I'm Baaaack! (warning LONG!)

[sundial]

Wow! What fantastic tours and a great way to kick off your new career!

I would enjoy hiking in the mountains of Peru.

Your travels and the people you encountered sounds like a plot on Lost. Hope you didn't take Oceanic airlines.

[sundial]

I wanted to post this from your Picasa album because it's so breathtaking!


Machu Picchu photographed by Ellen

[DrBadger]

I wanted to post this from your Picasa album because it's so breathtaking!


Machu Picchu photographed by Ellen

It was breathtaking! Especially seeing that after hiking for 3 days on the Inca Trail. Such a great reward for 3 really hard days of hiking! I would highly reccommend seeing Machu Picchu this way for the first time! (they do have a 1 day version that you don't have to do the really hard parts of the Inca trail).

Ann-
Great to hear from you. I thought about you a lot when I was test riding the Ti Lightspeed. It was a really nice ride, but I do still think that I am leaning towards the Ruby... well let you know the final decision.

[Aggie_Ama]

Welcome back! That photo is breath taking, I will head over to look at some others. Welcome to Texas as well.

[bikerz]

I would highly recommend seeing Machu Picchu this way for the first time! (they do have a 1 day version that you don't have to do the really hard parts of the Inca trail).

Ellen, such fantastic photos!

I did that 1-day hike into Machu Picchu more than 20 years ago - it was spectacular! And then, because we were poor college students ("poor" being such a relative word in the 3rd world, but anyway), we rode the bus down the hill late at night with the staff from the fancy hotel, and, after a pitch dark walk down the RR tracks, found a decidedly less fancy hostel in Aguas Calientes. That whole experience was (and remains) one of the highlights of my life.

Did you read Pablo Neruda's great poem about Machu Picchu? The whole thing is great, but this section I really loved:
"...
Then up the ladder of the earth I climbed
through the barbed jungle's thickets
until I reached you Macchu Picchu.

Tall city of stepped stone,
home at long last of whatever earth
had never hidden in her sleeping clothes.
In you two lineages that had run parallel
met where the cradle both of man and light
rocked in a wind of thorns.
..."

I am such a book nerd that I can't resist mentioning that you can read excerpts in English and Spanish here.

I'd love to go back...

[bikerz]

Ellen!!! Welcome back! I was wondering how you were doing...

What a fun bunch of trips you had! I'm looking forward to seeing your photos later today. It's so nice to hear from you - definitely keep us posted about the new bike!