[Abravo52]

I've literally just spent hours perusing this site and it is fantastic.
I'm a college student planning on visiting South America with a friend for about 6 weeks this summer. I'll most likely be flying into Lima and beginning the journey by going to Cuzco and hiking to Machu Picchu. Light packing is essential, but was wondering how you carried your tent and camping utensils in your pack as well and still kept everything condensed. Ideally, my friend and I would like to do the four day trek to Machu Picchu on our own, but I know there are government regulations as to who can enter the trail and camping allocations to certain tours and things so I was also wondering if going alone is even an option anymore.

Also, I would consider myself in good shape although by no means an experienced climber, so would the climb to Cotopaxil be realistic if I wasn't with an experienced climber, because it looks absolutely breathtaking. Another main thing on the trip would be staying on the cheapest budget possible, so I figure doing things like going to Easter Island or the Galapagos would be fairly expensive, so if you could give me some insight as to how much these things cost and if I had to pick just a few, which I should do. Sorry for the length and thanks for the website and e-book, excellent resources!