We Have a Cell Phone

Hey everyone,

We just bought a prepaid cell phone, so you can now call us if you would like using an international calling card. Unfortunately we can not make calls to the states. Please feel free to call us anytime considering we are 3 hours ahead of Pacific time zone or the same as Eastern Standard time.
Here is how to call us.

011-51-84-9344788

011 is for internationl calls, 51 is Peru´s country code, and 84 is Cusco the rest is our number.

Pictures of Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Well we had an amazing weekend traveling to Machu Picchu! We are saving the Inka Trail experience for our trip with Ryan in May, but we decided to join Vanessa (our other friend from Pennsylvania!)for a preliminary glimpse and day trip to the world wonder on this final weekend before she heads back to the states. The traveling included a bus and train ride to Aguas Calientes, tucked in at the foot of the Machu Picchu mountains beside the raging Rio Urubamba. We stayed in a quaint hippie hostel for 5 dollars per night where we enjoyed the zen-like atmosphere despite contrasting smells of marijuana, musty wood, and poo. The sheets weren´t quite clean, but I spruced mine up using a baby wipe. We slept well the night before our adventure, although we were conviced the rain was falling in torrents only to realize that the sound was mostly coming from the river right next to our room.

We woke up at 4:30am and took one of the first buses to Machu Picchu. We entered the monumental site in a misty haze that prevented us from seeing much. We found the Huayna Picchu peak poking through the clouds and started heading that way. By 7:30am we were on our way up the steep and wet rocky steps that led to an amazing view of the ruins below. As we walked, the mist lifted and the clouds gave way to an awe-inspiring view that brought us both to near tears. It is a mystery what the Machu Picch buildings were actually built for, but there is definitely something very spritual about the carefully contructed walls and towering mountains around them. At the top of the mountain, we stopped on a ledge and relaxed for over an hour allowing Cullen to take a nap (and recover from earlier bouts of stomach problems that we will spare the details on now) and allowing me to come as close as ever to meditating. I will never forget that hour spent in relative solitude.

Later, the crowds came in and we continued further on a long and strenuous hike down, around, and back up the mountain. It`s not true that you can`t bring water with you, but we had only packed very little with the expectation that they would make us throw it out if they found it. So halfway back to the main trail, we ran out of water and energy, and by then the sun was pounding us through the lush vegetation. We probably didn`t enjoy the fantastic views at that point as much as we should have and just bulleted for the nearest water vendor outside the premesis. The rest of the day was spent meandering through other smaller hills overlooking the ruins and gawking at the local llamas. We hiked the 1.5 hour hike back down to Aguas Calientes rather than taking the bus, and now I am aware of how out of shape we are because neither of us can hardly walk today. We just ate a hardy meal of Peruvian fast food at Bembas (the local version of McDonalds) so we are feeling grand again! Ready for the next week....

Fireworks and Transportation

So I posted a picture of the fireworks we saw on saturday. Which are absolutely crazy because burning embers would spray all over people. They definitely have different persective when it comes to safety. For instance the other picture is riding on the bus. There are three types of vehicles we have traveled on so far. The first is the taxis which is by far the most exhilerating thing due to multiple near collisions with people, dogs, and other cars. The other form of transportation we take often are called combis which are small vans that are overloaded with people and there is guy yelling at you to get on and off at a very fast rate. These are quite interesting to ride especially if we have to stand because they are not made for tall people. The large buses which the picture shows are much more comfortable but sometimes you do not get a seat and you have to stand for several hours. The fun thing about the buses is they go to the more remote areas where the local farmers pile in with their vegtables for the markets making the ride even more interesting. The most eye opening experience here is how the pervians tend to not worry about things for instance, Fani who has the baby twins simply rides with the babies on her lap or in the far rear of the taxi and lets the babies play and walk around as we race down windy mountain roads. I am glad everyone is enjoying the blog. Thanks for responding.

Choa,
Cullen

Inca Ruins

Sacred Valley

This weekend we journeyed through the Sacred Valley tourist hotspots. It was a gut-busting couple of days that included a little nausea, some fantastic views, and several long but incredibly inexpensive bus rides. In the last couple of days we combined excursions out to several ruins with a local Carnival that celebrates the local patron- San Sebastian who was a Roman advocate of the poor killed by the Spaniards in this part of Peru hundreds of years ago.

Both Saturday and Sunday began with breakfast at home (the small loaf of bread and fried egg that we have now become very accustomed to) then a short taxi ride to the bus station. We combined bus and taxi rides to arrive at several incredible places that included Chincheron (ruins overlooking a river, very peaceful), Moray (circular ruins that may have been used for ancient games or agriculture), Maras (antique salt baths), and finally Ollantaytambo (an ancient Inkan fortress city with a small market in the plaza). We hiked quite a bit with determination to see every last ancient rock in the valley and we ate very little... partly because we had only brought a little bread and cheese, partly because we were mostly walking in places where there was no food to buy, and partly because I was too ill to eat more than a few crackers (the bumpy, winding bus rides didn´t help!) We travelled that day with our friend Vanessa from Pennsylvania, Manchi (grandma), Fani, and her two twin babies. It was a wild and wonderful day in the countryside and entirely too impossible to describe in words. Children work hard here, they shepherd the sheep in the countryside and work in the towns to sell small trinkets, paintings, or a picture of themselves dressed up in traditional clothing. Saturday night we returned late, but mustered up the energy to eat some dinner then walk to the local plaza to see the fireworks. We had no idea that fireworks could be so interesting and scary! They had built several stands out of eucalyptus tree branches that held an amazing array of interconnected fireworks suspended 10 to 30 feet above the crowd and positioned smack dab in the middle of everyone. While music sounded from the live bands around the plaza, men lit the fireworks that would start a cascade of raining fire and trigger spiralling wheels of light; several even had constructed small bicycles that spun around with their wheels turning in flames of fireworks. Meanwhile, one-by-one other fireworks would blast into the sky, but not nearly high enough, causing each of us to dodge falling embers. Other people later lit fireworks that swirled directly into the crowd causing everyone to scream with joy and fear combined. People sold alpaca meat and potatoes on sticks that they grilled in the streets. A wonderful bonus of being awkwardly tall here is that we stand a full head above just about everyone so we can find eachother easily and have a good view of everything in front of us!

Sunday we again took off early by bus and taxi to another set of picturesque ruins in Pisac. This town has an amazing market on Sundays where we feasted our eyes on the many handcrafted items for sale, tasted fresh juice, and later spent many hours climbing the gigantic hillside to encounter the several sets of ruins. Again we returned later than expected, ate some choclo (corn on the cob with gigantic kernals) with cheese and headed to the plaza to see the last of the celebration. There, we saw many dances of people in outrageous costumes (all colorful, many beautiful, and some down right scary). During one dance of the apparently intoxicated and masked men, I made the mistake of staring at them as they passed by instead of ducking away like the locals near me. I caught a good blast of espuma (foam) into my eyes, and had to laugh at the craziness of it all! I later found out that it is something of a complement to get blasted in the face by the dancers... go figure!

Today, we are back to taking classes today and visiting the main part of Cusco, where we now feel so at home... Aunt Brenda, I hope you had an amazing birthday and we can´t wait to hear about the family trip! Love you all, Melissa & Cullen

La Chacra

So the pictures are from a hike to the farm called a chacra with Papi. It is a steep climb above the house which has beautiful views of the city and there are even some Inca ruins along the way (bottom picture). Above Papi´s farm are rolling fields, mountain bike trails, and a lake. Later we plan to ride bikes up there. The farming is primitive, the farmers live in mud houses, and they eat what they grow. It was great to be hiking and taking in the fresh air.

Who are those people?

The pictures above is the family we are staying with. There is a small kitchen where we eat and socialize. Dinners are always a blast because they love to laugh mostly at how bad our spanish is when we say something inappropriate by accident. The little boys are twins and their names are Gabriel and Diego who are the sons of John and Fani (the owners of Fairplay, the Spanish school). We basicly live with their family that consists of Fani´s sisters Mimi and Ruti and their husbands/children. There are other students here from the U.S. that are in the pictures as well. John is from Belgium and there is another friend of his from Belgium who lives here to do volunteer work. Manchi and Papi are the granparents. Manchi cooks every meal for us and for everyone else too! Papi works and afterwards he feeds the rabbits and guinea pigs, farms food on the mountain behind us, and generally works very hard while laughing even harder. The room we live in was just built by Papi and finished 2 months ago. There are 2 dogs and 1 cat here also. The oldest one is Bruli and we have to walk over him whenever we leave or enter our room because he never moves from the middle of the wooden balcony. So that is our ¨family.¨ It is a motley crew of very nice and easy going people who are always smiling and helping eachother. Everyone is always greeted with a kiss on the cheek. PS. Andy, glad you like the hats (they´re called chullos) because we already bought Morgan one!!! Cheers everyone and thanks for reading our blog!! We´re thinking of you too!

Cusco photos

Our Room

The picture is of our room which is at the top. We have to walk down some crazy stairs in the rain in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom and the balcony is made of rickety wood which we are sure we are going to fall through. Our room is quite nice and has a great view with a comfortable bed.

Cusco, Peru 2

We´re in an ¨internet cafe¨ around the corner from our casa and after waiting more than 30 minutes, we hope that the 3 pictures we picked will be uploaded soon! We are learning so much here- including patience! We had anicipated days of lounging around peacefully, possibly even with pangs of boredom, but instead we are on the run it seems, every waking moment. We are not climbing mountains or sweating much, and yet we have never been so thoroughly exhausted by the end of the day! We each have 1 on 1 class time for 2 hours per day, as well as 2 hours of walking around town in ¨practica¨ classes with our professoras... 4 hours doesn´t sound like much, but there is never a moment when the attention is not totally on us. Por eso, estamos muy cansadas. Cullen found a few minutes of tranquility today by hiding in the dressing room longer than necessary while trying on camisetas. The rest of the day we continue communicating in our best effort of spanish which includes an impressive display of charades. Everyone is so friendly and accepting of our fragmented sentences. The food is very different with an emphasis on meat, potatoes, pasta, and small dry rolls. Today, we sampled a delicious fruit that a woman on the street peeled for us- it was called tuna (almost scared us away!), and it was apparently from a cactus. It had hard seeds and when I commented to mi professora how difficult they were to chew, she seemed to panic and quickly explained that you have to just swallow them- one more strong attempt and I would likely break my teeth! We went to a local´s disco and danced to salsa music while drinking Pisco con Sprite... we were by far the tallest people on the dance floor which gave us a good view but placed our heads directly in the cloud of cigarette smoke hovering over the crowd- but we were having too much fun to care... Yesterday, we visited our first Inca ruins that are on the hill overlooking the city. There were two highlights- our tour guide spoke only Spanish and yet we managed to learn a lot from him. At one point he explained that there was a tunnel where tourists have gotten lost ¨never to be found¨,then we got lost in translation right has he led us into a pitch black cave that was narrow and short and windy. We were totally disoriented, physically and mentally and did what seemed most natural at the time- laughed our heads off! Eventually we made it out and finished our tour in a total down pour (as it turns out, we are so far the only people out of the several thousand around us that use umbrellas- so much for blending in!). The streets are packed, but not with international tourists like we expected. It is the slow time for tourists (muy mojado) but all the children are on vacation for 2 months, so local families fill the street. Enough said for now- we are so completely full of awe that it is hard to put it all down in words. Ciao amigos!

We are in Cusco, Peru

Well, Melissa and I made it safely to Cusco, Peru. We arrived on Friday 11th due to some flight cancellations. Our luggage arrived with us and our host family was at the airport to pick us up. So our first day in Cusco was an eye opener. First the taxi drives are asolutely crazy and I counted a hundred times were we almost hit another car or pedestrian. By far the most dangerous thing here is crossing the street. So our host family is amazing and they have shown us around town via taxi and walking. Our first meal however was bit different I can now say I have eaten guinea pig and rabbit from their cages which is a bit disturbing. Today the host family had a birthday cake for me and sang happy birthday. Tonight they are taking us out to salsa dancing.

For now Melissa and I are going to walk to the center of town and shop for some clothes since we only brought a small amount because we wanted to be wearing local clothing at some point. We start classes this afternoon which consist of two hours of grammer and then two hours of practical were our own personal teachers take us out on the town and have us interact with the locals. Melissa and I have different teachers since she is more advanced with her spanish. SO far speaking with the family has been difficult but they speak real slow and clear for us and I seem to understand the basics of what they are talking about. I am sure in a couple of weeks I will understand more.

That is a basic summary of what has happen so far. We wil try to update this everyother day or so. I appoligize for any typos. The key board is little different and not all the keys seem to work.

Leaving For Peru

Well Melissa and I are leaving for Peru tomorrow. We are packed and excited to go doing the goodbye rounds with all our family. You may have noticed on the news that the Sierras received a large amount of snow making for some great powder skiing. Melissa and I got to go resort skiing at Heavenly with my parents and enjoy four feet of fresh powder. We have added some pictures to this post which are backcountry skiing photos above Carson City.

So for the past four weeks Melissa and I have been staying at our parent's houses in Carson City and Fallon, NV. We have been staying busy with multiple holiday parties and occational outdoor excursions to the Tahoe area. The Carson City region has been growing on us and we are looking forward to calling it home after our trip to South America.