Danette, Deb Anderson, and Mary Helmeke went on a 10 day tour with Overseas Adventure Travel (OAT) to Peru. After the OAT tour, Danette and Deb went to Chile, Argentina, and Brazil. In the meantime, Jim took a road trip to California from Florida.
Jim drove the VW EuroVan, called Casper, to CA and back to FL to see Jenny, his daughter, and family. Jim was gone from late January to late February. Jim made stops in Texas, Arizona, southern California, then then to Los Banos, CA. He spent great quality time watching Hans play basketball, helping Jenny in the yard, helping Scott make beer, and helping Chloe with her Valentines Day fund raiser for Future Farmers of America.
PERU (Danette, Deb, Mary)
We started in Lima, Peru, on January 22, 2017. We had a city tour and visited the Archeological Museum, the San Francisco Church, and the Colonial area which is an old area where the palace and cathedral are located.
We then flew from Lima to Cuzco (also spelled Cusco). Cuzco has an elevation of 10,909 feet and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. We visited the Sacred Valley of the Urubamba River, and the city of Pisac. Pisac has ruins atop a buttress ridge, with agricultural terraces that curl around the hill in graceful curves. We stayed at the Villa Urubamba Hotel, which had exceptional grounds.
(1-25-17) We went rafting and saw the Andean landscape. We continued after to the Inca ruins of Ollantaytambo. It is a fortress of rose-colored granite and has terraces. We had a home hosted lunch and we all tried a small taste of guinea pig which is a specialty in this area.
(1-26) We took a scenic train ride through the Sacred Valley to village of Aquas Clientes. A bus took us up to Machu Picchu, which is also a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Machu Picchu was discovered in 1911 by Hiram Bingham but was inaccessible until the 1940s. when an expedition group found the Inca Trail.
(1-27) We rose early to go back to Machu Picchu and walked to the Sun Gate which is where people who do the Inca Trail enter and then walk down to the magnificent view of Machu Picchu. We also walked a trail to the Inca Bridge which crosses a cliff face. This trail was used by local people who would come up from lower elevations to work. The "bridge" had logs across the trail that could be removed so that the trail would be impassable to enemies.
The clouds came and went throughout the morning but it cleared right before we left to return to the village.
We took the train back to Ollantaytambo and then a bus to Cuzco.
(1-28) We explored Cuzco, the "the navel of the world". We visited the Qoricancha Sun Temple. Records indicate that the walls were once covered with 700 sheets of gold studded with emeralds and turquoise. We walked through Plaza de Armas which is the city center and where the Spanish conquistadors arrived. We saw the 17th century cathedral.
(1-29) We journeyed to Izcuchaca and saw a local market, and then to Chinchero to a weaving village with an elevation of 12,500 feet.
(1-30) We drove south of Cuzco to Oropesa which is known for a bread called pan chuta. We saw Tipon which is a maze of irrigation channels and ritual baths and water still flows 500 years after its construction. We drove to Sacsayhuaman, an archaeological site, on a hilltop overlooking the city. They have huge stones and some weigh 300 tons. We saw the Incan ceremonial center of Kenko, an ancient worship site.
(1-31) It was our last day in Cuzco and we flew to Lima in the afternoon. Mary Helmeke continued on to USA and Deb and I stayed in a hotel for our flight the following morning to Chile.
CHILE (Danette and Deb Anderson)
(2-1 to 2-5-17) We flew to Santiago, Chile, and then to Calama. We were greeted by Drew Anderson (Deb's son), Cyarra (lady friend of Drew), and Anna (friend of Drew and Cyarra). We drove from Calama to San Pedro de Atacama. Over a three-day period we saw Laguna de Chaxa and the Reserve Nacional "los Flamencos", Salar de Atacama, drove to the El Tatio Geysers for sunrise, went to Puritama Hot Springs (Termas de Puritama) and swam in the waters, hiked Moon Valley (Valle de la Luna), saw the Lagunas Altiplanicas (two lacunas are Miscanti and Monique) which is located at 4,000 meters, and spent a late evening learning about astrology and looking through telescopes.
The desert is a plateau that covers 41,000 square miles. It is the driest non-polar desert in the world. It is situated between the Andes and the Chilean Coast mountain chains. They are both high enough so it prevents moisture from the Pacific or Atlantic, and is called a two-side rain shadow that causes the dryness.
The Laguna and Reserve is at an elevation of 2,300 meters. The surface has visible salt crusts caused by the constant accumulation of crystals produced by the evaporation of heavy saline. The Laguna is shallow and provides food for flamingoes. The Solar de Atacama is the largest Chilean salt lakes.
The El Tatio Geysers are located at 4,300 meters. We left at 4:30 in the morning on a scary drive up but we made it in time to see the steaming fumaroles, an opening in the earth crust, produced by the high temperatures of their watery craters. It was impressive to see the steam shoot out of the various blowholes.
The Puritama water is about 30 c (90F) due to volcanic hot springs. It is located in a small canyon and there were various levels of thermal baths to swim and relax in.
Valley of the Moon (Valle de la Luna) was an impressive hike because it is similar to the moon landscape (or so they say!). It is like a natural coliseum with a huge dune.
Deb and Danette enjoyed the time with Drew Anderson, Cyarra, and Anna. The last evening was spent looking at the stars and moon through telescopes.
ARGENTINA
(2-5 to 2-15) Drew walked Deb and Danette to the bus station. We took a bus across the Andes to Salta, which is in northwest Argentina. Salta was founded in 1582 and currently has a population of 619,000. We walked the city of Salta one day and then rented a car for eight days.
From Salta we drove southwest and passed through the Parc Nacional Los Cardones. Elevation in the Parc is between 2,700 and 5,000 meters with an average rainfall of 6" per year. We stopped in the village of Cachi and then stayed overnight in Molinos.
We visited the winery of Colome, which is the highest elevation winery in the world. We had a tour of the facility and relaxed, had lunch, and a glass of wine. We drove south and ended the day in a nice city of Cafayate. Cafayate is located in the center zone of the Calchaquíes valleys, which is known for quality wines.
We drove to a couple wineries and enjoyed the Torrontes white wine. The city square was very nice to walk around and we spent time looking in various shops.
From Cafayate we drove north toward Salta. Along the way we stopped at some beautiful areas as the scenery was spectacular. Some of the sites were called Los Colorados, Los Castillos, Las Ventanas, El Obelisco, Quebrada a Paranilla, Los Estates, El Fraile, El Sapo, Mirador Tres Cruces, El Anfiteatro, and Garganta del Diablo. We stopped for the night south of Salta in a small village called Loki.
We drove through an area that is known as Train to the Clouds, or Tren a las Nubes. There is a real train in this area that travels over 29 bridges and through 21 tunnels. The train runs 270 miles round trip from Salta toward the Chile border. Deb and Danette drove a route via road, but we saw the train tracks on several occasions. We stopped in San Antonio de los Cobres to see the train station.
We then headed north toward the large salt flats along Route 52. Salinas Grandes is 170 meters above sea level and covers an area of 2300 square miles.
Our stop for the night was Pumamarca. There was a festival going on so we watched the music and festivities. It's set at the base of a striking, multi-hued mountain called the Seven Colors Hills. We walked early in the morning in order to see the sun rise as it hit the mountains.
We drove north to Humahuaca and spent one night. Humahuaca is in the colourful valley of Quebrada de Humahuaca. In the centre of the village there is a church tower which can be seen from the main square with a clock that chimes at 12 pm, after which a small door opens and a life-size figure of Saint Francisco Solano comes out and makes the sign of the cross. We stayed in a great hostel and met nice young adults and enjoyed listening to them sing and play guitar in the evening.
We moved south to Tilcara and stayed one night. We visited the pre-Hispanic hilltop fortification called Purcara de Tilcara. Human habitation in this area dates back 10,000 years.
Deb and Danette headed south back to Salta and returned the car. We enjoyed a meal and wine for our last night in Salta. The place we stayed was quaint as it was more like a house with rooms. We had stayed at the same place when we arrived, and this time we were the only people in the place so we were able to relax and enjoy the facility. We had a partial day of seeing more of Salta before we took a flight to Puerto Iguazu, Argentina.
Deb and Danette spent an entire day touring the Parque Nacional do Iguazu (Brazil side they spell Iguacu). There were multiple walkways that provided low and high views of the falls. It was absolutely spectacular as they are the largest waterfalls system in the world. It borders Argentina and Brazil. There are about 275 waterfalls. Half of the river's flow falls through the u-shaped Devil's Throat (269'X492'X2,297').
We walked in Puerto Iguaza to the intersection of the rivers Rio Iguazu and the Rio Parana meet. At this point you are standing in Argentina, but can see Brazil and Paraguay across the rivers.
BRAZIL
Deb and Danette traveled across the border to Brazil and the city of Foz do Iguacu. We saw a different view of the falls from the Brazil side. The wide expanse of the falls was breath taking. 
We visited the Parque Das Aves which has incredible birds of the Atlantic Rainforest as well as exotic species from around the world.
It was time to go back to the USA, so we traveled from Foz do Iguacu, through Rio de Janiero, and Atlanta. At that point, Deb and I split our ways and Deb flew to Minneapolis and Danette to Jacksonville. It was a wonderful adventure and it was great to spend ten days with Mary Helmeke and 30 days together with Deb.
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