Today Dana is taking the bus back to Vancouver.  She has other plans for the coming Canada Day long weekend.  Stu and I take her to the bus stop and wait with her.  The bus is now about 10 minutes late.  There has been a road washout near Paulson Pass and we have heard that there are significant delays at times.  I check with the staff in the gas station where the bus will stop and find that recently the bus is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour late.  Since we have to go to Grand Forks to buy a new microwave for Gary and Donna for the cabin, we say our good byes and leave her there.  She is a big girl 🙂

Groceries and microwave purchase accomplished we head back to the lake.  The great weather has returned.  When we return we see that the boys have been in lake enjoying already with Auntie Lindsey.

We head out to the float to enjoy the warmth.  We soon have the grandkids performing for the camera.  Getting great enjoyment in hamming it up for the camera.

Click the photo then the arrows to see the animation.  🙂  (or just let it do it’s thing)

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

Lots of laughing.  Such a fun fun afternoon.  This was followed by a game of 31 on the float.  A new game for these guys.  The caught on quickly!

A very fun day for their last day at the lake.  Everyone except Stu and I are leaving in the morning.  Great end to a GREAT WEEK!!!

Last night we had a small thunderstorm roll through the valley.  We were actually looking forward to a Kootenay lightning show.  A couple rumbles, a small flash or two and a bit of rain and it was done.  We played Catan in the screened porch while this was going on.

We had rented the kayak and the stand up paddleboard for the day.  Everyone wanted to get out more, but the rain clouds rolled in and the skies opened up.  The temperatures plummeted.  Everyone was bundling up waiting for it to let up so we could get back out there.  Sadly didn’t happen.  🙁

We (the adults) are really enjoying the slow pace of life here at the lake.  It is very quiet as for most kids school is still in and most people do not start vacation until next week.  The boys however are finding the pace a bit too slow.

We decided to rent a Stand Up Paddleboard (SUP) and a two person kayak for today.  We take Michael and Nicole’s van to pick them up and discover that the kayak is too long for the van.  The company, decides that the will deliver and pick them up at the end of the day.  Works for us 🙂

Adam like he was born doing this

SUP Yoga Warrior

SUP Yoga Downward Dog

SUP Yoga Child’s pose

SUP Yoga Tree Pose

This was the result! 🙂

Opa was able to stand and paddle as well

Way out there!

Alex was a little aprehensive

But had a fun time

Adam on the stand up paddle board and Michael and Alex in the kayak off exporing

Lindsey figures out a new way to start off. Standing up at the diving board

Pretty pleased with her idea!

Michael up as well

Exploring to the east

Michael and Alex

Dana starts from the float

Off she goes

Adam and I go off in the kayak for a bit of exploring

Lindsey and Dana arrived about 9 PM last night.  Early to bed as we want to be on the road by 7:30.   We are dropping Lindsey’s car at Michael and Nicole’s so she will have it when they bring her home next Friday.  They are still packing up the van, so we head off only to be stopped by a train 3 minutes later 🙂    Not long and we are on our way.

We make a pitt stop at the Manning Park lodge.  It is a popular stop with many people enjoying the beautiful day and watching (and some ignoring the signs and feeding) the hundreds of gophers scampering around the park.  These guys are very habituated.  They run up to you even if you have nothing in your hand.

We see and hear a bird that we are not familiar with.  It sounds a bit like a Flicker, but as it flies to another tree it is clearly not a Flicker.  It has a distinctive tail.  Found it with Google, it is a Clark’s Nutcracker.  Beautiful bird.

We make another stop in Keromeos where we stop at one of the many many fruit stands in the small town.  We pick up some cherries, sugar free but naturally sweetened jams and a few samosas to eat along the way.  Samosas are messy to eat in the car.  🙂  We take note of all the changing landscapes as we travel.  From thick forests to desert like Osoyoos. Passing through quaint little towns like Rock Creek and Greenwood.  Such interesting histories of our province.

We arrive at the lake about 2:30 to this.  Stu has been telling Gary that he has been doing the “Sun Dance” so he left us a little note on a tree!

The reward at the end of the long drive!!  🙂 🙂

After our laugh about where we ate last night, we go off looking for a couple of geocaches.  This takes us to the cliffs and the views of the ocean.

When we were here before we saw an area that is set up for what I have found they call “Ridge Soaring”.  At that time no one was flying, but it was a different story today.

These are mostly tandem flights with an experienced pilot and someone who pays for the thrill of flying along the cliffs with amazing views that go forever!   Some are just enthusiasts that like to have the thrill alone.

I caught these 3.  Looks like a face to me 🙂

This pilot was quite amazing.  As you can see they are flying very low, below the cliff top where they are supposed to land.  He starts swinging side to side.

Each swing makes me think they will land on the busy road below.  After a few swings they raise higher and higher until they land safely on the landing area!

There are about 3 tents setup on the top.  They have a reflective material and the legs are set down low.  As we get closer we see that there are people underneath working on computers.  The tandem flights are being recorded and I assume that these guys are working on the videos.

Here they go, running off the cliff!

A successful takeoff.

Back in town I get a photo of Stu with “The Worlds Biggest Ball of Wood”, well at least that’s what I call it!!  🙂

Our flight is at midnight tonight, so we booked a room in a hostel around the corner from our fancy hotel.  The fancy hotel was fully booked for tonight and we think we might need a nap to prepare for the 7 hour red eye.  Glad we did this, it is going to be a long night.

Our cab driver, who brought us from the airport yesterday, offered to come back and arrives right on time.  Traffic in Lima is a nightmare.  It is after 8PM and it is still gridlock here.

We don’t understand why this is the first, but we see the first fender bender since we’ve been here.  Stop signs mean nothing.  Everyone just noses their way into the flow.  It takes over an hour to get to the airport even at this time of night.

We make our way to our gate, where I try to find a place to charge our devices 🙂  Busy place, the charging station.  USB’s and regular power outlets.  All very busy.  USB ports were not all working and every time I tried another port the plugs fell out of the regular plugs.  I must have replugged them in 4 times!

We have a 7 hour flight to Dallas.  We arrive and right away have to stand in a long security line.  At this station there only seem to one agent processing the boarding pass and passport check.  Takes a while, but we finally finish with the full body scan and head to our gate.

4 hours later we see this from the window!  Home again!!  🙂

The YVR airport is so stunning!  We have seen quite a number of airports in our lives, but this one always makes us smile when we arrive.  That old Airport Improvement Fee has really improved the airport!!

Michael is there to pick us up.  Thanks Michael!!  We really appreciate that!  We managed to stay awake until 8:45ish, head to bed and slept like logs until this morning!  Nice to be home  🙂

Not a very eventful day today.

We joined Greg and Leslie in the breakfast room at our hotel for the last time. 🙁  I got the last croissant!! 🙂

Stu organized a cab with the front desk, so after breakfast we went to gather our things and do a final pack.  Not much to do as we hadn’t really unpacked from Aguas Calientes.

We said our final goodbyes of this trip and left in the cab.  Greg and Leslie will be moving on tomorrow to Bolivia.  Won’t be home for many a day…..

Our flight was delayed.  It was supposed to leave at 12:15 but was closer to 2 before we took off.

We had contacted our hotel in Lima and they said they would send a cab for us.  We should pay the driver $25 USD in cash.

While we waited, we were approached by a couple of women and 2 young girls.  The women asked if we spoke English and if the girls could ask us 6 questions. One of the questions was “Where are you from?”  They were very pleased when Stu told them Canada! These were easier than the Holy Week questions that were asked in Cusco.  The interview did need to end with photos, so we got ours as well!!

When we arrived we did not see our hotel name or our name on any signs, so we waited a short time before approaching one of the many cab drivers waiting in the arrivals area.  He quotes us 60 Soles, which is less that $20 USD, so we win!!

We are not in the morning rush hour like we were when we arrived in Lima over a month ago.  It is a bit less hectic, but soon it is apparent that we are now in the afternoon rush hour as it is around 4PM.  Busy busy city.

We upgraded to a bit better hotel this time and are quite pleased with the results 🙂   This is the giant bed! And, yes that is an AC unit on the wall.  It was quite cool at night in Cusco and Aguas Caliente.  Not so here in Lima.  We will be using this puppy tonight!

This is the very very nice bathroom.

We decide to wander about.  We are in a little different area than our last time in Lima.  From our hotel we turn right and walk a few blocks.  The street ends so we turn left and left again when we hit a busy street.  A few blocks later we turn left again and find a nice little cafe that serves beer, so we have some and an appy.  When we go to leave we make a wrong turn.  We know that we should only be 1 block away from the street our hotel is on, but we could not find it.  We asked at least 3 different people.  They don’t speak English and we tried to understand their Spanish.  No luck.  In the end we backtracked our steps and went back exactly the same way we came.  This morning we walked out of the hotel, turned left and walked 200 steps and we were exactly where we were last night!  We had a good laugh at how we became so turned around.  We justified it as the street we were looking for did not go past this large street and was actually only about 4 or 5 blocks long.   It worked for us  🙂 🙂

We have a leisurely breakfast this morning.  Gringo Bill’s has some of the standard breakfast food that we have seen here in Peru.  It also has wonderful fresh squeezed orange juice and great scrambled eggs with ham and cheese.  This makes up for the 9AM check out time, maybe….

We are a bit late for checkout, but they are understanding 🙂  This is a photo from the main square.  Gringo Bill’s up the path in the center of the picture.  We spoke with Mrs. Gringo Bill who told us that it was the first hotel here.  About 35 years ago.  Gringo Bill himself has moved on to the north coast of Peru as he is a surf bum now.

Here are some of the streets here in the shadow of Machu Picchu.  The steps for those who like steps and the ramps for delivery people and those who prefer hills.

We are on our way to the Hot Springs that Aguas Calientes is named for.

The path to the hot springs is right along the river of Rio Aguas Calientes.  This river then joins the Urubamba River in the middle of the town.

We arrived at the hot pools and I decided that I didn’t like the look of the water, so I paid my 10 soles and just watched these guys getting mellow in the pools, that they tell me were not very hot.

There are many sculptures in this town.  It seems to me that they have carved boulders that were naturally laying along the river.

I am not sure of the story behind this sculpture, but it appears that she has had a mastectomy????

There is basically no vehicle traffic in this town except for the buses that go up and down Machu Picchu.  Anything that needs to go anywhere gets hauled in carts and wheel barrows from the train tracks.  These guys really earn their money.  Everything is up hill!!

It seems that the “Love Lock” phenomenon is a bit more well known here.

Here is a statue of an Inca Warrior with the 3 sacred animals of the Inca.  The Condor, the Puma and the Snake.

We pickup our luggage at Gringo Bill’s and head to the train station to catch our train to Ollantaytambo.  Once there we will catch a bus back to Cusco.

The sun is shining beautifully.  We get this great shot through the bus window 🙂  Beauty!!

This was quite a scary bus ride.  It was a 19 passenger van.  The driver was driving very fast on very windy roads.  We were very happy when we arrived safely in Cusco.

When Greg and Leslie arrive we head out for our last dinner together.  We are leaving for Lima tomorrow and they are continuing on to Bolivia and other South American destinations.  We go back to the Andean Grill where Stu and I had a great meal a few nights ago.  Another good meal, with even greater company!!