God Grew Tired of Us

I have really enjoyed being able to read a lot more now that I am taking the bus to work. In fact, in the past two weeks I have finished two books, which is more than I have in the past six months. I absolutely loved my latest book, God Grew Tired of Us by John Bul Dau. It is the true story of a Lost Boy, a boy from Sudan who grew up pretty much an orphan in a refugee camp along with thousands of other lost boys who had been separated from their families during the civil war in Sudan.

This made me so grateful for what I have. Peace, family, clothes, food and water. It also made me very sad to hear about what these little boys had to go through. They basically had to raise themselves and take care of the even smaller children. The author was about thirteen when we was separated from his family after his village was attacked. He made his way to a refugee camp and was soon put in charge of a thousand boys. He made sure they had shelter (if at all possible), had food to eat, and that they got medical attention when they got sick. And their ordeal wasn't over once they had trekked hundreds of miles across their country to the refugee camp. The refugee camp was still attacked and forced to move, the entire group of over 20,000 boys (and a much smaller amount of girls). Unfortunately, many of the boys did not survive.

One of my favorite parts was when the author gets chosen to come to America. It was really fun to read about his first exposure to American technology and culture as a firsthand account. I laughed when I read about his first reaction to showers and grocery stores. I was angry to hear about him getting fired from his minimum wage job after following the rules, but crossing a few key people. And I really loved seeing how he has been able to help his friends in Sudan, even making $7.00 an hour. The book really gave wonderful insight into the culture and cultural thought process of the Dinka (John's tribe) I would definitely recommend this book, and if you don't have time to read the book, then watch the documentary by the same title. (Which I have yet to see, hopefully sometime this week, but it won the "Grand Jury Prize: Documentary" and "Audience Award" at the Sundance Film Festival in 2006 so it sounds like a safe recommendation.)

Final Vacation Post, I Promise

For the few people out there who are not yet sick of my posts about our vacation...

Lima and Cuzco

Machu Picchu

Iquitos (the Jungle)

or access them on Facebook by clicking here:

Lima and Cuzco

Macchu
Picchu

Iquitos

I also added a video of the ladders on the hike up Putucusi on the Putucusi post below.

P.S.

See, the monkey really did keep trying to climb on me, and he really is a thief!

Wheats Like Animals..

Wheats like animals...Robert and an alligator.Melarie and a night monkey.
Robert and a sloth. Daniel and an anaconda.
... and animals like WheatsYum, Robert tastes good.

The first monkeys are howler monkeys, you can see why they are named that. The second monkey is a cute little capuchin monkey that kept trying to climb up on me. They told us not to let him because he would steal things out of our pockets.

Sorry we missed...

While we were in Peru, we missed:

3 birthdays (Well, actually, we missed two, my Mom's and Kevins. We celebrated Daniels with him.)

2 weddings (two of my cousins)

1 homecoming (my brother Richard)

1 funeral (Robert's grandma)

What Happened?!

Today I paid $4.19/gallon to fill up on gas at Costco. Yesterday I was running on empty so I had to put in a couple gallons to get around the next day, and I paid $4.33/gallon. This is why I now take the bus to work. Ugh. It wasn't this high before we left for Peru. What happened while we were gone?!

Also, check out my previous posts for some pictures I just added. Yay for fast computers in the good ole USA!

Cuzco Part II and Lima

After we came back from Machu Picchu we spent some more time in Cuzco where we went to the huge artisan market and shopped and haggled our little hearts out. I always feel good about my haggling skills until someone else tells me they got a better deal, so we are not revealing prices for anything. Then I can continue to be happy with the prices I got. We also visited some museums in Cuzco and the ruins right outside the city.Chillin' in the WHEAT field! Look at all the Wheat! There were four sites outside the city spread over a few kilometers. Instead of hiring a taxi to drive us around we opted to walk it all. This field was on the way.
The military fortress of Saqsawaman, aka. sexy woman (say it out loud), outside of Cuzco. I like the big bricks, they were cool.

After three more nights in Cuzco we flew back to Lima. Lima is a big, ugly, city. Really, I think I could get used to it, but I am not a big fan of living in any big city, and Lima just isn't very pretty. Luckily the sun came out while we were there (a rare event) so it wasn't quite as bad. We first tried to go the the National Museum, but pulled up and the place looked deserted. Turns out it is closed for two weeks! Just our luck. We were kind of stuck on what we should do next and finally ended up going to the much smaller Archeology Museum (located in the house Bolivar lived in for a while). They had some cool things, but we were still disappointed that we couldn't go to the National Museum.

Next we had some McDonalds and headed over to the Gold and Arms Museum. This was definitely the highlight of our Lima stay. It was an incredible museum. Unfortunately we couldn't take pictures inside, so you can check out their website for pictures of their collection, http://www.museoroperu.com.pe/. The Gold Museum is the biggest draw for most people. They have gold artifacts from all over Peru, ancient golden earrings, headdresses, tools, cups etc. It is hard to believe it really is all gold!This piece was at the archeology museum, where we could take pictures. Image rooms full of this for the gold museum.

The arms museum is pretty awesome too. They have weapon from all different times and have some pretty cool ones. They have a ton of guns, swords, samurai outfits, saddles, helmets, etc. I thought the coolest part was that they have swords that belonged to Napoleon, the Marquis de Layfaette, and Bolivar. Daniel has recently started collecting replicas of historic guns, and I think he was in heaven here. He had to take it all very slowly to digest everything.

The next day we went to some ruins outside the city, Pachacamac. These ruins were built mostly out of mud bricks, so there isn't a whole lot left there. It felt like we were in Egypt or something because the place it is at looks like a desert. The site has been an important ceremonial site for thousands of years and has been used by several different cultures, right up to Inca times. This was a temple that was actually reconstructed. Most of the buildings at Pachacamac didn't look this nice.

We also got to see the "changing" of the guard at the Presidential Palace (they didn't actually change the guards, the guards just left after the band played, which was really confusing for us.) And finally, Robert also got measured for two suits which he will pick up when he comes back to Lima. Next stop on our trip, Iquitos, the entry to the Amazon.

Machu Picchu Day 2

The boys are out riding motorcycles today, so I have plenty of time to catch up on trip updates. Unfortunately the computer I am on isn't letting me upload pictures, so I will try to figure that out soon and add pictures to these posts. Posts are always more fun with pictures.

Update- Obviously, we have pictures now. I've posted a few here, but there are so many good ones! It really is impossible to take a bad picture at Machu Picchu, it is so gorgeous all around. I may just have to do a slide show once I find the time. Enjoy these for now!

The lone mountain in the background there is Puticusi, the mountain we climbed the first day, with all the ladders. That was such an awesome hike!

So, after our last post we spent another day in Machu Picchu. It was also Daniels birthday, and although he was a little beat up from all the hiking the day before, I think he still enjoyed his birthday at one of the new seven wonders of the world.A lesson for everyone- wear pants or wear bug spray when you are outdoors. These are Daniel's legs. Can you see all the bug bites?


Robert is so adorable in this picture! He is dancing. This platform was, according to our book, used for theatrical purposes. So Robert got up to demonstrate.
We climbed up to the Gate of the Sun above Machu Picchu, a resting point on the Inca trail where travellers would get their first view of Machu Picchu. The only other hikes left to do were climbing up to the top of Mount Machu Picchu (for a different view of the ruins) and hiking up from the town to the Machu Picchu ruins (to save the six bucks on the bus ride and just for the fun of it) , neither of which we felt was worth the extra effort after so many other hikes, especially since all the hikes in the area are straight up and then straight down. We left the area loving our time spent there, but totally exhausted.
Notice how the shape of the rock mimics the mountain behind it. There were a ton of rocks that did the same things with the various mountains around Machu Picchu. Obviously, the mountains were very important to the site.Robert examining the wood. "Yup, in my professional opinion, this is really wood. Yup." (To be fair to Robert, he didn't really say that, but he does look like he is very intrigued by the wood.)

BTW, we were expecting Aguas Calientes (the closest town to Machu Picchu) to be really horrible and touristy, but we actually really enjoyed staying there. It was like an old wild west mining town, kind of ramshackledly put together, very isolated, and very targeted. Walking down the street was basically hotel, restaurant, Internet cafe, hotel restaurant, Internet cafe, bodega (small store). There was plenty of competition among all the places so prices and service were decent. We got our hotel to go down $15 from the price they quoted us in email because we told them the hotel next door was offering us the same thing for $10 less. Yay for competition! Up next, Lima.

Day 5 - Waynapicchu and the Western Urban Area

We rose early in the morning on Wednesday and got onto the third bus up to Machu Picchu. We arrived at the entrance at 5:55, just before the park opened. We ran into the park and took a few pictures before sunrise then walked across the site to the far end were you can climb up Waynapicchu (the mountain in the picture above). Since we had not climbed enough the day before we decided we needed to do another one. This climb was steep but not quite as long. We got some really good pictures from the top and then continued to the Temple of the Moon which is located on Waynapicchu. These hikes took a lot out of us and beat Daniel up pretty bad. We tried to take it easy and not hike as much after this.

The view from the top of Waynnapichu.
Coming down Waynapicchu to the Temple of the Moon.
Temple of the Moon

The second part of the day was spent walking through the western urban sector. This included the royal palace, sacred plaza and the pyramid. We walked these slowly and read a book about each section as we went since we did not want to hire a guide. Ill just post a few pictures below instead of trying to explain what we saw.

In front of the front gate to Machu Picchu. Everyone who entered the city had to come through here.

With a little llama above the city
Robert washing his hands in one of the many fountains.
Taking a nap in one of the temples