Star Valley Wyoming Visit / Red Cross Training

A week ago we caravaned up to Star Valley after work to enjoy a weekend with the Mortensens at their new cabin in Star Valley Ranch. It was basically to be a reunion of Alicia and Jared with their closest friends, Amy and Robert Mortensen, from high school. Gayle and I are also close friends with Brent and Margaret. Unfortunately, Robert got sick and could not come.

Shot actually taken at the golf course after the men played 9 holes

Upstairs the Mortensens have a blow-up bouncy play room. Avril and I are getting shaken around as others bounce.

We aren't very good, but we had fun!

The food was great. We also played games and the kids did some crafts. I suppose I should admit that the men watched college football (and were disappointed in the outcomes). Jesse and Jared left Saturday night for work and other reasons. Also, on Saturday afternoon Gayle and I were able to visit Alan and Betty Goodman, who had been our next door neighbors on Turmeric Court in Saugus, CA. They relocated to Star Valley in 2000 after Alan retired from the LA philharmonic. Betty runs a fitness center in Thane, WY. It was fun catching up with them. Sunday we caught church at the local ward, then headed home after lunch.

The cabin has some great views from the balconeys.

Avril hardly got any attention at all!

Tuesday, 9/22, Gayle and I attended a Red Cross shelter training session (it involved a free dinner at The Coppermill, so how could we pass it up). Coincidentally, Josh Rich also attended from his ward. I was Josh's family's home teacher and bishop when we lived in Saugus, CA and he was still in the Young Men's program. All these years later he works for a pharmaceutical company and lives in our stake in Logan, UT.

Josh and I at The Coppermill.

Going Home

Gayle waiting for the shuttle in front of the Palace Station Casino and Hotel, where we stayed pre and post Peru.

Jared picked us up from the SLC airport and we had a nice Chinese lunch on the way home to Logan.

Slide Show from Peru Trip

Here are some more scenes from Peru, in the form of a slide show. (There is a soundtrack, so turn on your speakers.)

Various Shots from Peru

As we left the Cusco airport photographers snapped shots and later I succumbed and purchased this post card.

A collage card with me leaving the airport for the hotel in Cusco.

We're not so much into shopping, but Lima did have a good indian market and we got a few items.

Gayle, selecting a bag.

Posing in the motokar at the zoo in Iquitos

Outside the monastery with the catacombs in Lima

The girls at the airport

Sacred Valley in the Andes

Above Sacred Valley

Some of the aftermath of a bug attack at Machu Picchu

At Machu Picchu

A famous backdrop

Gayle at Machu Picchu, with some Andes in the background

Shots from above Cusco at various Inca ruins. It was springtime and still cold at night.

Shots in and near Cusco.

Inca Trail and Machu Picchu (Old Peak) Experience

We did so much that I'll just have to share an anecdote or two to capture some of the essence. The "Inca Trail" runs above the ruins at Machu Picchu. There is a limit on how many can climb the Huayna Picchu peak which is the famous pointy one right near MP. The Machu Picchu, or old peak, is the one above Gayle and me in the photo below and it has a flag on top. Rather than wait to see if I could get in a group to go up Huayna Picchu, I decided to go up to the Inca Trail. I assumed it also went to the Flag on MP. I took the trail to Intipunku, or I think Sun Gate, which is along the Inca Trail. I zipped right up in just over 20 minutes. Once there I found out that it did not continue up the ridge to MP and that I had to descend to the bottom of the trail and start over on a different fork, which I did (I ran down for exercise and to save time). Once I started up the steeper MP trail, I passed a pair of hikers coming down who said to plan on 2 hours, or an hour and a half if I walked fast. I was worried about time because we couldn't miss the bus to the train. So I hoofed it to the top, and this was after going up and down Intipunku first, in about 50 minutes. I guess running regularly in Logan helped with the altitude.

The Incas (and I suppose pre-Incas too) seemed to terrace everywhere for gardens and growing crops. They used elaborate irrigation systems too. The peak above us to the right is MP or the Old Peak and has a flag, and as I found out a gazebo, at the top.

A zoomed in shot of the peak.

While first going up to Intipunku I turned around and this is one of several shots I took of the road up to the ruins at MP. It's no wonder that no non-indigenous people found this place until 1911. It was overgrown then as you can imagine.

Intipunku, I think also called Sun Gate.

Looking down to the Urubamba River from Sun Gate. The Urubamba is a tributary of the Amazon River.

En route to Old Peak.

Some of the stairs near the top of the MP climb.

Top of Old Peak or MP in sight.

A shady spot to sit and feel the breeze.

A peek at the Urubamba over the back side of the mountain.

Looking down at the ruins and the other, more famous, Huayna Picchu peak. The haze is actually smoke. I saw three separate fires (actually, sources of smoke, I couldn't see the flames) from the top.

Again, the Urubamba as it winds around the steep mountains. The Andes rise above all this to much higher altitudes. The ruins sit at about 8,000 ft., which is not very high in comparison. You can see snow from MP at the higher elevations.

MP ruins zoomed in from above.

If you click on this you can see terracing even at the top of Huayna Picchu. On our flights over the Andes we could see terracing and evidence of the Incas on remote ranges.

To prove I had climbed to the top, I attempted to take self photos by hand. At least I managed to get part of the gazebo in the background on this one.

And here's the flag up close. You can see some smoke from one of the fires rising over the ridge at the left.

Fotos del Perú

We went with a group of former Northern Mexico LDS missionaries, spouses, friends, and family members, guided by my former mission president Marlin Walker (and former Temple President in Lima), to Peru for an awesome tour of ruins and sights. We flew from Vegas to Miami to Lima. Our base in Lima was the Golf Los Incas Hotel in the Miraflores part of Lima (obviously near a golf course). It is built on the side of a stone mountain.

Gayle and I at dawn in front of the hotel.

Our first room at the hotel (we came back here at the end of our trip) was on the 8th floor. Here's a shot from the balcony of that room. Lima is mostly overcast this time of year (spring in the southern hemisphere) and it almost never rains there. It is a desert. Of course they get water from rivers (from the Andes).

Here's a collage of some of our hotel settings. Click on it to enlarge, and remember to scroll right. Upper left is from the inside of our hotel at Iquitos (a city in the Amazon); upper right is of me swimming in that pool; bottom left is looking up the mountainside from the hotel Golf Los Incas in Lima (the mountains have very little vegetation, they're mostly rock in Lima); bottom right is looking down that same mountainside at the landscaping next to the hotel.

We were able to attend church in Urubamba (in the sacred valley). It was a moving experience. Several of the children are orphans and their caregiver is a lady in the branch there.

Upper left - Spencer (yes, that's both his name and his father's name). Note his CTR (Choose the Right) tie. He was one of those who bore their testimonies that Fast Sunday. Upper right - several of the orphan girls. Gayle and I sat on the same little bench with them during the service. Bottom left - two sisters and their grandmother, who speaks mainly just Quechua. Bottom right - Gayle and the young girl who sat between us at church. The girl was fascinated by my hairy arms and kept pulling at the hairs.

While in Iquitos we went out on the rivers (there are tributaries to the Amazon, and the Amazon itself, near Iquitos). We took this shot for our son, Adrian. "Don," by the way, is a Spanish title used before male Christian names (Don Diego, Don Juan, etc.).

Here's a collage of our trip near Iquitos to visit the Bora Indians.



There's an upscale mall near the hotel in Lima next to a racetrack. Hence its name, the Jockey Mall. We had some Peruvian food and then an Italian gelatto there. The two bottom corner shots are of us eating breakfast at the hotel. I have just cut open a "tuna." Tuna in Spanish is the word for prickly pear and has nothing to do with atún (tuna fish).

Our first full day in Lima started with a temple session. We loved it. Gayle even did it in Spanish. The upper shots show me talking with some of the elders and with Presidente Walker.

The colors in Perú are amazing.

The upper shots were taken near the sacred valley up in the Andes, at the Pisac indian market. The lower shots were of a market in Iquitos (jungle) near the Amazon River. The two regions are very distinct (jungle vs. high mountains). The eggs on display are turtle eggs.

Classic Peruvian dress. Several of the shots we're showing were taken by others in our group.

Top row: Lizard at Machu Picchu, llamas (I think) at MP, "prehistoric turtle in the "Amazona."
Middle row: Owl, pink dolphin, and jaguar in Amazona.
Bottom: Napoleon (our great host/guide) and parrot, monkey, sloth - in Amazona.

Some of the flora at various places --
Left column - top: at temple in Lima; bottom: near Iquitos (young pineapple)
Middle column - Machu Picchu (bottom is Peru's national flower)
Right - in or near Cusco