happy holidays from Machu Picchu

This is my Christamas Card to everyone. Im standing under the biggest poinsettia i have ever seen. at this piont i am somewhere between Cusco and the ruins in the Peruvian jungle. I came across this tree and instantly thought of home and family and the holidays.




Merry Christmas!!


Here is Ashleys Chrismas Card to everyone
Hey everyone. Hope you all enjoy this picture of me standing in front of a poinsettia tree. Miss you guys.



Happy Holidays.


This pic was taken shorty after the one above at the place that we stopped for lunch. It was basically someones house / jungle restaurant so that should explian the washing machine in the background.








Here is Ashley In front of one of the many beautiful colonial Churches in Cusco Peru. We Arrived in Cusco In the early morning and decided to spend the day perusing the city and trying some of the local foods



Here Im enjoying some Chicken Knuckes and neck that i bought from a street vendor for 1 Soles witch is equal to about 35 cents U.S. Very good flavor and a wicked hot sauce on the side served with corn and a small vegi mix. We also tryed some hard boiled Quail eggs (amazing!) and a mystery meat on a stick with a potato at the end aslo good but a little unsettleing. Later on we went to this fancy restaurant. We had Cuy (guinea pig) as an appatizer. Ashley had Lamb chops and I had beef heart cabobs, all of which are traditional peruvian meals and muy muy rico (very rich/delicious)











Our journey through the Inca Jungle started the follwing day with a 50 K bike ride down a winding mountain side. It sounds like a long ride but it only took about 2 1/2 hours and there was very little peddling involved ( very easy). There were a lot of rivers that crossed the road as we desended.















This is day two and the entrance to one of many Incas Trails. The people pictured next to us were part of the group that we toured with. they were from Europe and very cool people.

















This is a crazy Cable car Bridge that the locals used to bring goods fron the jungle into the near by villages. We got to take a short un-nerving ride on it above the rushing Urubamba river.




















Here is Ashley Giving Martine the Monkey some snacks at one the places we rested along the walk.

















More of Martine who seemed to be the crowed favorite and capitalized on all of the free munchies we were giving out.












This was the first thing I saw as we reached our lunch resting piont on day two of our trip. A crazy beaver looking animal drinking out of a gatorade squirt bottle. Awesome!


















This is a carved rock that is part of a larger section of the ruins called the condor. It is believed that sacrafices to the gods were carried out here. I think it kind of looks like the blood of whatever was killed ran down the grooves and drained in the hole at the piont of the carving. Creepy!

















A banana Flower with some fruit above. There were thousands of banana trees along our hike. other things that are grown here are Cocao(chocolate) Coca, and Coffee.















There were several Llama mowing the grass of the variouse tiers of flat land amoung the ruins.























Inca Steps.

























Sweet shot of Waynapicchu in the background behind a little cloud. For most of the morning clouds would come and go. At times we could not see most of what was around us because of the fog but in the afternoon everything cleared up and we could get the full view.















more Inca Steps














Im standing in a doorway built with very well polished granite. Machu Picchu was carved completely out of granite. some of the stone was at the location and some of it had to be brought to the site for further processing and use. It was explained that there were two different types of stone work during the construction of the city. The first as displayed by the doorway and was a very tight fit perfectly carved stone. no mortar was use in this. Above the door you can see a more random selection of rock that was held together by mortar. this technique was use during the later constructions of the city and under the rule of a different king.















Ashley exhuasted and perched atop Waynapicchu looking over the city of machu Picchu. On the left is the switch back road that the busses drive along. It took another hour to hike up to the top of this part of the mountain but it was well worth it.




This picture was taken from the top of the ruins opposite waynapicchu. In front of us was the guard house that was perched on top of all the terracing. Behind us is a closer view of the ruins. Behind the ruins is a view of the mountains. Some people think that the outline of the mountains looks like the face of an Incan, looking up into the sky.










This is a shot of the train that we took back to Cusco from Machu Picchu. Inside the train it was very luxurious. They served us crackers and a drink. The ride was about 2 hours to the next town, were we then caught a taxi back into Cusco. We had a really great trip up to Machu Picchu and the ruins were incredible. The view of all the surrounding mountains and rivers were also very impressive.