The following post features student writing.

Today we embarked on one of our greatest challenges of the trip so far — taking a 10-mile hike. Our hike was to take place on a mountain of the sacred valley that surrounded the town of Ollyanta where we are staying. We began our hike on Saturday morning just outside of Ollyanta in the cold morning weather. On the first few steps of the trail we learned many different facts about the Incas and a mysterious tale of an Ollyantan Saint. Although the trail was relatively easy in the beginning, it quickly became more difficult and we all started to tire from the steep incline as well as the increasingly high altitude. At one point the group decided to split up and some people such as myself hiked an extra few miles to the top of the mountain. The second part of the hike was unlike the wide and shallow incline of the beginning path, it was much steeper and covered with rocks and branches. During the journey we passed a few large red granite rocks called “tired rocks” or in Spanish piedras cansados. The massive rocks are on the trail because the Incas pulled them down the mountain to build a fortress around the city; however, not all rocks made it completely down the trail, and they are called “tired rocks” because they did not make the entire journey. After passing the thousands of rocks along the difficult trail, we finally reached the top where we ate a long awaited lunch. We did not spend too much time on the peak before we hiked back down and made our way to Ollyanta to relax in our hostel.

– Jeffery