Peru 2011

FINALLY- I'm blogging about our trip to Peru.  Dan will be so excited- as will the millions of readers of my blog that have been anxiously waiting to hear about our excursion.  Without further adieu, here it is:

It all started w Dan giving me an early (he just couldn't hold it in any longer!!!) Valentines Day present... a framed photograph of Machu Picchu.   A lot of people ask why/how Dan and I travel so much... Well, we just love to.  Both of us LOVE it.  We have a mental list of all the places we want to go together, and during the years we have slowly been making our way down the list.  We figure that this is one of the things we work for- and one of the things we splurge our money on.  BUT, that said, we have our "list", and are constantly looking for travel deals for this list.  The key is to be flexible and spontaneous- and you can pretty much go anywhere for cheap if you are always on the lookout :)  This trip was destin to happen when Dan found AWESOME plane tickets to Lima- direct from San Fran.  The whole chickenpox-thingy really messed up our initial plans (when we had to cancel our trip 3 days prior to departure the first time around... and we ended up not getting much of a "deal" our second go at it...)  But it turned out to be a blessing.  (These things were KEY in going at a later time:  if we would've gone as planned in Feb, it was raining the entire time- and rain in a rain forest does not just mean rain- it means wet-to-the-bone-constantly.  Also, Taylor was just too young.  The difference between when we would've gone and when we actually went {the end of April} was perfect.  She was walking better, navigating stairs, and even talking a bit more and communicating better.)  My kids will look back at these photos and think it was cool we left on this trip- but what they won't realize was how hard it was for us to leave them!  We missed them soooo much!  (Adds was 6, Bird turned 4 while we were gone and aunt Marci threw her a party [more to come on that later], and Tays was 1 1/2 yrs old).  It was especially difficult to leave Taylor- who we knew wouldn't understand us leaving, would have no idea if we would be back, and would be left in a completely strange environment!  I practically had a nervous breakdown over it all- but we managed to push through and leave the country. 

We took the red eye flight to Lima, got there around 1am- and had to "sleep" on the tile floor of the airport.  It was hilarious- because all night there were airport workers cleaning the floors around us- and at one point I woke up and noticed that we had been "red-taped" off and there was caution tape in a circle around us and our backpacks!  I wish I would've been coherent enough to have taken a photo, but alas- I was not.  Guess who we found when we stepped off the plan in our first city- "Puerto Maldonado"...

Our bungalows...

The food was pretty good- and constantly a surprise. 

These mini plantains were heaven.  Sooooo good.

River boat ride to our huts.  It was so hot and humid in the jungle.  We were very shinny all the time.

This was what we saw on our bed.  Ew.

Hiking through Monkey Island.  

Look at all the insect bites!  Soooo many bugs there.

the first of the spider monkey's

they were so cute!

this is in order… 1st see how calm I am (and how calm the camera man is?)

suddenly not so calm!

camera man is freaking out- but still snapping pics.

by now we were champs at this.

The sunset's on the Amazon River were beautiful.

Here's our little night group hunting for "Caymans" (little crocodiles) that only come out at night.

Back to the hut for a quick game of cards.

but not before spotting a tarantula in our path.  If it weren't for Dan's flashlight I would've stepped on him.  But apparently they jump- so he probably would've jumped away.

Went on a hike through the jungle the next day- Our guide "Guido" was like a modern Crocodile Dundee.  This tiny thing that he's hanging over his mouth is a wee, little jungle froggy.

Cute little guy isn't he?

Yes- we used a machete to shop stuff.

If you thought that last frog was small… this one is a dwarf comparatively!  Not one of us could figure out how he was spotting these tiny creatures.  We were probably just stepping all over them all unknowingly.

This tree was hundreds of years old- and it was how the tribes of the jungle used to communicate- if you hit it with a log, it makes a HUGE, hollow THUMP throughout the jungle and can travel for miles.

Cougar tracks.

I don't want to even talk about this one.

If you are wondering, it's a HUUUUUGE slug the size of Dan's fist.

time for swamp canoeing.  But don't touch the water because there are Piranas and Crocodiles.

Check out the water- FULL of tiny lily pads.  It looked like the jungle floor- but just had 15 feet of water beneath it.

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This one's cool- these little green leaf pieces are on the backs of tiny ants that are carrying them to make their home- they stretched for what seemed like a football field just carrying and carrying these leaves!

Even Dan had to eat a banana- which he hadn't done since childhood!  

Look what our guide caught.

Climbed this humongous tower that overlooked the Amazon.

Just breathtaking.

Our hiking companions: Can you tell who the Norwegians were?

Can you see the snake?

On of the largest trees they know of, and the oldest as well.

I'm not going to tell you what the name of this tree was.

After a long, HARD day of hiking we ate a semi-good dinner wrapped in some sort of palm leaf.

The French guy mentioned he liked my outfit better here than the one I wore on the hike.    This was my swimsuit.  Gross you Frenchie.

went for a dip after din din.

Scavenged some weird fruit that we still can't pronounce (it got confiscated at customs back in the US.  Boo.)

Overlooking the amazon river

Guido made us a special drink from that weird fruit we got- it was soooo yummy!

game 'o' darts

Yup- they're just hangin' there.  Nice and fresh.

These were the only cars we saw- so funny.

On to the streets of Cuzco

This girl made me pay a dollar for this dumb photo…  but the lamb was so cute I couldn't resist!

Hahaha- snuck one for free of this lady!  I showed them!

We ate at the "palace" and had the most delicious Ceviche. Mmmmmmm.

Hot cocoa before our night ends at a small cafe

Next day took a tour of Cuzco- I was NOT supposed to take this photo.  it was in a church.

snack of S. American peanut butter and bread.

I don't know what we were doing here in this photo- but the background was like their own stonehenge place- very cool.

next day on the train- we couldn't sit together :(

Until the other person gave up their seat!  Yay!

These type of ruins were EVERYwhere on our way to Machu Picchu.

salt and pepper!  How cute.

Breakfast at 4am.  Sheesh- it was too early. 

But not too early for these tasty fresh bevies!

waiting for our bus to head up to M. Picchu.

and here we are!  

Breathtaking.  We hiked that large peak in the back right side- It's called "Waynapicchu" and was straight up.

the city was with cliffs on both sides of it.

these little dollies were for the girls- and they went everywhere with us :)  

Llamas and Alpaca were everywhere.

This was the "heat rock" and you could feel heat radiating off of it.  It was believed to be very sacred and hold the energy of the earth.

We were not allowed to touch it- only get super close to it.

This eagle was our guide's wild friend and it came to him only and lived on the mountain.  He would feed it fruit and it would kind of just follow him around flying by him.  It was pretty cool.

cool friends we met on our travels.

We loved Deet.  Loved it.  Such protection.

Here's remnants of the Incan trails.  See what I mean by straight up?

It was amazing to be above the clouds.  We were taking diamox for altitude sickness- and a lot of the people that were there were sick from the height.  We just had the occasional numbness of a leg or our lips or hand from the diamox- not so bad compared to nausea and vomiting.

We MADE it to the top!  By that time it had begun to drizzle, and Machu Picchu was essentially covered by clouds from that time  and on.  It was worth getting up at 4 in the morning and beating the fog.

Our other little friends at the top.

I was kind of freaking out in this picture- this llama was about 2 feet away from our faces and he was just staring at us.  Wouldn't stop starring.  Do llamas spit or is that camels?

Bought these for the nieces. 

All done and back at the city- loved these water bottle's.

Calling Abigail to wish her a Happy Birthday!

This is the best photo I could get in a bus w the full moon outside driving back to Cuzco.  It was so big.

So hungry the next day- I got really accustomed to these amazing hotel breakfasts!  So fresh.

Poor Dan was feeling sick by this time and would just have bread and a drink.  Not me.

Our friends through friends :)  They were so kind to invite us to their home and feed us an incredible Peruvian meal of "Aji de Gallina"- I've since made it several times and it is sooooo good!

Back to Lima to tool around for the rest of the day, and walk along the playa against the sunset.  I don't know what this statue was all about, but we felt a bit intrusive walking by it.

Our last meal of pasta and gnocchi.

Home back to our wonderful kids- we missed you girls so much!!!!!!

And that's THAT.