This entry is a little late coming as everything post-USA has been a whirlwind – from arriving into Peru to returning to Australia, we have been run off our feet (good thing we had 4-months off leading up to this)!
Day 101-104, Sept 19-22 (Sun-Wed), Cusco, Peru
First things first – PERU. On arriving into Cusco airport, we successfully collected our luggage and proceeded to the curb where we successfully haggled our way into a reasonable cab fare to our B’n’B, “Second Home” (we’d read taxi fares should only be about 5 Soles, and dudes were trying to rip us off at 30 Soles a ride! Unbelievable! We ended-up paying 10 in the end which seemed OK). On arriving to Second Home, our lovely host Carlos greeted us with a cup of coca tea (to help with the effects of altitude – a miracle cure!), and had a quick nap to relieve our weary eyes from the overnight flying schedule. Being the seasoned travellers that we are, we pushed ourselves out of bed and stretched our legs on a slow walk through Cusco – our goal being to pay the balance on our Inca Trail/Machu Picchu tour at the Llama Path office (our tour operator). It was a Sunday and we showed-up at lunchtime, so they were closed (on a suspected siesta!) but the sign said they re-opened at 4pm. So we grabbed some lunch (one of those fabulous 3 course extravaganzas that European/previously-European countries enjoy!), then went back to Llama Path, only to find the doors bolted down! As they clearly had no intention of re-opening that particular Sunday (or perhaps every Sunday?), we counted our losses and did a short walking tour of some of the lovely plazas in our immediate vicinity – Plaza Regocijo, Plaza de Armas (where there was a parade of some sort going on), Plaza de San Francisco, Plaza de San Petro (where we visited some markets selling local produce, tapestries and tourist-type gifts) – fending off shoe shiners , postcard sellers, and girls with lambs/llamas the entire way. Among all the cathedrals that were built in the city we also managed to see some original Inca stonework which was pretty incredible – massive stones which had been shaped to other stones and laid together to form walls, using no mortar what-so-ever (an architectural foundation which was reserved for only the most important buildings – i.e., temples). On our way to dinner, we also saw a random dance ceremony happening in Plaza San Blas (all the performers were wearing masks and costumes) – why the dancing was happening, we don’t know, but it was interesting to watch!
On our second day we were still feeling some effects of altitude (sleepiness, headaches, shortness of breath, slightly accelerated heart rate… usual kind of stuff!), so we had another easy going day – which was a smart choice as it was day 1 of a city-wide strike (Peru was in the midst of an election while we were there). We walked through some more plazas (including Plaza Santa Ana which was a walk-up-a-hill away), and spent some more time in Plaza de Armas where we continued to perfect our “No Gracias” in response to the locals trying to sell us their wares. Feeling quite adventurous, we also walked up a massive hill (something like 600 steps according to Carlos from Second Home) where we enjoyed some sweeping views over Cusco which is nestled in a wide valley in the Andes), and we stumbled across an Alpaca Wool store where we bought a small rug as a piece of memorabilia (and we have never seen so much stock in a store – they need to pick-up sales in their general “everything” department!)
For day 3 we had a lazy morning, then embarked upon a “city tour” which is a guided sightseeing experience through some ruins in Cusco and on the city’s perimetre. The first stop on the tour was through the main cathedral in Plaza de Armas (where the main attraction is apparently the gilded altar). There was an additional charge to enter this cathedral, and we decided that we’ve seen enough places of worship that it wasn’t worth the extra money (!) so we met-up with the group after this and continued on the rest of the tour. Stop 2 was only a walk away to the Qoriqancha (“kori-kancha”) which was the Sun Temple in Cusco city that was overtaken by the Spaniards and converted into a cathedral (including painting walls etc). The local community have been restoring it to reflect what it was originally like, and the architecture was incredible – so strong (earthquake resistant). The aspect from outside the Qoriqnacha was lovely as it was a mix of original Inca architecture, Spanish architecture and gorgeous manicured spring gardens. The final 3 stops on the tour were to ruins on the edge of Cusco:
> Saqsayhuaman (“sexy woman” is how the locals claim its pronounced), a sacred area where they built some temples (to exactly which gods is a bit fuzzy), but the outside wall was built in the shape of lightning (presumably for one of the gods!) Its meant to be the head of the puma too, which is important in Incan history/symbology (representing the earth, I think!)… man, I should’ve taken better notes!
> Q’enko (“kenko”), a sacred area where they would do sacrifices (sometimes human, although more regularly animals) to Pacha Mama (the earth god).
> Pukapukara (said how its written), a fortress – the kechewan name means red earth, after the soil where it is built.
> Tambomachay (said how its written), another sacred area with a temple and a fallen fortress, where there is also an incredible irrigation/water supply, consisting of 3 or 4 fountains and a man-made stream/ditch to carry the water to the people and to farmers – incredible! This was probably the highlight for Stacey.
On the way back to Cusco after our city tour, we stopped in at an alpaca wool store (not the same one as yesterday, thankfully) where they taught us a bit about identifying authentic alpaca wool from synthetic materials. We were there for quite an extended period of time and were happy when the bus departed! And we had quite a surprise when a young man holding a laptop in the air started plugging a 2-DVD set of a movie about Cusco and a selection of images, then tried to sell it to all the tour participants. It was entertaining and quite a pitch, but we managed to decline the offer. Dinner that night was quite disappointing, so we picked-up a “jamon e queso empanada” (ham and cheese in puff pastry) on the way home and it was delicious!
On our final day in Cusco we decided to take it easy in preparation for the Inca Trail – we slept in, had a leisurely walk around town and spent some serious time packing and re-packing our duffle. That night we had our pre-trek briefing talk at the Llama Path office at 7:30pm, so we decided to have an early dinner so we could get straight to bed afterwards. The food was delicious, but the service was quite hilarious – after ordering, we could hear the waiter stomp out to the kitchen and yell our orders to the chef (kinda like a scene from the Italian restaurant in The Simpsons!) Later at the pre-trek briefing, we met our guide and the rest of the group at the briefing, and it was all very informative – except we got a little nervous when we were told to have a light/non-carby meal for dinner as it might upset our stomachs the next day (good to hear after we had a massive rice dish for dinner!) We left hoping that was just a precaution…. (and drank plenty of water to aid the digestion!)
Day 105-109, Sept 23-26 (Thurs-Sun), Inca Trail/Machu Picchu, Peru
Early rising and early to bed on the Inca Trail:
Day 1 (Thurs 23/9): Woke at 3:45am, Bus at 4:30am, Bed at 8pm
Day 2 (Fri 24/9): Woke at 5:15am, Breakkie at 6am, Bed at 9pm
Day 3 (Sat 25/9): Woke at 6am, Breakkie at 6:45am, Bed at 9:30pm
Day 4 (Sun 26/9): Woke at 3:30am, Breakkie at 4am, Waiting in line at the final check point at 5am, Back to Cusco 8pm, Bed at 9pm.
The Tour Group:
> 2 Guides: Raoul and Franco
> 2 Irish Honeymooners: Eugene and Emma
> 5 Irish Backpackers: Carmel, Claire, Anna, Steffi and Elaine
> 2 Canadian Backpackers: Melissa and Stephanie (who caught the eye of Raoul!)
> 2 Canadian “golden oldies” on a hollie: Valerie and George
> 3 British Backpackers: Alice, Ben and Hannah
Day 1
We covered a lot of ground early in the day… starting at 4:30am we met at Plaza Regocijo where we caught our bus. We had a breakkie stop in Ollyantaytambo (the guides/porters ate separately as they didn’t want the “gringo breakfast” of eggs/pancakes/muesli etc; they were more traditional with soup, and the like!) The bus left us at Kilometre 82 where our hike started – this is 82km from Cusco, and therefore 82km into the original Inca Trail… when the Spanish invaded, the Incas destroyed a large proportion of the trail from Cusco to Machu Picchu so the Spanish couldn’t find it. There were lots of locals waiting at Km82 selling last minute emergency supplies to the hikes, like walking sticks and bandanas – but fortunately we were very prepared, needing no more supplies! The hike was quite gentle on this day, and we saw our first 2 ruins from afar. Along the trail, Raoul would stop us and give us history lessons, one time showing us an insect that they used to squish and use the blood as blush/lipstick etc (he even demonstrated the blush on me – gross! – and on a fellow trekker, whom he actually had a crush on… hilariously he used the insect blood to draw a love heart on her cheek!)
Our lunch stop that day was very comfortable as our porters (aka “the red army” due to the red backpacks/uniforms they wear) ran ahead and set-up the dining tent, put out water for us to wash-up with, and greeted us with juice when we arrived – it was lovely and sunny too, so we lounged on the lawn pre/post lunch to recuperate. The scenery was breathtaking (and continued to be each day) with mountains as far as the eye could see. We also saw bromiliads growing off the side of mountains, and in the nooks of tree branches – so hardy!! When we arrived at our campsite, all our tents were set-up and there was warm water to wash-up with which was very welcome. We did a “happy hour” at 5:30pm where the chef had baked 2 cakes as there were 2 birthdays in the group (there was candles and singing too!), and we ate the cakes with hot milo to wash it down – all pre-dinner (so much food!) Over the happy hour, we also did a meet and greet with the porters, where we stood in a circle and introduced ourselves. Unfortunately no matter how hard we tried to remember their names, we seemed to be unsuccessful!
Day 2
The porters woke us at 5:15am with hot coca tea and more water to wash up with. This day had been the most anxiously anticipated as we had 16km to go, 2 passes to get over, and 1300m elevation gain to contend with. We were able to take our own pace most of the way and meet at designated spots, and the feeling of elation when we made it to the top of the first pass (“Dead Woman’s Pass”) was indescribable – and the final 20 steps before we made it to the top were the toughest we’ve done in our lives! It was very cold at the top and we layered-up with everything in our daypacks and cheered as members in our group arrived! At lunch it poured rain, but all (except an unlucky 2) were safely in the lunch tent so avoided getting wet – and it dried up as we finished lunch – perfect! Pacha Mama was on our side, and the mountain was happy with us (as our guide Raoul would say!) The 2nd pass we had to conquer after lunch, and we expected it would be a breeze, but we were so exhausted that it proved more challenging than expected! At the end of the day we were rewarded with some incredible ruins and a beautiful sunset on the opposite side of a small valley from our campsite – the kechewa name of the ruins meant “inaccessible town” due to its out of the way position! We had another happy hour back at the camp (it was almost dark when we arrived after investigating the ruins) which consisted of popcorn and hot milo, and we toasted the day with a warm white wine sangria-type drink at the end of our dinner.
Day 3
“All downhill from here” after the effort of Day 2 (but still several inclines to deal with). We’d finished hiking by lunchtime (after encountering more terrific views and ruins). We all enjoyed a shower (for only 5 soles) and had some R’n’R before checking-out some nearby ruins. Somehow we found ourselves leading the charge to organise tips (and all but one person contributed), and fortunately the entire group was in agreement when we chose to forfeit the happy hour (they literally provided too much food!) After dinner some of us shared stories and a beer at the “discotheque”/bar/deli near our campsite (it was all a bit random, to be honest!) It rained overnight which we were mostly happy about so it would get it out of its system before day 4.
Day 4
Early rise as we needed to get in line at the final checkpoint (it opens at 5:30am and all the groups line-up to get early access to see Machu Picchu as early as possible). As it was very early, the views were gorgeous as the sun rose and the warmth started to clear the fog – but as everyone was “racing” to get to the Sun Gate to see M.P. we were encouraged to keep walking rather than stop to take photos. It was disappointing and the competitive edge in the air was quite distracting, but we were very lucky when we made it to the Sun Gate (after several steep steps) and had a clear view of M.P.!
At the Sun Gate Raoul and Franco handed out Llama Path t-shirts to us all as a gift (they carried them all that way!), then we took lots of pictures (it is enormous and takes-up the whole mountainside) then we did the final leg to M.P. (which was very congested – full of hikers stopping to take photos). M.P. was much larger “up-close” when we were inside than the Sun Gate view prepared us for, and after Raoul gave us a 2hr tour (taking group photos along the way and prompting us with phrases like “queso”, “llama llama” and “pisco sour”), we had 2hrs to explore on our own before lunch in Aguas Caliente (a 20min bus ride down a very windy road). Overall we thought M.P. was amazing and respect the effort and “advanced civilisation” aspects of it, but we were so happy to have done the hike and experienced some ruins with fewer tourists and also experience accessing the ruins how the native people would have.
From lunch in Aguas Caliente, we took the 1.5hr train ride and 2hr bus ride back to Cusco (thank goodness we didn't need to hike it!), and enjoyed a very comfortable sleep in our bed back at Second Home (after grabbing soup for dinner on the way).
Days 109-112, Sept 27-30, 2010 (Mon-Thurs)
We had a long commute back to Sydney via Lima (7hr layover) and LA (14hr layover). In Lima, we managed to kill some time watching TV downloads (gotta love technology!) and in LA we escaped the airport and spent the day at Manhattan Beach (and the weather was gorgeous, likely because it was the hottest day on record the day before in LA! Half our luck!) The flight from LA to Sydney was uneventful (except for our upgrade to premium economy!!), and we were happy to complete our immigration forms by answering YES to the question “Do you expect to be in Australia for over a year?”
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