Pacha Mama

That's the name of the most popular cultural song in Peru. And we l-0-v-e-d it. If i can get it to work, I'll post a video of a band singing it while we were at dinner one night. Anyway...this is a long overdue post all about Peru. I promise lots of pictures and probably not a lot of words hopefully. Sooooo here we go.

First thing's first, Macchu Picchu. What an incredible place! We visited this place probably about halfway through our trip, so we'd seen a ton of other ruins and were nervous it would be more of the same, but honestly this was one of the most beautiful places I've ever seen in my life. Got up suuuuper early to go hike Wayna Picchu as well, which is the mountain behind the ruins. Real hot because was in normal clothes, but so worth it. Here's a picture of me in front of the ruins. I was standing on some of the terraces used for farming, obviously excited to be there.

Good story. Right before this picture Jessie and I were tired so we decided to lay down and take a nap on the terrace. We woke up to some french couple standing over us and talking, so what do I do? Continue to pretend to be asleep. Naturally. Next there's a group of men speaking arabic or something and I'm feeling really awkard, so I just kept "sleeping." They finally went away when Jessie woke up and just looked at them weird.

Another group, who got a more spiritual tour of Macchu Picchu. They were kind of weird.

Just wanted you to see the outfits McDonald's employees wear down there.
Touring what is known as the Sistine Chapel of South America. Tons and tons of pretty gold and cool paintings, but we couldn't take any pictures inside.
Little cutie we found on the streets in Aguas Calientes, the city where you get on the bus to go up to Macchu Picchu. Sorry the lighting is so bad.
So guinea pig is apparently a big deal in Peru. They eat it for special occasions like holidays, weddings, etc. Our tour guide talked us into trying it, so we stopped at some small house on the side of the road. Kind of weirded me out, but was actually pretty good.
This is an old Incan ruin that was taken over by the Spaniards. It was really cool to see both of the cultures in one building.
This lady is just working real hard to get that hay up the hill. Thought it was a great pic.
Baby llama time. For cute. Just singing the theme song from Emperor's New Groove all week long. my life is complete.
A roadside stand on the bus ride between Cusco and Puno. Really I just like the baby tot in front.
The view from the lake as we came up on the floating Uros islands. These are so cool! They build the islands from reeds and anchor them to the bottom of the lake and then just live a simple life on the islands. Cool fact: the missionaries tract out there, and there's a small branch for the islands.
Traditional clothes worn on the Uros islands, and the governor of the island we visited. Each island typically consists of a few families, probably 10 max. There's one man who functions as the governor/island leader.
These are the natives of Taquile island, which is super far away from the mainland, but so cool. They all wear these traditional clothes, and different colors and items indicate whether men are married or single or leadership. Pretty cool. Their main source of income is handmaking sweaters and hats similar to the ones they wear.Life changing trout. Freshly caught and made by one of the local ladies. I don't think there was a meal for the rest of the trip where I didn't eat fish.Yep, this pose happened. On our way down the bajillion steps to get off of the island.
Great big ancient towers. Just cool because they are so huge.
In front of the city palace in Lima. Cool building but we couldn't go inside.
Weird, but funny. Apparently Peru has a problem with people dropping off their cats in public parks. Loved this sign.And to finish off the trip, we stopped at Universal Studios to go to Harry Potter land. Turns out it wasn't going to open for another 3 weeks. So here's my sad face in front of Hogwarts. Sorry about my nakes. It was hot.

So there you have it. Short and sweet, but a fairly okay summary of my trip to Peru.