Looks like I wasn’t meant to travel with a cell phone, since I lost mine and they are too costly to replace down here. Also, Leanna wasn’t destined to see Machu Picchu; she flew to Lima yesterday with altitude sickness and is heading home today (good thing we bought trip insurance).

Otherwise, Karen, Joanne and I are having a great time in the Sacred Valley. The positive energy here overweighs our mishaps. We’ve toured many Inka ruins, admiring their architecture and learning a bit about their history and culture. They were definitely aligned with the sun and nature and used knowledge we’ve since lost. Too bad the Spaniards destroyed so many of their buildings.

We also got to see a condor fly and feed various camel speices at a rescue center (llama, vicuña, etc). Below is a picture Karen took of one of the baby alpaca munching greens.

My favorite meal so far was a quinoa risotta with veggies. We also discovered a delicious ice cream place with a yummy delicate cone (worth eating gluten for). We sampled alpaca and guinea pig, the former tastes better than the later. Today we had a free day in Cusco, which we mostly spent shopping, eating, and in my case taking photos that I can’t yet post. I took the top photo with my iPad, from the window of our hostel.

We’re getting picked up at 5:00 a.m. tomorrow for our trek, so I’ll be off-line for a while.