May 31: 20,471 steps in Santa Cruz, Bolivia

This morning we took a bus to Samaipata. Samaipata is an ancient Incan ruin on top of a mountain that is a giant boulder carved out to make a village. During the bus ride a lot of stray dogs would bark at our bus and run alongside it for a short amount of time. It's scary how close they got to us, but they must know what they are doing around here because we have yet to see a dead dog o the side of the road. It was a 3 hour bus ride to the town, and roughly an hour and a half hike up. The bus took us up the mountain as far as it could go, but the rain and mud forced us to walk the majority of the path up. It was very foggy, and very muddy. All of our shoes were covered in mud very quickly.

Once we actually got to the base camp, we went on a 2 hour walk around the property. We couldn't walk in the actual ruins in order to preserve them, but the paths took us all around the ancient grounds to see them from multiple places. It was pretty exhausting, but very cool. I'm still battling a cold so that didn't help, but I made it through.

It took around an hour to get back down to where the bus left us, and we were al starving at this point. So we went into town and had the most delicious dinner we have had on the trip so far. I had tea, chicken noodle soup, and three cheese spaghetti.

After another 3 hour bus ride back to Santa Cruz, we all went back to the hotel, showered, and passed out.

Today is my dad's birthday, and I'm sad I couldn't spend it with him. I'll be happy to get home and give him and my mom a big hug in just 10 short days!