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!