More Machupicchu

This picture was taken by Marco Jr. , I wonder if this is the tree you were talking about Norma?  Cynthia says she remembers something about a tree but I don't remember anything.  Could be I was to tired to remember. :)Here we are in a sidewalk cafe in Mauchupicchu town, John, myself (Glenna), Martha, Cynthia and Dumenico.Look at this Christmas tree in the square.  It is very pretty and made of all green plastic soda botles.  Large one on the bottom rows and then individual size ones to the top.  They lite it up at night, what a great use of imagination.Dumenico is eating Llama here.  The kids keep saying I need to eat Cuy which is Guinea Pig, and for me that is a NO NO as can't eat a pet! :)

showing you a picture of the railroad track.  We came down to the tracks then walked dow them thinking to go a Water Falls down the way we went to got to Machupicchu the mountain. Marco Jr. took this picture as well as the others I am showing you at this time.

This is a monument to Manco Capac and Mama Ocllo  the ledgend of the founder of Machupicchu.  You see a Puma to the side of the one person.  They attach a lot of respect to the Puma.

Martha and myself (Glenna) are stnding between them.

Dumemico found a friend.  This puppy was so willing to be a guide, and he found a little white friend that decided they wanted to go hiking with us.  We decided to go with Dumenico and Marco Jr. to see the Water Falls, on the way down the tracks headed in the right direction (we thought). 

Here Cynthia and I are following the boys up the trail Marco seen and said "lets try this" so we followed.  You can see the little dog is encouraging us to come.  Let me tell you it was not what we expected and we went up up and up and there were lots of steps.

Here you see the little white and black dog that were our guides and protectors, it is a good picture to see the steepness of the climb.  We had some parts much steeper.  The little dogs were real troopers

This is a view of Aguas Calientes or also known as Machupicchu Town.  You can see a poition of the road that they take you on to get you up to Machupicchu.

Not long after the picture of the town, we came to this ladder and as you can see Marco went up so the little white dog followed him up and will show you that the little black dog just didn't have it in him to go up soooooooo

Dumenico as you can see took pitty on the little black dog and took him up the ladder.  We came along at at that time so had to decide if we were going to continue and go up the ladder.  We did and it wasn't to hard.  We decided to have the boys go ahead and let us know how much further we had to go.  (now little did we know)

We didn't go much further and a good thing it was, this is what the boys found not much further along the trail.  Notice it is almost traight up and the helper is a cable.  Had we seen this we would turned around right there, as it was we didn't have to make that call.

the little white dog tried to go up the ladder but couldn't and the boys didn't pack him up.  The little black dog had stayed with Cynthia and me.

I don't have pictures of our return as they are on Cynthia's camera and won't get them off until we get back to Portland.

 Marco after the ladder and you can see they aren't through climbing.  I don't have a picture but they said they came to a place where all they had was a cable and it was straight up with toe holes in the face of the rock.  Know I would not have done that!

 Dumenico getting close to the top.  When they got to the top they could look down on Machupicchu.  They didn't come to the water fall but had a better adventure. 

Not sure which river this is, either Rio Vilcanota or Rio Agus Calientes any way you can get an idea of how high they were.  They did eventually get to the Water Falls, but not until later that day and it rained so hard they were soaked in no time.  Thank goodness they did have some dry clothes to change into.  We left Aguas Calientes about 4:45 that evening.  The train ride was good, the car wasn't full so we could sit facing forward, which is good as Cynthia gets motion sick. :)

Machupicchu

Dumenico rally liked the llama's and there were a number of them around, as I said they did their job of keeping the grass mowed. :)

Marco noticed this Hole on the side of the wall so managed to get a picture to show how it went through the rock, he was told it was to tie a door to.  We were told that they only had a door on the Temple of the Sun the rest of the people hung blankets at the door.  They respected the property of the other person so didn't need that security.

 is a window but notice that it is narrow at the top and widens at the bottom.

Here is Cynthia in her rain gear, sure a good thing we purchased the ponchos as it rained almost the whole time were on the mountain.  Think it is a little over 9000 feet here, lower then at Cusco.This is Yuly our guide, cost us $40 for her time, but it was well worth it as she explaineed everything to us as we went along.  John is in the picture too.This picture was taken by Marco Jr. and he was up much higher to get this good picture.  We walked all over this place, let me tell you there are lots of steps and I was up to most of them but decided not to goup to the watch tower hill.  think that is where this picture was taken from. Most of the rest of the pictures from Machupicchu will be taken by Marco Jr.Another closer picture, I was amazed at the size of this place, there just isn't any way we can see the whole place in our camers.This is a close up of a portion of a building.  Notice the rocks making the header for the doors.Notice the terraces, on one side of this place they were used to grow crops (corn, potatoes and other things) and on the other side they were used for errosion, or so we were told by Yuly.   Now the Llama's keep them moved and trimmed up. :)  That seems to be their job.Notice the way the rocks fit together, you can't put anything between them.  It was explained to us what they did to keep the stones from coming down in a earthquake.  Will explain that later.   This place of Machupicchu was not completed when the Inca's left and they don't know why they left, they can only guess as they left no written records and no hyroglyphics. ( don't know if this is spelled right and for some reason there is no spell check and I am without a dictionary.)

Cusco

We left Lima about 6 on the Christmas morning, we flew LAN and our flight lasted about an hour, think it is a little over 500 miles, we flew at 38000 feet it was more like going to altitude then level off long enough that they served drinks, water, juice, coffee, tea and hard stuff if you wanted, then we were descending into Cusco (they spell it Cusco and the English spell it Cuzco).
We  took a taxi to the main square then proceded to walk around looking for a Hostel (hotel) which we found about a block up from the square.  It was really nice and it cost us about $48 a night and we had three rooms, sleeping two to a room.  We settled in then walked the town.  There is not a flat place to walk, you either walk up or down!  Lots of stairs!
  We found a place to have lunch and don't remember what mine was called but was sure good!  Shortley after we sat down to eat it started raining and it was a gulley washer! I will put in some pictures to show you what I mean by that.  Also they were having some celebrations so have a short video of that, the rain didn't stop them. :)

This has the date of 24th on it but my camera is wrong as it is the 25th of December and we are in Cusco.

We are walking after the rain you can see the street is wet but we haven't bought our poncho yet. We did buy poncho's when in Machupicchu and a good thing we did or we would have been soaked. We are in Cusco in this picture.

Dumenico, John's sister Martha, Cynthia and Marco Jr., John is taking pictures too so isn't in the picture.

This is a memorial to someone in the founding of the city. should have wrote it down.  This is not far from where we ate lunch. (before it started raining)

Here we are walking up this street, notice the cobble stone street, the only thing about it that was easy was it wasn't steps!  My legs were till rested :).  Cynthia with her camera on the front of her and Marco with is on his back.  Cynthia soon changed hers to the back as make it easier to see where she was stepping! 

This is the place we stopped for lunch and I had such a good meal, it was noodles and perfect for me.  I looked into the kitche and it was very primitave and we would only consider it as camping but they put out very good food and it is all arranged in a pleasing manner.  In picture standing Dumenico, next to him John, Cynthia and Martha has her head turned away, again the date is wrong it is the 25th.

Here we are waiting for the train to take us to Machupicchu City or known as Aguas Calientes and means hot water.  They do have a hot springs there, we thought about going but was to tired after a day on the mountain. :)

Dumenico on the train, you can see the river and it was really a brown color almost red because of the area it comes through.

Cynthia on the train, the date is the 26th of December.  The train was nice and clean, and they had drinks and sandwiches you could purchase.  They had steward aboard.

Just to prove I was on the train. :)

Back in Lima

We left Cusco yesterday about noon.  Good thing we got home as I was sure sick in the evening.  Throwing up and all that goes with it!  Don't know if it was the results of changing altitudes so manytimes.  I still have to put my pictures from my camera to the computer then will bring you up to date with our adventurs of the past week.
glenna

Glenna's first Christmas Turkey and surprise!

Cynthia bought a frozen turkey at Metro yesterday and today I got it out and washed it preparing to cook it today as tomorrow we leave about 4 in the morning to catch a plane to Cuzco.  Imagine my surprise when I pulled the neck from the cavity and out came the surprise.  See for your self !

Our trip to San Jaun de Miraflores and wanted you to see the traffic and the noise of horns.  It is amazing to me how the traffic decides to turn and may go across two lines of traffic to get to where it wants to turn.  In the States we would have to go around the block until we could get in the right lane. :)

Metro and small Mall

Marco Jr., and Dumenico as we enter the little mall.  Notice McDonalds icecream stall.  Only icecream is sold here and it is quite good as we had a cone when we came out from shopping.   This beautiful Christmas tree is before we enter the Metro store.

The first picture of food is the Tuna before it is peeled, also lemons and avacodoes. Next are the cucumber/melons, apples and other fruit. Look at he size of the Pappayas.  No wonder they can make juice from them.  Notice the person cleaning the floor in front of our cart.  He is not alone, there was many using the mops all over the store, cleaning always cleaning.

Included a video to let you see the Mall and some of the people and doings.

more coast

This is at the other end the area in the last picture.  More of that private club.  Cynthia said your membership is like belonging to the Eagles, Elks or the Yacht Club.  There were lots of big black birds on the rocks to the right and the white is not paint like I first thought :) 

Along the coast below Miraflores

Cynthia, Marco Jr. and John.  In the back ground to the left you will see a private club, you pay membership but the membership is a lifetime membership, hotel, swimming pools, gym playce to dock your boats, just a very elegant place.  Notice the little man between John and Marco, he was blind in one eye and was selling packaged popcorn and some other snack stuff.  There was another vendor there selling icecream bars froma little cooler on wheels.

Miraflores Peru

A park in Miraflores, notice the painted cow, there are several in this park, don't know why. :) they have lots of nice flower beds too

This picture of the (what look like a church) but has a business or more than one in it. See the modern buildings on the left side of the picture.

This program isn't working like it did, but in this third picture you will see the same park but wanted you to see the street cleaners. They are all over the place sweeping and picking up litter. For so many people the towns are clean. You don't see very many dogs around either. We seen the first cats in this park yesterday, seen three, just laying around sleeping.

We are leaving the center of town and heading down a cobble stone street. Rough but they leave the street as is because it is a very old street.

Another day down town Lima

Our trip to the airport after we were down town Lima. You can't see it but this is three lanes road but four lanes of traffic. We were on the right side but in a few minutes we were on the extreme left side turning left! Now let me tell you I didn't know cars could go sideways, but they can! Cynthia tried to tell me as she seen it happen in New York City! So now I know it can be done! If I didn't all ready have almost white hair it would be by the time this trip is finished! :)

We went to drop off some product near the airport for Marco Sr. then went on to the airport. While that was happening we walked into the little mall (strip) and Marco Jr. paid the cell phone bill and then paid for next month too. You don't write a check and mail it in, NOOOOOO, you stand in line and pay everything with cash! After finished that we still had time so went into a little bakery and had a snack, I had a little chicken Empaada ( a meat pie, John had beef) Cynthia had a spinich pie thing.

Marco Jr. had a egg salad sandwich that had ham and cheese plus chicken in the egg salad. We then went on to the airport to see if perhaps they had found Cynthia's text book she forgot in the back of the seat on the plane. NO such luck, funny thing though it had been there the day before so guess someone figured they needed it. :(

Our trip back home was FAST and FURIOUS, we went first to Miia Flores and had dinner. It was Chineese food, shrimp soup, chicken fried rice and noodles of some kind. After dinner we made it home and it was good to be home! :)

People Places and Fruit

What a day, Marco Jr., John, Cynthia and myself took a taxi to down town Lima, really down town. We went into a large market, Polvos Azzules, there are thousands of pairs of shoes, luggage of every kind and every thing else you can think of. We didn't stay long as it was like being in an ant nest there were so many people. We took a part back for a computer that John needed to return. There were people all along the sidewalk selling things.
Cynthia bought four tuna fruit, will post a picture so you can see them, tasted really good. The vender just sliced through the skin and nipped off the ends and there it was, one is red and one is light green but they taste the same. We can buy them in Portland and maybe even in Hermiston at the new store. The fruit (Tuna or Prickly Pear) of the Opuntia (a cacti plant), light green and the bright pink almost red. The red tunas get their color from the carmine dyes left behind from the little cochineal (or Cochinilla in Spanish) bug!!! They are very good, not the bug, the fruit! not a strong taste. Now I will know what to buy when I see them at home.