Peruvian Adventure...Oct. 22nd to Nov. 11th

This is the first time I'll be writing a blog. Heck, a few days ago I didn't even know what a blog was. Amy's first cousin, Alexx, who is living is Cusco for a few months, has this great blog site and I thought it may be a good way to post our Peruvian adventures. So starting a day or two into our trip, which starts on Saturday, Oct. 22nd, I'll try to post here every few days.

We are planning quite an adventure...first going to Arequipa, where Amy lived for a couple of years as a kid. Surrounded by volcanoes, this is one of the most elegant cities in all of South America. Many of the colonial buildings are built with a light colored volcanic rock called sillar, giving Arequipa the nickname, The White City. Arequipa supposedly has one of the most beautiful plazas in all of Latin America, and I'm looking forward to just hanging out people watching and drinking mate de coca.




Then we are going to Colca Canyon, the second deepest canyon in the world, renowned for the giant Andean Condor. It's a four or five hour bus ride from Arequipa and there are some very traditional Indian villages in the canyon. Hopefully we'll be lucky and spot a few condors.



From Colca Canyon we are planning on going to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, at about 12,500 feet above sea level. There are floating islands where Indians have lived for hundreds of years. This is where the Inca culture started many hundreds of years ago and will be a good place to acclimate, as in a few days we will be treking in the high Andes.



After a few days at the lake, we are heading to Cusco and then on to the highlight of the trip, a four day/three night trek on the famous Inca Trail. This is one of those "gotta do before I die" things. The trek is about 45 kilometers over the four days and we'll start on the Urubamba river valley and end up at Machu Picchu. Amy and I, a few other tourists, porters, cooks and guides will be treking over mountain passes that exceed 13,000 feet, pass inumerable Inca ruins, and on the fourth day end up at magnificent Machu Picchu. If we're still alive, we'll take the train back to Cusco.




The last week or so of our trip is up in the air, we're not really sure where we're going to go. Could be to Ayacucho, a lovely mountain city with many Andean artists, lots of churches and a few ruins. Maybe we'll go on another trek near the Sacred Valley to other Inca ruins. We'll just have to see when we get there. I hope you come to this site once in awhile to check up on how we're doing.