FROM MY EYES TO YOUR YOUR SCREEN

 This is just a dump of food pictures. Quinoa is used alot in soups and other dishes. This was the pit our food was cooked in for one lunch. The tea station at.one hotel I thought this was cute!

The Group After spending 6 days together we got to know our 18 fellow travelers better. Alyson - Alyson was the lady who talked constantly.  After awhile you got used to it. She talked to anyone and everyone and wore her Santa hat whenever she could. She was retired military currenly living in Nevada and she was planning on relocating to the Philippines. Memorable quote when arriving ar our Hotel in Lima "have you ever stayed in a 5 star hotel?". The Kazakhstans - This was a father and son duo who spoke no English. Everyone communicated with them using Google translate.  The guides would record important information and play it back in Russian for them. The father had won a gold medal for weightlifting and had a family business making sausage in Kazakhstan.  They appeared to travel alot and have an Alaskan cruise out of Vancouver booked. I recommended they check out doing the Rocky Mountainer train through the Rockies. Memorable  quote "Da" David and Camilla - this ...

This post will be about some of the sites we visited during our 6 day tour. There were many other sites we visited that are not described here. Sacsayhuaman Sascsayhuaman (sounds like sexy woman) is a UNESCO world heritage site near Cusco that is 3700 m.a.s.l. Construction began in 1350 and took 90 years to complete. Most of the stones were removed and used at other sites over the years. The majority of those remaining were too large to move. The Inti Raymo ceremony is still celebrated here. Ollantaytambo  Ollantaytambo was a well established city in Inca times.  The city is still inhabited and is considered the only living Inca city in South America. The site has a large temple that was built for worshipping the sun. The temple was never finished (the Spanish attacked) and because of that how the how the large boulders were moved is revealed. The trail from the quarry to the temple has stones as large as 80 tons that were in the process of being moved. Pat at the top of the S...

Weaving Visit We went to a couple of lama/alpaca weaving spots . At one, they went into great detail on how they clean the fiber (it is a fiber, not wool), how they wash it, dye it (the natural items used for dying the fibre) what the use to modify the colors (salt, lime). This alpaca was in our Hotel lobby. I didnt think it was real and it scared the crap out of me when it moved. We went to so many places, saw so much, learned so much. It's been a wonderful trip. I can't begin to even post everything.  I've run into a problem with my photos and storage. I'll have to straight that out before I can post my remaining picture. I should be able.to do that over the weekend. More to come on the land tour portion! Home We are home now - a 15 hour travel day from LIM - ATL - YYZ. As much as I enjoy traveling, I also always love coming home. I'm really looking forward to my next cruise in July 2025. We will be taking our oldest grandson on his first European trip (we will do...

Early morning, breakfast was light with fruit and breads. There were also some cake like treats. One thing about being early is we beat most of the traffic to the airport. We were all wondering why we just didn't stay at a hotel near the airport, but we are at the domestic airport today as opposed to the international airport yesterday. Our Group There are 18 people in our group. Most are Americans, we have 2 Russians, an Australian and us. Several of the American are Chinese or Taiwanese citizens. And OMG, some of the comments made last night, like to the Russians "are you from   Kazakhstan?". Or to the Taiwanese,  "China is wanting to take you over, but the Americans are going to protect you". And then there is one lady, very loud and always talking. Yap, yap, yap. Of course, she was behind me on the 3 hour flight from Santago the Lima yesterday.  Speaking of the flight... it was Latam and I was impressed. They fed us - a warm ham and cheese sandwich on a croi...