Serene Wandering

We had breakfast at our hotel before leaving Lima.  We had spent four nights there, two before the Nazca Lines excursion and two after.

The breakfast buffet options were always good but it was surprising that there was no decaf coffee available. However, that there was delicious hot chocolate available through the coffee/cappuccino/latte machine.

Several of us began drinking coca tea in preparation for the elevation change we would experience landing in Cusco, high up in the Andes..  The tea, in combination with over hydrating, was considered the best non-prescription preparation for warding off high altitude sickness. While in the bus, Enrique told us that tea benefits only last four hours.  We were trying to be over achievers. He told us that coca leaves do not have caffeine and are produced only in Peru, Bolivia and Columbia. 

Enrique told us that Quechua is the language of the Andes and the second most common language in Peru. It is spoken by 2 million people, most concentrated in the Cusco region. It is so different from other languages that Quechua was used as an alien language in Star Wars films.  By tradition one is asked – How young are you? instead of how old are you? when speaking Quechua. Enrique, who speaks six languages fluently, has only moderate ability to speak Quechua.

By the way, the name of our destination in the Andes can be spelled Cusco or Cuzco. Both are correct.

The Lima airport was packed! We got through a busy, but fairly efficient security screening.  The gate area was crazy packed!!  As we were boarding, Enrique said there was a “senior line” but senior status in Peru is 70 years old.  We all got in the queue anyway.

I don ‘t think I have ever before been the first passenger on a plane!

The flight had a lot of turbulence as we were preparing to land in the high altitude city of Cusco at 11,200 feet. Cusco is located 13 degrees from the equator.  It has a rainy season and a sunny season but with climate change, the weather isn’t as reliable as it was previously. 

We had arrived in the ancient Home of the Inca, Cusco City!

Almost everyone made a quick restroom stop since we’d been hydrating.  This toilet paper roll outside the stalls was just one more iteration of the toilet tissue question in Peru.  Frequently there was none, sometimes there was a charge, and this one had it outside the stalls.  It is a good idea to always bring your own! The airport restroom was clean and that was not always the case. Enrique called having a clean restroom that also had toilet paper a blessing!

Enrique lived in Cusco until he was a teen.  His dad was a police officer but officers were not allowed to work in the city where they lived to avoid corruption.  After ten years of proving themselves, an officer could work and live at home full time.   Enrique’s family never left the Cusco area so Enrique decided to embrace the travel industry as a career.  He has a degree in History of Peru and South America 

Cusco has a growing population because of silver and gold mining, huge natural gas reserves and tourism.  

Arriving in Cusco and spending several hours at high elevation was a first step in our elevation acclimation. We peaked at a nice little resort at 12,000 feet.  

We had a nice Peruvian lunch including a very delicious corn salad that I have since researched to no avail. There are several Peruvian restaurants in Phoenix and we will be sampling their corn salads at some point in the future.

New to us was an Andean blue corn juice which was quite good.  We all had another serving of coca tea as a few in our group were feeling the altitude with dizziness or light-headedness.

Most homes in the area seemed to have dual bulls on their roof for protection or good luck.

Our next stop was an alpaca demonstration farm and arts venue. 

We saw and fed four types of alpaca and huacanos. This was really quite fun.

We saw babies!  This one was about ten days old.

We had a brief concert.

Women were showing their weaving techniques.

There was a pen for guinea pigs, a special event food in Peru. They are not pets.  (We were never offered any of this delicacy on our trip, nor did we seek it out.)

A demonstration taught us how to recognize authentic baby alpaca textiles. We enjoyed looking around for some art or craft work to remind us of this trip. 

We bought this alpaca wall hanging even though we had to carry it around! It is reminiscent of our trip and of former family heirlooms or sorts.  My parents lived in Panama in the early 1980 and bought family members large llama wall hangings.  Only a couple are left after 40 plus years and they are in marginal condition.  

The center also had some exhibits to teach about the Inca.

We enjoyed a few more Enrique lessons on our coach ride. We learned a mantra of the Inca was “to love, to learn, to serve.”  Nice.

Quinoa is grown in Peru because the climate is so consistent.  White quinoa has a primary ingredient of calcium.  Black quinoa has magnesium and red quinoa has iron.  Although grandmothers and mothers  didn’t know the specific elements, they knew a rainbow of quinoa kept their family healthy.

A cup of coca tea has more calcium than seven cups of milk.  Yet, coca tea is not allowed in the US because of the possibility of homemade cocaine. Sniffing dogs are always present when flights arrive from this area and they will cue on coca leaves – even the random tea bag from a tourist in Cusco.  (Some coca tea was accidentally spilled on my backpack along the way – I made sure I washed it well before we flew home.)

We stopped at an overlook to see the Sacred Valley, bound on one end by Cusco and on the other by Machu Picchu.

The river at the bottom is a tributary that eventually goes to the Amazon.  To go by water, it would take a week and going over 183 Class V rapids.  We will fly and drive instead – but first we will visit Machu Picchu and spend more time in Cusco. 

The town at the bottom of the valley is Pisac. There is an Inca Archeological Complex in the vicinity but we did not visit it.

Presumably this statue is related somehow to the complex, but I did not learn its significance.

We arrived at our hotel in time for a late dinner with Andean music.

I only remember that this soup was delicious!

We were in Cusco on September 17, 2024.

Next up: Morning in the Sacred Valley

This was the morning we met the additional eighteen people who would be on the Machu Picchu and Amazon portions of our trip.  Most were American couples but we also had one couple from Australia and a second couple from Canada.   We were now a group of 24, or 25 if we count our tour guide, Enrique.

Enrique gave us the ground rules:  no politics, no religion, and no soccer!  He also explained his penalty point system to keep us on time.  Warnings only for being late the first and second time – but the third time, the offender buys pisco sours for everyone.  All was stated in good fun but we understood the assignment.

Our opportunity in the afternoon was a tour of Lima.  We went by coach into the historic district.  We disembarked in an area that was all about hair.   There were dozens of shops selling and buying hair segments as well as people walking around with hair.  

We could see another shantytown building up the hillside.  Our historic district guide said the people need to live there for ten years to have ownership, where as the other area had been five years.  It was not clear why the time frames were different from the one we had learned about previously.

We had an in-depth tour of the San Francisco Basilica and Convent.  We found it interesting that in South America, convents are for men and monasteries are for women – the opposite of what is traditional in North America. 

Unfortunately, there were no pictures allowed of the interior, but, of course it was beautiful.  There was also a library with 25,000 volumes, many dating back to the 1600s.   There were catacombs holding 70,000 individuals before that practice of internment was stopped by the government in 1810. The original church was built in the mid 1500s and then felled by an earthquake in 1655.   This building’s construction began in 1672 and has been damaged and repaired after earthquakes from then to now.

A street in the old historic district.

Our Phoenix area friends, Jo and Flynn, lived in Peru years ago when they were with the Peace Corps.  They had advised us to be sure and experience three things on our trip.  The first was drinking the traditional Peruvian pisco sours – we had already had several!  The second was the churros.  (The third recommendation is coming up later in this post.)

These Peruvian churros are very generous in size and warm and delicious.  The most traditional version,  and what we had, was caramel filled.  It was really good – just like the pisco sours.

I looked at the tourist shops with a bit of longing but knew we were at the beginning of a three week trip with a lot of schlepping of bags.  Restraint prevailed.

We made our way to the Plaza de Armas.   The Plaza was not only the center of rule in Lima, but also from where the Spanish ruled the South American continent.

The center area was blocked off because there was a protest nearby, and there are rules about how close protesters can get to government buildings.

There are a number of impressive buildings around the plaza perimeter.  This is the Archbishop’s Palace.  Although it looks very old, it was built in 1924 and is the home of the Archbishop of Lima.

On the same block, and connected as you would expect, is the Cathedral of Lima. It was built in 1535.  We did not go inside.

The Government Palace is the home of the executive branch of Peruvian government and the home of president.   These are just a few of the interesting buildings around the plaza.

In the historic district there had been a law that no personal building could be this high.  However, some rich, influential person – way back in the 1500s – managed to petition the church, or government, to get an exemption.  Oh, what a surprise. 

Our next destination was the Larco Herrera Museum.  It holds the world’s largest private collection of pre-Columbian Peruvian Art.

The gardens are part of the attraction.

Part of why this museum is famous is because their vast storage collection is available for viewing.  

It is the only museum in Peru that allows access to “storage” and one of only a few in the world.

The permanent collection “takes an in-depth look at the Andean worldview and helps visitors to understand the development of pre-Columbian societies.”

The items were very well displayed but art museums just aren’t our thing. 

It doesn’t really matter if they are pre-Columbian, renaissance or modern.  Our eyes glaze over quickly.

However….as we walked through the grounds, we had seen reference to the third of Jo and Flynn’s recommendations – The Erotica Museum.   I had not even imagined that our overall tour would take us there and didn’t think we would arrange to go on our own so hadn’t prioritized it.  But there it was, on the grounds of the Larco Museum, the Erotica Gallery.

We left the main tour to ask Enrique if the Erotica Gallery would be part of what we would see.  He said no, but that we could go on our own if we wanted.

This part of the museum is a “major collection of pre-Columbian erotic art offering a different and interesting perspective on ancient Peruvian sexuality.”

This example is pretty mild compared to most of what we saw, but it was certainly interesting.  Thanks Jo and Flynn – all three recommendations accomplished and appreciated!

We made our way back to the main tour and I doubt we were even missed.  The larger group hadn’t been together long enough to recognize each other, let alone know who was missing.

About the time we returned, the docent was talking about the quipus.  Now that was interesting. This series of cords off a main cord was how the Incas recorded and kept information about anything that needed to be counted and maintained.   The colors of the cords, knots and distance between the knots were all relevant information in the recording.  

Our evening event was for dinner at a private home in Lima, The Casa Garcia Alvarado.  The home was constructed in 1912 in a style from nineteenth century Spain. 

Generations of Mrs. Ana Maria Garcia Alvarado de Astudillo’s family have lived in Lima and this home.  She and two of her daughter’s families make this their home still.

Our hostess met us in the drawing room where we were given pisco sours and a variety of hors d’oeuvres.    She told us about her family and growing up in Lima.

We were able to tour several rooms of the house and the courtyard.

We came together in the dining room for a delicious Peruvian dinner.

This chicken dish was beginning to be very familiar!

Our hostess spent some time at each table making the visit more personal.   The casa is available for tours and private events and if you are in Lima, we’d recommend it.  It was a delightful evening.

We were in Lima on September 16, 2024.

By the way, this was the day we were to start prepping for high altitudes in Cusco.  The typical medication, Diamox, contains sulpha so was a no-go for me.  I was to take 600 milligrams of ibuprofen three times a day instead.  That sounded like stomach upset waiting to happen so I took 400 milligrams just twice. Randy experienced lip tingling after his first dose of Diamox and stopped taking it.  He can’t take ibuprofen so he was stuck. We were going to the upper reaches of the Andes with just local remedies.

Next up – and up and up:  Cusco

We had an early alarm as breakfast was at 6:15 and everyone, with everything, needed to be in the lobby by 7:30.  This was the day to see the Nazca Lines and have a boat ride to the Ballestas Islands, sometimes called the Peruvian Galapagos.

In our case, the boat ride was first.   

There were a variety of boats in the Bay of Paracas.

We approached our first highlight.

On our ride, we saw the Candelabra Lines. The area the lines cover is 170 x 54 meters.  This etching is called a geoglyph and it is the only one in this area.  There are more than 20 theories as to the origin, but no one really knows how, who or why.

This area of Peru has very little rain so the Candelabra Lines have remained.

The Ballestas Islands have been protected by the government of Peru since 2009.

This was our very first penguin sighting – Humboldt penguins.  They live up to twenty years.

There are a lot of sea birds on the islands including terns, gulls and pelicans.  

There are also Peruvian boobies, different than Galapagos boobies because Peruvian boobies are monogamous, choosing a lifetime mate.

A lot of seabirds means a lot of guano on these and other islands off Peru. The guano once reached depths of 200 feet. Guano has often been used as a fertilizer and was a valuable commodity from the mid-1800s to the early 1900s. This infrastructure is from when guano was actively mined on the islands.  Mining damaged the ecosystem so is now limited and regulated.

Turkey vultures provide clean up for animals and birds that die on the island. 

We saw several variety of starfish.

Then the South American Sea Lions and South American seals stole the show.  

They can sleep 18 hours a day

This is Sea Lion Maternity beach from January to March.  We were there in September. Gestation is almost one year.

This infrastructure is for the people who live on the Ballestras Islands to protect the animals and environment.

We hadn’t really given much thought to this portion of our tour but it turned out to be delightful!

We returned to Paracas harbor.

The main event of our day was to fly over the Nazca Lines.  These geoglyphs lie in the Ina desert between the Andes and the Pacific Ocean approximately 300 miles south of Lima.  The Nazca and Paracas peoples once lived in this region but it is unclear how and why they might have made line drawings that can be viewed only from the air.

A museum within the airport gave us some background information and touched on some of the many theories about the how and why of the Nazca Lines.  Most deal with representations of their clans, or hydrology, or spirituality or some combination thereof.

The animals and figures represented are recognizable today, including the most famous, the hummingbird.

The Nazca lines were discovered on the ground when workers were building part of the PanAm highway in the 1920s.  That section damaged part of the lizard’s leg.

The Nazca Lines are thought to be about 2000 years old and were named a Unesco World Heritage Site.

There is speculation that the lines were drawn by space aliens and numerous books have been written with that theory as a base.  The Peruvian government does not embrace that theory.

Enrique told us of another academic finding that the Peruvian government is not wanting to embrace. Archeologists have found skulls in the area that correlate only 30 percent with the area’s homosapeans. Is this another possibility for the creators of the Nazca Lines?

It was time to go see them for ourselves. We had to weigh in and were assigned seats.  Notice the scale to the right….

We were in a Cessna Grand Caravan 208B – a 12 seater plane.  Everyone  had a window seat and couples were across from each other.

There were the six of us from our tour together along with six others.

We had a female pilot.  She, and her male co-pilot, offered commentary but with the noise, and the accent, it was not terribly helpful.

Our two hour flight had about 30 minutes of travel to the site before and after with the middle hour being above the lines.  The pilot performed bends and turns to give people on both sides of the plane the opportunity to see the shapes.

We found this chart in the seat back at the end of our flight and only wished we had seen it at the beginning.

This was the first line figure we saw from above. It was formed on the side of a hill.

The lines and figures were easy enough to see when you knew where to look.  

These pictures, however, are enhanced.  That changes the background from real life brown to green, making them much easier to see. 

The famous hummingbird from above!

Some designs are quite elaborate.

This picture shows how the Pan American highway went right through the lizard leg lines.

During our flight several people, including one of our own, became quite ill.  It was not a flight for those inclined to motion sickness.    Fortunately, we both did fine.  

At the end of an interesting day, those of us dubbed the “Nazca Six,” with Enrique, enjoyed a meal on our way back to Lima.

We saw the Nazca Lines on September 14, 2024.

Next Up:  We meet the rest of our group!

The next day was mostly a travel day.  We met our tour director, Enrique, and the two couples who were joining us on the Nazca Lines segment of the overall trip to Machu Picchu, the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands.   One couple is from Toronto and the other is from Tennessee.  

Our guide, Enrique, spoke English, Italian, German, and Spanish and two more languages that I didn’t get down.  He has a degree in South American history and chose tourists over students.  In his experience, tourists want the information he knows more than his students did. His English was flawless and very easy to understand.

Traveling through Lima, we went through several other districts, including Baranca – the artistic area. 

This is not a good picture but there was a gathering of 20 or so couples to be married in a combined wedding.  These gatherings are organized by city hall in order for everyone to save money.

Shanty towns developed as people needed to live on land owned by the government.  The law says if you live there five years, the land is yours.  One million people live in shanty towns.

We traveled south from Lima along the PanAmerican Highway, a network of roads stretching 19,000 miles across the Americas.  There is a 60 mile break at the Panama border with Columbia but otherwise the highway extends from Prudoe Bay, Alaska to Ushuaia, Argentina.  Guinness World Records calls it the world’s longest motor road. 

This factory was closed because it was found to be detrimental to the nearby nature reserve

Enrique gave us information about Peru as we drove.  Many of the people who live in Peru are descendants of the Incas, Spaniards, and of former slaves brought in by the Portuguese

There are three main regions in Peru. The area around Lima is fairly arid because the prevailing ocean current, Humboldt from Antarctica, is too cold to produce rain.  Their water comes from Andes run off but the Andes glaciers are shrinking. The Nino current, from the Ecuador area, is warmer so there is more rain in other regions.

Five main rivers, from five countries, contribute to the Amazon.  He used fingers on his hand to represent the rivers going into the main river represented by his arm.

Peru is the third largest country in South America.  Brazil and Argentina are larger.

We learned that mining is 50 percent of the economy in Peru.  In 2019,  Peru was the 2nd largest producer in the world for copper, silver and zinc.  It was third in the world for lead, 4th for tin,  and the 8th largest producer of gold.   Peru is now mining reserves of recently discovered lithium.

Natural gas is the second largest industry and tourism is third.  There are about 5 million visitors to Peru per year. Peru exports anchovies, sea bass (marketed as Chilean sea bass), artichokes and blueberries.

While we were eating lunch, there was a state funeral being shown on the TV.  Enrique told us that Alberto Fujimori has been a college president and became a “good dictator.”   He made some necessary changes to the constitution to be able to fight terrorists.  He was re-elected to a second  term and eventually became oppressive and corrupt.   Fujimori was convicted of human rights violations and spent time in prison before being released due to age and poor health.  He died shortly before we arrived in Peru.

As we drove into Paracas, hours south of Lima, this was my view out the window on the inland side. The land was quite barren with signs prohibiting entry.  

We made a right turn, towards the oceanfront and the world changed.

We did not expect a lovely resort in such a remote area! 

It was too bad we were only going to be there for one night.

We three couples took some time to explore the resort followed by a very nice dinner.  The six of us chatted easily and got to know each other better. Friendships began.

We were in Paracas, Peru on September 14, 2024.

Next Up – The flight above the Nazca Lines

Our first morning in Peru, we had an opportunity for a tour around the area of our hotel in the Miraflores District of Lima.  A lovely woman showed us around for almost two hours.

Miraflores was once an independent Spanish town established in the 1500s.  It became a district within the city in the early 1900s as Lima expanded.  Miraflores has the upscale residential and shopping areas within Lima and is the primary tourist destination. 

We walked a short distance to a collection of city parks.  The first place we visited was the Iglesia Virgin Milagrosa  or Church of the Miraculous Virgin. It was built in the 1930s over the remains of another church.

The inside was beautiful, as expected.  Do you see the church cat in the foreground?  We saw two cats during our quick look inside.

We saw numerous cats on the park grounds.  They were brought into this area long ago to deal with rats. The cats are provided food, shelter, and health care through volunteer agencies. The 20 or so cats we saw appeared healthy and happy.

There are a number of art pieces in the park area. One of the parks is called the Parque Kennedy in honor of US President John F. Kennedy.

As we walked around Miraflores, we saw several Starbucks and other American transplants such as Popeyes, KFC, Subway, Papa John’s, Chili’s and Dunkin’.

This road used to be an irrigation ravine to the Pacific Ocean. 

Above, and along the side of the road, is the oldest social club in Peru. It began in 1918.  Today, the club includes 20 or so tennis clay courts perched along several hundred yards above the road.  

School children in Lima wear uniforms.  Their summer break will be in January and February.  South American seasons are opposite of North America. 

We walked to an area overlooking the Pacific Ocean.

Hang gliding is allowed in this area of Lima, but only for professionals.  There are other areas that allow access for everyone.

There is another park dedicated to Love. The mosaic wall, going for about 50 yards, is representative.

There are love locks on the fence.

There is a statue called The Kiss within Love Park.

This is an abstract representation of an astronomical clock at Machu Picchu. (Spoiler alert: We didn’t see the original.)

The Waikiki Beach Club is where beginners learn to surf.

There are black rocky beaches in this part of Lima. Other areas in the city have sandy beaches.  Beaches in Peru are both private and public. 

This affluent district in Lima is very clean.  We were aware of many street cleaners doing the work – generally mature women.

During our walking tour, we were warned about the traffic being told that drivers put no stock in the value of pedestrians. We experienced that to be true! 

The other thing we noticed was that cross walk signals, supposedly allowing you to cross the street safely, had widely varying number of seconds to accomplish the task. The longest time allocation we saw was 78 seconds. There was no standard from intersection to intersection. 

We returned to the hotel and had a couple drinks in the hotel bar, including our first Peruvian beer.   While sitting there, we received a fraud alert on a credit card we hadn’t even had time to use!  While on hold with Citibank, I was thinking about how difficult it was going to be to deal with things that auto-bill to that card while in Peru.  Fortunately, we recognized the activity and it was a false alarm!

A little later we wandered off in search of a traditional Peruvian meal and found a restaurant that seemed to fit our needs.  We started out with the traditional Peruvian drink, Pisco Sours. They were very good.

Seafood is very Peruvian, but we eat very little seafood. We chose two chicken dishes to share.  The dish on the left was so traditional that we were served it several times during our trip.

We got lost on our way back to the hotel and had to turn on Randy’s phone to use Maps. Figuring out how and when we might use our phones with our Verizon Travel Passes was part of the preparations for the trip. We knew we’d have cell access in Lima and Quito, but what about the Amazon and the Galapagos? I had given my mother, my brother, our daughter, and our neighbor lists with all of our hotel contact information, along with contact information for the US Embassies in Peru and Ecuador. (Fortunately, Avalon Waterways had provided the information.) We also registered with the State Department about our travel activities. Prep for this trip was a lot – I was glad the prep was done and we were actually on the trip!

We enjoyed our day and looked forward to meeting our tour guide and travel companions the next morning.

We were in Lima on September 13, 2024

The primary reason for our latest adventure was to visit Machu Picchu in Peru.  Yet, if you are in the vicinity, why not go to see the Nazca Lines, the Peruvian Amazon and the Galapagos Islands?  We did all of that over three weeks from mid September to early October 2024.  Come along, won’t you?

This trip was under Avalon Waterways – a new travel company for us.  It was recommended by our stellar travel agent.  Even with all the details that she handled, it was still a very time consuming preparation for us.  We had to get help from travel medical personnel about high altitude and malaria medications – one of which I was allergic to.  We had to get the appropriate kind of insect repellent for the Amazon and carefully choose our luggage to meet the reduced requirements of some of the smaller airlines on internal flights.  We also were going to be away from our luggage for one night so had to figure out how to take one bag to handle taking enough for both of  us for one night.  We ordered a Peru electrical converter and figured out how to get Soles, the local currency.  It just felt like a lot – before we even left!

The first leg of our newest adventure had us leaving our house at 3:00 a.m. for a flight at 6:20 a.m. from PHX to LAX.  As we approached Los Angeles, phone alerts started going off all throughout the plane – but not ours.  Those people who didn’t put their phones on Airplane Mode were outed!

The alert was for an earthquake, later learned to be 4.7 magnitude centered in Malibu.

We had lounge access to wait out our four hour layover and, for once, it wasn’t crowded.

After all the prep, the early hour flight and an earthquake – I enjoyed my coffee and Baileys!

Our flight to Lima was 8 hours on Latam Airlines, the airline of Chile.  The table apparatus on one of our business class pods was broken so the gate agent was going to move one of us to a different pod, thereby giving the person receiving a complimentary upgrade the broken table. 

We opted to stay together, despite the broken table, and Randy took that seat.  He was being the gentleman, but also wondered if he could fix it!

Alas, no fix seemed possible.

Communication was interesting for us once on board because this is a South American airline and the primary communications were in Spanish and Portuguese.  English was a distant third.  Fortunately, our cabin attendants spoke enough English for us to get by.

With the very early start, I laid down flat and did sleep for an hour or so.  Randy did not, choosing to watch several movies.

The plane was very chilly so we had our provided blankets over us while we watched our screens.

We usually find that foreign airlines put more value on the passenger experience compared to US carriers.  I wouldn’t say that was true on Latam but it was adequate and our attendants were very helpful.

On arrival in Lima, passing through immigration and customs was very easy.  They recorded our entry electronically so our passports did not get a Peru stamp.  

We claimed our luggage right away and walked into an area to find our transportation from Avalon Waterways.  There was a crowd of drivers, all with passenger’s names but none had ours.  We had to wait a little while as our plane had arrived 30 minutes early. International flights generally come into Lima very early (for overnight flights) or quite late – 10:40 pm in our case.

We chatted with our pleasant driver on our 30 minute drive to the hotel.  Peru has about 32 million people and 11-12 million of them live in Lima.   One million of Peru’s population are refugees from Venezuela.

He said Lima is a gastronomic capital in the world!  Three of the top ten restaurants in the world, including #1 are in Lima.  The highest ranked, Central Restaurante, generally requires reservations a year out.

It was interesting that he knew about the recent presidential debate in the US and that the “senora did so much better than Trump.” We have found as we travel around the world, people know what happens in our country.   It wasn’t our plan to be out of the country during the 2024 campaign but, woohoo, side benefit!

We arrived about midnight at a nice hotel in Lima.  Unlike European hotels we’ve been in, the shower plumbing was just like what we are used to in the US.  Also, we did not need the Peru electricity adapter – yet.

Our trip began on September 12, 2024.

Next up:  We have a day in Lima on our own.

Our roadtrip continued along the Oregon coast, specifically the Lincoln City area.  

We met up with our daughter and grandson at Devil’s Punchbowl, a state natural area.

Looking the other direction, we saw the beautiful coastline.

We found our rental home and waited for my mother, aunt and cousins to join us.  There were nine people and two dogs.   The house was in a great location but was just adequate in other ways.

We could see one of Oregon’s Haystack Rocks.  This rock is larger than the other Haystack Rock near Cannon Beach.  However, the rock near Cannon Beach is closer to land so appears larger.  I learned there is actually a third Haystack Rock on the Oregon Coast, that one near Bandon in southern Oregon.  

We had an enjoyable week of visiting, eating, card playing, and foosball tournaments. There was one attempt at crabbing. It fulfilled our grandson’s desire to catch and eat a crab but that was the only one and it was missing some legs!

Additional activities included going on the Oregon Coast Scenic Railway.

My mother, Beverly and our daughter, Natasha, enjoyed the trip.

We passed by Pronto-Pup in Rockaway Beach, birthplace of the pronto-pup and home of the giant corn-dog.

Natasha enjoying the view!

The view was lovely!

Randy stayed home, babysitting the pups, Boyd and Paris.

Randy and our grandson flew a kite.

Cousins Lisa and Kylee and Natasha enjoyed a beach fire.  

I enjoyed cuddling with grand-dog Boyd.  I loved spending time with pretty girl Paris too, but she is a bit big for lap cuddling.

Natasha went in the cold Pacific Ocean most days.  I think she was the only one who did it more than once! It was a delightful week with family but soon it was time to go.  

Beverly, Natasha and our grandson had never been to the Evergreen Museum in McMinnville.  It is the home of the Spruce Goose.  Randy and I spent a couple of days there in early 2016 during our RVing days.   I wrote a blog post about that visit called The Flying Boat and Flying Fortress.  Click the link if you’d like to read a fairly extensive review of our visit to the museum.

This time, mom and I enjoyed a docent tour.  It was very well done.

Natasha and our grandson did their own thing, actually getting to go inside the cockpit of the Spruce Goose.

Randy and Boyd explored the planes outside as it was way too warm for Boyd to stay in the car.  

Following our visit of several hours, Randy and I took mom home to Vancouver while Natasha and our grandson went to Multnomah Falls.  Did you know Multnomah Falls has a timed entry system during the summer?  It was a good thing mom knew about it or they probably wouldn’t have been able to get in.

Randy and I stayed a night at Natasha’s in Boise and met our new grand-cat Lily!

Boyd and Lily were glad to be reunited!

We were able to see a few friends and accomplish a couple things on our short visit to Boise.  We enjoyed seeing Darrell and Cindy but didn’t take a picture.

The next morning, I was at the jewelry store for an annual check on my ring and earrings.  It is just something I always need to be aware of when traveling to Vancouver or Boise.  At least it is now annual and not every six months!

At the same time, Randy was buying a case of our favorite Idaho wine – Ste. Chapelle’s Soft Red.

We enjoyed a visit with our friend and former neighbor, Karen.

It was easy to drive by our old house.  The same owners are there since purchasing from us in 2014.  They keep it looking very nice.

We went to lunch with Debbie and Bryan at the only restaurant we ALWAYS go to when we are back in Boise.  That is Dong Khanh and we always get spicy beef!

After a busy 24 hours in Boise, we started the drive back to Phoenix.  We left about 2:00 pm intending to stop somewhere when we got tired.  We drove through Utah instead of Nevada so we’d have more options.  We ended up driving all the way through Utah and were still doing fine as we passed through Las Vegas.

Unfortunately when we did get tired nearing Kingman, AZ, it was past midnight and there were no hotel rooms available.  We kind of slept for an hour in the car at a truck stop. It was too hot to have the windows up and too creepy to have them down. We gave up and  Randy drove the rest of the way home. We arrived about 5:00 am and went straight to bed!

It was a great summer road trip and, as always, it was nice to be home.

While traveling throughout Sequoia National Park, we used an app called Just Ahead.  We used their free tour of Big Bend National Park a few years ago and thought it was excellent.

I purchased the Sequoia and Kings Canyon tour and downloaded it onto my phone so it would work whether we had cell service or not.   The tour ran in the background and provided interesting commentary as we arrived at a specific gps point.  We recommend it!

We left our lodging and traveled to the mostly adjacent Kings Canyon National Park.    The elevation range within the two parks goes from a low of 1360 feet to a high of 14,494.  Crystal Cave is below ground in Sequoia but tours have not resumed after the extensive fires.  There are 36 sequoia groves within the two parks.

This area is one of the largest wilderness areas in the lower 48 and includes both national park and national forests.

We did not see a sign indicating that we had transitioned into Kings Canyon but knew we had when we came upon signage for the Mountain Grove. This is the largest stand of sequoia in the world.  In five square miles, there are more than 2,100 giant sequoias measuring more than 10 feet in diameter.

This area was once General Grant National Park, established in 1890, a similar timeframe as Sequoia. Our hike to General Grant, the most famous tree in this park, was much shorter and easier than the hike to General Sherman.

Along the way we saw a few things of interest.   This is the root end of a tree called the Fallen Monarch.

We could walk through and stand in the tree that workers once used as shelter.

Israel and Thomas Gamlin lived in the Fallen Monarch prior to building the cabin below in 1872.  They filed a claim for 160 acres and grazed cattle here until 1878.  

When the lands became part of General Grant National Park, in 1890, the building was used for storage by the cavalry who patrolled and protected the park.  In 1913, it was home for the first resident park ranger, Lewis L. Davis.  He patrolled the park and learned about the tree-fire relationship. He also grew sequoia seedlings.

We also saw the remains of the Centennial Stump.  

A 24 foot diameter tree was cut down to display a section in the 1876 Philadelphia Centennial Exhibition.  Easterners couldn’t believe it was from one tree!

A short while later, we arrived at the General Grant tree.

General Grant is the second or third largest tree in the world when considering height, diameter and volume. 

We saw, and heard, conflicting information about whether General Grant, or the President’s Tree in Sequoia, is the second and third largest.  (We did not see the President’s Tree.)

What is certain is that the General Grant tree was also named The Nation’s Christmas Tree. 1924, a visiting government dignitary heard a little girl exclaim, “what a wonderful Christmas tree it would be!” Later, President Dwight D. Eisenhower designated it a national shrine in memorial to those who give their lives for our country.

We enjoyed our time in Sequoia National Park and the General Grant area of Kings Canyon National Park. We just didn’t have the time to see any more of Kings Canyon.

 It took another 50 years, until 1940, for the canyon in the eastern part of the park to be protected.  The lands that were once General Grant National Park were included within the boundaries of the new Kings Canyon National Park.

If we visit this part of California again, we will prioritize seeing the canyon and touring the Crystal Cave.

Our national parks visit successfully accomplished, we proceeded north through central California.  All was fine until we had air conditioner problems in 115 degree heat.  I started looking ahead for service at about 3:00 pm.  Rich, a very accommodating owner of an independent, certified Mercedes repair shop in Redding agreed to try and diagnose our problem. That was very kind because we wouldn’t arrive at his shop until about 20 minutes before closing.  He even went the extra mile, calling the Mercedes dealership in Chico to see if they had the part he thought we might need.  

At that point, we were assuming we’d be spending the night in either Chico or Redding.  The independent shop could fit us in the next day for repair but we might have to shuttle the part from Chico.  Of course, that was all depending on whether or not Rich could diagnose the problem.

We found the repair shop and went inside the cool lobby to wait.  When Rich went out to get our car, the AC began cooling.  He hooked it up to his computers and ran the diagnostics.  Nothing definitive was found to be wrong except a thermostat was too hot and out of specs.  Typical computer, turn it off and turn it on again!  We had been going for hours in 115 degree heat. He apologized for not telling us to pull over, turn off the car, and restart it again as that is sometimes the only “fix” needed! No worries. By then, he was our hero!

Rich gave us a few suggestions, notably use “recirculate” when running the AC in extreme situations so the system doesn’t have to work so hard!   Duh…. We happily paid our fee, plus tip, and went on our way.   Even though we had kept him beyond closing time, Rich called us a few minutes later with a suggestion for when we got back to our home Mercedes Benz dealership in Phoenix.  If you have a Mercedes and happen to need service in Redding, California, Rich at North Star Motors is the guy! The AC has been working perfectly ever since.

We stopped for dinner at the original Black Bear Diner in Mount Shasta, California. 

We sat at the counter and listened to the banter between the kitchen staff and waitstaff.  We heard the lead cook say to a server,  “Emily, we haven’t had pepper jack for three years.”  (How do you not have pepper jack? ) They were also running low on bacon… It was an easygoing ending to a hot, somewhat stressful, afternoon.

We were at Kings Canyon in the heat of July 2024

Next:  We arrive at our destination – the Oregon Coast!

We started our summer road trip in the heat!  We left Phoenix at 110 degrees and traveled west into California where it was even hotter! 

Fortunately, our day was uneventful and comfortable in our air-conditioned vehicle.  

We saw wind turbines and lots of solar panels generating electricity. 

There were 17 fires in California on this day, so perhaps that was the cause for the colorful sunset as we approached Bakersfield to spend the night.

North of Bakersfield we saw an EV power plant.  That was not surprising so I didn’t take a picture.

What was surprising was seeing hundreds of oil rigs.  Most were still, but some were active.   I hadn’t known California had substantial oil reserves.  California currently produces 8.3 percent of the nation’s oil.

Is climate change responsible for the SS Minnow being stranded in south central California?

Our destination was Sequoia National Park. We’ve been to most of the national parks in the western US but had never visited Sequoia or nearby Kings Canyon National Park.

The park’s entrance sign, in place since 1935, has its own history.  It was carved in the 1930s by George Muno who served in the Civilian Conservation Corps.  The 4 by 10 foot sign was carved from a fallen sequoia tree that was about two thousand years old.

Muno’s intent was to honor Sequoyah, the Cherokee scholar who invented an alphabet for their language. Having a written form helped advance literacy. Many believe that the giant sequoia trees were named for Sequoyah.

Regardless of intent, Muno based the profile on the native man on the old “buffalo” nickel. It actually resembles a stereotype of a great plains American Indian, and not Sequoyah or the peoples who called these lands home for thousands of years.   

In present day, the appropriateness of this sign is sometimes reconsidered.  An article on the park website states:  “National parks preserve a complex web of history, not all of it inspiring. Some symbols of our past may not interpret our nation’s past in a sensitive and respectful way.”

Sequoia was America’s second national park, after Yellowstone.  Sequoia was established on September 25, 1890 as a permanent refuge for the sequoia trees.  It remains the only park established to protect a plant species.

The first substantive road into the forest was completed by the US army in 1903 under the leadership of Colonel Charles Young.  He was the first African American to achieve the rank of colonel.

The current road, the Generals Highway, was completed in 1926.  The road is in very good shape considering weather, fire and funding.  During the highway’s construction, workers saw the last grizzly known to be in California.  Although a symbol of California, grizzly bears were assumed already gone in the state. 

These days black bear are common and signs and notices on how to avoid them are everywhere.

As we passed through the foothills of the park, we drove through oak forests.

As we rose in elevation, the trees changed.

These trees are called the Four Guardsmen. 

We visited the Giant Trees Museum and had an opportunity to learn about giant sequoia trees. At a very basic level we learned that sequoia are a different species than the other giant trees in California, the coast redwoods. 

It is unclear whether sequoias have a natural lifespan. Some of the trees in the sequoia groves are thought to be 13,000 years old. When trees are tall enough to rise above the forest canopy, the top dies off.  They continue to grow thicker, not higher.  

Their ability to grow rapidly over many years allows for the sequoia’s very large size.  

This picture shows the same museum building being used as a market with associated people, cars and engine exhaust.  Across the road were 100 hotel rooms. 

Over time, foresters and scientists realized that the trees needed space to thrive.  There was an effort to reduce and remove encroaching civilization. Trees are sometimes protected by fencing to discourage “love rings” which are caused by thousands of people touching the tree at approximately the same height.

We walked the Big Trees Trail near the museum.

Along the way we learned that this area has characteristics that sequoia trees need, such as moist soil, an open sunny forest, a climate that doesn’t get too cold, and bare ashy ground. 

The meadow’s soil is too wet for the roots due to rainwater and snow runoff collection. Although sequoia need enormous amounts of water, they collect what they need as the water drains toward the meadow. 

Sequoia have a shallow root base, needing only about three feet of soil.  Adjacent trees will intertwine their root system providing stabilization.

This tree likely fell when the ground became too soggy, possibly with assistance from a strong wind or shifting foundation.

As the trees grow, lower branches are lost because of the lack of sun or forest fire.   Regular fires are beneficial to sequoia, creating conditions for cones to open and release their seeds.  The seeds then sprout on the bare ground enhanced by ash.

Large sequoias are likely to have fire scars but survive because of thick bark with air pockets that insulate the wood. High branches keep foliage away from most fires and the bark has very little sap so is not highly flammable. 

This tree fell in 1992, likely because of damaged roots interacting with soggy ground and wind.  A road was cut near its base early in the 1900s likely damaging the tree’s root system.

This told the story of a ranger hearing a sequoia falling for no apparent reason reason in 1974.

Another interesting sign was nearby.

The trees made us look tiny!

Many of the tree names in Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks have a civil war association.  This tree is called the Clara Barton tree.

The must do in Sequoia National Park is visiting the General Sherman tree – the largest tree in the world. The determination of “largest” is made when combining height, diameter and volume. The walk to the tree was on a paved path – about a half mile all down hill.  Hmmm.  You know what that means.

It was nigh impossible to get a picture of the whole General Sherman Tree without people in the picture!

The height of General Sherman is 275 feet.  On a football field it would reach from one goal line to the opposite 9 yard line. The tallest sequoia is an unnamed tree measuring 311 feet.  The tallest coast redwood is 369 feet.

General Sherman’s weight is estimate at 1385 tons – more than ten blue whales. Its diameter is 36.5 feet, wide enough to block three lanes of traffic.

To grow this high, heavy and wide, the General Sherman Tree is estimated to be 1800-2700 years old.   It is not getting taller but is still increasing in girth: getting wider in diameter and increasing in volume.  

This picture shows rangers using structure wrap to protect the General Sherman Tree during the KNP Complex Fire.  This strategy can help a few sequoias but won’t save groves of trees.  The KNP Complex Fire in 2021 did a lot of damage!

Unfortunately, sequoias are being lost at an alarming rate because of the intense fire seasons related to climate change.  The entire placard is interesting but notice that 13 – 19 percent of sequoias were lost during the 2020-2021 fire seasons alone.  

This stump section of a giant sequoia tells that the tree lived 2210 years and survived 80 fires that left scarring.    

We began the trek back up the trail to the parking lot.

I did not enjoy it.

We had some interesting sights as we drove to our accommodations for the night.

We were spending one night at the Wuksachi Lodge within the park.   Reception, the restaurant, and gift shop were in this building.   Accommodations were in separate buildings near by.

The woman checking us in told us our room was on the entry level.  We thought that was good since she also told us we needed to take everything that had any hint of food out of our car because of the bears. Only our room wasn’t on the entry level. 

We (mostly Randy) had to lug two suitcases, our ice chest and our snack box up the stairs because there was no elevator.

Our room was a nice size but did not have air conditioning.  We tried to “chill” for the rest of the afternoon.  

Our dinner reservations said “business casual” so Randy put on pants even though he was skeptical.  His skepticism was correct in that most people came in their regular vacation clothes. He grumbled.

We have prioritized staying in national park lodges all over the west and have thoroughly enjoyed the effort overall. Wuksachi Lodge wasn’t a net positive in the heat of the summer.  Only the location was superb.

We were in Sequoia National Park in July 2024.

Next up:  The General Grant Tree in Kings Canyon National Park

So….you can’t come to Philadelphia and not do a little history, right?  Randy agreed. I spent most of a week in the city with my mom about 20 years ago and we did it all. As a result, I could do this abbreviated version without regret.

Our Philadelphia History Tour began at the Archer Street Quaker Meeting House.  It was built in 1804 on grounds granted by William Penn.  The Quakers welcomed all faiths in Penn’s Philadelphia.  The meeting house has been used continuously as a place of worship.

This statue of Ben Franklin was made using 1.8 million pennies donated by kids at 500 local schools. It also included brass from nameplates of Philadelphia firefighters dating from 1736.

One thousand keys are visible at the surface, symbolic of Franklin’s experience with static electricity from lightning and a key.

Adjacent to the statue is one of 4000 murals in Philadelphia, much of them centered in the historic area.  This one is about Ben Franklin and his co-founding of the Union Fire Company in 1736.  It was also known as the “Bucket Brigade” and was the first formally organized all volunteer firefighters group.

We did a quick stop outside of Betsy Ross’ house.  She is credited with sewing the first version of the Stars and Stripes for George Washington.  There is no official documentation of her doing so as it would have been a treasonous event.

Generations of family lore, with similar details from different branches of the family, brought the story forward about the time of the nation’s centennial celebration.

Regardless of whether the original flag story was true, she was a woman business owner (upholstery and flags) in colonial America and provided gun powder and bullets to the revolutionary soldiers.  She was exceptional if only for these documented activities.

Elfreth’s Alley is the nations oldest, continuously occupied, English speaking street.  (The oldest continuously occupied street is in Saint Augustine, Florida.)

Six houses were at risk when the I-90 interstate was expanding.  Efforts were made to give the alley historical status protection and that was achieved.

Twenty-nine of the 31 houses are owned by individuals. Two houses are owned by the local association as a museum.

This house is currently for sale for $1.25 million.  Our tour guide thought that it was overpriced as the last house on the alley sold for about half that (before Covid).

We moved on to Christ Church.  Mom and I had been able to tour the church but this time we were there on a Sunday morning and services were being held inside.  The church was established in 1695.  This is its third structure and dates to 1744.

We heard the same church bells that fifteen signers of the Declaration of Independence (who were members) would have heard.

The 197 foot church tower was the tallest building George Washington ever saw.  It was the tallest structure in North America for 56 years. 

This United States Post Office established under “B Free Franklin.”  He was instrumental in forming what later became the United States Postal Service.  This is the only post office not required to display a flag.  It has operated since colonial times, but not continuously. 

This is Carpenter’s Hall where colonist leaders and the First Continental Congress met to say we don’t want taxation without representation.

This statue is called The Signer in tribute to those who put their names on the documents.

This is Independence Hall where the Second Continental Congress worked through the Declaration of Independence and the Articles of Confederation, the first constitution. 

Philadelphia was the first capital of the nation.  This building was Congress Hall with Upper and Lower chambers.  John Adams was sworn in here in the first peaceful transfer of power.  Good for them, and so many others, who have transferred power peaceably.

Of course this is the Liberty Bell with feet.  It was actually my best shot at getting the Liberty Bell without people around it! I’m not photo savvy enough to remove them and it really isn’t realistic to get a photo of the Liberty Bell without people around.

Our next activity was a Philadelphia Food Tour.  We met on a corner by the Masonic Lodge and enjoyed some views.

We saw these guys!

Ben Franklin, the craftsman, was across the street.

The architecture in downtown Philadelphia was great!

Our food tour guide brought us cheese steak sandwiches and told us about this large building. It is Philadelphia City Hall, the largest government building in our country.

It is the second largest masonry building. City Hall has the tallest statue (William Penn) of any building in the world at 37 feet tall, and weighing in at 27 tons. 

This was William Penn’s plan for his city of brotherly love. Philadelphia was to be laid out in a grid.  The white blocks are open space, parks, or places of service to the community.

A transit center is under city hall plaza.  The water is lit to show the color of the subway train going underneath at the time.  Nothing was moving beneath us at that moment in time.

Philadelphia has a lot of street art as one percent of a project’s contract has to be used to provide art.  This looks like a clothesline clip or two lovers embracing.

Our guide showed us interesting architecture including this Art Deco building.

Our guide showed us several murals done by the Mural Arts Program.  As we had learned before, the city found that painting over graffiti just gave the artists a clean surface to paint again.  The goal was to provide a good outlet for the artists to the betterment of the city.  They started by inviting graffiti artists to participate but it took awhile to build trust.  It eventually became a successful partnership and now includes elementary and secondary students and an array of artists, both street and more traditional. Our guide had been a participant as a student and instructor.

We didn’t eat at Mac Mart on our tour but how did we not visit a restaurant specializing in Mac & Cheese?

We did get to choose cookies at Insomnia Cookies – a franchise begun in Philadelphia by college students trying to stay awake to study.

We had chicken and donuts at Federal Donuts.  On vacation, you enjoy the unusual!

In Baltimore we had been introduced to sites related to B&O Railroad.  In Philadelphia it was the Reading Railroad.

This was what the terminal looked like in old days.

This is it now. 

We walked through here on our way to Reading Terminal Market, active since 1894.

This pig is a donation collector.  You put spare change and bills in his mouth and it falls and collects at the other end.

We had a couple food items in the market.

We concluded with ice cream from Bassets, operating since 1861.

The next morning we had an uneventful trip to the airport (no flat tire) and uneventful flight home. It was a good and interesting trip.

We added four states to our map: Maryland, West Virginia, Delaware and New Jersey.  We have six to go! Where will we go next year? Connecticut seems to be the only one that could be easily paired with a Mariners or Diamondbacks road trip to New York City. I’ll start planning when the 2025 schedule comes out!

We were in Philly in May 2024.