Day 1: Visiting historic downtown Lima (Plaza Mayor). We toured the Cathedral, the San Francisco church, and the Museum of the Inquisition.'
Day 2: Bryan had his conference all day. I took a guided bike tour of the coast. We went through beautiful parks overlooking the ocean.
Parque de Amour (Park of Love)
Day 3: Bryan had his conference in the morning. I visited some ruins in the middle of the city (Huaca Paclluna). Later we went together to the Museo Larco, and viewed their warehouse of thousands of archaeological relics.
Day 4: Flight to Cusco. We both had headaches for a couple days, adjusting to the high altitude. We spent the day walking around, visiting a pre-Inca ruin turned into a Catholic Cathedral.
Day 5: Exploring Cusco. We took a horseback tour of the nearby country and some smaller ruins. We also took a bus to the city of Pisac, for a glimpse of the "Sacred Valley."
Day 6: Four hour train ride from the dry, high-altitude city of Cusco to the sub-tropical rain forest jungle of Aguas Calientes. Beautiful scenery.
Day 7: Machu Picchu. What can I say? Absolutely spectacular. Of our 275 pictures, 109 of them are from this one place on this one day. It was amazing.
View from the top of Waynu Picchu, a steep hour long hike
The view from the other side, with Waynu Picchu in the background
Day 8: Flight from Cusco to Lima. Long layover. Flight from Lima to home.
On the plane ride from Cusco to Lima the oxygen packs dropped about 15 minutes into the flight. Silence on the plane as everyone nervously glanced around then started putting them on. More silence and waiting. Finally it was announced that there was no trouble, the captain had accidentally pushed the wrong button. Nervous, relieved laughter as we all tried to put them back in their tight little compartments. I'm just glad the pilot didn't push a more dangerous wrong button!
We had about 12 hours between flights in Lima. So we went back into the city to visit the LDS temple in Lima. This is where my grandparents served a mission many years ago. I'm so glad we went. There was such a peaceful feeling there and I thought a lot about my grandparents and the great people they are.
There you have it. The condensed version. If you want to see more, I'll hopefully have them uploaded sometime over the next week.
8 comments:
Amazing! How fun that you got to go. I am jealous!
Ditto the previous post-er. Especially the jealousy part! Glad you had a great time and thanks for sharing your fun photos.
Wonderful pics! It looked like you were on a honeymoon. Cory and I laughed out loud about the oxygen masks... not the best way to inspire confidence.
Wow, that is spectacular! Looks like you guys made the most of your trip and saw some amazing things. Kristen, you're brave to do stuff by yourself, too. :) Glad the oxygen masks didn't turn out to indicate something more serious!
Can I just say I'm totally jealous. I lived in Lima Peru when I was a teenager (my father worked for ESAN--a business school run by Stanford University) and I have many good memories of that country.
I'm sure it's really changed in the last 40 years, but it was fun to see the photos. Machu Pichuu (sp?) is an amazing sight. Did you have any altitude sickness?
Bravo for you!
Elizabeth
Yeah, okay, I just re-read your post and saw the altitude sickness comment.
Isn't is worth it, though? We drove up there as a family, and my brother got out and ran across the pass at Ticlio (14,000 feet). My mother got out by the side of the road and lost her lunch. Altitude sickness can be difficult.
Looks like a great trip. I am digging the Tinga Tinga shirt you got on in one of the photos. While in TZ, we bought a bunch of Tinga Tinga paintings. We are definitely looking forward to spending some time with you guys up in Nashville.
W-O-W!!! Awesome!
The part about the oxygen masks...uh...did anyone experience near-heart-failure? How scary!
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