My Grand Vacation begins

Clark White

Explorer
As long as you get the GoPro videos loaded onto your iPhoto, it should automatically import the videos when you first open iMovie. There's a little popup after opening iMovie, it should look like this:

Be sure to select "Now"...better yet, just stop by an Apple Store. Surely there's dozens in the Peruvian Andes :sombrero:

Oh yes, I see them in every little town!:bike_rider:

What whooped my ******** so bad was at first I was trying to use the wrong import option. Once I finally realized that "import HD project" didn't mean import an HD movie and start a project, it was a long and steep learning curve to figure out how to get it all to where I could edit the video. Then another steep learning curve to cut and splice...I never did figure out how to insert transitions betweens the clips, all the options were greyed out. By then it was 10:30 at night and I didn't care any more. Another hour to finalize, then an hour and a half to upload to youtube...yep, the rest of my videos can wait until I get home!

Working on editing photo's from that ride right now, will try my best to get Machupicchu written up and Canon del Colca as well, that way my ride report will be completely up to date before my (in Alex's words) outrageous off road adventure begins trying to ride into Reserva National las Vicunas on Wednesday. As best as I can tell no one has ever taken an adventure bike in there, and if they have they didn't put anything up for Google to find!

Clark
 

MattScott

Approved Vendor
Spent most of the day trying to figure out how to edit a bloody video! Seriously, could they make a simple task any more complicated? imovie won't import gopro footage, the program from gopro wont let me combine multiple clips, and there is no way I'm paying for a program to do that! Once I either figure it

Clark

Sounds like an Anti-Alpaca excuse. Shame.
 

Clark White

Explorer
Ok, so I'm now sitting in Arequipa trying to pretend I don't feel like throwing up...hopefully the Pisco I just drank will kill what ever it is in my belly before it gets any worse! Anyway, last update got us to Cusco. We spent a day in Cusco to figure out what we were doing, and of course the girls wanted to shop tell they dropped...which they did!

I don't normally pay for photo's, but this girl walked up and had too good of a thing goin to ignore


Heidi found a new friend for lunch...oddly enough the guy you see in the background turned out to be the owner, no wonder he was giving us weird looks!


Saturday market




From there we parked the car (I was only too happy to not drive that thing for a while!) and arranged a tour deal for Machupicchu. We took a private Taxi to Ollantaytambo, and from there took the train to Aguas Calientes.

Less touristy part of Cusco


Stall we were next to waiting for the train in Ollantaytambo


Menu in Aguas Calientes...anyone notice anything strange on there?


Looking towards Machupicchu, which is hidden in the mist.


We awoke early to catch the bus up to Machupicchu. I wanted to hike up, but there was no way I was getting up at 430 in the morning to do so! Later I was very glad we took the buss...


First view through the entrance gate!


Ustadza grabbed my camera while we waited in line to climb Waynapicchu


The girls truckin up the stairs. It's something like 100 flights of stairs? No idea what that translates to, but it is 360m (1,180ft) above Machupicchu and that trail goes almost straight up!


Heidi taking in the sights from the base of the temple


Ustadza standing as close as she was willing to go to the same spot Heidi was sitting, beautiful view in all respects!






Now that is a road!


James not looking nearly as excited as Heidi, I think he was tired


Lots of flowers on top!


Wow, that is steep...




Ustadza brought her belly gear, so we took some more pictures of her with Machupicchu in the back ground. There are many more, but just a sampling...






Enjoying the view...


Clark
 

Clark White

Explorer
Coming back down. I was looking almost straight up to get this picture!


And of course, the post card shots




Taken in a cave of sorts in the middle of the ruins


By the time we had come back down Wynapicchu and walked around the ruins, my right knee was killing me and Ustadza's poor legs were about shot (many of the stairs were waist high on her!), so we took the bus down while James and Heidi hiked down. Train back to Ollantaytambo and late buss to Cusco didn't get us back to the hostel until 1130 at night, so we all crashed hard. The next morning we had a leisurely breakfast and some more shopping for the girls. We all picked up llama tasteless (mine are now on Porky's handlebars and I have since been told they are worn in traditional dress, not by llamas).

James and Heidi had had enough of each other...


That's not entirely true, they were trying to show off their new tasteless, but it looks like they are trying to avoid talking. We then loaded up the rental and beet some serious feet straight back to Lima. No pictures as everyone was tired and we were anxious to just get back to Lima, get rid of the rental, put our feet up, and do NOTHING. We succeeded and made it by early afternoon the next day, giving us two days to just hang out and not go anywhere. It was fantastic! Sadly, Saturday came entirely too fast and everyone had to leave. Ustadza and I said our tearful goodbyes and I hung out in Lima for a few more days. Some St. Patty's day drinking with some new friends that I had met when Heidi first arrived, and then I had work to do on the bike, this ride report, and just plain resting.

One of the guy's I had met in Bogota, Colombia was coming down to Ica and needed a new riding partner. His had had the misfortune to have appendicitis and Meckel, and after two surgeries in tiny towns in Peru, he had to take an emergency flight back to the US due to complications. We agreed to meet in Huancachina, which is a beautiful desert oasis surrounded by sand dunes towering many hundreds of feet into the skyline.








We staid a full day there so that Alex could do some sand boarding and I could get the last three updates on here finished and posted. We then rode down the coast for Arequipa, making it as far as Majes. The next morning we decided to ride the loop for Canon del Colca (second deepest canyon in the world) thinking this would put us into Arequipa early afternoon the next day. What we didn't know was that the half day trip the tourists take is a wait and return from Arequipa, NOT the loop we were taking. Thinking we would lunch in Arequipa we set out. In the back of our minds we knew there was a serious lack of traffic for a popular tourist route, but happy to not be run over by busses we thought nothing of it...eleven hours later we finally pulled into Arequipa, beat, sore, dusty, sore, and beat. Sporting 30mph battle scars on Porky (Porky 0, road 1) and meager attempts at smiles through our shivers and exhaustion we were pretty damn happy to see hostel Flying Dog! I will tell much more in a front page article that I shall write, probably while sitting in my lounge chair (sitting backwards on Porky using the tank as a recliner) staring at the rarely visited Reserva Nacional las Vicunas, in Chile. We shall see!

Departing tomorrow for Arica, Chile and Wednesday will be our grand attempt at las Vicunas, which as best as I can tell no one has ever tried to ride into on fully loaded adventure bikes. Should be quite the grand adventure!

Clark

P.S. If anyone is interested in any of my photos, I would love to sell some to help pay for gas (it is much more expensive down here then I would have thought!). I don't really have a price system worked out, but if you e-mail me (midknightc3 at gmail dot com) and let me know what pictures and what size, I'm sure we can easily work something out!
 

Clark White

Explorer
Totally forgot I have some pictures of Arequipa. My Dad has a work associate who lives here, so even though he is away on a project his wife was kind enough to show me around town yesterday afternoon. We had lunch, which for me was alpaca and some white stuff in place of rice (no idea what it's called, but it was amazing!) I will post the name when I find it. We then toured the city, seeing much more then I would have known to see on my own.

Alex headed out to find a new tire (no success...)


Bridge built by the same French company that built the Eiffel Tower. I failed to get a good shot of it, but it was an odd construction, quite interesting to study!










The church Karla and her husband Jonathan were married in








Karla and I




Parque Grau, closed and not maintained anymore. Karla wasn't sure why it was closed, and it is a shame as it looks like a wonderful park!
 
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Clark White

Explorer
The side to my alpaca was quinoa, cooked up with milk and cheese. No idea if I can get it in the states, but it is simply amazing done the way I had it!

Clark
 

1leglance

2007 Expedition Trophy Champion, Overland Certifie
Dang I wish I had known you were going to spend some time in Arequipa as that is where my wife is from and we have plenty of family there. Her family has a big farm and does wine & pisco (they have won awards for that) along with honey (very dark and yummy) and cuy (guinea pigs).
The cuy is great fried and on your plate like road kill. For good luck you find the ear bone and drop it in your beer (kind of like our wishbone thing).
Quinoa is aval at health food places here in the US and any latin american market....very healthy stuff.

On the food front my kids love pollo a la braza (roasted chicken & french fries) from El Pollo Royal.

When you get back to Prescott we will have you down to Phoenix and my wife can cook up some great Peruvian food to bring back the memories.
 

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