Jungle Adventure

Day 13

Today we took an all-day tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We stopped at the Pisac ruins, strangely enough right above the town of Pisac, perched on a hilltop. The usual incredible views of the snow-capped mountains and the industrious Inca terraces - no longer used by anyone.

Spent some time at a traditional Indian market in Pisac where I broke down and bought a tee-shirt (the first of the trip).

We stopped at a local Llama and Alpaca farm which was sort of like a petting zoo. Kind of fun getting up close an personal with these animals though.

We then continued on to the temple-fortress of Ollantaytambo. This is actually where our Lares trek ended but we did not tour the ruins at that time. Another impressive example of Inca terraces on the sided of a steep mountain. Returned to Cuzco once again for the night. Big party for some of our departing travelling companions at a local restaurant.

Day 14 to 16

The Amazon Jungle...

We flew from Cuzco to the comunity of Puerto Maldonado, the starting point for a visit to the Amazon rainforest. We travelled by motorized canoe about 2 hours to a jungle lodge where, over the next couple of days, we did various treks into the jungle, viewing monkeys, birds, giant spiders, wild pigs and such. Huge climatic change from Cuzco.

In Cuzco the days are warm but the nights are quite cold but in the jungle ( a 30 minute plane ride away) it is hot and humid. Hard to believe what a change a drop from 3300 Meters to 700 Meters can make. And we can breath again!

We spent two nights at the lodge, getting up very early each day to make the most of our short time here. Not really much of a problem as the jungle awakes to the loudest variety of hoots and howls you could imagine about 4:30 AM each day.

We flew back to Cuzco again for one more night.

Day 17

Today was a travel day, a 7 hour bus trip south to the town of Puno on Lake Titicaca. Tomorrow we will be heading onto the lake to visit the floating islands and apparently live with some local Indian families in their homes. In preparation, we have stocked up on rice and flour and such as gifts for our hosts to be. Meanwhile, we spend a leasurly evening walking about town, dining and drinking at some local establishments.

Appologies for the poor selection of pictures for this posting. Sometimes our itinerary is so busy and I get caught up in the whole experience that I forget to take any pictures. I have lots of video and I am sure the others have lots of pictures but the only ones I use on this site are the ones taken with my camera, because it is only one taking pictures with a low enough resolution for posting on the web.

I will try and do better in the future.