Raw Edge

Monday, May 5, 2014

Machu Picchu

Many conversations in Cusco have scripted questions. Where are you from? How long are you in Cusco? What are you doing? Have you been to Machu Picchu? It doesn't matter if this person is from Cusco or another fellow traveler. The conversation often starts off like this. I was in Peru for 7 months answering that last questioin, "No, no I still haven't been to Machu Picchu, but I will! Trust me I will!"

I can now finally say yes, I have been to Machu Picchu. I have not been to one of the most visited sites in the world, and the reason most people come through Cusco.

The landscape was incredible. The area is filled with steep peaks and narrow river carved valleys. The fog, rain, and warmth makes for dense jungle like forest. While still in the Andes, the area is known as the high jungle.

First things we hiked Machu Picchu mountain in the dense fog. At the top the fog began to clear. It was like watching the sunrise as we saw the ruins slowly become visible far below. The wonder came into view.

Part of the Machu Picchu experience for most people is waking up in the wee hours of the morning and walking around the ruins dazed because you are tired and hungry. It's like Disney Land in that way. You can't see everything in a day and you reach a point where you aren't taking any of it in even if you are "Seeing it". So we spent the next few hours, before we reached this point, wandering around the ruins eavesdropping on other tour groups. Here are some of the things we saw.

Machu Picchu llama

The group

Huayna Picchu in the back ground

Machu Picchu resident

Other Machu Picchu residents

Monday, April 28, 2014

Al and Ellie Visit Part II: Arequipa and Colca Canyon

ANOTHER Peru trip. If you have been following along you probably get the picture that this country is beautiful and incredible diverse. It's incredible to be able to see so much of it. My peruvian co-workers won't let me forget that I have seem more of the country than they have. A great perk of living abroad for a girl who loves to travel.

The second half of the trip with my parents we went to Arequipa, a warmer, lower altitude, and much larger city located sound of Cusco. We spent a few days taking in the city and then also did a three day trek in Colca Canyon.

Here are a few pictures from Arequipa city and a Convent there.

The convent

Wash station

Mt. Misti

The trek started with a 3am wake up call, 3 hour drive out of Arequipa and a few stops before our more than 3,000 ft decent. One of the stops was to see the condors. These are the heaviest birds of flight in the world with a wing span up to 11.5 feet. At this condor lookout point we saw dozens of birds floating around on the thermal winds.

By 10, after we had been up for almost 7 hrs... we started the hiking down into the beautiful canyon.

Start of the trek

Happy Hiker

River at the bottom

Our decent into the canyon

The decent took us a little over 3 hours to walk 6km over 3,000 ft to the bottom of the canyon. By 2:00 we were done walking, fed and resting in the sun. The second day we walked another 6 or 7 km down the canyon to the 'Oasis' for our last night. Here are a few sites along the way.

Prickly pear cactus

The view of the trail for our 5am accent.

Pool on our last night in the canyon

Hiking out at 5am seeing the sun rise.

View from the top!

After breakfast and coffee in Cabanaconde we made several stops on the way back to Arequipa. The stops included hot springs, a 5,000mt view point, and a alpaca, llama, vicuña reserve.

After hike hot springs soak

Alpaca and llamas!

Vicuñas! These wild things have very very soft and expensive fur.

Arequipa was wonderful and beautiful. It is on the short list of my favorite cities in Peru. I am happy to have been able to share it with my parents. It also was wonderful to spend so much time with my parents. I can't remember that last time I spent two whole weeks with them. I love you guys. To many more future adventures!

Monday, April 21, 2014

Ellie and Al come to South America Part I: Galapagos

My parents came to visit! This is part one of our travels in the Galapagos. Everything about it was beautiful, seeing my parents, the chocolate and peanut butter the brought me oh yeah and the view. I will spare you and share only a few of my 500 photos.