Mrs Dillon's Photo Album

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Mrs Dillon's Photo Album
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• My adventure begins!
• After a short flight over the Andes I arrived
  in Cusco, a town high up in the Andes. I stayed
  here to get used to the altitude before beginning
  my trek and had some time to look around this
  fascinating city. In the first photo you can see
  the main Plaza, or square in the centre of the
  town. This is where there were lots of shops and
  restaurants but also lots of very young children
  trying to sell things to earn some money.

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The Plaza looked lovely at night and this is one
of the big churches in Cusco.
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I visited the Inca ruins of Sacsayhuaman near
Cusco. This is where great contests and
celebrations were held. The walls across the
other side of the open space were part of a
special seating area for the nobility. Lots of
the building has been destroyed now but you can
still see the large rocks used to build the
walls. Nobody knows how the Inca people managed
to get these huge boulders in place.
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The statue at the top of this hill is called La
Bianco Christo (the White Christ) just like the
much bigger one in Brazil. We had a great view
from here looking down over Cusco.
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Can you see the statue at the top of the hill?
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This is the ruins of a special temple called
Tambomachay built about 1400AD. The water still
flows from here after hundreds of years.
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This shows the step system that the Inca people
used for growing their crops. This is part of the
Inca town of Pisaq. I walked along the path in
the middle of this picture. We had fantastic
views down to the valley.
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This is a view of a farm in Peru near Cusco in a
valley next to the Urubamba river. We saw
potatoes and sweet corn being harvested. They
leave the sweet corn out in the sun to dry. They
also used the sweet corn to make pop-corn and
people were selling it on the streets.
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These are the porters who helped us carry
everything for the trek. They looked very smart
in their ponchos but they did not wear these in
the day because it was too hot. At night they
used them as blankets and they slept outside
without any tents.
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These photos show the porters getting everything
ready for our trip. Each man carried 20kg and
some of them were only 18years old! They walked
or jogged most of the trek passing us and getting
to the campsite first to set up everything ready
for us when we arrived much later!. They were
very fit.
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They carried everything for us, food, tents,
plates, tablecloths even the toilet seat!
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This was our first lunch stop and the porters had
rushed ahead to set up the tents and cook and
serve us a lovely dinner. Can you see the porter
collecting up the rubbish? We didnt leave any
mess to spoil the beautiful surroundings. It was
a fantastic view.
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This is the view we had on our second day for
lunch. It is a bit different to your view out of
the dining room isn't it? We were at 3,850
metres, quite high at a place called
Lulluchapampa.
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This is Runkuraqay pass our last high climb and
we were above the clouds! The name means view all
around.
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This photo was taken at 6.30 in the morning and
we had just walked for about an hour to come
round the mountain and see Machu Picchu, the lost
city, for the first time. It is still in the
shadow but we watched the sun rise and cover this
amazing place in sunlight.
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This is Machui Picchu about 7.30am when the sun
has risen and now shines on the ancient city. It
was wonderful sitting quietly for an hour
watching the shadow disappear and then we could
see this magnificent place in all its glory.
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• Thee following photos of the small community
  called Sunchumarca. It is high up in the
  mountains a long way from any other villages.
  There is only a long, mud track to get there and
  it was very bumpy. Some of the money you helped
  to raise has been spent here giving the young
  children a new playroom with some new toys. There
  was a special ceremony to open this room which
  was very exciting. The people there entertained
  us with music and dancing and even gave us a
  special meal, guinea-pig and potatoes. I am
  afraid that I could not eat the guinea-pig! We
  saw their new playground and they even have a
  computer now but no-one knows how to use it yet.
  They have not got access to the internet. I took
  gifts for the children and some children in Peru
  are now using Wyndcliffe book bags! They loved
  playing with balloons and were fascinated by
  seeing themselves on the digital cameras.

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Here are some of the houses in the community of
Sunchumarca and the fields where they can grow
their food.
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We were entertained with music as the children
sat and waved their Peruvian flags.
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The children were fascinated by all their
visitors.
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There was an official ceremony and the boy in
the middle of the photo sang the Peruvian
national anthem for us.
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We had a translator so that we could understand
the speeches and everyone was very grateful for
the money we had raised.
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The vase of flowers was smashed to officially
open the new playroom. It was called the Fungus
room, which means that it is for the young
children.
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We were invited inside.
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Here are some of the new toys they have been able
to buy. Their old toys were just made out of junk
items.
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The children did not know how to play with their
new toys at first.
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We watched the children try out their new toys.
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Now they are beginning to have fun.
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The play ground is also new and very popular.
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The children are being given some of the gifts we
took.
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This is the old play room. These ladies look
after the young children. We would call them
health visitors. They showed us the toys are
equipment they have to test that the babies are
developing properly. Most of it was made out of
junk items.
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It was my birthday the day I visited this
community and some of the people played and sang
Happy Birthday for me.
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We even had a dance together.
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Great fun and what a wonderful way to celebrate
my birthday.
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Time to say goodbye.