Orange Beach by Water 10/24/2012

We've been to the Gulf Shores area many times, but we've never had the opportunity to go sightseeing by water.  Our friends Dick and Barbara invited us to take a boat ride on the inland waters and to have lunch at a local watering hole, Pirates Cove.  We had a great tour and saw a different perspective of the Orange Beach area;  and the cheeseburger was great at Pirates Cove.  Many thanks to our friends and tour guides. It was a high point of our trip.

Pflueger Family Reunion/Early Thanksgiving

When we found out that Mary Ann had managed to get a few days off work and was coming to the beach for a long weekend, we decided it would be a great time to get the family together...and since we were scheduled to be there until a week before Thanksgiving, why not just have our celebration there?

So, fortunately, Bill and Alisa were able to clear their calendars and joined us for a few days of fun.  We don't get to see them often enough.

We enjoyed a Sunday brunch at The Tin Top and everyone enjoyed crab omelettes, eggs benedict, etc.   Happy Thanksgiving to Us!   We enjoyed hikes through the Bon Secour Refuge with Bill and Alisa, and Lucy and Sable enjoyed frolicking on the beach. 

Beach Trip

Jan and I drove down to the beaches at Fort Morgan, Alabama earlier this week, along with two of our favorite traveling companions, my mother and  Lucy (our dog). 


Mom on the beach!

It has been an eventful, in a bad way, year for Mom.  Diagnosed in January with non-Hodgkins lymphoma she has undergone several rounds of chemo and radiation treatments.  Thankfully, the treatments have been successful and, although weak, she felt good enough to start what we hope will be a month's visit here. 

On Sunday we met up with friends from Florence that were staying in Orange Beach, at First Presbyterian Church in Foley.  Van Edington, the former pastor at Sheffield is serving as interim minister.  It was great to see Van and Carol, his wife.

Later that afternoon, while walking Lucy, Jan and I discovered this old ship that had washed ashore earlier this year after a hurricane.  It's a little over a mile from our house on Fort Morgan beach.   We came home and googled it and found lots of controversy over what era the ship was from.  It was over 100 feet long.  The wooden hull was pretty much intact. 

Air Trekking!

I think everyone is ready to get home!   Its been a long, tough adventure. Our flight from Cusco was at 9:50 a.m., through Lima, Miami, and on to Nashville.  We’re scheduled to land in Nashville tonight at 10:20 p.m. and, God willing, will make our way back to our homes, families, and “hounds”.    One of the ladies on the trip asked me as we were approaching the peak last Thursday if I would ever travel with these guys again.  My response at the time, as I was gasping for breath, and trying to follow Antonio’s instructions of “just like Jack the Ripper….one  piece at a time” was not NO, but HELL NO!    She asked me the same question again on the last day at lunch and I smiled and said “only if they ask me to”!

Addendum:   Our LAN flight from Lima to Miami didn't land on time, then with immigration having minimal workers, having to pick up our luggage at baggage claim, only to recheck it.....well we missed being able to check our luggage in for our next flight by 15 minutes!   Believe me, there was a lot of pleading at the American Airlines counter (a wife having a birthday, a mother recovering from surgery, another mother very sick, and a hound dog "home alone"), but we're now settled into the Element Hotel in Miami, Florida for the night.   Plans are to be back at the airport around 5:30 for a 7:30 a.m. flight to Washington DC.....then hopefully on to Nashville!  But at least we're back in the USA!

Machu Picchu!!!!

This is the big day!  We leave our hotel at 7:15 a.m. , walk to the bus and arrive at Machu Picchu.   It is bigger and better than we’d ever imagined!  Thankfully we’d been reading guide books and learning about the controversial discovery and history of this magnificent Incan site, because the substitute guide was less than adequate and we would have missed a lot.  Its not the city itself, but the location that makes it so special.  It’s a plateau nestled in the middle of mountains surrounding it on all sides  Its no wonder the Spanish never found and destroyed it.    







The Alabama gang had purchased tickets to climb Huana Picchu, the large cone shaped mountain that you see in the background of this photo.  
What a spectacular view looking down on Machu Picchu from there.  It was a tough climb, but well worth it.  Three of us decided to stop when we reached the first large landing, which was about 10 minutes from the top.  But one of our group was feeling spry, after having his immigration situation resolved, and climbed to the very top!   

We stayed until around 1 p.m. and caught the bus back to town to have our final lunch together as a group.  After lunch at the hotel’s restaurant, we took an 1-1/2 hour train, then a 2 hour van trip back to our hotel in Cusco, where the desk clerk at the hotel ordered pizza and beer for us for dinner. 

Another Exciting Day!

Yesterday (Day 5) ended with the group enjoying a cold beer on the patio when we arrived to the lodge. Everyone is generally healthy, except for a couple of foot (blister) issues. None of us have had stomach issues primarily due to the fact that we have gone through several small bottles of hand sanitizer and we have avoided fresh vegetables. Antonio arranged for a tour of a local coffee plantation but after settling into our room, and hearing rain on the lodge’s tin roof, we opted to rest instead of taking the tour. Everyone seemed to enjoy seeing the coffee beans being roasted.

At dinner that night, the discussion centered around a dead horse that we hiked past on the trail. This was actually the 2nd dead horse on the trail in 6 days. Our guide, Antonio, said that most likely the unstable soil after all the rains had caused the horse to fall to his death. Another exciting event during dinner, was the spotting of a bat inside the lodge. It was seen behind a picture on the dining room’s wall that just happened to have a clear glass mat. It caused quite a bit of excitement as the trekkers scrambled for their cameras.

Day 6 began with lots of excitement that we would finally see our first glimpse of Machu Picchu, from a distance. It had rained the night before, so we were excited to see blue skies as we began our day. Part of our trek today was on the Inca Trail (not the Royal Inca Trail). This is the kind of trail that we had expected more of (fairly smooth trail, rather than stream beds with lots of unstable rocks, mud, and poop).  We even got to cross a swinging bridge.  Everyone had their own technique for this crossing, some approached it with fear and either walked cautiously or "ran like a girl" all the way across.  Others skipped along or felt safety in numbers and crossed together (although we'd been told to go no more than 3 at a time). 

We hiked upwards for approximately 2000 feet in the first few hours to Llactapata, which gave us a view of Machu Picchu across the gorge (maybe 3 or 4 miles as the crow flies). There, we enjoyed a wonderful lunch of trout, salad, and fruit under a covered pavilion. This park like setting came also equipped with an outhouse complete with a flushing toilet!!!! I haven’t elaborated much on this subject, but let’s just say this was really special to me!

After lunch we descended around 3000 feet over a couple of hours to a stream which led to the Urubamba River. 

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There we boarded train for the 30 minute ride to Aguas Caliente.  We checked into the Inka Terra Lodge, which was situated near the train station but in a beautiful tropical setting. It seemed very out of place in an otherwise depressed town.

The only vehicles we saw here were buses that would take you to Machu Picchu. The only way to get to this town is by train or by foot. If Machu Picchu hadn’t been discovered, this town likely wouldn’t exist.

We learned that our assistant guide, Whilder, was leaving us here due to feeling sick over the past couple of days, and that we would have a substitute guide at Machu Picchu tomorrow. Our group had a great dinner at the Inka Terra this evening and called it a night.

One more thing that I can now publish (that is, after we get back home safely), is that one of our Alabama foursome misplaced his immigration card that he had been given at the airport upon arrival. It was believed to have been left in Cuzco, but all during this trek, this issue had to be resolved, or he wouldn’t be leaving Peru with us in two days! We managed to contact our hotel in Cusco to have them open up a suitcase we’d stored with them. Since the luggage was ours (and not his), the hotel did not want to open it up. Instead, they said that they’d made a copy of the immigration card upon check in and that they could fax it to Mountain Lodges Peru. However, a photocopy would not be good enough to get him out of the country. It would have to be taken to a local bank when we reached Aquas Caliente to be notarized. But since we arrived there on Sunday and the bank was closed, it would be Monday (the day before we were scheduled to depart) before it could be resolved. So, what do you do? See one of the seven wonders of the world, the purpose of this trip, or stay in town and get your paperwork in order so that you can leave the country the next day? So, at dinner on Sunday night, we asked the guide if they could call Hotel Torre Dorado (back in Cusco) again after dinner and personally ask them to check inside the luggage. The hotel clerk informed our guide that the original immigration card had been found in the safe in their room! Crisis averted! On to Machu Picchu!

Day 5 of trekking!

We left the lodge at 8 a.m. this morning and walked past a farm with a huge pen of chickens. Our guide pointed out that the baby chickens had bright plastic strips attached to their feathers! It looked as if they were wearing dresses. He explained that the baby chickens often fell prey to falcons, but if the falcon saw the bright color, it wouldn’t come near the chickens! Pretty ingenious! 

Although this is the end of the rainy season, there have been several heavy rains that have caused severe damage to the trails. The trail that we were supposed to be on today was closed and we instead walked on the other side of the river on a dirt road on the edge of a sharp cliff.  Still there were several landslides and washouts on this path as well. 

We learned that most of the income in this area comes from tourism, so the trail that was closed has affected quite a number of people in the area that depend on trekkers passing their homes and businesses. 

After hiking for several hours, we met up with the bus that was to take us closer to our lodge. While driving along, the bus had to stop more than once to let all the passengers get off so that the driver and guides could clear huge rocks from the road. They had us walk past one section of washed out road and the driver managed to get the bus to a much safer place on the road before we reboarded. It was a pretty hairy day but we managed to make it to the last lodge safely. Tomorrow will be our last trek, and hopefully we’ll finally get a glimpse of Machu Picchu off in the distance.