News from Brett in Peru

Brett is in peru... Here is a post from him... I didn't post the pictures since he will prolly want to post them when he gets back.... Hope he doesn't mind me postin' this one.

Where to start. First off this keyboard blows so you'll have to forgive my mispellings and such. Obviously we made it to peru all in one piece so i guess that's a start. We had some complications with a 4 hour delayed flight in houston which meant we were gonna arrive in Lima at 2am in the morning. We had another flight at 6am the same day so we decided to just sleep in the airport for the first night in Peru and cancel our hotel in Lima. Saved us $40 and a few taxi rides to i guess that's cool. So basiocally the first day in Peru we were totally beat due to 4 airplane flights and onlyh a few hours of sleep, and by sleep i mean the qualilty kind you get on an airplane. My neck was killihng me. When we arrived in Cusco finally we had a taxi driver waiting for us with a name tag to take us to Urubamba for our first few days stay. It was a huge relief to have things starting off smoothly. Taxi drivers are crazy here...im not gonna go too much into it but they basically just drive around honking at people in the way and get only a few centimeters away from walls, other cars, people, and dogs! Kinda fun though. Our first few nights we stayed in Urubamba which was very relaxing. We went rafting dowen the Urubamaba river the second day there which was awesome. Class 4 rapids in some parts. Our hotel wasn't exactly IN Urubamba so we took public buses into the city which was interesting. We'd basically wait on the side of the road for a bus to come by and just flag it down. Inside the buses were pretty stinkyh and crowded but i had a nice conversation with some guy all in spanish. Things like that have been really fun. K / I'm yap'n and giving out too many details right now so i'll keep things less detailed from here if i can.

We just got back into Cusco from out 4 day trek to MachuPicchu. It was amazing. You'll see a ton of pics when iget back but for now i've attatched a few. The first one is of a few l;ittle boys we talked to the day after our first hike. One i talked to a lot was Gregorio * in blue * he was 11 and had 9 kids in his family. We took candy, school supplies, and a few little toys like jumping jacks to hand out to kids like this aloing our trek. They were trilled to say the least. We usually passed out our snacks the the travel agency provided for us as well.

The second picis of some llama's which are everywhere...also alpaca's which I ended up eating one night in Cusco...sooooo good, but i felt bad for eating them because theyu were so pertty on the trails. They also like to eat Guinnea pig here, i haven't done so yet because i had one growing up and i havent been able to bring myself to do it yet, but tonight is my last night in cusco so we'll see if i man up to it.

Next pic is of my trek'n group. Only our guide * Aldo * isn't pictured. I have a very sad story about him which i'll tell another time but he was sooo awesome. We couldn't have asked for a better guide. He was basically like a father to everyone for the first 3 days of our trek and iwe all grew very fond of him. Also this pic is from Ipsacocha Pass which is 4,460 Meters high or something like that...roughly 14,675 ft. That's the highest i've ever travled on foot and probably one of my greatest outdoor accomplishments so i was pretty proud. Luckily i didn't feel the effects of altitude sickness like some. Yay for Coca leafs. I'll tell you more about the entire trek another time.

The next pic is us at MachuPicchu. That place was surreal. I have lots of pics and stories to tell from there but i'm gonna wait on those. All I'll say is those Inca's were pretty amazing people.

The last pic is from Waynupicchu * not sure if that's spelled right at the moment * but it was a 2 hour hike up from MachuPicchu. You can see MachuPicchu in the background * they say its in the shape of a condor, one of the inca's sacred creatures.

So far this first leg of the trip has been awesome. I just wanted to update ya's and let you know i am doing alright. Proly won't emaikl again till i get back so take care and i'll talk to ya's soon.