Peru!

Ed and I spent the first week of May in Peru, visiting Lima, Cusco, and of course, the ruins of Machu Picchu. It was wonderful!

The main square of Cusco

A famous example of the Incas' building skills: a 12-angled stone that fits perfectly with those around it. 
Overlooking Machu Picchu. Once we arrived in Peru, it took a plane ride, two buses, a train, and another bus to get us to this point--definitely remote!

Ditto. We'd seen photos before coming, of course, but nothing compared to seeing it in person. It's so much larger and more impressive (construction-wise) than what you see in pictures. 

Looking through a window at some terraces, steps, and a stone wall with two types of construction.

These were thought to be agricultural terraces where the Incas grew crops.

The next day we climbed Wayna Picchu, the mountain you see in the background of the main Machu Picchu pics above. From there, we had a great bird's eye view of the ruins. 

A motorcycle taxi in the town of Ollantaytambo.

We also spent an afternoon in a traditional community, seeing how houses are built and weaving is done. Here are the ladies in their traditional clothing. The highlight of the afternoon was playing a soccer game against these ladies...and they beat us!

Such a cute little baby! I wanted to bring him home to be a little brother for Thomas. :)

Ed had alpaca for dinner one night. He also tried guinea pig, a fairly common meat in Peru. I tried neither. Side note: In the cathedral in Cusco, there's a huge South American inspired painting of the Last Supper. On the table in front of Jesus and the 12 disciples is a plate of guinea pig. Plus, Judas' face was painted to look like Pizarro, the spanish conqueror who defeated the area. I think the artist took a few liberties...

Standing with Rachy, our Australian friend who was living in Lima. We got to spend a few days with her, which was great--we hadn't seen her since she came to visit us in NJ six years ago. Plus, since she works for a travel agency, she set up everything for our trip, which made it so easy!