Routing for Roddick, but all the covers have Federer as the favorite!  Let’s go roddick!

This had me laughing so hard

Caught him in the middle of the street in plaza de armas (note: no baby llamas were harmed in the taking of this picture)

On my way home or in the airport as this is getting posted…some shots from the last day or so of traveling and new friends.

Waiting at the train station

Peru Rail

Out the window action shot

Some of the scenery

Back in Cusco

New friend #1 (photo credit: Ben)

Linda being shy and looking pretty confused

Yurie, Alexia, and me back in Cusco after 5 days of fun!  Thanks for the memories! (photo credit: Mr. Driver Man who gave us a ride into town)

Aside from the fact that mosquitoes and imodium are now my best friends (thanks for the week supply of meds, Ben), things are great! I’m slowly recovering from the hike, enjoying Aguas Calientes, and am psyched that I got to go back to Machu Picchu for a second day.  One difference from yesterday though was that I packed a lunch today because I didnt want to pay the outrageous amount of money I paid for lunch yesterday ($4 for a can of coke, $5 for a glass of gatorade, and $10 for a turkey panini, plus a 10% tax).  I also wanted to look at Machu Picchu a little differently today since all those beams of light yesterday were so spectacular.

Machu Picchu from Mt Putucusi (hardest hike I’ve EVER done…85 degree climbs at certain points). Couldn’t have done it w/out you Ben

Yet another glorious sunrise from a different angle

Rays of light

Overlooking the valley from one of the terraces

That’s the mountain I climbed…Huayna Picchu (aka Wayna Picchu)

Llamas, llamas, llamas

Hordes and hordes of tourists lined up for the sunrise

Well…that’s it for now.  I’ll do my best to get more pictures up in the next day or so while I’m traveling (hopefully). Heading back to Cusco, then Lima tomorrow to catch my plane ride back home.  Its been fun!  Can’t wait til the next trip…which I think will be sometime in December hopefully.  Expectations are that it’s going to be a “man” trip…you know, camping, adventure, “danger”, meat…but who knows.  Things change constantly.  As for now, time for bed and some relaxation, then back home tomorrow!

Machu Picchu …there’s just something about the light in the mountains that makes this place simply amazing

I can’t describe in words how truly amazing Machu Picchu was in person.  Simply awesome!  My back aches, my legs are ripped to shreds and littered with mosquito bites, and I smell like 3-day old mayonnaise, but I finished my trek and got to stand before Machu Picchu in awe earlier today.  Everyone says Machu Picchu in itself is more than enough to take your breath away (literally given the altitude), but that hike really worked me like I had never been worked before.  Hours and hours of trekking every day, purifying river/stream water with water tablets, 0 degrees weather in the Andes, and a feet full of blisters, all really help you to appreciate Machu Picchu that much more.  I could give you a detailed account of how I wanted to claw my eyes out, how close I was to giving up, or how I felt sick to my stomach everyday when I saw more stairs, but I’d rather focus on the fact that I did it (and I think that’s what I focused my camera on too).  It was hard, it took a lot out of me, but in the end, I made it, and that’s all that matters.  If you’d like the details, let me know, and I’d be more than happy to complain about share my experiences with you.  If you’d rather just see part of what I was able to see, here’s what some of the trip looked like…

These feet are definitely NOT made for walking

On the road

The Andes

Sun Gate

The road to the Andes

Some lakes draining from Machu Picchu mountain

Cloudforests

Beware

The sculpted rock

Notice how it resembles the mountain range?  The Incas sculpted the rock to harness the energy from their environment

Tres Ventanas

Morning inside the ruins

Some llama love inside the ruins

I was lucky to see the llamas the first day at Machu Picchu…they were nowhere to be found on the previous day according to other people

And of course…always gotta have a shot of the sunrise!

The way the light shifts and spreads over the mountaintops to reach Machu Picchu during sunrise is unreal.  It creates so many shadows against the buildings and mountainside, and the haze in the air creates beams of light shining down from the sky.  It’s absolutely beautiful, and definitely way better than Angkor Wat in my opinion. That should say a lot considering how much I loved the sunrise at Angkor Wat.  I think there’s just something magical and eerie about this place…and what makes it so impressive is that it’s literally built on top of a mountain!  Although most people only come to Machu Picchu for a day and then leave on a 3 o’clock train, you probably guessed by now that I stayed the whole day at Machu Picchu.  I caught the sunrise, then hiked Wayna Picchu (the mountain directly behind Machu Picchu), and then worked my way around.  I was most worried about not being able to hike Huayna Picchu, not only because I was extremely sore, but also because they only let 400 people hike it a day.  I was able to secure a ticket though and it took me about an hour to make it to the top.  After 2700 meters later, I stood at the top and had a SPECTACULAR 360 degrees view of the valley below which included Machu Picchu.  To be honest, as great as it was, after the trek and the millions of stairs I had to cross, it was such a demoralizing thing for me to see more stairs for Huayna Picchu (let’s face it…that’s how the Inca’s rolled).  I started counting steps (lost track after 1,236) because I thought that was the only thing that would get me through the hike.

At the very top of Wayna Picchu (photo credit:  Steve from Canada)

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

– Mark Twain

…

At 4am through the bathroom mirror before my hike (yes…it’s REALLY cold)