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Lares 4720
Tripp is Chopping Brocolli - he needs a Poncho
PNT - "Not all who wander are lost..."
DB - O'Higgins
MAW - LMFAO @ 15,482
Mitch - "Ruuski"

We started in Cusco - be prepared for the altitude!!! Diamox was helpful but has some funny side effects... We traveled with Active South America. Beware... the OK sign does not mean OK...

Peru Trip 2012 - Macchu Picchu "This had to be built by aliens..."

Day #1 - We finally arrive in Cusco after a 6 1/2 hour flight from Houston through Lima.  I could spend pages on the minutes which seemed like hours in Lima.  Suffice it to say don't go at it alone in Lima.  As we arrived in Cusco, the first thing that was noticed was the lack of appropriate partial pressure of O2 at that altitude.  We were picked up at the airport and brought to the middle of Cusco.  We were taken to Hotel Prisma, a quaint lodging with and interesting continental breakfast.

Cusco was a city filled with history with an experience around every corner.  There was even a Starbucks... 

We were immediately taken to a quick acclimating hike to our first site of Incan ruins.  We climbed the "sexy woman"  Sachsayhuaman.  You can read more at the Wiki page.  

Tripp was sucking wind, Peter almost lost control of his bowel and bladder, Dak was having chest pain, and I lost consciousness several times - but otherwise the hike was scenic.

Day #2 - We had a bike hike today.  This started with a 10 mile downhill ride overlooking a valley.  The ride was very scenic, however spent most of my time making sure I didn't careen off the side of the road.  After the ride, we did another acclimation hike of 3 miles.  There was only about 1000ft of climb, but it felt like a mile.

Lares Trail - after acclimating, we hit the Lares trail!  This was 2 nights and peaked at 15,500ft.  We traveled through a small village on the way up.  The people spoke quechua - recognized from the movie Star Wars.  The first night we camped out at 12,500ft.  I had prepped with Diamox to avoid altitude sickness.  The downside to Diamox is that it inhibits carbonic anhydrase... makes beer taste bad:(  With the start of the second day on the trail, we looked around to see barefoot kids playing soccer, while we were still working to catch our breath with every small ascent.  We began our 3000ft climb to top of the trail.  You never really know how hard the altitude is going to be till you get started.  Towards the top, every 3-5 steps were a challenge!  At the top, we found a native Peruvian taking a rest and watching his sheep.  We tracked down the backside and made it to the next camp site.  After the trail, we went to the town of Aqua Calientes and grabbed a beer downtown.  This was our only access to wifi in days, and after a few beers we got on Godaddy.com and purchased yolotrip.com.  We finished the trip with Macdhu Pichu - if you haven't been, get there before you are too old to enjoy the hike!!!