Peru at 40!

For my 40th birthday I wanted to do something special to celebrate.  Through a long chain of events I ended up going to Peru and trecking from Cuzco to Manchu Pichu.  I did not do the traditional trail that most people do but rather did the one that goes up and over the mountains.  We were up as high as 16,500 ft at one point.  I went with my friend Maddie and we spent several days in Cuzco and then went on our trek with Alpaca Expeditions.   It was the most amazing 5 days and by far possibly some of the most challenging and wonderful of my life!   I haven't had time to pull the pictures of the trip from my nice camera but below area  few that I took with my phone.

We only were aloted a very small back for our hike.  So we packed everything for two weeks, including a sleeping bag and mat into these small bags!  I was very impressed with us!!

were excited!!!!    Were off!!!

Maddie and I bought the jackets we have on from the lady in the picture.  She made them and they were absolutely beautiful!!!

While we were there they had an election for president.  It was crazy the kind of protests we saw and the armored guards and such that were around to protest the candidates. 

I finally gave in the last day before we went home and paid to have my picture taken with the cute baby lamb. 

Fresh squeezed orange juice is the best ever!!!!

This is who we did our tour with.  They were great!

We had handed over all of our essentials to the tour and we loaded our day packs... it was 4am and we were off to hike for a week!!

We are headed up that valley for our hike!

The first morning of our hike!  The views were spectacular!  At this spot we are at about 14,500ft and we stopped here for lunch before doing the 16,000 ft pass..  The mountain in this picture is about 23,000 ft high!

That is a very small bridge that was made of dirt that went over a very deep deep deep canyon.  I am not sure how it was held together.  I felt like it was something out of Indian Jones or something.

After 5 amazing days of spectacular scenery we reached Manchu Pichu.  We went up at sunrise.  It was a spectacular experience!

Had to do a sunrise selfie!  It was such a challenging hike and I went through a lot to get there and I am so glad to say that I did it!!!

This is one of Maddie's favorite fruits.  They are actually really yummy and sweet but it took some convincing to get me to try it. 

Fried Rodent anyone?

They had lots of traffic police in Cusco and they were all women and they were AMAZINGLY BADASS!!

Hanging out in the parks of Cusco after the hike.

I love the people of Peru!!

At this market they had probably over 20 types of potatoes for sale. 

How many types of potatoes does one need?

Central and south american Armies marching through the streets with big guns always fascinate me. 

With my left over change I bought this super fuzzy bear made out of alpaca fur.  

It was an amazing trip of a lifetime!!!!