Hawksley Falls

We just thought we'd share a recent picture of Hawksley. We went up to Hamilton, Ontario this weekend to visit some relatives of Tim's (Erin made best friends with a 3-year old -- more on that later) and on the way back to Cleveland stopped at Niagara Falls. Hawksley seemed pretty interested in them and we got this picture of him checking them out. Hope everyone is doing well, and again, we hope to post more again soon, as we have a couple of summer updates to get around to.

Peru Part III - Machu Picchu

From Cusco we had an approximately 3-hour trip to Aguas Calientes, the nearest town to Machu Picchu. Due to intense rain storms earlier in the year that had wiped out roads and rail lines to Machu Picchu, the trip was broken up into a 90 or so minute "bus" ride and then a 90 or so minute train ride through the Andes. The "bus" we rode in was actually a 15-seat passenger van that Peru Rail crammed full of people at the Cusco train station. It was comfortable enough, but not as comfortable as a real bus or train would have been.

The train portion of the trip was quite nice. The train had windows on the roof to see the scenery better, and had a slow pace that allowed to you to enjoy the view as you cruise along the Urubamba River valley toward the town.

The town of Aguas Calientes didn't have too much to it itself; it's more of a place to hang out until Machu Pichu opens. There are a couple of main streets, a bunch of touristy restaurants, and some hot springs, but really, the only reason people go there is because Machu Picchu lays on the mountains right above.

We arrived in Aguas Calientes late in the morning, and due to having to get up at 5:00 AM, decided we'd take a nap. It was a little late to go to Machu Picchu and get the full experience for the day, so we decided to ge up first thing the next day and get there nice and early.

And nice and early we did go: After an uneventful day in Aguas Calientes, we went to bed early and set our alarms for 3:30 AM. This would give us enough time to make the 6 km trek from the town up to Machu Picchu in time for sunrise.

The hike took us about 1:45, and we arrived with plenty of time to spare before the gates opened at 6:00 AM. As an added bonus, we were something like 12th and 13th in line, which gave us the privilege of picking a time to hike of the peak of Huayna Picchu, which is restricted to only 400 people per day.

While waiting for the gates to open, we arranged for a tour guide to show us around the site. After getting jerked around for a little bit (apparently we didn't learn our lesson in Cusco: this guy first tried to include us in a tour group of like 50 people, and then wanted an insane amount for a private tour), we ended up having a tour for just the two of us, which turned out to be pretty good.

Just a few minutes into the tour, we looked to the east and the sun was rising over the Andes. It was quite the amazing sight. You're literally on top of the world, standing in ruins that are hundreds of years old, and it was really, really great.



Machu Picchu itself was better than expected. The pictures you see don't do it justice. First of all, it's huge. It's way bigger than you think. Thousands of people lived there at its peak, and it also had a ton of space for farmland, public spaces, and temples. Our tour guide taught us all about this as he showed us around, which made the experience more enjoyable.

After the tour, we were left to our own devices, and we used that time to tour the site some more, and then make the one-hour-up, one-hour-down hike to Huayna Picchu. It was moderately difficult, as it was narrow and steep (think Grouse Grind if you're from Vancouver), only up the side of a mountain. But it again was worth it: the view from the top was again amazing. One thing we enjoyed from up there was seeing the road up the side of the mountain to Machu Picchu, thinking that just a few short hours ago, we were at the bottom of that mountain.


After Huayna Picchu, we toured Machu Picchu some more, and this time took the easy way out and took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes. We had enough time for lunch and a drink before catching the train/bus combo back to Cusco, and then one last night in Cusco before heading back to Cleveland. It was a great trip, and seeing another part of the world was really cool. And having a place like Machu Picchu exceed our expectations was the icing on the cake.

And now, your Hawksley picture of the day...

Peru Part II - Cusco

Okay, back to the blogging...

After Lima, we were off to Cusco for a couple of days before making the trek up to Machu Picchu. Cusco is possibly to most popular tourist city in Peru, and it was easy to see why: Around 3400 m (over 2 miles) above sea level, Cusco is a beautiful place with crystal clear skies and none of the pollution seen in Lima down on the coast.

We had an early morning flight into town, over the Andes, and when we arrived in Cusco, we noticed pretty much right away how the difference in altitude affects your breathing in the thin mountain air. It probably didn't help that the elevator in our hotel (an nice little place right off the main town square) was out and we had to lug our bags up 4 flights of stairs.

After getting settled in, we met up with a tour guide for a tour of the Incan ruins above the city. This started out with a bit of an adventure, as the guide we arranged our tour with sent someone else in his place, and the guy he sent didn't speak any English. After about a half an hour we sorted it out and our original guide arranged for another woman to come and give us a tour. Everything worked out, but it was another lesson on being careful what you buy in foreign countries... you never know what you're going to get.

Anyways, we toured the ruins, including Sacsayhuaman, (pronounced like "sexy woman"), Qénqo, and the temple for Pachamama, "Mother Earth". It was all very impressive; the structures will built with giant stones that fit each other perfectly, with no mortar used to hold the stones together, and they've stood for hundreds of years, through wars, earthquakes and weather, and they're still there. Not only is the durability of the structures impressive, but when you think that they didn't really have any tools other than maybe chisels, it's amazing to think the amount of work required to make them.

We had two nights and one more day in Cusco, and we used that time to eat some nice local food, including grilled alpaca (tastes like chicken) and more ceviche, and see other sights in town like the old cathedral, the main square and the Temple Of The Sun. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they tried to tear down the Temple Of The Sun, but found it was too well made and the stones were too difficult to move, so they just built a catholic church on top of it. During an earthquake in the 1960's, most of the church was destroyed, but the Incan temple remained entirely intact, except for one corner of the structure, which was only damaged when part of the Spanish church collapsed on it.

Our time in Cusco was really nice, and while we were sad to go, we were also excited to be off to Machu Picchu for the next leg of the trip. More on that next....

Here are a couple of pictures for now. We'll post some more soon.

Lima Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our time in Lima. Sorry for the delay. Busy living, I guess...

Peru Part I - Lima

One of the benefits of working for a big international company is that sometimes you get to travel to some pretty cool places for work. So when Erin found out she would be going to Lima for a 2.5 day conference, we thought it would be a perfect time to build a quick vacation around the conference and spend some extra time in Peru.

Our first (and last) stop was Lima, the capital and largest city of Peru. With a metropolitan population of over 8 million people, it is a huge city. We didn't see a ton of it, and to be honest, I don't think there is much to see outside of a few nicer touristy areas. There is a lot of poverty, and despite some nice areas, it isn't the most beautiful city.

We arrived on Sunday night for Erin's conference, which ran Monday through Wednesday morning. Erin's company set us up at a nice hotel, the Marriott, a beautiful high rise right on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. Since we arrived pretty late and would be in Lima until Friday, we decided to rest after a long, long day of travel and just head to bed without seeing any of the town.

One nice thing we got to experience while in Lima was meeting up with a good friend. Our friends Shane and Colleen are currently spending a year travelling around the world, and their time in South America coincided with ours. Unfortunately for them, they had some problems with their camera during their travels, but because of that, we were able to arrange a meeting with Colleen, as we brought a replacement camera down for them and she needed to pick it up. So Colleen flew into Lima on Monday morning and spent the day with us. While Erin was in her conference, Tim and Colleen toured the Miraflores district of Lima. And that night we all went out for dinner and drinks together. Colleen headed back out to (I believe) Bolivia early the next morning after a short but nice visit. If you're interested in following their adventures, you can see them here.

On Tuesday, with Erin still in her conference, I went on my own to visit "Lima Centro", Lima's downtown, which is home to Lima's main cathedral, the main town square, another old church which holds the catacombs of Lima, and the city's main shopping district.

Once Erin was finished her conference on Wednesday, we had plenty of time to see the city on Wednesday and Thursday. We spent more time in Miraflores and Lima Centro, and visited the Mercado Indios, a public market filled with dozens if not hundreds of stalls featuring arts and crafts from the Incan Indians that populate Peru.

We like Lima, but we were happy to be moving on to Cusco on Friday morning. We saw some nice things in Lima, and sampled some great local food like ceviche (raw fish "cooked" by marinating in citrus juice and serviced with cold corn and sweet potato), but it was time to move on.

Check back soon for pictures from Lima. Our computer is running really slowly right now and won't load photos. But some will be up soon, as well as more updates on the rest of our trip.

More To Come Soon...

For our (very few) loyal readers, I'd like to apologize for the lack of updates recently. Between raising a puppy, coaching high school lacrosse, playing men's lacrosse, a surprise visit from Erin's parents, a trip to Peru, and starting a new job right after the trip, we've been pretty busy the last few months. Things should finally be calming down now and over the next couple of weeks we hope to get some updates about our trip to Peru up. In the meantime, enjoy another picture of our favourite pup, Hawksley:

Hawksley

One thing we've been wanting to do for awhile, but couldn't because of circumstances, was get a puppy. Well, now that we're no longer living in a one-bedroom apartment, and we've settled down in a house in Cleveland with a fully fenced yard, there's nothing stopping us.

So, once we returned back to Cleveland after spending Christmas and New Years in Prince George and Vancouver, we started searching hard for a puppy to join the family. We searched a lot on Petfinder.com, visited a local branch of the SPCA, and finally found the right pup at the Cuyahoga County Animal Shelter.

When we found him, he was 8 weeks old, and had been abandoned with his brothers and sisters in a shed. Some of the litter died, and only three boys survived. He's part German Shepherd, and part.... mystery dog. They don't know what he's crossed with, but they think possibly a Newfoundland or an Norwegian Elkhound. Whatever the mix is, he's cute! We had to wait a week before we could take him him (just in case the jerk that abandoned him came back to claim him), and on January 13, we officially became proud dog owners. We named him Hawksley.

It's been a pretty eventful three weeks since we got him. When he's not sleeping (which thankfully he does a fair amount), he's tearing around the house, biting us, chewing on things, and most of all, peeing, peeing and peeing. We've got him going outside most of the time now, but he still has some pee accidents inside and some other indoor pees which we're pretty sure he does just out of spite. Despite this, we love him a lot and are really happy we got him. He starts obedience class in just over a week, so hopefully he'll be a little better behaved real soon.