Hello friends! Its been an adventure since I last told you of my amazing experience with the children in Jaen. After leaving (5 hours late) we traveled to Puedo Ruiz (Map), then via an very well negotiated taxi (90 sol for 2hours in the middle of the night) to a small town, Tingo, near the tourist attraction of Kuelap. My mates are I are so pleased to have made the journey in 8 hours, it should have taken 12! As we arrived, our driver accidentally let the car roll through the front gates of the hotel. We’re HERE!!!

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Fortunately, the hotel manager didn’t even notice our driver broke through the front gate. (how do you miss something like that???), and we negotiated a nice rate of 30 sol for our excellent room at the Valle Kuelap Hotel Inn.

Thankful for somewhere to sleep other than the police station (a story for another time) we slept in preparation for big climb the next day.

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Big climb i say? Lets look at the perspectives:

Footprints Peru: "A hard 3-4 hour climb"
Our hotel manager: "No hoy problemo! Solomento 2 hours!"
Other travelers online "Not too bad"

Reality?

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DAMN. the 9.4km hike climbs in altitude over 1300m (from 1800 to 3100) over the distance. Should this be easy? am i out of shape? well i may never know. I can tell you that above 2500M, not enough oxygen was getting into my lungs. lol. My companions and I complained of apparent inability of Peruvians to estimate times and distances (and thus the necessity for water) with any degree of accuracy. We also stopped whining to look at the amazing vistas occasionally. :)

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It sure was worth it once we got to the top! What an amazing feeling. The sheer joy of knowing you accomplished a task you once looked up at in fear. :) neat.

The site itself was impressive. It´s actually PRE incan, and was inhabited by indian residents of the area in the 1500s. (More Info: 1 and 2

That’s really exiting and all.. i love old fortresses.. but the best part of the day was that WE were the most prized exhibits! Apparently, white people are not common here, and the busses of Peruvian tourists were FAR more interested in having their pictures takn beside us than the ruins. We must have had more than 200 pictures of us taken that day! It was so amazing to be the center of so much positive cultural attention. My cheeks hurt from smiling and laughing so much! Here is a picture of a man trying to juggle cameras while his friends posed with us.

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Our next challenge? Find a BUS RIDE back to the bottom. We were in no condition to walk! :) Fortunately, we had 100 new friends who were more than happy to take us. Here is a picture of the high school students who i tought to sing "down by the bay", in partial English and Spanish. He he.

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Unfortunately, our friends accidentally took us 30 min the wrong way once we got back to the main road. Oh well! All is forgiven. Home in time for sleep.

Tomorrow.....