steveandpattyperu

Our bus for Mancora left at 9pm on Sunday night to arrive in Mancora at 6 am Monday. So we had the day to play with on Sunday in Huanchaco and Tiujillo. After our breakfast we took a taxi to Trujillo to the Plaza de Armas. Every city has one of these architecturally pretty squares. The buildings are ornate from the outside and painted in different, bold colors. In the center of the square was a large fountain. There were several picture boards surrounding the outer circle of the fountain. Many people were having their photographs taken by official photographers. It was a windy, overcast day. We walked around the square and then ventured outside of the park area. We found that many shops were closed due to it being Sunday. We walked through a market-it ... read more

Hello all. So we've finally made it out of Cusco. We spent another night there after our last post after setting up flight plans back to Lima. Our general plan has been to make it far north to a small beach town called Mancora as soon as we can. Relaxing by some beaches sounds just about right after the difficulties of walking around the high altitude of Cusco and Puno. The bus ride from Cusco to Lima takes 20+ hours so we decided to book a flight rather than spend a day cramped on a bus. The actual flight out of Cusco was uneventful, which we suppose is good. Right from the airport we grabbed a taxi to take us to the fancy Cruz Del Sur bus terminal to book tickets up to the north. A ... read more

Let´s see...we were at Machu Picchu on a Tuesday and it is now a Monday. The days tend to blend together for us at this point. Where have we been, what have we done since... We spent the next couple of days after visiting Machu Picchu in Cuzco. We relaxed most of the day Wednesday and walked around the city. We made it to the Catherdral--very ornate and beautiful. Steve has some strange fascination to always wanting to see the catacombs in these catherdrals...very dreary down there. The carvings in these catherdrals are mesmerizing. It really makes one think how much time, passion, and skill went into these buildings and its inside. We kept thinking what attending a mass would be like in these cathedrals...beautiful. The city square in Cuzco during the day and night is ... read more

Hola Amigos! Since our last post we´ve had quite the experience. Once we signed out of our internet connections after last writing, we asked the receptionist at the internet cafe/travel agency for Wednesday or Thursday train tickets to Aguas Calientes, the stop off point before taking a short bus ride to Machu Picchu. After calling the train station she told us we Wednesday and Thursday were all booked. She could arrange a ticket for tomorrow (Tuesday) though. This presented us with a small problem. You´re supposed to spend a few days getting acclimated to the climate in Cuzco before going even higher up to Machu Picchu. The hotel we´ve been staying at since after the first night is a couple blocks up a hill near the main square in Cuzco. We couldn´t walk up it still ... read more

Well, we are back to report to everyone. After we last wrote, we dumped the sand out of our shoes, had a nice lunch, and headed to the starting point our of Sand buggy tour to do some sandboarding. We were with a group of 6 other brave souls and one insane, hell on wheels driver. Of course, we were lucky enough to land in the front seat of the buggy with Patty crammed in the middle between Steve and the driver. The driver started off our trip by playing ¨chicken¨with the other vehicles on the small, narrow road. Of course he was the the type of driver that didn´t give in so at the very last second, the oncoming vehicle-motorcyle moved out of his way. He did this all the while with a grin on ... read more

Day 3...we left Lima on Wednesday afternoon. Before we left the city we toured a couple catherdrals in Plaza de Armas. They were beautiful!! (dad coskran...you would have loved them) We saw many school groups outside of the Presídent´s home. They were adorable. And then we saw some fancy cars drive up to the President´s home with several police men with bullet shields in front. Just an everyday thing. Apparently, there is a changing of the guards at noon everyday. While in one of the catherdrals, we visited the catacombs...eerry and amazing all at the same time. Our guide said there are 25,000 dead from the bones we saw. It was then time to catch a taxi ride back to our hostal. That was an interesting ride through the city. Our poor taxi guy couldn´t catch ... read more

We started off this adventure with a 2 hour wait on our first plane of the trip in Raleigh on the runway. After that wait, the pilot told us they couldn´t legally keep us on the plane any longer so we taxied back to the gate and got off the plane. At this time, we didn´t know if we would fly out. Apparently weather in NYC was terrible. It was at this time we met our friendly Delta worker, Craig. Craig always kept a smile even with annoyed passengers demanding things. He said to us, "ah, our Lima travellers." After a few phone calls and several minutes of typing on the keyboard he had us on another flight to Atlanta the next gate over. Craig reinstated our faith in honeymoons! With a few more delays, we ... read more

It is 9:22 pm on Monday night...Steve and I are doing laundry, packing and attempting a "quick" clean of our home. My pile of clothes to bring is much larger than Steve's few items. But no worries, I am set with kleenex to use in the public restrooms! : ) A couple of more coca-colas and we should have our packs all set to go. Joleen will be arriving at our place in the morning to bring us to the airport. Stay tuned...... read more