Drive to Billings

We didn’t get too far before a scary warning light appeared on the dash. We looked it up and it could mean a number of things. We found a service place not too far away and were able to stop there. Kaleb's Service snd Repair was the name and Kaleb and his guy took care of us. They ran diagnostics and it showed the catalytic converter was clogged. They weren’t able to fix anything but said we could continue on to Billings and see a dealer there. I called Mercedes of Billings and Ryan said it’s probably the particulate filter. Right before we left we got a letter from Mercedes saying there was an extended warranty on the same filter. He didn’t make any promises but said if we come by tomorrow he’d try to at least have someone look at it, said we should come around 11 as they’re booked solid until then. So we got to our KOA campground (world’s first!) around 6:30. Nice campground, we heated up some dinner, walked to the camp store for ice cream. It was actually nice enough to sit outside for a while, after 2 days in the mid 90s. KOA of Billings-Nice!

First day, drive to Sioux Falls

Uneventful drive. Screwed up and drained Jackery by using it to power a fan and laptop at the same time. So laptop died mid-afternoon. Ate at ROAM in hopes of good BBQ. Place looked nice, and my old fashioned was good. But the brisket was really bad, very dry. Very disappointing. Deb’s cornbread was also bad, tasted like cornmeal more than cornbread. There was a little exctiement, with a woman by us telling the staff she wanted to leave while the guy with her had her blocked into the booth. She was able to leave without an issue though.u So, just a day on the road, nothing special, just a bleh dinner. Tower campground-Poor but did the job.

EARLY pick up. Long travel day home.

One of the problems with doing these trips with a tour company is they are very, very paranoid about getting you to the airport on time. This was the most extreme example. Vaccine. Period We had a flight at 6:30 and they picked us up at 2:30 in the morning. So we got to the airport about 3:30. Had 3 hours to kill at the airport and also about 3 hours of sleep. But after that everything went as smooth as you could have wanted. Both flights were on time. When we got home, eventually. Very tired, had a very good, adventurous trip.

Machu Picchu

Today is Machu Picchu day. I still didn’t feel great, but was able to make it to the train that took us up to Machu Picchu. Our tickets weren’t until after noon, so we walked around the tourist area for a bit and then went to grab lunch at the restaurant where they new guide told us he would meet us. I went to the bathroom, to see if I was gonna be sick again. When I got back, Deb was sitting with the same British couple that we had lunch with on Lake Titticaca. They actually did a hike on the Incan Trail to get up to Machu Picchu and we’re just getting back from seeing everything. One funny thing is, I told the waiter I didn’t want anything to eat because I wasn’t feeling well. To be nice though he decided to bring me chicken soup, which was the last thing that came out of me the wrong way. The site and smell of it almost made me wanna get sick again, so I asked him to take it away. So he did and then he brought me a plain chicken breast with white rice, I was able to eat most of that without issue. 

We then took a very interesting bus ride to the Citadel, which is where we started our hike from. There are several different hikes you can take here, we took one that brought us to a viewpoint up high, where we could look down on a the city, we didn’t have tickets for the hike that takes you right into the ruins themselves, but that was OK, especially with how I was feeling. Pretty spectacular views of the whole valley and the city itself-very, very, very cool thing to see. The way the city sits in the mountains among the cloud is really pretty spectacular. Glad we were able to make the trek up here to see this. It is definitely a once in a lifetime kind of thing.

After Machu Picchu, we took the train back to another bus to take us all the way to Cusco, where we be staying in the the same hotel we had been staying at before when we were in Cusco.  By the time we got to Cusco we were both starving.  So we grabbed some food from a street vendor before we got in the van to the hotel. When we left in the morning from our hotel, they told us to leave our bag there, and it would be sent back to our hotel in Cusco. Unfortunately, when we got to our hotel, the bag wasn’t there, it ended up showing up about an hour and a half later, not that big of a deal in the end, but it made us nervous, since we were leaving for back home the next morning.  Also, by this point it was almost midnight, and we were being picked up at 2:30 in the morning.So instead of a night sleep, we basically got a nap.

Tomorrow we take a looong flight home.

More llamas and alpacas, interesting terraces

Our first stop was yet another llama/alpaca place. Our guide just kind of dropped us there with a girl who had no idea what to do with us other than give us some feed for the animals, which Deb had no interest in doing. So we kind of latched onto another group. By following this group we were able see how the locals die, spin, and weave the wool, which was pretty interesting actually.

We then went to the Cinchero ruins, a bit different than the other ruins we’ve seen in that there were a lot of terraces to see here. But otherwise, yeah, more Incan ruins.  We then had lunch at a restaurant called Hanka, which was a buffet. It was real nice setting where we sat outside by a garden with running water. I’m not sure how the food was, though, as that ice cube in my drink last night has come back to haunt me. Not feeling very good, so just had some plain rice and chicken. We did have a nice conversation with our guide here though, he’s an older guy and pretty down to earth.

After lunch, we went to see the circular terraces. These terraces are on the side of a mountain, and there are several levels of them in concentric ring.  By building these terraces like this they were able to actually have different climate zones for each terrace, which allowed them to grow different crops and experiment to see which crops grew best in different conditions. It was pretty interesting, but very freaking hot out there. This did not go well with my nauseous stomach.

After this, they drop us at our hotel in Urumamba, the gateway area for Machu Picchu, which was pretty nice. It was kind of weird though, as when we went to dinner we were the only ones in the restaurant and unfortunately this is when I really started to feel bad, and had to leave before our food even was delivered. I went back to our room and got very sick, so that kind of killed the night for us tomorrow we go to Machu Picchu, and hopefully I’ll feel good enough to enjoy it.

 Today we had a tour of the city of Cusco. We started out by driving out of the city to see the ruins of the lightning god temple, it is amazingly well preserved. It was kind of cool to see how the walls were shaped to look like lightning. We also drove up to the fortress that guarded the city for them. You could really see what a great location this was for the fortress, as it overlooked the entire city and sat in a narrow gap between the mountains that is really the only approach to the city.

We then came back into the city to see the big cathedral, which was pretty spectacular, like a lot of cathedrals.   This one was huge, almost like a little town in itself with really nice gardens. They had a restaurant and some shops set up inside of it.  While in Cusco we saw two processions for Corpus Christi, which is apparently a really big festival here that goes on for 12 days. It is ending tomorrow so I think that’s why we’re seeing a lot of the processions now. The last thing we did was go to dinner at a place. Our guide recommended for us. It was right off the main square and we had it pretty much to ourselves, so we were able to sit by a window and watch the going on in the street while we ate. The food was really good and I tried a local drink, which seemed like a great idea until I finished it and realized there was a big ice cube in it.  Hopefully this cube was made with filtered water.

Bus tour-Views, Hey Jude, and an amazing church

They picked us up on time at 5:30(!) for another bus tour that got us from Puno to Cusco.  Along the way we stopped at a lookout with great views, a lot of vendors, and bathrooms.  We also stopped in the small towns of Pukara and Raqchi, both of which were nice.  After those towns we had lunch at a really nice place with all glass walls and a pretty good buffet.  There was a great view of snow-capped mountains and a pretty waterfall.  There were also alpacas hanging around that we could walk right up to and pet if we wanted.  They had a little 3-piece band playing while we ate.  It was weird to hear Hey Jude in the Andes mountains when you’re surrounded by all the traditional culture. 

After lunch we stopped at a big Incan village where the guide was pretty good, told us a lot about the place. Why it was there (part of the Inca trail goes by it) and who built it.  Our last stop was Andahuaylillas to see the San Pedro Apostol Church.  There are some amazing paintings and sculptures here, along with gold covered altars.  Unfortunately, photography was forbidden inside.  I guess they didn’t build this church for tourists though.  It was a good, but very long, day.