Cusco Day 2

Sunday April 2nd we decided we needed to find the chapel and attend at least one session of general conference. We were kind of bummed it was conference weekend because we were looking forward to going to actual church. It worked out well though.

We set out early to make sure we knew where the chapel was.

 Then we walked around the area where the chapel was because we had some time to kill. This would be the theme for the day, walk, and then walk some more and some more. The weather was beautiful and it was fun to see a new part of town.

We made it back to the chapel in time for conference. the missionaries from America were grateful we attended because it meant they got to watch it in English. We all sat together in the kitchen. it was a fun and different way to watch conference.

 After conference we needed food. Amber had researched places to eat and so we headed to Joe's Cafe. This was a little tourist restaurant that served food we were more used too. I took a selfie because it was the only time I saw a line for a restaurant and of course it was all tourists.

 I tried the nachos and they were good. We both enjoyed the food.

 We spent the rest of the day walking. We walked all over the city. We walked to places that most tourists bus too. We had a goal of seeing the Christo Blanco that was way up on the hill so we made our way in that direction.

We took our time to enjoy the city. In the upper part of Cusco all the streets are small. They are also made out of cobblestone. you can't go fast. It is definitely different than anywhere I have been before. Our guide later explained that because of how small the streets are they don't have a problem with robberies because there is no way to get away.

 There was another beautiful square that had a number of old churches in it.

 They were really beautiful old buildings.

 Walking along the streets of Cusco.

Finally we found some stairs that led up. Again this picture does not do it justice but these stairs go on for days. We took them because we knew we needed to go up!

It was like doing the stair climber at the gym at 12,000 ft elevation. We slowly but surely made our way to the top. Don't tell anyone but occasionally we had to stop to rest.

 So many stairs.

 A different view of the city. So many houses. The population in Cusco is jest under 500,00.

 We had an amazing sky at the Christ Blanco because a thunder storm was rolling in.

 And I remembered my new phone has portrait mode!

  The Cristo Blanco.

 Someone else dressed up in native clothing and charging for pictures. I snuck one of her and her llama.

The back side of the Christo Blanco.

 This field of wild flowers and the grey sky were amazing!

It was an amazing evening.

There were some ruins up here as well. Saqsaywaman pronounced sexywomen. They were more than what we wanted to pay so we just enjoyed them from the inca trail.

Amber walking down the section of the Inca Trail. It was fun to have a different way to go back down to the city.

 The living conditions were so different from America. It is always interesting to see how people live in different places. So many houses, so close together, with no one keeping them up. The higher up on the mountain we got the sketchier the living conditions.

 Churros round two. They were so delicious.

 A little more shopping.

We had to be back to our hotel at 7 for a meeting with the tour company. It was fun to finally get to meet the people we would hike with and our tour guide. We had a short meeting and then we spent the evening organizing all our gear for the hike. We went to bed early since we had to get up at 5am. As fate would have it we were both to anxious to sleep. We both started day three way too early.

Cusco Day 1

Saturday April 1st we arrived in Cusco. Our flight got in at 5am so we were beat. The hotel we stayed at picked us up from the airport. Luckily they had a vacant room so we were able to check in early and get some sleep. We so needed sleep.

Our hotel was really cute. It also had hot running water 24 hours a day, which not all hotels in Peru have.

 After we slept for a few hours we got up and headed out to check out the city. Cusco is almost 12,000ft elevation so we wanted to walk as much as possible to prepare for our trek.

We started by going to the market. It was crowded and smelly but it was fun to look at all the stuff they try to sell tourists. We were also hungry so we got some fresh juice.All the amazing fruit reminded me of Taiwan (oh and the smell).

 I got a mango carrot juice. It was really great.

 It felt good to finally be in Peru.

 We spent the afternoon getting familiar with our area of town and stopping to look at the different markets. It was hard to be in the markets because we were constantly bombarded by people trying to sell things. It is the way of life there but very different from my approach to shopping. There is no such thing as just looking around.

The colors on display were absolutely amazing. I quickly fell in love with all the beautiful material. While walking around we also discovered Churros. This was a very important find!

Churro's were my favorite Peruvian food.

After lunch we decided to walk up. We could see a church way up on the hill and so we decided to try and find it. Cusco is built on a hill. There are tons of steps everywhere and so it was a really good workout. It was definitely worth the view.

 It rained a little bit each day. Peru has two seasons the rainy season and the dry season. April is the tail end of the rainy season and so we wore our rain jackets everywhere. The view of the city was amazing.

 This cute little girl and her Llama were dressed up. You can pay them to take their picture. I paid because the poor girl was getting drenched in the rain and she was pretty cute.

I tried to catch a picture of the steep steps we walked up. This picture does not do it justice so you will have to trust me. There were lots of steep steps.

After our little excursion we found a place for dinner and then headed back to the hotel. We were exhausted. It ended up being a great first day.

Spring Break

I took Friday off so I could extend my spring break a day. I headed to Peru with Amber and we wanted to maximize our time. We decided to fly out of Las Vegas because it was so much cheaper. So Thursday after track we loaded up Amber's car and headed to Vegas. The weather was crazy but we were excited to be starting our adventure.

It was a hard trip to pack for. We needed all our backpacking stuff but we also wanted stuff to wear when we were not backpacking. We definitely did not want to have to do laundry. Moral of the story, i had a bunch of junk!!!!

 Thursday night we stayed at Amber's sisters house. She was nice enough to transport us to the airport Friday morning. I got a sweet new duffle bag for the trip. The Patagonia Black Hole Duffle. It holds 90L and it is amazing. I definitely recommend it. It has sweet detachable shoulder straps. It isn't cheap but it is awesome.

So excited to get this trip started.

Finally on the plane.

It took three plane rides to get to Cusco but we somehow survived. Most importantly all our luggage made it and all of our flights were on time!

March

I spent two weeks in March so so sick. Other than that track started and I tried to hike as often as I could because I needed to be in decent shape for spring break.

I hiked the Y lots but also snuck in some hikes up rock canyon and one to the G in Pleasant Grove. It was so fun hiking with Erica!

 

Hiking the Y after we had a crazy squat workout. I had to document it for my workout buddies. I was so sore the next day.

 

March was beautiful weather in Utah which was so nice!!!

My workout class and a little more

I started attending a weight training class last September. I work out three times a week and it has been great for me. I have improved my flexibility, strength and confidence. It is hard but I always go and I am always glad I did. Here are a few pictures I stole from Celissa, the trainer.

 

Anthony, my friend Hannah from work, and myself are the regulars in the evening class. However there always seems to be one or two extra people every night:) 

I am always so tired and sore by the time we start to stretch.

We have a lot of fun in class and occasionally we good off.

 

We have all gotten so much stronger. One activity that I don't actually hate is wall ball sit-ups.

 

This week there was a girl that came that is a lot smaller than me and so I had to use the 40lb slam ball. It was so heavy and a lot harder than the 30lb ball.

 

I survived but man my back has been sore. It was either that or the rice rounds of ten reps of deadlifts we did.

In other news the weather has warmed up a little bit off and on. I have tried to get out and take advantage of it as much as possible. Lots of Y hikes!

 

One night I had to hike it twice because Moki took off. That dog, there are days I could kill her. It happened to be on a gorgeous evening.

 

Aaron and Brady got to work together because Aaron had to help evacuate the Oroville inmates while the dam scare was happening. They just happened to take them to the jail where Brady works. So funny that these two friends ended up in the same career.

 

More hiking with Moki. This day Hannah and I hiked Stewart Falls. Moki moved during the panorama and ended up with multiple legs!

 

Andrew likes to dress himself so you never know what you will get. This was his outfit on a warmer day when we were shopping.

 

I have tried some fun new recipes recently and they have been delicious. I have also been loving broiled vegetables.

 

Tonight I had them with Salmon and watermelon. So delicious.

I really enjoyed having two and half weeks off of coaching sports. Track has started again so life is a little bit crazier. I also got in my first outdoor bike ride of the season. 25 miles in the wind. I was exhausted when I finished but it felt great! Life just seems to be going so fast!

Mom visits Utah

The whole dam incident actually caused a little anxiety for me. Mainly because I was so worried about my mom and wanting her to be safe. Thankfully once school was officially canceled she was able to fly to Utah. She stayed for ten days and it was fun to have her here. I only saw her on the weekends because I had to work. She came down to Provo on Friday night and all her Provo kids joined her for dinner at Wingers.

The first Saturday she was here we hiked the Y. Did inititories at the temple. Then visited a lot of her Utah siblings at a family barbecue. It was really fun to see everyone. We then did Sunday dinner at my house the next day. 

She was in town for Presidents' Day and so I was able to spend that day with her. Amanda brought Andrew down and then my mom and Dan took him to see Lego Bateman. Afterwards we took Andrew swimming at the rec center.

I took Tuesday off work. We spent the morning at my house building forts with Andrew.

 

A teepee and a canoe this time.

 

So fun.

Then we surprised Andrew and took him to the aquarium. It was fun. He is a great age for the aquarium.

 

He really wanted me to take a picture of the sting ray swimming over us.

 

And we loved the new Asia exhibit. The leopards were so cute.

 

After the aquarium I dropped Andrew and my mom off and headed back to Provo for my basketball banquet. That went really well which was great.

The next weekend she came down again on Friday night. We were all pretty tired so we got dinner and then went to bed. Saturday I woke up and hiked the Y while she walked on my treadmill. Then we went and did a session at the Provo City Center Temple. Dan then grilled meet and all the Provo kids visited with her for a little bit before I drove her to the airport. 

I know she was ready to go home but it was so nice to have her here. It really helped me not worry which was great for me. I love my mom and I really look up to her. I am alsways grateful to spend time with her.

My Birthday

I had a really nice birthday. It was on a Sunday which is my only complaint. On Saturday the 11th Dan made a delicious steak dinner and I had some friends over and we played games. It was really fun and nice. 

My actual birthday was great but there was a little drama at the end. I went to church and them my brothers came so we could car pool to Loralie's house. Dan had me open the present he got me.

 

My very own mumu!!! He felt like I needed my own since I borrowed my moms last summer. 

 

At Loralie's we played badminton and visited before dinner. It was Scottys birthday as well and he requested pizza and so that's what we had.

 Right after we started to eat we found out that there was an emergency in Oroville. The dam is full this year because of all the snow and for the first time in 47 years the emergency spillway was being used. As the DWR people watched it they noticed a lot of erosion was happening really fast and they feared the emergency spillway would break. So lots of Oroville was evacuated because officials believed it would break within the hour. My mom was on the evacuation list. All of a sudden we were all glued to the TV and it made for a long night.

The emergency spillway did not end up breaking but lots of damage was caused and Oroville was on careful watch for two weeks. School was canceled as officials tried to put a band aid on the dam. Here are some before, after and during pictures.

Before. The lake is so full. Such a great sight after years of drought.

 

After they started releasing water over the normal spillway some damage was seen.

 

Unfortunately there was not time to repair the damage because the lake was filling up so fast. They were forced to let water come down the spillway.

 

The water created a new path, this is not good. Even though water was being let out they couldn't keep up with how fast the lake was filling. For the first time in the history of Oroville dam the auxiliary spillway was used.

 

 

It looks pretty until you see all the erosion it is causing.

 

It completely wiped out the road. The auxiliary spillway was used for a couple of days until the water got low enough to stop flowing over the top.

After the lake got below the auxiliary spillway level they were still forced to let a lot of water out on the actual spillway because more storms were coming.

 

So much water. It is so powerful!

 

It is easy to see why so much damage was caused. Here are some pictures of the spillway now that they were able to stop the water from flowing.

 

 

 

I stole these pictures offline but it is easy to see why people are scared. There are billions of dollars of repairs that will now need to happen. The other really sad thing is that because the Feather River was so full lots of flooding happened down stream. Lots of damage was caused all over the state.

I have never watched the news as much as I did the two weeks following my birthday. It really has been a crazy situation and I don't even live there anymore.