Last day in Peru

That's right, this is officially our last day in Peru. We will be leaving at 1:20 this afternoon and arriving at Winnipeg 10 a.m. tomorrow(hopefully). We both got back pieces to commemorate the trip. They cost us the remaining money we had but we both felt that it was worth it. Yeah, thats it, we'll see you all soon.

Rabies and a giant penis

Soooo, how to even begin this one.

Brad and I decided to go to Chiquito to see an old fertility ruin supposedly used by the Incas, what we found however was something else completely.

This was by far our most expensive tour so we expected only the best out of the giant stone penises. Much to our dismay, however, we arrived in a schoolyard with what looked like kindergarden-made ((Incan)I have to used parenthesis instead of quotations because my keyboard is fubared) stone walls and a sloppy looking penis if I do say so myself. We obtained some quality photos of us with said penis however so it wasn´t a total loss, but our guide was something else. We were promised a full 3 hour tour of the area and got a measly 1.5, and that was with more than the usual bullshitting on his part. As it turns out the population of Chiquito is only 1, and all of the sloppy masonry work is PRE-incan...sure buddy. The entire place looked like a few dozen kindergarten students, high on some form of acid, thought one day to build the stupidest and most mind numbing thing they could think of, and then splash it with some color on their way to catching the flying rainbows floating above them.

This was all good and fine however, until we were walking back to the taxi....

We met this jolly bastard who felt the need to be completely wasted at 10 in the morning. He shouted obscurities at us as we approached, and since one can hardly understand the usual drunken ramblings of someone, imagine it also being in Spanish. I can only imagine that he was accusing us of stealing some sort of pie, and then eating his children. This was all harmless until he opened his house door, and his dogs came out. Growling and barking at us we stopped to consider the situation. Our pansy of a guide stood behind me as I started to advance around the dogs, but one dog in particular thought I was in the wrong here and came towards me. Before I knew it the dog sunk it´s teeth into my right thigh-buttocksic region (aka ass) and then retreated before I could kick it in the throat. The owner, oblivious to what had happened, went inside as the dogs then followed...this ended the possibility of me having a good day.

We still went on another tour to see a Necropolis of the Incas, which was cool, and as we told our story to some of the people on the bus they insisted that I go get my rabies shot, because if I did contract rabies, it´s %100 fatal. After the tour we went straightish to the hospital where we tried to explain the situation in broken Spanish to the doctor. He had me lay down on a table and tried to find the wound with my shorts on...no such luck, so, in front of about 10 people I dropped my drawers and lay down on the table for the world to see. The women in the room started giggling, I guess they hadn´t seen the ass of a Greek God before, that or I am REALLY pale, either way the doctor brushed the giggling aside and proceeded to swab me with all sorts of fancy liquids! Minutes later I am done and ready to leave. The doctor prescribes me 20 or so pills and apparently I have to have a shot tomorrow and every day after for about 2 weeks?!, just to make sure I don´t have any infections and whatnot. To celebrate my superhuman defeat of rabies, Brad and I went and ate 2 family size pizzas while listening to Eye of the Tiger, yes, it was THAT awesome...

So...that´s my day. How have you been?

Watch the eyes!!!

So we are back from our overnight excursion. I almost feel bad about posting everyday but at 30 cents an hour, that feeling goes away pretty fast. First if all, we fell asleep on top of the boat for 3 hours at 12500 feet above sea level with no sunscreen... lets just say it wasnt pretty. I was almost as if the sun wanted to take our faces....off. I am including some pictures of what it looks like.. I had to put them lower because they were so horrific.

and this was Colin after 3 hours........ terrible.





















In reality though we did burn rather bad. During the night we both woke up because our skin on our faces were blistering and starting to puss. You could feel the puss drip down the face from the blisters....very attractive. The night spent with the family was definately worthwhile. There is no electricity, no plumbing, and the island is completely self-sufficient. We again met some very cool people, and just a couple of minutes ago we ran into two guys who were biking across South America, one had been gone for over 8 months already, can you imagine the stories...

Anyway, tomorrow we are going to go look at some big stone penises. It was thought that if the woman sat on them, then her fertility would increase. I think Colin just wants pictures with giant stone penises. That be it for now.

Adios.
Mucho Gusto.
Hasta Mañana.

We survived the Inca Trail

Im saying this because someone died while doing the trail. They were doing the same trail as us(4day 3 night) and were about 50 feet from our camp site. He was a 55 year old man travelling with his wife, daughter and son in law. Apparently he had supper, said he felt tired and went to bed, in the morning, he was dead. They tried to heli lift him out but there were too many clouds so the porters in that group had to carry him down the mountain. Now on to happier news, we did survive the Inca Trail. It was truly incredible, a once in a lifetime experience. The first day was by far the easist, it was barely uphill and we only did around 10k. Our group consisted of 3 people, us(obviously) and a guy named Jon who was from England(Im going to take a slash on my beannie). We eventually joined another group of 4 consisting of a couple from Spain and a couple from LA. Im not going to upload any pictures because anything on the internet doesnt do it justice, you have to wait til we get home to see. Colin has taken about 1100 pictures so there will be a Peru show when we get back. Anyway, back to the Inca Trail. Day 2 started at 3300m above sea level, and eventually climbing to Dead Womans Pass. Dead Womans Pass is just above 4500m so it is officially the highest point we have ever been on this planet and it was well worth the 6 hour hike to the top. This day was by far the hardest thing either of us had done in our lives. Jon made it up at least an hour before we did because he was by far the fittest in the group, and he made sure to point it out. We met so many people from Canada, it is as if we are taking over the world one "eh" at a time. We met a girl from Sask, we had made fun of her because she had paid a porter to carry her backpack for day 2 even though it was maybe 10 pounds, maybe. Then the next morning we saw her again and she proceeded to go in front of our campsite and change shirts, we didnt know what to make of it. All the porters stopped what they were doing and started watching her(sorry Christine for posting this for the world to see). We had carried about 85-90 percent of our things so we were bringing up about 25-30ish pounds which after 4 days becomes a little heavy. The food was absolutely fantastic, I dont know how they made it all. The couple from Spain were on their honeymoon so the cook made a honeymoon cake on top of the mountain and we had it for breakfast day 3. There was something special about doing this trail, just walking on a path that was built by a civilization that had dominated a continent made your head spin. The amount of work that had gone into building this trail is truly remarkable. Day 4 was the big day, the day we were to see Machu Picchu. We woke up at 4 in the morning to start our hike because we needed to beat the tourists who went by train and bus. We got to the sun gate at 7 and were excited because this was the first glimpse of it.....foggy, it was all fog. People were saying "we hiked 4 days for this", "WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYY", and so on. So the tour guide for the other group went on this cell phone and got a pictures of Machu Picchu and held it up against the fog, we all cheered and marveled at this truly spectacular site. So we continuted hiking and as we progressed the clouds started to disappear and we finally saw what we had climbed all the way here for. WOW. We were suprised at the scale of it. It is maybe 1k long and maybe .5 wide, it is truly awe inspiring. We did our tour and then decided to climb Wyuanu Picchu(sp). It is the tall mountain in the backround of the classic Machu Picchu picture. The way up was fine, we had climb through narrow tunnels and up ladders beside 200m cliffs. The way down was another story, for a good portion the only way down was a staircase that was 1.5 feet wide and at a 60 degree slope with nothing to hold onto... one slip. We made it down alright but it took the same amount of time up as it did down, for those who climb mountains, you can imagine the challenge it was. After finishing the trail, we celebrated at Jons hostal and spent the next day just chillaxing. For anyone who has any desire to do this trip, we strongly recommend that you do it, it is beyond anything you can imagine.

We are now in Puno and are going to the floating islands on lake Titicaca. We are going to spend a night with a family to see what the average day is for someone who lives on a floating island, it should be a very intersting experience. We have 9 days left and by looking at the schedule it is extremely full.

I guess this is it for now. Talk to everyone later, and see you in about 10 days.

OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHHH YEAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

If anyone can guess where the title is from, then we are prepared to kidnap a llama for you. It is day 6ish and we leave for the Inca Trail tomorrow. We have been doing practice hikes pretty much everyday to get out legs and lungs use to the conditions here. Two nights ago we were dorming with two guys who had just finished the trail that day, when they took their shoes and socks off, their entire feet were one big bandage.

We also just got back from a tour of the Sacred Valley. It was a full day in which we got to visit markets and climb to ruins. In one of the towns(Pisac) there was an impressive market, but while all the older people in the tour went and bought things, we climbed to one of the Inca ruins that we had seem coming there. We made it up and down(500m) in one hour. We had to run down the mountain to make the bus. Right now we are both thinking about the Inca Trail and hoping that we arent the lest fit people in our tour. Apparently people start at one location and then you go at your own pace. There is a person in the very front and at the very back to make sure the group is always together. But if you are the last one, everyone waits for you at the checkpoints. So while the fit people get a little break, the unfit people do a continuous hike.

We have about 350-400 pictures already and we havent even started the trail yet. Unfortunately Colin forgot his USB cables at home and I dropped my camera so we are unable to upload anything at the moment. I´m just going to post a pictures very similar to one of ours to show everyone what kind of things we saw in the Sacred Valley.

hmm, it wont let me upload anymore pictures so this is all that you get for now. We have to go to a meeting with our entire Inca Trail group to talk over things, we dont know what, but it will at least give us an opportunity to meet everyone who we are hiking with(and judge their fitness aswell).

Alright, I guess thats it for now, we wont be updating til about the 20th, so everyone have a good weekend, and we´ll update as soon as we can. Also have to mention that the last post was brilliant, who actually saw the Fresh Prince coming, I mean really.... hilarious.

Gringos and Sexywomen

Greetings from the DEEP south amigos! Day 2 was just like the last...booooring. There is nothing to see here but 500 year old colonial buildings, cathedrals with 40 foot high altars covered in gold and inca ruins steeped in mysticism... and pot. Just above Cusco´s north-eastish outskirts lays the remarkable inca ruins label Saqsaywaman ( pronounced: Sexy Women ) Much to my dissapointment there was much lacking in the sexy women department, but there were lots of rocks, or something.

Children saw it fit to shout ¨Hola Gringo´s¨ to us as we walk by, unaware that a simple accidental ¨push¨ by one of us would lead to them falling down 100 feet into a canyon and their untimely doom...DOOOM! Sexywomen was out first test to see how our bodies are adapting to the 3250m elevation that cusco sits at. There were points where I had wished the Incas had built stone elevators or at least some sort of body transport that we could use to fling ourselves upwards towards the ruins, but after climbing for a hour or so it became easier.

For those who don´t know, Sexywomen is considered the ¨head¨of Cusco, being that the city of Cusco is shaped like a mountain lion this was considered the strong point and held much significance in Incan history. This was also out first opportunity to see Inca stonework in its finest. The rumor that you can´t fit a credit card between the rocks in the stone is absolutely true!! Each stone is carved to fit together with the stones around it; no mortal was used in any of the stonework by the Incas. One particur stone at this location is almost 20 feet tall and weighs 125 tonnes. This by itself is impressive but consider the fact that these stones were dragged more than 3 kilometres to this location from a quarry in an adjacent mountain makes this feat even more impressive. I whistled for a cab and when it came near the license plate said fresh and it had dice in the mirror. if anything I can say this cab is rare, but I thought 'Now forget it' - 'Yo homes to Bel Air'.

It´s crazy here.

Advice of the day: Don´t try to mount an alpaca...they don´t like that.

Peru

So we made it safely, 4 flights and 35 hours later... Our plane from Lima to Cuzco was delayed 9 hours so we had time to meet some very interesting people. The flight to Cuzco was by far the best flight either one of us had been on. There were several occasions where it felt as if the plane dropped 100 feet in 2 seconds, people where either crying or laughing, and as soon as we landed, people applauded and cheered. We have met some awesome people who were travelling to Peru for the very first time as well. Everyone seems very friendly here, but not the "I am so friendly I want to rob you" friendly, more of the genuine kind. For those who have been to Vietnam, Cuzco is very similar to Dalat in climate, in other words, it is perfect. One rain in the afternoon and then after that a 18/6 temperature range. I messed up with the hostel and because of that we are staying in a room with 4 beds, all of which are ours. There is also an issue with the hostel because I only booked 3 nights and that is one night short. So we will try to book one more night because our tour has us down to pick us up at that hostel. I guess that is all for now, the point of this entry is that we have arrived safe and sound and are heading off to Machu Picchu in 3 days.