Peru, day 5 (Sept 13)

This day was a little....tense in the morning. Several people on the trip were very unhappy with how the trip was shaping up. The veeeery long bus ride, feeling like they were being "lied to" about things, feeling like the hotel we were staying at was not up to par...the list goes on. They wanted to have a group meeting and get everything out on the table, and "nip the problems in the but." (or is that "bud"?) I did not take part in the meeting. I didn't feel that anything was wrong, and didn't want to spend several hours of my day talking about it! So I read, wrote in my travel diary, checked email...kept myself busy. Evidently it went ok, and everything was fine, but gotta tell ya, it did put a damper on my day.

Once all that was over, we had lunch and then took a longer hike. I think Wilbur wanted to see how we were acclimating, and see if he was going to have to change anything about the trip. We walked up to Sacsayhuaman (pronounced sexy woman). I don't seem to have any pictures of that day though! :( I know I took a ton, but I cannot find them. Oh well. Mom didn't come with us today...she was having her elevation sickness day. Not fun for her. Or us really. She also got a really bad nosebleed from the elevation and dryness. Kim, our roommate at this hotel, had been really sick the day before, but did come with us to Sacsayhuaman. She got worse that evening though. What we didn't know until we got back to North America is that she had the beginnings of high altitude edema! Ick.

Sacsayhuaman (since I don't have pics) means "satisfied falcon" and is at the head of what the Incas thought of as the puma-shaped city of Cuzco. The fortress itself is designed to look like a puma, with these jagged walls forming the teeth of the puma. It was a long hard walk up. Again, a walk that at home would have been exercise, but not like this! :) Had to stop several times to catch my breath, but all in all was feeling really good about my conditioning.

Back at home I'd been experiencing a LOT of leg pain when hiking, and issues with my asthma. I had NO leg cramps, the entire time in Peru. I did have to use my inhaler several times, but nothing like I thought I might. I was really worried about my health before I went, but it turns out I did better than most people! The rest of the group were all taking Diamox, a medication used to treat or prevent high altitude sickness. I, however, can't take it. It's a sulfa drug, so I'm allergic to it. Everyone was amazed that I was doing as well as I was without it. Not sure why I had none of the problems other did...but it was nice! :)

We also saw Puca Pucara ("red fort") which was a garrison close by, Tambo Machay (a ceremonial spring reported to extend life) and Q'Enko (a shrine, literally meaning "zigzag") which was used for divination. Lots to see this day, but it was great to get out, stretch our legs and get a little exercise. It felt like all we'd done up to this point was eat! I figured I'd be coming back from Peru with extra pounds instead of fit! :)

Peru, day 3 & 4 (Sept 11 & 12)

September 11 was completely 9/11 free. Which was really good for me. I forgot until about 1/2 way through the day, that it was 9/11. Not that the Peruvian people didn't care, but it didn't affect them like it did most North Americans.

Anyway, we spent our third day in Peru visiting the Uros islands, the floating islands of Lake Titicaca. Titicaca means grey puma (titi=puma, caca=grey). The Uros people have been living on the lake for hundreds of years on islands made from totora, or cattail-type rushes or reeds. One of the islands even pre dates the Incan civilization. As parts of the islands degrade, they're replaced. There are about 40 islands in all, with most having about 7-10 families each. The island we visited was called Kontiki (which means "god travelers"). Here we are heading out into Lake Titicaca. To the right of us was Bolivia. It was about a 1 1/2 hour ride out there. The weather started out chilly, but warmed up nicely. I could have worn one of my tanks! The sky was clear blue.

This is a really small island, but it gives you a good idea about how they look. Here they are demonstrating how they build the islands. In the above picture you can see two of the reed boats they build. They said it takes 8 men about 6 weeks to build one, and they last about a year. Pretty good. Here are some of the Uros women cooking. When we asked the men what happens if the cooking fire is tipped over, they just shrugged and said that was "their" problem, pointing to the women. Nice.They made us some traditional fried quinoa, which was fabulous! We bought some weaving and some reed boats from the families, then took a reed boat ride to another island, and then it was back to the mainland. There are a lot more pictures of the islands in my Peru gallery. It was a fascinating culture to observe. I'd been so excited about seeing the floating islands, and they were as great as I thought they'd be.

We then went back to the hotel, ate a late lunch and took a nap. We were all still acclimating to the altitude. Most people were doing ok, but there were still one or two who were not doing well. I took this opportunity (after a short nap...even me!) to go to one of the MANY internet cafes and write home. It was just nice to have that contact, and be able to share some of my experiences up to that point.

At about 4:30 we did the same walk my mom had done the day before. Now, back home I would not have even considered this walk an "outing," but at 13,000 feet or so...it literally took my breath away! We walked up to the statue of "The Hero" that sits on a knoll above Puno. Gorgeous view of the town and lake from there. What the rest of the group did was just not quite long enough, so me, my mom and Jean walked a bit farther along. And we saw this: Sheep, on the roof. Right in the middle of a "residential section" if you can really say that of any Peruvian town! it was just a very funny sight. Not sure you can see him in the picture, but there was a sheepdog up there too.

The next day September 12, we drove from Puno to Cusco. Initially we were told it was going to be a six hour drive. Pbththth! We left Puno at about 7:40 and arrived in Cusco at 6:15-ish. You know, I'm not sure Wilbur has a really good grasp on the passage of time. I just don't think it's something important in his culture! This is our can all loaded up with our luggage.

We visited Sillustani, an Inca ruin/cemetery. The funnary towers care called chullpas. Most of them were destroyed, but one still has the side the the door still standing. I decided to crawl inside...I was the only one.

Sillustani sits right on the edge of Lake Umayo. Again, just beautiful. And hot enough for a tank top too! :)
We did cross over the "Great Divide," a4,335 meter pass where all the rivers start flowing to the Amazon. We stopped for some more shopping.

We finally arrived in Cusco, our home for the next four days. Cusco is a bigger city, over 500,000. Beautiful. Our hotel was...older, but it's location was amazing. We were about 1/2 a block from the main Cusco square

Happy birthday Kai!!!

It's my nephew Kai's first birthday today! Happy birthday baby boy! He's the cutest thing ever. As he's growing, he looks more and more like his dad, my brother. Here's a picture of Kai:

And now here's one of my brother holding me:

although maybe that one isn't that great...how about this one:

Hmm. Those may not demonstrate well...but Kai really does look like Randal! This picture above is the day I was brought home. I was tiny! Wish I could have been there today for his birthday. My friend Heidi just became an aunt again yesterday, so now we have nephews whose birthdays are very close. Wonder if that could help me remember when Kai's is? I almost forgot to send him happy birthday wishes today, but now that I remembered, I'm all over it! :)

It made me nostalgic, so I also uploaded some pics of growing up onto my Flickr site. You know what's really wired? Those who know me now really don't know me as "horsie-Chandra," but those who know me from Vancouver know me as nothing but that! I grew up riding horses, working in a barn, working on a ranch...if you don't believe me, check out my new Growing Up gallery (there aren't that many horse ones in there yet). It's odd to have a part of you that is so much...a part of you, that most of your current friends know nothing about. Huh. My meditation for the day.

Trick or Treat!

Lizmarelda was at the Sunriver Library today to hand out candy...and help out at the desk. I wish I could say this was me, but no. This is Liza, one of my employees in Sunriver. At story time this morning, I had a pirate, a chicken, Cookie Monster and a pumpkin. The local preschool was trick-or-treating this morning, and stopped in while I was doing story time, so I didn't get to see them! I'm just a black cat today....Lizmarelda's familiar! :) (not a good kitty gone bad, juat a normal black cat). I'm working 'til 8:00, so it should be interesting to see how many kids we get trick-or-treating tonight here at the library.

Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween (tomorrow)!

Halloween always seems loooong when it doesn't fall on a weekend. Saturday went to a house party with some friends and had a total blast! I think this was the best Halloween I've had in... four years? Something like that. I was so not in the mood for the downtown scene, so it was just nice to get dressed up and go to one place. Not "wild and crazy" time...but a wild and crazy time! :) I dressed up as a "good kitty gone bad." I have this black Emily the Strange t-shirt that says "Good Kitty Gone Bad" in red, along with cat scratches. I love the shirt (and Emily the Strange), but haven't worn it much 'cause it's that atrocious unisex high collar cut. Ick. Not my style. April altered it for me, for my birthday present and now it's a FUN shirt! :) So I wore that, black skirt, black tights, my knee-high black boots, long black wig and then ears and a tail. Easy costume. I will have pictures, but they weren't from my camera, so I have to wait for someone to send them to me.

So there was this great scavenger hunt! We were in groups of three and to get your map you had to chug a beer. Managed that...but after the two previous beers and an appletini...Deciphering the map and clues was hard! :) This scavenger hunt took us all over the neighbourhood. I'm not sure what his neighbours thought of these drunk adults dressed up in costume running all over. I was laughing so hard I almost ran into a street lamp. Of course, that could also have been because of the jello shots we had to consume to get to one of the clues in the bottom of the cups...! Yea, figuring out the clues became progressively more difficult. We wound up crossing the railroad tracks and basically wandering through the forest, in the pitch dark, with just glow sticks. I had a total blast! And the pictures should be pretty funny. Wasn't too late though, I think I was in bed by about 1:00. So not wild and crazy like the Grove or downtown, but one of the best Halloweens I've had in a while. So I'm happy.

Sunday I went down to Snow Clone, to support Chris and the Gear Peddler. There were some great bands playing, and I got a very cute hat! I'll take a pic of me in it...it's really cute. Had a ton of fun, but couldn't stay as long as I wanted...it was a school night! :)

Happy Halloween tomorrow!

Dogsitting....

You know, a lot of my posts seem to center around animals. I do have other things in my life... I also just have a lot of animals in and around my life! :) So this weekend I'm dogsitting...let me count...eight dogs! Seven in one house (yup, SEVEN!) and then Shannon's monster St Bernard, Bacchus. He's a total sweetie. I'm only 1/2 taking care of him, his duties are being split between two of us. Mainly 'cause I have the other seven to take care of.

Lisa & Yvonne are out of town, so I'm staying at their place taking care of...are you ready?

From left to right it's: Bernie, Belle, Chow Chow (aka Puggles to some), Blue Blue and Sara. That's five of them.

The sixth is here on the bottom step, Baby Girl. She has painted toe-nails. Uh-huh, that's right, you read that correctly...painted toe nails! :)

The seventh is Zuni. I didn't take her picture. She's the largest (still not very large though) and the oldest. She's very sweet, but mostly blind and deaf.

Here they are again on the chair. Right after I took the pic I had to shoo them off that back cushion...Lisa and Yvonne, if you're reading this, really I do try to keep them off there! Really, I do! :)

My favourite thing from Peru....

and evidently the cat's too (!) is this fabulous Peruvian blanket. At first Dread was enjoying the llama rug I brought back specifically for them. He still does enjoy it, but....

once I pulled out the wonderful alpaca blanket I brought back for myself...well! It's the best blanket EVER! And that's not exaggerating! :) They have them on many of the hotel beds, and I just knew I had to bring one back. Soft, really nice and heavy, but not stiff. I love it! So do Loki and Dread.

So here's Loki peacefully resting in the nest she's made.

Along comes the bad orange kitty. Hmm, wonder what he's thinking?

This is what he was thinking. You can't tell, but he's sitting right on top of Loki. The poor little girl is there, under almost 19 lbs of fat orange cat!
She scrambled out, and Dread got what he wanted. Mission accomplished. Ahh, it's good to be boss.

Deer at the Sunriver Area Public Library

No, we don't give library cards to deer. Although there was a dog in the library this morning! :) It was pretty funny. I was at the circ desk and heard this tinkling...like dog tags. Then I see this big black dog running up to a lady at the computers. Her dog was evidently in her car, but got out and came into the library when the door was open for another patron. She was very embarassed. Anyway, I was making photocopies for my Magic of Early Reading class, looked over to the window in the children's area and saw this!



Then I looked over to the right...can you see the baby deer? They're so cute!



They hung out around the library eating from the bird feeder for quite a while. I know lots of people jsut think of them as pests, but I like them!

Oh, and here's a picture from Saturday. That's Frank Portman in the middle. The other woman is Julie from the Bend library. he was fun!

Beautiful fall riding!

Had a fun weekend! Busy, but fun. What I really want at this point is a day without any obligations to just relax...but that's not going to happen for another couple weeks! Oh well, better to be "too busy" than bored. Like Saturday morning! :) The advisory council meeting was actually great, as they always are. It was just such a beautiful day out, I didn't want to be locked inside.

Saturday night April and I went to see Frank Portman perform at the Grove. He was being sponsored by the library, so we wanted to show support...and besides, I loved his book King Dork. It's a great book, you should check it out. I listened to it on audio and would highly reccomend listening to it. We had dinner with him before the show, and he was very funny. He was one of the founding members of The Mr. T Experience, a punk rock band from the 80's. You could totally tell from his singing that was his background. I think my favourite song was "Cingular Wireless, Worse Than Hitler" a très amusant song about how much Cingular Wireless sucks. Very funny man.

Then Sunday I did a very fun ride with the Bellas. We carpooled up to the Swampy sno-park and then rode from there back to Phil's trailhead and back to PMS. It's the same one I did last weekend. It was great! The rain we had this week made the trails much better. Nine women showed up, so we did have a conversational and a spirited ride. Here we all are getting our bikes back together:

And here we are all set and ready to go! We all started out together, with the spirited group infront. Well...as it turns out, we took the wrong trail from the parking lot. Not really the "wrong" trail, since it got you where you wanted to go, but not the trail I wanted to take! So we let the spirited ride go ahead of us, I stoped to check my map...and then we turned back and took the "right" trail. So we beat the spirited ride to the Swampy shelter. Ok, only by about 7 minutes or so...but still!

The conversational ride did really well though. We were just poking along, stoping to take pictures, enjoying the beautiful day. And we arrived back at PMS only about 1/2 an hour after the spirited group! I think that's pretty good. Here are just some random shots we took along the trail. There are more on my Flickr site, or the Bend Bella Flickr site.

Me riding over a log...thingie.

Kim and me by the Swede Ridge shelter with Backelor in the background. It was just a lovely day! Clear blue skies, not too warm but not cold, firm trails. Fabulous ride.

Our after-ride "tailgate party" with beer, chips and salsa. Every ride should end like this!

Bored, bored, bored!

I'm bored. Spending my Saturday morning at a library advisory council meeting is NOT what I want to be doing on such a glorious day! Oh well. Last night I went bowling with the boy I'm mentoring through the COPY program. The Central Oregon Partnerships for Youth is a mentoring program for children with an incarcerated family member. If you're looking for a meaningful volunteer oportunity, I highly recommend COPY. Anyway, we went to Sun Mountain Fun Center to bowl and play a few games. I realized I really enjoy bowling! :)

Busy, busy week coming up. Being busy is better than being bored, but I don't have a single night free next week! Except for Friday, but that doesn't really count. Good way to start it off though is a fantastic ride tomorrow. I'm really looking forward to that! :) Last scheduled Bella mt bike ride. Should be a blast. Hope we have a lot of women show up.

Oops, I'm getting a glare from our Director...better stop typing and pretend to pay attention..