Copacabana & Cuzco

Lake Titicaca was beautiful. I guess since Bolivia has a lake that big it makes up for not having a beach. Actually no, nothing can replace the beach, but the lake was still awesome. Its incredible how unbuilt-up (not sure if that´s a word, but we´re going with it) the area surrounding the lake is. I can only imagine the condos that would be all over the banks if the lake was in a developed country. There were also no jet skis or speed boats to ruin the peaceful atmosphere. Our last half day in Copacabana Mansfield and I spent an extremely enjoyable afternoon laying on the beach reading. We also ventured out to Isle del Sol (an island in the lake) for an evening. On the boat on the way over we met 2 french guys studying in South America, and they joined Camille, Mansfield and myself as we hiked from the south to north end of the island. It was a very nice hike, though perhaps a little longer than we expected. We reached the north end in time to settle into our hostel and catch the sunset on the beach.

After Copacabana we said goodbye to Camille, and Mansfield and I took a 9 hour bus ride to Cuzco, Peru. The ride seemed rather short compared to others we have taken. We had about two days in Cuzco before our Machu Picchu trek began, and we spent the time checking out local museums and getting to know the city. The city is incredibly touristy with people constantly trying to get you into their restaurants or stores. While its slightly annoying, it hard to expect much different in a city that sees thousands and thousands of tourists a year. We also bought some additional warm clothes (including rather cool toboggans (hats not sleds) with lamas on them) that turned out to be incredibly useful on the hike.

We left for the trek at 6 am on Tuesday (the 8th) and took a 2 hour bus ride to the town where the hike would begin. There were 3 other people in our group: two guys from Switzerland and another guy from Canada. I was slightly worried that being the only girl in the group I might slow us down, but that turned out not the be the case. It was great having such a small group, just 5 of us and a guide; we ate meals together, played cards in the evening together and got to know each other very well.

The four day hike was along an Inca trail that was discovered about the same time as Machu Picchu. Its believed that the Incas followed this route on religious pilgrimages to Machu Picchu. The first day of the trek was only about 4 hours and fairly easy. We also saw another Inca ruin site along the way. The second day was much harder. We only hiked about 5 hours, but the first 4 hours were pretty much straight up. The last part of the uphill consisted only of Inca stairs and at one point I was fairly sure my legs were going to quit on me. But they didn´t, and when we reached the top we had a lovely view of fog and rain awaiting us (what else can you expect during rainy season I suppose). We had a long siesta during the afternoon of the second day, but my legs were still a little swore and very tired when we began the 3rd (and longest) day hike.

I think ¨miserable¨ may be the best word to describe the morning of the third day. The hike started with a tiring uphill climb in the pouring and freezing rain, and the rain continued steadily until we reached our lunch site. My ¨waterproof¨ gear is apparently not very waterproof after about 3 and a half hours in a steady downpour. By the time we got to the lunch site we were all completely soaked and very cold. Fortunately the porters (who carried the tents and food the entire way) had the lunch tent set up and warm food cooking by the time we arrived. (Just a side not about the porters because without them I don´t think we would have made it. They carry max 25kg of gear for us all 4 days. They hike, in sandals made out of old tires, the trail twice as fast as the tourists. Before the government started regulating how much they could carry they used to up to 70 kg of gear. They would always beat us to the campsite and have the tents set up and food cooking before we arrived. They also woke us up with hot tea every morning. They are probably underpaid, but definitely not under appreciated, and they made our trip much more comfortable.) Ok back to the 3rd day, during lunch the rain stopped and we were able to dry out our clothes before finishing up the final four hours of the trek. Fortunately it didn´t rain too much in the afternoon and the hike wasn´t very hard. We also saw 3 more ruins sites along the way. The day ended in a very small town where we could get a hot shower and cold beer in celebration of the hike almost completed!

The following morning (the 4th day of the trek) we woke at 3:50, ate a quick breakfast, and were the second group in line at the gate for the final climb to Machu Picchu. The day turned out to be gorgeous and we had a clear and sunny view of Machu Picchu from the sun gate. After taking pictures there, we descended into Machu Picchu, stopping for many pictures, and our guide gave us a tour around the ruins. We were also lucky enough to be some of the few people allowed each day to climb Waynapicchu, a mountain overlooking Machu Picchu. I guess we felt we hadn´t had enough hiking so we climb to the top of ¨Young mountain¨ and saw another spectacular view of the ruins. It was an amazing trip, the group was great, the guide was awesome, and while the weather wasn´t always perfect, the last day made up for all the rain.

On Monday, we will fly to Bogota to see Jorge!! We are both really excited and will have updates from there.