Trek to Machu Picchu and Update

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Hey Everyone,

I am terrible at keeping up with this travel blog thing. I guess I will start with an update of what I am doing now. I got a job teaching English at a school called Santa Margarita. I am teaching English to first grade and a couple classes to kinder and prekinder. I really like my job. The kids are great. It is kinda hard sometimes though because there are 33 kids in each class and they don't speak much English. I have been teaching at this school since February and my contract goes until December. I have not decided yet if I want to stay another year, come home, or go somewhere else. I go back and forth a lot.

After a lot of time and money I finally got my work visa a couple months ago. That was a crazy process. About a month ago I moved into a new apartment. It is brand new and pretty nice. It is in the same area that I was living before, but a little closer to my work. So far, I like it a lot. Right now it is winter down here which is kinda depressing. It is cloudy almost all the time and I don't like the humid cold. Colorado winters are way better.

So a couple weeks ago, I had two weeks of winter vacations and my brother came down and we went to Cuzco and Machu Picchu. We had a great time. Luke got here on a Saturday night and we hung out in Lima for a few days. We got robbed one day, which sucked, but Luke has a good story to tell now. Then we flew up to Cuzco. We hung out in Cuzco for 3 days and visited the Sacred Valley and some other ruins around there. After 3 days we started a 5 day trek to Machu Picchu called the Salkantay trek. It is similar to the Inca Trail, but cheaper and with less people. We hiked a lot. The first day we started in a town called Mollantaytambo and hiked to the base of Salkantay Peak. We camped at the base of two huge snow capped mountains. Salkantay is 6, 700 meters(about 20,000 feet). It was really amazing. The second day we walked up hill to the Salkantay Pass which is at 4,600 meters (15200 feet). It was hard. From there we walked way down all afternoon to the edge of the Jungle. The third day we only hiked 6 hours in the morning mostly downhill. It was an easier day. We hiked through the edge of the jungle and saw a lot of birds, butterflies, and caterpillars. We camped in a town called Santa Teresa. We also went to a hot springs that afternoon. It was not hot enough. The fourth day we started out from Santa Teresa. We crossed a river on a cart, showered in a waterfall and headed toward Aguas Calientes, which is the town below Machu Picchu. This day was a long, hot flat day along the road and railroad tracks. It wasn't hard, but by this time we were kinda tired of walking. We arrived in Aguas Calientes and stayed in a hotel that night. It was nice to sleep in a bed, but we didn't sleep long as we had to get up at 2:30 in the morning to go to Machu Picchu so we could be one of the first 400 people there so we could hike Waynapicchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu in all the pictures. We had to wait in line at the bottom of the mountain until 5 am when they opened the gate. We were first in line. When they opened the gate we had to hike almost straight uphill about 2000 feet to get to the entrance of Machu Picchu. Luke was the fourth person to the top. I was kinda tired and was only the 10th. At the top we had to wait until 6 am when the park opened, but we got our stamp so we could hike Waynapichu. In Machu Picchu we had a little tour with a guide, but he was not very good. After that we just hung out until 10 when we could hike up Waynapicchu. At 10 we hiked up and after getting up early and hiking a lot we took two naps in the sun on the top. After a while we went down and explored Machu Picchu a little. We took our pictures in the famous spot and just hung out admiring how amazing Machu Picchu is. We went back to Aguas Calientes at about 5, ate dinner, and caught the train back to Cuzco. We arrived in Cuzco at about midnight and had to get up for our flight to Lima at 5am. We were exhausted when we returned to Lima and slept all day. Also Luke got sick that night.

Overall the trip was great. Machu Picchu was pretty amazing and the trek was awesome. It was crazy how far we walked and through so much different terrain. In total we walked 71 km to Machu Picchu(I think about 40 miles and another 8 miles up and around Machu Picchu. I definitely recommend seeing Machu Picchu and doing a trek to it.


The last couple days in Lima were pretty lazy. We just did not really want to walk anymore. Luke left on Friday and I had the weekend to get ready to go back to school.

I hope everyone is doing well back home. I miss all of you a lot. The invitation is always open for anyone to come visit me. I am working now, but I plan on doing a jungle trip in December/January when I am done teaching. Let me know if you want to come down. Even when i am working you can travel a little and we can hang out on the weekends. Please post comments or messages telling me what you are doing.

I hope the Rockies can turn things around and make the playoffs and I am ready for football season. Go Dolphins and CU.

Talk to you later,

Farley

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Photos

Cloud Island
From the plane

Pisac
Some ruins in the Sacred Valley

Ollantaytambo
More ruins in the Sacred Valley

Chinchero
People showing us how they dye wool.

Illegal Church Pic.
Apparently I was not supposed to take pictures in this church.

Comments

[chelsey]

jealous!
dude farley your adventuras are so awesome I am so happy for you and pretty jealous! I LOVE reading about your time there and miss you tons!!

[Jane Gallegos]

your travel
Hi Farley - I REALY enjoyed your photos and the details of your trip. How fun for you and Luke. Had them over for dinner last night and your Mom gave me your link. We leave Saturday the 16th for Arizona. Perhaps we will see you soon in Colorado. Take care, Jane