Colca, now Cusco

Thursday and Friday were long days but well worth it - Colca Canyon is absolutely incredible. I thought the landscapes I have seen over the past few weeks would be hard to top, but the canyon and nearby valley are beautiful - giant, green mountains as far as you can see with a river running all through the valley and small towns along the hillsides. It was so picturesque that it almost looked fake - and my weak attempt at describing the place definitely does not do it justice.

My group of four had great weather on both days and hiked a lot - 6 hours total on Thursday (mostly downhill into the canyon), and 4 hours total Friday (all uphill from the bottom to the top - legs are still killing me). We stayed in bamboo huts in the bottom of the canyon on Thursday night and the huts had grass roofs and dirt floors. And our "oasis" had zero electricity. So you can imagine that arriving there in the dark on day 1 and leaving again in the dark on day 2 at 5am made things a bit interesting (for navigation and for hygiene). But all in all a great two days.

This morning I arrived in Cusco, Peru, a mere 80km from Machu Picchu. The town is completely overrun with tourists (which I guess is to be expected), though it still has some local character as evidenced by the festive street parade this afternoon in the Plaza de Armas. Kind of a dull, sleepy afternoon here as I wait for Renee to get here tomorrow morning. Tomorrow we will plan our next few days here, which will revolve around our visit to the Lost City of the Incas. Very psyched.