The Return Home (a poem)

I got back from Northern (the North of) Ireland again a few weeks back. When you return home from a meaningful trip, there is always a hangover, a jetlag of the soul.  

Here's a poem I wrote about my trip. It is untitled.

What does it mean to be at Corrymeela?

To inhabit a world of possible hope.

I have learned a thousand ways of being, a thousand ways that share the same path.

I could be the Irish woman who knocked on everyone’s door, seeking peace. 

I could be the South African working with the poor, forgotten children in a township.

I could be the traveling American minister with more questions than answers.

I could be the Afghan who works in an Italian restaurant in Lithuania.

I could be the Kazak student full of certainty and the confidence of youth.

But I am not.

I am just me.

I go back home the way I came, a little different, much the same.

Reflective and confused, awake but bleary-eyed as ever.

I do what I do because it's the path in front of me.

There’s only one Corrymeela.

There’s only hope.

Ireland Fragments: Days 2-3

After an exhaustive first day in Dublin, we were still energized for a half day of activity in Dublin (before moving into Northern Ireland).

We woke up and had breakfast at a local diner not far from our Airbnb. This was ideal as it had zero tourists.  I had a full Irish breakfast and felt like I had enough meat to last me for the entire trip. I found the blood sausage to be pretty decent (some folks had warned me about it).

We packed up our stuff and walked down to the Connolly train station to head to Belfast. It wasn't fun dragging our bags into town, but it added to the adventure all the same.

It just so happened that we were in Ireland at the same time as an old friend. We had the opportunity to meet up with JJ for a proper Hobbit-like "Second Breakfast" at a coffee shop near the train station. JJ (the same JJ, I almost died with) was winding his trip down and would be headed back to the States in 2-3 days. It was quite surreal to be chatting it up with an old friend in Dublin, but life is full of weird surprises.

This photo has a lot of blue in it. Enjoy it, fans of blue. 

We caught the train to Belfast and spoke with an old man about his life in Dublin and his travels to the North. The most amazing thing I was beginning to realize was just how many Irish dialects or accents there were in such a small geographic location. In the States, we have accents but they take up large areas, hundreds even thousands of miles of similarity. In Ireland, you'd go to the next town over and hear something very different from the other town.

It was our first view of the countryside and it was quite lovely. We arrived at our Airbnb, which was a whole apartment (which was a relief for just spreading out, as well as privacy). We were near Queens University, so we hiked over the campus and enjoyed the beautiful Belfast Botanic gardens

I had never been in an European Garden before. It had much more of an impact on me than I thought it would. All I can say is that I know why people use the word "lovely" over in the UK/Ireland more than Americans. Everything was just lovely.

I just like this photo.

Queens University - just a pretty place to walk around.

You just walk around and kinda get used to seeing cool stuff like this. It's such an ordinary thing. But here this is, a cool-looking building thing. Just cool things, lovely things everywhere.

We grabbed some grub at Maggie Mays (pretty good dinner - K opted for an Irish stew - LOTS of potatoes, I got a burger) but the dessert was amazing. It made us happy to be alive at this point in the history of the universe.

Holy cow just seeing this again gave me sugar flashbacks. So damn delicious.

We asked our server for recommendations for live music and he recommended Five Points. It was about a half mile down the road and it was also, pretty amazing. We were likely the only tourists there and the guys playing there were awesome. It was as authentic as it gets. I loved it. 

Every time I went to a bar I ended up getting Guinness. I know that's cliché but I started to really appreciate it while I was there and enjoyed it. Besides, ya know, when in Rome....

We had stopped at the market after dinner (and before going to Five Points) and made our own breakfast in the morning. I was pleasantly surprised at the food prices in NI. Cheaper than Dublin and some items cheaper than the US

After breakfast, we caught a taxi to the airport to rent a car and explore the Antrim coast. I was little worried about driving on the "wrong" side of the road but it really wasn't all that bad (of course it helps I had a nice navigator to remind me of what the heck I was doing).

Our plan was to drive north, stopping at various sites along the way. I was excited by the prospect of driving around the Irish country side and seeing what would happen. I knew it could be a perfect little adventure and I have to say that this day was my favorite day of my entire trip.

Green hills and pastures as far as the eyes could see. This particular day was one of hte most misty or "rainy" days of my entire trip. Surprisingly, my whole 3 weeks in Ireland and the UK was pretty dry. There was one or two rainy days and the rest of the days were dry or only had a stray shower or two.

K kept taking photos of the countryside, the only problem was that none of them could really do it justice. The roads were so narrow, I could rarely truly enjoy them as well. Later in the trip I had plenty of opportunity to sit back and enjoy the countryside.

Our first stop was at the Carrickfergus Castle (in Carrickfergus).  It's the not the most impressive Irish castle but visiting a castle was on our "to do" list and it wasn't too far out of the way. We basically mapped this trip out the night before and it made it all the more fun.

 My beauty in front of the castle.

K took this one. I loved these little stairs and the little details like this more than anything else about the visiting old castles, buildings, etc.

Carrickfergus Castle was nice but unless you have a thing of castles or you are in the area (like we were), it's skippable. That said it was fun, quick and cheap. It's set up more for kids than anything else. I don't want to under-sell the experience though, if you have kids with you, a definite thumbs up.


We were only there about an hour and we got back on the road. NI is full of tiny little towns that start with "Bally" (holy smokes, looks like over 30).  Well, in one of them (maybe Ballymoney) we were stopped at a light and saw this sign.

We found it quite funny and unique, so K took a photo of it. Sure enough, just seconds later, we see a "classic" Old Lady (right out of a WB cartoon) crossing the road. Well, we got a photo of her as well!

If it was Ballymoney, this is sign and photo make a whole lot more sense as according to Wikipedia, "The Ballymoney area has the highest life expectancy of any area in Northern Ireland, with the average male life expectancy at birth being 79.9 years and 84.8 years for females in years"

We decided to stop at "The Hedges" which is a few minutes south of Ballycastle. Apparently, it's featured on "Game of Thrones" and some other movies/television programs but we don't watch GoT so it was more just a cool photo-op. It was on our way to Ballycastle, so it wasn't much trouble. If you have a spare 20 minutes, I recommend it. We took some pics and were on our way.

We finally made it to our "destination" which was Ballycastle. I was interested in seeing Ballycastle because about a week later I would be spending most of at the Corrymeela Peace Center for about two weeks. Ballycastle is a lovely little town and I will have much more to say about this town in future blog posts. We had lunch at the hotel that faces the seaside (which, by all means, avoid the restaurant there, as it was disappointing).

We walked a bit around town but because our lunch took longer to arrive and it was already past 1:00 PM, we decided to pick up the pace.

When I would begin to imagine this Ireland-UK trip over a year in advance, I would often imagine the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge (about 20 minutes outside of Ballycastle) and sigh. This was the activity I most anticipated for out trip and I knew it could be the highlight of our trip (but I was hoping against hope for rain not to ruin it). While it had sprinkled here and there during the morning, it had remained largely dry (well as dry as NI gets).

The bridge seemed smaller than the photos make it out to be, but it did not disappoint. The walk across the bridge was great but the views the island offered was amazing. 

Edit 2024: I was looking at my drafts and I never finished this post (or even this series to be honest...whoops) but I decided to go ahead and publish because this post was already so long!! 

Ireland Fragments - Part I: Dublin

This past June I traveled to Northern Ireland (UK) as part of a graduate certificate program capstone class in conflict transformation. My wife went with me my first week to visit Dublin, NI and London.

Here are the fragments.


In December, I started scouring for a good deal. After about 3-4 weeks, I found a "deal", one that I couldn't pass up.  As you might imagine, the "deal" was better on paper than in the good ol' real lived-in world So it was SAT to Ft. Lauderdale (3 hour flight, 5 hour layover), to Stockholm (9 hour flight, 5.5 hour layover) and finally to Dublin (2ish hour flight). This meant it was over 24 hours of traveling. I mean, it was still "worth it" but it was still tough.

Oh yeah, the Stockholm airport bathroom was BOSS.

We arrived around 8:30 PM in Dublin tired but excited.  We had an Airbnb lined up and our host had given us directions on a bus-line, but finding the right bus was a bit of an adventure. We were to pick up the key at a bar named "The Red Parrot".  It felt a little like a spy movie, so that was a little fun. 

After we got the key, my phone was dying (that meant our map was dying) and the flat was harder to find than you might think. It was getting dark and a few sprinkles fell on us. While not quite panicking, I wasn't having fun anymore.  I should point out addresses in Ireland and generally in the UK as well can be very difficult to find. I could bore you with the insane details but here's a photo of me putting my key into the wrong flat....

Thankfully, I think the no one was home or they were asleep. After 35 minutes of traveling in circles, in courtyards and streets with almost exactly the same name, we unpacked and felt good.

The only restaurant still open in the area was a Middle Eastern place called Pasha (which was great, because one of our favorite places back home is called Pasha as well). We were hungry and we devoured our plates.

I had previously made tentative plans for us to hike south of Dublin (Wicklow area) but for a variety of reasons, at the last mintue we decided to stick to Dublin. I felt fancy free as we had no real plans other than to walk downtown and just see where our feet would take us. And boy did we walk on this first day. We walked everywhere and my-way-too-young-to-be-arthritic knee was acting up by the end of the day! I have no idea how much we walked but Google estimated I walked 55 miles in June (which after I looked into it, is still too low).

We stopped at a small coffee shop for scones and coffee at the Roasted Bean Coffee Company (right across from the Connolly Train Station). Although there were a few "average" cups along our travels, the coffee in Ireland and the UK were far and away much better than in the coffee in the US.

Dublin Street Art near Connolly Station

We eventually found ourselves outside Trinity College and went in for the tour. I had read that the Book of Kells was overrated so I wasn't thrilled with going but the college tour was great and the admission to the library and Book of Kells was included, so why not?

My favorite detail about the tour was about this library. Apparently this insane librarians organized the collection by SIZE. Yeah, not by topic, or alphabetical, the SIZE of the book. Was the purpose to make the library so un-usable to students that it would remain quiet and free of students? If so, librarians 1, students 0. Good game, chaps.  Also, the smell of this place was old book smell heaven. Ahh...the smell of rotting books.

From Trinity we went on to St. Patrick's hoping to hear a rehearsal of a choir but the choir never showed up. Then we went on the Chester Beatty Library. I have to say, if you love history and old stuff, then the Chester Beatty Library MUST be checked out. So awesome. Chester Beatty collected tons of books but not just any books, the oldest and most important books, scrolls and book fragments he could get his hands on. Amazing stuff. The earliest collection of the four gospels together resides here. But my favorite part of the collection was an ancient copy of a Qur'an, (I forgot how many centuries old it was) with an inscription from his wife that said (I am paraphrasing here)..."Happy Anniversary, honey! I knew you would love this!" So funny.

I cannot recommend this place enough if you give a fig about history and/or religion. We grabbed a late lunch at the cafe as well and it was very good (again, it was Indian food).

Then it was on the a few more churches that day, I mean it was a hell of a day for churches. As the day wore on, we started to realize how tired we were. That said, we weren't gonna back down. On our way to another Dublin Christ Church Cathedral, we ran into a a choir from Arizona that was going to perform at 5:30 or 6:00 PM. So, we decided to stick around for that. We stopped at Leo Burdock's for some fried fish that was right across the way from the church. It was okay, but nothing to go crazy about.

This guy (much larger than the seagulls here in South Texas) waited so long for single chip, but maybe it was something in his eyes, but I denied him. I was like, "Naw, man, naw". Also, can we take a second to talk about ketchup in the UK? Terrible, horrible, gross. It's sickly sweet and actually made me forgo even eating it and yet, I would forget and start using it again. Also, the "chips" in Ireland were utterly forgettable. Almost every single time, they were limp and disappointing. Give me some crunch and some good ol' American ketchup. Also, say no to the "Brown Sauce" - never even figured out what that crap was.

The concert was pretty okay, K really enjoyed it more than me and really that was the whole point. The setting was beautiful, what more could you ask for. At Christ Church Cathedral, you can go to the catacombs and that was the highlight for me personally as it was cleared out at this time in the early evening.

This was a mummified cat and rat that had been found stuck in the organ years ago. It was too cool not take a photo.

This was the burial of a knight named Strong Bow (the child or smaller body was not marked). I thought the name was something out of She-ra, so for the rest of the day I would say "Strong Bow, look out" or "Sir Strong Bow, how mighty you are!". Turns out he was pretty important.

After the concert we walked the 100 million miles back to our Airbnb, stopping at a pub on the way home for some drinks and music (pretty good). When we got back it was well after 10:00 and we had been walking around Dublin for 13 hours straight, with a few breaks sitting in old churches.

It was an amazing day, one that I won't forget!

Day 2-4 coming up next.....

Peru Fragments: Part VI: Coming Back Down to Earth

In the summer of 2014, I taught a short-term study abroad in Peru. Here are the fragments. Part V can be found here.

It was the late afternoon when our bus descended from Machu Picchu and we finally came back down to earth. Some students wanted to do a little shopping near our hotel, while others wanted to grab a bite before we were to board the train in the early evening back to Ollantaytambo.

I didn't want to shop nor was I hungry but I hung out with my colleague and three other students. We actually played pool in a nearly deserted bar for about 20 minutes but people were hungry, so off we went. The restaurants on the main drag in Aguas Calientes look pretty much the same and most look to be serving the same exact food. Many offer a free drink just for stopping in. I wasn't hungry, so I let everyone else make the selection.

We sat down, everyone ordered (sans me) and one of our female students went to the restroom. When she came back she informed us, there was "poop on the wall", no toilet paper (of course that explained the poop on the wall) and no soap at the sink. My colleague (a male) decided he would check out the men's room. He reported there was no toilet paper and no soap either.

I said, "I sure hope they have soap in the back."

That soon started a discussion on if we should stay or go. It was all so panicked and quick because while they had taken our drink and food orders, nothing had been brought back yet. I simply stated I would do whatever they wanted to do, but that if it was me, I wouldn't eat there.  I remember saying that if we were going to jump ship, we ought to go "one or two at at time" but suddenly someone got up and the next thing you know, we were all standing up, heading for the door, fighting to not be the last one out.

We found ourselves running down different directions on the 45 degree slanted street, laughing as we ran.  Many of the other patrons and workers at the other restaurants were laughing and smiling as we made our escape. We had left in such a rush, we had made no plans on where we would meet up at. Eventually, we all made it back to the hotel, laughing and in high spirits. Thankfully, we didn't have to pass the restaurant on the way back to the train station. Some of us got snacks at the woeful train station snack bar, while I waited for a solid tomato and cheese sandwich on the train.

It had been a wonderful day and we were exhausted but still buzzing from a fruitful and fun day. After our short train ride, we quickly boarded a bus back to Cuzco. The next day was to be a "free" day for everyone. Some wanted to go white water rafting but it was an all day investment (9:00 AM or so to 7:00 PM) and I just wanted some downtime in Cuzco to do what I wanted. Besides, I am more interested in culture than adventure.

The next morning, one team went rafting while we the rest of us decided to go horseback riding in the early afternoon. This also appealed to me because it was cheaper and at age 36 I had yet to even ride a horse in life!

We got to the "farm" after being stuck in the rush hour traffic. I awkwardly climbed up onto the horse and thought of all the bad scenarios possible. The horse was going to take off and I was going to have no idea how to stop him. I was going to fall off and hit my head, etc. etc. As you'll find out, my thinking wasn't as far-fetched and paranoid as you might think.

At the start of our journey.

I have to admit, as silly as it sounds, it was cool riding a horse. Here I was, finally doing something that for much of human history was pretty much THE mode of transportation. So, this was what it was like, eh? My horse was trotting all up and down this insanely rocky path and I felt really bad for him. I was thinking, "Oh, watch out for that stone!"; "Ooh, that had to hurt!", etc. etc."  I couldn't tell if he was old or hurt or what, but boy was he slow. He would stop and occasionally graze on some stubby grass. I didn't mind at all because I figured he earned that little bit of stubby grass. The horses were obviously well traveled because the supervision for us was nil. They knew just where to go. What a boring life for the horse though. 

My only real picture of the horse. I still don't like him. 

When we got to the "halfway point" we got off our horses and allowed them a 15 minute break to eat and get some water. It was at this point where I made my mistake. You know in the US when they tell you way too much information and safety precautions? This was the one time it would have come in handy.

My horse was eating and I figured, why not pat him on the side as he ate? After all, we had bonded on our trip. Why not pat him, like, I'm an old cowpoke and this here, is my old horse taking me on one last journey.

My horse was not having it. I patted him and I could feel his whole body move. My Spidey-Sense went off. This is one of those moments I wish someone had been recording so I could watch this in super slo-mo. Using both arms, I shoved off of his body as he turned on me and kicked me in the chest. My shove had worked handily and his hooves only grazed my chest. It still packed quite a wallop though and knocked the wind out of me. Although my chest felt like it was on fire, I was okay. After that, all compassion for the horse went out the window. No more breaks for stubby grass, ya jerk.

After our horse ride, we grabbed a quick lunch, walked around town and went shopping for tourist stuff in a nearby market, near our hotel (Eco Inn on Av El Sol, which, by the way, was fabulous and it's right across from this pretty little park). The market was like a nice flea market and generally had good prices. It's called the "Handicraft Center" if you're interested. Just know, there are a billion places to find this stuff and it's all pretty much the same. If you see something unique though, grab it.  I really do think the best prices were in Cuzco but maybe that's where I did my most serious looking. 

I have pretty much have no recollection of what we did for dinner that night (Hmm..maybe waiting to write this a year later isn't such a great idea...??) Wait. It came back to me, it was snacks from my backpack. Later that night and I meet a few students for dinner at the hotel later that night and scammed some bread off the table and maybe had an appetizer of some sort.

The next day was another travel day to Puno. It was a 10 hour bus ride. Sure we stopped at a really old church somewhere, some ancient ruins somewhere else, stopped at another market and a tiny little museum and finally onto Puno. I didn't mind the stops but on the other hand, it felt a little frivolous and silly after coming from the heights of the Sacred Valley.

My next post should be the last post in my Peru series. Up until this point out trip had been about as perfect and dream-like as I could have imagined but little did I know how my trip would come to a soul-crushing and sad end.

Peru Fragments: Part V: The Dream That Came True

In the summer of 2014 I taught a short-term study abroad program to Peru. Here is my fourth post of fragments on the trip. Here was Part IV.

As we were driving down from Misminay, many in our group fell asleep. I usually can't sleep in cars and this was no exception. Just listened to a podcast and enjoyed the view driving down the mountainside.

We arrived back in Ollantanytambo to catch the train to Aguas Calenties, the small town at the base of Machu Picchu.  We checked into our hotel room and went out for dinner at a nice place (I forgot the name of it). I had a stuffed fried rococo pepper. It was awesome. We had a nice dinner where we actually had a pretty focused "class" discussion for a good while.

This was one of my favorite meals of the trip. Note the rococo sauce near the top right of my plate, which just gave it that extra spice kick that I love.  

According to the forecast on two different weather apps, there was an 80% chance of showers the next day. This chance of rain was really, really bumming me out. I couldn't believe my one day at Machu Picchu would be potentially ruined. I tried to convince myself that it wouldn't be that bad. I had a poncho and umbrella, and it couldn't rain the whole time we were there. Right?

We called it an early evening as our goal was to arrive at the peak just before sunrise. Our wake up time was 4:30 or something insane like. The streets of Aguas Calenties are packed with restaurants, bars and hotels. Our hotel was situated immediately next to a nice looking pub. It is no exaggeration to say the people in that bar sounded like they were having the time of their lives. I'm not even joking. It was a piano sing-along bar and it just sounded so fun. Any other time, I would have been up for having a drink and checking it out except for the fact that I was trying to get rest and wake up before dawn.  Eventually, the music didn't matter, because I was exhausted. I woke up sometime around 2:00 in the morning and discovered they were thankfully closed. I was additionally thankful that I fell right back asleep.

We got up on time but I felt like we couldn't move fast enough to get down to the bus site. The whole group seemed strangely more lethargic as we entered what I knew would be our peak experience.   Thankfully, there were some morning clouds but nothing looked menacing. As we stood in line for the bus, dawn approached. I was a little perturbed because the idea was to be up on the peak as the sun came up, but I had forgotten just because it was light outside, it didn't mean the sun had peaked over the mountains.

Traveling up the mountain.

You can see the first ray of sunshine just peaking over the ridge of mountains on the right. 

How do you feel when a dream comes true?  

I found myself in this very predicament atop one of the world's most beautiful places. 

I was restless and unable to really pay attention as much as I would have liked during our 1.5 hour tour. After the tour, I found myself walking around aimlessly alone, looking out upon the most breathtaking vistas imaginable.  Exploring the buildings I had wanted to explore as a kid. I felt overwhelmed and alone. My colleague was busy walking with with a student who almost never left his side, but I didn't really want to be around anyone either. Looking back, this was one of the times I missed my wife the most. I wanted to share this moment with my best friend. 

I tried to soak it all up, but whenever dreams come true, it always seems like focusing on the event itself, is the wrong way to do it. I usually find myself practicing mindfulness at least a few times a day but being at Machu Picchu the experience seemed hard to pin down. The hype I had given this moment (from age 11) couldn't possibly match reality, could it?

I think I'm a little tired at just the memory of climbing all those ancient steps. 

As you can see, there was no rain. I don't think American weather apps do well outside the US. 

Your intrepid blogger (he's the one wearing the hat) 

It was a truly amazing experience but did it or could it live up to my own personal hype?

Nope.

I think it was impossible with a few thousand people around me, but it came darn close. There were moments of clarity and mindfulness that I won't forget and for that, I am thankful. After lunch at the restaurant on site (good but expensive) we took a hike to the Sun Gate. After days of walking, hiking and climbing mountains, this hike was another killer for my tired legs but even still, great. The Sun Gate was nice and I can say I hiked some of the Inca Trail. I also peed on it, cause I had to (don't worry no one was looking and it was in the grass).  

Looking from the Sun Gate to the main site, the road below on the right is the road the bus takes to the top. 

We stayed at in the park until about 4:00 PM, meaning we where there for about 10 hours. We descended down back into Aguas Calenties to grab a bite to eat, pick up our luggage and catch the train back to Ollantanytambo. Before we would, there's another story to tell but I'll save that for the next entry.  One day I'll finish this blog series, but at least I can see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Google Reviews of Machu Picchu

Well, I finally got around to writing about Machu Picchu (forthcoming this week) and in doing so, I somehow found myself clicking on the Google Reviews of Machu Picchu. I noticed it only had an average of 4.7 stars. I thought that was odd, so I clicked on it.

Of course there were the folks that accidentally posted 1-star reviews but had glowing reviews. I am assuming that's the default selection (although it should prompt you or something).  But then you start to read further and see the dark side to humanity.

I warn you, go no further if you want to lose more faith in humanity.

This is YOUR FINAL WARNING.

Stupidity is AHEAD, it may make you very angry that people like this even exist.

Let's tackle Mamta first. "Not so good"?? Machu Picchu is "not so good?" What world is this guy living on?  What's more unlikely? This person actually saw Machu Picchu and thinks this or that someone trolls UNESCO World Heritage reviews on Google?

Maybe he's trolling and stupid.

Then there's Mike. Good ol' Mike McLarty. Good ol' JERK FACE MIKE McLARTY.

Is he kidding around with us? How is this even possible for a human being to think this way? "Seen one Incan ruin seem em all"? He CAN'T EVEN SPELL "seen" correctly. Normally, I look past spelling mistakes because I can't spell myself but if you're gonna trash one of the most amazing places on earth, I ain't gonna let that crap slip by without notice. Mike's a TROLL, he HAS to be.

I am too afraid to click on Mike McLarty's profile or whatever it is. So, I will just assume this is a troll job and just let it slide. But again, why troll Google reviews of Machu Picchu?  It's not like people respond to other reviewers. I just don't see the point in it all. And if is a troll job, the MASTERSTROKE is the misspelling of "seen". Tip of the hat to Mike, great trolling. You had me there for a second.

You're thinking they can't get much worse than that at this point, eh? Probably not, let's just scroll down the list and.....

What is this madness? Why is Dean posting reviews of places he couldn't go to? What happened, did his friends plan the trip and he wasn't invited?

"Well my friends went to Peru. I guess I'll just stay here. Stay home and cook some rice. Cook some rice and be all alone."

The passive aggressiveness of Dean is off-the-charts here.  One doesn't just "go" to Macchu Picchu, for an evening...so just how much rice did Dean cook while his friends were gone?

I put Amit and Owen together because they're a little similar. If Machu Picchu is three stars and "like heaven" are you saying that heaven is 3 stars??? That's it?? The Wildest Dream of Man, ETERNAL LIFE with GOD is ONLY 3 STARS???  All I gotta say is Amit, you're one tough cookie.

As for Owen, his other trips must have really sucked, eh?

"Too much water"? This is just stupid. This is just really, really stupid. This one strikes me as an unlikely troll job. It's not funny, so it's real, right??  Was there heavy rain when John visited? Well, John, it is on the edge of the rain forest. I've heard there is often morning fog but but ya know Machu Picchu is generally not know for it's rain or "having too much water". Stupid. Stupid and puzzling.

Okay. Well then.....moving on to one final review.

 Srivatsa starts off with telling us that it's expensive to fly across the world. Well, yes, Srivatsa, flights across the world tend to not be cheap. Then, he couldn't "stayin that hotel". Is this a reference to the hotel on site at the base of Machu Picchu, which, of course, happens to be very expensive. 

Then, my favorite part. He "thinks" he saw it. He "thinks" he saw it. Ya know, I've had enough of these people. The human race is WAY over-rated.