Cusco was a lot of fun. It’s located at over 11,000 feet and even after over two weeks in the area, we still felt out of breath at times. The kids got to hang out with their Virginia buddies which was a relief for them after being around only their parents for the last six months. Cusco was founded in 1100 A.D. and as Thomas put it: “It’s not a modern city”. Lots of great old buildings to see though. Some of the original Incan walls are still visible. Lots of shops and restaurants too. We (all of us) also took Spanish lessons at a really great school in Cusco. We took a trip through the Sacred Valley and got to see more Inca-era ruins. One of the most interesting things we saw were the “Salt Mines”. At the salt mines there is a small salt water spring that comes out of a mountain – hundreds of miles from the ocean! The water is caught in basins and allowed to evaporate, then the local families that own the basins collect the salt. It has been in operation for more than 800 years. The movie of the kids licking their hands/fingers is after they dipped their hands in the salty spring water. We’re in Lima now and are heading to Buenos Aires, Argentina in two days.

What a great place. After arriving in Cusco a few days earlier, we met our friends who came all the way from Virginia to see Machu Picchu with us. It had been 6 months since the kids had seen Drew and Avery and they were just about to go crazy waiting for the day they arrived. We took a 3 hour train ride to the valley below Machu Picchu, then took a bus up the narrow dirt road to where we met our guide. It’s hard to describe how cool this place is. It was built by the Incas about 600 years ago (around 1450), then abandoned after about 100 years. Nobody really knows what the significance of this site is. Some think it was built as a royal retreat, or maybe to honor a sacred landscape, or for human sacrifice, or it was used as a university, or that maybe aliens built it (I think that theory is the least likely). Whatever it was used for, it was an amazing feat of building. Machu Picchu is on the top of an 8,000 foot tall mountain (actually 3,000 feet lower than Cusco where we are staying) and made of carved granite stone from a quarry right on the site. It has countless terraces for stabilizing the city as well as for growing crops and preventing erosion. It was especially unique as it is the only ancient site we have seen that wasn’t plundered or destroyed by enemy forces – the Spanish never found this place (as best as anyone can tell).

11/14/14  Lima just had a 5.6 – 5.8 earthquake that shook us pretty good on the 11th floor of the Hilton. Thomas thought it was really cool. No problems here.

Easter Island was fantastic. It is one of the most remote inhabited islands in the world. The closest inhabited land is Pitcairn Island which is 1,289 miles away (with 50 residents) and the nearest continental point is central Chile which is 2,182 miles away. The island is a little over 15 miles long and less than 8 miles wide at it’s widest point. The land is made from 3 extinct volcanoes that rise more than 6,000 feet from the ocean floor. Only about 5,500 people live here. We rented a car and drove all over the place (twice). We hiked up to two of the volcanic craters, dodged wild horses and wandering cows, relaxed on beautiful beaches and saw some of the 887 moai (statues) that were carved from stone between 1100 and 1680 by the early inhabitants. The largest weighs 82 tons and they were all carved with stone chisels. Many of the statues are showing only the top third – the rest having been buried over time. Before Easter Island we were in Tahiti. The weather was really bad and we mostly hung out in our hotel. We did catch up on a lot of homework. We saw some nice beaches. From the plane. Now we’re off to Santiago, Chile for a few days before flying to Lima, Peru.