Galapagos

After checking out all of the ruins in Peru, we were ready for some wildlife watching in the Galapagos. The Galapagos were not originally on our itinerary; however, every person we talked to who had been there, raved about their experience. In the end, we decided it would be silly to miss it if we were already so close. It would cost us a month of our travel budget but those are the choices you have to make sometimes!

We did things pretty off the cuff: we took a night bus from Peru to Guayaquil, Ecuador and arrived at 4:30am. We went immediately to the airport and asked about flights to Galapagos for that morning. We were told we would have to fly standby. This involved us sitting and waiting in a line for a few hours. No problem! We are really good at waiting. We made it on the 9:30am flight and arrived in Puerto Ayora, a main city in the Galapagos a few hours later. It couldn't have been any more seamless.

Our first destination was the beautiful restaurant pictured below. It is owned by my friend Monica's niece, Cynthia. She put us in touch when she learned we were thinking about the Galapagos!

It's always fun to meet up with people and I'm pretty sure not many people have a friend of a friend living in the Galapagos. They treated us to dinner the first night and we pretty much found a reason to eat there nearly every day thereafter. They had excellent gelatto! Below is a photo of me with Monica's niece and daughter, Martina. Thanks for putting us in contact, Monica!

After that, we took a walk around the town and thought about sitting on a bench on the pier. We soon learned just how fearless the animals of Galapagos are. They have no instinctual fear of humans. The bench pictured below was taken and she had no plans to move!

As usual, we got really lucky in the Galapagos. We checked out a couple of travel agencies before settling on a 5 day first class cruise aboard a 16 passenger ship called the Millennium. We got a heck of a deal on it- about 70% off the price they advertise online. Awesome!

With the cruise being such a deal, we didn't expect much from the Millennium. You can imagine our happy surprise when THIS was the main indoor hangout area. It was so nice!

We were also expecting bunkbeds. Instead, we had nice comfy beds. I think they were a bit wider than normal single beds so you don't rock out of bed in the middle of the night. We had an attached private bath and a full sized tub (which we didn't use because fresh water is at a premium in Galapagos).

As an added bonus, our room also had a small private balcony.

Heading upstairs, this was the outdoor hangout area.

Tim was a fan!

Days on the ship were filled with activities but it was a good pace. We also had a good amount of downtime. Our guide, Sam, a level III naturalist, was in charge of teaching us about the islands and keeping us on the paths. He is the guy next to me in the photo below.

A typical day involved breakfast, a ride in a dingy to an island for a hike and animal spotting. We snorkeled pretty much every day as well. We would then cruise to second location after lunch for more hiking, snorkeling, or looking for sharks and rays from the dingys. My favorite part was that after every snorkel, the crew had lemonade and snacks waiting for us! If the water was really cold, we got hot chocolate!

The sand color of the beached varied from island to island.

At this one, it was red!
There were beautiful views everywhere we went. The highlight of the cruise had to be the snorkeling. For some reason, parrotfish were really attracted to Tim's blue snorkeling fins and would literally sit on his feet. We also encountered rays, sharks, sea lions and penguins! We have an underwater camera that we can't wait to develop!

We encountered many sea lions. This particular mama sea lion was nursing her baby.

More great landscapes. This place was called "Chinese Hat" because of its shape.

Even while we were cruising, we had close contact with wildlife. One day, we had about 15 frigate birds riding the air currents above our boat. They eventually landed and hitched a ride. It was pretty cool!

The following photos show the beautiful landscapes and creatures we encountered during the cruise.

This iguana was eating a prickly pear flower.

Here's a hawk, the predator highest on the food chain here. Nobody messes with the hawk. Nobody.

Here is Tim, hanging with the sea lions at the beach in a place called Santa Fe. This place was great for snorkeling! We had sea lions swimming right next to us and putting their faces right up to your mask. Some were even chewing on Tim's flippers. They love to play.

All in all, our Galapagos cruise was excellent. Perhaps the best part was the group we were with! Our guide said it was the youngest group he'd ever guided. Our group was almost completely people our age and everyone got along great! It didn't matter who you sat with for a meal, the conversation was always great.

Since we spent about two weeks in the Galapagos and this only covers 6 days, I will let Tim tell you all about the other cool stuff we saw and did. There's a lot more!

Lima and more ruins

After Machu Picchu we headed north to the capital city of Lima. However, we actually spent most of our time in a somewhat upscale suburb of Lima called Miraflores. Boy was this a great move on our part. In a lot of the lodgings we've stayed in recently, it's felt a little like we were roughing it. However, the B&B we stayed at in Miraflores was anything but. The picture above is the Pacific coastline of the city.

Like I said, we spent most of our time in Miraflores, but we did manage to take the brand new public transportation system into the heart of Lima. Below is the Plaza de Armas.

And that's about it for our Lima photos.

We mostly just took it easy during our stay in a big city. We enjoyed a typical Peruvian dish of ceviche on a number of occasions.

We went to a movie or two at the excellent mall that overlooked the Pacific ocean.

And we watched some Bici-cross racing. This track was also along the coastline, up on top of the cliff overlooking the ocean. Really, the only reason we saw this was because we frequently walked up and down the coastline that was made up of one long park. There happened to be a race on Sunday, so we sat down and checked it out. It was pretty fun!Here we are in front of the Pacific.
Probably the most touristic thing we did within the city was we visited the Larco Museum. Rafael Larco Herrera was an archaologist who played a large role in identifying and preserving pre-Inca culture withing Peru. The museum uses mainly ceramics to depict the different Pre-Incan civilizations. It was fascinating.

We weren't allowed to take pictures of the museum, but they also allow you to walk around the storage rooms of artifacts. It never occurred to me that museums don't put most of what they have out, but it this case it would be pretty ridiculous to display the thousands of pieces that we saw in storage.

It's really excellent that they allow you in to the storage room, because there were so many different things back there. Here are a few shots of my favorites.

After hanging out in Lima for nearly a week, we moved on to Trujillo, where there were more Peruvian ruins to see.

The first is called the Huacas of the Sun and Moon, and this site is particularly interesting because it is a fairly new discovery.

Below is a shot of a well preserved wall. The site, two giant pyramid-like structures, is in a pretty flat area outside of the city where these ruins have been covered in dirt and sand for hundreds of years. As you can see, the wall below is still maintains a lot of its original color.
We found out later along our travels that this red dye comes from prickly pear cactus.
Here's a shot of much of the site that is currently being uncovered. The project of unearthing these ruins was began by a private organization in the 90's, so there is still a ton to uncover. The neatest part about this ruin is that you could come back in 10-20 years and you may see an entirely different spectacle.

Below is a shot of one of the main plazas that existed within this community. A unique aspect of this site is that each generation continued to build on top of the previous generations creation, covering up what was previously there.

Another site just outside of Trujillo that we visited was Chan Chan. This was a totally different civilization of people who were somewhat related to the Huacas group, but later.

We really liked the wooden guards that stood out in the main plaza.
This site was also covered with hundreds of years worth of dust and sand, and it seemed like uncovering the intricate walls would have been quite a task.
Here's Laura admiring the openness of this plaza.
And perhaps our favorite part of visiting the ruins outside of Trujillo were the Peruvian hairless dogs that were kept onsite. In order to preserve this breed, they are kept at some of the parks and ruin sites. Without this program, they would have a seriously hard time making it in this world. I mean, can you imagine this hairless creature as your family pet?! Laura was petting her because she figured no one else does.

Machu Picchu

Ever since I first learned about the existence of it sometime in grade school, I have wanted to go to Machu Picchu. "The Lost City of the Incas" just sounded so cool. It has truly been a top "dream destination" for me- a place that captured my imagination and didn't let go. Needless to say, once we crossed into Peru, I was chomping at the bit to get there and join the club of the people who have "been there, done that."

You can travel from Cusco to Machu Picchu in a variety of ways. Many people walk the Inca Trail. Reservations need to be made to do so about three months in advance, and we don't even like to buy bus tickets more than a day ahead of time, so the Inca Trail was out of the question for us from the start. There are other multi day hikes to get to the site but the prices of them were not compatible with our budget. There is also an option to take a train but for some reason, I felt that there should be a bit of hardship and adventure involved in our getting there.

Luckily, there is a little known "alternative" route to get there that involves a bit of adventure and hiking. It also happens to be much less expensive than the train. This would be our chosen way of getting to Machu Picchu! On the day of our adventure, we woke early in the morning to take the local bus to the town of Santa Maria, 6 hours away. From there, we transferred to a shuttle van that provided us with a hair raising 2 hour ride along tiny mountain paths through the next town and to the hydroelectric station. From there, all you have to do is walk for two hours, following the railroad tracks to the town of Aguas Calientes, which is the town located at the base of the ruins.

After so much time being cramped on the buses and fearing for our safety, walking was wonderful. It is a really pleasant, flat walk but we were glad we left the majority of our things in storage in Cusco. It made us wonder why we travel with so much stuff!

We arrived at Aguas Calientes around nightfall and went to bed early, because the following morning, we woke up at 3:45am in order to hike our way up to entrance to the ruins. There are shuttle buses that also provide transport to the top for US $7. We opted to hike for multiple reasons: #1- to save money, #2- to be sure to be one of the first 400 people in line in order to get tickets to hike to a place called Wayna Picchu. (I'll explain later) The hike is a little over an hour but it was one of the more challenging hikes I have done in my life. The fact that you are hiking in the dark and cannot gauge your progress doesn't help morale. We made it to the top and discovered that we were about the 50th people in line. Excellent! We had our "in" for Wayna Picchu. Now we just had to wait 45 minutes for them to actually let us in and for the sun to come up.

Sometimes when you really look forward to something, it is a bit of a letdown when you actually get there. That was definitely NOT the case with Machu Picchu. It is without a doubt as amazing and awesome as they say! We watched the sunrise from this excellent vantage point.

Walking around the ruins gave me a surreal feeling that lasted the entire day. Although we were low on sleep and had done some major hiking, we felt energized. I pretty much had a megawatt smile pasted on my face at all times.

After a few hours of walking around and just sitting and staring at the site, it was time for us to climb Wayna Picchu. What is Wayna Picchu? Well, see the tall peak behind the ruins in the photo below? Our destination would be the very top of it!

They allow 200 visitors at 7:00am and another 200 at 10:00am. We chose 10am in order to give ourselves some rest after the rough climb from Aguas Calientes. The Wayna Picchu trail wasn't as steep as our earlier path but some of the stairs were quite narrow. At one point, the path leads through a cave where you have to wriggle your way upwards. It was really fun!

After the cave, you just scale a wooden ladder propped on a rock and you are at the top of Wayna Picchu with 360 degree birds-eye views of the ruins and the beautiful surroundings. It's a pretty amazing place to be.

Below us on our right is Machu Picchu from above. This vantage point really gives you a good feeling for how it is laid out.

More staring was required. It was worth waking up at 3:45am.

After a couple of peaceful hours on top of the world, we decided it was time to climb back down. This was more scary that going up but we took our time and were fine.

Upon our return, we were really hungry from all of our hiking. We bought some lunch at the restaurant just outside of the site and have some sage advice for anyone doing Machu Picchu on a budget: pack a lunch! The prices were insane. A sandwich for $10?!? A full lunch buffet for $35?!? Are the plates made of solid gold? We tried to make lunch quick because we really just wanted to spend as much time as possible in the site.

A cool thing about Machu Picchu is that llamas live there. They do an excellent job of keeping the grass short. The llamas have free run of the place so you can encounter them pretty much anywhere. It's pretty funny when they decide to take off running up a set of steps or across a field. Here is Tim with one that we stumbled upon.

We also made our way over to a place called the Inca Bridge. This photo doesn't quite capture how far of a fall it is off of the edge of the trail. It was high! The original plan was for me to shoot a video of Tim walking across the bridge. He made his way down and discovered a gate and a sign that says you can't go across. I think he was relieved. You can bet he kept one hand on the wall at all times!

We also spent some time photographing each other in "Where's Waldo" type ways. Try to find me in the photo below. Hint: I'm wearing red.

Now try to find Tim. Hint: He's doing Condor Pose.

After more walking around and goofing around, it was time to just sit and soak in the incredible feeling of being there. We stayed until they closed the site.

Machu Picchu would have to be one of the top experiences of my life. It was truly a perfect day from start to finish.

It's great when places live up to your expectations!