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.

 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)

 

 

Bus tour to Yura and Chivay

 

Waited over an hour for our tour bus/van.  Today we drove up into the mountains, stopping at viewpoints on the other side of the volcanoes that surround Arequipa.  We saw a lot of wild Guanacos and some pretty nice scenery during the ride.  We stopped at the highest point of the trip-almost 16000 ft, both of us had headaches from elevation.  I had been chewing Coca leaves to stave off the elevation sickness, but it still got to me some.  

We also stopped and hung out with Llamas and Alpacas along the way.  We stopped in Yura and Chivay-where we had lunch.  We got to our hotel above the town of Chivay, and we had the rest of the afternoon ourselves.  Of course, I still felt like crap (elevation didn’t help) so I took a nap when we got there.  I woke up freezing, it turns out there was no heating system in the hotel.  

We just had a small heater that didn’t warm up room at all.  All we had to help us was heated mattress pads.  So if we were in bed it was fine, out of bed, not so much.  We just ate at hotel restaurant, all they had for heat there was a small wood burning stove, the workers were wearing winter coats, very bizarre.  The food was pretty good, just had to eat it before it got cold.  Poor night of sleep-air is VERY dry and I couldn’t get comfortable.

Just a long and tiring day for me, did see some good stuff though.

Tour of Arequipa

 

Even though we got in after 3 I woke up around 6:30. My cold is much worse and that may have contributed to my not being able to sleep as now a cough has started, yeah!  We went down for breakfast at 9:30 just before they stopped serving and then went back to bed.  We had a 2 o’clock tour of Arequipa, our driver was the same guy that picked us up from the bus at 2:30 AM.  Maya was our guide, and she was very good.  We went to a couple of viewpoints to see the see the city from above and the volcanoes that surround it.  We then walked around the city, Maya even helped us get cold medicine for me from the pharmacy. It's pretty nice, with interesting squares and, of course, cathedrals.  They have an interesting way of displaying Jesus on the cross that I've never seen before.  They put things on there that were used at the time of the crucifixion.  These include the spear used by the soldiers to check if he was alive, the ladder used to take him down, and other things like that.  We then completed the day with a tour of the Santa Catalina monastery, which was like its own city in the 1700s.  It’s amazing how big it is.  Each sister had their own little house, and there were streets and shops and everything.  All inside the walls of the monastery. 

On Maya’s recommendation, we had dinner at Chi Cha across the street from the Monastery, it was pretty good.  Deb saved me from using tap water to wash down the medicine we got at the pharmacy.  I was already sick enough.  Back to the hotel to medicate me and try to get sleep.  A good day, other than how crappy I felt.