Finally

I know. I said I was going to post some Peru pictures. But I've been busy, blah, blah, blah, and I haven't gotten to it. But here they finally are. We took lots of pictures (more than 300), so whittling it down to a few highlights was difficult. Please applaud my effort.

First, we were in Cusco and the Sacred Valley:

This is the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square in Cusco.











These are the ruins of Ollantaytambo (say that 3 times fast, I dare you!), which is a town and former Inca citadel in the Sacred Valley. We saw other ruins like this at other places in the valley as well as along the Inca trail, but I'm going to save myself some time and not upload other high-resolution pictures. You get the idea.






Here are some local women in traditional clothes. I loved their clothes. It amazed us how fast these two seemed to be able to hoof it up the steep hills where we were. Which was, you know, the Andes.







Then, of course, there was the hike to Machu Picchu:

Here I am with the other members of our little group (Todd, of course, is behind the camera). What? You can't see me? That's because my very tall backpack obscures my head. I think I almost look hardcore here, don't you?








Yes, it was gorgeous, which ultimately made it worth all the pain. Not that I'll ever do anything like this again.

We did not hike this snowy peak, even though my legs felt like it.








These are our group's very hardworking porters. Look how fast they can climb those mountains for such low pay!!










There were llamas on the trail. Here's one I'm befriending outside of a "bathroom." Heh. I was probably just making a beeline for the "toilet." Get outta my way, llama!









This is a slew of hikers looking exhausted at the top of dead woman's pass. You can't tell from this picture how far we climbed, but believe me, it was far.









And finally, there was Machu Picchu. We woke before dawn on the last day of the hike to get to Machu Picchu by sunrise. When we got there, this is what we saw:


That's right: Nothing. It had rained the day before and a thick fog lingered. This is approximately what I was thinking at the time: "I hiked for four @#$! days and shat in @#$! pits so I could come to @#$! Machu Picchu! I haven't bathed in four @#$%! days and this is what I @#$!%&@!#$@#@$@! get?! "

The camper was not happy.

So we hung out for a while with the llamas that graze there and hoped for some sun.


Luckily, the fog cleared and we got the money shots. And it's a good thing. I was almost on the verge of acting out my anger by murdering one of the very comfortable and clean-looking people who had come to Machu Picchu by way of the train.



After we left Machu Picchu, we headed back to Cusco, where we ended up staying longer than expected after getting booted from our flight to Lima (this was when the airline so kindly put us up in a ritzy hotel). But then we finally made it to Lima for a couple of days. We don't have so many pictures: I was sick and we spent most of the time in our room watching MTV, which was in English with Spanish subtitles. But here's what we did see in Lima:

Paragliders going off the cliffs in Miraflores, the neighborhood near the beach where we were staying.

And the lovely Pacific Ocean. For just a second, I thought I was back in Santa Cruz.



Oh, yeah: There was also the bus that crashed into our hotel. See the big chunk it took out of the security wall? And the silver BMW? The hotel owner told us that this was the second time in 4 years that a bus had crashed into the wall. Did I mention that people drive a little crazy in Peru?




Then, of course, we had to come home, though at least our flights weren't delayed.

This concludes the photo tour of Peru. Muchas Gracias.