SNAKES & LADDERS !!!

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Hi everyone,

Ok, so there werent really any snakes (but i kept thinking everytime i reached up to another rung that a giant Anaconda was gonna get me 😊 !!!

But the ladders were real....

What an absolutely incredible day i have had today... next to arriving at Everest base camp, this has been the best day of my trip...

Got up early and took a 1 and half hour taxi ride with a couple of other guys out into Sacred Valley to catch 2 hr train ride up to Machu Picchu... got up here around noon... really magical little town here, got hotel, and then decided to go for a hike up to one of the peaks.

It turned out to be an unbelievable experience... straight up over 1,200 feet of elevation, climbing log ladders up the side of jungle cliffs (one was 225 feet high!!). Just absolutely breathtaking jungle scenery above roaring Urumbu river gorge which originates from Amazon... as you peer down into jungle canopy from above it is almost like seing in 3-D...

And then we get to the top and lo and behold right across the valley from us, maybe 1 kilometer away, the whole Sacred Lost City of Machu Picchu unfolded in front of us... we were not expecting this, and absolutely blew us away!!!!

There were a few others up there, and we all just soaked it in... and then, huge claps of thunder from the gods.... i am still in awe hours later, it was just so spectacular, am still buzzing...

Tomorrow morning we are going to get up at 4am and do the hike up to Machu Picchu to get there ahead of tour buses and be there for sunrise at the "Sun Gate"...

i dont think i will be able to even go to sleep i am so excited about getting to explore the ruins... it was so breathtaking just to be looking across at them today...

Anyhow, hope you are all doing well -- special thanks to Phil for e-mailing me the "assault on Everest" pics....

Take care,

Cam

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