Sunday, March 15, 2009

Arequipa - Cusco - Santa Maria - Santa Teresa
















We travelled by luxury coach overnight from Arequipa to Cuzco... it truly was a luxury bus liner. We were in first class seats that reclined almost horizontally so most of us had a decent night sleep.





Once we arrived in Cusco we were whisked over to the Coyller hostel to repack for the trek. We left most of our luggage here as we were to be trekking for the next 3 days. We rode by mini-van for 7 hours with a couple stretch breaks to take photos and have lunch. Here we grabbed some spectacular photos of our ascent and decent through the pass (Alba Malaga) to a height of 4430m above sea level. At many sections on the road the streams would run across the road making the drive that much more exciting.





The road down the pass, through Santa Maria to Santa Teresa was extremely rough and dusty so we were all quite elated to arrive in Santa Teresa and take a walk down to the natural hot springs. They water was not overly hot but very comfortable... and surprisingly, no sulphur smell.