hola

our villa
face mask

pisac, cows coming home
i feel like i've been gone forever...it's only been a week, but what a fantastic week...last sunday (early monday morning) russ and i landed in lima peru, then early at 5 am, we flew to cusco, drove for about 1 1/2 hours to our fantastic hotel which were villas that were out in the country...about 1/2 hour later the girls pulled up! yippee! it was so fun to see them...i can't believe the growth in them...this whole week kerry has been interpreting, guiding...it's been so much fun to watch them...so we went to lunch at the family that they were staying with...sort of quiet as we don't speak much espanol, and they don't speaka da english....then we took a bus to pisac...it was a crowded, crazy bus ride...pisac has a fun market to go see...then back to the villas where our maid cooked our dinner...that's a great life....it was really a long fun day...

family
tuesday we went back to cusco for the inte rime festival...an incan festival...fun to watch...we waited and waited for it to start, then went to lunch at a fun australian restaurant...

in cusco

wednesday we went to machu picchu to celebrate russie's birthday...we were supposed to leave on the 8 am train...only our driver didn't tell us we had to be a half hour early...he got us there right before the train was leaving, so we had to wait for the 10:30 train....finally got there...we went right up to m.p....it was amazing...way different than i thought it would be...what a fantastic, beautiful sight...what amazing people...our hoel was pretty cool...it was in the town of aguas caliente...a beautiful hotel...but, we had the CREEPIEST huge spider in the toilet area and then another in the toilet...about 2 inches long...and an inch wide...russ killed them...

m.p.

m.p.

scary spider

thursday took the train back to cusco...and spent the day there...it was really nice...sort of chilled that day...

friday...which was kelly's 30th...we took a really long, slow train ride...from 8 am until 5:30 pm...we went from cusco to puno...now this train never went more than about 50 miles per hour...it was really slow...but, we saw some pretty scenery, had dancers on the train in the native dress...it was ok...

at 14,172 ftbut, then we got to lake titicaca...which was the greatest...what a beautiful place...we went to our hotel which was out on the lake...very remote...the hotel just opened 3 weeks ago...pretty fun place...saturdy we had a great day of tours of tiqilla island, where we saw the island people...how they live, how they wash their clothes on the rocks...they have solar panels to get electricity...it's a pretty hard life...they showed us how they weave, make their hats etc...top of island

sacred spot

little doll

russ in a head dress

washing clothes

then, later in the afternoon we went to the uros islands which are made of reeds...our guide grew up on them and we went to his families island and met his family...talk about amazing...they live on these reed islands that float if they aren't anchored...it's really cool to see...

dress ups

floating reed islandsuros island

today we had to get up at 4 am to drive to the airport for our 8 am flight to lima...after 9we had a tour of lima...it's a big city...not really my favorite...but good to see...

lima
so, after this long, long travel log...what have i loved in peru?

the scenery is amazing...what a place...i andes are really neat...i really love to see the people in their native dress...it is amazing..machu picchu was fantastic...wow! and lake titicaca was just unreal...so high...12,000 feet...my breathing was rough! blue blue skies...once again...it's fantastic to be abel to travel and see another culture...fantastico....i need to speak better spanish!