Peru 2009 -- Finding Our Way

I'm sitting in the only corner of our hotel room here in Cusco where the wi-fi doesn't disconnect me every three minutes. I shouldn't complain though...who woulda thunk finding wi-fi would be so easy in Peru? I thought I'd give another quick update, this one with more pictures. I had to use the crappy Microsoft photo editor for these, so they're not as cleaned up as I'd like them to be.

The legendary Lost City of the Inca. No words can adequately describe the magic of this place. Even the thousands of pushy tourists couldn't detract from the experience. Well, not much, anyway.

Llamas at Machu Picchu on Wednesday morning.

Sonja admiring some of the exquisite stonework characteristic of the Incan empire. The lines are so straight, and the stones carved so perfectly, you couldn't fit a pin between them! No mortar is used, either. Only perfect craftmanship (literally) holds these walls together.

The fortress of Ollantaytambo was much smaller than Machu Picchu, but impressive nonetheless. Even moreso when you consider it was the site of the Incan Empires only win against the invading Spanish Conquistadors.

After exploring the Incan fortress at Ollantaytambo on Thursday morning, we found ourselves in the middle of a festival in the village center. Men and women were packing the tiny village, many wearing traditional clothing.

Local women enjoying the festival, with a bored boy hanging out behind them.

A street vendor in Ollantaytambo.

Yes, this is exactly what it looks like: roasted cuy (guinea pigs). While I did manage to muster up the courage to try alpaca last night (not my favorite), I haven't yet decided whether I will attempt to partake of this particular Peruvian specialty.

The ruins at Pisac, northeast of Cusco, are very impressive in their magnitude and architecture. Some of it rivaled what we saw at Machu Picchu. We stopped there yesterday afternoon after an exciting ride in a local bus from Ollantaytambo.

We leave for the Amazon on Sunday morning, so I will probably not post again until the evening of the 9th. But then I hope to have lots of fun monkey, bird and rainforesty photos to share.

The Painted Desert

Got to spend the day at Petrified Forest National Park for work, today. I discovered that it is only a two and a half hour drive from our house, too. Good to know when we decide we want to go for a wilderness hike. Most of my time was taken up with discussing archeology-based education programs with their education specialist. They've got a pretty nice concept for a program, including a mock-excavation that looks way more funner than anything we've got.

See? Doesn't that stuff look like fun? Seeing that shovel was worth the drive all by itself. I've decided to basically steal all their ideas and try the same thing at the Castle. We'll get our own clipboards, though.

I did get to poke around the north end of the park a bit before I left for home. This is the "Painted Desert" of Wile E. Coyote fame.

It was a bit on the rainy side, though. And, considering it was bright and sunny at home when I left this morning, I neglected to pack any sort of clothing for inclement weather. Oh well...at least it wasn't hot.