Here are the pics (see below) from my trip to Peru. I spent a month there studying Spanish in a town called Cuzco, in the foothills of the Andes Mountains. Most of the pics here are from Machu Picchu becuase it was the most beautiful place I saw in Peru. My German friend Raphael from the Spanish School and I spent the holiday weekend up in Machu Pichu. We took the train to a small town called Aguas Calientes which is nestled in the valley below the mountain below Machu Picchu. We stayed the night in a small hotel(see pic) on the river. About 6:30 am The next day, we walked to the top of the mountain. Most people took the bus ride up the mountain, but we preferred to walk the path which the ancient Incas must have taken when they had to come down off the mountain for supplies. The path is basically a staircase that goes straight up the side of the mountain. At an altitude of over 10,000 feet, the walk was quite vigorous. It took about an hour to get up to the Machu Picchu site.

Once we got there, we decided to rest for a while - but then I got the idea that I wanted to go to the top of Wyna Picchu, which is the summit overlooking Machu Picchu. You can see it towering over Machu Picchu in the wide shots. Raphael did not want to go at first, but he came along anyway. It took another hour waking straight up the stairs, and sometimes holding on to a cable in the side of the mountain to get there. I took some shots of Machu Picchu from up there, it is quite amazing. You will see the pic of me standing on the top of Wyna Picchu - behind me is a 2,000 foot drop off. It was amazing. After hanging out for a while, Raphael wanted to go to the Temple de la Luna (temple of the moon) which was down the other side of the mountain. I asked if he was sure because I knew that we would have to come back up the back side of the mountain again. He said "Let's Go". On the way down, we had to hold onto a cable that leaned out over the side of the mountain, and then go down a wooden ladder. Being an old roofer, I scampered right down; but Raphael almost didn't make it. His knees were shaking so bad, that I had to hold them still so he could walk down. We finally did made it to the Temple de la Luna after about another hour. We stopped and had lunch there, it was quite beautiful.

After a while, we started heading up the side of the mountain again. About half way up, Raphael could not walk anymore. He had never walked that far in one day - about 15 miles at 10,000 feet. I literally had to carry him up the mountain. I was getting tired too, but we made it back up to Machu Picchu. After a break, we decide to walk slowly down the road back to Aguas Calientes. By the time we got back, it was almost dark. It as beautiful, but long and hard day. We both ate like horses, and then slept for 10 hours straight. The next day we went back down to Cuzco.

The only other pics at the bottom are from my trip through the south of Peru on my way back to Lima to fly home. These pics are of the famous Nazca Lines - you need to click the large photo to see them. These lines were carved into the rock over 2,000 years ago by the ancient Nazca people. You take a trip in a small prop plane to get this view. After Nazca, I visited an oasis in the desert where you can surf the sand dunes - it was cool. On my way back to Lima(a very dangerous place), I took the bus on the old Pan American Highway (was famous for its banditos). I saw some of the poorest people I have ever seen living in the desert (rock). The whole south part of the country is desert or rock, and it goes all the way to the sea. It was hard on my heart to see this.