We're home!!!

It has been…

47,074 miles,

153 days,

95 hours of flying,

63 hours waiting in airports,

54 different beds,

23 flights,

and 19 countries

since we touched American soil!

We’re glad to be home!

We had an AMAZING time seeing, smelling, tasting, feeling, hearing, and experiencing a little of what this world has to offer. Above all, we enjoyed visiting old friends and making new friends along the way. Thank you to those who put us up, bought us meals, followed our blog, and prayed for us as we traveled!

We'll continue to post on our blog as the rest of our adventure through life continues...

El Salvador!

Thank you TACA for getting us to El Salvador safely!

We came to El Salvador to do one thing... to visit our Compassion kid!!!

Our hotel was lame, the area of San Salvador that we were in was lame, the fact that every building had a guard carrying a shotgun was lame, our dinner at Burger King was lame, and our bathroom without a shower curtain was... you guessed it lame.

But all that lame-ness, was SO worth it when we got to spend the day with the child we have been honored to sponsor for many years! We got to meet and spend the day with Julio, his mother, the site director, and our translator for the day as we visited Tin Marin Children's museum! The museum was awesome! We learned about technology, dental care, volcanos, natural disasters (and what to do when they happen), gravity, butterflies, space, airplanes, doctor's offices and so much more! Then we went to lunch at Pizza Hut (Julio's pick :O)!

We only got to see him for 6 hours or so, but it was very hard to say good by to him. If ever you can meet your sponsored child, we highly recommend it. And if you're not sponsoring a child, click HERE right now! It is an awesome blessing to the child, moreso the child's family, and you!!!


As it is not allowed to post pictures of our children online, we posted our hand prints which we made on a car at the museum...

Our day in Lima!

As I said, we were rescued by our friends the Dirkeses who showed us a great time! We had some great home cooked food, watched Tangled with the kids, and did a bit of a tour of Lima! We had a great time!

They dropped us off at Pepe and Vicki's... some friends of a friend from back home! They were very sweet and hospitable and had a beautiful home!



We went for a walk, had a wonderful meal, and I stumbled through the little Spanish I know in order to talk the entire evening. They are dear people and I can't wait for them to visit us!

Our Eventful Journey Home from Puno!

After our super fun (and cold) stay on our floating island, we stayed one more night in Puno before catching our early morning bus back to Cuzco. We arrived at our bus stop at the appointed time to find out that our bus was not going to run that day as there were some protests going on which blocked the road to Cuzco.

Which confused us when they said another bus was going to Cuzco... which they put us on. So, we thought they were just lazy or the bus wasn't full until, we arrived at the road block a couple hours later. Sure enough, there were some very organized protestors who had blocked every road in between Puno to Cuzco. So, after 3 hours of attempting to get to the other side of the blockade (many ideas were suggested... walking, taxis, riding on the back of motorcycles, the bus on the other side of the blockade switching with us, and more... none of which were successful), we returned to Puno where we purchased last minute tickets to fly to Lima (as we were going to miss our flight to Cuzco the next morning).

We had an easy flight to Lima where we had dinner and were rescued from a night staying up in the airport by our dear friends from Riverside... the Dirkeses!


The blockade!


We did have a pretty view while we waited though! :O)

Sunset on Lake Titicaca!

Comida! (Food!)

We certainly weren't suffering while on the island. We were incredibly well fed!


This trout was one of the best meals of our entire trip!


Bekah made the mistake of giving some food to the cat. So, she had an audience for the remainder of the meal. :O)

Along Main Street!

A traditional "big boat" and the island next to ours!


This is "main street" in the Uros part of the lake. This is where all the boats come and drop off tourists for day tours. They get all dressed up for the tourists.

Activities!

After a chat on the Uros way of life, the history of Lake Titicaca (titi means puma and caca means rock), and all that jazz, we did some typical Uros activites!


We got all dressed up in traditional garb! Rebekah loves playing dress up! I got the best deal... my hat was SWEET!


Then we went and put out our fishing nets for the night!

Our Island on Lake Titicaca!

We got to our floating island which is man made out of the reeds that grow in the lake. The Uros tribe which lives on the lake has been making their own boats and islands for a very long time. We got to stay on this island for the night with a wonderful family who showed us what life is like on the lake.

The island was massive... about a third of an acre with many buildings all made of reeds floating on top of more reeds stacked on top of more reeds stacked on the roots of the reeds which also float. We were walking on about 6 yards of stacked reeds at all times! Every once in a while, the anchors that hold the island in place let loose and an island floats over and runs into another island. Then they all row it back to it's original place in the morning.

What a life, eh?


Our cabin is the one on the right.


Our room...


They were so thoughtful to put a mobile in there to help us fall asleep to. :O)



Our dining room.

Lake Titicaca!

12, 959 feet above Sea Level, there is a lake with a hilarious name, beautiful scenery, and a very unique people group... it's called Lake Titicaca. And going out onto this, one of the highest lakes in the world, was why we came to Puno!




These reeds are pretty important for the people here on Lake Titicaca... I'll explain more later.


Our boat heading into the narrow "street." They actually called this a street... how funny is that?

To Puno!

We hopped on an all inclusive bus tour from Cuzco to Puno to find out that "all-inclusive" is a loose term here in Peru. :O) Admittance to the sites they stopped at cost extra. So, we chilled outside of these lackluster sites along the route.

We did catch some pictures of classic Peru.



That's a momma and baby Alpaca! How fun is that?!

Back in Cuzco!

After a super fun taxi ride home from Ollantaytambo (did you catch that sarcasm?), we got back to Cuzco on a crazy holiday which included...


a bizarre parade where they forced children to dress with crazy masks


and also served as the perfect time for the fire department to clean this church along the route of the parade! Perfect timing!


We had a yummy authentic meal (well, I did anyhow). I had alpaca steak! Before that, we had these delicious salads with Sangria!

Machu Picchu... from the other angle!

Our climb up Waynapicchu had it's rewards... the main reward was this different view of Machu Picchu!

Another Climb!

We tried our best to get to the gate in time to gain admission to climb Waynapicchu (the super high mountain behind the ruins), but without luck. Mainly because we were sucking wind every 10 steps on the climb to Machu Picchu. So, we arrived too late. They only allow 400 people to climb it every day.

However, Rebekah insisted that I ask if they would let us climb it even though we didn't get the necessary stamps. They said no... and as we walked away dejected, they called us back and let us do it!!! We may have had some regrets as we faced the steep ascent that faced us!

We conquered it though!





Here is a sample of the fauna... an at least 4 inch long millipede! Bekah loved it!


This is an honest to goodness part of the trail... I felt like I was a baby being born squeezing through the small opening on the other side!



Photo of the year!!!


Here we are... feeling like a million bucks with the mountains that we conquered in the background! We climbed both of those peaks back there!

Around Machu Picchu!

There are so many amazing spots that are worthy of so much better of a photographer, but here are our feeble attempts to capture it all!


The northern district... with a llama posing just for us!


A llama in front of the Agricultural zone!


This rock was carved to line up with the mountains behind it... pretty cool, eh?


This window has a view!




Here is a sample of the amazing mortar-less construction the Incans used! They carved this granite to fit perfectly together!



The Sun Temple... the windows line up to the equinox and solstice.


I'm sure this gave these girls a bit of a fright, but I am SO glad we caught it with the camera!





The temple of the three windows to the left there and then sacred plaza on top of the hill there.