Hello from Machu Picchu!!
(sort of, I´m technically in the town, Aguas Calientes)

We just spent the last 2 days visiting Machu Picchu. It´s totally amazing! The mountains here are enormous, very steep and the close ones are lush and green. Behind those are the ‘real’ Andes, steep rocky peaks with snow and glaciers.

I´m at an internet cafe in town. This is a small town, which you can only reach by train. We took the train here yesterday afternoon, and are leaving later today. To get to Machu Picchu, you take a bus up a steep set of switchbacks. The road is dirt and about the right size for one way… but there are lots of buses going up and down, so you have to continually pass the other buses. A bit scary at first, but I got used to it.

We had met a nice couple from New York, and decided to share a guide with them for the first afternoon at Machu Picchu. The guide showed us around for a 4-hour tour. He gave us a lot of information about what the different ruins are and theories about their uses.

The second day at Machu Picchu, Ben and I decided to join the other ambitious tourists and get up early to see the sun rise on Machu Picchu. We woke at 4:30am, took the bus up, and got to the site around 6 or 6:30am. Machu Picchu was covered in clouds, and I was prepared to not see the sun rise onto the site at all (I heard that sometimes the clouds don´t rise until 9am or so). But these clouds just disappeared after about 10 minutes. Small wispy clouds would form off and on and sort of travel up and over Machu Picchu. It was very cool.

The sun didn´t come over the mountains to shine onto Machu Picchu until about 7am. Once it did it lit up the whole site and was beautiful. We then made our way across the ruins to the mountain at the other side (the taller one in all the photos). It is called Wayna Picchu (or Huayna Picchu, everything here has 3 names, the Inca name, Spanish name, and English name!). We hiked to the top of it, via lots of steep inca stairs. There´s a few inca buildings, walls, and terraces at the top. And the view is amazing. It was a lot of work, especially at 8,000+ feet, but totally worth it.

That´s all for now. I´m working on posting a few photos, hopefully that´ll work. Now we´re off to the Sacred Valley for 3 days for more sightseeing and also some mountain biking!

Here are some photos uploaded from Aguas Calientes!

We’re going to Peru! When we tell this to people, quite often the response is “So why are you going to Peru?” Well, for one, Ben and I love to travel and see new places in the world. But mostly we choose Peru because of the famous Inca ruins of Machu Picchu. This has been the top of my ‘places to visit’ list for a long time now. I believe the first time I learned of Machu Picchu was from the NBC Today Show’s “Where in the World is Matt Lauer” probably 10 years ago. Ever since I’ve dreamed of going there. So a couple months ago Ben and I decided it was time for another trip. Once I started exploring the possibility of Peru, I was hooked. And it’s been all I can think about for the past month!

There are definitely some new challenges for this type of trip. This is our first time to South America, and we don’t exactly know what to expect. We did need to get some immunizations for the trip, and have bought all kinds of extra clothing, electronics, and other necessities for this trip.

For one, we will be spending an excessive amount of time travelling. To get to Peru, we be taking 4 flights which will add up to a total of 24 hours travelling from start to finish! And that’s just one way. In addition, we will spend at least 3 hours roundtrip on a train, 1 hour on bus, and many many hours in taxis. So, to keep ourselves occupied we are bringing a ridiculous amount of entertainment – books, Nintendo DS’s (one for each of us), a portable video player (Creative’s Zen Vision W) loaded with movies and TV shows, puzzles, and music.

Another interesting fact is that we will be at very high altitudes in the Andes mountains. The first city we will visit is Cusco, which is the main base for visiting Machu Picchu. Cusco is situated at 11,000ft! Many people get altitude sickness when staying above 9,000ft. Since Ben and I have hiked to 14,000ft in Colorado and haven’t had troubles, we’re hoping we’ll be okay in Cusco. But just in case, I’m taking a drug called Diamox which is supposed to help.

Then there are the normal precautions to take when travelling to South America – mostly avoiding the tap water and uncooked foods. We’re bringing lots of hand sanitizer, mini toilet paper rolls (apparently public restrooms do not have TP), antibiotics, and we will be buying lots and lots of bottled water.

This is definitely a big adventure for us. I just can’t wait to get there and finally see Machu Picchu!

Finally I have our new website in a good enough state to upload.  I moved the old wedding website to www.bendandalonna.com/wedding/wedding.php because I just couldn’t get myself to part with it yet!  Plus all the wedding photos are still there, which I will never get tired of looking at 🙂  I’m not sure how much Ben and I will get into the blogging thing… but at least we can write some things about our trips.  Someday I might try to add some more photos and blogs for our past trips.

We leave for Peru in only 5 days now!  This weekend we spent trying to pack and get all of our information organized.  I couldn’t resist, and made a spreadsheet with our itinerary and all the details.  I think next I’ll try to compile a list of recommended restaurants and places to visit.  Tripadvisor has definitely been my friend for this trip, I have gotten tons of advice and even made a couple friends that I will be meeting up with in Peru.

Alonna

Trip Dates: September 29 – October 8, 2006

We went to the island of Kauai for our honeymoon. This is a smaller island in Hawaii, and the oldest of the chain. We choose Kauai because of it’s amazing scenery, including the Waimea Canyon and the NaPali Coast. There is a mountain in the middle of the island called Wai’ala’ala, which is the wettest spot on earth! Although Kauai is known for it’s rain (and therefore its lush green landscape), the weather was beautiful and we only got sprinkled on a couple times. We stayed in an amazing condo right on the ocean, and had all kinds of fun: hiking Waimea canyon, biking in the jungle, snorkeling and boogie boarding, a boat trip to NaPali coast, and a helicopter ride over the island. It was an amazing honeymoon and a great start to our marriage!

See photos here: Our Honeymoon

We got married on July 29th, 2006 in Vail, Colorado. See the original wedding website and photos at Our Wedding Website.

Trip Dates: February 20-26, 2005

Ben and I went on a trip to the Yucatan Penninsula in Feb ’05. We based in Playa Del Carmen, a charming town on the coast. The island of Cozumel is nearby, and we took a ferry out to visit for a day. I would say the highlight of our trip was renting a jeep wrangler and driving to Chitchen Itza, which is a huge ancient Mayan city in the middle of the Yucatan Penninsula. The site was amazing, and driving was an experience in itself! We also really enjoyed Tulum, a mayan ruin on the coast just south of Playa Del Carmen.

Trip Dates: October 13-20, 2002

During my study abroad in Denmark, Ben and I decided to meet in Ireland for a week in October. We booked a “Bed & Breakfast Self-Drive Package”, which gave us 7 days of car rental and 7 B&B vouchers. We drove to a B&B, stayed a night or two, and then drove off to the next one. We started on the Southwestern side of Ireland in Shannon, then made our way across Southern Ireland, ending up in Dublin. It was quite the experience driving on the wrong side of the road, on the tiny little roads in Ireland! But the scenery is amazing, the sights are full of history, and we had an absolute blast.