It has been one long week. I am currently stuck in Lima International airport for another 11.5 hours (already been here for about 6) and have plenty of time to update the blog.

So I took an overnight bus to Arequipa last Saturday night at about 800pm. The trip took almost 10hours getting me into Arequipa at about 530ish in the morning. I paid about 10 bucks for the bus and got exactly what I paid for--a shitty bus ride! We stopped at many small towns even though I specifically asked for a direct route (in Spanish!). I didn't sleep at all and spent the first couple of hours before day break freezing my ass off in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa. The temperature in Arequipa was right above freezing that morning.

Once the town started to come alive, I found a nice cafe off the main plaza and got about 5 cups of coffee over about 2 hours. The plan was to wait until the trekking agencies opened and to check to see the when the next available Colca Canyon trek departed. I walked to several agencies and they were all booked for that day. Apparently, all of the two day trips leave at 730am and must be reserved at least a day in advance.
I modified my plan to allow for this newly learned information. I took a taxi back to the bus station to buy a return ticket to Cusco for Tuesday night (this was a must in order to make my return flight back to the US). At the bus station I booked a hostel for the night and got a free ride (courtesy of the hostel!) into town. Once there I went to Colonial Travel and reserved a place on the Colca trek that left the next morning.

I spent the day sleeping mostly.

Aaron had recommended to me that I should see the old monastery in Arequipa (he spent a week in Arequipa before arriving at Nick's). I decided to spend the 30 soles and visit the place.

The monastery consisted of about 300 different mini-houses in a huge compound. The place was quite amazing. All of the walls were painted different colors and the whole place was designed like a maze. It was a good way to burn a few hours.

The next morning I met up with the Colonia Travel group at 730am and we headed in a minivan to Colca. The trip to the canyon took 4.5 hours and we climbed to about 17000 feet! The temperature in the shade was about or below freezing (with windchill). The canyon is located in the Peruvian desert outside of Arequipa. This region is littered with old and young ice capped volcanoes. It is very arid reminding me a lot of southwestern Texas.

Once we entered the massive national park we descended into the Colca valley to a town called Chivay. From Chivay (that is where I spent the night) we drove to a trail that lead to the Pre-Incan burial sites. It took about 4 hours round trip.

These pre-Incans climbed up cliff faces or repelled down them carrying massive stones to construct grave sites. The dead were literally buried on the side of a mountain! The bones of the dead were perfectly intact due to the dry cold climate and the pictures came out great.

After visiting the dead, we made our way over to the Chivay hot springs. There we spent about an hour chilling out in the springs surrounded by the steep walls of the Colca valley.

That night we had dinner at this tourist trap with live music. To our surprise dancers rushed in after we had finished eating grabbed me first and then the rest to join in on the dancing. It was a repeat of the festivities on the Island of Amantani. I think when the night was over I had broken three glasses by running into tables!

530 the next morning we were woken up and rushed to the Colca canyon itself. This is the deepest canyon in the world (a fact that Peru is desperately trying to spread around the world) and has been completely terraced by the pre-Incan peoples and the Incans themselves. It was quite amazing-- a valley which rivaled that of the Grand Canyon being completely terraced by humans.

The main objective of that morning was to see the flight of the Condors. These animals have a 3m wingspan and stand 1.5m tall. They can fly up to 21000ft and have a maximum flight speed of about 70km/hr. Our guide lead us down a trail on the edge of the canyon to see if we could spot the giant birds. This trail was not the main tourist lookout point--it was an insider secret. Halfway down the trail a single full gown condor flew by us and landed on a rock not more than 15yards beyond the edge of the canyon. Our guide admitted that in all of her 10 years as a quite she had never been that close to a wild condor. Judging by the amount of pictures she took and the 45min we spent sitting there staring at him, she was not lying.

We finished the trail and then started the 5 hour trip back to Arequipa stopping at a couple of old colonial churches along the way (I could not have cared less about these Spanish churches!).

Once back I caught another 10 hour bus back to Cusco and then another minibus back to Urubamba. I packed up my stuff and left that night at about 800pm to Cusco again to start my return journey.

I probably have had about 15 hours of sleep total since Saturday. I am running on fumes.

Andean Railways Corps has officially sued the minister of transportation for entry into the passenger train market!

Nick and Maria's pictures and statements are all over the newspapers here--the whole train project is now in the public eye. Apparently public sentiment is in favor of the Asheshovs.

The law suit has been officially in the papers for three days now and the story keeps getting bigger.

Everyone here is really excited about it and are very confident about a victory.

Aaron and I have been talking about this hike since the first week we were here in Urubamba. Now that it has finally come down to Aaron's last weekend, we were definitely going to do it.

Nick had also been telling us to do this hike for a long time.

Our plan was to meet Kevin (new friend) at about 900am on the main street in Urubamba and take a taxi about 3km up the street and walk from there. The Main street runs north to south and turns into a dirt road outside of the city limits. It runs a good distance into the valley before turning into a narrow horse trail, and it eventually disappears altogether.

The valley terminates abruptly at the foot of the glaciers (as so we found out). There is a beautiful river running through the valley which feeds the water supply in Urubamba.

There are very concerning observations being made about these glaciers.

Nick has told us (as we had already guessed) that the glaciers have been slowly eroding away over the last 45 years he has spent in Peru. I have always beleived in the phenomenon of Global Warming, but actually seeing the pictures of a glacier 30 some years ago and comparing them to what I see everyday here in Urubamba strikes me in a whole different way. AND on top of that, I know for a FACT that a whole series of towns here (including Urubamba) in the sacred valley DEPEND TOTALLY on the rivers formed by the glacial rivers (natural melting and refreezing in the rainy season) for their water supply. What happens when these towns (and most of Andean South America) loose this water supply due to global climate change? A change which wealthier nations who are stable enough to combat the effects are bringing about?

Enough ranting.

We got off to a late start and starting hiking up the valley at about 945am or so. The road ran for about 5km and the horse paths ran for another 4 or 5km. After that we had to make our own trails! The river gorge was covered with small trees and heavily overgrown with cactus and plants with vicious spikes! We continued to cut our way through the gorge and hiked all the way along the river (up and up and up and up) to a point where we could not longer complete a round trip with daylight.

It was about 4 hours into the valley before we reached the cliff faces on which sat the massive glaciers. The pictures should be really good.

I wanted to try a different return path which ran along the edge of the river gorge. This path was very interesting. We got some great views of the river gorge and sacred valley. For most of the edge, we were fortunate enough to have found a cattle path to follow.

This path eventually ended and we had to again cut our own path! At one point we were sliding on our asses down the side of an overgrown mountain face! Quite steep!

We eventually hiked out of the valley and back into Urubamba. That night we had a couple of beers with one of the volunteer groups (Pro Peru) and then called it a night.

I will get the pictures up soon!

When we told Maria and Nick about our trip, they told us about a massive waterfall in the valley (that we didn't see). At one point as we were hiking up the valley we were presenting a choice between two smaller valleys to hike through. We chose the one with a better view of the glaciers...perhaps the waterfall was up the other valley or perhaps it has disapeared due to the decrease in the size of the glaciers....I am not sure.

Last Friday, Aaron and I met some friends for a couple of beers and check out more of the night life in Cusco.

The night was great. We went to the same Irish pub that we've been to many times (Paddy's) and to some of the same bars as last time (and a couple of new ones). It was a great night.

The next day we had planned to get up at a reasonable time and take a bus to Llamay and hike to Huchy Cusco which are some great Incan ruins about a 3 hour hike outside of Llamay. Llamay is located to the east of Urubamba and really easy to get to from either Cusco or Urubamba.

However, our plans changed. We slept in.

By the time we got to the bus station to catch a combi to Llamay, it was already too late in the day to attempt such a trek. The line for the bus station stretched to two blocks, and upon seeing this we decided instead to hang in Cusco for the afternoon and attempt the hike on Monday.

We made our way back to the main square and from there just wandered around aimlessly.

We managed to stumble upon a second smaller square adjacent to the main Plaza de Armas and saw a huge relief effort going on for the recent earthquake victims. The local government was out in full force collecting water, rice, pasta, and anything else people wanted to give. Aaron and I ran into a teacher from Canada and asked if there was anything we could do to help. Of course there was plenty for us to do!

We started out by going to a local market and purchasing several large crates of bottled water. We were some of the first foreign volunteers to show up and when we returned the mayor of Cusco was out organizing and working hard with the relief effort. She came over to us as we were placing the water down in the main pile, introduced herself to us, and thanked us for donating our money and time to the effort!

After we had signed our names to a volunteer list, we were told that the best thing we could do to help was to let the massive groups of tourists around the city know about the effort and tell them how they can help.

I was wearing a white t-shirt and had one of the ladies write in big letters 'Earthquake relief, Please help!'. We were also give several signs in German, French, and English to hold up. Aaron and I walked around the main squares are told people about what was going on.

I am happy to say that we were able to get quite a few people interested. We sweetened the deal by telling them they would have the chance to meet the mayor of Cusco if they helped out!

We worked with the effort for about 3-4 hours. After saying goodbye to the mayor and other volunteers, Aaron and I went with the Canadian teacher and two other ladies to a pub for a quick pint before heading back to Urubamba.

After offering our new friends advice on how to see Machu Picchu we headed to the bus station.

This was really a rewarding experience. It would have been nice if we could have made the trip to the affected areas and been able to help out there.

Finally all of the pictures from the past week are up! Enjoy.

Yesterday we traveled to Calca to see their celebration for the Virgin Mary. I think that every small town in the sacred valley (at least) as one day of the year on which they celebrate the patron saint of their main church. So far all I have seen are the celebrations in Yucay, Pisac, and recently Calca and they all have been celebrating the Virgin Mary.

The celebration in Calca was especially good (best one I have seen) because of the hilarious dancing that goes on.

We must have seen about 10 different groups dance on the streets. They would parade in like a Mardi Gras krewe and start to dance in the main square.

The pictures will do a good job of describing the scene.

Every trip that I have taken here in Peru has been a blast. This one is no different! I have a lot to write about this trip so I am going to divide this post up according to the islands and towns we visited.

---Bus ride and Puno---

Our trip started after catching the 8am bus to Puno from the Terminal Terrestre in Cusco. Funny note: Aaron and I mentioned to some of the friends we have made here in Urubamba that we were heading on this trip. Two of them were very interested in meeting up with us and traveling there. They were to email us Thursday night or Friday to confirm their plans, but we received no such email. However, as we were boarding the bus, I saw that they were sitting in the front row. So we ended up seeing Lake Titicaca together.

The bus ride turned out to be the best bus ride that 15 soles could buy! In other words it was a piece of shit!

The ride took about 8 hours total and stopped in almost every little city on the way from Cusco to Puno. I had the distinct pleasure of sitting next to a fairly large woman who had a very persistent cough and smelled like rotting wood. This really didn't bother me that much, it was actually the kid behind me who was constantly vomiting which really made the ride exciting!

Needless to say, we were all very glad to be off the bus once we arrived in Puno.

Our first order of business was to find a cheap hostel. And we sure did find a cheap one! Known as Hostal Florida, this establishment boasted 24 hour hot water (hard to come by in Peru), clean bathrooms, and comfortable beds....all of which were not true in the slightest!

In the past I have stayed in some shitty places and this place did not bother me too much. However, the company I was with had issues. We still ended up sleeping there and sneaked into some of the more expensive rooms to use the showers.

That night we went to one of the best bars I have been to in Peru. It was recommended by the guide book and was called Kamikaze Classic Rock bar. The name says it all.

---Island of Uros---

The next morning we woke up at about 730am, ate, and headed down to the port to see about getting a boat ride out to see the islands. Unfortunately, the cheapest excursions had already left by the time we arrived. Our only option was to hire a private taxi to take us around the islands. We did just that.

The cost of the water taxi was approximately 300 soles for any amount of people. We were a group of 4 and it came out to about 74 soles each. The plan was to take the same taxi to the floating islands of Uros and then to the Island of Amantani and finally to the island of Tequile. We decided to spend the night on the Island of Amantani with a host family.

Once the taxi was underway it took about 45 minutes for us to reach Uros (the boat traveled at about 12km/hr). We traveled through some beautiful marsh lands near the shore of Puno. The islanders use the reeds to build floating islands to live on and rafts for traveling.

According to the guide book these people have been living like this for hundreds of years. They initially moved to these offshore houses to escape certain native ruling tribes (Incans etc..). They also continued to live there during the Spanish invasion to avoid certain hardships.

Upon reaching the island community we docked to one of the islands and walked around. Each island was only about 15 meters in diameter and there were about 30 to 40 of them total. Each family lived on a single island. Once we were docked they local family brought out several sacks of trinkets for us to look at and buy.

Each island was self contained. Some had solar panels for power and all of them have little holes for fishing and a big netted hole for breeding/holding fish.

We only spent about 30min here before moving on.


---Amantani---

This is the island where we were to spend the night. It took about 2 hours to reach from Uros.

We traveled beyond the turqoise green waters of the marsh lands to the deep blue, main waters of lake Titicaca. Hopefully the pictures show just how blue the waters are.

Random fact: Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake on the planet at about 12500ft, it pays to have lived in Urubamba (9000ft) for a while before traveling to the lake.

We were greeted at the island by our host family and then hiked up the steep shores to our rooms. They were very small but also very nice. The cost of staying there was 25 soles and that got us lunch, dinner, and breakfast.

When we arrived at about 500pm we were immediately served lunch (egg and potatoes). After an hour or so of relaxation and watching the beautiful sunset we were surprised by our hosts with ponchos and traditional (Incan ?) hats for us to wear to the fiesta! I had read that for this weekend only there was a big festival only on our Island. We just happened to be staying there on the night of the main celebrations!

So we dressed up in the costumes and hiked across the Island (lead by our hosts) to the Plaza de Armas were three huge bonfires were lit and load of people in costume were dancing. A friend of mine names Kevin thought that we whould dance with them (and by dancing I mean forming a big circle around three bonfires and skipping really fast).

There are some hilarious pictures from that night!

After we partied in the main square our hosts lead us back to the house were we had our second meal. This time it was potatoes and rice with some carrot mixed in!...it tasted excellent! Once we were done eating a second time, it was time to go to the individual community party that our host family was included in. Still in costume we made our way straight up a steep hill to the small community house. There in a bare room people were dancing around in circles and salsa dancing to live music. A group of very talented kids were playing nonstop. I was constantly out of breath due to the altitude and the fact that the islander's dance was basically running around in circles!

We danced in that building for about 2 hours before calling it quits.

We made out way back to the house and passed out.


---Taquile---

The next morning at 800am we had breakfast (fried dough), said our goodbyes to the host family, and hopped onto our taxi.

We made it to the island of Taquile in about an hour. We docked the boat and hiked about 3km up a steep path to the plaza. The trail to the main square was gorgeous.

We relaxed in the main square for some time and then continued on our way around the island.

Both of these islands did not have anything extremely interesting to offer. Although each island was entirely terraced by the Incans and there descendants, the main reason for visiting the Islands was to get away from the grimy city of Puno and to get great views of the lake.

The pictures from Taquile are very good. I think they capture the magnificence of the lake quite well.

Once we had hiked all the way around the island we caught the taxi back to Puno. This trip took about 3 and a half hours. It was a good time for me to catch up on my sleep!

Once we got back to Puno we paid out taxi driver and headed directly to the main square of Puno to get lunch. After that we made our way back to the bus station to see about getting a bus back to Cusco that night.

---Return to Cusco---

We needed to get back that night in order to teach the next day so we were limited in our bus company selection (both bus stations had about 15 different bus companies). We ended up paying about 25 soles this time for the ride--and we were glad we did! That 25 soles bought us luxury seats on an air conditioned bus with TVs and a DVD player! That money also meant that we only had to stop three times on the way from Puno to Cusco! We should have gotten the same service to Puno. That evening in Puno would have been much more enjoyable!

We arrived back in Cusco at about 1130am and wandered around the dirty streets of southern Cusco looking for a taxi to get us back to Urubamba. We eventually found one and an hour and a half later we were in Urubamba.

Aaron and I played this entire weekend trip by ear as we have most of our trips here in Peru. We knew that we wanted to see the Sacsahuman ruins (pronounced 'Sexywoman') with our tourist ticket and we also knew that we wanted to go to Puno and see the lake. We had already bought the ticket to Puno the previous week leaving at 800am on Saturday so we decided to spend a night at the same Hostel in Cusco as the last time, see Sexywoman, have a few beers at this famous Irish pub, and then catch our bus to Puno the next morning.

The plan worked perfectly. We arrived in Cusco early so we could stop by Nick's office in Cusco to take care of a flight to from Cusco to Lima.

After milling around in the main square we headed up the very steep path to our hostel, threw our bags down, and then headed up to see Sexywoman. The hike up was fairly steep but relatively short. We made it into the sight easily.

After having seen Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo, AND Pisac whatever there was on the top of this mountain we were hiking up would have to be very impressive in order not to be a let down.

Having said that, these ruins were impressive, but probably at the bottom of this list in terms of interest.

The site was massive and seemed to resemble the same layout as Machu Picchu. There was a quarry, several levels within the temple and massive field in this middle.

Like Machu Picchu and the others, the shear size of the rocks used here made the site worth the trip. Perhaps the most interesting thing to me about the entire site was the stone quarry.

Somehow the Incas had managed to carve the massive stones from the quarry leaving a very smooth cylindrical pattern in the rock the stones were cut from. The quarry was huge and the smooth cylinders stretched the entirety of the quarry. How such a pattern was created for such a long distance boggles my mind. While we were up there, we were approached by a guide (at least I think he was a guide) who informed us that the cylinders and cuts in the rock channeled spiritual energy into whoever stood atop the quarry. He lead us through a weird ceremony right on top of this rock which supposedly enabled spiritual believers to feel the true power of nature. All I felt was the rock and the stares of the surrounding tourists!

After our 'spiritual' encounter, we hiked up a bit further on the mountain to a white stone statue of Jesus overlooking all of Cusco. It was a pretty weird looking site and we didn't spend too much time there.

We proceeded to hike back down into Cusco and back to our hostel. We found a really cheap place to eat, and then we decided to see a free movie of our choice at this makeshift bar/theater. It is a very common practice for bars and cafes to have a wide selection of bootlegged DVDs for customers to watch. We found a place right next to the square and chose The Motorcycle Diaries. The movie was excellent. Che Guevera spends a lot of time in Peru, particularly in Cusco so it was pretty cool to be watching a famous movie about the town we were in. If you haven't seen the movie, I highly recommend it.

After the movie we headed over to an Irish pub and had a few of pints before going back to the same bar that we had been to before (Mythology). We had a couple of free drinks there and then headed back to the hostel. The next morning we woke up and caught the 8am bus.

Pictures from Sexywoman will be up soon also!

As time is now running out for this trip, Aaron and I have begun to take several day trips to some of the great ruins in the valley. We wanted to make good use of our tourist tickets and traveled to Pisac last Wednesday.

The ruins in Pisac were great! These ruins rival Machu Picchu!

The site is located about a 2 hour hike into the mountains north of Pisac which is about an hour bus ride to the east of Urubamba in the Sacred Valley. Both Maria and Nick think that the actual ruins here are in fact better than the ones on Machu Picchu.

I can't say if I agree with that statement. The ruins might be in better condition than at Machu Picchu, but the location of MP still beats out Pisac!

To get there Aaron and I hopped on a bus traveling to Cusco via Pisac. Once we reached Pisac, we spent a few minutes at the Pisac market which is famous for its size and the Alpaca (llama) clothing they sell.

My guide book recommended that we take a taxi up to a section of the ruins called Qanchisracay and then hike down. We did exactly that.

Once we were on site it was easy to see why Nick and Maria had such a high opinion of the ruins. Unlike Machu Picchu, the ruins here are in much better shape. As you will be able to see from the pictures, the stones they used here were massive and cut to perfection. It was very apparent that the stones used here took more skill and time to carve and install than the ones seen a Machu Picchu. The stones were flat and seemed to fit together like toy building blocks.

Another plus for this site is the amount of people present. It was basically deserted during out time there and made for a really peaceful environment for marveling at the architecture.

To hike from Quanchisracay to Intihuatana (main sun temple) we took a series of steep cliff passes and a very narrow tunnel through a rock face. The views from the hike were fantastic. On our way down once we had finished seeing the main temple, the views of the western and eastern Sacred Valley were very impressive and worth the 2 hour hike back into Pisac.

Once we were back in Pisac, we flagged down another bus and road back to Urubamba just in time for our late afternoon lessons!

The pictures from this day trip will be up shortly!

A massive earthquake hit northern Peru last night registering somehwere between a 7.5 and an 8 on the Richter scale. Here in Urubamba we didn't feel anything. According to CNN, Lima had power outages and 85 casulties 15 of which were fatal.

I am going to now post updates to the blog!

CNN also reports that at least 330 are dead in a few northern cities.