Day Five in Peru - Cuzco to Lima (Miraflores)

 I wake in the morning worried about our flight and am cautious about going to the ruins. So we opt to pack up and head to the airport early.

We get to the LAN ticket counter and snake through a line for 45 minutes to check in and find out that once again we will have to come back later to get our seats. Our flight is at 10:10 and they will not close it until 9:00 and so back up to the food court we go to wait -- dang I should have let us go to the ruins. Now we are stuck here just killing time, ugh.

At 9 we go back down to the counter and they tell us we just need to stand down there and at 9:15 they will start calling stand-bys right there at the ticket counter. Okaaaaay. We are called, get our tickets, head to security, and then up to the gate and board the plane. Once again, LAN gives us treats that we pocket for unexpected hunger moments.

We arrive in Lima a short one hour later and go the information booth for the scoop on the taxis here. We hire a taxi and head to Miraflores (a nice suburb of Lima about 45 minutes away) where our hostel is located. The drive is nice and the ocean is on our right as we near Miraflores, with cliffs on our left.

Everything is a lush green and there is a mist in the air from the water. We are staying at the Tinkus Hostel and we love the location. Excellent choice Mister.














We check in, drop our bags in the room, and head down to the corner to a little local restaurant/cafe called Tropicana for the lunch special which is a drink, appetizer, entree, and dessert for 9 soles. Seriously?? That is about $3.50. The place is packed and you have to grab a table when they open up or someone behind you in line will. I think we are the only tourists in the place and share a table with two young men, one of which speaks a little English and helps explain some of the menu items. The food is good and filling and we take our time as the line has ended and the lunch rush is over.

We go back to the hotel (all of about 3 doors down) and plan our day.  We are just going to wander the city for awhile.  I tell Mister about a park near the ocean and so that is the direction we go.  We marvel once again at the cabs as we walk -- we are amazed that they do not get in accidents as they dart in and out amongst each other.  Soon we can feel the mist in the air as we approach the cliffs overlooking the beach.  We come to a busy divided road and in between the streets, they have built a very posh tennis club -- terraced all the way down to the beach.  And then we are here.  Way up on the cliffs overlooking the waves.  (Check out my hair -- Wow, what the humidity did to it -- looks like I have enough for several people.)

We watch the surfers for awhile and then head down the road to the Parque del Amour -- that's right -- the Park of Love.  There is a winding, tiled wall there and a romantic statue in the center.  Mister and I weave our way around the wall and stand overlooking the ocean, just enjoying the moment.

We continue down the road and come to another park where para-sailers are just taking their shop down for the day.  We find a bench in the park that overlooks the ocean and sit and enjoy the view and watch the people go by for awhile.  It is starting to get dark and so we weave our way back through the streets and come upon Parque Kennedy in the center of town.

It is absolutely bustling with activity.  We walk through and find a craft market set up in the center, popcorn and other treat stands scattered throughout, and families everywhere.  Work is over for the day and the neighborhood is out.  Children can be seen playing in the playground (although barely heard as they play so quietly) and cats EVERYWHERE.  It is amazing.  They are like pigeons standing in front of people quietly waiting for a treat.  People scatter cat food in various places and the whole place has a festival atmosphere.  It is wonderful.

We cross through the park towards the business area and Mister finds a cute little espresso place so we rest for a few minutes while he energizes.  We continue wandering the streets and find a great little pottery shop that we stop in and visit with the owner.  The alleys are full of great little shops and local people going about their daily lives.

We decide to go to a restaurant that was  recommended for their ceviche, but after finding it, we discover that it is only open for lunch so we decide to go to a restaurant right near our hotel.

And what a wonderful decision that turned out to be. Saqra is this cute little nook that has a patio on the Avenue and so we sit in the corner on these little "ottomans" that hold your personal belongings inside.  Great idea.  Our waiter is so great and moves the outdoor heater near us and makes us feel so comfortable.  Our food is amazing - Mister has the Octopus w/Mushroon Risotto and claims it is the best octopus ever.  I have a wonderful Gnocchi (homemade from the many wonderful potatoes in Peru) with Huancaina  sauce.  It is delightful and we sit and visit and enjoy the evening air even as it starts to chill and the mist surrounds us again.  We finish off with a banana creme brulee with chocolate truffles and coffee ice cream. A great end to the day and we head back to the hostel to shower and crash.  We are beat again but it was a wonderful day.

Day Four in Peru - Cuzco

The next morning is a bright blue day. We grab breakfast at the hostel; scrambled eggs, bread, peach nectar, and Peruvian coffee. Jhon, the hotel clerk, maps out an ATM so we can get money, and he and his helper mark up the map with places to see. Our 2-3 block walk was through the busy commercial area, lots of sights and sounds. We try to blend in as much as possible (Mister stands out like a sore thumb). The bank is closed for renovation, but a lady offers to share a taxi to another bank, and another lady says there is an ATM down at the post office. We follow her and find out she is a manager of a hotel in the square.


We get our money and walk up the street to the Santa Domingo church. On the way, Mister stops in a bakery and talks (mostly with his hands as they are gesturing wildly) with the lady about all the different pastries in the case. He comes out with a bag and we walk up to find a textile museum and gallery. They have authentic woven items here, with names and pictures of each craftsman. Two Peruvians are in the back of the gallery using old looms to show how the weaving was done. We walk through the museum and I get lost in the shop. The colors and variety of the products is amazing. I buy a table runner and scarf as Mister sits outside eating his pastries.


We continue to the Santa Domingo church. Peru has a very strong Catholic population and some of the largest, most intricate buildings are their churches and cathedrals. This cathedral was built by the Spanish on top of an Incan temple. You can see the far superior curved stonework of the Incans. Mister takes the time to purchase and light some candles for his mother and then we start walking in the general direction of the Plaza de Armas.

We find ourselves in a narrow alley which is called Loreto and has ancient Inca walls on both sides of it.



It is so amazingly straight and with the same little waterway down the middle that we have come to accept as part of their system.

At the end of the alley the view opens up onto the Plaza and it is indeed spectacular with the huge La Catedral which is flanked by the Iglesia del Triunfo on one side and the Iglesia de Jesus Maria on the other. Across the way is the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus which is very ornate. We sit down on the steps leading to the cathedral to get our bearings and decide where to go. We are approached by several people selling trinkets and we just politely say no.

We decide to go into the Catedral, opting for the audio tour as opposed to a guide. It is very well done and as we near the end of the tour, we come to a painting of The Last Supper done by an Andean artist. The interesting part of it was that the main meal in the center of the table is a guinea pig. Hmm.







The architecture of the building is so beautiful but I have thoughts that it is just too too busily decorated. If I was attending service there, I would be way too distracted to listen.









As we leave the building I am hungry so we start making our way to the next plaza. We stop and peek at the Iglesia de la Compania de Jesus as we head to the Plaza Regocijo and look for a restaurant. We settle on a nice outdoor cafe called the Cuzco Bar and Grill on the plaza and sit back and enjoy our meal: spaghetti w/fresh tomatoes and olive oil for me (sooo good) and a steak panchetta for Mister. As we are eating we are serenaded by a Peruvian 3-man band and constantly bothered by street hawkers. I lose my patience (and since I was hungry there wasn't much left) and loudly say NO. Ugh. Not during a meal please. It is my ONLY complaint about the country.



After lunch we grab a cab and head to San Blas which is supposed to be an area of artisans craft shops.

We weave our way through many small street and alleys and spot a few really cool shops -- two that I really enjoy. The first one is a Coca shop and has many different products that are produced from Coca (yes, it is used for things other than Coke Cola and Cocaine). I try a candy, but seriously, to me it tastes like I am eating what alfalfa smells like. Not a big fan. People here chew coca leaves as a medicine for stomach issues including the altitude sickness that is so prevalent here. I am glad that I have not had to experience that first hand.





The second shop is a silversmith who uses a fine silver thread and crochets it into jewelry pieces that she uses in earrings and necklaces. So very pretty -- silver is very prevalent here and I admire her work for quite awhile.

As we leave San Blas on foot and head back to the Plaza, we are just enjoying watching the locals going about their lives and find it all so interesting.

We round a corner and our eyes lock on an older couple dressed up, arm in arm and it looks like they are out for an evening stroll before dark. We follow them for awhile, but have to stop at an ATM and lose them, oh well.















We head back into the Plaza de Armas so that perhaps Mister can get some good shots as the sun is going down. I grab a bench and sit to just watch the activity in the Plaza and soon, here comes the little couple still arm in arm strolling the plaza. They are just too cute.



 The light is not meant to be though since the clouds are covering the sun so after awhile we decide to head back to the hotel and call it a night. We get back to the hotel to use the internet and book a room for the next day as well as check on our flight. We are also out of water and juice so Mister goes out into the neighborhood to retrieve those items and then it is off to sleep for us as we are hoping to hit one last set of ruins early tomorrow morning before flying back to Lima.

Day Three in Peru - Ollantaytambo to Cuzco

We leave the hotel in the dark again and weave our way through the closed market stalls on the way to the train station. We are in the Expedition car this trip and so we settle in on the opposite side of the car to have a different view of the Sacred Valley as we go back up the mountain.

The trip takes about 2 1/2 hours to go half the distance we traveled getting here two days ago. Seems odd, but it is all up hill.

We arrive in Ollantaytambo around 8 and watch a group of porters unload one of the train cars full of camping equipment. This stop is on the Inca Trail, and must be close to camping spots. The packs look large and heavy, we are glad to just watch. PeruRail wouldn't hold our bags while we explored, so we cross the street and find this little gem of a hostel right on the main road to the ruins that is run by a brother and sister (El Bosque). After our broken Spanish explanation, he is happy to hold our bags for 2-3 hours while we explore the town.

We take off in the direction of the ruins stopping to admire flowers along the way and also to grab a juice. As we cross the river on a very old walking bridge, the ruins come into view. We walk through the plaza and for some reason I don't see the entrance and head down a road that all the tour buses and collectivos (shared buses that are all over Peru)are traveling on.







It takes me around the walls of the ruins and we come upon a solid concrete soccer stadium and a bull-fighting ring made of stone. Pretty cool way to get lost. I see a couple of locals walking down to their homes and point at the walls of the ruins and gesture/ask how to get in -- they send me back around to where I came from and sure enough -- there is the entrance. It is nice to get “lost” because we always find interesting things that way, like the bull-fighting ring. We go up to ask about tickets to the ruins and find out that they are only available in a package that includes 16 other sites and it is pretty pricey. We know that we are not going to use the other places and for some strange reason, you cannot purchase just the one location, so what to do? I get frustrated and go to sit down and study our itinerary and see if we will possibly go to any of the other places while in Cuzco. As I am doing this,

Mister talks with a young man named Daniel that is offering to take us to the other side of the city and up into the mountains to the "free" ruins. He is well educated about the area, so we take his offer and head into the old part of the city.

Oh my -- it is amazing. These are the original Inca walls and they are still being used today. People live in all the homes and so we get a glimpse into everyday life in Ollantaytambo. We enter one home to see the workmanship of the Incas and I am shocked to see guinea pigs running everywhere. Ugh -- we had those as pets and it's hard for me to picture that they are being raised to eat. We continue through the town and come to a very old staircase that leads us up the opposite side of the valley from the temple ruins and so we start climbing.

Dang, I had hoped to not do so many stairs today. Oh well. As we come out into the open on the side of the mountain, we are in the ruins of the townspeople from Inca times and we are also able to view the temple ruins across the way. Daniel is a great guide and gives us plenty of historic information and does it with such passion that you cannot help but like him.

We start our descent back down the mountain and Daniel delivers us into the city square and recommends a place for lunch. We say our good-byes and sit down to relax and enjoy the square while eating.

Roni is the owner, and his wife is the cook. We order cokes, a grilled chicken sandwich and a lemon panqueque, which turns out to be like a crepe. The food is good and Roni is very nice. Through pantomime he tells us we are welcome to sit as long as we like. It was a nice shaded patio, and after the climbing and early start, it was a nice siesta.









We were able to observe the town life going on right in front of us as Peruvian women walk by with their many bundles on their backs and handcarts of fresh meat are pushed through the square to the restaurant destinations.

While resting, we meet Alberto, a Swede who was there to promote his plan to switch the local farmers from coca production to coco. Removing the coca from Peru is a goal of the government and he said his plan was the best. Mister shared a Cusquena beer with him and we chatted for awhile.






We need to start heading to Cuzco, so we say our goodbyes and wander back down the street to collect our bags and find a colectivo. We find one and pile in, along with a few other people, and off we go for the 45 minute drive to Cuzco. We have the whole bench seat, so I stretch my legs and we enjoy the scenery. We go through many towns and farming areas. Oxen are being used to plow the fields and groups of workers are in other fields harvesting the potato crops.

We are dropped in a town square and Mister only has a street address for a hostel he had read about. We flag down a few taxis until we find one who knows the address. We agree on a price and we climb in. Taxis don't use meters, you say where you want to go and agree upon a price before you get in. When we arrive at the hostel, the large wooden door is locked. Mister knocks and then goes around the corner to an internet cafe to see if then can help. It is Sunday, we are told, and many places close for the day. I stay with the bags as Mister walks up the street to find another hostel. He is asked by a group of college-age kids if he needs help (more Peru helpfulness). I guess he looked pretty lost. They knew the hostel, so one of the girls called them and told us to go back and the man would be at the door. We get back to find they are booked. He makes a few calls but they are booked as well. He lets us use their internet to search for a place.

We find the Pachan Hostel in the business area of town, still walking distance to the main square and the tourist sights. Well, “business” wasn't what Mister had planned. It turned out to be a busy street with shops and a gas station right next door. The room was up a few floors, and with no windows out onto the street, the room was quiet.

We had used up our Soles, and we were worn out, so we collect our chips and snacks and bottled water and have a quick but meager meal, shower, and were asleep before 9pm (we must be old).

Day Two in Peru - Machu Picchu

It's dark as we leave the hotel and enter the plaza.

The only people out and about are heading to the same place we are. The buses. We round the corner at around 5:15 and the line is already snaking up the street. Mister heads into a little shop for some juice and then joins me in line. There are Peruvian ladies selling fresh breads and coffee up and down the line. It doesn't take long and they start loading the buses. We are in the fourth one leaving at around 5:40 to head up the mountain side on a single lane dirt road full of switchbacks.

It starts to get light as we rise out of the valley and start to meet the first buses returning for more passengers. The drivers maneuver their buses on the narrow road. They are really practiced at this as it goes on all day everyday. It is not quite 6 yet so we line up and wait for the 6am opening. People are quietly visiting and we watch as the trail survivors start wandering in – you can walk up to the ruins, but it's steps all the way. Whew.


The gates open and we make our way to the entrance. As we stop on one of the terraces, we are greeted by a llama looking over the edge at us.

Mister and I grab a photo and then head back to take the trail further up for better views and to watch the sunrise.

The view is breathtaking. I am instantly so very glad that we did this. I am fascinated by the reserve of the tourists who are up here this early.

 

Most are not entering the actual ruins, but quietly taking up spots surrounding the monument to watch as the sun does its magic. It is almost reverent. I find a spot perched over the edge on a rock and sit down to watch the wonder of it all. So peaceful -- so grand -- so awe inspiring. Once the sun is up, we head down into the ruins. We follow our guidebook and head out. We take our time and enjoy each moment of the place and talk about how incredible it is that it is even there.

The terraces are mind-boggling in their own right and Mister is fascinated with the rock work of the Incas. We marvel at the intricacy of the work the Incas did and the absolute overwhelming size of the task. How did they do this?









There is a plumbing system that is carved into the rock and it travels through the entire city as a small stream and into a bathing area before going into the jungle. The joists for the roofs have "rock" logs to tie the thatch coverings on -- really? What a tremendous effort. We spend the entire morning wandering the city and finding so many little things that cause us to go hmm. Absolutely one of the most incredible things I have ever been privy to experience in my lifetime.

Around noon, we are tiring from all the stairs and so decide to head back to the entrance, grab a cup of ice cream to share and wait for our bus to load to head back down into town. It has been such a great morning -- one that truly gives pause to the thought of a wish to travel back in time and see the city as it functioned on a daily basis. We board the bus and head back down the mountain, stop in at the hotel to shed some clothes as it has certainly warmed up and even though Mister shed one shirt up at the top, we are quite warm still. A quick freshen up and it's lunch time.

We wander up restaurant row and stop in a little Peruvian restaurant that serves alpaca as Mister wants to give that a try. The alpaca was definitely well done, but all in all, not that bad. They also serve cuy (guinea pig) and Mister wants to try it as well, but said he would give it a try another time as we just want a light meal to share.

They had this really old pizza oven in the corner and the fire was going but I never saw a pizza go into it. It was used to heat up other dishes. 

After our meal, we walk down to the train station for tickets back to Cuzco. We find a train to Ollantaytambo early in the morning and decide to stop there and explore the ruins there before heading to Cuzco. Another early morning with a 5:30 departure.

Walking back to the hotel takes us through the market again and I am now ready to find some alpaca items -- I had spotted some nice scarves the day before and Mister had spotted something he wanted for his mom as well. We find the items again (not such an easy task if you can picture hundreds of market stalls in a maze), make our purchases and drop the items off at the hotel.

We decide to walk up to the hot springs that the town is named for.We follow the path up into the jungle, although Mister is a bit disappointed to not see any wildlife. He would be happy with a lizard but it is not meant to be.

 On the way to the springs, we pass many shops that rent swimsuits and towels if we want to jump in. We pass -- just want some photos. The walk is enjoyable and as we come back into town, we cross the river and wander up into where the locals lived.

As we round a corner we can tell that an event is going on and it turns out to be a soccer game between two local adult teams. Well, we walk up some steps to the stands and watch for awhile. It is fun to be so immersed in the local culture as we are pretty much the only outsiders attending. People are packed into the stands and on the other side they sit on the hill with banners, flags, and a small band. This is serious stuff.

 

We are delighted with the game as we watch, but my goodness it is rough. Also, it is played on an artificial turf over cement and so you knew the falls have to hurt. It is great fun and we get caught up in the game and are yelling right along with everyone else.

We continue on and walk the rest of the city. It is getting dark as we arrive back so we decide to go to Toto's for dinner and just have a light pizza as we need to pack and get to bed for an early day tomorrow.