Cusco Extravaganza

March 8, 2010
Monday, 1:24pm
55, Cloudy
Sayausi


Por fin! Here is the long-awaited (or at least long in coming) Peru trip post. Though months have past the memories are as fresh as ever, thanks to tons and tons of photos. In fact, with the help of Dona Ana (i.e. my mom) we set ourselves a new record for number of pictures taken. Between the three of us we took so many photos that it would quite literally be impossible to post all of them. So, below you will find only the “best of” photos which still include a whopping three hundred images for your viewing pleasure (I promise I tired really hard to post only a few but I liked so many of them). For those of you who are interested in seeing all of the Peru pics (over 3,000 images) we can show you them in person as we will be back in the states in April!

Enjoy and disculpara for the delay.

The Great Peru Itinerary:
Day 1: Meet Mom in Guayaquil
Day 2: Tour Guayaquil and fly to Lima
Day 3: Fly to Cusco and Walking Tour
Day 4: Rafting
Day 5: Train to Aguascalientes
Day 6: Machupicchu and train back to Cusco
Day 7: Sacred Valley Tour
Day 8: Last minute shopping and fly to Lima
Day 9: Fly to Ecuador (see previous post for Ecuador with Mom stories and photos)


Day 1: Meet Mom in Guayaquil
Our grand adventure began with meeting my mom at the Guayaquil airport and then whisking away to the oh-so-fancy Dreamkapture hostal where my mom was quite amused by the electroducha (electrified shower: electricity heats the water as it passes through and only occasionally shoots out sparks …exhilarating!).


Day 2: Tour Guayaquil and fly to Lima
The next morning we toured the Malecon (the riverside park), visited a very special park with very special inhabitants (see pictures for details), and ate a delicious seafood lunch followed by tasty batidos (milk and fruit drinks). Then we were off to the airport for our flight to Lima.

We arrived in Lima around 8:00pm and stayed at El Patio, a charming hotel located in the middle of the Miraflores section of Lima. We then had a late dinner and went to an art exhibit featuring all sorts of sculptured nativity scenes.




Day 3: Fly to Cusco an Walking Tour
Early in the morning we were off to the airport yet again to catch a flight to Cusco. After checking in to El Balcon, a lovely hotel close to the center of all things Cusco, we were off to see the sights and the stores. We spent the entire day roaming up and down cobblestone streets, taking pictures, and generally enjoying ourselves. We also ate some grilled alpaca and quinoa soup…as they say, “when in Rome’…or in this case, Cusco!




Day 4: Rafting
Awesome!!! There are no other words to describe it. Rafting was fabulous and my mom was a natural paddler. Though truth be told, I’m pretty sure our raft guide could have gotten us down the river without any help from us. In any event, the surrounding area was gorgeous, the rafting was beyond fun, no one had to make use of the rescue kayakers, and the hot lunch afterwards tasted oh-so-good.




Day 5: Train to Aguascalientes
Finally, we were on our way to Machupicchu. However, in order to get there one needs to a) hike the four day section of the Inca Trail or b) take a train. We opted for the latter and set off early in the morning to catch the first train to the town of Aguascalientes. The scenery along the way was spectacular and the town of Aguascalientes offered everything a tourist could want (though apparently only for a few days, as just several weeks after our visit there were huge mudslides that washed out the train tracks and tourists stranded in Aguascalientes found themselves without some creature comforts). We spent the day browsing the shops and strolling along the river before calling it an early night so that we would be well rested for our 5:00am departure to Machupicchu the next morning.




Day 6: Machupicchu and train to Cusco
Before the sun even hinted at peeping over the surrounding mountaintops, we were up, ate breakfast, and standing in line to catch the first round of busses headed up to Machupicchu. Not an hour later we arrived at the ruins. There was a light rain when we arrived which added quite the ethereal quality to the experience. It’s hard to describe what a remarkable place it is or how it looked (hopefully the pictures will help with that) but it certainly makes one reflect upon the past, present, and future in a different way.

Not too soon after arriving Mike and I went for a small hike up Huayna Picchu (the mountain you always see in the background of pictures of Machupicchu) where we took a few misty pictures of the ruins from up high and had some great views of the glacier covered mountains that define the valley. We then found my mom, thanks to the walky-talkies my mom had brought with her (yes we were those tourists, but they did come in handy and were fun to use) and met our tour guide who took us on an informative, and interesting tour of the ruins. When the tour finished we still had a little time to wander around and that is what we did until the last possible minute. Then we headed back down to Aguascalientes to catch the train back to Cusco.

It was certainly an incredible day.




Day 7: Sacred Valley Tour
The Sacred Valley Tour wasn’t something we had originally planned on doing but once in the vacation mode momentum builds and all of the sudden you’re on a bus visiting several of the surrounding ruins and towns that surround Cusco.

The tour was great and we got to see a lot more than we would have otherwise. It’s hard to believe just how many ruins are around Cusco. It’s truly impressive.

On a funny note, our tour guide was a woman from Cusco who was wonderful the whole day and then as we were headed back to town, shortly after the sun had set, she shared with the entire bus her thoughts on aliens and UFOs. Yup, we got the 4-1-1 on alien and UFO activity in and around Cusco…who knew? So it makes you wonder, was it really the Incas (better put, the Quechuas) or was there some extraterrestrial force at work carving and moving all of this rock? I guess we’ll have to sign up for another tour to get the answers…maybe next time.




Day 8: Last minute shopping and fly to Lima
Our last day in Cusco we took another small tour to nearby ruins with ridiculously big carved stones, and then did some last minute shopping before heading back to Lima.

In Lima, we toured the Miraflores district, did some more shopping, enjoyed Christmas carols (yes, this post is very late) in the central park while enjoying hot chocolate and an incredible rice pudding with cherry preserves desert, and then called it a night and slept soundly with images of rapids, ruins, shops, and cobblestones floating through our sleeping heads.


Day 9: Fly to Ecuador (see previous post for Ecuador with Mom stories and photos)
The next day we flew to Ecuador where out whirlwind adventure slowed down to Sayausi speed and we spent a week with my Mom relaxing in our site and touring the streets of Cuenca (again, see our previous post).

It was quite the trip and certainly one I will remember forever. We would of course like to thank Dona Ana for such a wonderful trip and for all the wonderful memories; eating grilled alpaca and roasted cuy feet, braving the rapids of the Urubamba, drinking coca leaf tea, exploring ruins of yore, bathing with electrified shower heads, and learning all about aliens and UFOs…what a world, what a trip!

(Our service here in Ecuador is winding to a close and after two years we will be flying back to the US on April 23rd! We will try to post again sometime soon to describe what we have been up to for the last few months (highlights include Carnaval celebrations and hiking up yet another active volcano). For the meantime, feel free to scroll through the archives to revisit all that we have reported on for the last couple of years…. on the top right of this page you can see all of our old posts filed by date. Enjoy!)

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