Musings on returning home

The thing that was hands down the most welcome for both of us.......... being able to drink out of the faucet!  For two months, we've been rinsing our toothbrushes and brushing our teeth using a bottle of water - what a pain.

Having the commercials on the radio being in English doesn't allow me to just tune them out as background noise - I can't help but listen to the words, as I understand them now.

Retraining yourself concerning toilet paper - throughout Peru, you can't drop the paper in the toilet due to the septic system the entire country uses.  It amazingly became second nature for me to look for the little trashcan by the toilet to drop the paper in, and surprising to find myself pausing, looking for the can, after being back in the States even after a couple of days.

Driving again, and noting the very orderly conditions of the roads, the signage, the lights and the courteous drivers.

Our house felt really spacious, and our bed was so big and comfortable!

Steve whined that he really wanted the picture of the Coral snake he took on our midnight hike in the jungle to be posted.  This is one of the most venomous snakes in the world, and the hand holding the phone taking the picture was a couple of feet away...

These were the all the bags we took for our adventure, and after wearing the same 2 pants and long sleeved shirts, I'm REALLY glad to have my closet contents available now:

We also forgot to share with you the ginormous Kapok tree in the jungle in Manu:

I'll now be taking a blogging break of a couple of months, for time with family and the holidays, before heading to sun and sand after the new year.  Hug your loved ones and appreciate all your blessings!

North Coast of Peru

After leaving Chaparri, we spent a couple of days in Chiclayo (a relatively new city, that was noisy, busy and not very pretty) visiting ruins and museums.  My favorite museum - in all of Peru - was of the "Lord of Sipan".  This was of a rare tomb that had not been plundered, and was phenomenal in its beauty and extent of artifacts.  It is a new museum built in 2002 (very rare for Peru), and very well organized.  We hired an English speaking guide, who proceeded to give us amazing details for 2 hours.  Unfortunately, we couldn't take any pictures, but I'm including this in the blog, in case anyone goes to Peru.  Chiclayo is about an hour north of Lima by air.  Here's a link to a very short (less than 2 min) video on the J. Paul Getty Museum site, if you wanted to see just one of the pieces:  http://www.getty.edu/art/mobile/center/golden/stop.php?id=357267

The archaeological sites we visited were Chan Chan and Huaca de la Luna (Pyramid of the Moon).  A long time ago, Steve had read about an ancient civilization north of Lima, so we went to check the area out.  Unfortunately Chan Chan wasn't a very detailed site or tour, but the carvings in adobe were interesting to see.  It was built over 1200 years ago. 

The large latticework signified fish nets.  The birds on the right, in a line,  pointed the way to the exit.  Apparently, the corridors in the temple were quite maze-like, and the ancient people needed signage!  The birds with the crosses for eyes were depictions of pelicans.

This way out...

Peruvian hairless dog

Huaca de la Luna was gorgeous, and amazing that these murals were still so vibrant after 12 centuries!

This wall was extraordinarily tall, and was built outside (or over) the pre-existing pyramid wall.  There were multiple levels of carving and painting, depicting various gods and priests:

We spent a couple of days in Trujillo - not too exciting - before heading to the beach at Huanchaco.  It was quite disappointing.  The sand was brown, the beach was very narrow and rock filled, and the tiny town was half torn up for street repairs.  The weather sucked too.  We got a great sunset picture, and now we'll be heading home.  Thanks for reading...

EcoLodge at Chaparri

Chaparri is a reserve in a "dry forest" in northern Peru, and is one (possibly only?) place where spectacled bears still exist.  It was pretty nice to go hiking where the air was dry!  This lodge has a rehabilitation center for the bears, to re-introduce them to the wild, and that's where we saw this year and half old female:

We actually saw a bear in the wild, also, but it was sleeping up in a tree, and the pictures I got just look like a very distant black blob on a branch.

This reserve has a variety of animals and birds, including foxes and peccaries, but unfortunately, I wasn't able to get any good pictures of those.  I did get a number of beautiful birds.  There's an endemic bird, a White-winged Guan, that is recovering in numbers, from near extinction.  It's the size of a turkey, and sounds like a helicopter when it's flying.

A burrowing owl seemed to pose on a hillside for me:

and a Peruvian pygmy owl just looked miffed that I was taking his picture:

The lodge had a dead tree near the dining area where they put out corn each day, so I could get some great shots of beautiful birds, like this White-tailed Jay:

Our accommodations there were quite rustic, to say the least:

but we slept amazingly well, probably due to all the hiking we did.  On our second day there, we hiked up into the hills surrounding the lodge, hoping to find wild bears, but without success.  This was a dry river bed that we spent an hour clambering over boulders, essentially going nowhere fast, and getting all hot and bothered:

Now we're headed back to Lima today, for our last two days in Peru.

Bye! (for now)

A little backtracking to the Sacred Valley area

After we left the Sacred Valley, we visited Moray and Salineras on our way back to Cusco.  The next day, we were off to the jungles for 2 weeks, and I forgot to tell about the sites and share pictures.

Moray is an Inca site where they took advantage of natural depressions in the ground, to build concentric terraces to create different growing areas. It was thought to be an agricultural laboratory.  It is 500 feet deep, and created a difference of 60 degrees F from bottom to top!!

The largest "bowl"

Steps to each level, and the single waterway on each terrace

Steve, for scale

A green agave (used only for horse and cattle feed - in contrast to blue agave in Mexico, for tequila!)

Between the two sites, we ran into a traffic jam:

The "famous" Inca terraced salt pans at Salineras are still in use today, over 500 years later.  In fact, the salt on our table at a restaurant here in the north was from there.

The warm mineral water comes out of the hillside:

and is directed through channels into pools, where the water evaporates (over about a week)

and the salt is collected:

To close, Steve wanted to share this picture from the town in the Sacred Valley, that proclaims itself, "the guinea pig capital of the world".  Cuy is the Spanish word for guinea pig, and it is often served roasted.  As in the US, drive thru is available:

More random thoughts

I've been collecting tidbits throughout our travels, and if I forget to put them in a post, they keep floating around my inbox.  So here goes, to clear out my mailbox:

Lines in the street to demarcate lanes are just a guide.  Very few drivers stay within them.  You drive where you can fit your vehicle - the closer to the next one the better, whether in front of you or beside you.  

A very popular type of music throughout the country is American pop from the 70's and 80's.

Horns are constantly honking - warning other drivers you're there; taxis or minibuses asking pedestrians if they want a ride, by honking; telling others in front of you to get going...

It's not just McDonald's and KFC and Pizza Hut here in Peru - we actually saw a Chuck E. Cheese at a mall near Trujillo.

As we walk along the streets, we literally stand out, both in our coloration, as well as our height.  Most women barely come to my shoulder, and I'm taller than most men.  We constantly get double takes, especially in the northern cities where we've been for the past week.  The south is where all the touristas go, and we're definitely in the off season right now.  In the last 3 cities, we've been the only Caucasians we've seen anywhere.  At an archaeological ruin we went to yesterday, the school kids were more interested in us, than the ruins the teachers were trying to get them to pay attention to.

The Plaza de Armas in Trujillo is self proclaimed to be the largest and "most beautiful" in Peru, but it's closed off for reconstruction. :-(

The "Love Store" - guess what it sells??................................. stuffed animals.  There were several just on one street.

As we were going back upriver on the Amazon, after our last jungle lodge stay, we suddenly cut across the entire river, and sidled up to an enormous boat going downriver.  One of our passengers hopped across with their bags, as the huge ship kept steaming on, and our boat kept abreast of it. I guess that's how you catch a ferry in the Amazon!

I never thought I'd say this, but instant coffee actually isn't that bad!  I've had some pretty wretched coffee here, but instant was amazingly ok.  Since I've got a caffeine addiction, I have to have a cup every morning, or face a nasty headache all day.  So some days, I choked down my "medicine", hoping the next city or hotel had decent cappuccino! ;-)

The guidebooks kept stressing safety issues in every town/city, but during our entire trip, we've never once felt unsafe or on edge (even walking at night).  I really don't feel we've been taken advantage of anywhere, even as obvious gringos, and it's been really heartening to have so many people trying to help us as we muddle through with our very limited Spanish.  In the Lima airport, there was a super nice counter girl at the Pardo's Chicken who noticed that we were speaking English, and trying to figure out how to order.  She took us under her wing (no pun intended), got our order in, then brought it out to us in the free-for-all that was the huge seating area.

Some last pictures from the jungle on the Amazon:

A common visitor on the walkways at night:

Muyuna jungle Lodge

The 5 days spent here, vie for the most uncomfortable of my life!  We were constantly sticky from humidity, and the hot still air didn't help at all.  Again, wearing long sleeves and pants against mosquitoes compounded the misery.  Within 30 minutes of walking along trails, you were totally soaked, with sweat running down your back and legs.  Clothes took a full 2 days to dry (if at all).  The accommodations were awesome, as to the space in the cabins and bathrooms, and there was electricity (!), in contrast to the previous week in the lodges down in Manu.  The mud boots they provided were absolutely necessary, as sometimes they nearly got sucked off your feet, when trying to step out of a swampy area.  The birds were a very loud and punctual alarm clock each morning starting at 0500. 

We did take several trips on the canals around the lodge (including piranha fishing), and got to see some sloths.  I had no idea their fur was so mottled in color.

We also saw some different monkeys than the previous lodges, and I was able to get some neat pictures.

Squirrel monkey

Black capuchin

And the smallest monkey in the world, a pygmy marmoset, at 6 inches for the body, with a 6 inch tail.

I had wanted to go to the Amazon near Iquitos (the largest city in the world without road access) to see pink dolphins.  They live in the fresh water of the Amazon, and are actually blind.  If you saw how brown the water was there, you'd understand why they didn't need vision... The first outing to see them, was pretty disappointing, as we saw only a few, and just their backs as they'd disappear under the water after surfacing briefly.  The outing was also "to swim in the Amazon with the dolphins", but I declined to get in the very warm, brown water, hoping to get some pictures.  Alas, I just sweated under the hot sun.

Over the next two days, we actually had a guide to ourselves (as the other guests in our group left - they didn't stay as many days as we did), and we requested to go back out on the Amazon, hoping to get better sightings and pictures.  Our second trip found only grey river dolphins.

On our third attempt, we went out with 2 boats (some other guests wanted to try and see some more pink dolphins) and essentially had a "dolphin roundup".  The boats would speed in circles around them after spotting them, hoping to get the bait fish more concentrated.  I started just firing away when I'd see some disturbance on the surface, hoping to catch them coming out, rather than always catching just their backs, as they went back under. After several hundred pictures, the one I discovered when reviewing my pictures (on my laptop) back at the lodge was totally pure luck, as I actually didn't see them with my eye, I was just clicking madly away.

Manu, part 3

After spending a week in this part of the country, I had tons of pictures, and some more stories...

We were "fortunate" to experience some weather extremes while there - on our 3rd day there, we were pretty uncomfortable when hiking through the jungle (read sweat running down our backs and legs under the long sleeves and pants we needed to wear against mosquitoes), but I just thought it was because we were gringos and not used to it.  However, our guide (who has been leading tours for 8 years) says it was one of the hottest days he had experienced.  We got back to our cabin and found:

The candle in our bathroom literally melted in the heat

This was our boat (before the crash), and it was the first 3 roof supports on the right that were taken out by the log.  As you can see, they always travel with a spare outboard up front!  (the light on the front of the roof doesn't work)  It was in this same boat that we were travelling on, the day after the hottest day, that I experienced a new definition of personal misery:

speeding down the river in a continuous driving cold rain... for 7 hours

That's me, huddled under a blanket on my legs, hiding behind the life preserver, and tucked into my rain jacket - trying to avoid the worst of the soaking.  Our clothes really didn't get dry for days, and they weren't the sweetest smelling either!

After the rain quit that afternoon, we were treated to some beautiful macaws at a clay lick just behind the lodge.

These are scarlet macaws, and 1 blue & yellow (you should click on the picture, so you can magnify and get better details) 

We were also treated to a sighting of 1 toucan - I'm guessing they're pretty rare in that area, because we never saw another one.

At a larger clay lick the next day, our guide counted 99 macaws that we waited for, for 4 hours, until they decided to come down to the lick (so we could get good photos).  They eat clay about 3 times a week, to neutralize any poisons that they ingest from plant material.

These are red & green macaws, with 1 blue headed parrot

Until tomorrow...

More from Manu

Of our two jungle trips, I enjoyed this one more, because of all the animals and birds we saw.  I took so many bird pictures that Steve was beginning to wonder if I had gotten bit by the "birder" bug.  No way am I as fanatical as they are, and I definitely wasn't checking off a list, but I sure appreciated the variety of colors, sizes and songs we were exposed to. 

The 4 "weird" sisters (apologies to Shakespeare) - these are hoatzin (a "prehistoric" bird once thought to have been extinct)

As we went down (or up?) the rivers, we saw both white and black caimans.

White caiman

Our first day walking in the jungle, we saw 5 of the 8 species of monkeys there:

Dusky Titi monkey

Spider monkey

Woolly monkey

And one of the big reasons we went to this portion of jungle... giant river otters!  After we had been rowing around a lake for 2 hours and were about to quit, a family of 9 (!) swam right up to us to check us out.  These 2 popped up right in front of the boat:

We got to watch them roll around and play together for over 15 minutes.  They grow to be up to 6 feet long (half of which is tail), and several of these were full size (our guide compared them to "golden retriever" size).

Manu Biosphere Reserve

This was the first week we spent in the jungle, in the southeastern part of the country.  We drove over the mountains from Cusco, to first stay in the "cloud" forest (so named because of the clouds that hang over the sides of the mountains, dropping lots of moisture) at Cock of the Rock Lodge.  All along the road there were tons of waterfalls that were formed from water just seeping out of the rocks and hillsides.  At first, we were oohing and ahhing and taking lots of pictures, but after awhile, it was "ho hum, it's just another waterfall".

Cock of the Rock

Just before we entered the Reserve, a fox greeted us, and I took this as an auspicious sign.  This turned out to be true, as we saw a phenomenal number of animals and birds over the next week.

At Cock of the Rock Lodge, there were hummingbird feeders outside the dining hall, and I got this picture of a Booted Racquet-tail (note his cute fuzzy anklets):

We then headed down the Madre de Dios river for 6+ hours, after a 4 hr van ride, before we got to our next Lodge for the night.  However, we were to have an interesting event just before reaching the lodge.  It was becoming quite dark, as we ended up taking longer to go down river than expected, due to low water, and actually having the boat hang up on a sandbar twice.  We had no lights, but the assistant boat man was perched on the front of the boat, looking for trees and debris ahead of us, signaling to the boat driver (in the back with the outboard) which way to go to avoid things.  We saw him signal to the left, then more frantically, just before we hit a large tree branch sticking out of the water on our right, that tore through the wooden uprights for the roof of the boat, right next to me.  I lunged to the center of the boat, to avoid being speared by the branch, as the boat came to a sudden and abrupt halt, with the roof partially collapsing on us.  Amazingly, no one was hurt.  We limped to the next lodge, holding up the boat roof with the splintered uprights, for the next 10 minutes.  I remember the stars being beautiful on the clear night, but we were all very shaken and subdued when we landed.  The boatmen repaired the boat fairly well that night, and we proceeded down that river the next morning and on up the Manu river, to our next lodge, where we stayed for 2 nights.  Both of these lodges did not have electricity (we had candles in the rooms for lighting, as well as using our headlamps) and there were mosquito nets over the twin beds in each lodge.

The rivers are their highways

A common view for many hours...

Next post will have more pictures and stories from the jungle.

And we're baaaack - this time to stay, in welcome civilization

We're in Chiclayo now (a city of ~500,000 about 400 miles north of Lima) and feel like we dropped into the lap of luxury.  We have a huge room, queen bed, nice bathroom (with hot water available at the sink) and outdoor pool for the splurge of $75/night!  When we got used to spartan lodgings for $30/night, or very rustic at lodges, we almost forgot what it was like to be pampered.  I, for one, really like it, but Steve's not so sure it's worth it...

Funny story from today:  We took a taxi to a nearby town (11 km away) and paid 20 soles (~$6.50).  After seeing a fabulous museum and having lunch in the small town, we were walking back to the main square to catch another taxi, when a combibus pulled up and the "rouster" was yelling "Chiclayo?", pointed to us, and gave us the 2 front seats, before we roared off.  We didn't know how much the charge was (but the guidebooks I've been consulting said it was going to be cheap) or where we could get dropped off in this pretty big city.  Steve had our hotel marked on Google Maps, and was watching the route we were taking on his phone, so we could see when we got fairly close.  We then hopped off when some other people got off, after paying 3 soles ($1) for the 2 of us!  We had figured we'd never use the combibuses, as we don't speak Spanish, and couldn't figure out where they were going, but this was pretty foolproof.  No wonder the locals cram into these minivans, after standing at the side of the road and holding a hand up.

I'm going to try and catch y'all up on where we've been and what we've done (besides sweat and itch) over the next few posts.  The site I use to send the emails out, only sends one a day, irregardless of how many I post - at least that's what I've found so far, but I'll see if I put 2 or more up tonight and send them out tomorrow morning, if it will send all the new content out at once...

The Amazon River was ginormous!

That's an orange piranha, one of 5 fish I successfully caught with that stick you see in the upper right corner (fishing line tied to the end, with a hook baited with raw chicken) by sharply jerking upward when I'd feel nibbles.  We weren't too thrilled to spend a morning fishing from a small boat with 4 other guests (thought it was another hokey activity dreamed up by the lodge to keep guests occupied), but it turned out to be rather fun, and we ate our catch that they fried up for us at lunch!  Luckily, there was other food prepared, as the majority of fish we caught (12 in total) were the size of the one in the picture. 

Sunset over the canal leading to our Amazon lodge

Back from the Jungle

The air conditioning in our room last night was a very welcome (and almost forgotten) surprise.  After a week in jungle lodges, sleeping under mosquito netting (that worked... mostly) and eating and dressing/packing by candlelight, we got used to less than optimal conditions.  Steve commented that this was a good trial run for Africa...

This post is just a quick catch up to let y'all know that we made it out of the jungle (relatively) unscathed, and we'll be incommunicado for another 5-6 days, as we head into the "true" Amazon, for another lodge adventure.  I promise there will be lots of awesome pictures, and some interesting stories to come.

The mototaxi was our ride to and from breakfast this morning.  One of our guidebooks said to ride in one of these only if you want to put your life at risk.  We had no issues, and going a few blocks, along with all the other motorcycles and "taxis", was the only way to go - not wishing to walk 10 minutes and get super hot and sticky.  Now, on to the jungle again...

Sacred Valley

To the north and east of Cusco by about an hour and a half is this beautiful, fertile valley that stretches about 50 km.  At one end is Ollantaytambo, where we chose to stay for a couple of days, and it's also the usual jumping off point for the Inca Trail (4 days of hiking and camping) to Machu Picchu, or you can take the train from here to MP (which we did after our Salkantay trek).

This picture was taken from the ruins above the town, and you can see there were also ruins on the hill across town - these were the granaries for storage.  At the bottom of the picture, you cansee some of the ruins.

fertile valley

A common theme in the ruins we've seen is terracing.  It's been amazing to see the scope of some, and the walls used to support them.

The knowledge of the Incas about water management is fascinating, as is the still functional drainage and water systems we saw:

At the other end of the valley is Pisac, that we visited yesterday, and the ruins were very high above the town.  We were very glad we went early, because when we were leaving, there were hordes of tourists and the parking lot was gridlock with buses and taxis.

Interesting things we saw here for the first time, were holes through the edges of stones in doorways (we're guessing for hinges/ropes?):

We know that the current people here are much shorter than us (?average height is 5 feet), but this shows where the second floor would be placed on the supports, with Steve there to show scale: 

One area of the Pisac ruins that we didn't get to, because it would have involved a hike of an hour to get there, showed cool diagonal designs on the terraces, which were narrow steps to get to each level:

(picture taken with telephoto lens)

We finally got some pictures of the common dress for women - bowler hats, sweater, multiple layers of skirts, and carrying a wrap around their shoulders and back to carry things (or babies).

Rainbow Mountain

Absolutely gorgeous, literally breath taking, and just plain WOW!  We started hiking at 14,200 ft, and after 2 hours (and 5 km), we reached the top at 16,700 ft!  Our driver picked us up in Cusco at 0430, and by 0800, we were climbing.

That picture was taken from the very top, and is one of only a very few without other people in it.

The sky was really that blue!  We were so blessed to have perfect weather for our hike and picture taking.  This picture is of the last hard push to the top where most stop, unless you're like the guy in the lower left corner of the picture.  He was sitting with his head in his hands when we first saw him.  We were SO glad that we had just come off the Salkantay trek, both for the hiking experience and strong legs, as well as a lengthy acclimatization to the altitude.  There were a number of people (all younger than us!) riding horses both up and down! 

The "iconic" shot - you just can't get away from the people.

The Red Valley (to the right of Rainbow Mountain)

The surrounding mountains and hillsides were just as gorgeous:

And another (figured this post should be more pictures than words!):

You can really see the results of tectonic movement

The peak at the right is the place where our first picture was taken, and where we could see all the awesome surrounding beauty (Rainbow Mountain is on the lower left):

On our way down out of the valley, we were treated to sights of alpaca and llama herds.  The cutest thing was the bright ribbons that were attached to their ears (probably to signify a specific owner) blowing in the wind.

Odds and ends

Just wanted to let you know about some of the odd things we've seen or heard and noticed in this country, and the several cities we've been in so far. 

Garbage trucks play music that sounds like ice cream trucks (remember that tinkling song that would alert you that the ice cream truck was coming down your street?)

Nearly all houses of any worth have red tile roofs (especially in Cusco and the Sacred Valley) - do you know how expensive that is in the States?

It's almost a game for drivers to see who can honk first when the light turns green - literally, the instant the light turns, several cars behind the first one honk (thus, the cities are quite noisy).

There are speed bumps in EVERY town, no matter how tiny - usually at the entrance and exit to the town, but all throughout the streets also.  Thus, everyone slows down to a crawl, and then it's a mad dash to pass the trucks or buses as they try to speed up after that.

Cusco was horrible with hawkers for all the restaurants, but the worst were the "massage, lady?" - at least 3 or 4 per block.

Selfies and posers for pictures in narrow walkways have become like gnats or flies to us.  Most are very rude and inconsiderate/totally oblivious of others.  They really ruined Machu Picchu for me, and others in our group, seeming to be very disrespectful of the surroundings.  Steve has taken to barging through their posing, if possible.  On that note, here are a few pictures that we have either have taken of us, or tried selfies, in the last month:

Sunset over the desert at Huacachina (dune buggy ride)

In the courtyard of Tacama, the winery outside of Arequipa

On Taquille Island in Lake Titicaca

Closing with the lights of Cusco, from a bar atop our neighborhood:

Cusco and Saksaywaman

Before heading off to Salkantay and Machu Picchu, we spent 2 days in Cusco wandering around, taking pictures, eating and "laying about" as our British friends would say.  After returning from our trek, we've spent 2 more days touring and recovering.  The first 2 days we took lots of pictures of churches and Inka walls, and yesterday, toured the ruins of Saksaywaman (pronounced "sexy woman" - sort of).

On the main square (Plaza de Armas)

On another square, at the opposite end of town

That is the road to our hotel that we've climbed up a few times every day.  We've definitely developed our climbing legs!

The ruins at Saksaywaman are 2 km above the city, and as stupid, cheap touristas, we walked there, puffing and panting up many stairs.  When we got there, we found a large parking lot filled with tour buses and taxis, but we felt healthier for it!  We actually liked this site better than Machu Picchu, if you can believe it, because there were far less people, it was really spread out, and there were actually more examples of excellent Inka walls than at M.P. (and with really massive stones throughout).

As we walked into the grounds, we were treated to the sight of an alpaca giving birth!  We spent almost 20 minutes watching it slowly getting stronger, and finally standing up.

Holding its head up was the first accomplishment

Face plant!

OK, enough baby alpaca pictures.  On to more stones...

This was taken from the "parade grounds"

The views of the city from up there were stupendous (note the church at the bottom of the picture - that's on the Plaza de Armas).

Machu Picchu

After trekking 6 days through multiple micro-climates, all of us in the group had the same feelings about Machu Picchu - it was anticlimactic and crowded.  We all loved the hiking, however hard it was, but we had gotten spoiled, I guess, being just in a small group.  Because it seems like everyone in the world has this place on their bucket list, you have to expect crowds, but we sure didn't like it.  OK, enough grousing... on with the pictures! 

This is the majority of the complex, with the terraces for farming down off on the right, the general housing in the middle, and the rulers area up to the left.  The mountain towering at the end is WaynuPicchu, which we were given tickets to climb, as part of our admission, but I bowed out.  Steve climbed it, with the other Lisa in the group, and they said it was unbelievably tough (straight up, with almost all stairs, and at times they were climbing with both hands and feet) but the views were stupendous.

The zigzag road to the left is the road for the buses; this view really shows how the complex is perched on a ridge.

Both Steve and I were most taken with the intricacy of the stonework on the walls which were on the parts for the rulers.  Huge stones fit tightly together without mortar.

On the left, the rulers lived; on the right, everyone else.

Another example of gorgeous stonework

Doorways were always trapezoidal, to withstand earthquakes, and outer walls of buildings slanted inward, again giving stability.

Llamas roam freely on the terraces

LOTS of terraces

This was my view of WaynuPicchu - Steve is up there somewhere

I'll close with my personal favorite view, as it shows how lush the surrounding mountains are, and how the complex is perched.

See you tomorrow!

Hints of Machu Picchu

Sorry it's been awhile since I last wrote, but we were very busy, as well as exhausted.  Our last day of hiking was probably the roughest (even compared to Salkantay pass) because it was 3 miles nearly straight up (gaining 2000 ft) and it was really sweaty.  However, lunch (fabulous, like all the others on this trek) was on a ridge where we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, albeit from a long way away.

What you can see with your eye... (the peak on the left is Waynu Picchu - more on this later)

Telephoto view of the back side terraces

As you can tell, all the hills and mountains were covered in vegetation - such a difference from the early part of our trek in the high, arid areas of the snow capped peaks.

Our hike down from lunch then, was 3 more miles (and 3000 ft) of constant downhill that just about killed everybody's knees.  I didn't take any pictures that day except for the top and the distant views of Machu Picchu.  We then boarded a train for about an hour's ride to Aguas Calientes, the town where the buses take everyone up to Machu Picchu.  We stayed at a super fancy hotel there (Inkaterra - Bernie and Mark stayed here on their trek) that I would have loved to spent more time in, but we had to leave at 0530 the next morning to stand in line (45 minutes) for the bus.

When we got into the ruins, our guide who had been with us all week, gave us a tour and detailed explanations of most of the main buildings.  At our first stop, where he spoke for quite awhile, this was what I saw behind him:

It was like, the clouds parted and you could hear angels singing... :-)

We had absolutely fantastic clear weather for our entire trek, including our morning at the ruins.  Even though I hate the word, the "iconic" pictures of Machu Picchu will come in the next post.

"Welcome to the jungle"

We hiked 10 miles today, in 8 hours, broken up by an hour at lunch, and 30 minutes at a coffee farm.  I was on a mission to capture the elusive "Tantalus" butterfly (my own moniker), that was mostly black, with white bars on the edges of the front wings.  It constantly flitted about in front and behind me, and when it landed, it folded up its wings.  My very first picture captured it the best, but it's still not very good...

We saw so many gorgeous orchids, that we just quit taking pictures, because they became so common.

Everything was so lush and green.  We crossed innumerable streams, creeks and waterfalls.

A still used "traditional" way to cross a river

Another traditional way (but we didn't cross this one)

A common view along the hike

We came upon a congregation of butterflies near a waterfall, that we couldn't decide why they were there, but it was awesome.

There were several areas where rockslides had wiped out the trail earlier in the year, and our guide said it happens every year.   I was wondering how they decided where the trail was going to be rebuilt.

The coffee farm was pretty neat to see the different stages of the beans, drying and roasting, then getting to taste the freshly roasted and ground beans (I'm bringing home 2 pounds!).

Still on the tree...

Beans that are: green; ripe; sun dried; roasted

The avocados here literally fall off the trees and are huge, with super creamy flesh.

Salkantay trek continued...

This felt like a really easy day, with hiking 6 miles in 4 hours - all downhill.  We've gotten into a lot of green hills, flowers and butterflies.  Our lodge is very isolated, and we reached it at noon, to have the whole afternoon off to sit in the sun, nap or learn how to make a pisco sour.  

Our last look at the back side of Humantay peak

Just one species of many orchids that we saw

One of many types of butterflies, on their favorite background (donkey poo)

Just a small portion of the trail (with all the vegetation we're loving now)

Our favorite butterfly of the day

Forever Young orchid (picture courtesy of Steve)

We finished the afternoon learning about pisco and how to make a pisco sour, and I volunteered to try my hand at bartendering.  Little did I know that I had to don an authentic Peruvian hat...

We did it!

I couldn't believe how teary I got when we got to the top - it was such an accomplishment and I felt really good!  All of the hours and miles of "boot camp" paid off.  The views were fantastic all along, and we again had gorgeous clear skies all the way to lunch.  We got to see some more wild viscachas lounging in the sun on the rocks, once we got up to their preferred altitude (> 14,000 ft).

Salkantay peak

Our snack break spot just before the last hardest push to the pass

Looking down on the base of Salkantay 

Looking back where we came from

We're now at our lodge for the night, after hiking 8 miles today, and we "only" have 6 to hike for all of tomorrow.