Thank you Peru!

We made it safely home on Thursday and it's great to be back. The snow was a little bit of a shock but it's beautiful and seeing two moose right outside our doorway has been wonderful. So, a huge thanks to the country of Peru and all of the wonderful people we met and beautiful places we saw. We'd go back in a minute. Now we'll have to go through the thousands of pictures we took! Thanks for sharing this experience with us and stay tuned for further adventures!

These are the mausoleums of the Chachapoyas people of Revash. Built high up in the cliffs. A beautiful hike in and fastastic to see.

The marvelous spatuletail hummingbird (yes the two leaf like pieces are a part of its tail!) This hummingbird is only found in the Choctal area and we were fortunate enough to see it!! Unfortunately I didn't take this photo but our guide did! FANTASTIC!

The Chachapoyan sarcophogi of Karajia beautifully perched on a high cliff these have been guarding over the valley for over 600 years! 

Potato planting time!

The beautiful stalagmites and stalagtites of the caves near Karajia! We were able to walk deep into this cave.....

Our amazing guide Jose! We were able to spend a week with him in the Chachapoyas region. He is full of more information than one brain should ever be able to hold! His English is great and he's only been speaking it for 5 years! He started working at 8 as a shoe shine boy in Chachapoyas when he was left to take care of himself! This guy will go a long way!

More adventures, ruins and beauty in Peru!

A welcome sight! The local refreshment stand!

The beautiful Chachapoyan ruins of Kuelap!

Cameron makes sugar cane juice!

The falls of Gokta! Third highest in the world and we walked in to the bottom of them. 771 meters of beautiful freefall!

These photos are a little bit out of order but I wanted to post this spectacular day! We rode horses up to a place called Diablo Wasi which is outside of Chachapoyas. We rode up a river valley up to about 11,500 feet to a pre-incan mausoleum that was created by the Chachapoyas culture in the 1300's. I'm too tired to say more but enjoy the photos. More to follow!

Ancient Pre Inca cultures of grand proportions!

This is the actual tomb of the Lady of Cao.

These are the paintings og the supreme god Ai Apaec of the Moche culture found at the Temple of the Moon just outside of the city of Trujillo. There are 500 years of culture built on top of each other in a Pyramid of over 160 million adobe bricks! Each wall represents a new era.

The cathedral in Trujillo. This is the city which was founded by Pizarro and was one of the first colonial cities named after the city in Spain where many of the conquistadors were from!

Beautiful wood colonial doors in Trujillo

The colonial streets of Trujillo. A juxtaposition of the conquerers and the conquered Inka.

Lima and on to the North of Peru!

A quick trip through Lima on our way from Cusco to Chiclayo!

We start the Northern Peru ancient ruins tour with the beautiful relief carvings of the Lambayeque culture from around 750-1350 AD. Check out the boats! Thor Hyardhal studied these intensively.

On to the ruins of the Lady of Cao! This was only uncovered in 2006 and they uncovered a woman ruler of the Moche civilization (around 300AD). Up until this time the belief was that only men were rulers but this woman (mummified) was found to be not only a major governmental leader but a high priestess and a military commander!  This pyramid is considered to be very sacred and shamans still come here from all over Peru to perform ceremonies! 

A little time (too little!) at the beach before heading to the ancient ruins of Chan Chan. Here you can see in the background the reed boats that the fisherman still use today! Apparently the Spanish ran into big reed boats with sails and 20 sailors 300 miles North!

OK, here's Chan Chan! A world heritage site and the largest adobe city in the world. It was the political power center of the Chimu culture which was in power from approx 900-1476 AD. Then they were conquered by the Inca. This city was huge. Something like 22 square kilometers!

This is one of the temples of Chan Chan. Fantastic relief work. We haven't even gotten to the Inka yet! These are just the huge civilizations that are PRE-Inka!

More photos from the Amazon!

A cappuchin monkey wondering what we were up to!

At the Macaw clay lick!

This is a Poto bird that is kindof like an owl but in a separate family. It was sitting completely still next to her baby looking like a branch (literally she and the baby were so hard to see) then a Toucan swooshed in (they eat the babies) and she moved her wing to protect the baby. Her eyes got really big and then once the threat passed she went back to a perfectly still pose with her wing tucked back in. Beautiful bird.

This howler monkey just sat with its head in the crook of its elbow and watched us for the longest time!

Here are a few more photos from the Amazon! Great monkeys, macaws and scenery! Only one morning of rain in the rainforest in the 6 days we were there but when it rained, it poured!  Lucky for us!

Hola! We have arrived in the Northern part of Peru! Now the next part of the adventure begins as we get to explore these amazing PRE-INKAN ruins of this area! We are in the city of Chiclayo and for starters went to the huge market here where there is a big Shaman's market! That was great and so interesting. I haven't seen so many herbs and herbal medicines in all of my life! I guess people come here from all over Peru to see these shaman's and get herbal remedies. It makes me realize that herbal medicine is very alive and well in some parts of the world! I think we have a lot to learn! Tomorrow we go to museum of the Lord of Sipan. This archeological dig is said to rival that of King Tut! Look for photos to come!

The Tambopata Research Center in the Amazon!

Too tired to say much of anything except the Amazon was AMAZING! We're back in Lima now and headed North tomorrow. Here's a few photos to enjoy! Check out Cameron climbing 100 feet into a beautiful ironwood tree. He had so much fun he did it twice! The second time in less than 4 minutes! More tomorrow! Hugs, D,R and C

Today we leave the Sacred Valley and the beautiful area around Cusco. It's been an amazing 2 1/2 weeks and has gone too quickly! Our two weeks of language school at Amauta were an adventure in itself. Ric and Cameron and I had 4 hours of class a day with two different teachers and we had the class all to ourselves. Since we're all relative beginners it was great. We studied together, helped each other and did our homework together. It's great to be able to ask your son for help! Cameron was great in the classes and was more interested and applied himself more than I expected. Now he can communicate on a basic level, understand quite a bit and has a good beginning knowledge of grammar and verb conjugation. His goal is to be able to speak well! I think that's great.

While at school and on the weekends we did trips out and about in Cusco and the Sacred Valley. I can't even begin to explain how much there is to see in this small area of Peru. Some of the pictures, I hope, can convey the beauty, history and immensity of it all.

So, today we leave for the Amazonian jungle and the Tambopata Research Center, some 7 hours down the Tambopata river into the heart of the jungle! No internet there so we'll catch up with you in a week when we get back!

Here are a few more pictures and highlights! Enjoy.

Macchu Picchu!! UNBELIEVABLE! What an amazing experience and we had a spectacular day to be there!

This is such an amazing place! Had to take a family photo!

Over looking the central plaza. There was so much to explore and great places to tuck away!

Back to Pisac and up into the mountains! Walked up by this beautiful lake and met these great women!

Cameron eats CUY! (Guinea Pig)

The Cuy is prepared in the traditional Peruvian way!

The unbelievable aquaducts of Tipon! This was one of our favoirite ruins. It was so peaceful and these beautiful stone water ways!

The one remaining original door in the temple of the sun at the ruins of Sacsaywhaman (I need to look at that spelling!)

The microclimates created in terraces at Moray

Beautiful steps between terraces

New friends

Working hard on Spanish! The verb SER!

There is something so amazing about traveling! It's like your brain is suddenly exposed to so much beauty that you never thought possible and the kindness of people that really opens your heart. We have had so many wonderful experiences in the past few days in Peru and so much kindness shown to us. I love it. Today we finished our first week of Spanish school and I have to admit I learned a lot! I didn't think it would be possible to learn as much in just one week. Today we also visited the beautiful ruins of Moray...it's amazing to stand in these places that are older than the Inca. This place of Moray is a series of terraces dug down into the earth to form a type of bowl that creates micro climates where the thought is that the Incas tested and modified different wild species of plants to suit the best climates. Check out the pictures....it's fantastic. The scenery here in the Sacred Valley is beyond belief. BIG, BIG, BIG and amazing contrasts of color and people and cultures. Enjoy! Hugs to all! Denise

Wow! Our Spanish school is great and we're actually learning a lot! Yesterday for part of our class we went to the town of Urubamba and went to their public market! Here are some photos from our excursion! Here's Cameron practicing some Spanish while buying some Peruvian chocolate for hot chocolate! Then he saw this man making rope and was really intrigued!