On August 8th, Keri, John, and I bid a temporary farewell to Seattle as we left for our adventure in Peru. After a long layover in Miami, we landed in Lima, Peru. We spent a day exploring Miraflores (a more affluent neighborhood in Lima) before catching another plane to Cusco, Peru. There, we spent 3 days acclimating ourselves to the extreme altitude. We had heard horror stories of altitude sickness and took it easy for a few days exploring the sights and culture of Cusco.
From there, we took off for our 5 day trek through the Salkantay pass to Macchu Pichu. There are something like 107 climatic zones in the world and Peru has nearly all of them. Over the course of our 5 day hike, we got to see many of them. We started in the lowlands, hiked over a massive mountain pass, down through the plateau, through the high jungle, down to the riverbeds and ended back in the moutains at Macchu Pichu. It was really incredible and I feel so blessed to have experienced it the way we did.
After exploring the ruins, we took a train back to Cusco and departed for Lima the next morning. We taxied straight to the bus station in Lima and took a 8 hour bus ride down the coast to Nazca, Peru. We flew over the Nazca lines which are ancient rock formations of different creatures that are only visible by air. As I get motion sick very easily in a car, I was VERY glad to be safe on the ground after our flight. After getting my stomach back, we made our way north through Huacachina for wine tasting and sandboarding and then to Paracas to see the wildlife of la Isla de Ballestas. It was sad to bid adieu to Peru but we were all glad to be back in Seattle safe and sound on August 25th. It was a trip of a lifetime!
No comments:
Post a Comment