Machu Picchu Peru and Galapagos Islands 14 Days

Machu Picchu Peru and Galapagos Islands 14 Days

Lima Peru
8.5 million city that ten years ago was controlled by various gangs and dangerous for tourists and locals. Elect a new no nonsense mayor and unbelievably now no litter, most area even safe at night, better transportation and near 10% annual economic growth. Huge city parks, and packed sidewalks & restaurants starting at 8:00PM. Friendly people. Only thing is traffic hasn't got the mayors message. Stepping off a curb, even at traffic lights, is playing Russian Roulette. Lots of (apparently) friendly police everywhere.

Large parks - European influence	European architecture	Ornate balconies	25000 Catholics buried in catacomb of cathedral	Thrown into pits-covered with shroud -quicklime Closed around 1900 because of disease
Integrate wool mats	Santa comes to Lima	IMG_0381	Kevin & Janice's Fiji cousin	Canada flag over Peru president palace
Ceremonial guard for OPEC head of state conference	Not all ceremonial - some real	Larco Museum

Cusco Peru

11000 feet yet never snows	Narrow streets full of vendors	Novotel 100 room hotel street exposure	Novotel hotel converted 1532 mansion opened in 2001	Breakfast room Novotel
Alpaca	Local attracting tourists	Most local wore traditions clothes	Supper	Inca ruins at 12,000 feet
no shortage of Catholic churches	First class merchandise	Inca Sun good	No shortage of food	Meringue pies just like Joan makes at home
Class portrait	Second floor restaurants	Underwriters approved	Headgear of all descriptions	Last Supper guinea pig washed down with Inca chicha beer

Interesting that our guide moved back to town of 2500 called Ollantaytambo from Lima where he had been student, barber, welder and taxi driver for six years. He was a top student in town but struggled at school in Lima. City people wore better clothes, put more emphasis on physical processions, fewer city people smelled but earning only $300 a month, the average wage of teachers, nurses, tradesmen, the city on 8.5 million was unaffordable and unenjoyable.

Ollantaytambo - Sacred Valley Peru

Incas lives in fertile valleys in mountains as lower land was arid. This valley at 8000 feet	River in this valley is a Amazon main tributary	Our guide shows us some of 3500 types of potatoes - 500 types corn	Bazaars much alike everywhere in the world	No shortage of fresh cheap veggies here
Some types of corn	Guinea Pig with potato delicacy Flavor depends on stuffing	Corn as high as sugar in 6 months, then veggies for 6 months	Incas farmed these terraces for town at top	It is lot harder hike up here than it looks. Inca must have had one shorter leg
Look out posts and emergency stores for earthquakes and landslides locates high on mountains at all valley entrances	no mortar used in best construction, narrow stones are triangular shaped for earthquake elasticity	Only one way down	Typical adobe family home with no heat. Zero night time temperature means lost of lama blankets	Watch your step it is only 1000 feet straight down
Lots of cactus at high altitudes	Is this door of 300 year old convent a hotel room door or gate to dungeon	Guess it is a hotel room	Amazing convent has OK bathroom sink	Flowers in convent yard also almost meets our standards

Machu Picchu Peru

Train to Machu Picchu, our dayliners don't compare	Road up to Machu Picchu	Oops guess 2 feet is not enough, best we back up	View worth every step of hour climb	Proof she was there No Photoshop
Town for 1000 built several thousand feet above dense jungle valley floor	Terraced fields	Guard house and emergency storage. Think we will skip the 2 hour hike	How come guide is not thirsty	Yup its a big step down
Except for a few llama city abandoned around 1500AD	Chiseled holes packed with dry wood then wetted to split rock

Galapagos Islands Ecuador
Located 1000 km off Ecuador coast these recently formed volcanic islands have been almost historically uninhabited because of highly arid conditions. Animals who made it to the islands had to adapt and eventually developed new unique species. Charles Darwin recognized this leading to his Theory of Evolution. Ecuador itself is world number one exporter of bananas, second in both shrimp and rose exports. It has a surprisingly temperate climate at higher altitudes and the official currency is the US dollar.

80 guest MS Santa Cruz guests from 18 countries Largest group German	Welcome aboard	Not exactly provisioning a typical cruise ship	Landing Zodiac (Pango)	Cactus Flowers
Giant Cactus	Superwoman guide lifting 5 pound volcanic rock	Lonely cactus	Snorkeling beach	Who invited him
Fish of all colors and sizes	Galapagos penguin approx 12 inches high	Huge surf in some areas	Sea iguanas by the thousands	Pelicans by the thousands
Birds and more birds	Birds Charles Darwin could not even keep track of them all	Prickly pear cactus apple	Four foot land iguana trying to absorb heat	Tree lizard
Absolutely no fear or aggression toward humans	Hop scotch I don't think so	Could almost walk up and touch frigate birds	Why are they called Blue Footed Bobbies	Frigate bird trying to impress the ladies
This huge guy so unafraid he almost got stepped on	iguanas spend most of life trying to adjust body temperature The big one seems to have achieved it	Famous Darwin Finch	High mortality This one not likely to make it	Really red crabs
Water iguanas feed at depths to 60 feet and may loose 14 degrees body temperature. Return to land completely exhausted	Giant Land Tortoises in the wild	Enough turtle soup for all of us	Lava tubes on Santa Cruz Island	Internet sign in San Cristobal