Inca Trail Day 2

The second day of the Inca Trail is the longest. We hiked 10 miles over 2 mountains.

BearDog prepares to hike up to Dead Woman's Pass. The name is from the rock formation at the top that looks like a dead woman lying on her back.

Heading up to the pass, the porters had no trouble - as you can see, they had already packed up camp, run past us, and almost reached the top. Tim, in this photo, sprained his ankle on the way back down from Dead Woman's Pass on Day 2. Since we were in the middle of nowhere, he bandaged it up, took some ibuprofen, and managed to finish the 4 day hike.

Almost there.

We made it!

Dead Woman's Pass is at an elevation of 4215 meters = 13,828 feet. That's why I spent so much time acclimating in Cusco.

Good job, BearDog!

Some groups set up camp after they hiked up, over, and down the first mountain, but not us, we kept going over the next one too.

Stopping to enjoy the view on the way down.

There were Inca ruins scattered about, here and there. I'm pretty sure we all took photos of all of them.

Inca Trail Day 1

The Incas built many trails, but I hiked the most famous one, the 4-day trek to Machu Picchu. After meeting in Cusco at 4:30am, we took a bus to the start of the trail.

There were 11 of us - 6 from the UK, 4 from the US, and 1 from Australia. Also, 2 guides, 2 chefs, and a lot of porters to carry everything for us - I could get used to that lifestyle.

The porters were incredible. While I carried less than 10 pounds, mostly consisting of water, a camera, and a jacket, they each carried about 70 pounds! They brought along all the camping gear and cooking items for 4 days of hiking. Not only that, but shortly after we left camp they would have everything packed up and would go running past us to set up for the next meal.

Did I say they carried the cooking items? I meant to say they carried the entire dining room on their backs. This is the breakfast they set up for us after they brought coca tea to each of our tents every morning, and set out individual bowls of hot water for us to wash our hands and faces with.

No shortage of food...

...or popcorn, hot chocolate, or cakes during daily pre-dinner "Happy Hour". Seriously, we had a cake on our last night. I can barely bake a cake in my kitchen, let alone in the middle of the jungle. After carrying the ingredients. And the oven. And the propane bottles. Over several mountain passes.

This dinner arrived after the cake. Note that it looks like a turtle and an ostrich. I might do the hike again just for the food.

Speaking of hiking, we did a lot of that. We also stopped to view Inca ruins along the way.

These donkeys were interested in my morning snack. Not as interested as I was though.

More hiking.

The view was okay, I guess.

Cusco

I spent 3.5 days in Cusco, Peru, acclimating to its 11,000 feet of elevation in preparation for hiking the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. Supposedly Cusco used to be shaped like a Puma. Now it pretty much looks like a non-puma-shaped city.

I didn't get altitude sickness, but I did have to stop about every 5 feet to catch my breath while climbing stairs like these (the dog had to stop and rest as well).

The Incas left many ruins in the Andes. I guess they didn't leave them as ruins. And they actually look pretty nice. But they are called ruins. This is in the Sacred Valley, at Ollantaytambo.

Lots of terraces at Pisac, on which crops were grown. Our guide said that they acclimated the crops to the higher elevations by moving them up one terrace a year, but I'm not sure I believe that.

When the Spanish arrived, they tore down and built over the existing Inca sites that they found. Here they made a Catholic church in Chinchero.

The Spanish did a pretty good job converting the Incas, obviously, since everyone in Peru speaks Spanish. They left these ruins on the side of the church though. 

On the last day in Cusco I climbed up to Sacsayhuaman.

This statue (as seen in the background of the previous photo) overlooks the city. So do I. We shall rule it together.

Next stop: alpacas!

I got to hold a three-week-old baby animal. I was told it was a baby alpaca. But I'm not so sure... it could be anything, I suppose. Whatever it was, it was soft and cute!

The Wizarding World of Harry Potter

I have been waiting to visit The Wizarding World of Harry Potter since I read the first book, and conveniently Universal Studios Orlando created one such world. First stop, Hogwarts Castle! It's the first thing you see when you cross into Harry Potter World. Although I have watched the movies, it's totally different seeing it in person (and much better, of course).

The details in the whole park were great. They even have the hog gargoyles guarding the entrance to the castle. Thankfully they let me through.

The butterbeer tasted mostly like I imagined it would, but really sweet. Sadly I had to evanesco some of it.

After the Hogwarts Castle ride (Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey - awesome), I headed into Hogsmeade, the wizarding village which is just a short walk away.

I did some wizarding shopping and sightseeing (quite a bit, actually), and then the Hogwarts Express rolled into town. I didn't book a ride this time (why would I want to leave?) but I did get a chance to meet the conductor. He was a nice guy... which I discovered after I translated his English into American!

Walt Disney World

I arrived in Orlando at about 7pm on Sunday night. Magic Kingdom was open until 2am, so of course I had to go right away. One of the first rides I went on was "it's a small world". It was great, there were hardly any lines for any of the rides. (The song is in my head now, so I hope it is in your head too.)

 

After the first night which was windy and cold, the weather got pretty nice. (Still sweatshirts at night for me though, even though everyone else was fine in short sleeves.) Epcot was having its annual Flower and Garden Festival.

I'm not sure if these flowers were planted for the festival, but they were really bright and pretty.

After Chip and Dale tried to run off with Cookie Monster and BearDog, everyone calmed down and took a nice picture.

"Come on with the rain, I've a smile on my face..." Literally. If you zoom in you can actually see the raindrops. Clearly it doesn't rain enough at home so I must travel to find it.

I would like to install this lamppost in my house. I will have to decide which room will be best.

BearDog and Cookie Monster go to Disney World

BearDog and Cookie Monster were excited for their first visit to Walt Disney World. They were hoping to meet Chip and Dale.

Lucky for them, they found Chip and Dale at Epcot! At first Chip and Dale thought BearDog and Cookie Monster were so cute that they tried to run away with them. I chased them all down, rescued BearDog and Cookie Monster, and we took some photos.

At Animal Kingdom, BearDog and Cookie Monster went on safari.

BearDog and Cookie Monster rode the Star Tours ride five times. It's a good thing the ride is different every time.

They visited the Truffula Trees at Universal Studios! 

BearDog and Cookie Monster demonstrate what NOT to do at Disney World.

On their last day at Walt Disney World, BearDog and Cookie Monster tried to pull the sword out of the stone. I am not sure how they were planning to get it home if they had been successful.

Japan Map

Japan was a busy trip! (click on map to see larger version)