Into the Sacred Valley

Between Cusco and Machu Picchu, Paul and I decided to spend a couple days in the peace and quiet of the Sacred Valley, which is an amazing area with small towns surrounded by terraced mountains, waterfalls, markets and the occasional ruin. The Sacred Valley is also called the Urubamba Valley, which loosely translates to "place of the bugs or spiders". They renamed it the Sacred Valley because it sounded better for the tourists. Having said that, it really is a slice of heaven.


Originally during our planning for the Sacred Valley, we thought we would explore a bit during the day and spend the evenings at our lodging, but when we arrived we hardly left the place (except for a morning hike to a beautiful waterfall...more on that below), as it was such a wonderfully peaceful oasis.

The Green House B&B is owned by a British expat, named Bryan and his partner, Gabriel, who is Peruvian. They also have three awesome dogs that guard the house, check in on guests and snuggle by the fireplace at dinner time.


Bryan's story is an interesting one, and the work that he and Gabriel have done with the folks in town is admirable...but perhaps we'll save that for another posting. They have some classic stories about working with the local government, and amongst all the trials and tribulations they manage to build an outstanding TripAdvisor profile.

A morning hike to a waterfall led us through local neighborhoods, passing cows, pigs, local dogs, crossing small streams and rivers. After getting lost through some jungle bush we made it to a beautiful clearing with a great view of the falls.


Back to the pups! There are three, which Paul and I assigned our own names. Rascal is the oldest of the group, and is such a sweet soul. She is constantly gaurding the house, keeping the other pups in line and coming up to you for her obligatory pet (which occurs quite regularly throughout the day). I think I had a tough time saying goodbye to her.


The other two pups we creatively called Rusty and Blackie.

Location:Calca, Peru

Wow... Machu Picchu is Amazing

The morning mist hugged the mountains like a blanket of fluffy white cotton candy as our Peruvian guide (Felix) led Teresa and I up the ancient stone paths that lead to our high altitude lookout.

As the early morning sun worked hard to break through the clouds Teresa and I were given our first glimpse of the famous mountain city of the Incas. The sprawling ruins were in no hurry to open up their secrets to us, and as we both stood there looking over what can only be described as a magical vista, Teresa and I both agreed how this scenic view must have delivered this same thrill over countless mornings throughout the millennia.





For the most part we have been blessed with great weather since we arrived in Peru, instead of the cold wintery days we had been expecting, we had been delivered wonderful spring mornings and sunny summer days.

So it was again on the day we explored the Machi Picchu ruins, and as the day unfolded the views of this extraordinary place continued to get better and better.





The is no doubt this is a special place, and justifiably a World Heritage Site. It's hard to imagine a place more beautiful than this one, it seems that any direction you look there is another spectacular view... either of mountains, jungles, or ancient stone structures built over 600 years ago (with continuous construction for 700 years before that).

One distraction from the history lessons and spectacular views are the occasional amusing Alpaca or Llama (we're not sure which). These mild tempered animals seem to be doing a great job keeping the grass level down, and add a living dimension to this wonderful place.





There is no doubt in our minds that Machu Picchu justifiably deserves its status as one of the great wonders of the world... it is amazing and well worth visiting.

Location:Aguas Calientes, Peru

Altitude sickness... bah humbug!

Following our short and enjoyable stay in Lima, Teresa and I boarded a short domestic flight to the high altitude town of Cusco... one of the gateway towns to the Scared Valley and Machu Picchu.


I say high altitude because Cusco is situated at 11,000ft (3360m) above sea level, where the oxygen level is 25% less than typical. Teresa and I had both read about the potential effects of altitude sickness during our research, but we had both dismissed the potential impacts because we assumed we were both pretty fit and had both enjoyed many seasons of snow skiing over the years.

We were absolutely wrong (you know what happens when you assume something!)... as it turned out within hours of arriving in Cusco we had both experienced shortness of breath walking up only a few flights of stairs, and developed the classic altitude headaches (very much like a hangover headache without the fun of drinking).


All the travel books suggested to take it easy for the next couple of days and drink lots of water while our bodies acclimatized, so this time we decided to heed their advice.

After we settled in to our hotel, Teresa and I were delighted to discover that our first evening in Cusco was going to be the evening the entire town turned out to celebrate the beginning of the Easter season, and after the celebration, there was little doubt left in our minds just how religiously devoted the contemporary Peruvian culture is.

We wasted no time finding a little pub right off the town's main square and enjoyed a couple of cold beers while we watch the area directly under our little terrace seats fill with 10,000-20,000 people. Once darkness filled the air an amazing procession of religious groups shuffled through the crowds of devotees... it was a wonderful spectacle.


With our appetites well and truly wet, Teresa and I are looking forward to our on-going adventures in the Andes... once our bodies acclimatized of course.

Location:Cusco, Peru

Pisco Sours

For travelers on their way to Machu Picchu, Lima is often just seen as a necessary stopover on their way to Cusco. However, since Teresa and I can spend a little more time getting acclimatized to our travels we decided to spend a full day in Lima and two nights.

We found a nice mid-ranged Hotel called 3B Hostel, for a little less than $60 USD per night via Tripadvisor and it turned out pretty well. It's a nice modern hotel with only about 20 rooms and it's well run and included a basic breakfast.

Our expectations of Lima had been set pretty low, so we were pleasantly surprised by a lovely walk through the old historical district. Our walk concluded at St Martin's Square and a visit to the Grand Hotel Bolivar, which had seen better times (probably a 5 star hotel in the 60-70's) but still was the place to go for our first glass of the famed Pisco Sour... kinda like a marriage between a whiskey sour and a margarita (very tasty).


We then spend the remainder of the afternoon strolling along some beautiful gardens atop of the ocean cliffs in the Miraflores district, and enjoying a wonderful meal of Ceviche at a restaurant called La Mar.

For those of you in San Francisco apparently there is a La Mar restaurant open there, and in New York it's expected to open sometime in the next 6 months... in any case if you have the opportunity to visit the restaurant we would definitely recommend the Ceviche Sampler and the Grilled Swordfish.


I'm not really sure if you need to include Lima on your journeys through this area (we were glad we did), but you should definitely enjoy a Pisco Sour... I know I'll be having more than one more before we leave.

Location:Lima, Peru

Up, Up, and Away

So our BIG trip is officially under way, and as Teresa recently posted on Facebook we are now officially homeless for the next 3 months.

Yes, we have the ground as our bed and the stars as our roof. Well perhaps not that dramatic, we will be staying in some nice mid-tier hotels and bed & breakfasts, not to mention staying with some lovely friends along the way.

Our first day on the road, or should I say in the air, involved some 3600miles (5800km) from New York to Lima, with stops along the way at Chicago, and Houston.


The day started at 3:30am and didn't end until 10pm that night (one of the down sides of using frequent flier points), so Teresa and I were both glad to get our feet up and some well earned sleep when we arrived in Lima... but needless to say we're wonderfully happy to begin our travels.

Location:LGA Airport, New York, NY

Strip House: Whittling Down the NYC Bucket List

Working on the bucket list went on hold last week since we were working on the move and the Peru trip, but the week prior we made some progress.

One of the activities on the list was to have an excellent steak before departing. And, at the top of my list was the steakhouse, Strip House. I went there years ago when I worked for Avanade and we had an enthusiastic group called "Meatopia". We would visit the city's best steakhouses and rate them accordingly. My personal favorite is where Paul, Phil, Corrine and I returned.


The ambiance is a bit irreverent and tongue-in-cheek, made obvious by it's name (think of a 60's bordello theme). And it has a nice laid back feel. All of this is made better by the excellent company and some mighty fine wine we brought in with us (taxes for bringing alcohol into AUS are high, so we needed to drink or give away our grog before we moved).

The steaks were prepared nicely, the wine was tasty (a Caymus Cab and a Cannonball Cab), and a great time was had by all.

After dinner we capped off the evening with a couple hours of karaoke (another bucket list item).

Hey, it's a tough job but someone has to do it!

Location:New York, NY

Seventy Three Pieces

Many of you have asked us what it takes to move an apartment full of treasured belonging to Australia? Well I can now say with a high degree of confidence that if you put three strong burley guys to work for 8 hours straight (with two ever vigilant supervisors) you can basically pack the contents of an entire 750 square foot apartment in to 73 boxes, and pack carry them down 3 flights of stairs to a waiting moving van.

It's simultaneously amazing how much stuff Teresa and I seemed to have been able to stuff in to our little Brooklyn apartment, and how few boxes it ultimately took to package virtually all our life's belongings up and ship half way around the world... how many boxes do you think your life would fit in to?


The approximate price for the move seems to be coming in around the $4,000 mark, which seems like a lot but it's about a quarter of the replacement value of the stuff we're keeping... so it seems to be worth it. The shipping company (NY International Shipping) with also delivery it door-to-door to our new apartment, when we get one in Australia. Of course it's going to be a little more that 12 weeks before we'll have a new place to live, but fortunately because it takes about that long to ship everything to Australia we won't need to pay for any storage costs either... it all seems like a good deal... :-)

Location:Brooklyn, NY

Basic Itinerary

Hi everyone, here is an outline of our current Itinerary for the next few months (more details to follow): April 16 - Lima, April 18 - Cusco, April 23 - Machu Pichhu, April 28 - New York, back for our final goodbyes (this time for sure), May 4 - Paris, June 1 - Istanbul, June 12 - New Delhi, July 1 - Bangkok, July 25 - Melbourne We still need to plan a few side trips, but these are our basic dates.

An evening at the Opera

One consequence of planning for our big trip is that Teresa and I are now much more sensitive to our day-to-day spending. Our general assumption is that around $100 is equivalent to a day on the road, so it was not an easy decision to splash out on tickets to a performance of Tosca at the MET (Metropolitan Opera House at Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts).

Of course our bucket-list is there for a reason and the assumption is that this would be the last opportunity Teresa and I will have to attend an Opera in one of the most iconic buildings in Manhattan, immortalized in the Cher and Nick Cage movie Moonstruck. As it turns out our decision to buy some last minute tickets yielded some wonderful seats in a private box, on the first level up from the floor and about 10 seats back from the stage. The box seats also came with its own key locked door (with an usher with the key), private entrance foyer (just for our box), secure coat rack, and confortable and intimate set of 8 seats… 2 seats went unused, so we even had a little room to stretch out. It was an ideal setting for an evening of stories of love, lust, betrayal, and sacrifice.

Of course the performance was beautiful (it was my first exposure to Tosca), and by the end of the evening Teresa and I both agreed that we made the right decision to invest in yet another wonderful New York memory.

Another bucket-list item checked off... :-)

Vendors...argh

If you think that dealing with vendors is frustrating when you move into an apartment...think about how tough it is to pull away when you're heading out of the country...for a very long time.  Or in our case, permanently.

They don't want to let you go...

ATT:  We want to keep our cell phone service for emergencies while traveling, and they would like us to continue paying over $100/month for service.  But that's just not practical for us.  :-)  ATT maintains that we can't use the iPhone without paying for the data services that we won't use (we have an iPad).

Time Warner Cable:  Trying to cancel this service is just as challenging as getting the cable hooked up.  They can only pick up the cable box one day during a four hour window, out of the next 15 days.  Or we can go to their offices and drop the equipment with them.

Vonage home phone service:  Vonage wanted to give us a one month credit just so we would stay connected to them, even though we're moving to Australia....so if you have Vonage, you know what to do now!  :-)

I'm sure we'll have a few more stories.  When you think you're out, they want to pull you back in!