Its thursday night, we (Nat, John, Dave, Trev and me) ate pizza again at this wonderful pizza place... pizza in peru is heaven because it is made in a clay oven... only in Peru would u find a bar with a clay oven.

Anyhow everyone is down in th casino so i am here at the internet cafe.

Day 3 of the trek

For me this was the hardest day. We got up at 6 am and had breakfast, plus we packed up. By 8am we were hiking the Inca stairs to the first set of runes. They were amazing because the cloud forest we were in had not dissappear, so everything look almost like a dream. The incas stone work and building techniques were very advanced. The hike up to the Runes took us past jungle up and then to stair build my the inkas. John was fed up with climbing and said that the runes were going to be behind the next corner... THEY WERE...

The first set of runes were the place were common ppl would have slept during festivals, the few builds would become room to hundreds, but as we climb more stairs and pathways, we found ourselves upon buildings and homes of royal class. From this point we come see for miles around, we could see rivers, high mountain towns and farming fields opn the slopes of the Andes, plus blue blue sky that stretched for miles. If is it wasn{t so cold I wouldnt leave the little town. We hiked/climbed through almost non distinct pathway through a dense jungle like surrounding. it was an interesting hour and a bit because everything was constantly changing and i was in an interesting discussion with the Aussies. The four hours after we summitted the mountain started out ok, but the day grew very hot and the scenery remained constant/boring. The last hour of hike went by slowly... all we could wait for was the river lerking below. The river never appeared to get closers and the path turned to lightly packed sandy. The path was scary because we all kept slipping and there was a cliff to our right. Trev, Dave and I were in the back... and the pace was slow....

But finally after what felt like forever, we reached the ice cold blue river. As soon as the river appeared our backpacks were dropped and the cooling began. Freddy our guide yelled at us because we still had another 1km to walk. so we got dressed and walked along the river for another 30mins. As soon as we were at our lunch resting place the Aussie jumped in the river... me and dave were second. Trev and lindsay were chickens and tooktheir sweet time. john jump in after me and dave. Freddy took the opportunity to bathe.

Guess what... sarah u are going to laugh... maybe hit me later.

I went swimming with my camera in my pocket... trev nicely reminded me that it was still in the pocket of my shorts. I didnt take anuy pics for a while. (it is working now thou)

Swimming was ended very shortly after were arrived because lunch was ready... It wad another good meal. I wished that lunch would never end because we had another 3 hour climb ahead of us. And it wasn{t going to be an easy 3 hours, it was almost straight up with a first zig zags. I would not have made it with out Trevors help because he stayed behind me the whole way up, stopping to rest with me and then reminding me that we had to continue or wed be stuck on the side of a mountain to freeze. He was amazing because if he wasnt there I wouldnt have made it up the mountain. I just wanted to sit dow2n on the hill and not move because my legs were soar and I was out of energy. I wanted to quit but Trevor refused to pass me. Dave was traveling at the back of the pack too, he made me a new walking stick when I broke my bambo one. A walk stick does help.

At about 530pm, the sun had set and light was quitely dissapear we arrived at a split in the road.. there was a camping site to the left and hill to the right... lucky for us we had to head up the path to the right... yayya... but i stopped to finish my oreo cookies and the energy from that aided the final assent to the campsite. Freddy had promised us a fire on this night because we were finally out of protected land and we allowed to make one. But we arent very good outdoors men. We couldnt make a fire, even with the help of a full bottle of first aid alcohol. Yep freddt used our first aid equipement on a fire. I vwas a little annoyed that we couldnt get a fire started so i went for a nap in my (JJs) very warm sleeping bag... an hour later whenI emerged from the tent there was a roaring fire... One ofthe horse handled (ANDES mountain gods) made a massive bond fire. If it wasnt for them we wouldnt have not a sweet ass roaring fire between snack time and dinner time.

Again it was an early night...

Day 4.

This was th last HARD day of the trek. We were climbing to an elevation of 4200 meters. The hike was apparently easy for 2 hours and then hard uphill for 2 more hours. Freddy is starting to lie a lot... so in reality it was insane up hill for the entire 4 hours. But it wasnt as bad as the third day because it wasnt as hot and the up hill was in the morning. The elevation made the weather cold plus we were always in clouds. My body was over heating while climbing the rocks but as soon as we stopped I was freezing. We made it to a point where the hard climbing became a little easier and this is where i was almost pushed off the cliff by a dog. Dave was like there is a dog, i said where, but as I spoke the dog came up behind me. it startled me and I just about stepped off the mountain.

Lunch on the fourth day took place on the top of our second mountain. At first the view was blocked by clouds... but after yet another excellent lunch the clouds lessen and we were amazed by the hight of the mountain.

After lunch, it was only 3.5 hours all downhill to the our househandles farm yard where we were staying. We hiked through barren mountain slopes, green meadow, dense jungle and farm land. The surrounds changed almost as fast as the weather changes in calgary. I just couldnt wait to be at our campsite.

Isedro offered us an amazing meal. He slaughtered a lamb for us, john helped. We all helped make an igloo out his field rocks and from that he made a hot fire inside. The rocks were left for 2 hours to heat up. While we were waiting we had tea and snack and played asshole. I lost horribly. but we were playing with 8 ppl.

We were called out of our dinner tent to watch Isedro and his sons remove the fire and then they flated out the red hot rocks. The lamb pieces were piled on the rocks then a layed of hot rocks were placed on top (the men moved the rocks with sticks and their bare hands). Potatoes, beans and more lamb were added in layers. Then a finally layer of rocks were added on to the food. A layer of stray/hay then a tarp was played on top. After a finaly layer of dirt was compacted to keep the heat inside to cold the varies foods.

WOW... after 45 mins.... the most awesome meal was served to us. I recieved 2 massive hunks of lamb, a few beans, 3 potatoes and 1 sweet yam. It is a traditional way to cook food. The ceremorie occurs on birthdays and special occations. This was a special occation for Isedro and his family. It is the first time they have had tourist stay at ur farm.

I forgot to mention that, we we arrived I asked where the bathroom was, and I was told that he had to make one for us. And I asked about a shower/bath. I was feelingf very dirty after now showering for 3 days. Isedro offer to construct a shower for me... i had to argue very hard to stop him from doing that. I did not want to put to extra trouble.

I was in bed and asleep by 9pm... it was a late night

Day 5

We hike out of the Isedros little town. The farm land and village reminded ,me of the surrounds described in the book Eragon. It was beautiful, remote and untouched by tourist/the western world. It is a 2 day hike to get to, no matter which was to enter the town from. The kids were encountered were stronger that us, could run up and down the hills incircles around us... they are true amazing.

The hike consisted of FLAT ya and a little up hill. During the walk I dound out that lindsay had quite a musically talent. She entertained us by singing song after song as we walked through feilds and across rivers. The are very few bridges on this hike... mostly we just hop from rock to rock. The hike was fairly easy.. just long.

Emma had been graving chocolate for the last few days... so as soon as we arrived in the next town (our campsite) she proceeded to buy the stores entired chocolate supply (25 chocolate bars). We all bought a few from her, but she still finished off most of them.

We played poker after snack time. and then yummy food and sleep

Day 6

we got up pretty early because we had 6 hours of hiking in the morning. We needed to be in a town called Playa to catch bus to Saint Thesea. We came across coffee plantation and banana farms while walking. It wasn{t a difficult day but it was long. Six hours of hiking at one time was longer than any other day. But in a way it was worth it because went we arrived in Playa we got time to chill out. There was running water to spray on our sweated heads and to cool my sunburnt face and hands ( i have been wearing 50spf sunscreen, but that doesn{t help). We played hack with some little peruvian children while they waited for the same bus we were wqaiting for. The bus was supposed to leave at 1pm, but it was waiting for us and another group of america tourist. We got mac and cheese peruvian style for lunch. yummy. I dont want to come home to my own cooking.

Stupid americas didn{t book the bus soo there was too many ppl.. but that didn{t matter... we all piled on. me and dave shared a seat, john and emma and trev/lindsay did too. It was only a 40min drive but i am sure that i squeshed this legs.

That night were stayed in a hostel... first shower (cold ) in 4 days. It was awesome. After we all unpacked a bit and changed into bathing suit, we headed straight down to the hot springs via a bus... we werent walking anywhere.

The americas from the bus were walking down to the hot springs.. we passed them and covered them in dust. The hot springs were nice... it relaxed our very soar muscles and allowed much needed relazing time. I was able to soap down in a little canal at the hot springs that was located between the 2 hot pools... it was an area with a small amount of running water design for ppl to wash their hair and bodies. It felt so good, i had to buy a beer for the walk back to the minibus thing.

After dinner.. me dave trevand freddy played drinking games. The others joined us for a little bit, but they were too tired. We played until 12pm. It left and went to bed because freddy our guide was hitting on me and i was getting creeped out. But we played all the different drinking games we could think of. It was fun for a whilee.

YAYAY.... we slept in until 8am..... happy

Day 7

We slept in.. pack our large packs... today we jhad to carry our own shitty for 40 mins through town to the river. At the river we had to cross over the quickly flowing massive river in a cable cart. They goverment will not allow a bridge to be built because it would encourage tourist and tourist companyies to take this route over taking the railway to MaccuPacchu

I have to run bed time.... i will finish the story when i get back from the floating islands on saturday before we head to bolivia