October 5, 2014

Day 3 in Peru. We started our hike to Machu Picchu early this morning. It was a slow start with a late departure from Cuzco. However, when we finally made it to the entrance of the Salkantay path things started to come together quickly.


Here is a group picture of our team. From left to right: Kenny (our guide), my dad, me, Emma and Suzanna (recent graduates from the UK), Lindsay and Derek (from Ottawa and part of the 4 day trek but spent a lot of time with us), and Celine and Matt (from Cleveland).


At this altitude and in this geography, there are a lot of cumulous clouds (read: puffy clouds) that form along the mountains. This is the best type of cloud cover for outdoor photography and assuming this weather continues to hold, I am very optimistic about the photos that I will have by the end of this trip!


My guide, Kenny, was great with explaining the many varieties of plants and their uses by the Incas. This plant was particularly interesting because it was used by locals as a natural form of birth control. Word has it that these plants were depicted in ancient art and writing, especially when references social gatherings. Over time, modern researchers discovered that these plants were used as part of teas that were believed to help reduce pregnancies.


This canal was built by the Incas along the mountains to irrigate farms that were located further down the mountainside. It was so effective that the canal has been renovated and continues to flow today. For our first day of hiking, we spent much of our time walking along this canal. In some instances, there would be concrete slabs placed on top of the canal for walking and in other instances it would be the canal on one side and a cliff on the other side with a narrow walking path in the middle. I tried not to think too much about the narrow paths in these latter instances.


Although my dad was easily twice as old as our other group members, he was able to keep up pretty well on the first day. In fact, everyone in my group was impressed with my dad’s pace. Hopefully, I can keep up. As a separate note, we actually found ourselves in the tent closest to a dead horse. It wasn’t next to us, but probably 50 feet away. I asked Kenny what had happened to it and according to the owner, the horse had died from eating chicken soup. Pretty sad way to go if that is true.


After reaching our first campsite, we had the option of hiking up to Humantay Lake that was about an hour away. I completely underestimated how difficult it would be to hike up a large incline in high altitude. It was a lot of huffing and puffing along the way. Despite the difficulties, my whole team made it! If there is one thing I regret, I wish I had brought a swim suit. It would have been awesome to swim around.

October 4, 2014

Day 2 of Peru and things are still humming along. My father and I took an all-day tour of historic sites in and around Cuzco. This included the Pisac, Ollantaytambo, and Cincher Church. Below are some pictures from today.


This is a view of the Sacred Valley, what was once the epicenter of the Inca Empire. It is flanked by the Urubamba River and many of the places we plan to visit today will be within this area.


This is my sad attempt of taking a photo with a guinea pig, llama, and their owners. I once had a guinea pig like the one featured here. His name was Boris and he was mostly brown but also had some dark spots of black on his head and body. In case you missed it, the kid here clearly was not interested in the photo at all. I can’t blame him. It was pretty hot outside and I am sure that after the first few photos of the day it was hard for a kid to keep up the act.


Ollantaytambo is a former Inca town and usually the starting point for the Inca Trail (we are scheduled to hike the Salkantay Trek, a separate route to Machu Picchu). This was a great place to visit to get a taste of Inca architecture. Several things I learned were that the Incas (1) tried to build their structures taking into consideration the natural formation of the mountains and (2) they had a very sophisticated construction capabilities for their time. I noticed that there were many retaining walls along the mountains. These retaining walls functioned in two ways: As either a wall to create a farming platform or a retaining wall to safeguard against landslides. The Inca’s chiseled these stones so that they fit so snug that you could not fit a razor between two stones. This gave the walls and buildings their tight configurations and helped these structured withstand the test of time.

Chincher Church was a former Inca church that was renovated by the Spanish. Unfortunately, pictures were not allowed inside the church, but the interiors were very colorful and included a mix of Catholic and traditional Inca religious figures. One distinction our guide made with regards to Inca religion vs Catholic religion was that Inca religion was generally more colorful and included much more song and dance. That said, when Spanish Missionaries came to convert the indigenous people of Peru, these locals combined the traditional Inca religious features with Catholic teachings.


Finally, we were also introduced to the weaving and dying process for traditional Peruvian clothing. In this case, we were shown how llama, alpaca, and goat fibers are dyed and weaved to create a poncho. The clothing here appeared to be of much higher quality than I have encountered elsewhere. Unfortunately, since we are leaving for Machu Picchu tomorrow, there was no room for us to carry back any of these as souvenirs. I did consider it though!

October 3, 2014

Let the explorations begin! I arrived in Peru today. I left for Machu Picchu with my father yesterday evening and after 16 grueling hours of travel and two connect flights we finally made it to Cuzco this afternoon.


This also happens to be my first international trip since renewing my passport last year. It is always exciting to visit a new country, but it is even nicer to finally break in a new passport. Let us hope that this is the beginning of many more international trips in the near future!


As for our first day in Peru, we checked into Pariwana, a centrally located hostel in downtown Cuzco. We are 2.5 blocks from Plaza de Armas, the main plaza in the city, and within walking distance from many of the iconic churches and landmarks in the area. The area kind of reminds me of my travels to Macau and Puerto Vallarta. It reminds me of Macau because of the many colonial style buildings that still remain and it reminds me of Puerto Vallarta because of the many stray dogs. Kidding aside, there are many stray dogs that wander each city block. Unlike other cities, however, these strays appear fairly well adjusted and well fed.


In addition to visiting the city center, we also enjoyed our first Peruvian meal at La Cusquenita. La Cusquenita, a Peruvian buffet, was recommended to us by two store associates at NorthFace. I am not sure if NorthFace was the best place for authentic food recommendations, but at least we got to sample a little bit of everything on our first night. My favorite was the dessert table, which I visited on three separate occasions. This place also had live entertainment that included traditional Peruvian song and dance. They put on a good show and it was a great way to start our time in Peru.

Tomorrow, as we continue to acclimate to the high altitude, we will be taking a 12-hour tour of several historic sites in and around the region. I will have more on that when it happens. Then Saturday we wake up early to start our hike through the mountains!

March 24, 2014

We recently got back from camping at Big Sur! I haven't gone camping in years (maybe only once as a kid), so I thought this would be a good opportunity to visit the great outdoors. Our campground, Big Sur Campgrounds and Cabins, was nice. They had hot water and a clean restroom, so it made easing back into camping very pleasant. I realized after this trip, my favorite part about camping is (1) starting campfires and (2) cooking food. Jean tried to get us to hike to the top of the Pine Ridge Trails, but neither Benny nor I could finish. We both needed more water, which we ran out of half-way through the hike. In any case, it was a good weekend and a great experience.


Each morning Ben made sure to wake us up for his morning bathroom break. Good news was that it forced us to start our day early. This is Jean and Ben planning our daytime activities just before breakfast.


We discovered this amazing ice cream, Lappert's, at Fernwood Market. It is this Hawaiian brand that I have never seen before. It was so good that Jean and I came by a second time on our way back to San Francisco. If you happen to make it there, the salted caramel and rocky road were delicious!


This is one of the famous fires I made at base camp. For the most part, we had eggs, sausages, bacon, corn, and yams. We also through in a few pita chips and cheese for good measure.


On our way home we dropped by Cannery Road in Monterey. This stop brought back some amazing memories: Jean and I made a trip here our junior summer. We stayed at this cute little cottage along the beach and we spent the whole day at the aquarium. Good times!


Another Monterey photo with Jean and Benny.


Our final photo in front of a giant sea otter. Ben liked it very much.

September 4, 2013

Jean and I recently rescued Benny, a Staffordshire Bull Terrier/English Bulldog mix, from the pound. Poor little guy had been bouncing around from shelter to shelter for several months before we found him. When I finally saw Benny in real life -- it was love at first sight! I loved his big head, his bulky body, and his great temperament! We have been busy socializing him and bringing him to class these last 8 weeks, and although it has been a lot more work than we originally anticipated, I could not imagine life without my little man.

Most recently, we went to Tahoe where we hiked 10 miles around Emerald Bay and where we taught Benny how to swim. Below are mostly pictures from our trip to Tahoe, but also some pictures of Benny when we first got him.


This is one of my favorite sights to see: Watching Jean and Ben together. It is clear from the get-go that Jean was not the decision maker in getting Ben -- he is too large and muscular for such a small girl. But I really like seeing the juxtaposition of the two. They could not be any more different from one another, yet I love that they get along.


Here's a photo of Ben and me in front of our hotel. I got the guy a backpack so that he could carry water for us as we hiked around the lake. It came in super handy! Unfortunately, the backpack I got was pretty flimsy, so I am probably going to return it for something that will last much longer.


Another, slightly more blurry photo, of Ben and me.


Ben nesting on Jean's clothes. Jean likes to leave a pile of clothes by the bed, and each morning before I leave for work, Ben likes to make a nice fluffy nest on it. If you look closely, you can also see Faux, the stuffed English Bulldog. For those who do not know, I have been obsessed with English Bulldogs for years. However, after doing some research, I decided against having a purebred English because of all the health issues associated with them. Still, I was excited to learn that Ben was part English. I feel that by getting an English Bulldog mutt, I still got the best attributes (e.g. big head and muscular body) in one of my favorite breeds.


This is my attempt of humanizing Benny. I suspect that if he were a man, he would be a DJ. I like to refer to him as DJ Benny.


Finally, one of the earliest known photos of Ben. This was taken the first week he moved in. Jean just snapped a few photos on my DSLR, and this happened to be the best shot of the bunch!