I'm at a hotel in Arequipa now and found a free computer to check email. We're doing fine and
have seen a lot of cool stuff in the past week. We started in Cuzco and took a taxi, train, and bus to eventually get to Machu Picchu. It was amazing that there could be an entire village made out of intricately carved rocks put together like puzzle pieces way up on the top of a mountain. When we got there in the morning we made a beeline to the big mountain behind the ruins, 
Waynapicchu, because there was a 400-person quota for the day to climb it and we had to be sure to be in that group. Me, Matthew and Amanda wanted to climb while Mrs. Morris stayed around the ruins. We ended up getting in the first 400 people and climbed up about a thousand feet of really steep trail. The ruins up there were made right on the edge of an awesome view and it was amazing to climb around on top of them. We made it down in time to look all around the ruins for the rest of the day and then spent the night down in the jungle in Aguas Calientes.
The next day we took the train back to Cusco and stayed in a nice hotel. Unfortunately Amanda had a combination of altitude sickness/dehydration and had to see a doctor for a little bit. We are all in good health now though. We've had quite a few travel difficulties getting from place to place, sometimes taxidrivers don;'t show up when they're supposed to, and some people can't be trusted. but we've done well so far.
Wetook a train to Puno, next to Lake Titicaca, at 12,400ft is the highest lake of its size in the world. it's about 80 miles long. I aske
d and they said there aren't too many fish in there though, the biggest is only 8 inches long. we took a boat ride out to one of the islands (Tequile island), there are about 3000 people that live there. then I (matthew) went for a quick dip in the water. it was about 52 degrees! but it was definitely worth it, i don't think too many people can say they swam in a lake that high.then today we took another long bus trip to Arequipa, and passed by some awesome mountains along the way. We reached our highest elevation ever on the road today, 14,800ft! We saw plenty of llamas, sheep, and vicunas.
Mom, you would be impressed with the clothes they wear around here. everything is very intricately woven out of alpaca (or llama) fur. Some places it definitely seems like a 3rd world country around here, but we're pretty careful.
Tomorrow we're taking a taxi ride to the town of Cobanacande, then we'll camp tomorrow night in Colca Canyon. I'm really looking forward to not being around so many people, and having some time to breathe out in the woods/desert. we'll camp for a few nights, then back to Arequipa.we've taken a lot of pictures so far, but we'll have to wait till we get back to the states to email you them because I forgot my connector cable.
We could stay here all night telling you about it, and how different things are around here,but we better get some sleep.good night
!Love,Matthew & Eric
