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.

Floating Islands on Lake Titicaca

 

Today we were picked up at 7:30-they were right on time which was surprising.  Confusion because we took the elevator to the ground floor to be picked up, but everyone else met in the lobby on the 2nd floor.  So they were looking for us when we were already waiting by the door.  Anyway, it was a quick trip to the dock where we met our guide, Pabel, who spoke good English and seemed very knowledgeable.  We took a nice boat ride to a floating island.  The islands are made from the reeds that surround the lake by the Uros people.  We met the “President” of the island.  The island had 4 families on it for a total of 10 people.  The president was nice, and funny.  He told us how the make the islands and a lot of other stuff.  At one point during his talk another guy walked up holding a dead pelican, which seemed to catch everyone off-guard, including the president.  We then went into one of the houses and put on some of their clothes for a picture.  Then they put on the hard sell for things they had knitted.  We liked a small tapestry but they wanted 200 Sols which seemed really high.  Instead we bought a pillow cover for 100 sols, which was also high, but not as bad.

Took a short ride in a reed boat, which was pushed by a regular motor boat, to the capital island.  This was kind of a scam and they pressured us to pay for this goofy boat ride. We did basically nothing on this island but wait to go on another ride to Tanquile.  They were basically holding us captive in hopes we’d buy some food or trinkets.  I was excited to see the floating islands and meet the people but unfortunately, while it is still cool and I’d recommend it, it very much is a tourist thing now.  In fact, I later learned that most of the Uros people don’t even live on the islands anymore.  They just go there during the day to perform for tourists, then return to their actual houses in Puno.

We got back on the boat for another nice ride-the weather was chilly but completely sunny, and the lake was calm and beautiful. This trip lasted about 1 hour 20 minutes before arriving at Tanquile.  Which is a regular (non floating) island.  Very reminiscent of a Greek island.  We Walked a steep path to the top while Pabel taught us some things, he was very conscious of the effort this was taking for us in the elevation and stopped several times while explaining the dating process and the meaning of the local’s clothes to us. We had a nice lunch outside before our trip back to Puno, which took about 1 hour 45 minutes on the boat. 

Once back in Puno we took an Uber to Lima Street-a pedestrian street filled with shops and restaurants.  Here we got more Sols, water and some souvenirs.  Ate at a brick oven pizza place and it was pretty good.  We grabbed a taxi and got back to the hotel with no issues.

Colca Canyon, Condors and COLD

 

Today we were picked up at 6:15 and we continued the bus tour from yesterday.  We bought a tablecloth in Yanque, which is a nice little town, they sure put on a show for the tourists, dancing around the square in traditional dress.  They also had llamas wearing sunglasses, which I thought was hilarious.

We then stopped at some viewpoints in the Cola Valley and then Canyon of the Condors.  At first not much was happening, They warned us that it often is too cold in the morning for the birds to fly. But then after about 1/2 an hour, the birds started appearing in the sky. These condors are huge and they're very cool to watch flying around. We must have watched for at least another 1/2 an hour before getting back on the bus.  

After a bit we stopped for lunch, which was pretty good. After about two more hours on the bus we arrived at the Lagunillas Lake overlook, near Puno.  It was REALLY windy and cold.   The elevation here is 14478 feet.  They had a gift shop which was a good way to get out of the cold.  We bought a couple of souvenirs here.  Before arriving in Puno we stopped for gas and a potty break. We got out of the bus and stepped into a cold gale.  Temp was 40, the real feel was19.  At the lake overlook the wind may actually have been stronger and the temp colder.

At the end of another long day we arrived in Puno, which is the city on Lake Titicaca.  We had a good dinner (with kind of poor service) in the hotel restaurant looking out at the lake and city through floor to ceiling windows, pretty nice (but still cold)