Home

We got in to Salt Lake yesterday and we so happy to see our girls! I was espeicially happy that 1) They had a great time while we were gone, 2) They missed us, and 3) They really wanted to go home. We were wondering if they had been so spoiled with their Rara and Papa that they wouldn't want to come home. The best part for them was obviously the presents.

I am just happy to be home. I haven't slept so well in a long time.

Almost Home

On Monday we took a flight back to Lima, had a few hours to do last minute shopping, and had our farewell dinner. For dinner we went to a restaurant in Lima that was operated by a famous Peruvian chef. As much as I liked the trip, the food overall was not my favorite and I will probably not seek our Peruvian food in the future. Corn and potatoes can only take me so far. We said our goodbyes to the group and our guide and went to bed early. We had to get up quite early for our flight out of Lima to Miami which was about 7 hours long. Luckily there were lots of movies to entertain us, so it was OK. When we got to Miami we picked up to the rental car and headed straight to Denny's for some American food! My grilled cheese sandwich was sooooo good :). We slept overnight in Fort Lauderdale and are currently sitting in the airport waiting for our flight home.
We had such a fun time. It was great to spend time with my parents and to see such a beautiful country full of history. My favorite part of the trip was Machu Picchu. Marc's favorite part was going into regular Peruvian houses to see how people lived. My mom's favorite part was the salt mines. I forgot to ask my dad what his favorite part was. This was definitely a trip of a lifetime and I highly recommend it to anyone who isn't afraid of a little altitude :).
I am looking forward to being home, sleeping in my own bed, and especially getting back to my girls.

Uros Island and more

In case you heard about the bus accident, we were not involved. That said, today we headed off to Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world. Long ago, the Inca were taking over every tribe they could. The people who lived around Lake Titicaca decided they didn't want to join the Inca so they took the the lake by building islands out of the reeds. They have been living the same way (basically) ever since. The modern additions are synthetic rope, solar panels, and TV. Some things you just can't live without. We were able to learn about how these people live and how they build the islands, apparently they need to be replaced about every 10 years. We also took a short ride on a boat made of reeds. It was absolutely

fascinating to visit these people and see how they live. My dad had a great time giving the kids little presents, and they loved him for it.

After the islands we headed outside of Puno to see the Sillustani Tombs. These tombs were Inca and pre-Inca burial grounds for the society elite. It was really cool to see this site. I think the weirdest thing was that in front of the most prominent tombs were smaller tombs where "volunteer guards" were buried alive to accompany the ruler into the afterlife. Spooky.

Our last stop of the day was at the home of a local family to see how they live. The home was clean, well organized and homey. I decided that the biggest difference between many of the Peruvian homes and American homes is that we live inside and they live outside.

Following our excursions we were able to get dinner at a nearby restaurant. We all had pizza, which was great. This restaurant was funny because they wanted to trick you into ordering expensive meals so you had to ask for the "tourist menu" which was a four course meal for about $7.
Today was our last day of touring.

Puno

We finally had a day where we weren't rushing around and seeing as much as possible. We left fairly early this morning and boarded a luxury bus for a 7 hour bus ride from Cusco to Puno and Lake Titicaca. Basically we were able to sleep, relax and Marc got some homework done. The only major stop we had was a site called Raqchi. This was the site of the Temple of Wiracocha. There was a pre-Inca/Inca settlement here. It was interesting to see a small village that the Inca had "conquered" or as Hector said, "Incorporated." It was cool to see the houses, granaries and temple.

After the long bus ride was finally over we explored Puno for a bit and went back to the hotel to relax. While we were at the hotel we kept hearing a cannon go off. From Marc's time spent in Spain, he suspected it was some kind of Saint's Day. When we were sufficiently hungry we went to get pizza for my mom's "birthday dinner." :)
As we were eating, there was a procession of people dressed up nice and doing a simple dance with a band playing and rattlers. It confirmed our suspicion that it was a religious celebration. After dinner we ran into Hector and he told us that everywhere around Peru there is a religious celebration going on as an excuse to get drunk and make trouble.
Tomorrow is our last full day of touring.

Cusco

We finally got to Cusco which was the Inca capital of South America. We started with a "Behind the Scenes" tour. The first thing was a visit from an Andean Shaman. He was very interesting and only 46!

He is the local healer for his village as he is skilled with medicinal plants and also delivers babies for women in the remote regions of the Andes. He came to do a blessing/offering for us. He placed a bunch of symbolic stuff in a pile and we placed some coca leaves in it.

We thought this looked like
something Claire would put together

He then wrapped it up, blessed us with it, and then was going to take it and burn it as an offering to the Picchu or mountain gods (and the Catholic God to keep things cool with the church). Apparently this is one of the few surviving pieces of Incan culture left.

After the Shaman we went to the local cemetery. It was crazy over the top. Our guide Hector told us about how expensive funerals and maintaining the sites were. It seemed absolutely insane. Whenever I see stuff like this it makes me want to be cremated and very grateful for my personal beliefs about the afterlife.

Hector then took us to the local market (for the people who live in Cusco) and were able to try the local bread and do a bit of shopping.

The last stop was a restaurant where we had a cooking demonstration and another Peruvian lunch. Our waiter was an artist in his last year of art school. I really liked his work so I bought a couple of pieces.

After lunch we were stopped at the hotel for about 40 minutes to take a breather and were off again. Our next stop for the day was Sacsayhuaman (or sexy woman as Hector told us). Cusco was designed in the shape of a Puma, which represents life on earth and great power. Sacsayhuaman is the head of this Puma. It is told to be one of the most mysterious sites of human construction with the Pyramids and Stonehenge. Hector believes it was constructed as a monument to Incan power and is supposed to be a prime example of Incan architecture. It is as impressive as it is beautiful.

The last stop of the day was at the main cathedral in Cusco which was built on top of the Incan Sun Temple. This was the biggest and most important temple in the entire empire, which was probably why it was chosen as the site for the Cathedral. The whole temple was allegedly covered in gold. Apparently the Incas saw gold as decoration only and were a bit confused as to why the Spanish were so interested in it. The Spanish were unable to destroy the temple completely and instead plastered over the walls. In 1950 there was a massive earthquake which brought the plaster down and the walls have since been cleaned so we can enjoy how amazing they are. This area is plagued by earthquakes and Hector believes that the purpose behind the amazing Incan architecture was to withstand those earthquakes, which is fairly self evident as they sustained very little damage in the earthquake as everything else was crumbling around it.

I like this picture because you see the
contrast between the Incas and the Catholics

We also toured the church which was crazy opulent. It was said that in the colonial times gold was almost worthless because there was so much of it. That is obvious as so much of the church is covered in gold. Hector also pulled no punches in telling us about what he thinks of the Catholic culture in the area. The funniest part was that he also insisted that he was Catholic. I don't get it.
After the temple were had about 90 minutes to shop and I was able to get everything I had missed along the way. That night we had more Peruvian food and I was able to eat alpaca. It was actually good and quite mild. After dinner I totally crashed, especially since I was still sore from our hike yesterday.

Machu Picchu

Sorry about the lack of a post yesterday. It wasn't that I couldn't have posted, I was just too darn tired. We woke up at 4:00 in order to get up to the train by 6:00 and had a 90 minute train ride to the town of Machu Picchu. From there we took a 30 minute bus ride up a very steep mountain to get to the base of the ruins.

We were warned about the prevalence of bugs and took appropriate precautions but these were unwarranted as we had no trouble with that. Our group was split up into two groups, hikers and non-hikers. We obviously went in the hiking group. We headed straight up the ruins to get the birds eye view. It was absolutely astounding!

Apparently Henry, our guide, was very interesting, because as he was talking to us some llamas came and to listen as well. According to Henry, the Incas were like the Romans in that they had a vast empire which they connected together with a sophisticated road system. All through the empire in order to maintain strength, they would set up well protected administrative centers, which is what Machu Picchu was. In order to build it, they removed the top of the mountain and built a very sophisticated system of terraces. So sophisticated that it survives today! He also hypothesized that this site was abandoned before the Spanish arrived due to diseases coming from the jungle which is why it wasn't destroyed by the Conquistadors. Words can't even describe how amazing everything was and I don't think the pictures to much justice, but they are the best I have, so enjoy!

At the end of the ruins we could take the bus back down or take the trail for an hour. We opted for the trail. As we headed down the trail some guys selling post cards stopped us and traded us our bus tickets for post cards. Whatever, we weren't using them. It was a nice hike through the andes :). My calfs are super sore today!

When we got back down we ate lunch, did a little shopping and headed to Cusco for another packed day today.

Moray and Maras

Another jam packed day...

We started off at the local market. And I mean for locals.
It occurs every Wednesday when the villages come to sell their goods.

We bought a few things and my dad couldn't resist buying a duck.
This was a source of great entertainment for all as he roamed the
bus squeaking. We even gave him food and water.

Our assistant tour guide offered the idea of giving the duck to
a local person as this would be a really great gift. My dad gave
it to a girl working at the bathroom at one of the sites. She was
thrilled. She decided to name the duck Que, after my dad.

We then went to the salt "mine" called Maras. This is an ancient site
that has been used for thousands of years to harvest salt from a local
stream. This was a major source of Pre-colonial wealth since Salt is
vital to people as well as livestock.

On our way to the next site we saw this very picturesque
woman so our guide stopped the bus and we talked with her.
She was tending her sheep and she showed us her lunch she was
carrying on her back. It was very traditional corn, fava beans and
a local corn beer. It is incredible to me how people still live
such traditional lives. 

The next site was Moray. This was an Incan experimental farm.
It was here that many crops were domesticated and experimented
with. According to our guide, the Inca were doing selective breeding
many hundreds of years before Western civilization to make domestic
crops edible and to feed their large empire.

My mom and I went all the way to the bottom

We were very privileged to go to a home in the town of Maras.
It is so humbling and makes me so grateful to be born in the USA
when you see conditions that people live in. But the people are
thriving and happy. It is amazing! 

The local woman cooking dinner. Notice how smoky it is.
I couldn't be there for long because of all the smoke. Also
notice the guinea pigs in the lower right corner she is raising.

We will being having dinner with a Peruvian family tonight and heading to Macchu Picchu in the morning.

Urubamba

Last night we went to a dinner show where we were able to sample traditional Peruvian cuisine as well as see a wide variety of dances. The food for OK. The highlight for me was the ceviche. The dances

were pretty great especially some guys from the high Andes who did a version of break dancing while rattling what looked like disassembled scissors. We got to bed with a very early wake up call and we were very tired.
This morning we left bright and early and headed to Cusco. The elevation of Cusco is 11,000 ft, so altitude sickness is a concern. Everywhere you go there are remedies for altitude sickness from coca leaves. These leaves are what cocaine are extracted from. Of course we had to try it :).
We then took a bus for an hour to a restaurant where we were able to try the food traditional to the area, including guinea pig. The food was excellent although I probably never need to try guinea pig again :). After the lunch we were given a demonstration of traditional weaving that was done at the restaurant complex. It was pretty amazing to see how they were able to make such bright and beautiful dyes in the way their ancestors have been doing it for thousands of years. I couldn't resist but to buy stuff and support this amazing tradition!

The next stop was at Ollantaytambo which is a site that was built by the Pre-Incan and Incan societies on the side of a mountain. They built amazing terraces to farm thehill side with very sophisticated drainage systems as well as running water. Even though this site hasn't been inhabited for hundreds of years it all still works perfectly. It was obvious what was pre-Inca because they used bricks and mortar. The Inca fit the stones perfectly together like legos and therefore didn't need mortar. The Inca stuff has also fared better over time and it was a pretty amazing site. My dad and I hiked to the top for the view and to really see the site. Marc and my mom took it a little easier due to the elevation.

We finally headed back to the hotel for a small rest before going to dinner. This trip feels like a total whirlwind! I guess if you want to get as much of an experience as you can in 10 days you keep pretty busy.

Lima

We arrived safely in Lima, Peru after a super uncomfortable red eye flight in which I think I slept but am not really sure. We arrived at about 5:30 local time and went straight to the hotel and napped until 1. Our tour group went on a tour of Lima and it was very interesting to see how the Spanish just came and built their city on top of the Incan city that was already here. There are Incan Temples all around the city that the Spanish were too lazy to demolish which are really cool. We also went to a totally opulant monastary in which our tour guide basically described as being built with guilt money of the rich Conquistadors trying to get into heaven. The Catacombs were also really cool. Sorry about the lack of pictures but the monastary doesn't allow photography inside. One thing that I found really fascinating was the Spanish/Moorish influence. This was interesting because while the Spanish were Catholic, much of the Moorish influence was actually Islamic which was evident in the style of the decor as well as the customs of the time (women wore burkas). We are going to a dinner and show tonight where we will see traditional dancing and sample traditional cuisine. I might not check in for awhile because we leave for Cusco in the morning and I am not too sure about the internet service.