24!

Phew, what a week. I´m writing this on Monday, the day after the 4 day trek to Machu Picchu, and the day after my birthday. I departed Cusco on the 7th of April in the morning, the first day of the trek was kicked off with a long bike ride down the side of a mountain, which included riding over landslides, waterfalls, and passing cars on this rickity bike going far too fast. We ended the first day with a bit of a trek to a small town. The next morning we had to climb up a mountain, the steps were made of stone of all different sizes and about 20 minutes into the 8 hr climb I was feeling it. Haha, it was definitely the hardest day of the trek, however it ended off with white water rafting down Urubamba, peruvian river during the sunset, which was amazing and really gave the group a bonding experience. There were two trekking groups of 8 people, mostly made up of mid twenty year olds from Countries all over the world. We had quite a few characters on the trek, that´s all I´ll say. Anyways the third day we started it off with 2hours of zip lining over the same River, Urubamba which again was amazing, and only a half day of trekking. During the trek we saw a house were they farm Quy, which is Guinea Pig, which was neat, but also horrible because they had big boiling pots RIGHT beside the cute guinea pigs running around freely... If only they knew what was coming. The same farm had baby kittens and puppys, as well as a goat that would follow you around. Anyways it was an early night since we had to be up at 3:30am to start the 4th and last day of the trek to Machu Picchu, the coolest Inka ruins in Peru. It was dark, so my headlamp came in handy, everyone lines up at this bridge at the base of the mountain and waits as the police check everyones passport and ticket. At 5:00am they open the gate to the bridge and its a free for all to climb up to Machu Picchu. Only 400 people gain entry to a higher mountain that overlooks Machu Picchu called WaynuPicchu, which has incredible views. To get a ticket to WaynuPicchu, you have to be one of the first 400 people to the entrance of Machu Picchu which opens at 6:00am, meaning you have an hour to climb the mountain. However, you can also take a bus at 5:30 that gets there for 5:50am. Haha so basically people start panicing and they come with running shoes and spandex to sprint up this mountain. There I was, excited it was my birthday, but now in completely broken down skateboarding shoes and a backpack with snacks, while some of my friends are also in flip flops and whatnot. Anyways we hiked up and actually did it pretty quick, I ended up being the 10th person to the entrance, probably because I followed this english guy James who came prepared to hike so I just tried to keep up. Once inside Machu Picchu our group hung out and I was sung Happy Birthday on the top of Machu Picchu, which was a pretty cool experience. Later we hiked up WaynuPicchu, completely worn out at this point, but was rewarded with a birthday beer at the top with some friends. It was pretty amazing sitting on this giant rock on the top of a mountain overlooking these historical ruins, while enjoying a beer with some new friends. Definitely can´t say my 24th birthday was boring. The rest of the day was spent walking around the ruins, grabbing some dinner, then coming back to Cusco. By the time we got back to the hostel for a birthday celebration it was midnight and we had almost been up for 24 hours. Everyone just crashed and went to bed. We postponed the celebration until tonight. I´ll try and upload some photos as soon as I can, thanks everyone for the birthday wishes, a small part of me still wishes I was in Canada celebrating with friends and family. Its now my last week in South America, I cant believe its winding down so fast.

Greg