Unfortunately, I'm having a big problem with bandwidth. Basically, only one person is allowed to view all these pictures every hour. If the images don't load, you can check back later. I'm in the process of changing the domain of this webpage, but it will take about 2 weeks.


****To get rid of the advertising on the right portion of this screen, first click the little black triangle in the upper right corner of that box, then click the X when it appears, and the advertising box will go away. Then, right click on the links and OPEN IN A NEW WINDOW. Hitting the BACK button on the top after viewing a picture in THIS window will cause the advertising box to reappear.****



Twenty-four hours after leaving our homes in the US, Me, Katie, Jeremy, & Shanelle were on the final leg of the 5 part journey to the little village of Chinchera. The crazy taxi ride down the mountain was an adventure . We stayed the night and then embarked on the 40 mile round trip trek to the ruins of Choquequierao. At breakfast, Jeremy broke out his didgerodoo, and played it .

Day 1 of the trek : After 10 kilometers of hiking, the scenery was beautiful, but we didn't know what we were in for. Unknown to us, the 'X' in the picture represented the final destination. . Only two of us would make it there.

Shanelle injured her knee towards the end of the 12.5 miles we covered on day 1. That night, we saw a huge hairy tarantula about 50 feet from where we had put our sleeping bags on the ground to sleep. We saw another travelogue from people who did this trek that had a picture of a tarantula, but I doubted we would see one. We also saw dozens of these, which if you ask me were kind of creepy.

Day 2 of the trek : Shanelle was in no shape to hike, and Jeremy decided to stay with her at what was now base camp. Katie and I continued our journey ... we were only 7.5 miles from the ruins, but we didn't really know that it was mostly uphill at a 40 degree angle. We made it to the top and looked back from where we were on day 1. The X represents the point where we were on day 1. We made it to the ruins!, and took a lot of pictures. Here we are on the Incan lookout plateau, with the mountains towering over us. Run Rob, Run. . Katie was happy to be in the mountains. Here is a good shot of all the ruins at the site. We toured the ruins for several hours, then hiked 2 hours in the dark to the top of the mountain, so we could begin our decent first the thing in the morning and meet up with Jeremy & Shanelle. This is where we slept. We had a fun night. We were periodically visited by dogs throughout the night, got poured on (but stayed dry!), and had a boar sighting in the morning.

Day 3 of the trek : Katie and I scurried down the mountain. Jeremy and Shanelle were still there, and a guy with three mules came to bring Shanelle out . Fortunately, all of our packs went on the mules so Me, Katie, & Jeremy got to hike the last 12.5 miles (which was all uphill) with no weight on our backs. I thought the first two days were hard, but they were nothing compared to this one. Aside from doing 6 Km first thing in the morning, we were hiking from 1 PM to a few hours after sunset. I was so fatigued that I was puking most of the night. The tarp wasn't set up right, either, and Jeremy and I got soaking wet by 10 PM. Thankfully, Katie let me share her Thermarest, and I think Shanelle kept Jeremy's spirits up, too.

Day 4 of the trek : I thought the first two days were hard, but after puking all night and hiking however long we did I thought I was going to die. Shanelle, the guide, and the mules made it back long before me, Jeremy, and Katie, and the guy was nice enough to unpack the mules and backtrack to fetch us. He brought back two mules, so the two of us that were in the worst shape got to ride the donkeys the last 1/4 of a kilometer. Needless to say, it was me and Jeremy. I don't know why Jeremy was so fatigued, but he wasn't doing so hot either.

40 miles and around 5 vertical miles were covered by me and Katie. All in all, it was well worth it, and much harder than the Inca Trail. Much harder but there was a genuine sense of accomplishment because it was so remote, and comparatively untraveled.

For the next several days, we took daytrips to various ruin sites. We went to this nice ruin site outside of Cuzco , but Shanelle kind of mistook the Spanish word 'bano' which means 'shower' for 'bathroom' and defecated on sacred grounds. We then went to an old church that had gold plated -- everything, and saw a festival outside the church. Then, saw some rather impressive ruins, part of an old bridge , a very extensive housing community , rather immense irrigation aqueducts, a wicked cool puma , and a new species of tree that had legs. At the last ruin site, the four of us had a little sing along.

That was pretty much the last picture, too. We all made it back safe and sound to the US, and had one heck of a good vacation.