To start, this trip was one that Kris and I took in 2009. I’d done this writeup but hadn’t ever posted it up here for some reason. I thought I’d share here now. On with the show…

I tried to post links to places internet sites where possible to help anybody who’s looking to do similar stuff. We also used a Moon Peru Guidebook which was helpful once we were there in finding restraunts and deciding which stuff we wanted to see. Here was our general itinerary:

Day 1 – Fly from Chicago to Atlanta to Lima, stay at Hostel
Day 2 – Fly from Lima to Cusco
Day 3-4 – in/around Cusco
Day 4 – Train to Aguas Calientes, hostel
Day 5 – Machu Picchu & Train to Cusco
Day 6/7 – Cusco
Day 8 – Fly to Lima, Lima, then Fly to Chicago via Atlanta

Here’s a thread on a photography forum where I did a lot of the planning:
Machu Pichu – Peru Planning – NSOP Forums

Day 1′s wrap-up will be pretty easy as it was mostly just travel in the US and arriving at the hostel in Lima late at night. Our flight out of Chicago was in the middle of the day, and I was able to get off to a great start by meeting David Cross in the airport. He’s a comedian and actor if you don’t know and was in one of my favorite shows on TV – Arrested Development. I was happy to get this picture with him-

From Chicago, we flew to Atlanta on Delta, then to Lima. The flight to Atl was fine, as was the flight to Lima. Atlanta to Lima is around 6.5 hours, so not really that bad. We ended up landing around 11-11:30pm and just immediately got picked up by our hostel’s taxi and went there. The airport was crazy with all of the companies meeting people and picking them up, but it was pretty easy. We got the first taste of having to say “No, Gracias” 300x a day as there were people offering everything.

The hostel we stayed at the first night was called Pay Purix Backpacker’s Hostel – it was one we found on hostels.com and was fairly decent for a quick, easy place that was about 5min from the airport, clean, and comfortable. It is run by a family and the breakfast was homemade food from the mom/dad. It was what would turn out to be typical Peruvian breakfast (for a hostel at least) of eggs, bread, and fruit salad. The hostel had free internet/computers, tv, lounge, bar, etc.

Here’s the room:

Roosters woke us up in the morning – I have no idea where the heck they were, but they woke us up. Then, we were off to the airport for our flight to Cusco.

All the pictures on my flickr from the trip are in the same set – Jay’s Peru 2009 Flickr Set

So, for day 2 we essentially flew in the morning from Lima to Cusco. A couple general things first. Kris and I were taking this trip just for fun, as a way to relax and enjoy each other. We’ve recently announced that she is pregnant, and she was around 14-15 weeks at the time of the trip. She’s been doing really well when it comes to the usual stuff like morning sickness and general tiredness. We had originally intended to do a 4 day trek on the Inca Trail which is an old trail the Incans used to travel from Cusco to Machu Picchu. Just to stay on the safe side we ended up cancelling the trek and doing more day trips based from a hostel/hotel so in case anything bad happened we’d be able to get help. Cusco is one of the highest cities in the world at 3400m, so we wanted to play it safe.

For gear, each of us carried a medium size pack around 45-50L with our stuff and that was all. We packed light on purpose to avoid having to deal with a bunch of bags, checking luggage, etc and it worked well. There were many, many laundry services around so I would do the same thing again and maybe even bring less clothes for a lighter load. We’re used to backpacking with heavier packs and a lot of gear, so this was very managable. I’d brought my camera which adds weight for me – I brought my 40d, 10-20mm, 17-55mm, and 70-200mm(which i never used once) but I’d guess I was still under 35# total.

So, anyway, the flight to Cusco was pretty short, only about 1.5hrs. Lima is a pretty dismal place most of the year apparently, covered by fog all day long and kind of grimy (more on this later). We were at the hostel about 5min from the airport and although we could’ve walked, the area around the airport seems very run down industrial type area and was not very fun to look at.

The flight flew over the Andes though, and there were some great views:

(more on my flickr – http://www.flickr.com/photos/jay1441/sets/72157622432506047/ )

Once we got to Cusco, we headed straight to our hostel to check in. We stayed at the Amaru I for the first night. It was pretty nice and our room was great with some great views of the city. We soaked it in, took a quick nap, and headed down to the Plaza de Armas to check stuff out. Since we knew it was such high altitude and we were tired we planned on taking it very easy the first day when we got there to see how stuff went.

Here’s the view from our room-

Here we are in front of the cathedral on the square:

In the afternoon some rain rolled in as we were having coffee/tea:

A bit after the rain started, we were walking around and there was a church processional. These guys were carrying St. Francis to the church for some reason and another group carried another saint from another corner of the square. Random, but interesting.

A shot of the fountain and the cathedral in the background:

We ate pizza for dinner at one of the restraunts on teh square, and headed back for bed/rest. I had a pretty bad headache and Kris was just plain tired. I’ll finish this off with a few shots of the room and the city at night out our windows:

The 3rd day of the trip was actually our 2nd day in Cusco. We’d gone to bed with me having a headache and Kris feeling fine. The beds in the room were just twin beds, but Kris wasn’t sleeping well and came over to visit me a couple times in the night. She woke up feeling flu-ish, could’ve been effects of the pregnancy, could’ve been ffects of the altitude, or a bit of both, but she puked once in the morning. She was a trooper though, and by 10am we’d been up, eaten the breakfast from the hostel, and were good to go.

We ended up heading to our other hostel which is a partner with the Amaru, called Hosteria de Anita. Our room there had a queen bed, separate room with a couch/chairs, a small kitchen, and a decent bathroom/shower.

What we ended up doing was heading out on what they call a “City Tour” which was a half day tour. We signed up for the tour about noon and it left about 2 and went until about 7pm. It took us to a few sites – Qorichana (Sun temple), Sachsayhuman, Q’enko, Punka Pukara, and Tambochay. Here’s a few pics and hilights:

Quorichana was a temple for the Incans that was later built over top with a spanish temple. It was really interesting to learn that when there was an earthquake in the 1950′s all of the spanish structures were knocked down and cracked while it uncovered a foundation of incan stonework that had been there for ever that they never knew about.

The next stop was sachsayhuman, which is pronounced “sexywoman” by the people there. I kept cracking up whenever they’d say it but that’s how they say it. Anyway, this place was a place of fortress or ceremonial purpose, they don’t really know for certain. It has some HUGE stones that are simply amazing how they do the work they did to get such great tolerances between the stones with no mortar.

The next stop on the tour was Q’enko I think – the translation is “labyrinth” and there were some cool caves where they buried people and stuff. There is also a cool huge altar type rock.

Pukapukara was the next stop, called “the red fort” or something like that. This was a smallish ruin but pretty neat.

After that we stopped at Tambonachay, which was a fountain that was supposed to give the water of life – eternal life, prosperity, fertility, etc. Some people who apparently don’t mind water-borne illness drank the water, but kris just touched it:

The last stop on the tour was a textile factory – we got to see some dudes making rings and learn a bit about the different types of wool used. Kris got a hat made of baby alpaca wool, I just took pics.

After that, we came back, went to a crappy restraunt for dinner (had some local peruvian food that just wasn’t very good), and went to bed as we were pretty tired from the tour and the altitude.

Here’s a couple of Kris for you that have been reading.

Day 4 of the trip was still based in Cusco for us, but we took a full day tour in the Sacred Valley, this included Pisac (ruins and market), ullayantambo, urambamba, and chinchero as well as a lot of other small sites to look at along the way. Fun stuff.

On the way from Cusco to Pisac, we stopped at a small market for the same stuff that’s at every market. Nothing too outstanding, just a bit of stuff, a few little kiddies around to talk to, and some native ladies weaving and stuff like that.

Pisac was pretty cool, the market was huge, and very great to see, especially on a sunday when the locals come to do their barter/trade with various vegetables, clothes, meat, food, etc. Lots to look at:

The ruins in pisac were pretty cool. This was the first ruin I’d seen with such an impressive terrace structure where they used the levels to farm and such. The irrigation trenches were amazing how they used a natural spring up top on the mountain and then had it go down the terraces to irrigate the crops all the way down. There were also amazing views there of the surrounding area and the mountains and valleys.

This was also the site of another temple, here’s a shot of the ruins:

We stopped for lunch at urambamba at a buffet place that was part of the tour. Nothing special but not bad. Next stop was Ollyantambo which was some sort of ‘lodge’ for the incans. The ruins here were pretty impressive, tall, and probably one of the most impressive was the size of the stones that were brought up to the top of the hill/mountain. Estimated weight was like 30 tons, and they were transported from across the valley as they type of stone was not native to the area. This shot is of a wall made of these stones.

Here’s a typical sight – some old steps that were built into the walls every so often:

If you squint just right you can see the face of an incan in the mountain up at about 10:30 or so (if it was a clock)

Here’s the far side of the ruins there. Not as nicely restored but pretty impressive for the number of terraces and how much work it would’ve taken to build/maintain/grow on:

Last stop of the day was Chinchero, a small village on the way back. This was pretty cool as the main incan temple was turned into a cathedral. Everything was old style and pretty creepy inside with very puppet style statues and such.

The 5th day of the trip was mostly a travel day. We were in Cusco, got up early and took a taxi to the train station in Poroy to head to Aguas Calientes. We weren’t sure about what we’d do once we got there. We’d thought about heading to MP that day in the afternoon and then again the next morning, but found out the tickets weren’t discounted at all for the 2nd day (our guidebook said it was half price the second day). We ended up getting there, getting to the hostel, then took the advice of our host and hiked to the top of a mountain that was across a valley from machu picchu and had a great view. I’d highly recommend the hike, it was great, but hard due to the altitude up top.

The coolest part was the wooden ladders bolted to the cliff faces partway up. It was pretty neat to be out on the hike and have such great views. Heres some pics:

Here’s kris climbing the big set of ladders:

and another set:

Here’s the rewarding view at hte top – you can see MP across there:

This is the incan flag – it was at the top of this mountain.

This is the view down to the village where we’d started – Aguas Calientes:

Day 6 was our day to finally check out machu picchu. We woke up early at hour hostel and headed to the bus station to catch a bus about 5:30-5:45am. We wanted to get there right away in the morning and make the most of it. Our train out of town was at 4pm so we wanted to be able to be upt here for a good amount of time before we had to go.

So when we got there, our first task was to find a guide. Our theory was to go on a guided tour of the main stuff for a fairly reasonably cheap price, then we figured after the tour we’d head around and check out the sites that we wanted to see more or ones they didn’t show us. It worked perfectly. We found an english speaking guide for a group of about 10 people for $5 each. Great deal for a 3 hour tour.

There are so many different things to see at MP, its hard to do it justice by writing about each part. I’m just going to throw up a few pics, but check out the link above and really explore, there are a lot of things to see.

One note, on the train from Cusco, we took the “backpacker” train which is the cheapest option available to tourists. There is a “vistadome” version which looks OK and has some nice windows on the roof so you can see the sights. It was like twice the price so we went cheaper and I don’t think we really missed much. If you’re a baller there are like $500 tickets that have asian girls that give you massages w/happy endings, dinner, and stuff like that but that was way out of our league.

That’s a few from MP, but seriously check out the rest in the set on flickr.

We did two trips that I think most people that visit MP don’t do. We didn’t go to Huyana Picchu which is the big mountain you see in teh pics, after hiking Putucusi the day befor we didn’t think it was worth it. We first hiked to the Inca Bridge, which was a trail that they believed to be for hunting or something liek that. Its pretty cool to see how the trail was built into the side of the cliffs and stuff.

The other side trip was to the Sun Gate, which was about 45min uphill to get to it. It was frickin hot and we didn’t have much water, so the hike sucked. With Kris being on the nest she ended up getting pretty tired up top and i was a bit worried. I was tired too but that was just because I am a wuss.

Good view from up there though – the bus road is in the front but you see all the ruins in the back.

There are some llamas that live at MP too:

So after two days of getting up early with a lot of activity in trains, hikes, ruins, etc we were happy to get back to our hostel in Cusco and have a day or two to just relax and enjoy the city a bit. We’d gotten home about midnight from the train trip back from Aguas Calientes and pretty much went straight to bed. We woke up nice and late, had breakfast at our hostel and then headed out to the city.

With the ‘tourist ticket’ or Boleto Touristico you get entry to a whole bunch of places. We’d gone to the ruins and a few on the city and the sacred valley tour, but there were a few sights around the city that we were going to check out. Most were honestly boring art museums that had some not that exciting art, but some of it was cool stuff. Some were history, regional, etc.

We also spent a lot of time just chilling, drinking a $.25 coke, sitting on benches, and watching people. There are a lot of tourists to watch, but some of the most fun was watching the people that are shining shoes, selling ipaintings, etc. I also got to watch them hoist jesus onto the top of one of the churches on the square. Their work was painstakingly slow.

I think this lady was a hooker:

I gave this little boy some crayons:

We ate dinner at Granja Heidi, which was pretty awesome. My dinner was an approximately 16″ wide banana and chocolate crepe and I had some caramel milk/coffee hot drink which was insanely good.

There’s a bit more the the trip but this is as far as we went. The rest of the pics are on Flickr.

All the pictures are done, and the gallery is up and ready to roll. I’m trying new software, so check it out. Click here to start a slideshow of all of the images (be patient it loads slowly). If you are viewing this and interested in purchasing prints, please see the gallery page.

Anyway, here are my favorites from the day. It was a blast shooting the wedding, and they make an amazing couple!

Of course the week was crazy with Emily’s wedding on Saturday kicking off the next week, so Kris, Noah, Indy, and I all decided it’d be a good time for a vacation.

We decided to head up to Duluth since Grandpa and Grandma would be up there also, and of course for Father’s day I’d given dad a week of ‘hard labor’ at the cabin to do whatever odd jobs needed there. A lot of the week was taken up by the building of a carport on the back of the garage to store the boat/trailer under as well as to keep the firewood a bit drier when we can. It was a bit of work but it turned out well. We’ll be heading back up over Labor day and I’ll finish up the work on the shingles with Dad.

There was a gnome there.

The highlight of the week was probably our visit over to Grandma’s place in Brainerd. She hadn’t met Noah yet so it was great to go over and see her. Here’s a couple pics:

And here’s some videos from grandma’s:

Another highlight of the week for Kris and I was heading out geocaching at Lester Park with Noah in his new backpack that we got. It worked great, and he seemed to like it. He fell asleep pretty quickly but it was pretty comfortable to carry him in the pack. Here’s a couple vids from the hike:

I finally shot a picture of the Forester with the car top carrier on it, we’re really liking the car a lot and the top box helps us carry all the crap with Indy in the back too.

And finally here’s a few more pics we took of Noah:

And, last but not least here’s some interviews I did one night to get people’s reactions to Emily’s wedding:

So, it was time for the big day! Emily and IZ are great together, and I’ve been really excited for them ever since their engagement. I’m not sure why, but since my own wedding and having a baby I’m more emotional about this stuff that I used to be. It’s just so great to see a couple so happy with each other, and of course bring out the best in each other. The day was great, and most of you reading this probably were there, so I won’t go into a ton of detail, but will just share pics that Kris and I shot throughout the day. Warning, lots of pics ahead!!!

So, the big day was finally almost here. It was great, but before the wedding we had to have the rehearsal. We started at the church:

After the rehearsal, we headed over to IZ’s family’s house for the dinner. It was AWESOME! Great food, great people, awesome yard, just a great time. It was wonderful to have Grandma and Grandpa meet Noah, and also awesome to have some margarita’s, fajitas, mariachi band, and even a slideshow with a cameo by yours truly, Napoleon Luikart.

After the rehearsal, it of course time to head home for the big day. Check the next post!

Another couple weeks, very busy ones at that. This post will just be about the Noah’s 19th week, there will be another for Emily and IZ’s wedding and week 20 shortly.

Noah’s getting much more active lately, he rolls both ways side to side, front to back, head to toe, etc. He’s really getting to the point that you have to watch him very closely because he’ll grab stuff, roll, etc all over the place.

First off, he’s officially 4 months old. This picture only took about 43 shots because he kept knocking the blocks out of order.

On Tuesday we went out to the “National Night Out” in Hales Corners – it’s a national event for communities to have their public services host the neighbors. We got to see cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances, etc. Noah’s a bit small to really enjoy it, but it was fun. I ended up entering a contest at Noodles and winning a dinner for 20 people sometime, so for those of you that are local keep your ears open, I’m hoping to do a big party soon. Here’s a couple shots from that event:

Kris has been taking a few shots of Noah recently, here’s a couple good ones. I thought you all would like his little butt.

Last but not least, in preparation for the wedding on the weekend, we went to Lulu’s with Emily, IZ, Kristen, and Luke for a dinner with friends prior to the wedding. It was fun to head back to the old neighborhood (Bayview) where Emily, Kris, and I lived and eat at our favorite restaurant. I had my usual smokehouse burger, Kris had a salad I think, and Emily was recognized by the waitress and ordered her standard marghareta pizza. As you can see, Mom was nice enough to babysit for us so we could go out and enjoy ourselves.

This is when IZ almost lost his wedding right and was banished from holding rings until the ceremony.

The summer has flown by, its hard to believe that July is already over. Noah had his 4 month doctor appointment last week. He now weighs 13 lbs and is 25.5″ tall. He is 80% for his height and only 20% for his weight. This is very close to where Jay was at 4 months. Noah, is a little taller and skinner. Noah was a trooper with his shots. He only cried for a little bit. Next month he gets to start eating rice cereal for breakfast.

Last Saturday, Kris ran the Sausage Race at Miller Park. She finished the 5K in 26:48. They even ran on the field at Miller Park. This inspired dad to train for a 5K. Noah especially enjoyed the day because he got to meet the sausage people.

He has been enjoying spending the summer with Mom and Indy. We go on walks or jogs most days. Indy is warming more and more to Noah. She now enjoys licking him frequently. This week Caroline and Ana visited and we enjoyed an afternoon at the pool. Later in the week Aunt Emily and Iz stopped by. We went to concert in the park at Boener Botanical Gardens. Aunt Emily also taught Noah how to roll over from his back to stomach. She even taught Noah how to bump his head on his building blocks.

We also had the opportunity to babysit Caroline this weekend. They had fun playing with each other and grabbing each others hands.

Noah’s favorite store is now REI, just like his dad. Today he had the opportunity to try out several baby backpacks. He chose a wonderful Kelty model with great lunbar support and a exquisite sunshade. He can’t wait to try it out in a couple weeks when we vacation up North.

Another good week. I just counted on the calendar and apparently as of today he’s 16 weeks old. His birthday was 3/28 so he’s a bit short if you count actual months for 4 months old, but pretty darn close.

This week was an “at home” week where we were mostly at home, with nothing too crazy going on. It was nice to have after being gone for the 4th of July, then shooting the wedding last weekend, so this week and weekend were pretty nice and non-stressful. On Tuesday Mom Luikart came to Milwaukee. She was doing some wedding prep for Emily and IZ’s wedding which is in only 3 weeks and stopped by in the afternoon to talk with Kris and see Noah. I didn’t get to see her at all, but it’ll only be a couple weeks before I see the whole family for the wedding. According to Kris though, it was fun to see her and catch up a bit.

Here’s a shot finally with Noah wearing the hat that Kristen made him when he was born. It fits him really well right now, it was big before. Unfortunately it’s super hot out right now so it’s getting minimal use. Very cute though:

On Thursday this week, we went down to Boerner Botanical Gardens for the Concert in the Parks. It’s pretty fun, free, and a good activity for the family. It’s like a mild, family version of Jazz in the Park downtown in Milwaukee. Noah usually does pretty well there, he loves the music and there are a lot of little kids around for him to check out. He’s started getting more interested in other kids lately, he likes to stare at them and see what they’re doing.

Friday was pretty uneventful, but Saturday we went to Nick and Mandy’s wedding. It was awesome, and a great time. I had a few of my photos featured in their slide show from when I shot their engagement, so that was cool. It was really fun to see old friends and catch up with everybody. We even got to briefly see Natalie (our niece) who we haven’t seen in a long time now.

Here’s our friend Charlie and Ana’s baby Caroline

And here’s Charlie and Ana

Today (Sunday), I washed/waxed my car which desperately needed it, then we’ve gone to the pool. We’ve got some errands to run this afternoon but will probably relax the rest of the day.

Noah has been gearing up for his first Brewer’s game which should be pretty soon:

Only 3 weeks until Emily’s wedding, everybody get excited!!

I shot a wedding this weekend for Sara and Jon. It was a lot of fun, great couple, great friends, and great locations. The ceremony was at Hales Corners Lutheran Church, we shot there afterwards a bit, then headed over to the Boehner Botanical Gardens for some shots. It was very hot/humid on Saturday so we didn’t end up staying at the gardens long, but we got a few good shots. After that we headed to the Polish Center of Wisconson where the reception was. I hadn’t ever been there before and it was awesome. Really nice venue, scenic location on a small lake, great landscaping, and inside was great too.

Anyway, enough words, on to some pictures. Plenty more on the way but I wanted to get a few out to start:

Of course, missed another week and it was a big one!

I took vacation on July 1st and 2nd so we could head to Columbus for the 4th of July weekend. It was nice to get a couple extra days with Kris’ family since it was the first time they were with Noah. Noah seems to fit into the middle between his cousins – Owen is a bit wilder, and Adalyn is a bit calmer. We stayed at Michelle and Brad’s house, so all the cousins were under the same roof.

Thursday was Owen’s birthday, he turned 2 years old so we had a barbecue/backyard party for him. It was fun to see him and see all the things he’s learned since we last saw him.

Friday we mostly just relaxed around the house, and it was the big Red, White, and Boom celebration in Columbus. Kris and I ended up watching it on tv since Noah was sleeping, which was interesting but also kind of depressing at the same time to not see the fireworks. The show was good though.

Saturday night, Kris had her 10yr High School reunion which was pretty fun. I’d already known, but Kris seemed to have quite the reputation as a “goodie two shoes”. It was fun talking to people from her class and their spouses, then we went to go pick up my sister from the airport around 11pm. It was great to have Emily come to town, she was excited to see Noah as usual, and it was really fun for her to be able to meet the rest of Kris’ family again since she’d only really met them at our wedding a couple years ago.

Sunday was Noah and Adalyn’s big day of their baptisms! We had them done in a joint ceremony which was very cool to do, and we got to go to Kris’ home church which was just remodeled. We even got to utilize their new cry room! The baptism went off without a hitch, Adalyn cried a bit when she got wet, and Noah just stared quietly. They were both very cute in their outfits.

We followed the baptism up with a barbecue again at Michelle and Brad’s where we had fajitas, pulled pork, and hot dogs. Lots of family was there, and it was great to see everyone. Later on Saturday night we went to a Columbus or maybe it’s an Ohio tradition, Graeters Ice Cream. Also, we took Emily on a tour of the Ohio State campus so she could see what a dump it was compared to the raw beauty of UW-Madison’s campus.

Early on Monday Emily had to fly back to Salt Lake City, so I drove her to the airport. The rest of the day we packed up, then headed to Kris’ aunt and uncle’s house for a traditional cookout they do every 4th of July, and then drove home. Noah got to meet just about all of the relatives he hadn’t met yet from Kris’ side except for Grandpa Herb, but we’ll get to him on the next trip. The cookout was great, then we headed back home to Wisconsin.

Noah did great in the car on the way back, slept about 4hrs the first stop, then about 3.5hrs. That put us just on the north side of Chicago. We booked it home from there, then fed Noah, and he made a huge milestone…

NOAH SLEPT THROUGH THE NIGHT, A WHOLE 10 HOURS!!

Don’t worry, he’s only done it once so far, and has returned back to his sleeping and waking up usually one time per night for a feeding. Kris seems to handle it pretty well but I’m able to see that it tires her out quite a bit sometimes.

This past week has been busy, I’ve had a lot of stuff going on at work and had to stay late a bit, so I’ve been not around as much as normal. Saturday I shot a wedding for Sara and Jon, so that day was extremely busy for me (I’ll post another blog in a few days on that) Sunday I had to work at my normal job, so I’ve had a lot of time away from home this week. I’m hoping I can be around a bit more next week to spend more time helping Kris out with Noah.

Last but not least, here’s some pictures for Mom of the weird librarian ladies from the 4th of July parade we went to:

And one last one of Indy!