Peru - Camping & Hiking

Ok- my Peru posts are getting a little excessive. I promise just this and one of MP. What else am I supposed to do with all the pictures?

Random soccer field, literally in the middle of nowhere. These people like their football.

Scenic shots...

Our first night we camped in the small village of Patacancha. The local people were incredibly friendly, but unfortunately we couldn't speak a word to them, as they don't even speak Spanish outside of the big cities. Everyone still speaks in the Inca language of "Quechua."

The kids are incredible, and quite receptive to the candy that the guides pass out. All of them very beautiful- and all of them insanely hard workers. In the morning, it was FREEZING, and I couldn't drag Heidi out of the tent to save my life- meanwhile these 4 and 5-year old children were out shoving a dozen alpaca into the hills, digging up potatoes, and a whole host of other chores, all before 7am when they left to walk four miles through hills and valleys to school. And all of them wearing these tiny little sandals with no socks! Heidi was in love with all of them, and kept saying how cute they were, until the second day of hiking up to 14,000 feet, when we were passing out from altitude and lack of physical stamina. A little kid came skipping by running off to school and I was telling her that she needed to stop complaining and to look at the child. She responded, "I'm so over these kids, I am ready to chuck them off the mountain."

Heidi refusing to get out of the tent, and in the background, you can barely see it, but it's a little girl tending to alpaca.

Someone put this little girl in charge of a 4 day old puppy. A cute picture, but afterwards she then dropped the dog and then picked it up by one leg. Hmm.

Again, in the middle of nowhere, we came upon this little guy just chilling by himself with his dogs. Literally no adults in sight. Our guide asked how old he was and he said 3. That said, the dogs growled pretty fiercely if you got within six feet of the little bugger- so at least he had some muscle watching him.

Our pack horse. Literally everyone on the trail knew us because our horse would NOT stop whinnying. I think he hated us.

More scenic shots...

Our last night before MP - we got to stay in Ollantaytambo, which I think was my favorite town of all that we visited. The Inca people carved their king's face into the mountain, which you can see in the first picture, and in the second are more ruins of the old military base. The town is actually built in the shape of a corn husk- the staple of their diet.

This was our hotel, which boasted hot water - something we were quite eager to utilize following 3 days of hiking and camping. The hot water was a lie. They did however, have Fox Life on their television, and Heidi and I enjoyed several episodes of One Tree Hill for mind numbing entertainment.