Cusco and the Sacred Valley

May 10 - June 6

Cusco is such a special place.  Its the base for doing all the treks and excursions in the area, of which Machu Picchu is the most well known.  Llew and I spent the most time in this area of any place in the last 4 months.  In total we've been here 3 weeks.   In that time we've done volunteer work, visited parts of the Sacred Valley, trekked Salkantay to Machu Picchu, trekked Choquequirao, and visited the Manu jungle. (The last one I did without Llew as he flew to Mexico to be with his family.)

Plaza de Armas (One of the nicest plazas in S. America)

While here we discovered the South American Explorers Club (non-profit which has provided lots of information on treks as well as discounts.  (http://www.saexplorers.org/)  Its definitely worth getting the membership as it will pay for itself.

David Lopez at Maranatha put me in contact with Maria who works for Maranatha and lives in Cusco.  She arranged for us to do 2 volunteer projects.  We helped at a Catholic orphanage and the Adventist school.  The orphange required some computers to be revived with Linux in their computer lab.  We also ensured that network printing was working for all the computers.  At the school we created new images for the 2 types of Dell laptops they have. Then we used Clonezilla to create the images and put them back down on other laptops.

Computer lab at the Orphange

The Orphange had some beautiful flowers

Working on laptops at the Adventist School

Llew loves being a PC Tech ;)

Maria also let us stay at her place in Urubamba so we could visit the surrounding area.  We went to a very small Adventist church that is still a work in progress in Misminay.  That afternoon we went for a walk around the hill and saw the Moray's from above, which I think is much better.

Beautiful views from Misminay

Misminay Church

Sabbath lunch

Perú has the best soups

Saturday afternoon nap :)

Moray

Maria 

 Life out in the villages...

Cutest burrow :)

We spent Sunday afternoon walking the ruins of Ollantaytambo.  I think I enjoyed it a bit more than Llew who was struggling again with stomach problems.  This ended up being the last time he got sick and he was very quick to start taking the pills so he didn't have to deal with to much discomfort.

And now for me to say some last words about Llew as he left me at the end of my stay in Cusco.  It has been 4 great months of travel with him.  I've enjoyed listening to him try to teach people how to say "Llewellyn".  Es muy difícil!  At least for most Spanish speaking people.  Here's one of my classic pictures of the guy.  I've seen him look like this many times from either getting some stomach bug or trying to dry off after a shower. (He left his towel at a hostel and was creative on drying off methods. haha!)

Llew I don't want you to forget how much you do love the food down here.  I have proof...

Ah, but we both know which food reins supreme for us and how much we talked about having some.  At least you'll have some good Indian food some time soon as you'll be in Toronto.  I will have to be content with the amazing soups and fruits and vegies. :)

I will always remember the amazing treks we did here: Patagonia, Cochamó, Salkantay, and Choquequirao.  We figured that we've done over 1000km (+600 miles) of walking in the 4 months.  Both of our shoes are proof that our feet have been going places. :)

I'm glad we were able to do some volunteer work and make a difference.  I know that was very important for both of us.  I hope that you can continue to do that on your travels.

Till we meet again Llew, buen suerte y que Dios te bendiga mi hermano.