Day 1: We left Kansas City at 8:00 a.m., and arrived in Lima, Peru at 11:30 p.m. We survived a terrifying ride to our hotel--Peruvian drivers are crazy--and crashed into bed, grateful that Peru was on central timezone.
Day 2: We were back at the airport in the morning for our flight from Lima to Cusco, which boasts an 11,000 foot elevation. We arrived in Cusco behind schedule so we made only a quick stop by our hotel to drop off our luggage before meeting our guided tour of Cusco's Plaza de armas and cathedral. Unfortunately, we couldn't take pictures of the cathedral's beautiful interior, but we took full advantage of the cathedral's breathtaking exterior.
Our next stop was Koricancha--Temple of the Sun--where we first experienced the haggling street merchants. If it weren't for Casey dragging Vince through the crowd, Vince surely would've bought something from everyone. Originally an Inca temple built to worship the sun, it was converted into a convent during the Spanish conquest.
Then, it was on to the Sacsayhuaman Fortress. It was so exquisitely constructed that no mortar was used and not even a piece of paper can fit in between the stones in most areas.
We visited a few more ruins, and finally made it back down the hill to Cusco, famished because we had skipped lunch. We had a great dinner of Alpaca steak for Vince (left) and Beef Stir-Fry for Casey (right). We crashed into bed again.
Day 3: It was back on the tour bus and on to the Sacred Valley, with a brief stop at the Pisac market. We snagged some great souvenirs for our family members, and became celebrities when three young women from another, non-American tour group asked to take a picture with us. Casey's sure it was all so that they could capture Vince on film. But we couldn't stay too long since we had much more to see. The Fortress of Ollantaytambo was next. We hiked up the many terraces--quite a feat in the high altitude--and rested at the top, where the temple was. The Incas quarried the pink granite stones that comprised the temple from a nearby mountain. They had to drag the heavy stones down the other mountain, across a river, and then up this mountain, so it's not surprising that they never did finish the temple. Why not build the temple on the granite mountain? Well, apparently the Ollantaytambo mountain was perfectly aligned with the sun on the solstices, an important factor for Inca worship.
We worked up quite an appetite with all that hiking. Good thing we had an amazing buffet lunch ready for us. The grounds were gorgeous, the food selection was amazing, and the live pan pipe players were the icing on the cake.
Since our hotel was in the Sacred Valley, we had a nice relaxing evening at our 5-star resort--Aranwa. The grounds were gorgeous and would not have been complete without the live grazing llamas (pronounced "yamas").
Day 4: The day you've all been waiting for--Machu Picchu and the engagement! Getting to and from Machu Picchu was a whole day trek. We were out of the hotel by 8:00 a.m. and didn't return until 11:30 p.m. Since part of the train tracks are still being rebuilt from the mudslides earlier this year, we had to take a 40 minute van ride to the train station. An hour and a half on a train, and then we were back on a bus, ascending the mountain's switchbacks at breakneck speed. We were rewarded at the top with an awe-inspiring view of Machu Picchu.
Machu Picchu's construction began in 1400 AD and was not finished until over 80 years later. But its residents didn't get to enjoy it for too long, for it was soon abandoned, for reasons which we still do not know. It was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham, unmolested by the looters that disgraced other Inca civilizations. It is estimated that at least 30% of the city remains to be excavated, a task which will begin soon.
After our tour, we had "free time" until our descent down the mountain. We hiked up more terraces to the very top, and took in the famous view of the whole city with the Huayna Picchu mountain in the background. It was here that Vince got down on one knee and asked Casey to marry him, and Casey, without a moment's hesitation, said yes! We then made our way back down the switchbacks, back through the valley on train, and back to our hotel on a bumpy bus drive, completely exhausted but utterly excited to plan our new life together.
Day 5: After our action-packed days in Cusco, we were excited to begin the more relaxing part of our trip in the Amazon. We were back at the Cusco airport for our quick flight to Puerto Maldonado.
Since we hadn't experienced every mode of transportation yet, we decided to take care of that during our trek to our Amazon lodgings--the Sandoval Lake Lodge. We were escorted to the Lodge's city office, packed the clothing and belongings we'd need for the next 3 days in little duffel bags, and headed to our waiting boat on the Madre de Dios River. After the 30 minute boat ride, we hiked 2 miles through the jungle.
Thankfully, we didn't have to carry our bags. But our journey wasn't over, we next boarded a canoe and enjoyed the ride as the staff paddled us across Sandoval Lake, an oxbow lake full of wildlife. We finally made it to the lodge, stashed our belongings in our quaint cabin, and rested until dinner. After dinner, we braved the dark jungle during our night walk, seeing tarantulas, a snake eating a toad, and lots and lots of ants.
Day 6: We drifted off to sleep to the sounds of the jungle, and awoke in the early morning for a catamaran ride around the lake. We were rewarded with seeing herons, bats, cormorants, hoatzins (prehistoric birds), the black caiman alligator, howler monkeys, and the famous river otters.
We returned back to the lodge for breakfast and rested until our afternoon jungle hike. Mother Nature was again cooperative: we saw three more species of monkeys and macaws. We rewarded Mother Nature by eating termites straight from the nest. After stomaching the little pests, Vince put his machete skills to use by opening a Brazil nut pod. We took our loot back to the lodge, cracked open the nuts, and enjoyed! We next took a night cruise looking for more black caiman alligators and then Vince beat Casey at every board game imaginable--chess, memory, connect 4--before dinner. A few minutes taking in the southern hemisphere stars and constellations, and then it was off to bed again.
Day 7: We begrudgingly left the lodge and traveled back by canoe, hiking, river boat, and airplane to Lima.
Day 8: We had all day in Lima, so we wandered around a shopping mall and saw Robin Hood in English with Spanish subtitles. Another crazy drive to the Lima airport, and we were boarded on our red-eye flight back to Houston. We arrived in Kansas City the next afternoon, completely exhausted but ecstatic to share our stories, pictures, and the news of our engagement with friends and family.
And that was just the beginning of June. We had a lot more to accomplish during the rest of the month...
1 comments:
Awww, super cute!
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