Life lately, according to my phone

Debbie just left for the airport after staying with us here in Peru for 15 days. Here are some of my phone pictures from the past two weeks while she visited. We had a great time exploring Peru together and Milo loved having his Grandma in town to spoil him. Thanks so much for coming, Debbie! If nothing else, we hope your time here will leave you with a greater appreciation for the Cornwalls. 

Parque de la Reserva

On Friday night we went to the Parque de la Reserva to visit the Magic Water Circuit, the largest fountain park in the world (basically it is the world's largest splash pad). It was really fun to walk around the park and look at all the different fountains, with their lights and music. Milo loved walking around and pointing at the fountains. We also rode a little train around the park, we crammed inside a little train car and listened to Milo giggle and make choo choo noises. He was in heaven, we will definitely be going back!

Lima Zoo

On Saturday morning we went to the Lima Zoo. It was awesome, probably one of my favorite things that we have done here so far. The zoo is built around some ancient ruins so we were able to see some more ruins and some animals that are native to Peru, they also had some international animals. Esteban our taxi driver came into the zoo with us, too. We were able to get super close to the animals and they all seemed to be way more active then the animals that I have seen at other zoos. We were watching the zoo keeper feed the condors, he would throw the meat up and the bird would catch it with one claw, it was really cool watch. All of a sudden the condor flew toward us and Milo lost it, he was terrified! Other than the condor incident, Milo was in heaven... he loved getting out of his stroller and walking around the zoo, pointing at the animals, and getting all kinds of attention. He was a little celebrity, there was a group of teenage girls who kept screaming, asking for pictures, and kisses. Everywhere we go Milo gets admired for his blonde hair and blue eyes... he is our little baby Bieber! 

Lima City Center

Debbie has been visiting us for the past week and a half, it's been so nice to have her here. It's been great to have extra help with Milo and someone to speak English with during the day. On Saturday we decided to do a little sight seeing with her and take a double decker bus tour into the center of Lima. This was my first time to the center as well. It was interesting to drive through the different districts on our way to the city center. There are a lot of buildings with beautiful architecture that look like they should be in Europe, I especially liked the art museum. There are also a lot of sketchy buildings that make me so grateful to live where I do. We got off the bus at the Main Square, which is full of yellow colonial style buildings with Spanish balconies and then we walked to San Francisco Square, which was full of birds. Of course Jordan couldn't resist driving the stroller through the birds. We took a tour the Convent of San Francisco and the Catacombs. They didn't allow pictures inside the church but the ceilings were very ornate, I loved them. Catacombs were kind of creepy, dark, super low ceilings, and full of piles of bones. I am kind of wondering why its a tourist attraction, while we were walking through creeped me out and then made me wish I was waiting in line for the Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.... Maybe our next trip.

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is incredible. I don't even know how to describe it, you just need to go. We woke up at 5 am to take a taxi to the train station, then we took a (freezing) 3 hour train ride to Aguas Calientes, and then a 30 minute bus ride to Machu Picchu. It was exhausting for us to travel there so I can't even imagine how difficult it was for the Incas to travel there and build the city. It is amazing to see the perfect stone work up on the mountain tops, the views are incredible. Parts of it kind of reminded me of the big green mountains on Oahu. When we arrived we hiked up the hill for a while so that we could catch a view of all of Machu Picchu. I think that we all agreed that we liked being able to see the whole city better than actually walking through the ruins but it was very interesting to walk through and speculate what each room might have been used for. Milo's favorite part was getting out of the carrier and chasing the llamas around. He loved the llamas. This was kind of a hard trip with Milo, but he was a trooper and luckily we had Debbie with us so we were all able to take turns checking out the sights and being on Milo duty (Thanks Debbie!) After we walked through the ruins and had one last look at Machu Picchu we started our journey back to Cusco.

Cusco

We just returned to Lima from visiting Cusco & Machu Picchu. It was an amazing and exhausting trip. Cusco is an old, dirty, crazy but beautiful city. The roads are very traffic-y, narrow, and cobblestone (not stroller worthy). The sidewalks in a lot of places are barely wide enough for one person to walk down. It is definitely not a family friendly destination, but we did our best to make it work. Being one of the only white babies in town did mean that Milo got a lot of attention from the locals and the tourists. We heard lots of "que lindo" "tu bebe es muy precioso" "muneco" and all of the women were concerned that Milo wasn't dressed warm enough and didn't have a hat. We spent our time relaxing and adjusting to the altitude change (Cusco is over 11,000 ft), hitting the main tourist sights: Plaza de Armas, Temple of Coricancha, Cristo Blanco, Sacsayhuaman, Cathedral de Cusco, visiting the market, taking a bus tour, and getting some good food (our favorites were Jack's Cafe, Greens Organic, and the Nino's Hotel Cafe). One of my favorite parts about Cusco was definitely our hotel, Nino's Hotel. If you go to Cusco do yourself a favor and stay there, you won't regret it. It was nice to get out of Lima and see some other parts of Peru. Cusco is truly a step back in time, it is amazing to see how simply and different the people live. It really makes you appreciate everything that you have.

Life lately, according to my phone

Here are some of my phone pictures since we arrived here in Peru, three & half weeks ago. Can you believe that? It's been three & half weeks already. Time is flying and we are having a great time, with much more fun to come! Jordan's mom arrives in Lima tonight & we are all headed to Cusco and Machu Picchu on Tuesday.