A Wedding with Llamas

A recent comment (of course I read all the comments, who doesn't) suggested that I post  more about our trip to Peru.  The trip took place during the summer of 2008.

The internet is a wild place and you never know who is going to read (or copy) your stuff.  As a blogger I hope as many people as possible to read my stuff.  But no one want some criminal mind to misuse information you post.  After joining Facebook, I would suspect anyone looking to collect info would go there but you never know.  I only bring this up, to explain why real names will be missing from this story.  I wouldn't want any family members reading (they usually don't) to think I have a second family on the side or something.  Unlike that infamous Governor's trip, this was a trip to Peru, not Argentina. 

Our Peru trip was centered around a wedding.  Our daughter, Maggie, married a great guy, Bart.  Bart's mom is from Peru (a coastal town).  His parents met when his dad was in the Peace Corps down in Peru.  Bart was born and raised in the states but has visited Peru many times.  Both Maggie and Bart are world travelers.

The priest was Irish and looked like he could have been my twin brother.

It's a long flight down there from Chicago, but it's only one hour difference in time zones, so Chicagoans don't have that jet lag problem.  But check your globe, this is south of the equator.  We had a connections in Maimi FL, and Lima before we landed in Cusco.  Anyone heading for Machu Picchu mostly likely will travel through Cusco which is a wonderful ancient city.

One warning about Cusco - altitude.  Unless you're from some mountain area, you probably are going to suffer some altitude effects.  Cusco is higher (11,000 ft) than Machu Picchu (8000 ft).  If I were to plan a return trip I would head to the Sacred Valley first and then visit Cusco.

I believe all of the first time visitors in our group suffered some degree of altitude sickness.  However, we still enjoyed seeing the sites around the city.  Bart's mom did some extensive planning and arranging for the whole event.  Maggie and Bart had a bus waiting for us at the Cusco airport.  Tours were setup in advance.  All the arrangements worked out great.

Because of the common altitude problem the tourists experience, our hotel (most do) offer their guests free herbal Coca tea (leaves contain small amounts of cocaine).  I believe the tea helped.  But I wouldn't want to take a drug test soon after a trip there.

A very graphic religious statue in the hotel lobby (holding a severed head).

There was a mobile phone store close to our hotel.  It appears that sex sells in Peru too.

After Cusco we took a bus down into the Sacred Valley.  The Urubamba river flows through the valley and we stayed at two very nice hotels near the town of Urubamba.  It was just outside of that town where Maggie and Bart tied the knot.

Colorful marketplace in Pisac.

Celebration parade (just for us??) in Ollantaytambo.

One very unusual place was Moray where we climbed down into this enormous terraced circular hole.  

Here's a satellite view from Google maps (you might need to zoom in):

View Larger Map

Climbing around Machu Picchu.

Here's a cartoon made about our trip:

next big thing

Twitter - too long!!  - who has time for typing and reading 140 character messages?

Enter - Flutter

solar info link

Don't Worry Be Happy

Another fun blog game.

Happy 101 Sweet Friends

What a nice surprise to be reading through your blogroll blogs and discovering your name and blog getting recognition.  That's what happened the other day on the  Technobabe's Adventure blog.  She was happy and sweet enough to pass along the above award.

These awards are also like a game so just like a game, it has rules.  The rules are to link this award back to the presenter, send it on to at least three other bloggers and list 10 things that make me happy.
Check out Technobabe and her hippie blog (her words) with the above link.

Here's a fun part - listing things that make me happy:

1. Family - supporting wife, kids, grandkids, brother, sisters and even in-laws.
2. Making the family laugh especially a little one's giggle.
3. Having my son or daughter buy me a beer.
4. Learning new stuff about the world and how it works
5. Warm spring days (soon I hope)
6. Having the mortgage paid off.
7. Finding an old postcard sent to me from my kid sister back in the 70's.  Reading it made me laugh (again).
8. Blogging and getting supportive comments (hey the comment button is just below, see it down there?)
9. My wife's homemade pancakes or waffles with her blueberries sauce (the secret is in the sauce).
10. Listening to 'Wait Wait Don't Tell Me'.  (also remembering the time my wife and I went to see the show live).

With regards to the passing this on to other bloggers rule, I refer you to both my blogroll, or the list in the  last reward/blog game post.  They are all award winning blogs.

Thanks again and
Remember as Bobby McFerrin sang:
Don't Worry Be Happy


 

Peru flood brings Machu Picchu memory

If you didn't get here via Unknown Mami's blog, then you should check out her Sundays-In-My-City feature. It's a regular feature that's open to anyone.  

See the river in the background of this picture below.  I am very sure it doesn't look that way today.  Now it's a raging flood of water tearing through the valley.  That river is the Urabamba. 

I was fortunate to get a trip to Peru back in 2008 because of the Peruvian connection of our new son-in-law.  Recently, I heard there has been terrible flooding and tourist were trapped at Machu Picchu.  Honestly, my first reaction was, "that's a nice place to be trapped."  The problem is crowding in a small town (Aguas Calientes) that became isolated when the train tracks washed out.  (Oh, they aren't down there now.  They live in Chicago.)

It's the same train we took.  Actually, it's the train everyone takes except those that hike there.

The train follows the river valley so it's been washed out in a few places.

Here's a picture of Aguas Calientes back in 2008.

Here's two shots that I had to climb quite high to get.

The tourists were flown out of Aguas Calientes by military helicopters over several days.  Links to the recent flooding and trapped tourists:

BBC News

CBS News 

And a video clip

Mars in opposition

So it's not just the Republicans, even planets now.

Ok, I'm not going there (Mars or politics) but have you heard of or seen APOD?

It stands for A Personal Obsessive Devotee    Astronomy Picture Of the Day

The web site offers a gadget that you can put into a blog or your iGoogle page which I did.  The gadget shows you a new picture everyday.  Actually, I noticed a few days where a short video clip was offered instead.  Not only do you see beautiful wondrous pictures, you also learn some interesting facts about the universe.

Do you like pink?  If yes, you should plan a visit to Mars.  Here's part of the picture APOD offered about a week ago.  I found it so oddly attractive that I saved it as my desktop background screen.  The picture shows melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost.  Sounds like the universe dreamed up a dessert.

One more Mars news item -
Remember those two rovers up there?  They are still being used.  Originally their mission was planned for less than a year.  They have been there since 2004.  They are like energizer bunnies.




 

Well now, Spirit has gotten stuck in a sand trap.  (send Tiger Woods he knows about getting stuck)  So now it's no more golf for Spirit but NASA plans to continue to collect data and perform science experiments while it sits stationary.

So what would it be like stuck in melting pinkish sand dunes covered with light frost?