Here We Go Again...

Yesterday was an exciting day in the Mace household, it was the first day of school! (This may or may not be read with sarcasm.) This year was a little different though because Greg is out of town at a conference so it was just me running around gathering school supplies, making my lunch, and petting Pico a million plus times because I felt guilty for leaving him all day.

Once I got to school the day was pretty uneventful except for the fact that they remodeled the cafeteria during the summer and because now it no longer has the lovely blue and peach plastic booths from the 1980's, but instead has hip bistro tables and flat screen televisions, it has become cool to eat your lunch there...I miss the booths. So needless to say, there was not a seat to be had, so I went in search of a patch of grass in the shade to eat my half of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and an apple. Within 5 seconds (not exaggerating) of unwrapping my PB&J this little chap came along looking for a fight...


He got to about 2 inches away from my backpack! I would move something and he would jump in the air and then come right back. This drew so much attention that another student asked if I was training him. The answer of course was no, I do not, nor will I ever feed a wild animal. After I finished my lunch and said good bye to my new frenemy (never thought I would use that word in a sentence) and headed off for some more class. My last class ended at 9:50pm and even though I was tired I was really happy to see this when I got home...


Thank you for waiting up for me Pico...it made my day.

Greg, hurry home soon so that I will have to handsome boys to come home to. I love you!

The End

We got back to our Cusco home just in time to pack our bags, say good bye and head out for Lima. We were only in Lima a few days but we did as much as we could.

Day One

Strolled through the city. Their path runs through the middle of the street.

Cusco has stray dogs...Lima has stray cats.

Day Two

Went to the beach.

You can't imagine the number of stairs we had to walk down to get here.

Which is why this sign was so funny...basically it says if there is a tsunami to run as fast as you can up those stairs...we would not have made it.

LarcoMar Shopping Mall. It is built into the cliffs in Lima, so the view of the beach is amazing.

We also went to see Toy Story 3...the dialogue was in Spanish, but Greg and I had an wonderful time.

Day Three

Archbishop's Palace, it is a beautiful home and museum.

Francisco Pizarro's casket.

There were catacombs in almost all of the churches we went into. This is the infant crypt.

Again in the catacombs.

Palacio De Gobierno.

Iglesia de San Francisco
This church was amazing. The catacombs are the final resting place for as many as 75,000 remains.

Barrio Chino ~ China Town.


The last thing we did in Lima was sit down for some ceviche. So delicious!
Then it was off to the airport for our flight home.

As you can see, Lima was not our favorite place in Peru. It had some beautiful museums and wonderful food, but if you are ever in Peru I wouldn't spend a lot of time there.


On the other blog I will be posting slides of some of the food we enjoyed while in Peru!

Lake Titicaca

The morning after our trip to Puno we set out for a Lake Titicaca tour. Our favorite part of the tour was the floating islands. The people that live on these islands cut the reeds that grow on the lake and criss-cross them making islands.

On the dock.

Approaching the floating islands.

Getting some help to shore from the locals.

Ice cream man.

On a floating island, that is our tour boat in the background.

One of the reed boats.

Neighboring island in the distance.

Classic arm shot of the two of us. I love him.

While on the island, we became friends with a little boy named Oscar. He sold us some post cards and then decided he liked us enough to ham it up for us the rest of the time on the island.

The bowl that Oscar is looking in has live fish in it.

We learned that Lake Titicaca used to have twenty-one kinds of fish, sadly it now contains only three.

The children on the island use a buddy system to keep the little one's safe. An older child is paired with a younger child. By the age of five all of the children know how to row a boat by themselves and get themselves to and from school this way.

After leaving the floating island we headed to Taquile Island. The island did not have much on it but it did have an amazing view of the lake and Bolivia in the background.



After exploring for a bit it was time to head back to Puno.

Once back in Puno, Greg and I went out exploring. Here is some of what we saw...

The last two are of us and our hotel door...I loved it!

The next day we left early to take the bus back to Cusco.

Bad shadows but the only decent one of us on the bus back to Cusco.

Journey to Lake Titicaca

So what do you do after spending four day's hiking in the Andes? I'll tell you, you go back to your Cusco home and shower. Then you get up the next day in time to make a 7:00 am bus to Puno that will take 9 hours. Why Puno? Well because that is where Lake Titicaca is, and let's face it you can't go to Peru and not see Lake Titicaca.

On our way to Puno we stopped at the small town of Andahuaylillas. Like many of the small towns in Peru this town is known for its Catholic Church. The church here is dubbed the "Cusco's Sistine Chapel." Unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside the church. One thing I loved about the small town's of Peru were the squares. Every town had a Plaza de Armas and in Andahuaylillas the square had two beautiful trees that shaded their local market.

After leaving Andahuaylillas, we passed through many small towns. One of the towns Urcos is known for making the tiles that are used on the roofs of buildings in Cusco.

Our next stop was Racchi. In Racchi we looked around at some Incan ruins that were very different from other ruins we had seen. Unlike other Incan ruins the Spanish did not destroy this village. This village was destroyed in a war the Incas were having amongst themselves.

This temple was built in honor of the Incan creator Wirakocha. It is said that Wirakocha's son is the Sun, his daughter is Pachamama (Mother Earth), and his other daughter is Mama Quilla (Mother Moon.)

Side note: We learned on our hike to Machu Picchu that before drinking in celebration the Andean people share some with Pachamama by dumping it on the earth.

Inside the Incan city.

There were once over 200 grain storage buildings here. During the war they were all burned and left as nothing more than mounds of rock. In the background you can see a reproduction of how the storage buildings once looked.

After the ruins at Racchi, we continued on to La Raya (The Line). This was the highest point on our Journey to Puno and it separates the Cusco and Puno regions of the country.

From here we continued on through the city of Juliaca. Juliaca was the only place in Peru where I felt very vulnerable and unsafe. If you are ever in Peru do not stop here just keep right on moving.

Juliaca.

After getting out of Juliaca, we finally got to Puno, and Lake Titicaca.