3 Weeks In Peru

(Again, more pictures to follow...uploading is slow here....)

Day 1
We were met at our hotel and driven to kilometer 82 of the Inca Trail, otherwise known as the trailhead for one of the most amazing treks in the world.

Bridge at the trailhead

The first day was relatively short, approximately 8 miles. We had some wonderful views and got to know our two guides, Roberto and Edgar, as well as two women from New York which, for those keeping track, brings the score to 9 women and Chris.

Roberto and Edgar were great and our first night found us all having a great time and enjoying the amazing assortment of food that the porters seemingly pulled out of thin air.

Day 2 (The Hard Day)

The day started with a seemingly endless climb, starting at 9,100 ft and topping out at over 14,000 ft at Dead Woman's pass. Our group made the ascent with no problems.

The following descent of nearly 4,000 ft was another matter entirely. The good weather we had on the ascent turned to near freezing rain in a matter of about 1 minute. We battled the cold and wet for the next 4 hours. Most of us slipped several times, Danielle took top honors with 6 legitimate falls on what can only be described as the longest set of stairs on the planet.

It is important to mention the porters again at this point. Everyday we were all awoken early in the morning with hot tea at our tent followed by a hot breakfast. From there we had but to grab our relatively light packs and hit the trail. The porters, however, cleaned up from breakfeast, took down the entire camp and raced ahead to set up for lunch only to do it all over again for dinner. They covered the same distance as us in literally half the time carrying 75+ pounds on their back. They are quite honestly superhuman.

Day 3 (The Long Day)

We had a chance to see some really great archaeological sites on the way to our final camp. However the 12 miles we covered resulted in some people arriving after dark and all of us very sore and tired.

The light at the end of the tunnel, however, is that the camp for night 3 had a lodge of sorts, complete with hot showers and a bar. We had a great meal and celebrated with our guides and porters.

Day 4 (The Annoying Day)

We were awoken at 3:45 had a quick breakfeast and headed for the Sun Gate, the entrance, about 5 minutes from our camp where we waited until 530 for the park to open. We were near the front of the line and as soon as we got through it was a mad dash to make it the remaining 5 miles to Machu Pichu. The trail was narrow and hugged the side of a cliff then ascended a very steep set of stairs to the first overlook where Machu Pichu became visible. The race to get to this point was an intense experience with people trying to pass on very narrow ledges. A girl not far behind us fell 60 feet. Her fall was broken by the dense foliage and she only suffered a dislocated shoulder. Another woman also fell on the steep stairs and broke her arm.

Machu Picchu lived up to its fame as the 8th wonder of the world and we walked the grounds in a awe for several hours. We said good bye and headed back to the train for Cusco.

After an unplanned extension of our stay in Arequipa, we finally made it to Cusco, the capital of the former Inca Empire. Cusco is a beautiful town situated at approximately 11,000 feet.

Upon conquering the Inca, the Spanish proceeded to build many beautiful colonial churches atop many of the Incan buildings and temples. Though most of the colonial buildings have been damaged by earthquakes and rebuilt, their Incan foundations have remained intact.

Since the Spanish kept the original foundations for most of the buildings, the town retains its original layout, which, seen from above, is said to resemble a Puma. Our City tour also included several sites just outside the city. We enjoyed the city and all wished we could have had a little more time there.

The next morning we took a bus tour of the "Sacred Valley" outside Cusco. The Inca had a very advanced agriculture system and constructed massive terraces extending from the bottom of the canyon to the top and even an agricultural research facility.

We spent a night in Ollantaytambo, a small town in the sacred valley, near the Urubamba River.

Our hotel was literally located in the train station, but turned out to be very charming and nice.

Disclaimer: This covers several days of travel. It´s worth the read. Sorry for its length... pictures to come later!

We arrived in Arequipa late Tuesday night, after a long 9 hour bus ride from Nazca. We were in our VIP section again, which made all the difference.

Being in a big city again was an adjustment after spending a few days in very VERY small towns and the desert of Peru. In the morning we had a quick breakfast at our hotel and were picked up by our tour guide Adolfo. We piled into a 8 person van and were on our way.

He took us to a viewpoint on the outskirts of the city, where we were able to see the 3 volcanos surrounding the city. They are called Misti, Chanchani, and Picchu Picchu. It was an amazing view, hard to put it into words. We could also see the valleys below, which was full of farmlands and a river running through it. They had a guinea pig farm, which is a Peruvian delicacy. We have yet to work up the courage to eat it, since it is served with head, feet and all.

From there we went to the main square of the city. We had tours of multiple city sights which have a lot of interesting history. While touring the monastery (which was clearly built for short people), we learned the hard way that Maria can never be a nun. She does not fit through the doorway to the bathroom and her sunglasses saved her head from a concussion! OUCH! That night was followed by another injury as Chris walked into a knee deep hole in the sidewalk and injured his leg. He´s doing okay with the aide of the four nurses and three other women on the trip.

Skipping forward to the next day, we left Arequipa early and headed to Colca Canyon and Chivay. On the way, our bus made multiple stops. One of which was to pick up Coca candy, coca leaves, and to drink coca tea to help us acclimate to 15,000 ft of elevation. We had no idea how much elevation change can affect your mind, your breathing, and your coordination. We stepped off the bus and were amazed at how fast we were short of breath and dizzy after just a few steps. Luckily we descended to about 10,000 feet to the city of Chivay, where we stayed the night.

Inkari Eco Lodge

We were fortunate enough to enjoy a local dance performance along with dinner. Little did we know, that we would be evacuated from the restaurant shortly after sitting down, due to a gas explosion in the kitchen. Even with our limited Spanish, we understood completely to get out RAPIDO, as Becky hurdled the table sideways, managing not to break any of the plates and glasses that were set out.

We did go back to our table after they put out the fire. During dinner, the local dancers came around and picked people to perform. Chris, our lone guy, was picked. Upon dressing in the native costumes, he did a great job at dancing. During his dance however, Chris ate the forbidden apple of Eve, fell to the ground, and was punished... literally. He actually got a few whips by his native female dancer partner.

The next day, we went to see the condors at Colca Canyon.

The highlight of the day was horseback riding in the Andes over incredible sights and deep canyons. We all did great with our horses.

Unfortunately upon arriving back into town, Maggie´s horse got spooked and threw her off in the middle of the town square in front of its locals. Reacting quickly, she ducked and rolled out of the way and survived with only a minor thumb injury. Still smiling, she admits "it was all worth it." On the way back to Arequipa we were downgraded to the public bus system and only made it the four hours with the aid of some menthol creme under our noses supplied by backpacking extraordinaire Cammie.

After waking up early and heading to the airport we learned that our flight to Cusco was cancelled due to weather conditions in Lima and we were stranded. The quick thinking of Adolfo and Rebecca allowed us to spend one more day in Arequipa and we´ll still make it to Cusco tomorrow morning. Continuing with our VIP streak, we had a personal tour guide and van at our disposal all day. We started at a museum where Juanita the ice princess resides. She was sacrificed over 500 years ago and was discovered fully preserved in 1995. The tour of the museum, its ancient artifacts, and Juanita herself (who is still preserved in ice in a see-through freezer) quickly ended when Danielle lost her balance. She fell into a display of ancient artifacts, almost knocked it over, and was promptly (and physically) escorted out of the museum by the tour guide.

The afternoon was filled with a tour of hidden treasures of Arequipa. The last stop before lunch was at a farm where the driver asked us in broken English if we wanted to "sit on a giant bull." Intrigued, some of us said "sure, why not!" Danielle, Maria, and Rebecca each bravely mounted the 1400+ kg bull for photo purposes only.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, a little boy angered a flock of geese by pelting them with rocks. The angry geese took their vengeance out on poor Becky and Jen who ran screaming up a pile of rocks. They only overcame their fear of geese when they were confronted by a bull on the other side of the rocks and proceeded to run, holding hands and screaming past the geese and into the road. The workers of the farm all stopped working for a minute to laugh at "las gringas."

The afternoon ended with a boisterous lunch at Tradiccion Arequipeña restaurant.

On our way to Cusco.... Hasta luego!

We left Lima bright and early in the morning and headed to the town of Paracas. We
travelled by bus in our own section, apparently we were in the VIP area. It was a very nice
bus, but the ride was a little crazy. Peruvian drivers really like to use their horns!

The dock to our tour boat in Paracas

Upon arriving in Paracas, we went right to the dock and boarded our tour boat to the Islas
Ballestas.

Called the ´´poor mans Gallapagos´´ the islands are full of wildlife, mostly
Peruvian booby birds, Humbolt Penguins, Pelicans, and Sea Lions.

We also saw a few starfish and crabs. The islands were beautiful, and the surrounding water was turquoise blue, but the smell was unfortunately shitty... literally. Just imagine what thousands of birds create...
Guano. Bird droppings!

On the way back we passed the Candelabra, which is a complete mystery. No one knows how it
got there, or who created it.

After our boat ride, we had a delicious lunch of ceviche and fresh fish at a restaurant
right on the water.

The town was devasted by an earthquake in 2007, and it was still recovering. Some buildings
still did not have finished roofs and there was rubble in the streets.

We walked from our hostel through the town and ended up at the only resort in town, the
Double Tree Resort and Spa. It was beautiful, with a beachside-poolside bar where we sampled
LOTS of Pisco and entertained the bartenders.

We left for Nazca the following morning and spent the afternoon cruising the streets. There
isn´t a lot to see, the town is very poor.

The main street of Nazca.

Maurico, a vendor by day, and surprisingly our waiter at night.

Nazca is home to the Nazca lines and the best way to see them is from an airplane. We flew in a 6 person plane.

There are over 300 figures made by the Nazca people 500 B.C. to 500 A.D. Nobody knows why
they were made but they can only really be seen from the air, so speculations abound that
they were visited by aliens. And because of these aliens, our computer is not letting us upload pictures of the Nazca lines!! We will try again in the next city!

We´re off to Arequipa on an 8 hour bus ride today. . . Thank God for V.I.P.!

Breakfast at Hotel Bayview

The day got off to a slow start thanks to our late night arrival. Breakfast in the hotel was nice and gave us a chance to plan our day. We started by walking around the district where our hotel is located, Miraflores. Lima is a city of 8 million people and there are 43 distinct districts, each with their own mayor. Miraflores is known as the tourisim district and is relatively nice and safe.

Chris planning our day at the hotel

We did some sightseeing and shopping and got an impromtu tour of the local Miraflores municipal palace. The town council holds its meetings here, and the inside of the building had paintings and murals by famous artists. Lunch in the Calle de las Pizzas was delicious, with each restaurant owner vying for our business.

Parque Kennedy in Miraflores

Trying to navigate the streets of Miraflores

Beautiful stained glass inside the Municipal Palace

Impromptu meeting held by Maggie in the Town Hall of Miraflores

Our tour guide, Andrea, met us at our hotel after lunch, she was great. The tour took us to el parque de amor overlooking the Pacific. The park had a giant statue of a couple embracing and mosaic benches with poetry from famous spanish poets.

Maggie and Becky in front of El Beso in the Parque De Amor

Maggie and Jen overlooking the ocean.... nice headphones!

We then headed across town to see many interesting plazas and the San Francisco cathedral. The cathedral was great, but the catacombs were a little eerie for several reasons....

Plaza Mayor, Downtown Lima

Cathedral San Francisco

Walking through the Catacombs, all of those holes were filled with various bones

Was described as artistic?

A trip down the expressway was intresting as well. Every driver here is in his own race to get somewhere and with very few traffic lights it can be quite chaotic. We also saw a unique idea for advertising on the freeways.

We finished the day at the Peru Gold Museum and a lovely dinner at Brujas de Cachiche.

The eight of us. Becky, Maggie, Cami, Chris, Jen, Maria, Rebecca, Danielle.

Brujas de Cachiche, authentic Peruvian Cuisine, recommended by our tour guide Andrea.

Mmmmmm dessert was amazing!

Buenas Noches amigos!