Wow. Just Plain Wow.

After overnighting in Puno, we made our way to the port, where we started our overnight trip to some of the islands of Lake Titicaca: Uros, Amantani and Taquile isalnds.

Staying in the home of an Amantani islander, Elaria, was a humbling experience: dirt-floored kitchen, tiny wood stove, no running water, but a very big heart.

Our hostess was Quechua, and Spanish was her second language. Since Spanish is, like, our sixth language, communication was basic, simple sentences. It's amazing, though, how much we could communicate in our different tongues.

Elaria fed us lunch, dinner and breakfast, gave us local garb so we could join the community dance at the "discotheque," and essentially showed us what it's like to live in this remote part of the world. We brought rice, sugar, noodles and a fresh pineapple from Puno to give to her. She was delighted with the pineapple, cradling it and saying "muy rica."

This morning, our boat took us to Taquile Island, where we walked about a mile and a half across the island, stopping in the main square for lunch and stopping every few hundred feet to marvel at the views.

We returned this afternoon to Puno, bought bus tickets for tomorrow morning to Copacabana, Bolivia, went to dinner on the main plaza (and had the best "view seats" in the city), and settled into our comfy hotel, the Casona Colon.

Copacabana isn't Barry Manilow's Copa. It's the jumping off point to visit Isla del Sol and Isla de la Luna on the Bolivian side of Lake Titicaca. We're not sure what to expect in terms of wi-fi access, so it may be a couple more days until we're able to post again.

Until we are able to log on again, here are some pix from the past couple of days.

This woman invited us into her home on the "floating islands" of Uros on Lake Titicaca. The islands are ingeniously bundled reeds that support entire communities. Interesting that they have solar panels that enable TV, radio and Internet.

Karen loves being around water. Here, she's on her way to Amantani Island, where we''ll be staying with a local islander.

 

 Here's our Amantani hostess, Elaria, fixing us lunch of fried cheese, quinoa soup and potatoes.

This is the view from our room at Elaria's.

This was our mud-bricked home for the night. 

The local Amantani women (and a son), both knitting and gossiping.

Sunset from the Pachamama temple at the top of Amantani Island, with the Cordillera Oriente in the distance.

Still at the Pachamama Temple, just looking a different direction.

Elaria dressed us in local garb and lead us by flashlight on the trails to the local community center, or what they call their "discotheque." No, convertible pants and hiking boots are NOT part of the local garb.

Taquile Island has lots of these arches all over. But this one was the most interesting. That's Amantani in the distance.

 From the top of Taquile Island.

Back in Puno, this was the view from our alcove table at dinner.

 

An Awesome Journey to Lake Titicaca

So the other day, we're eating lunch in Chivay, in the Colcha Canyon, and a woman noticed that Brad was wearing a Big Sur Marathon shirt, and she said she ran it several years ago. We struck up conversation, and lo and behold, she lives in Thousand Oaks.

Amazing that you can be on the Edge of Nowhere and run into people from your own city.

Anyway, this morning we were up early and traveled deep into the Colcha Canyon (said to be twice the depth of the Grand Canyon), home of massive condors. This picture doesn't truly capture the majesty of the condor. As they swept in front of us, their size was simply amazing.

At lunch, we joined our new Thousand Oaks friends, Lucinda and Scott, for lunch on the main square of Chivay, and enjoyed great conversation, good food, and decent bottle of Peruvian wine.

After lingering a little too long over lunch, we had to rush to catch a new minivan bound for Puno, on Lake Titicaca. It was a 6-hour drive through the mountains, and we're now ensconced in our hotel at about 13,000 feet.

Since we arrived after dark, all we've seen are the twinkling lights of the city, but we're excited to see it in all its glory during the coming days.

On Tuesday, we are heading to a couple of islands, and will stay the night with a local family on one of them. Since there's no electricity or running water where we're going, we highly doubt they have wi-fi out there, so it may be a couple of days until we can post again.


Until then, here are a couple of photos from the day.

Yes, flamingos in the high Andes.

 

What do you call a cross between a llama and an alpaca. A llamaca?

Leaving the Colcha Canyon.

The Highest We've Ever Been

Today we both got higher than ever before ... 16,100 feet. It was on the way from Arequipa to the Colcha Canyon.

The rock marks 4,910 meters, or 16,100 feet.

Once in Colcha Canyon, we went for a hike from the town of Yanque ... here's it's main plaza:

 

And here's our group while on the hike:

 

Here's one of the local scenes along the hike:

And here's another one:

And finally, this is us, celebrating our 17th anniversary with a bottle of Cuzqueno beer ... who says we don't know how to live it up?

Finding New Friends in Stunning Places

After an overnight bus ride from Cusco, we arrived early in the morning on Saturday in Arequipa, and were met by our new friends, Pepe y Yolanda, the grandparents of a family friend in Charlotte, North Carolina.

They showered us with attention, drove us into the surrounding countryside, took us back their home for lunch, then took us back again to the historic city center, where we took in the sites and enjoyed a wonderful dinner overlooking the Plaza de Armas and the cathedral ... with fireworks in the background. And then they fixed us homemade pisco sours and gave us a warm bed for the evening.

It´s these kinds of special bonds that are forged while traveling that make it such a wonderful experience.

As we write this, we are rushing on Sunday morning to meet our guide for a two day excursion to the Colcha Canyon, and then on to Puno and Lake Titicaca. We´re not sure what kind of Internet access we´ll have for the next several days, so you may not hear from us. Just know we´re having a blast.

A couple pix from the past couple days...

Our wonderful Arequipa hosts, Pepe y Yolanda.

This is the Cuzco plaza, on our way to get our bags and catch our bus to Arequipa.

And on the Sixth Day, We Rested

After yesterday's hike-a-mania, we were content today to take it easy.

We did a 6 a.m. soak in the local thermal pools about a 10-minute walk out of town,  and we followed it up with dual massages in town, then a delicious lunch at a vegetarian restaurant.

After a quick run through the crafts market, caught the 3:30 train for Cusco, where we enjoyed a half-bottle of Peruvian cabernet It's not as bad as it sounds.

We arrived in the dark in Cusco, taxied to our hotel, and then walked to the main square, which has two cathedrals on it. 

Even Superlatives Aren't Enough for Machu Picchu

Neither words nor photos can possibly do Machu Picchu justice.

Seeing it, and feeling its energy, literally brings tears to your eyes.

But since we took more than 400 photos, we'll try to share a little bit of the experience.

The morning fog gives a mystical feel.

We had no idea we'd meet the Dolly Llama on this trip.

 In the afternoon, the fog lifted, revealing even more magnificence.

We climbed that mountain. Took three hours. We get our knee replacements when we get home.

We got to the site at 6:15 a.m. and got shooed out at 5 p.m. Our smiles at the end of the day say it all.

Anybody know a guide book publisher who needs a good pic?

Not Your Typical Election Day

At an organic restaurant we dined at a couple nights ago, El Alburgue, we learned that they will take you to their organic farm for a traditional meal prepared in an underground stone oven. We couldn't say "no," and it turns out we had one of our most memorable lunches. Ever.

Our hostess, Virginia, led us through their beautiful gardens, up a rocky, rutted lane, and into the farm field, where they grow lettuces, cauliflower, tomatoes, edible flowers, onions, leeks, corn, potatoes, peppers -- all with "no chems."

Our tableclothed table was waiting for us in the field, practically in the shadows of the Ollantaytambo ruins. But first, a pile of river stones had been heated to superhot, then lined a small pit. On top of the stones went layers of chicken, pork and alpaca, followed by sweet potatoes, yellow potatoes and gigantic lima beans, each separated by layers of hot rock.

Here's the layer of chicken going on the hot rocks.

This was then covered with water-soaked "sugar paper," and then covered with dirt to make what looked like s steaming ant hill. After half an hour, the fixins were uncovered, and served with an organic salad, along with purple corn juice and Matacuy, a digestive.

Virginia then departed with cooking crew, leaving just the two of us to soak up a superlative high-Andean dining experience.

If you look closely, you can see the ruins in the hills.

With our "food high" still kicked in, we said "adios" to charming Ollantaytambo and caught the train for the 90-minute trip to Aguas Caliente, the end of the line for those doing the Machu Picchu expereince.

Karen's happiest when her passport is at the ready.

After the past few days in the desolate Andes, Aguas nearly overwhelms the senses. A mixture of modern, funky, rustic, hippie and yuppie is all thrown together, somewhere in between a Star Wars bar and Waterworld, with more pizza joints per capita than anywhere we've visited.

Our home for the next couple of days is Gringo Bill's. Don't let the name make you think it's a backpacker's hostel.  It's a delightful jumble of stone staircases, terraces, views and spacious rooms. With TV -- oh glorious TV!

While we could spend the evening watching election returns on CNN, we're choosing to truly get away from it all, so the TV is off and the music is on.

Gringo Brad on our patio at Gringo Bill's.

After today's lunch, it was hard to think we'd have a dinner that rivaled it, but we sure came close. At the Tree House, Karen had an organic eggplant parmesean, and Brad had trout cerviche. It was so good, Karen predicts we'll eat there again.

On our way home, we came across a group of teenagers in the main plaza who were having a great time entertaining the crowd with what looked like a cross between traditional native dances and MTV. Their laughs, smiles and energy were uplifting. A great way to end an eventful day.

With tomorrow's alarm set for 4:30 for breakfast at 5 and Machu Picchu bus departure at 5:45, tonight we are hitting the hay early. We hope to awaken to no recounts.

Oh The Things We Do (When We Don't Have To Work)

It's nice not having to go into the office on a Monday morning.

Our toughest task today was trying to stay in front of the tourist buses. And take good pix. Thankfully, we succeeded.

After breakfast and a delicious cappuccino from across the street from our hotel, we headed for the ruins of Ollantaytambo. While there's a serene, spiritual feel today, it's actually the site of a horrible past. When the conquistadors were defeated in their first attempt to take the fortress, they returned with a force four times the size of the original. You can figure out the rest.

We then met up again with Jesus, our driver from yesterday, to take us for the rest of the day to a couple of remote sites -- with a lunch stop in Urubamba.

While it doesn't sound like much, locals urged us to visit the salt mines, or salinas, that have been used for centuries.

Glad we did. Stepping onto the mountainside covered with thousands of bright white salt pans was surreal. We walked the top edge of the pans, as workers -- young and old -- toiled at extracting the salt and packing into large white bags. The guide book says it's used for cattle salt licks, but Jesus said it's used as table salt, too.

He then drove us across a lunar-like landscape to Moray, an ancient and fascinating site where the Incas dug huge, quarry-like holes in the ground, and then terraced them to grow different crops on different levels. It was a sort of giant farm experiment to see what grew best at the many levels.

Jesus then took a rough dirt road as a shortcut back to Ollantaytambo, which was right next to the train tracks. Unexpectedly, a local farmer had rerouted irrigation flues using river rocks in a way that flooded the road and made it impassable. Instead of making the huge trek back the way we came, Jesus and Brad removed the rocks to drain the mini-lake that had formed. And then they replaced the rocks after Jesus made it safely through.

Here are some of those great pix we were fortunate to snap today.

At the top of the Ollantaytambo ruins.

 No, that's not a Greek Island village. It's thousand of salt pans that have been used for centuries.

It may look like crop circles, but it's a huge terraced pit that was used for farm experimentation.

 There are snow-capped mountaintops behind those clouds.

The Sacred Valley.

Getting a Little High in Peru

We jumped quickly into the adventure today.

Our alarm failed to activate at 3:45, but our host thankfully came knocking right on time.

A quick coffee, juice, bread and cheese, and then we were taxiing through the deserted streets of Lima to the airport. We caught our flight to Cuzco, were met by our driver Jesus, who then took us to the Inca ruins about 5 miles outside (and above) Pisac, at about 10,000 feet.

He dropped us off, and we agreed to meet him three hours later back in Pisac so we could walk through the ruins and then hike the trail that the locals use to get to and from the town. Little did we know what awaited us.

What makes the ruins so spectacular is their setting on practically vertical, rocky slopes that scrape the roof of the sky. There's something both humbling and mystical to tread the same paths that people have been using for centuries. It's hard for us to comprehend, but generations of families live beyond peaks and roads, depending on switchbacks that defy the steepness scale. They bring their homegrown veggies to the markets, and haul their provisions back.

We were blessed to come upon Rolando, a teenager from the roadless area who's now going to school in Pisac and sees his family by making the trek home when classes are not in session. He's a gifted panpiper, and he gave us our own personal concert, while we were seated in the Throne of the Princess at what once was the magnificent Temple del Sol.

Suffice it to say that an uncommon peace descended on us at that moment. A mere photo does not do the moment justice (we'll try posting a video when we find a better wi-fi connection):

By the time we descended the side of the mountain, we were an hour late in meeting Jesus. And then we spent another hour at the Sunday market filled with crafts, jewelry, fruits, veggies, coca leaves and restaurants.

It was then another hour's drive to our home for the next two nights, Ollantaytambo. It's charming, but the woman at the next table at dinner, Maria from Nuremberg, said it best: Ollantaytambo has an elevated energy, a brilliance. And the people have an uncommon heart."

One of those people was our waitress, Lynda Morrisey, who allowed us to use her Mac to make this post when our laptop experienced some jitters (probably from the altitude).

Before sharing just a few other photos from the day, we want to give a shout out to Karen's sister and brother-law, Sharon and Wes ... hope your 29th anniversary is the best one yet!

The Pisac Ruins, site of an Inca citadel

This is at the top of the ruins, where there's a "hitching post for the sun."

Yes, it is as scary as it looks.

Can you tell I forgot to pack my hair gel?

The Pisac mercado, also known as Wal-Mart of the Andes.

Let the adventures continue.

We're in the City Where Lima Beans Were Invented!

You can't say we don't sometimes push the needle.

We worked late on Friday, then hosted friends for wine and dinner, then caught the shuttle for LAX at 10 p.m., and got on our plane for Lima at 1 a.m. And promptly fell asleep in some of the most uncomfortable plane seats on Earth.

We landed at 3:30 this afternoon and were shuttled to the Hostal Mami Panchita in the San Miguel neighborhood. In no time at all, we were taxiing to the Miraflores neighborhood so we could purchase our train tickets for later in the week and have an awesome dinner on the pier. 

The cerviche and grilled seabass with Peruvian potatoes at La Rosa Nautica cost twice as much as our room, but was well worth it.

After earlier questioning our ability to communicate in Spanish, we're feeling pretty good after a couple of experiences the first few hours on the ground. The first was when we successfully got a taxi driver to back down from charging us twice as much as initially agreed. And the other was when we explained that the hotel cashier gave us back too much change from our bill.

Tomorrow starts earlier than we would hope. Our alarm is set for 3:45 so we can have breakfast, pack and be in the taxi by 4:30 so we can catch our flight to Cuzco at 6. 

Getting out of the big city and into the mountains should produce some Kodak moments ... so we expect we'll have some photos to begin posting tomorrow.

So begins another grand adventure.

T-Minus 3 Days until Peru y Bolivia

The anticipation continues building. Just three days until our plane to Lima (Peru, not Ohio).

Even though we've been been putting the finishing touches on our itinerary, we're wondering if anyone has suggestions for undiscovered or off-the-beaten-path activities or sites.

The main destinations of our trip are Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley, the colonial city of Arequipa, the Colcha Canyon and Lake Titicaca. We'll spend just minimal time in Lima and La Paz.

So if you have any been-there-done-that suggestions that don't appear in the guide books or on travel sites, we'd like to hear from you ... feel free to post something in the comments section.

For all the doubters

We received the photos today from our new friend Hauker showing that we did -- indeed -- do the Polar Bear.

We knew this opportunity could possibly never come again. So we couldn't say "no."

Hauker's a very talented photographer and a budding documentary filmmaker. Not to mention a mean accordion player. Here are a couple more from him: