Posts in “After the Trip” Category

Hey, everyone! It's McKenna again, with one last blog about a memorable moment in Peru. I'd like to take you back to "The City in the Clouds" for a quick visit to a special spot nestled in a narrow notch on a mountaintop overlooking Machu Picchu.

After exploring and shooting pictures for hours in the marvelous ruins of "The Lost City of the Incas," and after eating a quick buffet lunch at the Machu Picchu restaurant, many members of the expedition, including myself, decided to take on the challenge of a 45 minute hike about a mile up the Inca Trail, a long, twisting, ancient stone path made and used by the Incas. Our destination? The Incan Sun Gate.

The length of the trail we traversed curves up the side of the mountain and overlooks the grand city of Machu Picchu. It was an amazing experience. We had to keep reminding ourselves that we were walking on the same stones the Incas used to trek. But, overall, the trek wasn't all that easy.

The stones of the trail are jagged and serrated, and one misstep at certain places could have caused us to tumble down the steep precipice of the soaring mountain. YIKES! At 8,000 plus feet in the sky, it was sometimes tough to get the oxygen we needed to climb without breathing pretty hard at times. And, being ever so high in the sky, we had to be on guard to avoid getting sunburned. We were told that, at that height, even if it doesn't feel like you are getting sun, if you aren't careful to wear sunscreen or cover up, you are likely to get sunburned--even on the tops of your hands!

Hi, everyone! This is Becca, here to tell you all about the Explorers' Symposium '09 at National Geographic headquarters in Washington, on Thursday the 11th! I drove down from Pennsylvania and arrived at the symposium at 5 o'clock.



Before going into the hors d'oeuvres party, I walked around National Geographic's really cool sculpture garden with my dad. It had statues of lots of different bugs, my favorite being a group of leaf-cutter ants carrying the greenery on their backs. That reminded me a lot of the trip to Peru and how much I miss all of the fabulous people on it.

"All Aboard!" There it was! The Vistadome--a long strand of painted blue metal sitting heavily on the tracks at the Ollanta Station, waiting zealously for us to climb aboard, eager to carry us from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes, a small village at the foot of Machu Picchu.

Never in my life had I ever ridden on a train before, so getting to ride one in Peru was an absolute thrill! Our train twisted for more than an hour on a snake-like railroad track up the side of a mountain and revealed to us a stunning panoramic of the Peruvian countryside.















Photo by Grace K

I knew that when I visited Peru I would see children. I wasn't disappointed. Just like in the U.S, they were everywhere. I saw them walking home from school as well as running and playing with friends in the street. Some were sitting on the front step of their parents' store watching the traffic roll by. Often the little ones were carried around on their mothers' backs inside a colorful fabric scarf.
























The kids in this picture are busy twirling around to some Peruvian music, while having a cool treat. I guess I got the little girl's attention, because she started beaming at me. I got her to keep dancing, so I could get a picture. Her brother didn't pay much attention to me. He was too distracted by his Popsicle.

The rain forest was AMAZING!! We saw sooooo many different types of animals and bugs!!!! I would love to talk about it all, but I am going to focus this blog entry on our journey to the canopy tower at the Posada Amazonas lodge. After an early wake-up to go to the parrot clay lick (unfortunately we didn't see any parrots due to the weather) we decided to go to the canopy tower to view the rain forest in a new perspective.

We had a 15-20 minute walk down the muddy trails of the rain forest until we finally made it to the tower. It was a 120-foot metal tower. I looked up and couldn't even see the top (that's how tall it was). We went up single file on the narrow steps to the top. It was very neat to see the trees in different ways every step we took. Once arriving to the second to last step we got to crawl through a little trap door onto the platform on the top of this structure.

While we were at the Posada Amazonas lodge in the Amazon, we saw many cool creatures, from monkeys to birds to capybaras. My favorite animals to see (although it was pretty hard to choose a favorite) were the many species of insects and arachnids found on every tree, always amazing. I saw a scorpion (thank you for pointing that one out, Elliot), many spiders, some moth larvae, some centipedes, and many, many snails. Snails were in trees, on leaves, on flowers, everywhere! The mosquitoes, on the other hand, were, should I say, annoying, but because of the rain, we didn't see too many for a few days. Speaking of creepy-crawlies, we were offered to try termites, a food source for those who have run out of supplies. I...tried some. It tasted a little weird, but if you didn't think about it, you could eat them without difficulty.

Don't get me wrong, the birds and mammals were spectacular as well! We saw some grey titi monkeys and we saw and HEARD some howler monkeys. The titi monkeys were adorable; I wanted to hold one! We also saw some gorgeous scarlet macaws. They were like the birds you see in movies, only better! We saw them fly by; flashes of yellow, blue, and red darted across the sky as we took the boat back to dry land. They were flying to the clay licks, where they eat the red-brown earth to help with digestion. I don't know how that helps, but I'll do my best to find out. The guides were amazing! They could just say, without another thought, "That's definitely a green violetear, a type of hummingbird." Just like that! Wow! The insects were still one of the chart toppers.

Along with the other Hands-On Explorer Challenge winners during our expedition to South America, I experienced some of the most beautiful, most amazing wonders of the breathtaking country of Peru. But, four days into the trip, something happened to me that took me away from the planned expedition itinerary and the team, and lead me to a unique adventure of a very different kind. My explorations took me to the grand cities of Lima and Cusco, the beautiful landscapes and countrysides of Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu, and the wondrous and lush Amazon rain forest--but I also had the unexpected and vivid opportunity to experience first-hand what it is like to be a patient in a Peruvian hospital.

Hi, this is Ian! I got home from Peru four days ago and can't stop thinking how cool the people were. Everyone: the photographers, the Explorer team, the guides, and just regular citizens of Peru. The people on this trip helped me learn a lot. Everywhere we visited there were interesting people. From the cities of Lima and and Cusco, to the highlands, to the rain forest of Puerto Maldonado, the people of Peru were some of the most fascinating people I have ever met.

Hola, everyone! My name is Sharon Andrews, and I am one of the teachers who went on the National Geographic Hands-On Explorer trip to Peru. Wow! What a fantastic trip it was! All of our days and evenings were filled with new sights, sounds, flavors, and adventures! The Peruvians were very happy that we were visiting and were anxious to show us their country. We had so many exciting adventures on our trip that I could write volumes, but I will summarize the trip according to Peru's three geographic areas: the dry coast, the highlands, and rain forest.

Hello world and all who inhabit it! This is Abbie, and I still can't believe that out of thousands of entries for the Hands-On Explorer Challenge, mine was one of the lucky few picked!!
 
I had the most surreal experience in Australia and I'm still soaking it in. I wanted to talk about my favorite experience in the land of Oz.
 
The Great Barrier Reef: Low Isles are a small group of islands in the Great Barrier Reef that we're all happy the ocean created. They may be the closest thing to paradise only accessible in your wildest fantasies. We not only got to go on the island, but we got to snorkel the reef! It had rained earlier so the water was a little murky, but the experience was still magical. To top it all off, I even ran into a group of three green sea turtles!!! They are beautiful and majestic, but they can be a little daunting...mostly due to their HUMONGO sizes! One sneaked up on me and almost gave me a heart attack! HAHA!