In the Footsteps of the Incas: From Mountains to Jungle to Ancient Ruins - Page 4 - PassPorter - A Community of Walt Disney World, Disneyland, Disney Cruise Line, and General Travel Forums
As of January 1, 2019, we have closed our forums. This is a decision we did not come to lightly, but it is necessary. The software our forums run on is just too out-of-date and it poses a significant security risk. The server software itself must be updated, and it cannot be without removing the forums.
So it is with a heavy heart that we say goodbye to our long-running forums. They came online in 2000 and brought together so many wonderful Disney fans. We had friendships form, careers launch, couples marry, children born ... all because of this amazing community.
Thank you to each of you who were a part of this community. You made it possible.
And a very special thank you to our Guides (moderators), past and present, who kept our forums a happy place to be. You are the glue that held everything together, and we are forever grateful to you. Thank you aliceinwdw, Caldercup, MrsM, WillCAD, Fortissimo, GingerJ, HiddenMickey, CRCrazy, Eeyoresmom, disneyknut, disneydani, Cam22, chezp, WDWfan, Luvsun, KMB733, rescuesk, OhToodles!, Colexis Mom, lfredsbo, HiddenMickey, DrDolphin, DopeyGirl, duck addict, Disneybine, PixieMichele, Sandra Bostwick, Eeyore Tattoo, DyanKJ130, Suzy Q'Disney, LilMarcieMouse, AllisonG, Belle*, Chrissi, Brant, DawnDenise, Crystalloubear, Disneymom9092, FanOfMickey, Goofy4Goofy, GoofyMom, Home4us123, iamgrumpy, ilovedisney247, Jennifer2003, Jenny Pooh, KrisLuvsDisney, Ladyt, Laughaholic88, LauraBelle Hime, Lilianna, LizardCop, Loobyoxlip, lukeandbrooksmom, marisag, michnash, MickeyMAC, OffKilter_Lynn, PamelaK, Poor_Eeyore, ripkensnana, RobDVC, SHEANA1226, Shell of the South, snoozin, Statelady01, Tara O'Hara, tigger22, Tink and Co., Tinkerbelz, WDWJAMBA, wdwlovers, Wendyismyname, whoSEZ, WildforWD, and WvuGrrrl. You made the magic.
We want to personally thank Sara Varney, who coordinated our community for many years (among so many other things she did for us), and Cheryl Pendry, our Message Board Manager who helped train our Guides, and Ginger Jabour, who helped us with the PassPorter-specific forums and Live! Guides. Thank you for your time, energy, and enthusiasm. You made it all happen.
There are other changes as well.
Why? Well, the world has changed. And change with it, we must. The lyrics to "We Go On" for IllumiNations say it best:
We go on to the joy and through the tears
We go on to discover new frontiers
Moving on with the current of the years.
We go on
Moving forward now as one
Moving on with a spirit born to run
Ever on with each rising sun.
To a new day, we go on.
It's time to move on and move forward.
PassPorter is a small business, and for many years it supported our family. But the world changed, print books took a backseat to the Internet, and for a long time now it has been unable to make ends meet. We've had to find new ways to support our family, which means new careers and less and less time available to devote to our first baby, PassPorter.
But eventually, we must move on and move forward. It is the right thing to do.
So we are retiring this newsletter, as we simply cannot keep up with it. Many thanks to Mouse Fan Travel who supported it all these years, to All Ears and MousePlanet who helped us with news, to our many article contributors, and -- most importantly -- to Sara Varney who edited our newsletter so wonderfully for years and years.
And we are no longer charging for the Live Guides. If you have a subscription, it's yours to keep for the lifetime of the Live Guides at no additional cost. The Live Guides will stay online, barring server issues and technical problems, for all of 2019.
That said, PassPorter is not going away. Most of the resources will remain online for as long as we can support them, and after that we will find ways to make whatever we can available. PassPorter means a great deal to us, and to many of you, and we will do our best to keep it alive in whatever way we can. Our server costs are high, and they'll need to come out of our pockets, so in the future you can expect some changes so we can bring those costs down.
Thank you, thank you, thank you for your amazing support over the years. Without you, there's no way us little guys could have made something like this happen and given the "big guys" a run for their money. PassPorter was consistently the #3 guidebook after the Unofficial and Official guides, which was really unheard of for such a small company to do. We ROCKED it thanks to you and your support and love!
If you miss us, you can still find some of us online. Sara started a new blog at DisneyParkPrincess.com -- I strongly urge you to visit and get on her mailing list. She IS the Disney park princess and knows Disney backward and forward. And I am blogging as well at JenniferMaker.com, which is a little craft blog I started a couple of years ago to make ends meet. You can see and hear me in my craft show at https://www.youtube.com/c/jennifermaker . Many PassPorter readers and fans are on Facebook, in groups they formed like the PassPorter Trip Reports and PassPorter Crafting Challenge (if you join, just let them know you read about it in the newsletter). And some of our most devoted community members started a forum of their own at Pixie Dust Lane and all are invited over.
So we encourage you to stay in touch with us and your fellow community members wherever works best for you!
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I got a bit behind, but it was a pleasure catching up! Glad you found Craig and how great that he had some new boots for you! Looks like you made it to your B&B without too much trouble. It looks very nice. And you are like me, ready to get moving as soon as you get there. Glad that nice man told you about the overlook. Those views are stunning! Hope the altitude sickness passes quickly!
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Mickey's so happy to see me back, he can barely contain himself!
Your B&B looks neat! So glad that guy showed you where to get your pictures. They're fabulous! What a view! Hoping neither of you are down too long with the altitude sickness.
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Yep, Laurie I was in Denmark and Sweden and just arrived home. Prior to my trip it became official that I am renting from a slumlord. To make a long story short my current residence is just not safe and the landlord just wants to sit back in his lazyboy and collect checks. I had made the decision I needed to move and move soon! My moving date is Tuesday December 1. I also have a concert series in which I'm performing that week and Craig is coming into town. Needless to say I have a lot on my plate. However, I do intend to make another installment soon. Probably on Thanksgiving day to give myself a break from all of the packing.
I absolutely LOVED Copenhagen! I definitely want to return and share it with Craig. Maybe we'll do a Copenhagen/Oslo/Norway in a nutshell trip some summer in the future.
Douglas, I can't believe I have missed this TR! What awesome pics so far. Sorry Craig was not feeling well.
Sounds like you are very busy for the near future. Will be interested in hearing about your trip to Copenhagen. DH and I are taking one of the northern european disney cruises next summer and that is one of our stops!
Please let me know if you will be in my neck of the woods anytime! Would love to do lunch!!
Yep, Laurie I was in Denmark and Sweden and just arrived home. Prior to my trip it became official that I am renting from a slumlord. To make a long story short my current residence is just not safe and the landlord just wants to sit back in his lazyboy and collect checks. I had made the decision I needed to move and move soon! My moving date is Tuesday December 1. I also have a concert series in which I'm performing that week and Craig is coming into town. Needless to say I have a lot on my plate. However, I do intend to make another installment soon. Probably on Thanksgiving day to give myself a break from all of the packing.
I absolutely LOVED Copenhagen! I definitely want to return and share it with Craig. Maybe we'll do a Copenhagen/Oslo/Norway in a nutshell trip some summer in the future.
with the move. Do let me know about your plans for any future trip to Copenhagen/Oslo/Norway - you know we'll be there like a shot for that one.
Oh, dear! Moving is so stressful and exhausting. I hope you've found a place you like and get settled in relatively easily. I'm really glad you enjoyed your trip to Scandinavia!
Before taking my nap, Gilda informed me that for about an hour we would be without water. Inka’s Rest was undergoing some remodeling. Part of the work was plumbing. That was no big deal to me because I had intended on grabbing some zzz’s. The renovations also affected the electricity. We only had partial power for a bit. Before I slept I sat at the table in the living area outside of our room and wrote a bit in my journal. I always take a stab at journaling during my trip but I end up not writing much at all because I’m either too busy doing things on my vacations or too tired from all the activity.
Navigating through Lago Titicaca on our tour boat
Craig and I managed to wake up in time to head to the reception room to head out for our tour of Lake Titicaca. We didn’t need to worry about missing our tour because we are experiencing what I called, “Peru time”. Peru time is very elastic. The fact that we were scheduled to meet at the reception area at 3:00 pm was basically a suggestion. Eventually someone from the tour company shows up and whisks us away in a minivan. The minivan is playing Peruvian folkloric music featuring mandolin like instruments and a male vocalist. At first there are only English speakers in the minivan. However, the minivan makes pit stops and we pick up more people on the way to the dock of Lago Titicaca. Remember, we are on Peru time so there is no rush to start our tour. Eventually there are a total of 7 passengers in the minivan. Craig is yawning a lot despite his nap of 2-1/2 hours.
Our Lago Titicaca tour boat
Puno is thriving with oodles of pedicabs, collectivos, minivans, and minitaxis. All of the vehicles seem to think they have the right of way. I just sit back and relax; happy to let someone else deal with the craziness of traffic that is rarely regulated by a traffic light. Once we get to the dock, we climb from one boat to another. Once we get to the boat for our tour, we sit and wait because we are on Peru time! Two more people arrive.
Our tour departed from the dock and our slow boat to China, err Peru, is off to explore Lago Titicaca. We had a bilingual guide who provided insight into the culture, history, and way of life of the Uros people. Just 5 km east of Puno’s harbor we encounter islands that were made by man. These islands float on the lake and are made entirely of totora reeds. The Uros people have intermarried with Aymara-speaking people. There are no more full-blooded Uros anymore. They now all speak Aymara. This is rather annoying considering I hardly speak Spanish and now I have to learn a few words of Aymara. Oy vey! The Uros started life on the floating islands centuries ago to isolate themselves from more aggressive peoples. The Uros still live their lives fishing on Lago Titicaca. Not only are the islands made from totora reeds, but everything the Uros people use is made of the reeds. The houses, boats and crafts are all made out of these reeds. You can even eat the totora reeds. Although, I doubt that they are tasty. The islands are made out of several layers of the reeds which are constantly being replenished from the top as the lower layers rot in the water.
Islas Floatantes de los Uros
We visited two of the largest islands and also the ones that see the most amount of tourists. The islands are like trampolines. I can not tell you how odd it is to walk around and have it be so springy. Even though I had read descriptions, it still amazed me to experience the springiness of the islands.
Besides the two islands that we visited there are about 40 of these islands that float about on Lago Titicaca. The islanders on these islands continue to live in a relatively traditional fashion and do not like to be photographed. They fish, hunt birds, and live off lake plants. In addition to the Islas Flotantes that we visited there are more traditional permanent islands in the lake as well. Among these permanent islands, the most visited are Isla Taquile and Amantani. They both have islanders that speak Quechua. We only had the one day in Puno so we did not have the time to explore these islands. One option we had seriously considered was taking a kayak trip around Lago Titicaca with a visit to Isla Taquile. However, we were concerned about the altitude sickness and whether we would be up to all that paddling. I’m glad I realized that possibility because Craig was in no shape to do something that active. This little boat excursion was perfect since it did not require any exertion on our part.
Here I am wandering around one of the islands
One of the boats made out of totora reeds
I found it surprising that they kept flamingos as pets
When our tour boat returned to the dock, we waited a little bit for the tour company to get another collectivo to take us back to Inka’s Rest. Craig and I were the first to be dropped off. The tour lasted about 3 hours and we had paid 40 nuevo soles ($14.30) for the two of us.
Oh wow, what a fascinating place - it looks amazing. I love the idea of Peru time, very relaxing, maybe a bit like the "manyana, manyana" attitude you come across in Spain...
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Looks like you made it to your B&B without too much trouble. It looks very nice. And you are like me, ready to get moving as soon as you get there. 
Glad that nice man told you about the overlook. Those views are stunning! Hope the altitude sickness passes quickly!
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Pixie Dust
Sorry about the living conditions, and good luck with the move! 
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