Local girls in Cuzco



Incan ruins, agricultural terraces in Pisac



Our sweet camp spot in Huanchaco


Showing off my skills



One of the many amazing sunsets in Huanchaco




Cuzco, Peru

I flew from Lima to Cuzco, and gained about 3500 meters in elevation yesterday. It was a little hard taking a breath, especially going up stairs, or exerting myself in any way. A little scared about starting the Inca Trail tomorrow, though I feel better after having been here for 2 days now. Yesterday the Brissards and I hiked up to the ruins behind Cuzco, one of them is called Saqsaywaman, pronounced 'sexy woman', and later that evening I was describing to some locals that we went up to sexy mama that day. Let's just say I was made fun of, I don´t think Danielle will ever let me forget it. Today I spent the whole day touring the Sacred Valley, a few hours from here. I saw lots of cool Incan ruins, most of them unfinished at the time of the Spanish conquest, and remained half done. There were lots of temples devoted to the elements. I saw a temple of the sun, where during the winter solstice, in June, the sun shines through a window over a carved rock, and casts a shadow of a cross. Also saw a similar water temple designed to cast special shadows on June 21. There are about 6 such temples in the highlands around here, many km's apart, that are all arranged in the shape of a cross, and could communicate with each other. Very interesting stuff. So tomorrow I start out on the 33 km hike to Machu Picchu in 4 days, reaching 4200 meters at the highest, I am sure I will be gasping for air. It is definitely noticable here at only 3300m or so, though the acclimatization is coming along.