Entries Tagged 'Travel' ↓

I joined my sister, my oldest niece, and a cousin’s daughter in L.A. and together we flew to Lima (eight hour flight) and then on to Cusco (one hour flight).

Cusco

Cusco sits at an elevation of about 11,000 feet.  Our plan was to take it easy the first day or so to adjust to the altitude.  This worked out well.

Formerly the capital of the Inca Empire, Cusco is now ruled by tourists.  It’s still got a lot of charm though.

For a Peruvian sol (about three soles to the US dollar) you can take a photo like this:

Here’s a view just outside our hotel:

My sister and the girls in the Plaza de Armas of Cusco:

Always with the shopping:

Monasterio

In Cusco we stayed several nights at the Monasterio, a very pleasant place to hang out and adjust to the altitude of Cusco.  You can even get rooms where they pump in oxygen.

It was originally a monastery that was built in 1595.  That’s a 300 year old cedar tree in the central courtyard:

The lobby is a nice place to drink coca tea (which supposedly helps with the altitude):

The Chapel:

CAITH

One of the main reasons my sister wanted to go to Peru was to visit and film CAITH to help raise awareness.

This is the director, formerly a math professor in Italy:

Sacsayhuamán

Just outside Cusco is Sacsayhuamán (sounds like “sexy woman”), a huge Incan site.

My sister is in the middle:

The statue on the left is visible from the Monasterio:

To Machu Picchu via Ollayantantambo

We took a taxi to Ollayantantambo…

…where we caught a train…

View from the train:

Another view from the train:

Aguas Calientes (Machu Picchu Village)

The train took us to Machu Picchu Village where we spent the night.

There is also a Plaza de Armas in Machu Picchu Village:

Machu Picchu

After a week of traveling it was finally Machu Pichhu day.

Everyone recommended seeing the “Lost City of the Incas” at sunrise, so we got up at 4:15 am, had a quick breakfast, and got in line for one of the first shuttle buses.  Alas it was overcast that morning.  However, we managed to avoid heavy rains by going early.

I took a lot of photos:

This is the Intihuatana stone, arranged to point directly at the sun during the winter solstice:

Flights are cheap.  

I saw a $59 flight from Seattle to LAX, and I couldn’t resist a quick Vancouver –> Seattle –> LA –> Vancouver trip.  

I took a bus from Vancouver to Seattle ($39), stayed with a friend, flew from Seattle to LAX for a few days of visiting with family, and then flew straight back to Vancouver.  I got lucky with the air travel:  17 minutes from getting dropped off at SeaTac to buckling in on an earlier flight and just five hours door-to-door on the return trip.

While vacationing in Maui my brother and I went on a day trip to the Big Island to visit Hawaii Volcanoes National Park.  You can almost feel the Earth simmering just below the surface.

You wonder if it makes sense to build roads here.

But they did and you can drive to the newly formed coastline.

Driving up the volcano it becomes dense rainforest.  There’s a lava tube you can walk through.

There is something about Maui that is good for the soul.

Something in the sweet warm air, the fields of sugar cane and pineapples, the palm trees swaying in the trade winds, the Humpback whales passing by, the soothing surf lulling you to sleep each night, the conch blowing at sunset, the macadamia nuts, poke, laulaus, papayas, Maui chips, Hawaiian sweet bread French toast, sandy beaches, rainbows, waterfalls, volcanoes, tropical birds, tropical flowers, lounging on the lanai with a pina colada and mahi mahi right off the barbeque, swimming with turtles and schools of tropical fish, and spending halcyon days barefoot and carefee.

I miss it already.

Here’s where we stayed:

My brother and I went on a short hike to a blowhole:

Random flower shot:

Short video clip from the blowhole: