Hike to the Sun Gate at Machu Picchu

The absolute BEST part of my trip to Peru involved being super sweaty, tired, and convinced I was going to fall off the side of the trail. Isn't that odd?

Glad we opted to hike to the Sun Gate despite the exhaustion at the end though. It truly was the highlight of my trip. 

Keep in mind that at most of higher elevations in Peru, my lungs were getting at least 10% less oxygen than they were used to. Well, that was everyone's lungs but I was paying the most attention to mine.

You didn't notice it at first. Later while walking up a very small incline, I'd think, wow, I am outta shape. I totally should NOT have had that second dessert last night. And then I'd think, oh wow, I keep forgetting, less oxygen!

The trip up of course starts with a bus. You could actually skip the bus and hike, but it looked terribly dusty, dirty and more unsafe than even the bus. See the bus route above? Those hairpin turns all 57 trillion of them? I opted to read during most of the trip up and down because when my bus had to back up when meeting another bus heading the opposite way, I envisioned us plummeting off the edge of the one lane dirt road. I have a VERY good imagination. 

Those drivers had nerves of steel though!

You can see some of those roads in the photo I used of my Mom.

She looked very photo-esque sitting there taking a break.

There are of course a few more pages of this hike. I devoted one page to just the plants we saw on the trail on the way up! I do love plants almost as much as I love rocks and paper.

And, a quick shout out to PageMaps and their awesome sketch that I used. They are still running the contest, so check it out if you are interested.

I opted to skip the butterflies as we didn't run into any on the way up and instead added the condor image flying in my sky. It's a very big symbol for the Incas, so I was happy to incorporate it.

 My flowers were hand made and recycled partially from this very inexpensive water bottle holder my Dad bought me. I thought everyone was crazy with their walking sticks and water bottle holders, but honestly was very happy to have both. If you look at the photo of my Mom above, you can see her red walking stick on the side of her.

Anyhow, happy Tuesday! It's THE MAN's birthday today and he'd kill me for telling you since I think he's trying to forget. Sounds like a good excuse to me to have two desserts though, doesn't it?  ;-)