Peru - When our duo became a trio

Cusco was one of our favorite cities so far. It is high up in the mountains (about 11k feet), which makes for nice scenery and had a lot of pretty plazas and a really cool market.

We also had a good crew to explore the city with as our friend Ashley had flown from the Bay Area to meet us in Cusco and our friends Pete and Christina (that we had met in Chile), were also in town.

View of Lake Titicaca from our plane to Cusco from La Paz

Cusco

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

Our first night we had a great dinner at Kusikuy where we got to experience pretty much all of the food that Peru is known for; alpaca, ricotto rellano, ceviche and cuy (guinea pig). It was all delicious. Since Ashley hadn't done much traveling abroad before, we were a little nervous about making sure she had a good time and got to eat food she liked. She quickly allievated our concerns when she ordered the guinea pig the first night.

Eating ceviche in San Pedro Market with our new travel buddy!

Going big on the first night, eating Cuy (Guinea Pig)

The next day we did the free walking of Cusco where we got to see the sights of the city and learn about Cusco and Inca history. We also got to try more Alpaca meat and got a free Pisco Sour at the bar where the tour ended. The bar had a great view of the city and we ended up staying there for a couple more drinks. That night we continued our exploration of Cusco bars and went to Paddy's Irish Pub, which at just over 11,000 feet is the highest Irish Pub in the world.

Enjoying Pisco samples with the crew

Beer time! (One beer was enough at this altitude)

We spent our last day in Cusco getting ready for our trek to Machu Picchu. The most important part of which was buying a bottle of Johnny Walker and transferring it into a Nalgene bottle.

Now we are ready for our five day trek

Our bus left early the next morning so much of the ride was in the dark, but as it got light we could see the incredible peaks and valleys in the area. We started our hike and quickly climbed up into a beautiful valley. After about four hours of hiking we reached our camp, which was just below Salkantay Pass and had great views of a couple of the glaciers in the area.

Breakfast in Mollepata- first morning of our Salkantay trek

The start of our trek

View down the valley

Made it to the top (for the first day)

Night one's campsite in the valley below Salkantay Pass

Our first lunch of the trip set the tone for the trip as we had a ceviche appetizer, pumpkin soup, trout, potatoes, some delicious avocado dish and rice. Pretty much every meal was spectacular in quality and quantity.

Our cook was AMAZING 

We also had a great group of people with us on the trip. With our group of 16 people (14 Americans and 2 Canadians), there wasn't one person that complained a lot or whined about stuff. The only person that we didn't like too much was our head guide. He was kind of condescending and just wasn't really friendly to anyone in our group. He eventually earned the nickname Señor Dickhead. The assistant guide was really friendly so we just went to him if we needed anything. 

The second day of the trek was the most spectacular as we hiked up to Salkantay Pass (15,200 feet) and had great views of Salkantay Peak (20,000 feet) and the surrounding glaciers. The way back down off the pass was really pretty and looked kind of like Scotland mixed with The Never Ending Story. It turned into the never ending descent as we dropped over 5,500 feet from the top of the pass.  

The beginning of the climb to the mountain behind us

Can't get enough of the view

High mountains and hanging glaciers near night one campsite

Making our way up, up, and up

Testing her strength at high altitude 

We've reached the first high point

We made it to highest point, Salkantay Pass- Salkantay mountain behind us

Breathing hard but feeling good

Salkantay mountain coming out from behind the clouds

Ashley disappearing into the fog

Expecting to see Falkor coming up from the mist

The third day of the trek we dropped even further down into the jungle. It was really pretty as it was along the river and there were lots of side canyons and waterfalls coming in.

Walking along the river

Our most random encounter of the trip also happened that day when I ran into Jane Elliott in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. Jane is the younger sister of John and Pete, who I went to high school with and played basketball and volleyball with. We didn't recognize each other since Jane was 11 the last time I saw her and I didn't look like a homeless guy the last time she saw me, but thanks to my Warriors shirt we were able to play the where are you from game and make the connection. It was great chatting with her and her boyfriend, Eric, and catching up on her life after elementary school.

Bryce and Jane (such a small world!)

It was a short hike that day so we got to camp early and Ashley and I were able to play a little soccer with some of the local village kids. We also took a side trip to a hot springs, which was really beautiful and refreshing and also served beer!

Enjoying the hot springs at Santa Teresa

Our last day of the trek we had a steep climb up a pass where we got a view of the backside of Machu Picchu, saw some other ruins and after a long day made it to Aquas Calientes where we actually got to stay in a nice hotel that was included in our tour. 

Hiking up another pass

View of Machu Picchu from Llactapata Inca Site

The girls!

View on the way down from the pass

Walking along the river towards Aguas Calientes

We woke up early to catch the bus up to Machu Picchu for sunrise. Machu Picchu was beautiful and our guide made up for some of his unfriendliness by giving us a good guided tour of the sites. We also got to climb Wayna Picchu, where we got great views and saw a condor soaring overhead. After our exploring was over we began what was a fairly long bus, train, bus ride back to Cusco and celebrated with some delicious burgers and beers, while watching the Dubs win game 4.

The crew at Machu Picchu

Before sunrise

After

So many cool ruins to explore!

Llama living in one of the coolest places in the world

Waynapicchu peak

Looking down on Machu Picchu from Waynapicchu Mountain

A long way down

Hiking down from Waynapicchu (super steep!)

Condor sighting at the top

We'd purposely built in the next day as a rest day, which is precisely what we needed. We had one last meal at Kusikuy, which has become our favorite restaurant of the trip. I had a dish of steak, grilled onions, a fried egg, avocado, bacon and cheese. It was like they just instinctively knew my six favorite foods and got them onto one delicious plate. 

Last dinner, again going big and eating bull hearts

The next morning we caught an early bus to Puno, which is about seven hours from Cusco. We had heard some not so great things about the city, but found it to be quite pleasant. More on that to come in our final blog of the trip.

See you all soon!

B and G

Bolivia

We arrived in the small town of Tupiza, in Bolivia, and it was just as pretty as Northern Argentina had been. The town was surrounded by big red rock walls that reminded us of the red rock canyons in Utah. We had read up a little on the history of Tupiza and one of the things that it is famous for is being a hideout of Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid. With this information and a day to kill before our jeep tour started we decided to do a horseback riding trip through some of the canyons near Tupiza.

Neither of us had been horseback riding in quite some time (I think I was probably eight the last time I went) so it was a little bit of an adventure. Our guide, Carlos, was great and gave us horses that were commiserate with our experience. Gina's horse was always out in the lead, even though it stopped every 30 seconds to eat. Because she ended up being the leader, I thought I had a good nickname for Gina, but she didn't particularly like me calling her "Butch" all day. My horse was a bit of a clunker that I affectionately named Clip Clop. I was consistently yelling "Yah!" just to get Clip Clop to putter along well behind Gina and Carlos.

   Bryce and Clip Clop lagging behind

    Horse selfie

The ride was really beautiful as we went through Valle Del Macho and Canyon Del Inca. Beautiful red rock canyons, lots of cactus and very tall mountains surrounding the area. 

    Canyon Del Inca

   Butch and Sundance pose

 The next morning we started our four day jeep tour through the Bolivian mountains. We had a wonderful guide/cook named Ellie and a great driver, Santos. We were also joined on the tour by a French couple, Regis and Clarisse. The first day we immediately started climbing further up into the mountains, which gave us great views looking down the canyons. We visited an old silver mining town that was at 15,000 feet and got lots of great views of the mountains (some up to 20,000 feet high) and the lakes below them. 

   Looking down the valley back towards Tupiza

  

   Highest point on day one, for you Americans that's 15,925 feet

  The old mining town of San Antonio De Lipez

The next day our trip continued into Reserva Nacional de Fauna Andina Eduardo Avaroa. The great views of the mountains continued and we got to see a lot of wildlife including llamas, ostriches, flamingoes, partridges and an Andean fox. We stopped at a natural hot spring, which was glorious since the air at 14,000 feet is a little chilly. One of our favorite spots on the trip was Laguna Verde, which is a lake that is very green due to the naturally occurring copper and arsenic. It is also set right below Licancanbur Volcano, which provides a really nice back drop.  

   Llamas and a volcano

   "What are you looking at, you know I spit at people, right?"

   Laguna Hedionda Sur

   Flamingo trying to take flight

   Gina trying to take flight

  Aguas Calientes (Laguna Polques)

   Laguna Verde and Licancabur Volcano

   Us with our driver Santos and our trusy Landcruiser

We visited the geysers of Sol De Mañana, which was also our highest point on trip at 16,400 feet. Being at such high altitude was an interesting experience for both of us, as we think Lake Tahoe is pretty high and we were 10,000 feet above that. The first two nights we slept at over 14,000 feet, which is a challenge in itself as you wake up a lot, out of breath from not getting enough oxygen. And if you are lucky enough to be sleeping soundly you occasionally get woken up by other people's strange noises as they are trying to get enough oxygen. We ended the second day at Laguna Colorado, which was home to many many flamingos. 

   Geysers Sol de Mañana at 5,000 meters (16,400 ft)

Boiling mud pool

More geysers 

Laguna Colorado

Flamingos hanging out in the lagoon

Morning at Laguna Colorado

Our cosy hostel at 4300 meters

Our third day we visited the Arbol De Piedra, which is an area with many giant boulders that made for really good exploring and climbing. We visited several more lakes with flamingos and saw Ollague Volcano, which is an active Volcano on the border of Bolivia and Chile. That night we stayed in the Salt Hotel, which is a hotel that is made completely out of salt. The structure is made from salt bricks and the beds, tables and chairs are all made of salt as well.

Bryce having fun climbing at Arbol de Pierda (in the Bolivian side of the Atacama Desert)

Colorful mountains in the desert

Laguna Honda

Andean fox checking us out

Laguna Hedionda 

Volcanoe Ollague

Enjoying a coca beer at the village of San Juan

Our third night's accommodation (a hotel made out of salt!)

Our salty room 

Regis and I ended up playing in a soccer game with some of the locals, which was really fun even though I haven't played soccer in at least ten years. In my competitiveness I also forgot that we were still at 12,000 feet and ran around like a mad man for about 30 seconds before almost passing out. Our team ended up winning, 10-8 and I scored two goals and pulled four muscles. Gina watched while playing with some small Bolivian children. As it turns out all of the Bolivian children love Gina. Every time I turn around she is holding, dancing with or posing for pictures with another Bolivian child. I think she might steal one.

Our last day we woke up early to see the sunrise on the Salar De Uyuni, which is the biggest and highest salt flat in the world. After some quick sunrise photos we hiked up an island on the salt flat for some great views.  We then spent the next couple hours taking ridiculous pictures on the Salar.

  Sunrise on the Salar

   We did so many jumping picture takes our quads were sore for a couple days

   Ellie and Santos (our amazing guide and driver)

On top of Isla Incahuasi

View of the Salar from Isla Incahuasi

   The whole crew

  Gina's favorite part of the trip

   So strong

  Summing up our trip in one panorama

   In the snow or at the beach?

After visiting some more salt related attractions and a train cemetery our trip ended in the city of Uyuni. We'd heard some not so great things about Uyuni so we took a flight out that night to La Paz. La Paz is the highest capital city in the world at about 12,000 feet. It seemed like a really cool city and we enjoyed the views from our hotel, but didn't get to spend much time exploring the city since we flew out the next morning to Cusco.

We met our friend Ashely in Cusco, as well as our friends Pete and Christina, whom our loyal blog readers might remember from Pete's epic proposal in Torres Del Paine. We've been relaxing in Cusco and gearing up for our hike to Machu Picchu.