our hike started out awesome.

this is the lake we started hiking from. 

after a little while we hiked through this pass.

and then we stopped here for lunch.

we moved on towards the ruins where we would be stopping to set camp. it was GORGEOUS along the way.

we made it to the ruins (and in good time too!)

we then hiked to find a good place to camp.

this place was AWESOME. it was so lush and beautiful and right in the valley.

Little did we know what was ahead of us. we camped out that night ate ramen and played uno and went to bed early so we could rest up for our 15 mile hike the next day. We would be hiking all the way back to Cusco.  About one mile into our hike it started to rain, and persisted for another 2 or 3 hours, at one point it even started to hail. We were in the middle of nowhere (maybe saw 2 other peruvians the entire 15 miles) and we didn’t really have anyway to “quit” we trekked on, got chased by a crazy dog, made some wrong turns through some peruvians llamas, bulls, and flower patches, but made it to cuzco in record time! This was the glorious sight we crossed over the mountain to:

crockett and I sang “hallelujah” the whole way over the mountain and ran towards cuzco, we actually made it home, we really doubted we were gunna make it there for a while!

Today we’re off to do some sight seeing and then thursday Machu Picchu! catch ya later!

thus far I have held a baby llamb:

ate cuy (pronounced qui) which is a delicacy in Peru… Guinea Pig. Needless to say it was an adventure. Note our faces below:

and we visited Tipon and saw the ruins, it was pretty incredible.

Now we’re relaxing at the house before we head into town to watch the Carolina Duke Game with the locals… GO HEELS!

buena noche!