I survived! I hiked the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu and made it over "Dead Woman's Pass"!!
We arrived home on the weekend, of course our luggage arrived a few days later, and now I have come down with a cold, but we are home from our Peru adventure. It was AMAZING!!
Peru is a interesting and colourful country. We were lucky enough to be in Cuzco during a parade..not quite sure what it was for, apparently some religious celebration. The costumes were spectacular..
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Many people still dress in the traditional costumes.. in the markets and cities they want to be paid for getting their picture taken. That is how they make a living! (wonder if that would work for me??)
But in the smaller villages you still see a lot of traditional dress on everyday people.
There are markets everywhere and of course everybody claims that their products are "real baby Llama wool" and "handmade"!! Even though you see pretty much exactly the same things everywhere. There were some very interesting stuff though.
There is so much Inca history here. They seem to have been a remarkable culture with extremely advanced stone building skills. To this day, engineers are not sure how they cut the huge stones so precisely or moved them so far.
This is our group at Km. 82, which is the start of the Inca Trail.
It is a 4 day, 3 night (tenting) trek through the Andes Mountains! The views were beautiful and the hiking was challenging!!
The highest point was Dead Woman's Pass at almost 14,000 ft elevation. It actually rained and snowed as we reached the summit, which kind of took some of the fun out of this achievement as we didn't really stop to celebrate the moment. This is me reaching camp after coming down from the pass..wet and cold...but thrilled!!
There were several archaeological sites along the way, and our guides were very knowledgeable and explained a lot about what we were seeing.
On the fourth morning we were up at 3 AM to hike 2 hours to the Sun Gate and watch the sun rise on Machu Picchu!! The first views were breathtaking!
We did spend a few hours touring around the site, but after the solitude of the hike, the 3000 people crowding around Machu Picchu was very tiring!
It was an amazing, once in a life time trip, we had a wonderful time and saw so much! But it is always good to home again too.
We arrived home on the weekend, of course our luggage arrived a few days later, and now I have come down with a cold, but we are home from our Peru adventure. It was AMAZING!!
Peru is a interesting and colourful country. We were lucky enough to be in Cuzco during a parade..not quite sure what it was for, apparently some religious celebration. The costumes were spectacular..
.JPG)
But in the smaller villages you still see a lot of traditional dress on everyday people.
There are markets everywhere and of course everybody claims that their products are "real baby Llama wool" and "handmade"!! Even though you see pretty much exactly the same things everywhere. There were some very interesting stuff though.
There is so much Inca history here. They seem to have been a remarkable culture with extremely advanced stone building skills. To this day, engineers are not sure how they cut the huge stones so precisely or moved them so far.
This is our group at Km. 82, which is the start of the Inca Trail.
It is a 4 day, 3 night (tenting) trek through the Andes Mountains! The views were beautiful and the hiking was challenging!!
The highest point was Dead Woman's Pass at almost 14,000 ft elevation. It actually rained and snowed as we reached the summit, which kind of took some of the fun out of this achievement as we didn't really stop to celebrate the moment. This is me reaching camp after coming down from the pass..wet and cold...but thrilled!!
There were several archaeological sites along the way, and our guides were very knowledgeable and explained a lot about what we were seeing.
On the fourth morning we were up at 3 AM to hike 2 hours to the Sun Gate and watch the sun rise on Machu Picchu!! The first views were breathtaking!
We did spend a few hours touring around the site, but after the solitude of the hike, the 3000 people crowding around Machu Picchu was very tiring!
It was an amazing, once in a life time trip, we had a wonderful time and saw so much! But it is always good to home again too.
Oh my goodness...I can tell I've been on a blogging break. I had no idea you were doing something so "big dealish"! I don't think I could hike or camp...but how amazing and gorgeous it is. The funny thing is that I do appreciate nature so much more as I get older and what a trip of a lifetime you just took!
ReplyDeleteAWESOME! You go, Girl!
ReplyDeleteWow what a trip! Glad you had such an adventure =D
ReplyDeleteGlad you're back in one piece:) What an adventure...wow. I'd love to do that but I would never make it...lol.
ReplyDeleteWow.
ReplyDelete: )
haha - the photo thing... yeah you could stand on a downtown street corner with your 'fascinator' and charge people to take pics of you. : ) hehe
What an interesting carreer : )
Monika
What an adventure. It must have been exhilarating! Thanks for the little travelogue. A little vicarious traveling is all good.
ReplyDeleteWhat a fantastic trip! It must have been exhilarating!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the little travelogue. A little vicarious vacation is good for me, too.
Congratulations! That's quite an achievement. Fantastic photos too! Welcome home.
ReplyDeletewelcome home, what an adventure you've been on! Glad you had such an exciting time,m
ReplyDeleteLooks like your trip was fantastic! And happy belated birthday! I'm just getting caught up on everything I've missed while I was offline... Boy, you've been busy! :-)
ReplyDeleteHope you're over your cold - the one that's been going around is nasty and lingers...
What a pleasure to read about your trip. I'll bet there was lots of design inspiration with the Inca culture and beautiful vistas. Jan
ReplyDeleteI am very envious, your trip is something my husband and I would love to do when the children are grown and we don't have to factor them in! Would you do it again if you could?
ReplyDeleteWow ... what an adventure! I wonder how there can be any adult llamas left?!? Welcome home.
ReplyDeletep.s. I heard that aliens made the rocks (lol)!
This is my next dream adventure trip. Congratulations on your experience.
ReplyDeleteThanks for posting these great photos! It does sound like a dream trip! Not sure how I would handle that elevation....I slowed down considerably hiking at 10,000 ft in Maui. But, I am hoping to get the chance to try someday soon. Did you try sand surfing while you were in Peru?? Apparently it is very popular there.
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