But first... Peru

I wouldn't think that anything could overshadow a trip to Machu Picchu in Peru, but that was before I thought I would quit my job and move across the country.

But, we did in fact make a trip to Peru recently. The reasoning was 3-fold. First, Machu Picchu has been on Brian's pick of places to travel since 2000. I remember hearing about it from him, and thinking "Huh, I guess he'll have to find someone that wants to go hike up the side of a mountain in a politically unstable country with him." Turns out it was me, just 13 years later. Second, our great friend Carolyn brought up the idea late last summer as her response to us announcing that we would be leaving Tucson. It turns out it has been on her bucket list for a very long time, her kids were old enough that she could leave them for a little while with family and, well, we were leaving. It was our last hurrah together. Third, I thought it would be a great way to celebrate the completion of Brian's long arduous journey through graduate school. So last fall, we scheduled the trip for mid-May to fit be squeezed between Brian's graduation and Carolyn's middle child end-of-school-year performance. If I had thought about it for more than a few minutes last fall, I would have realized how busy we would be with selling the house, moving, and Brian's unplanned two weeks in Israel for a chemistry conference. The scheduling was a bit tight, and things were a bit hectic surrounding the trip, but we had a blast anyway.

Brian and I flew out mother's day afternoon. In true Brian and Shelley style, we had already packed our camera and it was on its way to NYC. But we never remember to actually use the camera on vacation anyway, so it doesn't really matter. As soon as Bryce and Carolyn made it to Peru, we had more than enough cameras between the four of us. 

We first flew to Cuzco, which is a beautiful city in the mountains near Machu Picchu. Its elevation is 11,152 ft, so we spent the recommended couple of nights there to acclimate. 

A note about the elevation: I was terrified of altitude sickness. I was sure that even before we left Cuzco, I was going to be so sick that I wouldn't be able to walk, much less climb over the couple of passes over 13,000 ft that we had planned. Luckily, it turned out that I had ZERO problems with the elevation (after the sleepiness and lethargy of the first day in Cuzco had passed). 

It may have been the large volumes of coca tea that I consumed. You really should go read that link, because yes, it's THAT coca tea. The leaves of the tea are the same source for cocaine. The wikipedia page says that it is a stimulant that can be compared with drinking coffee or regular tea. I think that must be true, as I felt zero effect from drinking it. But, all the locals swear by it to prevent altitude sickness, and I am willing to say that it may have played a part in my feeling fine the entire time. 

So let's get to the pictures, shall we? First, the elevation profile of our hike: 

I really can't remember how to tell the difference between an alpaca and a llama. And please don't tell me again, I don't really care. Anyway, here's one of those shaggy creatures (and I don't mean Carolyn; I mean the thing NEXT to Carolyn).

The city of Cuzco from our hotel:

Just a little practice hike the day before the real thing:

Here are our porters (Batman and Robin) drinking chicha on the way to the start of the hike. Brian *really* liked chicha, which is really dangerous because he acts like a goof ball after half of a beer. Our guide told us that this stuff keeps fermenting in your stomach for hours - so you get drunker long after you've stopped drinking it. It was yummy - especially the strawberry flavored one.

It's not a good sign when your guide looks at a map the first thing on the first day of your hike: 

Let the hiking commence (And don't even think that this looks like a lot of water. You just wait.):

Within an hour, we've encountered our first ruins (Yes Carolyn, I had to steal this off of your Facebook because you have still refused to upload your pictures to Dropbox):

Now it's getting wet. But we're near the end of our first day of walking and we've all made it to the first peak at about 13,650 ft. In this photo, you can see our porters, Batman and Robin, wearing the blue and red capes that gave them their name.

Around lunch time on the second day, we stop only for a snack before we tackle our highest climb to Puma Pass (14,698 ft): 

Things got a little hairy on that climb, and I thought we might lose Carolyn. But we took it slow and made it to the top to celebrate. By the way, I am absolutely frozen in this picture. I was worried about overheating with the steep climb and the unbreathing rain poncho, so had taken off my fleece underneath. However, we took our time and neither Brian nor I would leave Carolyn, so all three of us were frozen to the core. 

Nothing that a good hot lunch couldn't cure (these are our appetizers):

And we even let Carolyn use spoons! (Can we all say "brain is low on oxygen"?)

Here's after lunch, and before the slogging began. I remember being here, and I was so happy. I wasn't sick from the altitude, my legs felt great, I had warmed up with lots of hot soup in my belly. Ah, bliss. But we will just not talk about the second half of the second day. At all. Don't ask.

I said that we're not talking about it.

Bryce, I said that we are not talking about it. Sheesh.

Okay, I do have to say a few words about what I have taken to calling the "24 hours from hell". And it's a compliment to Brian. Of course. This guy carried all of our stuff the entire trip in jeans and tennis shoes that were not waterproof. He doesn't get kudos for not having the right gear, but for not complaining a single time.  Even though I complained almost non-stop. You see, he was incredibly busy leading up to this trip what with finishing his dissertation, presenting at a conference in Israel and selling our house, so he made do with what he had on hand. I had been sporting a shoulder injury for the last year, so I didn't even carry a day pack, he simply did it for me. 

Also, he stayed with me the entire time. I'm sure that I was unpleasant at times and probably going much slower than he wanted to go when trying to balance on top of stones to avoid falling into hip-deep mud (and falling into hip-deep mud, but we're not complaining here), but he stuck with me. And he stuck with Carolyn when she needed the extra help. His quiet and modest endurance in trying events like this wins me all over again, every single time.

Anyway, let's skip to the afternoon of the third day. Because that's when this hike turned into what I thought Peru and the area around Machu Picchu looked like. The sun came out, the ponchos were put away. Brian and I took our sweet time enjoying the sights, smells and sounds of the beautiful jungle.

Our reward for speeding it off the mountain in the ridiculous weather? Hot springs. And they were way nicer than anyone could imagine at this point in the trip. 

Here's an unexpected bonus for our trip: zip-lining! I'm sure that Brian was spectacularly excited when our guide announced the possibility. It turned out that Brian, Carolyn AND Bryce have a fear of heights, so I have NO idea why we ended up doing this. But it was fun, everyone's adrenaline got pumping and I attest, everyone did all five zip-lines to get to the bottom. Look at Brian; I think he even enjoyed it a little:

And yes, I zip-lined upside down!

Nothing like a high-risk activity in a third-world country that you payed way too little for to get your blood pumping! Anyway, after that, on to Machu Picchu!

Well, we have to walk there first:

And act silly:

And have a fight on top of a train:

And remember where we were going:

And take a self portrait (which our guide never figured out - he always insisted on taking one of us when he saw us doing this):

And take the worst photo ever:

No, really. Go back and look at each of our faces in that photo. Hee hee. Kills me, every time I look at it.

But then we'll make up for it, almost:

And this picture is here because Carolyn loves it. She calls it "Why you drinking my water". In hindsight, I wonder if I was just beginning to notice how ridiculously pale and thin Brian is looking. 

Yep, you guessed it. Brian is getting sick. Sicker than a dog. I believe now that Bryce got food poisoning the night before we got to Machu Picchu, but that Brian actually got some virus. It took him a month and a half to recover. Although out of order, this is a pic of Brian looking his best on the day of Machu Picchu:

Poor guy. He has wanted to see MP so bad for so many years and he doesn't really remember most of it. 

Here's the first few minutes at MP when we still had Brian with us so we could get a group photo. But soon after the photo, while our guide was droning on about how great the Incas were, Brian sat down and no one was moving him. We left him at one spot while the three of us continued touring. After most of our tour was over, I went back with our guide to pick him up. Poor guy doesn't remember a thing about most of the day. 

MP was amazing. It was beautiful, and some of the engineering feats that they pulled off were stunning. Most of them had to do with water-flow, but also the joints in their masonry look almost air tight. I don't think in this case that words or photos can convey the magnificence of it.