Back in the swing

We're back to normal around here. I haven't taken too many pictures lately, but here are some of the kids after playing in our sprinkers.

Yesterday in the car this conversation took place:

Dan: Sam, do you know what my favorite thing in the world is?
Sam: What?
Dan: Spending time with you guys.
Sam: Oh. Do you know what my favorite thing is?
Dan: No. What?
Sam: Watching garage doors close.

Peru Trip Part 4: Machu Picchu

The fourth morning of our trek we woke up (at 3:45) to rain. We grabbed a quick breakfast, hoisted our packs, and started down the trail to get in line with all the other last-day trekkers to enter the last stretch of trail. We stood there in the dark for a long time. Pictures in the dark with flash always go well, don't they? Right after we took this, Chintin said, "Oh, that was a good one!" Yeah. Thanks a lot, Chintin!

So anyway, they opened the trail and we began the last hike. This was kind of annoying because ALL of the groups are right there so you are in a long line of people and you can't really take your time. You just get pushed along. Eventually we made it to the Sun Gate - this old gateway where on the summer solstice the sun shines through a certain spot right down into the Sun Temple at Machu Picchu. You can make out Machu Picchu behind me. Some guy proposed to his gal while we were standing there. Right after this, the fog came in and we couldn't see much of Machu Picchu...

Even when it was right behind us. This is the last group shot. Kind of depressing!

 Juan and me.

The fog would lift and the rain would stop briefly, but then it'd come back in. After arriving, Juan gave us a tour for a few hours and then we parted ways. He was a nice guy. We spent the rest of the day exploring and taking it all in. So I'll just put up a lot of pictures here.

 LOVE IT! Isn't that amazing? This is the Earth temple. The Sun temple is right above it.

 There was a "special" rock that was supposed to exude cosmic powers.

 Dan had to give it a whirl, too.

 This rock mimics the shape of the mountain behind it. You can't see the mountain behind it, but it does, in fact, mimic it. Isn't Dan handsome?

 Two story.

Temple of the Condor. The condor head is on the ground. The white round rock is his neck hair. His body is on the ground and his wings are the rocks on the left and right behind him. Speaking of condors, some guy in Cusco pulled a shrunken condor body out of a backpack and tried to sell it to us. Gross.

 Huayna Picchu, the mountain behind Machu Picchu. You can climb it for more money, but we didn't want to. It looks crazy steep. There are ruins up there, too.

I cried probably five times when we were at Machu Picchu. It was just so cool to be there and take it all in. It's been on my list of places to visit and I wasn't really sure it was a possibility. It was kind of embarrassing, but I was just so happy!

After enjoying the view, we decided to take a little hike to the Inca drawbridge. Check it out:

I couldn't get over how crazy those Incas are. Sheer rock face on one side, drop off on the other.

Then we went back to Machu Picchu. Since we were only there one day, we stayed a long time and it emptied out quite a bit after noon, which was nice. The sun also graced us with its presence for a change.

This is the Sun temple. This is as close as they'd let us get. At the summer solstice, the sun shines through that big windown onto the rock below. They think there used to be some kind of special gold thing on the rock, too. At winter solstice, the sun shines through that larger window on the right.

 Dan channeling Bob Willey.

 This pic shows the variation in the stone. The stone on the left is for more common buildings, the stone in the foreground on the right is for nicer buildings, but it's still a little rough. The stone a little further back on the right is for the sacred places.

 Exterior of the Sun temple.

 Hasta luego, Machu Picchu! (Hopefully.)

 After we were done, we took a bus down the mountain (Dan was FREAKING OUT! There were some steep drop offs) to Aguas Calientes, where we said some goodbyes and caught a train back to Ollentaytambo and from there, a bus back to Cusco. An unforgettable day!

Peru Trip Part 3: More Inca Trail

The tour company labeled day two as "challenging" and day three as "unforgettable." They were right. Dan thought day three was the best, but that could be because his stomach bug subsided, too. After a not-very-good night's rest (it rained a lot throughout the night and snowed at higher elevations), we ate and got ready for the day. How many times have you brushed your teeth with a waterfall behind you?

We hiked past some ruins early in the day and our guide, Juan, told us some stuff. Then apparently they took a group picture. I was off taking pictures of my own.

More ruins.

 And more ruins.

Not too far into the day, the reality set in that this was our last full day on the trail. We tried to soak it up as much as we could. We were always the slowest in the group, but we enjoyed stopping, taking pictures, and reveling in the fact that we got to do something so awesome.

Can you imagine cutting that hole in the rock with only another rock? That would take FOREVER!

I loved the rock behind me here. It was black and white. Really cool. So I made Dan take a picture.

The Inca trail had a few caves. Here's us heading through one.

 And here's the second summit of the trail. I wish it hadn't been cloudy. I wanted to see the tops of the mountains.

We stopped for a break at a different campground. Dan climbed a hill and took some pics.

Then we continued on. We saw lots of ruins this day.

 Our guide told us that if we hurried, we could make it to one last really cool site before dark. So we hustled and got to see this site. It had 43 terraced levels. Really amazing.

 This is called a "flying staircase." The Incas used them to get from one level to the next.

We did the last bit of hiking in the dark w/ headlamps. That was really fun. Then we had dinner and got ready for bed. I really wanted a picture of the stars, but unfortunately, it was really cloudy and rained again. But I did manage to try a different long exposure shot.

Stay tuned for part 4: MACHU PICCHU!