treking the top of the world!

We explored Machu Picchu yesterday and were totally blown away (almost literally a few times, those stones are slipery and it´s windy!). In addition to the beautiful ruins themselves, we also hiked up the nearby Wyna Picchu which is a couple hundred feet taller than Machu Picchu. It was 2 hours of pretty intense hiking but totally worth it. The peak of the mountain is actually above the clouds, so it´s extremely surreal. Occasionally the clouds would blow away and there was a perfect view of the main ruins on the other mountain. Christine and I had been joking about how you want to reach out and touch the clouds as a kid. It´s unbelievable that there´s a place in the world where you actually can!

We spent about 6 hours there all together, including the hike through gorgeous tropical jungle back down to the little town at the bottom of the mountain, Aguascalientes. The town gets its name from the thermal hotsprings located here. We spent pretty much the whole day there when we arrived. It´s pretty awesome soaking in naturally hot mineral waters surrounded by amazing mountains that scrape the clouds. We met up with a Portuguese lobbyist there who we had met in Cusco at dinner the night before and had a great time with him eating out again here. He introduced us to a really cool Chilean couple who told us to look them up when we get to Santiago. Yay travelling connections!

Otherwise, things are going wonderfully. The Peruvians (Peruanos en Español) are great people. Friendly, chill, and beauftiful in a really servere mountain way and we´ve been enjoying living off the mercados in each town. Today we made some delicious avacado and cheese sandwhices (which cost about 2 dollars for everything) and ate them in the little plaze here next to a big statue of some Inca king. We´re just killing time here until we catch the train back to Cusco and then the bus from there to Bolivia. Execpt for the copious gangs of tourists, it´s pretty much a paradise.