trekking is great!

On Friday Guillermo, Amy and some more friends, Diego and Sarah and I went on a walk. Or a hike. Or a only crazy people climb the Andes adventure. We climbed and climbed and climbed and it was amazing. Spectacular views more than anything. We climbed to a place called the Canteras which is the quarry where the Inca found the huge stones that they worked with to make the ruins in Ollantaytambo. We passed the Mirador where we went camping on the solstice early in the morning and at that point we were about a third of the way to the Canteras. Big walk up hill. This is Guillermo carrying the heaviest backpack I could make just to keep him slowed down a little so the rest of us had a prayer of keeping up. We didn´t anyway. He was born up in those hills and used to walk way further than we did Friday every single day just to go to school, there is no slowing him down.






Diego´s knee in the Andes while we were resting and having some fruit for a snack.


warning - next photo is of a mummy skeleton.












See? There are still some tombs out in the rocks that the local folks know about but haven´t been discovered by the people who make museums and Guillermo was good enough to take us up to one of them. I would still never be able to figure out where it was again. It was amazing to see this ¨in the wild¨ as it were - I´ve seen them in museums but this was just something else. You can see where someone has put up some chicken wire to keep animals from wandering in.













This is the glacier behind Ollantaytamba called Veronica. We were so close to her . Well, what felt a whole lot closer than the valley floor. Of course I have a gaggle of scenery shots and will try to get updated on my photos tomorrow in Cusco.













And here is a typical scene from the bar. Yes, tio Julio is probably checking out my boobs. He´s like that. But he´s also a great guy. This is from last night (Saturday) which was probably my last night in the bars here. I have a date with Andres tonight and I leave tomorrow. It´s hard to believe that so much time has gone by and that my time here in Ollantay has come to an end. I am excited to get on my way and I will dearly miss some folks here. Bittersweet.