Amazed!!!

Sep. 22, 2007

Back from Peru!!! 9/22/07

Posted in Travels
Well hello everyone!!  We are back from Peru.  We have been back for about 2 weeks but it has taken me a long time to recover and I'm still not fully recovered!!! 

But we had a great time. I will be posting the girls' journal entries soon, but I thought I would post some pictures of our adventures. 

We stayed with 2 host families.  Usually you only get one family but our first family had a dispute with the school over prices and we ended up having to move in with another family.  I was saddened by the move initially but the second family turned out to be wonderful!  We really enjoyed our time with them.  This is a pic of the kids with Senora Rut., the host mother of the second family we stayed with.  She was super sweet!!!



We also enjoyed our classes and our teachers.  This school was very informal, unlike the school in Ecuador.  Both my classes and F.'s classes were conducted while we walked with our profs!  We just chatted about life and our profs would correct our Spanish as we went along.  This was really good for me, as I really just need the practice.  Also, my prof used a book of anecdotes as conversation topics and this was really good for me.  We got to discuss more profound topics and we touched on Christianity quite a bit.

Here are our hosts and teachers, from the left, Senor Hernand, host father of our second family, Keyni, F's teacher, Aiely, L.'s teacher, and my teacher, Mercedes
.

Here are, from the left, Emy, FQ's nanny, Maria Soledad, K and A's teacher, and Senora Rut.

And all of our teachers together!!


During the week, we went to various places in Cusco, various museums and churches.  The Plaza de Armas was their main square where all the interesting things happen.  This was where most tourists are noted to be hanging out.  Here is L., standing in the Plaza, with the main Cathedral in the background.  The Cathedral was beautiful inside!



On the weekends, we made a few excursions.  The first weekend, of course, we went to Machu Picchu.  BEAUTIFUL is all I have to say.  I was very impressed that K. remembered tidbits of information about the Incans from our study of the ancient Incans earlier this school year.  She remembered stuff I had totally forgotten.  That was really neat.  Machu Picchu was gorgeous but I think the kids got tired from the hard hiking and climbing.  However, they were truly great sports, wonderful troopers. They are really just the best travelers.  Everyone was impressed that we took 4 children, including a baby, to the ruins. 

Here are several pics of Machu Picchu:

This pic shows real Incan terraces in the background.  This was one of their means of agriculture.  The Incans were amazing farmers--they were able to grow much more varieties of potatoes and corn back then than we can today!


I believe this shows the peak of Machu Picchu in the background. 

Our family taking a breather:

The structure on the right in the back is the Temple of the Sun:

Our beautiful girls goofing around:

And since my babywearing days are numbered, I must add this pic:

More random pics:


We really wanted to climb all the way to the top here but it was too much work for us...next time!

Our lovely L.:

The second weekend, we did 2 excursions.  The first day, we went to see the 5 ruins near Cusco.   The first, Santo Domingo, or Qorikancha, is in Cusco proper.  It used to be lined with gold, all around the gates, but the Spanish invaded and plundered it.  Dominican monks built their church around the ruins, but preserved a lot of the original walls, and so the whole church/ruins were really impressive to look at.

Here is the courtyard at Santo Domingo/Qorikancha:

We got a shot with some weavers sitting outside of Santo Domingo/Qorikancha:

Afterwards, we moved onto some ruins just outside of Cusco.  The first one we saw was Saqsaywaman, and it was gorgeous!  I was really impressed!  We did have to hike through a cave that included 15 ft. of walking in total darkness.  Here is a pic of A. right before her walk in the darkness:

After the cave, we were able to walk around Saqsaywaman:

We had to take a pic of the typical Incan doorway--it was trapezoid in shape as this proved to be more stable, especially in earthquakes.


And finally, a pic of F and I with an aerial view of Cusco in the background.  We were at the top of Saqsaywaman:

The second day of this weekend, we did an excursion of the Sacred Valley.  I really enjoyed this trip, but it was a long hard day and the kids were really tired from our excursion the day before.  Also, F. got a little ill, so we don't have a lot of pics at all.    But we went to Pisac, the city, Pisac the ruins, Urubamba for lunch, Ollantaytambo, the ruins, and Chinchero, the ruins and market.  I absolutely loved the ruins at Pisac, but the climb was incredibly hard.  The footpaths were treacherous--about a sidewalk wide, but with a cliff on the edge!  It was also very high--Pisac was built as a hilltop citadel.  At any rate, here is one pic of us on the way up to the top at Pisac:

Here is a pic of a 12 sided Incan stone, in the San Blas neighborhood in Cusco:

One of the things that I thought was so cool about Cusco was that there were many buildings built on top of or added to original Incan walls.  Here is a pic of a street with buildings with Incan walls on one side and colonial architecture on the other:

Okay I believe those are the most interesting of all our pics.  We had a blast and hope to come back when our children are a little older.  They will be able to handle the long, high climbs up the ruins.  Peru is a gorgeous country, one of the prettiest I have seen!

Our school in Cusco was called Caminate School. 

More later,
God bless,
A.H.
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Comments

Sep. 22, 2007 - Untitled Comment

Posted by Anonymous
These are great pics. The kids and you all look so happy and so do you and Fr. I will call you when I come home and show you pics from my Colorado adventure. Later!
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Sep. 26, 2007 - The Gordons in Peru

Posted by Ben Huynh
That was great sis. Beautiful place with lots of history. It's too bad most schools focus more on western civilization and not the Americas. From what I know, the Incas were far ahead of their time. Thanks for sharing the photos.
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Oct. 4, 2007 - Awesome!

Posted by jaminacema
Thanks for posting all the pics! I enjoyed seeing a bit of your trip. And of course you have the most beautiful children ever!

J.
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