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

Plans for the future.

We have now been living in Cuenca for almost a month, which means that we need to commit to another month on our apartment´s lease or move on. We have really enjoyed Cuenca for its wonderful art and variety of food. But because there isn´t a possiblity of getting a work visa here we have decided to move on. Our destination is Bariloche, Argentina. We have looked into flying down there but the cost of tickets is out of our budget so we have decided to bus. It is going to be a long bus trip. But this way we get to see Peru. We are planning on taking our time so we can see as much as possible. Destinatons on our list include the beach, Chan Chan (an ancient adobe city), Machu Picchu, El Misti Volcano, colca canyon, mendoza... I don´t know thats starting to sound like a lot so we´ll see and keep everyone posted. Before we go I thought I´d post some last pictures of things from Cuenca.

The New Cathedral. This is right on the main plaza downtown.

This is our apartment building. The photo is taken from the 84 stairs across the river which we climb multiple time a day to get to downtown.

We saw this awesome pot we saw at a museum. I don´t remember which culture it came from but it is pre-Incan.

Vilcabamba

A little glimpse into the town of Vilcabamba. A nice little town nestled against the surrounding mountains.

This picture was taken from the bus on the way back. We must have climbed to over 12,000 ft. The views were just expansive, and luckily there were some clouds to make for good photos.

Podocarpus National Park

A nice relief from the hot and humid day at La Cascada Poderosa (the strong waterfall).

The Eastern side of the Podocarpus which is mostly cloud forest.

A catepillar which we saw on the trail. Look, don´t touch.

I don´t remember the name of this waterfall exactl. I think it translated to something like "the little joker".

We didn´t have to cross this bridge... but we did just so that we could say that we had. The biggest fear was probably tetnus (which we are now vaccinated against).