mom in oz...trip to tunnel creek and windjana gorge

thursday my mom and i set off for an adventure up the gibb.  it was a long and bumpy journey to get there with our teeth rattling and our ears ringing once we finally arrived...but it was worth it. we went to tunnel creek first and it was so beautiful. i went all the way through, wading through the creek water, sometimes up to my waist.  it was pretty spooky. but this is where jandamarra was sighted by his tracker and eventually killed.  went to windjana gorge after that and saw lots of sunbathing crocs and beautiful birds, including a kingfisher.  it was a great day but by the time we got back we were totally exhausted from 6 hours driving on very poor dirt roads and hiking around in the hot australian sun.  i want to go back and take more photos.  see more photos here in the Mom's visit in Derby 2011 Album

sarah's visit (her pics)

sarah's visit was great, as mentioned in an earlier post.  she took some seriously amazing photos while here, using her new SLR digital camera! since i have been whining about wanting one i was very excited to see her pics!  and now i am sold...can't wait to get one!  more photos under the Derby 2011 Album.

Super tired from our lago quilotoa tour

We had a full day tour of lago quilotoa, a lake in a volcanic crater. Pics to come later. It was awesome and a good hike down and up again. Tons of dust though. Then we had lunch and explored the Pujilí market where they sell all kinds of stuff including loaves of unrefined sugar. Tastes like molasses.

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!