See You All Tomorrow!

Our last stop was Huancayo. The city was okay, but near by are some beautiful little towns. PS Aren´t Gillian´s new boots neat!

Mmmm... Huancayo's market wasn't so great so for day 2, we went to the small towns looking for cool crafts.
As we walked through the countryside, we came across some local artisans who gave us a tour of their workshop. It was neat-o!
And now we are coming home!

Back in Cuzco

I took a few photos of our day relaxing in Cuzco.

The waitress asked us to translate some hilariously offensive rap lyrics here.

Then we flew to Lima and took an all day bus to Huancayo for our final stop of the trip. At least we got on a good bus this time!

Prove It!

Dear Tom,

Instead of getting you a baby alpaca sweater or something, I decided to make you this video.

Love Jack

Movie Picchu: The New Motion Picture From A Gillian and Jack Adventure

The ground-breaking documentary about the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu has finally been released. See it here, first!

(Facebookers: go to the blog.)

Machismo Picachu

Wait for it... (the bus climbs higher) Wait for it... (higher still)
BOOM! The Picchu. Awesome. Oh wait, the mountains were just as awesome. We can still see the mountains, Double Awesome!

The 530 buses were packed with 20 or somethings who couldn´t wait to get to Mchu Picchu so that they could quickly hike a hour and a half away. Wayana Picchu, the big mountain in the background, only lets 200 people climb it when it opens and then another 200 when those pushy turds get back down. So for the first hour or so, we were bombarded with tourists literally pushing us aside to get there first. I don´t know what that race up the extremely slippery, vertical slope was like, but I´m glad none of us were there to get pushed off the edge. I´m also glad we didn´t waste the best hours to see the ruins hiking, only to get to the top and see nothing but fog, haha!

We have a million pictures of this chinchila, but darn if he isn´t the exact same color as the stones. We also saw bunches of swooping little birds and llamas. It was pretty neat when you could exclude yourself from the tourists and it was just you and the animals and your Snickers.

We would watch all the sad folks taking tours of M. Picchu and be reminded of how much they are lame. I think the worst part is how everyone starts taking really small, really slow steps with their head down as someone who doesn´t speak Spanish, askes questions in Spanish.

I really liked all the parts where the Incans would incorporate the huge rocks that were already there.

Down there is a little stone tribute to the condor.

Swooping bird, swooping fog (not to be confused with the karate move)

A bird but not D bird of course.

Some guy tried to get a picture of himself jumping up here and nearly fell to his doom.

Someone should get this tatooed on them, like Ryan.

I have an idea, lets build a whole city with no roofs! What were you thinkin´Incan!

I can´t wait until I finnish the videos we have been compiling. Soon, soon.

Llamas was the final spelling bee word in 3rd grade and no one could figure it out. It didn´t matter for me, I´d already lost on THEIR.

Gillian is sooo beautiful!

What sdo girls talk about when they get together anyways

After 3 hours, we were sick of the crowds and wasted the rest of the day, half awake in Aguas Calientes, before returning to Cuzco.

From "Surrounded by Ruins" to "Surrounded by Idiot Tourist Jerks"

Day 3 in the Sacred Valley: Ollantaytambo

It was a neat town to be in because we were surrounded by ruins. The ones above were the only ones worth going to really.
Some of the other ruins.
All of a sudden there are cats everywhere in Peru - and the stray dogs aren't scary anymore. Times are a changin'. Gillian wanted me to get the whole cat in the picture. Oh no...
I regulate of it visits.
To always carry their visit tickets.
To be guided alone for the road.
-snip-
It should always pocket the garbage.
Okay then.
Thanks Jacobo.

Here is the better Incan Stonework I talked about in the other blog.

This kid was muttering the whole time down. I laughed.

The next morning we found the worst waiter ever who served us the worst breakfast ever. Hard to retell it all... We will when we see you all in a few days. I am still puzzed why the eggs cost 5 scrambled and 8 fried when the menu said 2 for both. And why put insecticide around the table? It sucks to keep picking dead flies out of your yogurt. Oh no, I'm retelling it... Here we go... And other stuff that was annoying. The end

So after that, we took a train to Aguas Calientes - The awful town no one can avoid if they want to see Machu Picchu. It was packed with totally lame tourists and bad, expensive merchandice/ food. It was like being at an amusement park rather than a small town in the Andes.

(This is the intense river on the way, by the way, through the way, of the way... K?)

Finally taking a train was such a relief. We knew we wouldn't fall of the cliff and we had leg room. Plus the bathroom had soap and toilet paper. I was actually shocked at how nice this was. Coming home is going to be weird - all the normal things that we haven't been able to take for granted and such. Ooo, I'm excited!

So, as I walked down the hall to the bathroom at our hostal, I saw what I thought were two rats sleeping on the bed in the next room. Upon closer inspection, I had no clue what they were. I grabbed everybody and we all began to ponder. Jacob then lifted up the pillow and jumped back in suprise. A bloody, newborn kitten emerged, crying, from a puddle of goo. We found out that the mom was in the process of moving them downstairs. Later that night, someone slept on this bed. We, on the other hand, shared a wall with a discotech that pounded beats all night until we awoke at 4:45 for Machu Picchu! Luckily the roaring river drowned it out a bit... a bit. And as fate would have it, after 3 conversations about needing breakfast at 5, the woman never showed up. Man I can't wait for Zach's Shack and Portland.

Pisac Kicked Butt (in a Good Way)!

On the way to Machu Picchu, we stopped off in a few towns in the Sacred Valley with their own giant ruins. Pisac was the first and we happened to get there the day of their giant-est market. There was much knit-hat buying and then much waiting for others to finnish knit-hat buying - and all were pleased.

Natural dyes used in said knit hats.

Everyday they take everything down and then 12 hours later set it all back up... crazy.

Since it was a small town and we left most of our things in Cuzco, after about 7pm, we all got really bored. As a result, we all had too much Sangria and actually read for a while. Gillian found a sweet SciFi book by someone named Bear and was joyous.

Day 2 was for ruins. These were cool because they were all spaced out along the top of the mountains. So every 15 minutes we came across something new. Also, there weren't nearly as many tourists as at M. Picchu.

Sunscreen time.

Jacob tipping his hat tothe fine market below.

There seems to be two kinds of Incan stonework. The older kind looks like this, but later they really perfect it. Or maybe they just did it this way when they hadn't the time for perfection.

We haven't had to do too much walking along the edge of a huge cliff, which has been a nice change of pace.

None shall pass.

Gillian gets cold way too much in my opinion.

As we approached the final ruin, we could hear this guy playing flute as it echoed through the hills. And as we listened, a small hawk hovered above. It was SICK!