One
Kinda got winded after sorting through all these great memories. I'll have to follow up later with my thoughts. But I'll give you some captions and musings in the here and now. Mike and Chris took these pictures. Without them, there would be no story for you. And of course, if you would like to see the full spread of candid life for us 4 gringos out of our element, here are the full albums. Thanks again for the amazing documentation guys:
http://crazymike1.smugmug.com/
What can I say, I'm a light packer… Yeager weighs more than my gear
Boredom at the airport results in delirium and pseudo creativity
Finally made it to Cuzco… take a good whiff at the – lack of – oxygen
View from our room… hilltop church and a cross on top of the mountain
El Cristo Blanco, Lord of the Earthquakes, looking over the valley
We paid out the nose for this photo opp… suckers
Practically every cathedral in this country is built over top Inca/Native foundations
Haggling going on through clenched teeth
Plaza de Armas
Noche
We ask at the store… 'Where do you get your fabrics?'… the son walks us to the back of the store
Mike works the botones on the camera. I disturb traffic
First full day, we set out towards the Sacred Valley
I love the abundance of dogs… stray but extremely friendly
Ornamental terraced gardens of the Incas
Fine, we'll walk to the bottom!
I had never ridden a bike hard in the dirt before this day… probably good I learned since I basically own a giant dirt bike back home
City driving is the easy part… in the fields, you have to make sudden stops for cows, sheep, dogs…
Chris was riding his bike when he snapped these… crazy man
Salt mines
I was supposed to put gas in BEFORE?
Getting close to the Sacred Valley
There it is, the beginning
Finally getting used to the thin air – but as evening closes I feel a squirrel in my stomach
Day 1 of the hike to Machu Picchu, and I get sick that morning
Two things you will always see wandering in Peru… children and dogs
Last solid thing I was able to stomach for the next day and a half
Day 1, lunch break, futbol in the Sacred Valley with future FIFA stars
Such a peaceful night before the dreaded Day 2
And dreadful it was. That's Dead Woman Pass at the top, 14,500 feet… our goal for the morning
Figured the altitude sickness and lack of eating merited a break in the 6,000 ft climb
The top
The gang
The delirium
The clouds below… Noche dos
Day three we start seeing more and more ruins… must be close
Incas loved stairs
Rejoining the river
Drinking from the sacred Inca fountain of youth, and accepting all parasites and diseases which live in the mountain
Final night, and tribute to our guides and porters
Machu Picchu
Relaxing at the bottom of MP mountain, in Aguas Calientes (Hot Springs mecca)
The hostel pet
Locals' version of beer… Chiche… corn which is chewed, spit out, fermented, and served to stupid gringos
X-country bus towards the big lake
Great stops along the way
Over 70 of these identical huts in this field
The lake… Chris put that one together
Lots of tourists, lots of boats… they've practiced this
Uros – reed islands
They not only build their islands, houses, and boats out of reeds… they feed them to white people
We took a cab to a different floating island
He's just a big dumb animal folks
After Uros, we reached Amantani
I should mention, I fell in love with Amantani
Our wonderful host family and their beautiful house
The Conquistadors left no stone/island untouched
Island gearing up for Day 1 of Candlemas
We contributed our fair share of celebration to the festival
Jen and I had the sacred traditional dance moves going perfectly until the camera showed up
Blending in… sure
Mike caught this before I left the guys. It has
Sweet dreams.
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