3 Days no showers, but still bragging rights!

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So we headed out on the Lares trail on Monday. This started with another bus ride, one in which I was pretty sure the driver was drunk and or loco! Gotta love slowing down for tiny corners but gunning it on hair pin turns on a dirt road and then driving as close to the edge possible! Needless to say i felt i should have a nap.....james was not quite as comfortable with that idea! At teh start of the trek we went to the thermal baths at Lares, but after assessing the brown water decided that we would pass on sitting in the pee pool. Had a great lunch supplied by our cook for the trail, we had 2 guides, 2 cooks, 4 porters. Everthing is set up at the nice picnic table with table cloths, and then u get a 3 course meal, followed by tea. Probably the best food so far on the trip. So we started out, and what was supposed to take 4 hours took us 2. When we arrived at the first campsite we were swarmed by children, and gave out little gifts to them. The tents were all set up, and so all we needed to do was put our bags in which the porters had carried up. We then had snack followed by dinner, followed by bed! Haha

The next morning before heading out, we had our breakfast, and then Beck and I gave a little demonstation on how to use the skipping ropes we had gotten for the kids. Great idea! Today we were hiking to 4600 feet and it was supposed to take 5 hours. James, Jed and I did it in 2.5 and were the first to the top. Gotta love the bragging rights that come with being the first girl to the top and beating 6 other guys. Yoga is a great exercise apparently, and I loved having my ipod in! The next group of ppl made it 30 minutes later. We arrived into camp at 1230, after 4 hours, when it was suppposecd to be an 8 hour day to camp. Eduardo our guide informed us never has he seen a group so fast. Once at camp, u basically eat, sleep and do nothing.....quite nice actually after that climb.

The following day we climbed out of the mountains and into Ollaytaytambo, or something like that. We then caught the train to the Machu Picchu town. Scenery was amazing, the further u went into Machu Picchu the more of the rainforest that emerged, a change from the desert like hills we have gotten used to seeing. Arriving into the town was a bit messy because it seemed like the hostal we were stayign at had no idea we were suppoedd to be there and did not receive our photocopies of passports. Had an early night cause we were gettting up early to get in line for the first bus to machu picchu

4 AM comes early.....got changed, had a freezing cold shower, apparently hot water is quite the commodity at this time, and then got in line for the buses to machu picchu leaving at 530. When we got to the bus at 415 there were already 30ppl in line. We had no problem getting on the first bus, ariving before opening, and then we ran through to get in line for huayna picchu. They only let 400 ppl up a day so u have to be early. At 700 we started the climb, but we didin´t have much time in machu picchu because of some gecko screw up so i only went halfway to see the view, and came back down. We then did a quick tour, and got the typical machu picchu picture before heading down to catch our 1030 train. Needless to say ppl are pretty pissed with gecko who is trying to deny their involvement in this, which we know is a big LIE.......anyways at least the weather was gorgeous while we were there, cause after we left it POURED down rain. Arrived in Cusco yesterday afternoon, and then went and got some food, and headed to the markets. Later we got a lesson of how to make Pisco sours, a traditional peruvian drink, by our guide oscar, and then headed for some chinese food! Haha

Today we are going to sightsee around cusco, and then tomorrow we are probably going atv/dirt bike riding. Should be good! talk soon

Erin and James

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Comments

[Richard]

Glad u guys are doing good and still have all ur organs! take it easy on those leaves by the way. Beating everyone by 2 hours eh? Hmmm ...4 kilos = 1 gram?? c'mon. James where are the face book pics all that camera and u cant even post pics? couldnt figure it out? its ok if u cant? Well take care and try not to jump in with anymore drunk local rally drivers I heard its a lil scary!