long travels

We had very long travels to finally get to Sydney... flight from Cusco to Lima, then one short hour to get through customs, security, etc to fly from Lima to Buenos Aires. We had beautiful views of the mountains to Lima at least. Then we flew from Buenos Aires to Sydney...15 long hours.  But we flew over Antarctica and got to take photos!  The last photo here is as we came into Sydney.

Voting in peru is weird

Today was Peru's national voting day, they do this every three years.  I was surprised to find that they were only voting for Mayor, no other bills or laws or elected officials to vote on.  They have 18 parties just for Mayor and they have slogans like bread, condor, or potato.  They have little logos of bread, condors, or potatoes, etc for people who are illiterate.  The way they market themselves is also very strange, they drive down the streets with huge loud speakers taped to the tops of the cars and fuzzy banners hanging off the trucks and loudly proclaim their propaganda at all hours of the night and or day.  They give our candy and trinkets to kids.  Jose had to check in this huge newspaper about where he would be voting and some people are randomly selected to be poll helpers (it is not voluntary here). Everyone in Peru is required to vote or they are fined quite a bit of money. If their ID cards are not up to date then they are not on the poll lists and are not allowed to vote and then are fined anyway even if they show up to vote.  We went to the university where he was scheduled to vote and had to look at yet another long list of numbers for what polling group he belonged to. We then had to find the building it listed for him (no maps provided) while armed policeman patrolled the area.  Hordes of ladies were selling sweets, food, snacks, drinks, and gambling games outside. We found his building and went to the designated classroom. His name was on the list thankfully. I was shocked to see that they only let one person vote at a time, one person per classroom. It was SO slow and inefficient. They gave everyone their papers and one pen for each classroom and then had them vote behind a little plastic board at a desk.  It takes 3 seconds to vote and then they have to sign and put their fingerprint on the paper. Then they get a sticker on their ID card and their middle finger is dipped in this purple-blue ink to show that they voted.  It was really strange.  I wonder who will win...the bread man, potato man, etc?

Back to cusco

So the honeymoon comes to a close. We are sitting in the Lima airport waiting for our flight back to cusco. The honeymoon was awesome and ecuador was really fun. Back to paperwork again.

We're hitched!

We did it! Minister showed up and everything. It doesn't feel real yet though...perhaps in a few weeks.  A huge thank you to my wonderful family, amazing maid of honor, and all my incredible friends who made our special day unforgettable :)  Started posting photos here

and here

Room service!

Checked into our hotel here in cusco and immediately took advantage of room service. Jose's first time! It was awesome and now we are just resting as much as we can :)

Dinner in Aguascalientes

We had some great tours and a fun dinner in Aguascalientes before heading to machu picchu the next day. Two more days!

Friends in cusco!

Yay! Everyone is in town for the wedding now! We've been traipsing around the city, exploring ruins and eating wonderful food. Yum

in law meet 'n greet

So the in laws got to meet each other yesterday and Jose's sisters and cousins too! We all went out to muse for lunch and had a great time :)

Familia in town!!!

Yay my family is here. We had a huge lunch at muse and tried black beer and roamed the city. It's awesome having them here!!!

Peruvian independence day

Today we saw the local parade of schools marching in the main plaza and the army too for independence day It was kind of crazy and they had a strike protest too about the national propane being sold to a foreign country

Lares Trek and Temple of the Moon

We recently returned from a beautiful Lares trek where we had gorgeous weather and amazing stars at night. It was however bone chillingly cold the second night and I was pretty sure I was going to die.  Anyway other than that things were great and I got to finally hike to the temple of the moon in Machu Picchu on the other side of Wayna Picchu (picture of me there above).  I will try to post photos to picassa but the intertubes here do not like photos.  I hope all of you are well. Miss you!

cheers to the joys of wedding paperwork in peru

Totally unbelievable.  If I had known it would be this hard...  It is worth it but damn.  I mean on top of the amazing amount of paperwork I had to do in the US, plus all the false info given to me about what I needed, we had to retranslate the paperwork here, then get it notarized by a specific person who is only in the office at a certain time on a certain day, then get it notarized by the school of notaries, then take it to the ministerio de exteriores for their stamp. Everything costs money of course and everyone wants to know why you are doing this, they want to delay, get a bribe, etc. Then we had to present the documents to the ONE minister in all of Cusco and BEG him to marry us on Sunday. He will not tell me what words we will be saying, nor if I am allowed to say my vows. I have no idea what this will be like. Then we had to go to another location to pay the fee, come back for a folder with extra papers in it, get those signed by two witnesses who need to be present at the wedding, then go to the medical clinic to get...oh yes...blood tests, dental check, and a physical done.  Unreal. Totally unreal. And this medical clinic...no gloves. She took my blood with a dirty tourniquet and no gloves. The dentist looked in my mouth with no gloves and a dirty pen that he had stuck in other peoples mouths. Rather shocking really.  Now I have to post our names in the local paper and hope that the guy does indeed show up on our wedding day.  Sounds fun right?

wedding planning

Ah, planning a wedding in Peru...so much more difficult than originally anticipated.  They really do things so very differently down there and there is no such thing as have it your way in Peru.  The location at least is breathtaking and the event itself should be really fun, in spite of any planning mishaps.  Less than four months away! 

another xmas in cusco

I had another wonderful trip in Peru to spend time with Jose and his family. As always it was far too short but we had a great time relaxing and wedding planning. I met him in Machu Picchu after one of his tours and was lucky enough to see the beautiful Incan Ruins a fourth time. It was hard to leave as usual but soon we'll be together again in June.  Click on our Trip Album to see our pics (via picassa) from this past Christmas. You can also access the same photos by going to the photo page and viewing the embedded slideshow there :)

christmas in cusco 2008

Happily I did return to see him for several weeks. And it was amazing. Christmas and New Years in Cusco, Peru is wonderful. There are so many traditions and dishes and events. I got to meet his family and they are lovely. I got to see Machu Picchu again and much more of Cusco. We’ve made lots of plans since then, one of which is to hopefully move to New Zealand, Australia, or Europe after we get married and are waiting for the US visa paperwork to finalize.  we decided to start this site to keep friends/family posted on our travels. Click on our Trip Album to see our pics (via picasa) from this past Christmas and New Years.  You can also access the same photos by going to the photo page and viewing the embedded slideshow there :)