A Little Adventure Part 3 - " 'Take The Bus', they said, 'It Will Be Fun!', they said.

Our next stop was Southern Ecuador, which was very far away from where we were in Southern Peru. Even though we had a long way to travel, we decided we wanted to take the bus for the rest of our adventure because we wanted to see more of the countryside than we could from an airplane. Bus stations are interesting places.

In this one I made a new friend.

 Those bus rides were brutal. 19-20 hours long. The seats recline quite a bit, but the leg rests don't come all the way up, so it was very uncomfortable to try to sleep.

The bathroom in the bus starts out relatively clean, but by the end of the ride it's pretty bad. Oh, and did I mention that there is no pooping or toilet paper allowed in the bus toilet?  ......But the view from the bus is great.

Cuzco, Peru

mototaxis in Lima, Peru

back street in Moncora, Peru

 one of the endless banana fields in Southern Ecuador

Especially when you are lucky enough to get the front seats in the upper level of the bus!

Sitting up there was simultaneously terrifying and exhilarating....sort of like a Disneyland ride set to loud American movies dubbed in Spanish with English subtitles which are played incessantly. 

I loved it! 

We'd go days without seeing any other tourists, and there were fabulous sights to see on the way.

In Lima we visited the most fabulous open market. So much to see!

In Moncora we walked the beach and ate delicious ceviche.

 In Nuro we swam in the ocean with the giant sea turtles.  (I stole the turtle photos from the internet because we didn't have our cameras with us.)



 

In Organos we ate more delicious ceviche.

 And everywhere we went, people marveled over Levi's toe shoes.

 They caused quite a sensation.

A Little Adventure Part 2- "That Which Goes Up, Must Come Down"

After soaking up the spectacular view for an hour or so, it was time to head back down.

 It looks a little bit like Levi's stepping off the edge of the world here....

I must say, going down was a lot more difficult than going up.

Somehow,  there were  lot more steps on the way down than there were on the way up!

Here's a helpful tip: clip your toenails in the morning before you hike downhill.

At the base of the mountain we paused and marveled at the beautiful ruins.

And then we headed down to spend some time exploring....

Incredible.

We didn't have a tour guide.....I think we should have hired one....it would have enhanced the experience. But it was very cool.

Some reconstruction is still going on.

 The stonework defies comprehension.

This happened.

I hate to think what all happened on this stone down through the years....

 These guys were roaming around unconcerned....

Are they Llamas or Alpacas?

By now we were totally exhausted, so we made our way through the mind bogglingly long queue for the bus and headed back to Aguas Calientes.

There we found a nice little place for dinner....

guacamole and home made tortilla chips

 llama tenderloin and the ubiquitous rice and potatoes

 chicken

 .....and then we collapsed in bed!!!

A Little Adventure Part 1 "Getting There"

Once the gardening season was over and all the bear hunters had gone home, it was time for a little adventure. I've always wanted to visit the lost city of Machu Picchu in Peru, but Mr. Adams already had travel plans of his own, so I roped Levi into going with me.

I needed him......he speaks Spanish.

The first step was to get to Lima, Peru. That's a journey in itself when you're coming all the way from Alaska.

From there we flew to Cuzco and then hitched a ride on a collectivo van to Ollantaytambo where we spent the night. Early the next morning we caught the train to Aguas Calientes 

The scenery from the train was breathtaking!!!

There are windows in the ceiling so you can see the mountains...they're so steep and tall!

The hostel staff met us at the train and guided us to our room. They knew we were in a hurry because we had tickets to get through the gate for the mountain hike that morning from 9:00-11:00.

After checking into our room we hurried back into town to get in line for the bus up to Machu Picchu. The line was REALLY long!

But it moved along fairly quickly. We met a really nice gal from Argentina named, Maria. She ceremoniously gave Levi 3 coca leaves. Apparently this was a sign of friendship.

If you chew the leaves, or make tea out of them, they are supposed to help with altitude sickness.

Once we were on the bus it took us up to the lost city and we rushed to the gate for the mountain hike....we got there at 9:35! Finally....we could relax and enjoy our trip.

I say relax. Actually, it was quite arduous. We climbed about 1600 stone steps that took us from about 8000 feet to 10,050 feet.

That's a lot of steps.

It was hot.

And I'm really out of shape.

 But we made it....

 All the way to the top!

The view was really quite indescribable.

It was worth every step.