breaks and we were huffing and puffing, but we made really good time. Once we were at the top it was so beautiful. We had a birds eye veiw of the whole Inca village and you could see everything around us. We hung out at the top for a bit, took in the sites, took lots of pictures, but then it was time to head down the mountian again so we didnt miss our bus. Our round trip up the mountian and back took two hours, we spend quite a while looking at the view.

We anticipated that going down would be quicker then going up, but that wasnt exactly true. We were clinging for dear life to the handle they, thank goodness, had put in at some of the steeper parts and we were always meeting people who were on their way up. Once we got going though it was easier and we made decent time. I am so proud of myself and pumped to say that I climbed a mountian!

We finished off our day with a train ride back to Ollanta and a van ride back to Cuzco where we crashed for the night. We were pretty tired as you could imagine, its not everyday we climb a mountian.

So now we are back to the present. We had a bus trip today from Cuzco to Puno which is where we currently are. Basically we have nothing planned for the remainder of the day which is nice because tomorrow we start bright and early to go to our two day, one night, Amantani Home Stay. Thats our last adventure in Peru and then we are off to Bolivia. I am not really sure what to think of this home stay, I am sure it will be different and interesting though.

I am sure I will have more adventures to write about soon and as long as there as WiFi I will be posting as soon as I can.