If you aren't aware, I just spent the last 10 days in Peru. To begin the trip, we flew in to Lima, the capital city. From there we took a smaller plane in to Iquitos (the largest city in the world that is not accessible by road- pop. 400,000). Iquitos was a very weird city, but I liked it. It's right on one of the tributaries into the Amazon and it's just kind of crazy. There are barely any cars. Everyone drives motorcycles around. Even the taxis are just motorcycles with a wagon on them. We were only there for a night though. The next day we got up early and hopped on a boat. We went about 30 minutes downstream to a place called Monkey Island. It is pretty much what it sounds like. A big island with monkeys all over it. We played around with these monkeys for about 20 minutes and then got back on the boat for a three hour trip upstream. After a very long three hours, we arrived at the lodge. It was basically just the frames for a bunch of rooms, up on stilts, covered in mosquito netting. No electricity; no air conditioning. It was kind of crazy but really cool. I can remember two hours during those three days when I was not dripping sweat. That's when it was raining. It was so hot and humid.
When we were there we did all kinds of things. We hiked around some, spent a lot of time on boats, saw a lot of really cool things. The coolest animals we saw were pink dolphins, tarantulas, cayman, piranas, sloths, all kinds of monkeys, and all kinds of birds. So it was pretty fun and pretty cool. The weirdest thing there was our schedule. We were all in bed by ten every night because it was so dark out and we were all up by about five thirty. I liked it a lot. I kind of wish it was always like that, but Thomas Edison kind of ruined that whole thing.
So on Wednesday morning, the 14th, we left the Amazon. We flew from Iquitos to Cusco. In Cusco we jumped straight on a bus that took us to Ollantitambo, a small town with a lot of Incan architecture still standing. We spent the night there and boarded a train the next day for Aguas Calientes (yes that means hot water). We checked into our hotel in Aguas Calientes and got on a bus that took us up to Machu Picchu. After a short guided tour, we were free to roam around Machu Picchu. We had a blast taking pictures and looking at everything up there. The architecture is so cool. I can't believe how advanced the things that they did were. They have these terraces, which I'm sure you have seen in the pictures, that go quite a ways down the mountain. They were supporting walls that solidified the base of the city. Amazing stuff.
The next day was another day at Machu Picchu. We were on our own this day and we took advantage. Ten of us guys decided that we were going to man up and do everything we could that day. We climbed Huayna Picchu and Machu Picchu, and hiked to the Sun Gate and the Inca Bridge. Eight hours worth of hiking and let me tell you it was hard. So much fun though. I've never climbed a mountain and it is wearing. Fun though. It rained the whole time so we didn't get to see all the famous views, but it was fun nonetheless.
The next three days were spent in Cusco. It was a pretty relaxing time. Pretty much the only thing we did while we were there was shop at the market. We did a lot of bargaining and trying to get things real cheap. It was fun and I got some cool things.
That's basically the trip. Sorry that I didn't give a whole lot of details. It's hard to piece it all together now that I'm back. It was a good trip though and I enjoyed being there with the people that I was with. Look on my facebook page for the pictures. There are plenty of them.
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