Mmmm, Machu Picchu!

When we decided to add Peru to our itinerary, I was like:

No, seriously, I replayed this scene in my head the entire four days of our jungle trek.  But I digress.

Upon arriving in Peru, Felipe and I spent the afternoon looking for Jungle Trek tour groups and found one that left the next day.  For those of you traveling to the area (especially when it's low season) I highly recommend you hold off booking until arriving in Cuzco - it can save up to $200/person for the same tour people book ahead of time.

Before going any further, most people are not familiar with the jungle trek - that's because its fairly new.  Up until a few years ago, the only way to see Machu Picchu was by trekking on the Inca Trail for ~4 days or taking the train.  However, there's a new kid on the block that appeals to ADD outdoor-adventure-loving folks such as myself.  As much as I love outdoor adventures, four days of hiking felt incredibly tedious ...not to mention an ass killer (its possible I'm a wimp, but I prefer the term "variety inclined").  The jungle trek combines hiking the Inca Trail with mountain biking, white water rafting, and zip lining.

Here are the top ten highlights from the jungle tour:

10.  Bathrooms encouraging silence

9. Bugs in your teeth and being soaked to the bone after riding down a mountain pass on questionable bikes...a wobbly front tire is safe, right?

8. White water rafting class four rapids

7. Seeing strange creatures... I forget the name for this in Spanish but, as you can tell, this is an R.O.U.S...as made famous in "The Princess Bride" 

6. Hiking to the highest point of the Inca Trail

5. Being greeted to our camp on day two with lunch, puppies, and hammocks after 8 hours of hiking

4. Crossing a gorge in a basket

3. Meeting fellow travelers and making great friends

2. Supermanning (is that a word?) across mountains

1. Of course...seeing Machu Picchu and experiencing a part of it's incredible story (a few pics showing how spectacular the site is below)

                   

Alarm Clock

You know it's going to be a good day when this is your alarm clock:

...and this is one of your travel companions













I arrived in Ilha Grande, Brazil last Monday.  Unfortunately it rained all day for the first few days...it ended up working out perfectly that it coincided with my jet lag...so we just did a lot of reading in these:

and in our hobbit house here:

Today was the first day without rain, so we ventured out into the island.

Ilha Grande is a beautiful island - there are no cars here so everyone gets around via water taxi or long hikes across the island.  Felipe and I want to keep traveling as long as possible so we pretty much always opt for the money saving option - especially when it coincides with the calorie burning option, which is a necessity when your diet somehow always contains bread, beer and cookies.   We hiked for 2 hours to Dois Rios beach today.  It was overcast today but we made the most of it and still got a 4 hour hike in and some good beach time...and, of course, I have the sunburn to show for it...you would think in my 30+ years on this earth, I would realize that cloudy days can still lead to sunburn...apparently not

Here's Felipe enjoying some time on the beach

We stayed in Ihla Grande until April 18th and then moved on to Buzios during the busy Easter Holiday (apparently the country takes a few days off for the Holiday and they consider it to be as busy of a time as Carnavale).  Stay tuned for adventures in traveling through Rio, living in a digital world and staying in "The Hamptons" of Brazil.