Peru Part 1

Hola! My-my, doesn't time fly!

I can't possibly do "vacation justice" by putting things down in one post! So I guess I'll just start with "some" things, and add more posts as I remember or as I edit more photos.

Teresa and I returned from our Adventure Excursion to Peru!

It was a student-parent-teacher expedition. Her teacher, Mr. Fernandez, is an archaeologist from Peru. He has been making this trip, or very close to it, for the past 15 years.

Just 5 years ago, however, he started inviting students. 4 of them.

The next year 4 more. Then 4 plus a couple of parents. Then last year, 7 students.

This year it happened to be a much bigger group. 10 students, 3 parents, another teacher, a videographer & his wife. Plus Mr. Fernandez, and 4 guides.

Overall--it was a fabulous trip! For 75% of our days, it was sunny or overcast. We arrived in Lima and spent a day seeing the sights there. They have a great cathedral, with (here is the difference) catacombs--there are bones of 25,000 people who were buried underneath this cathedral. It was pretty overwhelming.


In Lima, we rented trucks. Reinforced-with-rollbars-on-the-inside Toyota trucks, for the offroad driving and skinny, bumpy dirt trails we would encounter.


Start the trek to the Remote Village. From Lima, it took 2 FULL DAYS of DRIVING. Up the coast, through desert and shantytown. The kids got to play in sand dunes for a little bit. We stopped at a beautiful resort on the ocean for lunch. Actualy Mr. Fernandez got married there.

Stay the night in Chiclayo. Then drive more, this time east, winding through the mountains. Finally arrive in Leymebamba. A little town with a "mummy museum."

Then we hiked to ________, a midway-point to get used to the altitude. The remote village would be 11,500 feet in altitude, so the midway was around 9.000 feet. We stayed there 2 nights, hiking during the day, to get better acclimated. Amazing, breathtaking vistas -- I can't begin to describe the beautiful mountainscapes we encountered at every turn. It was just glorious.

Then, on to the 186-person village of Atuen! After a week of pretty good weather, we hiked in the 6 hours or whatever, and it began...to rain. Yes, the 4 days we were in the village where we were supposed to be helping the people build the school...it rained on us!!!! Ugh. A little different than we'd planned.

My own health note: Before we left, I started a "little cough." I held it at bay with all kinds of zinc, echanacea and cold medicines for 3/4 of the trip--it was pretty mild, only a cough. But the long trek home (2 full days of driving, 20 hours in the car, delayed redeye flights and not sleeping on the planes...) kind of turned it into fever, chills, and bronchitis. This past week has seen me laying around a lot, wishing I was someone else. Antibiotics and fluids and finally sleeping through the nights a week later, I am still coughing some but feeling much better.

On that note, I'll post this Part One. I'm still editing and deleting photos. But this is a start!

Happy Week, Kari :)