Our trip is done!!

Here is a video of our trip. Thank you everyone for following me. I had a great time and learned lots and met lots of great people 🙂

Lima Peru

We are in Lima now, our last stop before we go home!!!
Today we went down town. We took a bus to get to the Plaza de Armas. We saw a band in the palace in the main square. After we went to San Francisco church and monastery. There we had a tour and we went down into the catacombs. We saw dead bodies and bones. I am so excited to almost be home!!

Inca Trail – Machu Picchu

Today we were the first ones in line to go to Machu Picchu. We had to get up at 2:30 am. The gates to the final part of the trail opened at 5:30 am so we were waiting there by 3:00 am ( there are 200 hikers leaving that day and we wanted to be the first)
It is suppose to take people 1 hour 1/2 to get to the sun gate but it only took us 40 minutes. We were the first ones there and we had it all to ourselves. Unfortunately we couldn’t see the city below very well because of all the fog but it was pretty neat.
Antonio took us around Machu Picchu and helped us explore. He showed us lots of things and told us many stories. It was really cool.
Our hike was awesome and I think Aunti Tanya should have been there with us!!

Inca Trail – day 3

We left in the morning to hike again. This time was a short day. We stopped at some nice view points and Inca sites along the way. We got to our campsite early and had lunch then happy hour and watched people go by. Our guide Antonio took us to explore this Inca site and waterfall in the afternoon. My mom actually went into the waterfall, it was so cold. Our porters also made my mom a birthday cake and we invited our 2 new Australian friends to join us. Everyone sang to her in Spanish.

Inca Trail- day 2

Today we hiked up and down two mountains. Our day started before 5 am when my mom eagerly woke me up. We had a huge breakfast ( pancakes, porridge and more) and we hit the trail. We made it to the top of the first mountain ( Warmiuañuscca) the highest point in record time and before anyone else. We were told it was going to take 3-4 hours but we did it in 2 hours and 45 minutes. After hiking down into the valley and having another delicious lunch we hiked another mountain. This time once we got to the top it started to rain. This made for a very slippery walk down. Before we got to our campsite we stopped at another Inca site. This one looked liked a castle on a cliff.
Guess what we were the first group to get to our campsite. 1hour and a half before anyone else. “The early bird catches the worm and one should not hold their Llamas” 🙂
This is a pic of us at the highest point on the trail!!

Inca Trail- Day 1

We were surprised to find out it was only the 2 of us on this tour. ( How many men does it take to take two blonde Canadian girls on a four day hike?? Answer 7 😉
It was sunny as we walked our first 2 1/2 hours to our lunch point. On our way we saw our first Inca site and a donkey.
Our lunch was incredibly awesome. We have our own waiter and a four course meal. We are spoiled princesses.
After lunch we hiked another 2 1/2 hours to our camp site. Amazing…we arrived before our porters. That never happens but we were really fast.

Chocolate, chocolate and more chocolate!!

Today’s my mom’s birthday so we made chocolate. We went to a special place to make chocolate right from cocoa beans. First we heat the beans, then we crack them, after we mash them into a paste. Because the rest of the process takes 24 hours we jumped right to the chocolate. We each got molds and got to put anything we wanted into them. I put lots of marshmallows and sprinkles in mine and I used milk chocolate.
We are leaving on our hike tomorrow morning. I will post my blog in 4 days when we return 🙂

Cusco Peru

Yesterday we left Puno to go to Cusco. We are in Cusco because in two days we are climbing the Inca Trail!! Today we basically just walked around here. We went to a beautiful church in the main square. This is the view from one of the churches steeples.

Uros Floating Islands

Today we went to see the floating islands of the Uros people on Lake Titicaca. First off Lake Titicaca is the highest lake in the world. Second the Uros people have been living on these islands for 700 years. The floating islands are made out of layers and layers of totora reeds. 7 families lived on the island we visited today. They took us on an authentic boat around their island. It was pretty cool. I played with the little children there and some small fish. I really liked it, I would live there.

Bridge to Terabithia/ Peru

Today we left Bolivia to go back to Peru. We took a six hour bus ride from La Paz to Puno where we are staying for 2 nights. The only time the bus stopped was for boarder control. Border control was so funny because we had to get off the bus and go into a small house. There they stamped our passports with exit stamps from Bolivia. Then we had to walk across a busy bridge to Peru. It was crazy. Then in Peru we had to find another little house fill out some papers and get our passports stamped. What border is that simple???
This is a pic of me walking to Peru 🙂