Fam Blog Part 4

Machu Picchu day!  Our tour guide Sylvio told us that we were fortunate to be with a tour group that got to the gates of Machu Picchu sanctuary when it opened at 6am.   We didn’t feel so lucky when we had to get out of bed in the wee hours of the morning, but when our tour group of eight people got to the first lookout point and watched the morning fog clear off the ruins and the sun rise over the Andean peaks we realized what he meant.  No need to worry any more about rain dampening our big day – the weather was perfect!  And because we were there at the end of rainy season, we got to see all the lower peaks covered in lush green, dotted with wildflowers, and surrounded by the towering peaks covered with snow.

Sylvio gave us about a 2 ½ hour guided tour through the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu.  Actually, “ruins” is not even a good term to use because the Incan city at Machu Picchu is almost entirely intact, except for the roofs over the houses.  We learned about the various parts of the city, such as the places for rituals with rocks that form a perfect compass, and the temple of the sun.  We were amazed by how the Inca were able to carve these beautiful rock structures using the tools available to them.  Peru has suffered many major earthquakes during its history that have destroyed the buildings constructed centuries later than Machu Picchu, giving new meaning to the old phrase “they just don’t make things the way they used to”!  It is hard to describe the beauty of this place nestled in both the Andes and the rainforest, and easy to see why it has been included as one the Wonders of the World.    Maybe the best plan is just to share with you some of the photos of this amazing place.

Clouds creeping over Machu Picchu

Como se llama, llama?

Christmas card!

Flowers and ruins

They built windows!

An important rock that pointed NSE&W

Momma NOT being scared of heights

Hey Dad!

Incredible

That is how close the rocks are

Lunchin'

Breathtaking

The road leading up to MP

Black and White

Family Blogging III

Pedro: This post brings us to Tuesday morning when the men voted The Madre off the island…Or she just didn’t want to go on a 2 day hike and sleep in the woods, same difference.  Therefore, we split up.  Dad and I started our trek on an Inca trail while Mom wept in the hotel room from loneliness (or so I imagine).

Donna:  Where do you get these crazy notions from (maybe something from your father’s side of the family)?  I enjoyed the serenity of the room and slept in, then had a leisurely breakfast and set out sightseeing on my own – saw two more lovely churches with benefit of audioguides.  For a late lunch I went to an organic food restaurant that you guys wouldn’t have appreciated but that I really enjoyed.  I got to sit at a small table on their balcony and do some leisurely people-watching.  Then I stopped in Cusco’s main plaza to enjoy the warm sunny weather and watch the parades/cultural demonstrations that happened to be taking place.  Sure, it would have been nice to have someone to hang around with but I have to say that I managed to have a very nice day without you.   

Pedro: Meanwhile, Dad and I started hiking just outside of Cusco.  It was the most spellbinding and captivating trek that I could have possibly imagined.  We walked for 11 hours and saw NO ONE else beside 4 Inca Highland people that live in the mountains.  After 15 kilometers and a short lunch break, we arrived in the ruins of Huchuy Qosqo.  A quick dinner and a fun card game later, we all hit the sack 9:30pm.  Oh, and who were the 3 other people we were hiking with?  A brother and sister from Glen Ellyn and a girl that was born in Wheaton!  We traveled 3000+ miles to hike in the middle of nowhere with other residents from DuPage County!

Starting our hike

Getting pretty high up

Pedro the Explorer!

Pops and I

Trekking through mountains

Daddyo!

At 4400 meters above sea level!

Into the canyon

Dad kept up with the young whippersnappers!

Inca ruins

Inca house

Ant sized dad

Hiking back down

Dad pondering into the distance

Thanks for all the positive feedback we’ve been receiving and check back tomorrow for pictures of MACHU PICCHU!!!

Family Blogging Part II

Madre:  Hey, this blogging is kind of fun!  Mind if write the next installment myself?

Hijo: go for it!  If my viewership declines, you’re gonna get the flak for it…

Madre:  OK, then here goes - I suppose it should have occurred to us that coca tea is a stimulant, and so it was probably not a good idea to drink several cups of it upon arrival in Cusco in the afternoon to ward off altitude sickness.  Good news: no altitude sickness.  Bad news: only got a few hours of sleep the first night in Cusco.

That didn’t stop us, however, from having fun the next day on our tour outside of Cusco to the archeological site near Moray and the salt pools at Maras.  The Incan site near Moray is hard to describe, especially since archeologists had a hard a time themselves determining the Incan purpose for this huge arena-looking series of concentric stone-ringed circles.

View from the top

Kinda eerie isn't it?

Us on the steps

The family in the Inca ruins!

Eventually they figured out that since the circles contained deliberately constructed layers of gravel, sand and soil, the Inca must have used this primarily for agricultural experimentation and production of crops to feed their empire of 12 million people.  They even came up with a way to dehydrate potatoes so that their couriers had “travel food” to take with them.  Bet you didn’t know that the Inca were the first to develop Potato Buds, huh?

Pedro: how about potato skins?  I heard there’s a TGIF in Lima….

Dona Donna: The nearby salt pools were equally interesting since they are something that has been in use since Inca times but are still used in much the same manner by the local people today.  The basic idea here is that due to a fortunate proximity of spring water, underground salt and iodine the people have created several thousand shallow pools of water that are fed by the springs during the rainy season, and which then produce salt when the water evaporates during the dry season.  The local people then just have to clean and process it, add a bit of the iodine that grows nearby, and voila! – you have the Peruvian low-tech version of the Morton salt company.

Huge area of salt mines

Over a thousand of 'em

Salty!

For dinner that night we treated ourselves to French food.  It was not only odd to be ordering French food from people who speak Spanish, but it turned out that we were the only ones in the restaurant that night.  We weren’t sure why we had the whole restaurant to ourselves (we washed up and changed clothes before going there, honest!) but it suffices to say that we had very attentive service from our waiter.  We’ll spare you the food photos this time if you believe us when we say that it was another very good meal.

Any closing thoughts to add for this post, Pedro?

Pedro: Nope I think that about covers it!  Tomorrow we’ll let you dear readers knows if we survived the Andean wilderness!

Family Blogging Part I

Pedro: So I’m in Peru thanks in part to my overly generous parents.  Say hi to my dozens of loyal followers/stalkers!

T&D: so far the trip has gone largely according to plan.  We did get to enjoy the Ft. Lauderdale and Lima airport terminals several hours MORE than planned.  We are now in Cusco, which is at about 12,000 feet above sea level.  The flight into Cusco gave us a taste of Andes.  This afternoon we toured the Cusco cathedral which reminds us of the cathedral in Toledo (Spain, not Ohio) due to the amount of ornate carvings, wall paintings, vaulted ceilings and naves gilded with gold.

Padres and the Big ol Church

 I took an "illegal" photo

Our favorite painting was the Cusco artist’s version of the “Last Supper”.  It had Jesus and the disciples, of course, at a long table with bread and wine but they were also apparently dining on Peru’s national dish of roasted guinea pig.  Tonight at dinner we took a pass on the guinea pig entrée (it was on the menu) at a pre-Columbian art museum.

The fancy pants eatery

Enjoying the high life

It was obvious that the one of us who picked this restaurant is a devoted fan of watching the Food Network since our meal was a fancy multi-course meal of small, rich plates of food that looked as good as they tasted.  We are trying to fatten up our Nica boy!  Tomorrow we promise to try to take more pictures of scenery than food.

Fancy bread-dipping oil

Trout wrapped around cheese filling

Solterito appetizer over fava bean puree

Ceviche appetizer

Mushroom soup covered with puff pastry

Melt-in-your-mouth gnocchi

Rack of lamb

Pork adobo

Poached pear dessert

Truffles dessert

Brule dessert with port reduction

El Pedro: That’s a great summary so far.  And that reminds me, I forgot to ask; on your flight from Lima to Cusco, how was orange juice before takeoff?  And how was the comfy seat with plenty of legroom, a pillow and a blanket.  Oh and the ham sandwich with tomato, lettuce, Swiss cheese and chocolate cake served with a beer?

Los Padres: Those of us who flew to Cusco in tourist class did not experience those things, you sassy little brat.  In fact, since we were seated in the second-to-the-last row and it’s only an hour flight, our flight attendant didn’t even get to us to ask if we wanted something to drink.  It never ceases to amaze us how you wind up with these random strokes of luck like getting seated in the first-class section!

Don Pedro: Don’t act like I don’t deserve it.  That’s enough for our first day; we’ll put up another post in a couple of days!