My other photo CD doesnt seem to work, so here is my first photo of Bolivia!! Tupiza, a view from the pool! 

Machu Picchu! The Inca Trail, Peru.

Hello all! I know I have missed quite a bit, but I am gonna write about my last 4 days first and then catch up on the rest later!! I need to talk about Machu Picchu while it is fresh in my mind! So, we left Cusco, Peru at 6am and hopped on the bus which would take us (along with 14 other travellers) to mile 82, where we were to begin our 4 day adventure up to Machu Picchu. We stopped along the way in a small village for breakfast, and we stocked up on whatever we had thus far forgotten. Sweet snacks, batteries, and mittens! Yes, it was cold and raining (some of you will be happy to know)! Back on the bus and a few miles into the journey we had to all get out so the bus could cross a broken cement bridge and manuver itself back on to the dirt track! Crazy, but not the first time we have had to get off a bus so it could cross a river or riverbed. After a few minutes we were back on and ready to go. We pulled up to mile 82 and all the 16 tourists (ourselves included) and the many porters and 2 guides jumped off the bus to begin the trek. It was pouring rain, so Lindsay and I were quite happy that we had bought ourselves rain ponchos in Oruro, Bolivia. Lindsay in pink and myself in light purple, we couldn}t missed! Thankfully, Lindsay and I had hired porters to carry our bedding and change of clothes and toiletries for the 4 day hike. We had our day packs on, which were filled with huge water bottles (2.5 litres) and snacke, rain gear and warm clothing for our hike. At around 10:30am we began the adventure! In the brochure, the first day was described as the "easy" day, day 2 was the "difficult" day, day 3 was "unforgettable", while day 4 was described as "unique" (or vice versa). I am glad we had an easy day to begin with!! My body has not felt this beaten up or physically exhausted in a long time (day 5). Day 1 was around 5 or 6 hours of hiking, but lucky for us it was training for day 2! We had some uphill and some rolling hills, but nothing too overly strenuous. It was a beautiful walk and other than the rain to start it was perfect! We found out quickly that the food was excellent and plentiful!! The porters would literally run (at times) ahead of the trekkers and set up camp for lunch before we arrived. They had 2 tents, one for cooking and one for eating in. These were large tents. In the dinner tent they would have tables and chairs set up with table cloths and silver plates and cuttlery ready and waiting for us when we arrived. It was crazy how quickly they could do the trek! We were fed like kings! Breakfast even consisted of 3 courses!! Every meal was a treat! It was a good thing because we expended a LOT of energy trekking up and down the mountains! Okay, I am off track! Day 1 we arrived to camp and our tents were all set up (of course), so we picked one and made up our beds. Then it was tea time (snacks and tea), and a few hours later it was dinner. In the meantime, we cleaned ourselves up and played some cards with 4 or 5 of the other trekkers. There was a woman selling beverages from a tin pail, so we bought a beer as a treat! 5 soles each! It went dark, so we were playing cards using our flashlights, sitting on rain ponchos outside our tent. We were called to the dinner tent and there we were met with around 5 or 6 courses!! It was crazy. Every lunch and dinner started with soup, and sometimes salad as well, then 4 or 5 different dishes to try and we usually ended with desert and tea! We were so lucky. After dinner we visited a bit and headed to the tents for sleep. The porters all slept in either the cook tent or the dinner tent, so we didn{t like to take too long, as they needed somewhere warm to rest. We had 21 porters in all, including the cook and assistent cook, and we had 2 guides. Viktor was our main guide and Gladis was the assistent. Both spoke good english which was nice. It turned out that all of our group spoke english, I think they plan it that way. We had people from South Africa, England, Holland, and the United States (+1 Hawaiian girl), and then Lindsay and myself from Canada. A great mix of people and a good range of ages (between early 20s to late 30s) and physical abilities. We ended up getting to know each other very well and had a LOT of laughs together. Day 2 was to be the toughest day and therefore we had to get up early! We were woken up at 5:10am by Viktor and Gladis shaking the tents and asking what we would like to drink! Tea or coffee in bed! Too cool! They poured us a coffee and we proceded to get packed and ready to go. We met in the tent for breakfast and by the time we had finished the tents were packed away and the porters were getting ready to take down the big tents. We hit the road before 7am and we had a very hard day of hiking up steep mountains and down very steep steps carved into the rocks. It was a killer and there was a lot of huffing and puffing, especially being so high up! We were generally at an altitude well over 3500meters, sometimes more than 5000meters. Luckily we had bought ourselves a hiking/walking stick at mile 82. This stick ended up being a terrific purchase, and was more like my best friend by the end of the 4 days!! As I was saying, we hiked up, up, up and up some more for most of the day until we hit the peak and started down, down, down. It was tough going and we were hiking for around 6 or 7 hours this day. Thankfully the weather was perfect, overcast and not too hot for the uphill, and the sun poked out a few times. No rain that day though, thankfully! We got to camp quite early in the afternoon, so we had a snack and lazed around the tents for a few hours. It didn{t start raining until we were all at the camp, which was good. I can{t nap, but most of the others did. I rested and read my book a while. Dinner was another wonderful 5 course extravaganza, and we even got to try "Macho Tea", a wonderful alcoholic peruvian tea. It was great and well deserved again! Another sleepless night in the tent that felt like it was on a downhill slope, but hey, you can{t have everything! So, next morning we were woken up at the same time and with coffee or tea in bed. Perfect, I could get used to this! Up and packed, had breakfast and off we went again, uphill. By this time in the trip I had had NO sleep, and my body was physically exhausted. I was a complete zombie for the first 2 hours of this day{s hike. I couldn{t even force myself to smile, just too tired! (I felt very unlike myself, but eventually I woke up) We stopped for a mid morning snack and the porters had the tables and table clothes set up for us. We felt very lucky as we looked around at the other groups standing up eating apples!!! We definitely chose the right company!! Anyone wanting to do Machu Picchu, go with Peru Treks! They are the best! We only saw one other group with tables set up for snack time. There were 200 trekkers on the trail at this time of year! So happy to be with Peru Treks! So, after snacks we were off uphill again. After a few more hours mixed with sweat, huffing and puffing and a lot of water, we were at the top of the mountain that we were to tackle that day. We stopped for a rest and some photos, then down the other side. It was a killer!! So many steps going down! Argh! That afternoon we made it to camp again, thankfully! I have to stop now, as I have been on a computer for 2 hours, however, I will come back and edit this another time. I think I have 2 days mixed into one! I will be back to finish my story and fill in the blanks later! Tracy

More on Copacobana and Isla del Sol!

So, I just tried unsuccesfully for an hour to put more photos up. Lindsay has about a hundred more on, but the ¨hello¨program I am trying to use is not responding or cooperating with me in the least. Again, no new photos! I give up!

So, Copacobana! We get there, find a hostel and chill out for the night. It seemed that the people in this town either didn´t really care to do business or were totally friendly (like the lady at our hostel). It was wierd, lots of grumpy, unhappy people though. Very strange considering their beautiful surroundings! Restaurants turning people away, and business people snapping at customers. Anyways, we had a good time there. We walked down to the beach and took lots of photos (which you will probably never see because I can´t figure out the program, but nevermind). We booked out boat ride over to Isla del Sol for the next morning (8am). Isla del Sol is the ? birthplace of the first Incas ?. It is the island of the sun and has a very special importance to the Incas. We get there after a 2 and 1/2 hours boat ride, wedged in with all the other tourists. We have a 5 hour hike ahead of us! Yippy! Lots of uphill too, but we managed alright! We started with the ruins on the north of the island and had our own lovely little 9 year old tour guide. She was so funny, vamos (let´s go) she kept saying! She kept us on track and showed us all the nooks and crannies of the ruins and then asked for her tip. How could we say no, she was great!
After a quick water break we headed on our way to the other side of the island. It took us about 3 1/2 hours and it was a tough hike at times, but so beautiful and worthwhile! What views of the lake and countryside! We got to the other side and were met by a little guy who directed us to his family´s hostel. 15 bolivianos each for our own room! That´s 2 dollars Canadian! Crazy prices in Bolivia, I love it! We freshened up and decided to tackle the other ruins, but took a wrong turn and ended up down at the boat dock. It was a VERY STEEP climb back up and it took us quite a while because of the very high altitude. It´s crazy how the altitude affects you, I had no idea until I experienced it personally. On the way back up the hill we had another little unofficial guide named David, who was 10. He just trucked up that hill like it was nothing! Man, I wish. I feel a bit better knowing that the Bolivians have a larger lung capacity and are born at high altitude, so are used to it (more than me at least). So we ended up hanging out at the hostel on the grass overlooking the massive crystal blue lake. A little girl of 5 came by and hung out with us for a while, so we took it upon ourselves to help her practive her numbers/counting! It actually helped me a bit too! My spanish is better than it was when I got here, but by no means good yet! I know poco now. Sometimes I understand what is going on, but I have a long way to go!
After playing with our little friend, counting postcards etc., we went for dinner across the way. It had many windows overlooking the lake, so we were able to see a storm coming on. The wind picked up and blew open a window a few times, and the clouds moved in pretty fast. It rained hard and at one point hailed. We could see what looked like snow building up on the windows. It was pretty cool, lots of lightning as well.
Next morning we tried to actually find the ruins and we walked half way down and took a few far away photos and gave up, as we had to catch our ferry back to Copacobana. Luckily I had just enough change to buy our tickets. The banks only give 100´s, yet no one will make change for a 100 anywhere it seems. It´s always a struggle to pay for things here! Shop owners will choose not to sell you something if you don´t have small change. It makes for interesting times in some of the smaller cities/villages!

Okay, so back for a rest and shower in Copacobana and we catch a micro (small van which seats about 10 or 12 people) back to La Paz. We hit a massive traffic jam on the way back into the city. It is amazing how they drive in this country! It is absolute insanity. There were about 6 or 7 lanes coming out of the city and 2 going in, but it didn´t seem to help anything. The horns are blaring in every direction( despite the signs saying no honking) and people are pushing into traffic at every possible angle. We had 2 buses on either side trying to cut us off. They almost managed to squish us! Insane drivers in Bolivia, that´s all I can say! Well, I have many more stories to catch up on, but I feel I should take a rest for now. We do our Inca Trail tomorrow, so we have a few things to get organized. We are actually in Peru finally! Home in a few weeks, so sad! I will fill you in on the rest of the adventure later! Ciao!