Peru: Overnight Buses, Cessnas & Taxi Cabs

We had a whirlwind of travel the last 48 hours.

We took an overnight bus from Arequipa to Nasca, flew over the Nasca Lines in a 4 passenger Cesna plane, then took a nap and hopped on another overnight bus from Nasca to arrive in Lima at 5:30am. WHEW, we were TIRED yesterday--but we somehow managed to sleep walk through a tour of the ruins of Huaca Pucllana before we were able to get into our hostel room.

Monkey Geoglyph at the Nazca Lines

 

We are here awaiting a flight to Quito today.

"QUITO?????" you say. "You have already been to Quito!"

Why YES! We are nearing the end of our trip. It is time to come home! We are tired, we are happy, and we are ready to be in one place for a little while, close to friends, family and home cooked meals with fresh vegetables in them.

Before we fly back to Portland, we go to Machachi, our second home, to visit the Chiribogas one last time, and we will go back to visit the Shuar for a few days. We have a plan to do some online crowd funding for the Shuar community, so we will be collecting what info we need before we launch. Get ready!

Peru: Machu Picchu, Christmas & Happy New Year!

Because we are sooooo far behind, this post will have to be mostly in photos. Sorry for the lack of detail, especially with how EPIC these last few adventures have been. . .

We had an amazing time with Alex, in Lima, Cusco, taking the back route to Machu Picchu (it was literally trains, buses, taxis, long winding roads and a nice 18km hike along a train track, parts of which we loved, others we could have lived without).

 

 

Panorama of Machu Picchu

Alex & Ryan as Super Tourists--this is not posed

Walking the train track to Machu Picchu

 

 

 

 We had a beautiful time on lake Titicaca for Christmas. We stayed at Hospedaje Samady, and our hosts were Felix, a man with a beautiful giant smile, his wife, Magna, who wore traditional dress and cooked the tastiest meals, and their children. We started off Christmas day looking through our stockings from Santa then visited the floating reed Uros island. We sadly said goodbye to Alex after an awesome high altitude hike to a Mirador of the lake the day after Christmas. She went her separate way to Chile!

 

our hosts on Lake Titikaka, Felix and Magna--they are in VERY colorful traditional dress because Maribel Huaquisto, an apparent local celebrity, filmed a music video on their property while we were there. . . but Felix and Magna didn't make the final cut, unfortunately.

 

Its bad. But check it out! Our favorite was watching the man in the colorful vest dance. Maribel Huaquisto, Dejenme Vivir:  http://youtu.be/qBD5EWzKNV0

CHRISTMAS!

Alex and I rocking our Christmas Pants

 

 

 

The pier out to our Boat

 

 

The Uros Island, in its entirety. 26 people live here

 The Mirador of Lake Titikaka

 

Ryan and I ALMOST went to Bolivia from Puno, then turned around and headed to Arequipa where we thoroughly enjoyed the colonial architecture, celebrated New Years and bumbled around for 5 days while we applied for jobs....it's time to start thinking about the "real" world again...

The white walls of the White City, Arequipa



The Cathedral of Arequipa

rocking yellow for the New YEAR

And now we're in Nazca, and we JUST flew over the Nazca Lines!!!!!!

The photos don't do that justice, but here they are:

You'll have to look hard at the last one, it's amazing!

I hope you all had a beautiful Christmas and New Year!! We wish you all the best in the coming year, filled with life affirming challenges and love. 2013 was certainly a year full of love and excitement for us! We love you and miss you all, 

Anne & Ryan