Peru!

After returning from Australia, I moved into a new role at my job focusing all on Latin America and the Caribbean.  It was quite a change from what I was doing previously but it's been a great move and I loved getting a chance to get immersed into the markets.

Back in July we had a big team meeting in Peru to kick off our fiscal year.  Since I had never been to Peru before I thought we should take advantage and go to Machu Picchu the weekend before hand.  There was a group of five of us including myself that decided to venture to the ruins the weekend before our meeting.

Best decision ever!  Peru in general is a beautiful country.  Spending a short time in Lima, I really felt safe, the people were very nice and friendly and the food was delicious.

Lima is about a five hour flight from Miami, so the three of us coming from Chicago pretty much spent the entire day traveling from Chicago through Miami to Lima.  We stayed the night in Lima then were up and at 'em bright and early on Saturday morning to catch the first flight from Lima to Cuzco.  We met up with our two other friends at the Lima airport to begin our adventure together!

It's actually quite an ordeal to get to the ruins at Machu Picchu.  It's pretty much like planes, trains and automobiles... actually come to think of it - that's exactly what it's like.

So we arrived in Cuzco on Saturday morning and the first thing that hit me was the altitude.  I had read a little bit about the altitude and altitude sickness but didn't buy into it much.  Holy smokes, they weren't kidding!  As I was getting off the plane I could feel my heart pounding faster and my lungs working harder to get oxygen.  Crazy!  Cuzco is at a higher altitude than Machu Picchu so most travel books recommend spending at least a day in Cuzco to get acclimated to the altitude.

We ended up finding a great tour guide through the taxi we took to the hotel.  We didn't really have any plans for how to best explore Cuzco so it worked out well.  We drank lots of coca tea (it supposedly helps with altitude sickness) then headed out to see Cuzco.

Cuzco is a beautiful town in the mountains in Peru.  It has this amazing town square with lots of old storefronts, a beautiful church, and museums.  From their we ventured outside of town to a few other ruins near Cuzco.  As we climbed and zig zagged further and further up the mountains I could feel the lack of oxygen in the air.  One guy in our larger tour group actually passed out.  One of the sites we were at was at an altitude of 3765 meters which is over 2 miles high!  Twice as high as Denver.

We found a great little place for dinner with some traditional Peruvian food - they have this really cool purple corn that is unlike anything I've seen - then hit the sack early for another early day.

The train leaves a town of Poroy (about a 20 minute taxi ride from Cuzco) at 6:30 in the morning.  Hello early!  It sort of reminded me of Harry Potter waiting for the train to Hogwarts.  It's a small train station, but it had a nice food stand to grab some coffee and snacks for such an early ride.  The train arrives, we hop into our seats and we're off to Machu Picchu finally!  It's about a 3 to 3.5 hour train ride through the mountains to the town of Machu Picchu.  You actually head down the mountain and it's neat seeing the vegetation change with the altitude.

Upon arriving at Machu Picchu station, we then had to take about a 20 -30 minute bus up to the actual ruins.  Some people hike this instead of taking the bus, but let's be honest - I'm not exactly the hiking type.  That and we only had a few hours before having to catch the train back to Poroy.

So another zig zaggy automobile ride further up a mountain, a $60 entrance fee and we were there.  Yeah, it was totally worth it.  I've attached the link to the photos, but trust me, they don't do it justice.  It is one of the most beautiful places I've ever been lucky enough to visit.  There were llamas walking around all over the place, and since it's such a tourist attraction, you could hear almost every language and accent in the world.  Quite an amazing place.  And we were fortunate enough to have a crystal clear, sunny day to top it off.

If Machu Picchu is on your bucket list at all I highly recommend it!  I can't wait to go back again and take Chris with me.

Cusco y Machu Picchu Photos

Jaime's Wedding

I met Jaime probably in1997.  I thought she was crazy.  Okay, not crazy, but I definitely, might have been a little scared of her.  Through the course of events of having several mutual friends, being in the same major, and both working for the engineering department we got to know each other really well.  And after the fall semester of our junior year we were pretty much in separable.

I don't think I valued enough how close we lived to each other for all those years.  I used to walk to Jaime's house every day before class so we could miss the bus and walk all the way to Benedum together.  Good times.  Now she lives in the Philly area and I'm out here in Illinois.  We don't get to see each other as often as we'd like, but we're still just as close as ever.

It was bittersweet getting the news that Jaime got engaged while I was away in Australia.  I was thrilled for her, but so sad that I couldn't be there in person to give her a hug and start planning all of the details of her special day.  Somehow she managed to do it all without me - how is that possible?!  :)

I got home from Australia in March so I was back in time for Jaime's bridal shower and of course the big day in June.  It's really special getting to watch a close friend get married.  Jaime has been there for me through so many things, it was nice to get to be there for on such a big occasion.  It was really nice too having one last sleepover with me, Jaime, and her sister Jordan the night before the wedding.  It was kind of like a scene from a romantic comedy - we should have done a dance routine or something.  At least Jordan and I would have liked that!

I'm sure there were a few things that went wrong here and there, but from my eyes, the day was perfect.  Jaime looked beautiful and Steve was handsome as ever, nervously waiting for his bride to be to walk down the aisle.  Jaime's a crier, but she made it through the ceremony and then it was time to party!  Being the music person that she is, there was an awesome DJ so needless to say we all danced the night away.

I'm so happy for Jaime and Steve and that they are sharing the rest of their lives together.  Steve - you have to take good care of her and just remember - she really likes brunch and she doesn't like fruit.  :)

Welcome back party.... I mean, my friends wedding

In honor of my return one of my best friends decided to have his wedding the weekend I arrived back stateside.  Uh, thank you!  No seriously, thank you.  It was perfect, I got to see all of my Chicago friends that I hadn't seen since my wedding and a few surprise guests from the best university on the planet.  Was there a ChemE dawg reunion?  Yes there was!  Does that sounds really lame 12 years later?  Doesn't really matter.

It's been almost a year (yikes!) since I've been back and Jay and Kirsten tied the knot.  They seem happier than ever, now settled in Seattle and I'm so happy that I was able to be back stateside in time to celebrate with them.

All the best you two!  And thanks for the party!!  :)