On a Sunday, which was incidentally also my birthday, we left Urubamba in the morning at 8. This was the beginning of our weXplore through the Peruvian Andes – we would spend six days on the road, hiking for five days, completing the Inca Trail trek, and visiting Machu Picchu on the sixth day.

That morning, we were driven for about one and a half hours from Urubamba to an even smaller town called Zurite. There, we got rid of our blue duffle bags and immediately started hiking, still carrying our hiking bags. Today’s objective was to hike up a mountain and then plant a couple trees, and we would then come back to our residence in Zurite in the afternoon.

On the way, I also found a flower which our mountain guide identified as Peru’s national flower, the cantua buxiflora.

Finally, after planting nearly 70 trees, we arrived back in Zurite in the afternoon, and after resting for a while, I set out to explore the town with a couple other people.

On the second day, we left our residence in Zurite at 7am in order to start hiking. Our hike took us quite a bit through the hills along the valley in which Zurite is located. The weather was not optimal – it was quite cold and there were repeated rain showers – but at least the insanely strong sun was blocked. Our final destination today was an Incan temple complex.