Amy and I went to West Virginia for a little sight seeing. We stopped first at a place called Colossi. A family decided to collect giant fiberglass figures and show them in their yard. We went there, pulled in the driveway, and made ourselves at home and walked around their yard. Pulling in we are greeted by these four folks:
and you park next to this guy laying on the ground. 
They have a mini-rollercoaster with the Simpsons
and a Santa Claus. 
I’m not sure what this guy is doing, but here’s a lumberjack
There are various other treasures lying around as well. And to top it off, to the side there were some llamas.
We next went to a tiny house. I’m not sure what it’s for, but it was fully furnished inside, although we couldn’t go in.
We then went to Harper’s Ferry, a more traditional tourist locale and saw the spot where Thomas Jefferson said it would be worth the trip across the Atlantic to see. I don’t think it was that good, but it is still a nice place to visit.
Tuesday, September 08, 2009
Wild, Wonderful, Weird, West Virginia
Wednesday, August 12, 2009
A Crazy White Man
Amy, her friend Patricia and I went to Natural Bridge Virginia to see some sights in the area. First we went to the Pink Cadillac Café. It came complete with a Pink Cadillac outside,
a King Kong holding an airplane
and Humpty Dumpty.
The inside was just as classy.
We then drove down to Foamhenge. Foamhenge is just like Stonehenge, except it’s made out of Styrofoam, took a lot less time to complete and only required the labor of “4-5 Mexicans and one crazy white man” to get done. Advantage: Foamhenge. 
Unlike Stonehenge you could walk around the area. Advantage: Foamhenge.
The Crazy White Man also posited the theory that Merlin anachronistically created Stonehenge using magic and included a fiberglass replica of him. Yet again, Advantage: Foamhenge.
We then went to the Crazy White Man’s other creation: Dinoland.
Don’t let the name fool you, there’s much more than fiberglass dinosaurs in the area.
There’s a story told about some family who found the dinosaurs with their pet monkey Blinky, but so had the North during the Civil War and were going to use the animals as weapons of mass destruction against the south. 
Also included (of course) is a cow with a deer on his back with a rabbit on his head with a mouse on his head, surrounded by dinosaurs. 
We then went to the actual Natural Bridge. Thomas Jefferson bought it as a tourist place and George Washington surveyed it.
It's a little bit of a drive from DC (about 3 hours) but definitely worth it for a day trip.
Monday, January 05, 2009
Day 8: Sabado – Lima
I was up at 5:45 to catch my flight. When I got to Lima I took a cab to the hotel where Jenny, Tom and Destiny were. The cab driver told me he had an American name and showed me his taxi license and it read “Jhony.” I didn’t have the heart to tell him his name wasn’t exactly American as written.
After I got to the hotel we walked to a few little markets. As we were walking to a restaurant we wanted to go to we walked by Huaca Pucllana which are pre-Incan adobe pyramidal-type ruins. They are just hanging out in the middle of the city. It was built between 200 and 700 AD by the people called the Lima and was used for religious purposes by this peaceful people.
We had a good lunch where they gave us purple corn juice for free since it was our last day in Peru. Tom, Jenny and I went to the catacombs in the San Francisco cathedral, which were amazing, but we couldn’t take pictures. A bunch of the bones were nicely arranged in patterns. The catacombs were below this church and used until 1821 and somewhere between 25,000 to 70,000 people were buried here. 
We passed by this colorful neighborhood on the way. 
We then walked around some plazas next to the catacombs. 
On the way to the catacombs we saw this guy on his bike.
We walked down a street to catch a taxi with shops on either side. I don’t remember this happening, but Tom caught it on camera. 
We ate dinner at Pardo’s Chicken by our hotel that had some amazing chicken. We then stocked up on goodies before heading back and going to bed. The Marriott was right on the Pacific Ocean and we had a great view.
Domingo – Home
We were up around three in the morning and headed to the airport, flew through Bogota and then back to DC. We were only in Bogota for a short time, but we had to go through security after getting off the plane to head to the terminal for our connecting flight. Then we had to go through security again right after the first checkpoint. We had to go through yet a third time before we got on the plane. But my favorite part of the airport was the bathroom. The individual stalls did not have toilet paper, there was just a big dispenser on the outside.
At Dulles the shuttle we got on after we landed was blocked in by a plane so we were stuck on the shuttle for a while. I then got held up at customs. Then it took a while to get to our car since we didn’t know exactly where it was. Then none of the toll booths worked and it took forever before we could get out. Finally we made it home and crashed. It was by far the most work I had ever done on a vacation, but it was worth every last bit.
Here is Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6 Part 1, Part 2, Day 7, Day 8
Day 7: Viernes – Cusco
Tom, Jenny and Destiny flew back to Lima on Friday. I bought my plane tickets after they did and the Friday Cusco-Lima tickets were sold out so I had the day alone. I woke up at 5:30 with everyone else and then couldn’t fall back to sleep so I got out of bed and headed for the Plaza de Armas. I went into the cathedral and saw the famous last supper painted with a guinea pig as the meal which was done to appeal to the Incas. The inside of the church was beautiful but no picture taking allowed.
I then went to Koricancha, a church built atop an Incan temple. Cusco was viewed as the navel of the world and Koricancha was the religious center. I wasn’t too impressed. When the Spanish first came the temple was full of gold but it is long since gone. There were some paintings from the 15th and 16th century that were nice, but nothing spectacular. 
I went back to the Plaza de Armas and got a taxi to go to Tipon. On the drive we passed a few people who had filled the gutter with carrots to wash them, which made me question the quality of the food I had been eating, despite the rich flavor. 
Tipon is a short drive from Cusco by a little town and has an irrigation system that the Incas rigged. The fountains are supposed to have ceremonial purposes or it was a royal garden (I’ve read both). There was a sign in the front that said the water was not to be used to wash cars. I guess enough people were using this 500 year old irrigation system to clean their cars that it became necessary to post it.
Driving away from Tipon there was a sign for a zoo and so we stopped by. It was private and the guy let me in for 3 soles (a buck) and the taxi driver in for free. It was small, but it had anteaters, monkeys, a condor, a puma and some other random animals. It was worth the dollar.
Here’s the bridge we crossed to get to it. It is typical of smaller bridges that I saw. 
After the zoo we went to Pikillaqta, or City of the Fleas in Quechua. These are ruins from the Wari (roughly 700-1000, I’ve seen various dates for them, none of which completely agree) who predated the Incas. The Wari conquered many of the surrounding people and oppressed all cultures of those they conquered. There is support that the Incan culture borrowed from the Wari. Their ruins were similar to the Incas – lots and lots of rocks stacked on each other.
I contemplated going to Andahuaylillas, at town further out that has a beautiful church, some call it the Sistine Chapel of the Americas. But I felt like the cathedral on the Plaza de Armas was good enough for the day and it wouldn’t be worth it to pay the cab fare to walk around a church for half an hour. Instead I had the cab driver take me to the Tambomachay ruins outside of Cusco. Tambo means lodging with the necessary accommodations and machay means place of rest. Tradition calls the location the “Bath of the Ñusta” due to two aqueducts that have clean water all year coming from wells. The bathrooms there were marked with dolls by the doors. I went in and as I was standing at the urinal two girls walked in looking for someone. They left the door open on the way out so I could enjoy the scenery as I was standing there. 
I then walked to Pukapukara – Red Fortress, which you can see from Tambomachay. Tradition says that after visiting the baths of Tambomachay Incans would go to Pukapukara for lodging. 
I think I would have enjoyed Tambomachay and Pukapukara much more had I not gone to Machu Picchu the day before. Everything seemed less impressive and not as important. But they were still worth the quick visit. I then walked the five or so miles back to Cusco.
Back in the city I went to the museum of ancient history. I was not impressed and could have skipped it and not missed anything. It was small and didn’t have much in it besides some pictures similar to those in Koricancha.
Walking from our hotel to the Plaza de Armas we passed buildings which still have walls build by the Incans. This stone is famous for having so many sides, yet fitting in perfectly. 
For dinner I ate alpaca. It was cooked in a lomo saltado fashion and served with rice and was excellent. I planned on having alpaca on Thanksgiving, but the restaurant where we ate on Thursday didn’t serve it, so I delayed my Peruvian Thanksgiving meal for a day. The restaurant where I ate was on the Plaza de Armas and so afterwards I went and sat on the stairs in front of the cathedral to try and write about the trip. But vendors kept coming up to me trying to sell me things. People are everywhere trying to sell artwork, and this kid Pablo Picasso Jr. came by. It was the third or fourth time he had tried to sell me paintings since I had arrived. Some girl came by and told me all the American presidents from the current Bush back to Hoover. I was impressed, but not enough to buy anything. Other people came by and I gave up. I went back to the hotel to pack and headed back to the plaza because I was bored. I saw an internet café and went in, it was the first time I was online in more than a week. The internet was slow and I gave up after less than half an hour. As I was walking back to the hotel some girl stopped my and offered me a massage; these people are everywhere in Cuzco. It was around 10:30 and I said it was a little late. She said she would give me “algo mas private” (something more privado). I just started laughed at her and kept walking.
Here is Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6 Part 1, Part 2, Day 7, Day 8
Saturday, January 03, 2009
Day 6 Part 2: Jueves – Machu Picchu
Eventually we made our way down Huanya Picchu and the mist had all vanished. 
Jenny and Destiny went to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes, while Tom and I stayed to walk around some more. After walking to the top of the ruins we decided to go up to the Sun Gate which is on the path that is barely visible here to the dip in the mountain. 
It’s another long distance view of Machu Picchu on the opposite side of Huayna Picchu. It took us about half an hour to get to the gate. It was on the trail the Incans used to get Machu Picchu. Along the way there were some structures and at the top there was a building of sorts that made the Sun Gate.
We then walked back and split up to enjoy the site on our own. These are Tom’s pictures.
These are mine.
Despite the thousands of people that visit Machu Picchu everyday for the last little bit I was mostly by myself. I wondered around some buildings that led to other areas that sometimes would dead end. In one building I entered there were two Andean rabbits in the rocks. 
We headed back to Aguas Calientes to eat and catch our train. We went to a restaurant called Indio Feliz or Happy Indian. This was our Thanksgiving meal and I had been wanting to eat alpaca for Thanksgiving all week. But they didn’t have any so I had mango chicken instead. It was delicious like all the rest of the food.
Along the way to the train station we ran into a bunch of kids who wanted their picture taken with us. We were a bit confused since there are thousands of tourists that go through the town everyday, but whatever.
We then made it to our train to Ollantaytambo and took a taxi the rest of the way back to Cusco. The trek was amazing and Machu Picchu was everything we had hoped it would be and more, with Huayna Picchu being our favorite part of the day.
After we arrived in Cusco we were surprised to learn that we were supposed to tip those who accompanied us. We gave each of the horseman $10, the cook $15 and Willy $20 which meant we were out $55 extra, so if you ever go budget this in with the cost of the excursion. Even with this it was still more than worth it.
Here is Day 1, Day 2, Day 3, Day 4, Day 5, Day 6 Part 1, Part 2, Day 7, Day 8