Peru Pictures & Videos!

Photos from our trip....

• Summary - 84 photos
• All photos - 803 photos

Peruvian music and dance videos, Andean Condors, and Chef Wong cooking videos posted on the right! 

No More Andean Food

We landed in New York this morning. The flight and everything went smoothly, and we waited a bit for our bags and made our way back home!

Indeed, no more Andean food. Although we enjoyed the cuisine, I think we're all happy to be home from our once-in-a-lifetime trip! I'm also glad to be home so I can try to recover from my stomach ailments before I return to work. I look forward to sleeping and settling back in this weekend as well as celebrating Caitlin's 30th birthday! We joke that it'll be a reunion, even though we'll only have been apart for 2 days!

With that being said, my last written post (before I get my act together and post photos and videos), I usually ruminate about a few things.... so here goes:

• Friends - As mentioned in my birthday post, I'm so grateful for the trip and the company of Jamie, Mary Ann, and Caitlin! The trip came together so easily and Jamie was an awesome planning partner! We managed to learn new things about each other and hearing stories that you would not normally share, unless you spend 12 days straight together! Also, with any extended travel, you let your guard down in so many ways! Thanks to the three of you for waking up early, your company, and enthusiasm! I told Mama Kim that everyone was incredibly considerate and easy-going!

• Amazing Country - We've all heard horror stories about traveling anywhere and we had heard various things about Peru and safety concerns. Although the 4 of us were incredibly aware of our surroundings and had our wits about us, I don't think there was one moment where we felt unsafe and the people were incredibly warm and hospitable! I feel blessed for a wonderful experience despite the ailments......

• Altitude Sickness & Ailments - Altitude sickness is no joke. Being sick on a trip is no joke. And I have to remember to slooooow down. I can't maintain the same pace when the elements are against me. I have to remind myself of this all the time and as my dad says, "take it easy, Cyn..." You will also notice the blogs got significantly shorter as I got sicker. 

• Photos - Not sure if you noticed, but I stepped up my game! I tried to post photos each day on my blogger app on my iPhone. I see now that the photos came out too big which I have tried to correct. This indeed took more effort as the uploads took longer and I had to make sure to take photos on my iPhone in addition to my camera. Also, as a group, we learned our photo system - we realized due to the varying heights, it was best to stand in a U-shape with Caitlin and myself on the outside. It was pretty funny each time we positioned for photos!

• Weather - We were blessed with amazing weather in Peru and even looking through some of the pictures already, I feel they are postcard-esque and frame-worthy! 

• Next Trip - I love to travel, but I don't have a trip in mind just yet. I do like traveling in May as it's a shoulder month with nice weather and I do love practicing my Spanish! Perhaps Spain, Columbia, or another Spanish-speaking country? And we all know I'm overdue a trip to Korea... 

Keep an eye out for the photos and videos to come shortly! Thanks for reading about my trip - hope you enjoyed it!

Last Day in Peru

After a late start, we headed to the downtown area of Lima and were dropped off at the last Plaza de Armas of our trip! We walked over to the San Francisco church and convent which had a Moorish style. You could see the catacombs through vents that were underneath the church. Afterwards, we walked over to a park where we saw the oldest wall in Lima.

By noon, we headed back to the Plaza de Armas so we could watch the changing of the guard at the Presidential Palace. The band was impressive and the ceremony was interesting. Here's a picture of the palace with some of the guards:

 
We then headed to the Santo Domingo church where there were beautiful chandeliers and many devout Catholics praying. Throughout the church and the city, there are "safe zones" in case of seismic activity - I'm definitely not built for earthquake living as this totally spooked me.

Then we walked through a shopping arcade and Caitlin and Jamie enjoyed some McDonald's french fries. No more Andean food for us!

We finally ended our walking tour of downtown Lima at Plaza de San Martin which is in honor of the liberator, Jose de San Martin. Here's a picture:

We hailed a cab and headed back to Miraflores where we attempted to do some shopping. We ended up at the Chocolate museum where we learned a little about Peruvian chocolate and headed back to our hotel to check out. Thanks to Jamie's platinum status, we could check out at 4 pm!

We moved our reservation at Pescado Capitales up so we could have a late lunch / early dinner. Here's a picture of the ceviche we shared and I had a fish soup due to my upset stomach: 

After dinner, we headed to our hotel to pick up our luggage and went to the Parque de la Reserva to watch about 10 fountains. According to the Guiness Book of World Records, it is the largest fountain light show.

Then Luis, our taxi driver for the night took us to the airport. We had no issues and are now waiting for the announcement of our gate. We will be in NY in the morning!

Lima

We woke up and as I was still not feeling well, we took it easy and slowly made our way out of the hotel. We decided to go to the top museum in Lima called Museo Arqueológico Rafael Larco Herrera. We took a taxi as there really is no other way to get around in Lima. But, there are no meters, so the drivers can dictate the prices.

This museum is the largest private collection of pre-Columbian art. It was a beautiful museum and was a great capstone of our trip as it summarized and showcased the artwork and textiles of the pre-Incan and Incan empires. There was also an incredible room that permitted visitors to see the storage items - there were shelves upon shelves of pots, jewelry, and bowls that were not officially on display. The gardens were also very beautiful.

However, the highlight of the museum was the Erotic room. The Incans made erotic pottery that was absolutely hysterical. As my guidebook says, "it is a separated room from the general collection, like the porn section of a video store."

We then took another taxi to our lunch reservation in the Victoria neighborhood at Chez Wong. The unmarked restaurant has the best ceviche in town and was showcased recently on Anthony Bourdain's show. He visited with Eric Rippert and like them, we enjoyed ceviche and 2 stir-fry's. Chef Javier Wong only prepares lunch, does not accept walk-in's, and is very friendly. As such, I made the reservation in August! Also, there is no menu and all 12 tables or so enjoy the same dishes. Here are some pictures of us with the Chef, his preparation, and the dishes we enjoyed:

After our leisurely lunch, we took a taxi back to our hotel in Miraflores and rested. We eventually made it out to a beach / seaside bar called Cala. This was recommended by Jamie's colleague. We had drinks while listening to the waves and underneath the cross nightlight! (Yes, there's a giant cross of lights on the beach) There was also an annoying smoker who wanted to sit and talk to us and considering we were not all feeling 100%, especially not me, I deterred him with my charming frankness. 

We chatted and eventually made it back to our hotel on our last night in Peru!

Peruvian Cooking

This morning Jamie had organized for us to take a Peruvian cooking class at Casa de Avila. The class starts with an hour walk through the local market. We learned about herbs, frog juice, various fruits, and etc.

For the class, we prepared stuffed peppers, a potato pie, and a salad along with 4 retired Canadian teachers and a Dutch couple. Here's a collage of pictures from the experience:

As the class took a lot out of me, I decided to head back to the hotel and rest. Jamie and Caitlin went sight-seeing. They visited the San Francisco and Compania churches. They also visited a local museum called Museo Santuarios Andinos that housed a mummy named Juanita. She was a sacrificed girl to one of the volcanoes between 1440 and 1470.

We met at the hotel and headed to the airport where they insisted on opening all the bags and we had to re-organize our luggage due to the weight requirements.

The flight was about 1 hour to Lima and you could feel the elevation difference as soon as we landed. We got a cab and made it to our hotel, the Sheraton in Miraflores. 2 nights left in Peru in the capital city!

Arequipa

We woke up this morning on our own time for the very first time! No pickup, no train, and no early tour! Of course, we all naturally woke up around 7 am as we were use to the early wake-up call. We headed down to breakfast and made our way out into Arequipa.

Arequipa is the 2nd largest city in Peru and is nicknamed "the white city". Although most of the buildings are made of sillar, a white volcanic stone, this is not the reason for the nickname. Apparently only whites were allowed to live inside the city and natives could not. This area is also prone to earthquakes like the one from 2 weeks ago.

This morning, we visited the massive Monastery of Santa Catalina, once home to 200 sequestered nuns of the Dominican order. According to my guidebook, "it is the most important and impressive religious monument in Peru." It's built as a city within a city. Today, only a couple dozen nuns remain and a 17th century nun was beatified by Pope John Paul II and will most likely become a saint - Sister Ana. Here's a picture of Jamie and Caitlin near the entrance:

After our walk through, we headed down to the Plaza de Armas - the nicest one we've seen thus far. It had palm trees and a large fountain. It was like we were in Monaco rather than Peru as noted by Caitlin and seen below:

We walked around and then headed into the Cathedral. They wouldn't let me take Communion as I was wearing shorts. This morning, I didn't really think about the fact we would be entering churches and I am starting to run out of clean clothes!

We then grabbed coffee and soda and as the girls walked around, I started feeling really sick. I woke up queasy, but at this point couldn't really function. So I headed back to the hotel and slept the whole afternoon. Jamie and Caitlin went shopping and had lunch. I don't think it's the altitude, but fatigue and I don't think the shrimp in my risotto from last night was well-cooked.

The girls came and checked on me a few times, and since it was Sunday, a lot of sites were closed or closing early. By dinner, I was feeling much better. We headed to Zig Zag, an Andean gastronomy restaurant. I had a quinoa gnocchi and ratatouille, while Jamie had a hamburger cooked on volcanic stone, and Caitlin had a quinoa cheesy soup and salad.

We then headed back to the hotel as we were all fatigued, but we have a 2nd day in Arequipa ahead of us!

Andean Condors

We woke up for breakfast at our hotel around 5:30 am. Caitlin and I were running late and placed our luggage next to Jamie and Mary Ann's in the lobby area. There was a lot of luggage as there was a tour group also staying at the hotel.

At breakfast, Mary Ann asked me for some Advil which was packed in my luggage. So I got up to get it and all the luggage was gone! Caitlin was on her way to return the hotel keys and ran after me as I ran down the steps to a tour bus. They had packed all the bags and the leader said, "I counted the luggage and I wondered why we have 4 more!" Except for Mary Ann's, our luggage was placed on the very bottom since they were big and they had to unpack the entire back of their bus! They were with Shoestring Travel and were all Dutch tourists who were traveling throughout Peru for 23 days! We all couldn't stop laughing and thanked Mary Ann for having a headache, and my insistence for getting the Advil before breakfast was over. I'm not sure what we would have done to chase down our bags all over Peru!

On our way to the Mirador Cruz del Condor, we stopped in a town called Yanque and observed some Colca dancing in their Plaza de Armas. We also visited a lovely church. Along the way, we also picked up more people and it took about 2 hours to get to the lookout over Colca Canyon. We had about an hour there and saw 5 Andean Condors! We felt very lucky as the tour groups only saw 1 yesterday. We watched 1 perched and then 3 perched together. Gray ones are under a year old, then they turn brown, and then with white spots. We watched them fly back and forth and overhead. Their wingspan is 3.5 meters or 12 feet and are the 2nd largest Condors in the Americas - the first being the Californian Condor. They are so large they cannot lift off the ground, but rather take flight from cliff perches. Here's a collage of pictures and I will be posting a videos when I return:

Although not included in the itinerary, our guide Ali, took us on another walk. He used to be a trekking guide, so you could tell he loved the outdoors. We had beautiful views and learned more about the mountains, cactus, and colonial settlements. Colca Canyon is considered the 3rd largest canyon in the world. Here are some pictures from our walk:

We stopped at a few more lookout points and a town called Maca. We had another lunch buffet in Chivay. We ALL enjoyed the chocolate pudding.

Then our bus took us to Arequipa which took about 3 hours and we checked into another Casa Andina. Mary Ann got ready for her flight home in our triple room which was set apart from the rest of the hotel. We walked down to La Chiminée which was down the street from our hotel to enjoy their happy hour, even though we didn't order any happy hour drinks. We had beers and I had a lemon and ginger ale version of a Pisco Sour. We shared fries and a Crapese salad. No joke - the menus always give us a chuckle!

We said goodbye to Mary Ann who had to catch a flight to Lima and then a flight to NY. Mary Ann was a pure delight with her quips, sense of humor, and easy-going nature - even though she had to wake up so early every morning! I mean, she pretty much made Caitlin laugh constantly! We love you and the rest of our Peruvian vacation won't be the same without you! Even at dinner at a wine bar restaurant called Zingaro, Jamie asked for a table for 4! At dinner, we enjoyed a Malbec, steaks, and I had a risotto.

We then headed to our hotel and relaxed in our room. It's been a week in Peru and we've already seen and done so much!

We're Not Descending?

After breakfast at our hotel, Colca Tours picked us up around 6:30 am. We were on our way to the Colca Valley, famous for the Andean Condors and Colca Canyon - said to be bigger than the Grand Canyon!

Our transfer guide's name was Roger and our driver was Francisco. Both were jokesters and had fun chatting with us. They especially enjoyed teasing Caitlin. On our way to the transfer point, we stopped at a lookout to see a Lake called Lagunitas and then another spot to see llamas, alpacas, and flamingos. Here's a picture of us at Lagunitas:

Our transfer spot was a rest stop where we joined a tour group coming from Arequipa. The whole ride was about 5 hours and included more stops to see llamas and sheep. We learned about the colonial settlements. The scenery reminded me of Patagonia where I visited last year with Amanda. It was all pampas and plains, with short shrubbery.

We ascended to at least 4,910 meters which is about 3 miles! We were all short of breath and I experienced my first pins and needles symptom. We had all hoped Puno would be the highest altitude, but alas we were still ascending! Here's Mary Ann showing us the altitude and a picture of me pointing out Chivay:

We descended to Chivay, the gateway to Colca Canyon, to have a buffet lunch and then went to a town called Coporaque, to go on a hour walk where we learned more about pre-Incans, Incans, and colonial life. Also, we could see the volcanos Misti and Chachani and the Rio Colca which is the origin of the Amazon. Here are some pictures of us on our windy walk:

Afterwards, we went to the hot springs of La Calera, where they pumped the water to pools. We wished we could stay longer as it was soothing to our legs after our many days of walking / hiking and we enjoyed the sunset. Here are some pictures of us in the pool including a selfie:

We headed to our hotel called Colca Llaqta in Chivay which had cute duplex rooms. After washing up, we headed down to the Plaza de Armas and had dinner at Cabanas. It included the typical fare we've become accustomed to. I had a quinoa soup, chicken with Andean herbs, and a peach as part of the price fixe. We all shared Cusqueña beers as it was Mary Ann's last night in Peru! After dinner, we headed back to rest for our 5 am wake up call to see the Andean Condors of Colca Canyon!

Lake Titicaca

We had breakfast at 6:30 am as Edgar Adventures was picking us up at 7 am. I had found Edgar Adventures on Trip Advisor and was one of the top tour agencies in Puno. They offered your traditional tours that go on ferry, but we decided to opt for the "off the beaten path speed boat tour". After picking up a few folks and joining with a French tour group, we made it to the dock and boarded Titicaca Express. The tag line is, "authentic, enjoyable"!

Lake Titicaca is the largest body of water in South America and the highest navigable in the world. It straddles Peru and Bolivia. Legend has it the sun god was born from the lake.

It took about 45 minutes to get to Taquile Island where we met a "leader of the island". The island is self-sustaining and is exempt from taxes. The men weave, while the women spool wool. The man courts a woman by showing the quality of his hat which takes about 2 months to make. In return, the woman makes a red belt. Single men wear white hats. There are also 3 rules: work hard, no cheating / stealing, and no lying. If you break a rule, you are subject to a minimum of 3 lashes from a yellow stick and up to about 24 maximum. The maximum is for adulterers. They often marry around the age of 16-18 and divorce is prohibited.

The views of the lake and the island was very tranquil. Although they sustain themselves through agriculture, they are allowed one additional business to cater to tourists and so that there is reasonable equality.

We ended up at the "community center" where they offered tea and showed us their handmade goods. Here's a picture of some of the Taquile people at the community center:

We then walked to a sandy beach and relaxed as we listened to the waves. Indeed, although it was a group tour, it was slow paced and away from the typical crowds. Our guide, Percy, was attentive and explained everything in Spanish and English. Here are some pictures of us:

We then headed to a peninsula where we had truly a farm to table lunch. We watched the leader bless the mound of dirt with coca leaves and chicha. Underneath were pots of food such as lima beans, potatoes, sweet potato, chicken, and bananas on hot rocks. Along with this, we had trout and quinoa soup for lunch. Talk about farm to table dining! Everything was super tasty and fresh.

After lunch, we headed to Titino Island which is an example of one of the 85 floating islands in Lake Titicaca made of totora reeds. The island leader, Thomas, explained how they build, anchor, and maintain the island by layering the reeds. Also, Caitlin treated me to a reed boat ride - thanks Caitlin! Underneath the reeds were about 5,000 plastic bottles helping the boat to float. Here's a picture of some homes and a model of their island which they re-enacted the building and maintenance:

We headed back to Puno and enjoyed Pisco Sours on the boat. On the bus back to our hotel, we were told two of the US $50 bills that we had given them last night were rejected by the bank as forgeries (Also, I realized this morning that per my post from yesterday, I didn't wire the Western Union funds to this agency, but it was for the agency taking us to Colca Canyon tomorrow). We insisted it must be a misunderstanding as a lot of US currency had gone through changes and security upgrades. So we headed to the Edgar Adventures office and the worker showed us the form filled out by the bank and copies of the bills. We said we could give them $100 if we could get the bills back to use in the US. 

After going to the bank a block away and speaking to the manager at length, she showed us what made them forgeries. We pulled out Caitlin's iPhone to look for the new security features implemented after 2004 and lo and behold, we could not find 3 of them! We couldn't see the watermark! She also would not return the bills, because they cannot allow the bills back into circulation.

You hear about rampant counterfeit in South America and always having to check the change, but who knew WE could be carrying counterfeit US bills - the irony! Also, South Americans are very careful and the bills have to be pristine - no torn or worn bills. We made copies of the forms and bills and hopefully, Caitlin's bank will reimburse her back in the US! Also, with every trip, there's adventure and if this is the worst thing that happens to us, we're of the mindset that we're pretty golden.

After the adventure with the bank and counterfeit US bills, we rested at the hotel and went to dinner to celebrate my 32nd birthday. The girls treated me to dinner at Ukusku and we shared salad, pizza, two pastas, ceviche, and a bottle of Peruvian red wine. I have never been away for my birthday - I have only celebrated in NY and DC, so it definitely feels different.

I feel truly blessed to have been able to celebrate it in Peru with Jamie, Mary Ann, and Caitlin. Truly unforgettable and a trip of a lifetime! I said after Machu Picchu, everything was gravy. Also, I remember telling my college roommate, Anne's parents at brunch earlier this year, that after 28, life has been pretty good. I have felt stable and been able to go on a big trip every year and this year will be two! I am able to do the things I love to do and blessed to be surrounded and supported by family and friends! Thank you all for the birthday wishes from around the globe!

Andean Explorers

After breakfast at our wonderful hotel, we headed to the Cusco train station to catch the 8 am Peru Rail train to Puno, called the Andean Explorer. The train ride is 10 hours and includes a few stops across around 240 miles. This train is run jointly with Orient-Express and includes lunch, a welcome Pisco Sour, live music and dancing, and a short fashion show.

Coincidentally, we were seated next to Jamie and Mary Ann's colleagues who we met on Wayna Picchu as they were heading to Puno / Lake Titcaca as well. The train runs only on Monday, Wednesday, and Saturday and the ticket is $255. In the back of train, there is an observation car and the scenery is beautiful. Here are some pictures:

This train does sell out and the other option is to take a bus that takes a little less time and is much cheaper, but we all felt taking a train like this was one of those "once in a lifetime" experiences.

When we got off at one stop, I asked a Peru Rail employee, "¿dónde estamos?" And I thought Jamie's colleague was going to correct my pigeon Spanish, but instead cut in and replied "estamos nowhere!" Indeed, the route is very, very remote.

For lunch, we had potato and vegetable lasagna along with some red wine. We also enjoyed happy hour - 2 drinks for the price of 1! We ordered passion fruit Pisco Sours and a Pisco Sunrise. They also brought out desserts and peach Bellinis. Indeed, it was a luxurious experience and the 10 hours went by quickly.

Around 6:30 pm, we arrived in Puno and headed to our hotel. Puno is the highest altitude of our journey at 3,830 meters / 12,562 feet. The map showed that the hotel was about 2.5 blocks west from the train terminal and I confirmed with a Peru Rail employee. Our hotel is called the Casa Andina Tikarani. Casa Andina is a Peruvian hotel chain of reasonable hotels. 

However, as we walked down the road that was dark and had lots of construction, it was a bit of an adventure - especially since 2 wheels had fallen off Mary Ann's luggage on our flight to Lima. I re-confirmed with 2 people on the street and a hotel employee spotted us and ran to help us with our luggage, as the entire road in front of our hotel was being dug up! They did not mention this on Orbitz…

We dropped off our stuff at our hotel and walked over to Edgar Adventures to pay our balance for our day long speed boat tour of Lake Titicaca. I had sent the deposit via Western Union per their request and had to set up an account. According to the website, I can now send money around the world and to US prisoners…

We thought we had reached the Plaza de Armas or main square, but we were fooled. We eventually found the real one that had the restaurant recommended by Caitlin's guidebook. It was called Mojsa and it was across from the Cathedral. We ordered pizza, salad, and a sandwich. We were all short of breath due to the high altitude and I was feeling queasy. I had eaten on the train, but had lost my appetite which is another symptom of altitude sickness. However, I feel much better than I did in Cusco on the 1st day. 

We headed back to the hotel early, which included walking through the road construction and circumventing the piles of dirt, so we could rest before our speed boat tour of Lake Titicaca!

Cusco

As we had heard Jack's Cafe served a great breakfast, we decided to head to the San Blas neighborhood this morning. We had pancakes, eggs, and french toast. I'm still sad that I can't drink orange juice as the acidity doesn't go well with the altitude, but I had a mate de coca. After breakfast, we walked back to our hotel where our trusty and reliable driver from Cusco Transport, Jose Carlos met us at 9 am. We had arranged a Four Ruins tour of places near Cusco for half a day. All of these ruins were included in our boleto turistico. At this point, we had seen so many ruins, but were interested in seeing more. The UK has castles, Bali has temples, and Peru has Inca ruins!

The first one we saw was the largest and only 20% of it remains, called Sacsayhuaman. It was a fortress and was the site of one of the bloodiest battles against the Spaniards. The stones are quite large and we enjoyed beautiful views of Cusco city. After hiking up Wanya Picchu, we all definitely felt the soreness in our legs, but are so proud of what we have been able to accomplish. Here's a picture of Jamie and me and the people by the stones puts the size in perspective:

Afterwards, we headed to Tambomachay which is known as the Inca Baths. It's a small complex of terraces and a pool where they most likely worshipped and held ceremonies. A photo of Mary Ann, Caitlin, and me:

Right next to Tambomachay, is Puca Pucara, a small red fortress where it was most likely a storage facility and has nice views of the countryside. 

Our final ruin was Q'enko where there is a cavelike altar used for conducting sacrifices. Here's a picture of us in front of the cave:

On our way back to the hotel, we stopped by an Alpaca store and bought a few items. We rested for a bit back at the hotel and enjoyed oranges that we bought from one of the peddlers at the ruins. 

As we were leaving our hotel, it started to rain. So instead of meandering the city, we decided to go right across the street to the Temple of the Sun - Qoricancha and Santo Domingo Church. According to my guidebook, it is a perfect example of Inca / Andean culture and Catholicism colliding. Due to celebrations of the Virgin Mary, there were children dancing in native costumes. Indeed, we had even seen a parade last night and there were fireworks to start off the celebrations. 

Then we walked up to the Plaza de Armas which is the main square to visit the Cusco Cathedral. The Cathedral has two churches - one on each side. One is the Church of the Holy Family (coincidentally, the name of my church in NY) and the other is the Church of Triumph. Inside the Cathedral is where the Last Supper painting with the guinea pig is located and the Apostles are drinking chicha which is a local fermented maize beer. The Cathedral and the churches had many paintings, incredible wood carvings, and several altars. 

As it was around 2 pm, we were hungry looking for a good restaurant. A restaurant peddler came up to us and kept putting her menu in front of Jamie. After saying "no gracias" a few times and as we whipped out our guidebooks, Mary Ann started looking at various menus in front of restaurants that lined the square. By the third one, she waved us over and this was actually the same restaurant that the original lady was pushing us to! The lady ran up to Mary Ann and started putting the menu in front of her. It was clearly the same menu, but Mary Ann refused to look at her menu and would only read the menu that was in front of the restaurant. Mary Ann waved us over saying we should eat there. We laughed as we watched Mary Ann add salt to the wound. The restaurant was called Maizitos, or little corn - they had corn inside the tabletops. We asked for the very same price fixe menu the lady had quoted us, so all in all, we ended up at the same place that we tried to avoid. We did end up having a nice view of the plaza as it had stopped raining. Included in our lunch was a drink, so Jamie and I had pisco sours and I claimed "when in Rome…" Yet ironically, instead of having Peruvian food, I ordered spaghetti as Caitlin aptly pointed out. Love you Caitlin for keeping me in check!

After our lunch, we headed back to the hotel to wash up and then to enjoy a round of our hotel's famous pisco sours. We ordered one that had passion fruit and Mary Ann had one that tasted like a mojito. We then went to the Museo Nativo where people line up an hour in advance to watch traditional local dancing. The dancing was also included in our boleto turistico ticket. 

After the show, it started to rain again so after a quick stop at our hotel, we headed to the Plaza and ended up eating at Incanto. We had a bottle of Malbec, shared a ceviche and a salad with fried chicken and palm hearts. For dinner, I had a "traditional Peruvian dish" according to the menu - black linguini with prawns. Not sure how it's Peruvian, but I love black linguini!

After dinner, we headed back to the hotel to rest up and get ready for our luxury train to Puno tomorrow!

Machu Picchu

Jamie and I had started flirting with the idea of going to Machu Picchu about a year ago and finally, today was the day. The reason why we came to Peru:

The saga of trying to go to Machu Picchu was definitely interesting. It took weeks to book the tickets. The government website is very finicky, confusing, and you can only use a "verified by Visa" card. Along with trying Jamie's 3 different Visas, mine, and my colleague Ryan's, we were out of luck. Once your card is rejected, you couldn't use it again. Apparently there is a scalping problem so there's a lot of security. Machu Picchu only entrance tickets are 128 soles (around $46). But travel agencies will charge you about $20-30 tickets extra each to book it locally, because it's so difficult to book online and because there are only 2,500 available per day. Jamie and I were trying to save the money, but didn't want to be stuck.

Ultimately, Cusco Transport saved the day and purchased them on our behalf without a cash advance from us! So trusting and they only charged a fee of $5 per ticket. For the win!

We woke up today at 4:30 am for our 5 am breakfast and so we can try to grab an early bus, with the first one leaving around 5:30 am. We left Gringo Bill's around 5:15 am and we split up so Mary Ann and I stood on the bus line and Caitlin and Jamie went to purchase the round-trip bus tickets which were $18.50 each. The buses and the line moved quickly and we were up on the switchback roads in no time. Jamie handled the experience well even though switchback roads are not her fave.

We arrived at the entrance about 6 am and immediately went to the iconic spot to take photos and climbed up to the funerary area where we had gorgeous views. The amount of stones and buildings are truly incredible. Some of the temple stones are joined so perfectly, you can't put a piece of a paper in between. Don't know how they did it so many years ago! My guidebook said that Machu Picchu was built in the mid-1400s and it appears it was a ceremonial and agricultural center. The Incas revered nature and Machu Picchu represents one of the world's greatest examples of landscape art.

It was a bit cloudy in the beginning, but it cleared up pretty quickly. We then headed on a 30 minute walk to the Inca Bridge. This was definitely a B-list attraction, but interesting nonetheless and we had plenty of time.

At this point it was around 8 am, and it was already getting hot and due to the high chance of rain, we had umbrellas and raincoats, so we decided to leave to run to the loo as Mary Ann would call it and to check items at the baggage storage. The Andean sun at these altitudes is deceivingly strong and we wanted to lighten our load before our next hike up to Wayna Picchu or Huayna Picchu, spelled both ways. The peak is at 2,693 meters or 8,835 feet. Machu Picchu itself is at 2,400 meters or 7,872 feet. Here's a picture of the peak as pointed to by Jamie and then it's the tall one behind us and to the right:

This extra peak only allows 400 visitors per day - 200 at 7 am and 200 at 10 am. Wayna Picchu tickets are more expensive at 152 soles ($54). We hiked up, if you can call it that. At times, we felt like we were rock climbing or rappelling (there were rope cords at certain points) due to the steepness factor and we went to the very top - which included practically crawling through a cavern. Here's a picture close to the top:

On our way to the top, Jamie and Mary Ann ran into some Bloomberg colleagues and I met some Koreans who were living in São Paulo where I went in May. Small world!

After 2 hours round-trip, we made it to the bottom. Thank goodness Jamie and I were pretty much over our altitude sickness and frankly, I felt pretty good. In hiking, just gotta put one foot in front of the other and a journey of a 1,000 miles begins with 1 step! All kidding aside, I felt a little like the Energizer Bunny.

Afterwards, we visited the lower areas where we saw more temples, buildings, and terraces. After the hike and walk through, it was about 2 pm and we headed to the Machu Picchu Sanctuary Lodge which has a buffet lunch for $40 each. We sprung for the option including Cusqueña beer for $43. We all had multiple plates and enjoyed sitting down. Finally, we boarded a bus and headed back to Gringo Bill's to pick up our stuff and wash up. We had to catch a 4:43 pm train back to Poroy which is just outside of Cusco. It took about 3.5 hours to get back. Jose Carlos, our trusty driver from Cusco Transport picked us up and we drove about 25 minutes back to Palacio del Inka where we got 2 rooms - South American hotels are pretty particular about only allowing 2 people per room even though you can easily fit 4. Although we squeezed the first night, we didn't want to bend the rules too much. Both rooms got upgraded to suites - for the win!

Due to the time, we dropped off our stuff and went directly to Sipan, a popular Chifa restaurant. Chifa is Peruvian Chinese food and we were told we had to try it. We got a bunch of dishes and some soups. By the end of the dinner, we were fading fast as we had started this epic day at 4:30 am! 

After dinner, we headed back to our hotel to rest up for some more sight-seeing in Cusco tomorrow!

Sacred Valley

We woke up around 6 am to enjoy a beautiful buffet breakfast in our hotel as Cusco Transport was picking us up at 7 am. We met our driver, Jose Carlos and our tour guide, Jaime in our lobby.

In our mini-van, we were off to see the various archaeological sites in the valley. On our way, we stopped at Awanakancha, a private project associated with local farming communities to promote traditional Andean weaving. As such, they had alpacas, llamas, guanacos, and vicuñas. We were able to feed the animals alfalfa and they were extremely mild and hungry. We observed women weaving and learned about dying the alpaca fibers.

Through the valley, we saw many farming terraces, villages, and animals. The Sacred Valley is known for harvesting corn and many types of potatoes. We finally made our way to our first ruin, Pisac where we saw an Inca Cemetery. In the side of the mountain, you could see holes where dead bodies were brought into after being mummified. We walked our way to the top of the ruin where so many people once lived, but were forced to leave. Here's a picture with Pisac behind us:

 

As we were leaving, hordes of tourists were just arriving. We were glad that we had gotten an early start. As we drove through the valley, we learned that schools and towns were proud enough to clear parts of the mountain to put their town name, school name, or number. Our guide told us on the anniversary, they light candles to celebrate.

We then headed to the famous Pisac Market where they were stalls upon stalls of native goods. We didn't buy anything, but it was fun to check out. The market use to only be on Sundays, but due to the many tourists, they have the market everyday.

We drove through the valley to Urubumba, which has grown considerably over the years. Jamie and I had pondered booking a Starwood hotel here, but decided it was too much travel in one day. We had a buffet lunch and a pisco sour. A pisco sour is the most famous drink in Peru and is very popular in South America - I had many in Chile last year with Amanda.

After lunch, we headed to Maras, the famous salt mines. There are about 3,000 salt pans owned by about 300 people from the town of Maras. Legend has it that there were four brothers and they put one brother in a cave and holed it up. Saddened by his brothers' wishes to kill him, he cried so many tears that the salty stream came from the mountain. One of the brothers lived to be the first Inca king. Jaime, our guide, said that the water from the mountains actually flows through salt deposits. We all dipped our fingers in the river and it was indeed, very salty. You can't see all the salt pans, but here's a few behind us:

 

Afterwards, we headed to Moray shown below, known for concentric circles used for raising crops and performing rituals. They were indeed built / restored to perfection. 

 

Due to timing, we had to skip the Chinchero ruins. We had definitely taken a more leisurely pace as both Jamie and I were still suffering from the effects of the altitude. Walking up and down steep ruins definitely made us breathe heavy and our hearts pound. However, we all agreed we had the benefit of resting in the car. We had pondered spending the second day in Cusco, but that would have been more walking at a higher altitude. The Sacred Valley is about 500 meters / 1,640 feet less than Cusco at 2,900 meters / 8,510 feet.

We finally made it to Ollantaytambo where the Incas built "irrigation systems and a crowning temple designed for worship and astronomical observation". Indeed, we got to see the Temple of 10 Niches where there were trapezoidal windows and the Temple of the Sun. We learned about the Incan love for the number 3 as they believed in the skies, earth, and the inner world (underground). We also saw the beautiful Princess Baths.

Afterwards, we walked through the village where our guide showed us original Incan walls and Incan homes. We were allowed to go into one where a man was cooking stuffed potatoes and there were about a dozen guinea pigs on the floor eating scraps. Currently, the guinea pigs were pets, but meant for food later. I equate it to having chickens - there was also a chicken in the home hanging with the guinea pigs. 

Here's a map of the Sacred Valley, so you can see how everything is situated and how much we saw in one day! Typically what we scheduled would be done in 1.5 days in a group tour, but since we had a private car, we could pack it in.   

We walked back to the main square and were taken to the train station where we boarded a train to Machu Picchu. The train service is called Peru Rail and it took us less than two hours to get to Aguas Calientes, also known as Machu Picchu Pueblo. We were met at the train station by a woman from our hotel, called Gringo Bill's - an Aguas Calientes institution. I had booked a family suite which ended up being 2 rooms connected by a bathroom and did not look like the pictures on the website. But it was good enough for us for 10 hours. 

As Jamie wanted to rest, Mary Ann, Caitlin, and I headed to the local square and ate at the first restaurant we found, Amaru. We split a vegetable pizza and a caesar salad. Then we went back to Gringo Bill's, as we have plans to be at Machu Picchu as close to sunrise as possible!

Peru!

Before I start telling you about the day, I wanted to include this side note. Asians, including me, love to take photos of food. But the Asian tourists on my flight took it to a whole new level! They took photos of the airplane food! I mean, they took a photo of both the pasta and the chicken options. A whole new level of Asian taking photos of food...

Okay, so we arrived in Lima just fine and we were planning to enjoy our layover and exchange money and etc. However, due to the massive lines at immigration, baggage drop, and security, we barely got to our plane on time. Due to the bookings, Caitlin was on a flight 20 minutes after us so we met in Cusco, but the flight was only an hour. While we waited for her, we stopped by the Peru Rail booth and picked up our train tickets.

Our dutiful driver and booking agent met us at the airport. I had booked Cusco Transport for our transfers and guided tours by private car. I was a little nervous as with any international bookings and language issues, the emails would be a little confusing. One time they sent me the itinerary and referred to me as "Mrs. Gong". My response: "I don't know who Mrs. Gong is, but the itinerary looks like ours." I wasn't sure if I was more offended he called me Mrs. or another Asian sounding name...

We got to our hotel in about 20 minutes and is the Palacio del Inka, a Starwood hotel. The hotel is gorgeous and with Jamie's platinum status, we are only paying $75 per night along with her points for this 4 star hotel! Nakia, I hope you're jealous as I know you were afraid if you came, we'd be in hostels the whole time!

Immediately they served us mate de coca or coca-leaf tea to help battle the altitude sickness. The altitude is about 11,150 feet and everyone recommends taking it easy on the first day and to stay hydrated! Lucky for us, we were upgraded to a suite and had 2 bathrooms, so we have plenty of room to relax! For the win!

We rested for a few hours and made our way to Avenida El Sol, the main street, and bought a Boleto Turistico which will let us into about 16 sites in the Cusco and Sacred Valley for 130 soles (around $50).

We then headed to Plaza de Armas which is a mecca for international travelers and has a few churches. As we were hungry, we then went up a hill on a road called Suecia where we lunched at Kusikuy, well known for serving delicious guinea pig - a Peruvian delicacy. We all decided we will have to try it once, but today was not the day.

Already battling a headache, I got incredibly unsteady walking up the hill and nauseous. I ended up not eating and had to lay down on a sofa. I felt bad about embarrassing my companions (they said they were cool with it as I had turned stark white), but the restauranteurs were incredibly understanding. We were also the only ones there mid-afternoon. The girls had lamb ribs, chicken and beef kebabs, stuffed peppers, and a chicken casserole which by all accounts was delicious. After lunch, we went back to the hotel and napped for a few hours. The restauranteurs said that this would help acclimatize. Even all our toiletries were affected as all our bottles and packages were squirting and busting open due to the altitude pressure. Needless to say, it provided some comic relief as we all had issues!

During our naps, Mary Ann went down to the bar for some coffee and met a friendly Texan who visited a church with a painting of the Last Supper - the painting had guinea pig on the table! We decided if it was good enough for Jesus, we were going to have to eventually try it!

For dinner, we went to Inkazuela that was on the Plaza Nazarenas where they were known for their stews. I had a coconut chicken curry with ginger that was tasty. The restaurant was adorable with a fireplace and a very attentive waiter. We split a bottle of Malbec to toast our first night in Peru! All of us felt a little short of breath, Mary Ann saw flashing blue lights, and I ended up getting sick - but I rallied and got to finally eat. I have now learned from Caitlin, I shouldn't have drank all that orange juice on the plane as the acidity doesn't go well with alititude sickness. Hopefully, the altitude sickness will go away soon - they say it hits you mostly on the 1st day. 

So we're back at our hotel, and organizing overnight bags for a day tour of Sacred Valley by private car organized by Cusco Transport. They're picking us up at 7 am and dropping us off in Ollantaytambo where we will take a train to Machu Picchu!

South America Again?

So, I'm feeling pretty lucky. I went to Brazil in May and Argentina and Chile January last year. Although I hadn't really planned to go on a 2nd international trip this year, when Jamie said she was dying to go to Peru, I was IN.

Jamie and I started planning in May as soon as I got back from Brazil. We are doing the classic "gringo trail" which includes Arequipa, Puno, Cusco, and of course Machu Picchu!

Throughout our planning, we shared our itinerary with many of our friends as we were operating under "the more, the merrier" concept. Jamie and I became fast friends back in 2007 through volunteering with the Inner-City Scholarship Fund. Jamie's colleague from 2 different companies, Mary Ann, will be traveling with us for the 1st week. The 4th in the group is Caitlin, a friend from my legendary Zog football team, Sweep the Leg. Caitlin has traveled with me before to Montreal and is accustomed to and appreciates my travel booking / spreadsheet / blogging skills!

We all made our way to JFK to catch our close to midnight flight that will get us to Lima by about 7 am. We then have a layover for about 2 hours before our flight to Cusco.

It's been a busy week with the quarter close, 2 wakes, packing, and general running around. But after a busy summer and lots of work, I'm psyched to be away, out of the country, and practicing my Spanish!

We have all taken our altitude sickness pills and are waiting for our flight. We all can't believe the day is finally here and we can't wait to be in Peru!

Another South American Trip

A map of our itinerary for our trip to Peru! Jamie, Mary Ann, Caitlin, and I leave tomorrow night and I can't wait for the big trip!!!