Peru 2012

So I know this is a little late, but better late than never...right?

This summer Mom, Dad, and I went to Peru for my graduation trip.  I'm not going to describe each day in depth, but I'll give some pictures :)

We left from AC and flew to Ft. Lauderdale and then to Lima.  We stayed there a couple of hours, but then we were off to Arequipa right away.

View of the sun rising over the Andes Mountains 

Our little breakfast at the hotel in Lima (which was delicious) 

Arequipa!  It was a little cold when we got there...

Our first hostal...it was my favorite!

Mom and I in front of our first hostal.

Walking into the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa

Mom and I

We went to a mill later on in Arequipa that was really cool

Fighting! 

Walking on the "pretty street"

Dad and I in front of a chapel in Arequpia, the first one we saw.

This is in the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas in Arequpia

Dad was a little disappointed in the dining choices

Does anyone recognize this?? 

Empanadas and Inca Kola! 

Remember Christ loves you!  We got these stickers for donating money to something.  However, I put this on the back of my iPod, which then got stolen at the temple.  So at least the rude, ignorant, spanish thief knows that Christ loves him...

Dad thought he was really funny...as you can see in the next picture...

...See :P

Inside the convent in Arequipa

Very pretty streets

How they wash clothes there; there is a constant flow of water, so when you want some, you just put your fist in to direct it out of the pipe and into the broken pot. 

Here is the water system

Misty the volcano 

Pretty, pretty

This is also at the mill, I don't know why these are out of order haha

At the mill

This little puppy was the cutest...although there were a lot of the cutest puppies just wandering around the streets down there. We named him Perrito--original I know ;)

Polla a la brasa

And I thought this package looked like the Sorcerer's Stone that Hagrid picks up in Gringott's...it was really just soap though haha

Another shot of the Plaza

Confessing my sins in the cathedral 

Sooooo many shops to go in

This is the mission home that dad remembers

This is the mission office and where they lived in the apartment next to or upstairs

Misty

Mom and dad in front of another chapel

There were groups of school children all over the plaza everyday in there different outfits

Smiling for a picture

Inca Kola, dad loves it.

Another Chapel

Restaurant we ate at on top of a building--a nice shot of the Cathedral in the Plaza

Love this shot

Mom and dad loved their civiche...me not so much

I just stuck with the tomato soup :)

Welcome to Cusco!

So many stairs...

More school children in Cusco

The Plaza de Armas in Cusco

On the Cathedral steps

Peruvians are so funny.  Everything at every time in eery place has a symbol and a hidden meaning.  This is a map of cusco, which is of course shaped like a puma.  Most things were shaped like a puma if you looked very, very hard haha

Lamb walking in the streets

We went to a chocolate making factory and these were delicious!  They don't sell Chirimoya in the stores in the US...sure wish they did.  

Oh, welcome to the market place in Cusco...scary! 

This woman was selling live frogs, and stirring them...not sure why.

Delicious fruit. 

I just love this picture. 

Chirimoya!!

Selling vegetables in the alleys

The twelve point stone.  Amazing!

Llamas walking around the streets

Markets in the alleys

TONS of bracelets on poles

The definition of Cusco--stairs.

 View from the top of some stairs

Our hostal in Cusco...worst place ever...

Anticuchos aka beef heart.  

This is lemonade believe it or not.  When it got to our table, I was a little upset because we had a hard day and I KNEW it wasn't lemonade.  But the waiter soon explained to us, that is was intact lemonade. Since we ordered it cold...they had to whip it with ice, and that was what the frothy stuff is at the top. It actually tasted great :) 

Trying the anticuchos

I think they would have tasted ok...but I just kept thinking in my head that I was eating a cow's heart.  So it didn't taste that great.

We visited a lot of ruins this day.  This one is Tambomachay.

Puca Pucara

Oh Dad...

Eucalyptus trees

Quenko

 A King's throne

The inca slides!  Way fun but scary...

Mom just pretended haha

CUY!  aka guinea pig

A puma's paw

Dad at the temple of the sun

White Christ on the top of the mountain 

We found another chapel in Cusco!

Also at the temple of the Sun

The light casts the shadow of the llama

Now we're at Sacsayhuaman

The rock is a profile of a face, a classic picture spot 

Dad posing

Our guide who was great but kind of controlling haha

This was an amphitheater at Sacsayhuaman

Posing with the Cuy

Throne for preaching

Mom and I at the temple of the Sun

Inside the Cusco church building...yes it is exactly the same!!

Fondu! 

Mom and I after church in Cusco

Sacsayhuaman

Temple of the Sun

Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman

Sacsayhuaman

HUGE ROCKS 

Temple of the Sun

The bulletin boards in the church are just the same too haha

We thought it was gay pride week, but it's actually just the Incan flag haha

Outside of the Chocolate Factory 

A kitty we met in Urubamba 

On the way to Urubamba...we had the best guide

Machu Picchu!

At the top of Huayna Picchu

I'm looking at Machu Picchu from a bird's eye view

Pretty steep... 

I LOVE THIS KITTY

The only way down...

Yikes.  This is seriously the scariest thing i've ever done. 

Mountain that is dropped in the middle of no where

Lil' bit dirty...

Pyro

Squishing mom's head

Love this picture

Famous picture after Machu Picchu...can you tell we're a little tired?

Chips were the best thing on the earth. 

Our hotel lady showing us how to grind up the food.  This hotel is built on real ruins.

More Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu was definitely a highlight of the trip.  Breathtaking.

Ollantaytambo ruins in the Sacred Valley

You could look outside of our hostal window and see these. Awesome! 

Back shot off the balcony at our hostal.  

Alleys in Ollantaytambo

 These guys were picking trash off of the mountain side...it was pretty scary! 

Another little puppy

Moray...these are crazy terraces !

Steps in the Moray terraces

Church building in Urubamba...we found out that our taxi driver was an inactive member haha

The salt mines.  These were pretty cool to see!

These ruins are called Pisac.  Our guide said that these ruins were known to have been even greater than Machu Picchu if the spanish had not destroyed them.  Machu Picchu was not destroyed because the Spanish never found it.  I was a little upset with the Spaniards for destroying it.  It would have been awesome to see it intact! 

This is also at Pisac...if you look closely you can see all of the little holes in the mountain--those are graves of people from Pisac.

Now we're in Puno.  This is Nelson who owns an island on Lake Titicaca in the floating islands.  He also shares/lives on/maintains the church's island as well.  

Primary room

Chapel

Mom, Dad, and Nelson's family

Drying the reeds to build with

A water filter Geoffrey helped build when he was down earlier in April

Reeds on reeds on reeds

Primary

Chapel

City of Puno

The city of Lima

A random wedding we sat in on 

The statue was commissioned in Spain to commemorate the 100 anniversary of Peru's independence.  The woman was supposed to have a crown of flames on her head.  But since the word  for flame in Spanish is llama, the artist mistakenly carved a small llama on the woman's head.  :)

The fountain gardens

Looking hot as usual. 

And then at the end of the night we saw this.  Home sweet home, how did they know we were flying back there the next day?

Churros and chocolate...it was delicious!

t the Lima temple...bittersweet memories here.

This little bouquet was given to me by one of the flair girls at the wedding that was at the temple that night after my iPod got stolen.  All of the spanish people were very nice and sorry about my things.  Very, very sad night in my books.  

But over all the trip to Peru was a wonderful success!  It was so fun to see all of Dad's mission sites and places.  It's cool that there will be a new temples in Arequipa soon too!  Once all the announced temples are finished, Peru will then have four.  Thanks mom and dad for letting me come back with you!  It was he best trip ever!