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Category: Peru – 5/2017 Page 1 of 3

Peru ~ I can’t believe I leave in 2 days.

I have wanted to go to Peru and Machu Picchu for as long as I can remember. For the past decade, it has been one of my top bucket list items that has been simmering away on the back burner as other things took priority. I have read several books about the mystery behind the ruins – and other archaeological sites along the Inca Trail. I  had pictures of the Machu Picchu ruins hanging on my walls in my house and office to inspire myself to figure out how I can finally get there.

 

Well that time has finally come!

I put the word out to everyone I knew to see if someone wanted to join me on this trip as my husband didn’t have much desire to go. As luck would have it, two people from work were interested as well as one of the girl’s husband. Katie, Nicole B and Ed will fly to Lima, Peru on Sunday, May 7th and then to Cusco, Peru on Monday, May 8th. We will spend the next 5 days acclimating to the altitude and exploring the region and then on Saturday, May 13th, we will start our hike on the Inca Trail with Sam Travel Peru. Sunday, May 14th will be our hardest day as we will hike 9 miles and reach an altitude of almost 14,000 feet. We will hike into Machu Picchu on Tuesday, May 16th in time to watch the sunrise and tour the site for the day. We will go to Aguas Caliente for the night and then return to the ruins on May 17th to hike Huayna Picchu. We head back to Lima on the 18th and then fly home that evening. Words can’t express my nerves about the challenge of the hike, gratitude and appreciation for the support from my family and friends and just my overall excitement for this adventure! It is going to be an amazing trip and it is only 2 days away!

Getting to Peru ~ Day 1

After a very early rise to finish getting packed, Cat took the obligatory picture of me by the fairy tree and then she and H took me to the airport.


Both flights were on time and with minimal excitement! I only had to wait about 20 minutes at the luggage area and Katie, Nicole and Ed arrived with smiles.


We walked out of customs and were greeted by over 100 drivers or family members waiting for their passengers. We scanned the area for a sign with our names on it and didn’t see one. Panic started to set in. We had planned our trip through Maria Jesus, a guide my sister had used a few years back with most of our communications thru Facebook Messenger. Although I feel like I have built a great rapport with  her over the past 10 months and she seemed to be very organized, she was still an unknown entity and I was a bit concerned that things might have slipped thru the cracks.
At that moment we saw a driver with a sign that said “Nicole”. I got super excited and ran over to him only to find out he was only looking for one person named Nicole who was much older. Again concern crept in and we continued to search for our name on a different sign.

After what only was about 3 minutes but felt like a lifetime, Ricardo Gustavo from Lima VIP walked up to us with a sign that had our names on it and a big smile. I think he was as relieved to find us as we were to find him as he had been waiting for us for 2 hours.  We had taken longer to get thru customs than we had anticipated. He was very professional and personable and we shared a few laughs as he drove us to our hotel the Quinde.


The Quinde was clean with large rooms and was perfect for a short nights sleep as it was about 2am before we finally got settled and to bed.

So excited to be here!

Peru Day 2 ~ On our way to Cusco

We were awoken at 6:30am this morning by some loud hard pounding on our door. Groggy from only 4 hours of sleep we stumbled out of bed and heard Nicole B calling our names. Apparently, the hotel needed copies of all of our passports instead of just the 2 we had given them the night before and they needed them NOW!
Katie found her passport and Nicole B took it down and got everything organized. Unable to face the morning yet, we went back to bed for a bit more of a power nap! We got up around 8:30am and went to take showers. Unfortunately, there was no hot water and initially it came out brown.


After some use it did go clear but never really warmed up. I opted to wait until tonight with hopes of there being warm water in tonight’s hotel.

The view of and from our hotel:



We decided to go for a wander and found a street food cart that had tons of people around it. They had huge avocados rolls and served them with a dash of salt! They were delicious!


We came across another street food cart that served boiled potatoes and boiled eggs with a special sauce. Who would of thought such simple ingredients would be so tasty.

We had about an hour to waste before Ricardo Gustavo picked us up to bring us back to the airport to fly to Cusco and we just walked around the neighborhood.
We were surprised by the large number of Internet cafes:


We giggled at the electrical wires:


And we’re in awe of some of the beautiful architecture:


Right on schedule, Ricardo Gustavo arrived to take us to the airport. There was a Nicole sandwich in the backseat of the car!

There were some crazy drivers on the way. I was really glad Ricardo was the one behind the wheel. We did come across some interesting cars and it felt like everyone was honking their horn for one reason or another.


The flight to Cusco was short but had some amazing views.


Once we landed, we were all surprised about how the altitude hit us. We noticed that our heart rate bpm increased substantially and any kind of walking around made us out of breath! Maria met us at the airport and then brought us to our hotel. It is so cute!

The hotel, Eureka, is located in San Blas, the old town section with skinny cobblestone roads, lots of small shops and restaurants and such a better atmosphere than the big busy city of Lima. After settling in, we walked to the town square and looked around.




The architecture is beautiful with tons statues and waterfalls.
We met up with Maria again and had an amazing dinner and drank Chicha Moradas which is an amazing drink made of purple corn.



On our way back to the hotel, Ed decided he wanted to try a chicken kabob from another street cart! It was actually awesome!!


Another perfect day in paradise!

Peru ~ Day 3 Cusco

Katie, Nicole B and Ed found an amazing coffee shop this morning called “The Meeting Place” I opted to stay at the hotel and get myself organized. I didn’t stop hearing about how wonderful this place was for the rest of the day. I have a feeling we will be there again!


We had fun walking to meet Maria for our walking tour of Cusco.



Once Maria arrived, we walked up Sol Avenue to San Francisco Square. The San Francisco Square is significant because all of the trees, flowers and fauna are native to Peru.


Across the street was the 3rd oldest school from colonial times for noble people called the National College of Sciences. When we were walking by we saw some kids practicing a dance outside.


We left and continued up the street to the gate that separates the 2 townships called Santa Clara and San Pedro. This was a way to protect the city from invaders.


Once inside the San Pedro walls we saw the Temple of San Pedro


As well as the San Pedro Market that has everything you could ever ask for in a market with products ranging from souvenirs to freshly squeezed juice to pigs to fruit loops to medicinal herbs.




After a brief shop we visited Koricancha, the Golden Temple of the Sun. It was built over centuries and under multiple reigns of Incas kings.


Koricancha is built with many different construction types. The Incans used vertical inclines of the walls, trapezoidal shapes of the structures, irregular shapes and rounded edges. Increased sizes on the bottom coupled with a 3-5% incline gives the walls a substantial amount of stability that has withstood centuries of earthquakes.
The gardens had just been mowed and the smell of fresh cut grass was amazing. It had a Condor which represented heaven, the Puma which represented earth and the snake which represented the underworld etched into the grass.


From here we came to the high altar which has a lot of significance because it is where the statue of the God Weetachocha was worshiped.



The courtyard was where people would bring offerings for the Gods. We just offered up some laughs for the Gods as we had  fun with some metal sculptures in the courtyard.
We had worked up an appetite and went to a restaurant called Pachapapa for lunch. There was a live musician playing a harp that totally set the mood. It was beautiful. We feasted on alpaca, steak, pizza and a chicken dish. The food was delicious and the atmosphere was perfect.



After lunch we hopped in our tour van. We made a quick stop at the Cusco Fire department because you always need to get a picture with the local fire department.


Then we went to the ruins Q’enco where they mummified royalty until they were ready to be buried. Afterwards, we walked thru the caves and they were substantially cooler than the outside and pitch black! They would also place gold and jewels in places where light shined into the caves.

Once we got thru it we came across a woman who had a pet Alpaca.



At this site, there was “The White Christ” (which looks like the Christ the Redeemer statue) It was a gift from Palestine in 1945.


The backside of Saqsewaman has a rock quart called Chinkana chica with another small tunnel.

We came to Suchuna which is a massive natural slide.

Next we went to Saqsewaman – (pronounced Sexywoman) which means Satisfied falcon aka condor.

 At the actual Saqsewaman archeological site everything comes in sets of 3’s. There are 3 rows of steps, walls and window – each for the condor, snake and puma. The purpose of the site is similar to the Chinese wall – protection of town of Cusco because the kings lived there. 30% of original site is left now.

We had a mellow dinner and called it a night after an amazing day.

Peru ~ Day 4 ~ The Sacred Valley

We got up early and went to “The Meeting Place” to get breakfast. It was definitely as good as had been promised.

We met up with Maria for another day of adventures. This day we were headed to the Sacred Valley.

Our first stop was at the lookout over a town called Taray. Later we found out that Ed our Tour Guide from the Inca Trail is from here as well!

Then we stopped  off at a “Factory” where there were a lot of different breeds of alpacas which we got to feed. We also got to watch as women made garments from the alpaca fur as well as fmodel what a typical Quechua (native) kitchen /living  accommodation looked like.


Moving on we stopped at Pisaq which was part of the Sacred  Valley of the Incas. Pisaq translates to “Bird of Paradise” so Katie and Nicole did the Birds of Paradise yoga pose at the sign and Ed and I just giggled and did something a lot easier! It was built around 1440 and has a large agricultural section (the terraces), ruins of buildings and then

The scenery was beautiful. From our location we could see the Uramba River. Rather than rush on to our next stop we convinced Maria that we wanted to stay and enjoy the views and the mystical vibes we were getting from the area. We walked down the benched terraces,  took  off our shoes so we could feel the grass on our feet and let the sacred land’s energy vibrate through our bodies. the group also did some yoga poses…including Maria. There were also some cliff side burial grounds on the mountains behind the ruins. It’s hard to imagine how they would get the dead bodies up the mountainside and into the caverns at such steep slopes.

After some much needed down time we continued on to the Markets in Pisaq. We did a lot of bartering with the vendors and were able to get most of our souvenirs from here.

We continued on our journey and stopped at a guinea pig restaurant.  This has been an ongoing topic of conversation as guinea pigs are a delicacy here and eaten on special occasions.  Here in America we have pet guinea pigs who live a life of luxury with an internal confidence that they will not end up on our dinner table.




It was cooked on a stick in a fire with some herbs  stuffed on the inside. We took our pictures and made our jokes but when it came time to eat it we all struggled. I think we mostly struggled because its head and toes were on top of the “to-go carton” and we couldn’t get past the idea that it was a rodent. We did try it but the taste of the herbs was a bit overpowering and it wasn’t something I would order again.

We stopped for a real lunch and then headed on to Ollantaytambo which means ‘resting place of the warrior’.  This was a “multi-functional village” that was  a military, religious and social center.  On the top, there was the “Temple of the Sun” which was made of 6 stones which served as a sun dial and was also a temple dedicated to Mother Earth aka Pachamama.

We were the last people to leave for the day before the site closed down. It was nice to have the ruins to ourselves without masses of people. The silence and lack of distractions added to the size and significance of the ruins.

After a long day we drove the twisty roads back to Cusco and called it a night.


 

 

 

 

 

Peru ~ Day 5 ~ Cusco

We got up the next morning and enjoyed breakfast at “The Meeting Place” again. Ed had the Waffles sundae. Talk about a breakfast of champions.

Afterwards we met Maria for another day of adventures in Cusco.

We had commented that we hadn’t seen any cemeteries during our visit to Peru so not only did she give us a tour of the main cemetery,  she explained the customs of mourning and funeral services as well as graciously showed us where her mother, father and other members of her family were buried.

It was interesting to learn that:

  • the actual niches are rented for 10 year periods and if the rent isn’t paid then the bodies are moved.
  • There were sculptures, trinkets and solar powered toys in many of the glass niches that one would assume represented things the deceased would have enjoyed.
  • drivers had their own section in the cemetery which isn’t surprising because the roads are so small and they drive so fast around them.
  • that you wear black for 1 full year and then have a ceremony before you can incorporate color back into your wardrobe again.
  • there were 2 young boys standing near the entrance who would clean the glass niches and refresh flowers in exchange for a few Soles (Peruvian currency equivalent to $1). It’s hard to imagine that children Caitlyn’s age would do this to help add to the family income.

From here we went to “Tratoria Del Inca” which is a newly opened restaurant. We had a cooking lesson with Vidal and learned how to make Ceviche and Ajo de Gallina which was chicken with chili peppers.  The cooking lesson was a perfect mix of hands on experience and watching  a chef do his magic. The food was amazing and a good time was had by all.

 




While walking around Cusco later that afternoon, we came across a group of students who were practicing their dance routine for a Mother’s day performance.


Later that night we took Maria and Philipe our driver out for dinner and ended with a few drinks at the Ukukus Discoteck. The Night Club had some interesting art and played amazing music while we were there. Drinks were cheap and we had a great night of singing, dancing and laughing a lot. We called it an early night as we had a lot to do the next day to prep for our hike along the Inca Trail.

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