Peru Photos With Edits

We made it!

Quail eggs- yum

from a street vendor! even better...

Plaza de Armas in Lima, Peru

A wedding

Wooden carved supports for the elaborate balconies

Strikes and protests have been an issue in Lima this year, and the Policia are everywhere.

Inca Kola - Very popular. To me it tasted like weak cough medicine. This was the only bottle I tried, but it's everywhere.

Plaza de Armas, Lima, Peru

The road to our hostal

Taxis couldn't get all the way to our hostal due to stairs. In the road.

Cusco, Peru

Kim wasn't going to drink the popular Coca tea. Her resolution didn't last past the first breakfast we had.

Elaborate carved balconies are found all over Peru.

Cuzco is a rad little town. I want to spend more time there

Peru is still heavily Catholic, and the influence is obvious

Kim and I in Cuzco, Peru

Inka Stonework and me holding a bug of yummy huge Inkan popcorn. Bags like this were <20 cents, and I ate a few.

Inkan temple windows lined up

A peruvian woman weaving

Kim watching the weaving

Weaving. Peru is famous for it's textiles.

Cuzco, Peru

The precision of the Inkan stonework was incredible.

The later colonials, not so much.

Tiny Inkan stones

Qorikancha

These huge stones fit together to make buildings that have lasted thorugh earthquakes.

Kim at Qorikancha

3 levels og building. Inka, Colonial and modern

Kim can sleep anywhere

Qorikancha

Kim and Geoff at Qorikancha, a Dominican colonial era church buit atop an Inkan temple, that at one time was lined with 700 gold sheets, each about 2 kg. Amazing.

Qorikancha in Cuzco, Peru

Flowers at the Market

Kim eating fruit on the plaza

A lot of women still dress in traditional clothing, even in areas where no tourist would likely see them.

Plaza de Armas

Plaza de Armas, Cuzco, CA

La Catedral, Cuzco, Peru

Our room in the Hostal, night 2 of the trip

Good thing this was before the hike. Not sure I would have made it to the room after the hike.

Peruvian highlands

Plowing by Oxen

Wild mountains

Peruvian Highlands

Peruvian streets

Streets

I want one of these cart/bike hybrids. Don't know why, but I want one. If I could ship it home, I would have tried to buy one.

cool Scooter taxi thing

Starting the hike - Geoff, Kim, Celeste, Melissa, Nickolaus, Kat and Moti

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Starting

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Day 1

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Agave

Donkeys hualing wood

Kids

Village house

Llactapata

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Llactapata

Near Llactapata

Near our first camp

1st Camp

Cool light on the mountains

Morning of 2nd morning, still in camp

Potato fields and camp

Kim

Trailside R&R

Kim with an exciting new snack

Grenadine?

Plowing with Oxen

The Valley we'd hike up

Mountains - Day 2

Yoga at lunch

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Camino Inka. Paved hundreds of years ago

Kim in the Cloud Forest

Stream Photos in the Cloud Forest

Cloud Forest

Catapillar

Amazing paved steps. I can't even comprehend what it took to build all this.

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Baby Alpaca

Alpaca and Mom

Kim and Alpaca

clouds

Approaching camp on day 2. Over 12,000 feet

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7 peaks Mountain, shrouded in clouds

The Peruvian highlands. Lots of traditional agriculture, using lifestock, with few if any tractors.

Inkan storehouses and terracing

Starting the hike. Back row L-R: Geoff, Kat, Melissa, Moti. Front: Kim, Nickolaus, Celeste

Porters packing - These guys were amazing.

Peruvian lady

Porter

Our guide Alvaro poiting out details on the map

The bridge grossing the Urumamba river, starting the Camino Inka.

Kim and I starting the hike

We passed many interesting ruins on the trail.

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A remote home. Still in use, and accessible by foot or pack animal only.

Goats

Schoolhouse

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Remote Village

Kim and I at Llactapata, an Inkan site used primarily for agriculture. The small round room over my left shoulder is the temple.

Llactapata

Alpaca with terracing behind, our first camp was just up the valley visible behind.

Llactapata

Using my Gorilla-pod Tripod to take stream photos. Thanks Mom and Dad!

We had several Yoga practicioners and one certified instructor on the trip. Here a bunch of the group does Yoga in camp at night.

This young peruvian villages were imitating the Yoga sessions in the background.

View from Camp Hike Day 2

Alvaro showing Nickolaus and Kat the map

Our guide Alvaro showing the hike and pointing out tonights camp.

Many villages fall within the National Park. These villages have only a trail to connect them.

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Day 2 had a long, hot hike up through several different different climates. Kat, Nickolaus and Celeste set a blistering pace. We didn't keep it!

It was HOT and HUMID this day, and probably the hardest for me, though other days were longer and had longer climbs. I just had a really hard time with the heat.

Dinner tent. Why do 1/2 of us look like we're in “The Shining”?

Morning light on the mountains

Kim snugged up in her warm clothes and sleeping bag.

Wild Peruvian deer

Porters. These guys were amazing. Freindly, strong and worked super hard.

Alpaca “After” picture.

Dead Woman's Pass was a tough start to the day.

Porters and Hikers on the trail up the pass.

Kim and I at the highest point on the trip

Kim

The hill heading down the pass.

Melissa

Kim

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Kim

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Hard to tell, but I'm soaked in this shot. We had 4-5 hours of rain

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Kim and Celeste

Near our final camp

Kim and Celeste

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Aguas Calientes

Florintino at our final camp

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Florentino, our porter, looking out into the vistas beyond

Sunset in the Andes.

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Kat, Me, Moti and Celeste in the Dinner tent.

A long line of hikers and porters climbing Dead Womans Pass on Day 3.

The trail climbing Dead Womans Post. Our camp was in the green field on the lower left.

Check out the load this porter is carrying! The porters were amazing!

Alvaro at the top of the pass

Andes. Those clouds would turn to rain in a few minutes

13, 828 feet

Heading down the pass

It rained a lot on day 3. 4-5 hours.

Kim and I in the rain

Still raining

Wet but smiling

The trail turned into a stream in the rain.

should have brought the kayaks

Another Amazing temple Sayaqmarka - Kim and I had it to ourselves.

Wow. Wow.

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Our final camp. The beauty was unreal.

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Our porters.

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Kim

Nickolaus

Siblings Nickolaus and Melissa

beetle

View from our tent.

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Owwww.

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Nickolaus, a costumer from LA, decorated the tip for the porters.

Another amazing Inkan ruins

Inka Trail through the cloud forest.

More terracing on day 4

Kim and I on some steep stairs. Day 4 had a lot of descending stairs.

Me at Wiñay Wayna, the final major site before Machu Picchu

An homage to mother earth that we came across - Llama poop arranged into the formation of an Incan Cross.

These steps were used to go between terracing levels

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Machu Picchu - Alpaca in the foreground - or is it a llama?

Aguas Calientes - a town near Machu Picchu with hot springs. Really, warm springs, but still nice after 4 days on trails.

Nickolaus, Kat, Melissa, and Kim in the hotspring.

Nickolaus, Kat, Melissa, and Kim in the hot springs

Kat, Nickolaus, Geoff, Kim, Celeste and Melissa

Kim

Nickolaus and Celeste

Kim and Geoff

Celebrating the hike with dinner at the Happy Indian - VERY good French-Peruvian food

Apparently Kim liked her dessert

Aguas Calientes

Kim buying banana bread from a street vendor

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Machu Picchu

Crowds

Alvaro giving us a tour

The main door to the city

Temple of the sun

Alvaro explaining how the rocks were split.

Crazy dancer dude on the train

Fashion show on the train.

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Shot from a moving car!

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Our room at Casa de Gringa in Cusco

Casa de Gringa

Kim Shopping

Kim shopping

Painting

Our Thanksgiving Dinner - Guinea Pig and Alpaca - Yum!

A good nights sleep!

Cool old locks

Rafting before

Celeste was tired on the drive to rafting. Photo by Mayuc

Geoff and Kim

We found a company willing to provide me with a kayak and gear. It was all a little small, but it was great to be on the river in a kayak

Kim and Melissa listen to the safety lecture

The team in a rapid! Photo by Mayuc

Rafting

Geoff Taking pictures.

Yeehaw! - Photo by Mayuc

Geoff - a way small helmet, a way small boat, and a paddle about 15 inches longer than I'm used to. Still having a great time.

Photo by Mayuc

Digging in! Photo by Mayuc

Geoff paddling

Getting dressed for rafting

The gang of warriors about to conquer the river

Fishing with a net

The gang on the river!

Kim knows where the camera is!

Gorgeous river

Looks a lot like parts of California!

Except the spectators dress a little different!

Warming up in the Suana . We look like Simpsons

Kim at the lunch after rafting

Tired on the drive home

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From the bus window

Our last dinner is Cusco. AMAZING food and good times. Lots of Laughter

I need a haircut

Nickolaus really liked the wine

Melissa trying Alpaca

Flying bnck to Lima

That's $6. For 4 courses. Yum!

The Lima equivalent of Whole Foods.

No fishing with Dynamite!

Peruvian Fishing Boats

Kim

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Penguins

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Inka Terns

So many birds, hard to describe.

Peruvian Boobies

Sea Lion

Terns in fligh

Inka Terns

Sea lions

Calving grounds - Thousands of sea lions

Vulture

On the boat to Isla Ballestas

Huge Drawing in the sand. Many theories exist as to it's origins.

thousands and thousands of sea birds

I was pretty excited to see Penguins in the wild for the 1st time ever.

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Peruvian Boobies and Penguins

Penguin

These islands used to be commerical harvested for Guano, used as a fertilizer.

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Thousands and thousands of birds

The southern deserts of Peru. It went like this for hundred of miles

The Pilot, Kim and I

In the airplane

The Astronaut

The monkey

The hummingbird

Flying to see the Nazca lines

The whale - with some straight lines intersecting

Some pretty aggresive flying

Nazca lines include both geometric shapes and pictures

Ou flight path

The astronaut

The condor

Spider

Hummingbird

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Hands