Hiking in the Andes

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Things I learned today:
1) Bulls have the right of way on the Incan trail unless you want to be headbutted off a cliff!
2) Don´t drop the only camera you have (twice) since you already broke your other one at Formal.
3) Wear sunglasses, even at dusk, so the Bolivians won´t see the fear in your eyes as you twist and turn along mountain roads with a shear drop beside it of hundreds of meters and NO barrier!
4) anemia and 39000 feet asl = BAD altitude sickness
5) Coca leaves help cure this sickness (oh yeah, what makes cocaine)
6) Donkey´s and goats are everywhere!
7) The people are so friendly and willing to share everything.
8) Take tons of pictures!
9) Enjoy the absolutely spectacular view!!!

Today we took a hiking tour of cave paintings that were done 2000 years ago. It was absolutely incredible! They were so well preserved. The only thing was that it was a 4 1/2 hour hike to the paintings and back... well it was SUPPOSED to be... but of course, I got pretty bad altitude sickness and had to stop every 20 ft that went uphill else I was going to throw up or faint. Definitely not fun! But I got tons of pictures and the mountains were absolutely amazing. I would have to say probably more spectacular than the Rockies.

After that, we went to a prehispanic Incan trail (mostly downhill!! haha... THAT was totally a highlight), and it took another 2 1/2 hours, but the views again were amazing. And the part about the bulls having right of way is all too true as the trail is narrow and they are HUGE! We all had to jump onto the side of the cliff to avoid them. An American in our tour almost got butted by one of the bull´s horns! One of the guides was also so afraid I would faint that he gave me alcohol on a cloth as well as this plant that if you rub it between your hands smells really good and is supposed to help with keeping you alert haha... but going down was just fine, it was the uphill parts that didn´t go over so well with me.

Overall, wonderful day and we´re going out to a club later on which should be great even if my calves are in a ridiculous amount of pain! lol I better be uber fit by the time I get home... or actually, to the Brazillian beaches!

On another note, I found out that the Sens are going to the finals!!!!!!!!!!!! I´m beyond excited!! I really wish I could be there to watch the games, but I´ll have to stick to my cbc updates...

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