Machu Picchu - A Once in Lifetime Experience!!

We're back. Wow. What a summer. First Mark and I went to the amazing Machu Picchu with the Alison and Mike.

While we were there we hiked our petunias off but did get to eat amazing gourmet food cooked out in the wilderness by a real chef. (Yes, those are AVOCADOS almost as big as bananas.)

People were literally dancing in the streets in Peru.

Of course, we couldn't leave Peru without trying cuy, or guinea pig, according to our Machu Picchu tour guides. Umm...I think we could have.

Next we were off to Ecuador. We did a ton of things there, but here are a few highlights--visiting the world famous Otavalo outdoor market:

In Otavalo we met up with some of Mike's siblings and even managed to buy a few things with some help from Javier who is in the brown shirt and showing off his brand new leather belt for $5:

From there we went to Puerto Largo and stayed in a lovely hotel right on the lake.

Then we went to Quito which is huge. And crowded. This is a lovely view from the tram we rode up to the top of a nearly mountain.

There we met more of the Mike's family and friends, including his adorable nieces and nephews who are swarming Alison:

We also visited a lot of churches in Quito, including this one, the Basilica:

And of course, we had to go stand in the middle of the world (latitude wise, anyway).

Our last side trip before the long trip back home was to Baños. We stayed at the Samari Inn and Spa. Gorgeous!!

Baños is right on the edge of the jungle, and it is lush beyond belief. We took a tour of some of the many waterfalls. How do you like that trail down into the Devil's Cauldron?

At long last it was time to go. I loved every minute of the trip except for the three hours that I spent violently carsick after our trip to lovely Lake Quilotoa. Let's just say that for a few hours, I really wanted to just die and get out of my misery.