God's creating our little miracle!

Baby Shannon is expected to arrive in October!

We're home! What a trip!

We arrived back home on Tuesday, and have been loving seeing our family and friends, and our kitty Simon! We seemed to have just missed the worst part of winter too! Living in South America is not as rough as you would imagine, but it sure is nice to be able to get in our car and drive where we want, drink tap water, eat food without washing it or worrying about where it came from, etc. It's the simple things like having soap and paper in a bathroom here all the time too, or not having to pay to use a public bathroom. Sacrificing just a few comforts though was so worth it in the end to see the beautiful places, experience a different way of life, learn the culture, practice the language, eat the delicious food, meet inspiring people, and last but not least, love on the adorable kiddos! I still can't believe we're done with our trip...Although it was a long time, we were so busy all the time, that the time went very fast! It was a once in a lifetime trip, and soooo worth it! We're so glad we did it, and would recommend to anyone that has it in their heart to do something like it too. It taught us a lot...we will make sure to spend our time doing things that we love now; taking risks to do what we love is worth it, because life is too short, and there's so much opportunity to do what we're meant to do.

Huacachina, Peru!

Huacachina has been a wonderful last bit of our trip! It's been in the high 80's, and we've been spending the days swimming and chilling by the pool, with the desert dunes as the backdrop! Last night we took a walk up the dunes to watch the sunset and play in the sand. It was amazing, and we've never seen anything like it! That sunset was so worth the 20-hour bus ride from Cuzco! Today is our last day in Huacachina, and tomorrow morning we head to Lima so that we can catch our flight back to Wisconsin at night! More reflections to come! 

You can see the sand blowing in this one!

Machu Picchu!

We had an amazing visit to Machu Picchu yesterday! We left Wednesday morning, and first took a two-hour van ride, then a two-hour train ride to Aguascalientes, or Machupicchu village. The train ride had some great views! We couldn't believe how tall the mountains were, and how wild the river was! We walked around town a bit, ate at a nice pizza place, and then headed back to our hostel for the night. We woke up very early yesterday morning to head to Machu Picchu! We had a guided tour for a couple of hours, and then took the hike up Waynapicchu, which is the mountain that appears in just about everybody's photo of Machu Picchu. It was quite a hike, up some old rock steps that were a bit slippery! We made it though, and the view was so worth it! What an awesome hike! I'll post a video soon! 

We started our tour of Machu Picchu around 8 in the morning, and could hardly see anything at first because of the clouds...It cleared up and the sun came out in a couple of hours! 

We hiked up Waynapicchu and got a different view of the "lost city of the Incas." Look at those crazy steep steps!

Flying over Machu Picchu hehe :)

After making it to the top of Waynapicchu, we had to go down this way! Yikes!

It was scarier going down Waynapicchu than it was hiking up! 

After our hike up and back down Waynapicchu, we headed up the stairs to get the classic view of Machu Picchu!

Here is the masterpiece...Breathtaking!

The Incas made a condor...can you see its beak and huge wings? This was a tomb for the Incas. They believed the condors would take their spirits to heaven. 

The Temple of the Three Windows...

Silly llamas relaxing in the sun!

ATVing to the Salt Mines in Maras, Peru & Last week in Cuzco

This week we visited the salt mines in Maras, which is in the Sacred Valley about a half an hour from Cuzco. We toured the area on an ATV! Mike was the driver. :) Since it's the rainy season here in Peru, it was quite muddy, and there were lots of fun puddles that Mike loved to drive through! You can't beat the scenery!

The salt mines were constructed during pre-Incan times. We were amazed! The way they work is through a system of channels that lead into hundreds of little ponds. The source of salty water comes from the Qoripujio spring. The water feeds into the ponds, and then as its water level is controlled, it eventually evaporates, and is harvested by the salt farmers. Since it's the rainy season, the ponds were over saturated and appeared to be muddy, but we got the idea! I love how they are still using this system. 

It was our last week volunteering at San Judas Chico hogar. :( We had a great day today! We celebrated a few birthdays from the month, and invited the boys and the girls from the other two orphanages for a party! We combined it with a carnival celebration, and we had a huge water balloon fight and singing clowns! The girls also made some beautiful masks and necklaces! They are so creative! 

Here's a video of some of the girls talking about themselves a bit...We are going to miss them soooo much! Time flew by way too fast! 10 more days until we're back in Wisconsin.

Carnaval in Cuzco!

I haven´t had a chance to post in awhile...our access to internet has been slim! Since our last post, we celebrated Carnaval in the Sacred Valley. It was a lot of fun, and I´ll post more pictures as soon as we get internet back. We went into different towns, and watched dancing and listened to traditional music. I was expecting to get wet, because I was told to bring extra clothes. I didn´t know if I would actually get involved, but I had no choice! We bought cans of this spray snow, which is like colored shaving cream that can shoot far like silly string. As we drove by in our car, we sprayed random people with it! After we parked, we walked around and sprayed people too. Little did I know that women are the main target of this! The locals have buckets of water prepared, and the kids hang out at the water fountains ready to get you wet! I got drenched! Good times! After stopping at a few towns in the Sacred Valley, we had a late lunch in Urubamba, and did some dancing. We tried the strawberry chica drink, and danced around a tree decorated with various cooking utensils. We danced around the tree hand-in-hand taking turns with the axe to try and cut it down! After it got cut down, people scramble around to get the cooking utensils off the tree, like a piñata! Fun traditions for Carnaval! I think we should do this in Wisconsin!