Peru: Day 7 (back in Cuzco)

On our last day in Peru, we woke up rested and refreshed after a good night's sleep. The free breakfast buffet at the Casa Andina seemed better the second time around, with quinoa cakes, small pancakes, toast made from round Peruvian bread (quite good), yogurt, cereal, and more.

After checking out and leaving our luggage, we headed up the hill towards San Blas, in a quest to buy some alpaca clothing. We ended up stopping at a store along the way, and making a very large purchase (I think six or seven people ended up buying things), with lots of bargaining. Sweaters which were originally quoted at 65 soles ended up being around 35 soles in the end, and gloves that were originally 28 soles ended up being 15 soles. I'm sure we could have done better if we had spent more time and effort, but we were already quite happy with the prices at that level.

We spent some time in the San Blas Square itself, where there were lots of street stands selling souvenirs. At one point we even walked into a small courtyard that looked like part of someone's house, but there was a souvenir shop there, too:


Afterwards, we walked back through the Plaza de Armas (dropping off our purchases at the hotel along the way) and returned to the Plaza de San Francisco. For lunch, we decided to graze off of the food stands in the Mercado Central:


D ordered a chicken plate that came with soup, salad, and rice, and only cost 3 soles total. I myself picked up a few more tamales (and confirmed that I liked the sweet ones better than the salty ones), and then we ordered a plate of mixed ceviche to share.

For "dessert", we bought fresh fruit/veggie juice from this woman:


We had been hovering in the area of the juice stands for awhile, when suddenly a random guy told us in English that we should order from one particular woman, and that he would tell her what to make us. It turned out that he was American but had been living in Cuzco for about 6 months, and he was showing his visiting friends around. Anyway, he said a few things to the juice vendor in Spanish, told us to pay her 12 soles, and then left, as she started to cut up ingredients. Every so often she would hold something up, like a carrot or beet, to confirm that we wanted it. The entire process took quite a long time, and in the end, the drink contained mango, pineapple, orange, banana, beets, carrots, alfalfa, bee pollen, maca powder, honey, and a mystery “extract”. (There may have been some additional fruits that I'm forgetting.) Anyway, it sounds terrible but was actually very tasty. We drained 5+ glasses and paid her 15 soles (the price seemed not very well determined and I didn't have any change).

After eating, we walked back to our hotel to catch a taxi to the airport (10 soles per van, 2 vans for 13 people). While we were waiting, I ran back up towards San Blas to buy some Peruvian pastries. I ended up with a pretty good apple tart, a much-too-sweet chocolate cake, and an extremely delicious caramel-filled, chocolate-glazed puff pastry. I ate half of it on the spot.

We got to the airport in plenty of time, so we were able to deal with the cancelled return tickets; the first of our many hurdles on our way home. I finished off my last few soles by buying a bottle of pisco for my coworkers (they had free samples at the duty-free shop!) and some Britt candy. Two delays, one rebooking, and 32 hours later, we arrived at home.

Later we joked that the four-day hike had been less tiring than the long trip back. It had certainly been much more rewarding!

Peru: Day 6 (aka Inca Trail: Day 4)

On our last day on the Inca Trail, we had to get up at 3:30am. At least we were treated to cake at breakfast, along with all the usual goodies:


We were in line at the checkpoint before 4:30am, with only 2 or 3 groups ahead of us. At 5am, the checkpoint opened, and we were on our way. It took over an hour and a half of pretty fast hiking for us to get to the Intipunku (aka the "Sun Gate"), but as a result, we got there in plenty of time to see the sunlight creeping towards Machu Picchu:


I took a billion pictures in the twenty minutes that we spent there, and then realized afterwards that time-lapsed video would probably have been more effective. Oh well. Here's one closeup:


It took another 45 minutes or so to walk from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu. We stopped a few times along the way, to look at some interesting rock formations, and to take some photos as we approached the site itself.

It was a little strange arriving at the entrance to Machu Picchu. There were tons of people, a restaurant, bathrooms (with toilet paper!), baggage storage facilities (where we were forced to check our trekking poles), etc. Generally, it just felt like there was too much infrastructure, and there were definitely too many people, many of whom looked like they just stepped out of an air-conditioned bus.

After a quick snack outside the gate, and some creative rearranging of our daypacks (Raul advised us that bags of a certain size were not allowed inside, and in fact some people ended up having to check their packs), we finally arrived at Machu Picchu.

For the first hour or two, we continued to follow Raul around while he showed us the important sites and gave us historical background:


After that, we were on our own. Raul gave us our bus and train tickets, instructed us on how to get to the stops and stations, and then we said goodbye to both guides.

I think we all felt a little lost without Raul and Edison, but despite that, we spent another hour or so wandering the (very large) site.

Many of the walls in Machu Picchu have been restored, and indeed we saw some people working on restoring the Temple of the Sun:


I think this particular wall had been left as is on purpose; I don't remember seeing another crumbling wall anywhere else:


The mountain in the background is Huayna Picchu. If we had wanted to climb it, we would have had to run from the Sun Gate to Machu Picchu, in order to be one of the first 400 people in line to buy a ticket. We decided not to bother, and spent our time enjoying the sunrise instead. I think in the end we were all quite happy with that decision:


There were some nice valley views, too:



As we were walking around, we spotted a chinchilla! Unfortunately I had my wide-angle lens on at the time, but Tina managed to snag this shot:


Around 1:30pm, we decided to head down to the town of Aguas Calientes, as we were all starving. It turned out to be about 20 minutes away, via air-conditioned bus. Upon arrival, we went directly to the Apu Salkantay restaurant, where our duffel bags were being stored, and decided it was simplest just to eat there. Their thin-crust brick-oven pizza was quite good (or we were very hungry), and their dessert crepes weren't bad either.

After lunch, some of us decided to check out the famous hot springs. We were unfortunately quite disappointed, as the pools were crowded, lukewarm, and not entirely clean. We spent maybe 30-45 minutes there and then showered and left.

Generally, the town of Aguas Calientes was too touristy for my taste. At first I thought the marketplace looked fun, but we soon found out the prices were ridiculous. So, we walked around and checked out some of the squares and shops, but didn't buy anything:


Our train was scheduled to leave at 7pm, so around 6pm we went back to the restaurant to grab our bags, and then headed to the train station. The station served both the local train and the backpacker train, but there were separate entrances. It was interesting to notice how the local side was crowded and not very well maintained, while the backpacker side had a waiting area with a deli and pretty decent bathrooms.

When we got on the train, we discovered that somehow we'd gotten put on a Vistadome train (one level up from backpacker). As a result, we even had food service on the 1.5 hour ride; a sandwich, a piece of apple cake (pie?), and hot tea. The train took us to Ollantaytambo, where we caught a Llama Path bus back to Cuzco.

We arrived back at our hotel around 10:30pm, after having to walk several blocks with our luggage, due to some kind of street fair in the Plaza de Armas. After re-checking in (D and I got a much nicer/bigger room the second time around), we decided against more dinner. Instead, we took nice long hot showers, and then hung out watching TV, checking email, and catching up on news, before going to sleep.

After nearly four days of camping, it felt really great to be clean, comfortable, and in a bed. Nevertheless, we all agreed that it had been an unforgettable, challenging, but awesome experience, hiking the Inca Trail.

Peru: Day 5 (aka Inca Trail: Day 3)

I woke up around 6am on Day 3 and was relieved to find that my headache was completely gone.

Plus, I hadn't noticed the previous day, but there was a nice view from the second campsite as well:


After another yummy breakfast (this time the porridge was made of beans instead of oats), and more of the omnipresent coca tea, we were on our way:


The terrain was gently sloped (uphill), but it felt like a cakewalk compared to Day 2. We stopped often to admire the flowers and the views:



After a few hours, we arrived at a site called Phuyupatamarca:


It was an easy climb, even though supposedly it was the third highest point on the trail (3680m / 12,073ft), and there was a nice view from the top:



From there, it was only a couple more hours to another Inca site called Intipata. The site itself was less impressive than some of the others, but the view was spectacular. In fact, I think it was my favorite view on the entire trail. It probably helped that we were relaxed and well-rested:


We hung out at Intipata for awhile, enjoying the scenery, and I re-repaired my left hiking boot, which had started to fall apart pretty badly during the Day 2 descent:


We also took a couple more jumping photos before heading to our third campsite at Winay Wayna (a relatively low 2680m / 8792ft). It was only about 1pm when we arrived at our camp; just in time for lunch. We had several dishes as usual, but I was most impressed by the appetizer:


After lunch, we had nearly two hours to hang out. The Winay Wayna campsite was very fancy and had a restaurant, a hotel (!), and even hot showers. Some of us decided to pay for the shower (5 soles ~= $1.67). Others napped or rested in their tents:


There was also one game of Dominion played, at the tables outside the restaurant:


Just before sunset, Raul took us to the Winay Wayna ruins themselves. They were an easy 10-minute walk away, and quite impressive:



Finally, we had our last camp happy hour and dinner. Jorge really outdid himself with the vegetable carvings that night!


We were soon off to bed, to prepare for our 3:30am Day 4 wakeup call. (Raul wanted to make sure we got to Machu Picchu in plenty of time...)

Peru: Day 4 (aka Inca Trail: Day 2)

On Day 2, we were woken up at 5:30am with some hot tea. After packing, we ate some breakfast (pancakes, toast, and porridge), and then had a brief introduction with our porters:


We were on our way by about 7am, but were quickly passed up by our porters, aka the "Red Army":


Raul had warned us that we would start Day 2 by hiking 4 hours uphill to Dead Woman's Pass (4200m / 13,779ft), an ascent of over 1000m (nearly 4000ft) from our campsite at Ayapata (3000m / 9842ft). He was right in that it was a hard climb, but I think because of the advance warning, we were all mentally prepared, so we reached the summit in pretty good shape.

just before the top:


view from the top:



It was a great feeling to have made it up to Dead Woman's Pass, and we spent a few minutes enjoying it and taking silly jumping pictures before proceeding. Unfortunately, the downhill climb proved to be harder than it looked:


I was too tentative at first which put a lot of pressure on my leg muscles, and the descent was about two hours long, so by the time we got to the lunch stop at Pacamayu (3550m / 11,646ft) I was almost too zonked to enjoy the excellent (as usual) food:



After lunch we had about 30 minutes to rest, which was very much appreciated:


We then embarked on a second uphill climb, this time for about two hours, on our way to the Runkuraqay Pass (4000m / 13,123ft):


About halfway up, we stopped at the confusingly-named "Runturaqay" (as opposed to "Runkuraqay" which was the second pass). (By that time, I'd given up taking photos due to exhaustion, so I had to steal this shot from someone else):


We spent quite a bit of time here, listening to Raul talk about Inca history and culture. I admit I didn't pay much attention, as I was cold and tired. But, as a result, I had recovered pretty well by the time we left the site, so I actually able to enjoy reaching the second pass, Runkuraqay. It was not as pretty as Dead Woman's Pass, so I didn't bother to take out my camera.

We were soon on our way down again:


This time I seemed to have gotten the hang of the downhill rhythm, and I made good time down the hour-long descent. We passed another small Inca site along the way; unfortunately I've either forgotten or never knew the name of it:


At the bottom, Raul gave us the choice of taking a 20-minute detour to see the ruins of Sayacmarca, or going directly to camp. I thought some people looked exhausted, but not one person wanted to pass up the opportunity, so we all climbed up to the site together.

I think it was worth the effort! (Here, I did take out my camera):



From there it was about half an hour of relatively easy ("Peruvian flat") terrain to our second campsite. At this point my legs and lungs were in good shape, but I was starting to get a dehydration headache. Unfortunately, I was also afraid to drink more water, because I had to pee (the last toilet had been four hours back). I was quite happy when we finally arrived at our camp at Chaquicocha, around 6pm. It had been a very long hiking day.

Happy hour and dinner went by in a blur, as I mostly concentrated on drinking lots of water. Unfortunately I wasn't able to get rid of the headache, so I finally just went to bed.

Peru: Day 3 (aka Inca Trail: Day 1)

On the third day in Peru, we finally embarked on our four-day Inca Trail tour.

We started by meeting our guide Raul in the lobby of our hotel at 5am. He took us to our bus, where our porters (18 porters + 1 chef for the 13 of us!) were waiting. We all drove 1.5 hours by bus back to Ollantaytambo, where we stopped for supplies (ponchos, etc.) and some people ate breakfast. We also picked up our assistant guide, Edison. From there we drove another two hours from to "kilometer 82" (Piskacucho), where we started our trek. It was about 10am when we finally left the entrance checkpoint.

Raul told us that the first day would be "flat", but we soon learned that the Peruvian definition of flat is not quite the same as the American definition of flat; we ascended almost 1000ft that day, from the trailhead (2720m / 8923ft) to the first campsite at Ayapata (3000m / 9842ft).

For much of the morning, we followed the Vilcanota River:


Along the way, Raul showed us various plants and animals; there was a parasite that grew on cactus that was used by the Incans to make dark red clothing dye, lots of insects (including a walking stick), and a few llamas and alpacas.

cactus parasite:


Raul demonstrating the dye:


walking stick:


We also saw several Inca sites; a fortress called "Huillca Raccay" and larger nearby site called "Llactapata":



We had been warned by friends who had done the Inca Trail that the camping food was likely to be boring and dominated by potatoes, so we were pleasantly surprised by our first lunch.

Our porters had gone ahead and set up a nice lunch tent, complete with folding table and chairs, and warm water and soap for us to wash our hands. For food, not only was there a sliced avocado appetizer and fresh salsa, Jorge the chef had caught and cooked fresh fish, as well as several side dishes:



After lunch, we refilled our water bottles with water that the porters had boiled for us, and set on our way. The porters cleaned up after us, ate their own lunch, packed up, and still passed us up about an hour later, each carrying a 25kg pack. Those guys were amazing!

From time to time, Raul would point out certain mountains in the section of the Andes that were clearly visible for much of the trek. He said that this snow-capped peak was "Mt. Veronica":


I keep thinking it's strange that a Peruvian mountain is called "Veronica", but I've yet to discover the origin of the name.

We hiked until about 5:30pm, when we arrived at our first campsite at Ayapata. Of course, our awesome porters had set up our tents on the best site in camp; it was closest to the bathroom and had the nicest view. We had a bit of time to change into camp clothes and shoes, and then at 6pm, we had "happy hour", which meant biscuits, popcorn, hot chocolate, and more.

Dinner followed immediately afterwards, and we carbo-loaded on two kinds of pasta, before enjoying banana flambe for dessert:


After dinner, Raul gave us a little talk about the next day's hike, and then we were off to bed, so we could get enough sleep before our 5:30am wakeup call.