Woke up in my bed at Pariwana and realized I was done hiking. I had reached Machu Picchu and survived. I was still sore and exhausted from the Salkantay hike so I was taking it easy for today. After breakfast I went to the Bioandean office and dropped off the bag I rented from them and got my T-Shirt. I wander around the main square looking at Alpaca stores until I was able to negotiate with one for a set of mittens and warmers. Alpaca is not cheap but it was such soft and light mittens I consider it a fair bargain. After that I was not feeling well and went back to the hostel to lay down. I was running a fairly high fever so I slept for much of the day. I emerged in ... read more

It was not an easy sleep last night because the campsite was blasting loud music for much of the evening but I did noticed when I went to the bathroom there were not a lot of people out anyway. I woke in not great shape as I was running out of clean clothes and my knees were killing me because of all the walking. On top of that I had infections on my feet. I was in so much pain but I had a relatively short hike today. After breakfast we had an optional activity which was the zip line. It was 90 soles and it came with 5 zip lines and a bridge. We took a van with a group of Belgians and a Uruguayan family. It was the first time I had ever met ... read more

It had rained hard last night and I knew how hard it was because I had to make a run to the bathroom in the middle of the night. Over breakfast Puma told us how rare this was but everyone would be pushing through anyway. I told Puma I was opting for the horse because I was still having trouble with the altitude. The horse would cost 100 Soles and would take me to the top of the pass and I would hike the rest of the way. An American couple was in the same tent as me and was taking the horse because they had only gotten to Cuzco the day before yesterday. The horse or more precisely the mule was waiting at the start of the trail. It was a skittish animal and promptly ... read more

I woke fairly disoriented and realized that tomorrow I would be on the Salkantay trail. I was wondering now if I was in over my head but I was too far in to really back out at this time. Sleep was interrupted a couple of times as people who were returning from the tours woke up people trying to sleep. At one point one guy was making a lot of noise rearranging his luggage and someone else asked him to keep it down (in English). He replied back he didn't speak English so he was told to keep quiet in Spanish. It was amusing conversation. Pariwana hostel provided breakfast and I helped myself to coffee and bread. They also provide milk and cereal but I decided to keep it simple to allow my body to adjust. ... read more

Here we go again. With this trip I will have been to every continent (N/A Antarctica). I was not certain which country in South America I wanted to go to but a lot of travel buddies recommended Machu Picchu. I unfortunately chose too late to take the traditional Inca Trail trek so after looking at the other options I went with the Salkantay trek. It is a more difficult and a day longer hike. There are also a ton of companies to choose from but I chose Bioandean based on recommendations from friends. Day of flight was Friday afternoon and my younger brother drove me to the airport. Airline was Avianca which is a South American based airline and provides cheap flights all over South America. There uniforms are all red with a red fedora hat ... read more