Happy Holidays Friends and Family,

I know most of you reading this are in, or near, Wyoming and are suffering from what I hear is one of the coldest winters in a really long time. Nonetheless I hope that you are all in good spirits for the holidays and are enjoying yourselves, and situation, as much as possible. Lindsay and I have been trying to call as many of you as we can to wish happy holidays and to keep you informed about our whereabouts and plans. Unfortunately because we have talked with a lot of you we haven’t posted, except pictures, in awhile but here we go.

So in Lindsay’s last post we were in Arequipa, Peru, a little past halfway through our “Big Bus Fun Trip”. From there we had what was looking like a long trip down through the Andes into Northern Chile and then we were going to cross over into Northern Argentina and see the city of Salta before zipping down (about 20 hr bus ride) to Mendoza. But when we were in Arequipa we found a flight from a kind of small time airline to Santiago for less then the busing would have cost. It was one of the funniest flights either of us has ever been on because it was practically a flying bus. The flight took off from Arequipa and landed first in Arica, Chile - which was about a 30 min flight. Then we got off and did customs and continued on to Antofagasta, Chile – which was another 45 min flight. This time only some of the passengers got off and new people got on. Then we flew to Santiago, Chile – which was maybe a 90 min flight.

We spent a couple days in Santiago which is a HUGE city. As most of you know, or have gathered from this blog, we aren’t really big city people. That being said Santiago is actually a pretty cool place. It felt very safe and friendly (we had a complete stranger stop and ask us if we needed help because we were looking at a map, this isn’t that much different from other places we have been except that he didn’t try and sell us something afterwards). On the downside of things Santiago is expensive like all big cities. From Santiago we took a beautiful 8 hr bus ride over the Andes to Mendoza, Argentina.

This is where we are now. We have gotten a short-term apartment here in Mendoza (which was enough of a hassle it might warrant its own blog post) to spend the holidays and figure out what we want to do next. Mendoza is known for its wine and its proximity to Mount Aconcagua – which is the highest mountain outside of the Himalayas. Mendoza is bigger then we thought (about 850,000) but it still maintains kind of a smaller town feel. Unfortunately we are only at about 2,000 ft altitude here so we should probably change our blog name. It is really hot, which makes us feel even worse for those of you who are suffering through such bad weather right, but we do have an extra bedroom for anyone who can’t take the cold any longer. We have already taken a regional tour which included a short trip to Aconcagua National Park and we are going to take some wine tours soon. So hopefully we will have more to post later about wine tours, our future plans, and anything else that we do and think y’all be interested in.

-Beacon

Mostly Machu Picchu

We climbed up, and down, this ladder and five others like it to get to the top of Putucusi Mountain in order to see Machu Picchu from a distant right before sunset. This ladder continues for another 100 ft out of this picture frame... It was pretty scarry.

The nearby town of Aguas Caliente nestled in the forested Andes from half way up Putucusi Mountain.

More of the Andes mountain range. On this trip we have seen so many different ecosystems housed in this mountain range, from high altitude paramoes to densely covered cloud forests as seen here. Our Machu Picchu guide said that the Incans built more trails then the Romans, and looking at the sorrounding vegetation it no wonder why. This trail that took us to the top of Putucusi is actually an old Incan trail.

A view of Putucusi from Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu was covered with fog almost the whole time we were there. It really added a lot to the experience. It just made the whole place seem even more other worldly.

Machu Picchu was a sanctuary for Incan itellectuals. It wasn't around for very long before it was abandoned but how amazing it must have been when it was in occupied. We are so lucky that it escaped pilaging and is still so well preserved for people to see.

And of course without the skills of such a talented photographer there would be no way to capture the beauty of Machu Picchu.

When it was for a sacred building the Incans would carve the rocks so that they fit together perfectly and they did it all without morter either.
Now we are out of Peru... but still in the Andes. This was taken during the bus ride from Santiago to Mendoza. We climbed, and climbed, and climbed up this road and when we couldn't climb any further we drove through a mountain via a really long tunnel. When we came out the other side we were in Argentina.

Pictures from Trujillo, Peru

This is a polychrome frieze from the Huaca de la Luna (Temple of the Moon). This is original paint that has been preserved for centuries by sand. The Moche people built this temple over 6 centuries to 600 AD. It has survived numerous El Ninos and is still being painstakingly excavated.
This is a very small portion of Chan Chan which is the world's largest adobe built city. It covers 28 sq kilometers and was home to 60,000 people around 1300 AD. The city is divided into 9 different subcities. Only one of which is open to the public.
This cute little guy is a Hairless Peruvian Dog. They were always hanging around the different temples.
These are traditional reed built fishing boats in the fishing village of Huanchaco. The locals here are amoung the few that still know how to build and use these boats that date back 2,000 years.
We got to watch this guy set out for some evening fishing. The boats only last a few months before they become water logged and another replaces it. Absolutely amazing watching these guys paddling out into the open ocean.

southern peru

Friends, family, maybe random blog readers from the internet,

Jeff and I have made our way almost through Peru; we are now relaxing and soaking up sun on the terrace in Arequipa. Last you had read we were to fly to Cuzco, the famed belly button of the world, this saved us our sanity from 24 possible bus hours. We found the best little hostel in the colonial city close to the main square. Cuzco is busy with tourists wanting to explore the ancient trials left by the Incans- who’s to blame them the Incan ruins are absolutely stunning. The large amount of tourists encourages the emergence of touts hawking city and Inca Trail tours or over-priced restaurants.

We tried to visit as many sights in the city and around as we could without wearing ourselves out: the ruins of Saqsaywaman and the art museums of the city. Of course the main purpose to head to the 11,000 feet high city was to launch a visit to the Big MP (Machu Picchu). We opted out of going with a tour so that we could travel the way we chose. We toyed with the idea of hiking the 4-day Inca Trail but decided that wasn’t our priority. Our tour began early in the morning with a Vanaxi (I believe Jeff already explained this mode of transportation) ride to Ollantaytambo, a fabulous Incan city ruin a few hours from Cuzco. We took a tour of the complex before catching the train (the only way to travel to Machu Picchu Pueblo not via the Inca Trail) to the little crummy town that would house us for the evening. We arrived, checked in to our hostel, and immediately set off to hike up an adjacent mountain.

Although the mountain Putucusi is quite a bit lower in elevation, ≈ 8,500 feet, than the places we have been living; the hike was VERTICAL with parts only possible by climbing up established wooden ladders. We were unsure we would make it, especially since we were racing the daylight to not get caught in the forest in the dark. But as you can see in the pictures we made it! It was worth every pain; the view across the valley to Machu Picchu was gorgeous. The evening was uneventful and we went to bed early to be up to make one of the first busses (5:30) up the mountain to the ruins of Machu Picchu.

I had wanted to go early to beat the crowds and to see the ruins blanketed in fog as they are known to be in the early morning. We of course had no idea that the city was going to remain engulfed all day. Nevertheless we had a great visit of the majestic citadel accompanied by our guide Ernesto. We stayed as long as we could in the rain walking around the ruins before returning to the town and taking the train back to Ollantaytambo and then vanaxi to Cuzco.

We stayed one more day in the city and took another night bus to the white city of Arequipa, Peru’s second largest city. It’s called the white city because many of the old colonial buildings are constructed using sillar, a white volcanic stone. The view almost anywhere in the city is fascinating because of the volcanoes: there are always three to be seen on the horizon all over 19000 feet. We have been here for a few days and will set off again on Sunday (the 13th) in hopes of making it to Mendoza by the 17th, so we are at some type of a destination for Christmas.

We love you all and think of you often,
Red

Photos of the Southern Peru

Saqsaywaman

Ollantaytambo

Our mountain, Putucusi, with rays of light shinning on Machu Picchu in the background

Us wet and cold, but happy at the big MP

out of our hostel window, "el Misti"

Big Bus Fun Trip

Our “Big Bus Fun Trip” is underway and going strong (which is only easy to say right now because we’re not currently in a bus). To bring everyone up to date, we left Cuenca on November 28^th. We took a morning bus to an un-noteworthy town north of the Peru/ Ecuador border called Machala. From there we were able to catch a CIFA bus that crossed said border to another un-noteworthy town called Tumbes, Peru. This was our best option for crossing the border because otherwise it is supposedly a real pain in the ass requiring multiple bus/ taxi/ walking changeovers. According to other travel blogs the border crossing here is one of the most dangerous in South America (we had no real issues and were only consciously cheated out of $10). From Tumbes we hooped into a van-taxi (a vanaxi if you will aka combis) with about 10 other people and headed to Mancora, which is Peru’s beach town-of-choice. We got there around 8 pm which put us at about 11 hrs of travel for our first day. That night we stayed at a horrible hostel which I don’t want to get into right now because it’s still too fresh. However, we were able to get into another hostel the next morning and have a great couple days in Mancora. We spent those days burning on the beach, watching surfers, and drinking cervezas – officially we didn’t drink any beers on Sunday because it was elections and for some reason Peruvians aren’t aloud to sell alcohol during elections.

After two days of relaxing we were ready to hit the road again so we took a day bus to Trujillo. It was hard to find a good bus to Trujillo because most departed at times that would have delivered us to Trujillo in the middle of the night. We had only one option which was with the company El Dorado, which to say the least isn’t the best bus company. For starters we had an unscheduled bus change in Chiclayo not once but twice (we got off our bus for who knows what reason onto another bus only to find out 10 minutes later that the new bus was broken). We got onto the third bus, which the driver then scraped up against the huge metal exit gate, to figure out that there weren’t as many seats as the first bus and some kid ended up having to stand... for the next 4 hrs. The rest of the ride was uneventful except for when we drove through a cloud of smoke caused by a roadside fire.

We got into Trujillo around 8 pm again without any reservations (fast learners) but this time with an idea of where we wanted to stay. Our hostel was a couple blocks from the main square in an old colonial mansion – it had great wooden floors, quirky setup rooms, and courtyards. Trujillo is a really cool colonial city. We spent the next day touring Chan Chan – the biggest adobe built town in the world – and Huacas del Sol and de la Luna. All three sites were awe-inspiring but if I had to rate them Huaca de la Luna would be 1^st for it amazingly preserved painted friezes from 2000 yrs ago, Chan Chan 2^nd for sheer size (28 sq km), and Huaca del Sol 3^rd basically because it is just a giant mound of mostly-washed away adobe bricks.

We spent the next day hanging out around town and then got a night bus to Lima. We didn’t just get any night bus, we got the ‘realamente cama 180’ aka the ‘real bed 180’ – it was pretty sweet. We were also in the very front row on the second level of the bus so we could see out the windshield (for better or for worst). We arrived in Lima at 730 am, got a taxi to the airport, and were in a plane flying to Cusco by 1030 am. Now I know this is the “Big Bus Fun Trip” and we kind of cheated by flying to Cusco, but the bus ride would’ve been 24 hrs and we flew in just over 1 hr. You do the math. Anyways that pretty much brings us up to date. We are in Cusco right now and planning on going to Machu Picchu in a couple days. I will post some pictures soon. I hope everyone is well.

-Beacon