Another Quick Update

We made it to Mancora Beach in nothern Peru a few days ago....our traveling has been go-go-go for awhile now so it was impossible for us to pull ourselves out of our naps on the beach to go into a hot internet cafe to post....very sorry....but we promise to put up some pictures and stories soon. Just to give you a little update, we did a 4 day "alternative" trek to Machu Picchu over the Solkantay mountain. This mountain used to be full of glaciers and still has steady snow at the top. The Incas built irrigation systems to Cusco, the Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu and many other settlements all starting at this mountain. It was their main source of water and therefore a godlike being that was offered thanks like the Mother Earth. We´ll elaborate more when we can post pictures but we camped for 2 nights, started everyday at 5am and hiked for 10+ hours. The last day we woke up at 330am in order to climb the famous steps and get to machu picchu before sunrise. After all the hard work and lack of sleep, the sunrise and all of machu picchu was very rewarding!

After, we went back to Cusco for a day and continued on to Arequipa. From there, we did a 2 day tour of Colca Canyon which is the deepest canyon in the world, deeper than the grand canyon. It was possible to do a 3 day hike through the canyon but we signed up for our tour from Cusco and didnt know that....not to mention, hiking didnt sound all that appealing at the moment. Our tour was cool...but a very "old people" type tour - on the bus, out of the bus, take pictures, back on the bus. The best part of the tour was seeing all the Condors soaring around the canyon. The Condor is an important symbol for all the old cultures and tribes in the Andes and is still an important symbol in modern day. Our last day in Arequipa was spent sightseeing. (Liz, we tried the restaurant you suggested and even got ceviche which was pretty awesome).

From Arequipa, we decided to stop in Ica instead of spend a day in Lima which turned out to be a great decision. Ica is literally surrounded by desert and huge sand dunes. We stayed in an oasis town right outside of Ica called Huacachina. Its literally a little lake surrounded by nothing but sand (and of course the hotels, tour companies and restaurants...but even these didnt ruin the amazing feel of the little oasis). Here we rode in dune buggies on the sand dunes comparable to rollar coasters and went sandboarding down dunes much bigger than Kitty Hawk. It was so much fun!!!

In Lima, we went to the main square and got some Chifa...the Pervian version of chinese food which we developed a small obsession for. Then off to the airport to fly to Puira. From Puira we went straight to Mancora and settled down for a couple of days. We tried our hand at surfing but didnt do much compared to the pros out here. The waves arent significantly bigger than va bch, but because of the shape of the beach, they go on forever.

Today, we are setting out again on our last long bus ride - 15 hours straight to Quito. We have a plan to haggle some tour places and hopefully find a reasonably priced trip to the Galapogos. We will definitely have more time to post some pictures and stories when we get there tomorrow. Just wanted to give you a little taste of what we have been up to.

Galapogos or Bust!!!!