peru adventures

machu picchu in all her glory

waynu picchu (peak behind machu picchu) - yes, those stairs are over NOTHING!

we started our peru expedition in lima. i flew from santa cruz and pete came from chile after 8 weeks in the antarctic. it was great to be reunited! we flew to cusco right away and spent about a week in the highlands. the highlights were the incan historic sites that blanket that area (cusco was an incan stronghold in the mid 1400's) and of course our days spent at machu picchu. first impressions...the incans were CRAZY! we walked up so many stairs in two days and a disproportionate amount of those stairs were on the sides of cliffs. there was no evidence that they built anything on flat ground...it was all on the sides of really steep hills. imagine carrying a 300 tonne chunk of rock up the side of a cliff...at 12,000 feet. crazy but so impressive. the rock work they did was really amazing too. they shaped each stone to fit the previous one with incredible precision. there is a wall in cusco that you can run your hand across and not feel any of the seams in the rocks. neither of us had too many problems with the altitude, but i took aspirin every day and we both drank mate de coca or chewed coca leaves daily. i decided to be adventurous with the food there...we ate guinea pig the first night in cusco! imagine a whole guinea pig minus the fur on your plate...mmm, not something i need to eat again. i tried the alpaca too and that was much less exotic and much more cow-ish.

our next adventure was getting stuck in cusco for two days while the locals went on strike. there was no transportation in, out, or around the city and the airport was shut down for two days. we had a nice little trek to and from the airport with all our gear to find that out, but at least none of the rock throwing was directed at us. we holed up with some nuns for the two days and finally made our way to the jungle...

rain frog - tambopata rainforest reserve

hoatzin - once thought to be the link between archaeopteryx and modern birds

we made the short flight to puerto maldonado and were met by our jungle guide and a mototaxi (think rickshaw with a motorcycle). fortunately we were able to push our trip back two days due to the strike and still had the full four days of jungle time. we took a boat 4 hours up the tambopata river to the beautiful wasai lodge. our tour consisted only of pete and me and one other guy from louisiana. jorge (our guide) was amazing. he could find things that we would never have seen and his knowledge of the plants and animals was incredible. we saw lots of birds, monkeys, bugs, frogs...all the normal jungle critters. the bugs were not bad at all and the food and accommodation up there were great.

we spent our last night in lima before flying home. we stayed in a great little place in mira flores (nicer part of lima) and had dinner overlooking a pre-incan site. that was pretty cool, but i wasn't all that impressed with lima at first sight and was happy to fly away the next morning. i'll try to post some more photos on a different website since there are way too many to put up here...

we've been back in the country for three weeks now and pete and i have been in the same town for five of those days. i was in orlando for a week for a scientific meeting and then pete went to san diego for a conference and then i went in the field... but i think we're in the same place for a few weeks now. i'm all moved into my new place and cass seems to really be enjoying it there. she has plenty of spots to nap in the sun or shade and the housemates love her.

i am ta-ing an intensive course spring quarter so i am trying to finish everything this week that i will not have time to do for the next 10 weeks. i kind of feel like a chicken with my head cut off completely losing all sense of balance in my life...and i have a feeling it will feel like this until i finish...

be well.