Feeling great, we headed down to the Plaza de Armas, Cuzco’s main square. On two sides of the square stand two beautiful cathedrals built by the Spanish when they colonized the area, and the other two sides are lined with small shops and restaurants. Tiny little taxies zoomed around the corners while street vendors sold everything from dolls to tour packages to massages. We walked around for a bit, and then had traditional Peruvian food for dinner including corn (but not even close to corn at home – gigantic white kernels), avocado salads (Martin was so happy), and alpaca meat (low in cholesterol and quite tasty!)
We slept late the next day and had more coca tea for breakfast (just to be sure we were over the altitude sickness!)
It was a bright and clear day, and from our hostel windows, we could see the brown tiled roofs from the buildings below in the valley, and the little houses that stretched high up into the hills above. (It reminded us a lot of Sienna, Italy)
We explored Cuzco some more, finding lots of craft markets, street fairs and alpacas wandering around on leashes with their owners. We were surprised, and delighted at the way many of the older women dressed: stockings and colorful skirts, brightly decorated hats, long braids and carrying everything from corn to babies wrapped in blankets on their backs. We again had traditional Peruvian cuisine for dinner, this time: cuy (guinea pig). Although we all tried it, the real hero of the night was Dano, who consumed an entire guinea pig (including its brain), roasted whole and presented on his plate with its teeth intact. (The title of this post is a direct quote from Dano after he finished his little cuy.) For dessert, we had the most popular drink in Peru, a Pisco Sour which is made with a grape-based alcohol (pisco), egg whites and sugar – delicious!
.JPG)
The following day we had to wake up early (more coca tea for breakfast – gosh we like that stuff!) for a day long tour taking us to 3 different towns throughout the Sacred Valley (the area surrounding Cuzco). We saw Inka ruins, Spanish cathedrals, and local marketplaces at Pisaq, Chinchero and Ollantaytambo. Our bus ride was along dirt roads with truly amazing view of rivers and small farms in the valleys, and forests and glaciers on the mountains. When we got home in the evening, it was time to pack and prepare ourselves for the 4 day hike we were beginning the next day.
If you want to see more pictures of Cuzco and the Sacred Valley, go here:
Inka Trail & Machupicchu
William, the assistant guide of our trek picked us up at our hostel at 5:30am. We rode for 2 hours on our bus with 10 other hikers (Swedish Dr. Jonas, Canadian Dave, the 4 Brits, James & Abby the war-mongers, so-called bird watcher Kristen, and our venture capitalist Bob), William, Bobby our guide, and 21 porters to the starting point of our hike, known as kilometer 82 which is at 2600 meters.
.JPG)
After getting our backpacks on, and hearing some instructions from Bobby, we crossed the Vilcanota/Urubamba river and began our trek. The first day was to be easy: 12 kilometers, first along the river, and then up higher into the mountains. We stopped at a few Inka ruins sites, and Bobby explained to us the marvels of their engineering. The Inkans had a deep understanding of seismic building, flood control, aqueduct systems and agriculture. Everyday we learned more and more about this, and left absolutely amazed at the advances they made. It is incredible to think that their buildings have withstood 800 years of floods, fires and earthquakes, and although some of their techniques are used today, we don’t understand why many are still ignored. We set up our camp just outside of a small farming village, at 3100 meters, with amazing views of the Urubamba mountain range including the peak Veronica, 5680 meters. While most of the other hikers in our tour took a nap, Martin, Dano and William helped the Wayllabamba soccer team beat a team of Northern Ireland guys, on a little dirt field with donkeys, chickens and local kids running through during the game. Martin says: there is nothing like an Andean soccer game to relax from a day of hiking, and prepare for another day of hiking.
.JPG)
The second day was to be the most challenging day of hiking on the trek. We started at 6:30am and immediately began our 9 kilometer ascent to the “Dead Woman’s Pass” which is at 4200 meters.
.JPG)
This took us a little over 5 hours. From the top, it was a 3 kilometer, 2 hour descent to our campsite at 3600 meters. Although it was a grueling hike, we saw waterfalls and creeks coming down from the mountains, and giant blue hummingbirds landing on the flowers along the trail. It began to rain just as we reached the campsite, and we passed the afternoon and evening playing cards together in our tent (chinchon!!)
Although the second day was technically the hardest, the third day was the longest – 15 kilometers, with 3 uphill passes and a descent along 2,000+ stairs, some 1100 meters. This was part of the original Inka trail – the stones we were walking on were laid there by the Inkas. It was quite steep in places, and we traveled along slowly. It was here, that we realized how incredible our porters really were. The 21 men in our group came mostly from the small farming villages outside of Cuzco. Some spoke Spanish, and all spoke Quechua, the indigenous language. They ranged in ages probably from 18-40 (although William was a porter when he was 12), and all carried HUGE loads – all 25 kilograms each of our food and camping equipment (full propane tanks, crates of eggs, sleeping pads, etc.) Some of them used backpacks, but most wrapped things up in blankets or rice sacks tied around their shoulders. Although the tour company provides them with hiking boots, most preferred to wear simple tennis shoes or rubber sandals. These men ran, yes ran, up and down the trail. By the time we got to our campsite, they had been there for hours. They greeted us with hot tea, our tents were set up and a delicious dinner was cooking. Bobby explained to us that every year there is a race along the same Inkan trail we were spending 4 days hiking on. Many of the porters participate (sans backpacks) and complete it in a little over 3 ½ hours.
It began to rain a little before we reached our campsite, as we were visiting the last Inka site before Machupicchu – Intipata. It was comprised of agricultural terraces, set into the side of the mountain (it was here that the Inkas were attempting to culturally-assimilate crops from the lower jungle areas to the higher mountain areas, and vice versa – wicked smart!).
.JPG)
From there we looked our over the Urubamba valley, filled with clouds, over which a full-arch rainbow appeared, brighter than any of us had ever seen. From here, we walked down through cloud forests with moss-covered trees and wild orchids blooming everywhere.
That night at dinner, Bobby prepared us for the next day. We would wake up at 3:45, and quickly pack up so that the porters could make it down to the train station nearby at 5:30 am. We would wait at the last trail checkpoint until it opened at 5:30 so that we could be the first group on the trail, making it to the Sun Gate of Machupicchu at 7am.
.JPG)
Things went just as Bobby planned the next morning. Although we seemed to be still sleeping, at 5:15 our group stood up and took off our sweatshirts, then at 5:30 on the dot, took off like race-horses along the trail. With flashlights in hand or headlamps on, our group was following Bobby through the dark, not a word was said, everyone overflowing with excitement and adrenaline - Bobby’s speech the night before had really pumped everyone up. Soon, after about 15 minutes of hiking, Bobby had pulled far enough ahead that he could not be seen by the group anymore – he has hiked the Inka trail more than 500 times! I (Martin) was left leading the group as fast as I could, with William, the assistant guide, always being the last person. There was a slight drizzle as the sky started to brighten up, some flashlights were put away. At one section of the trail, there was a large low-hanging tree branch that had to be ducked under, and under the tree branch there was a large muddy puddle. As I ducked under the tree my inside-trail foot stomped in the puddle and slipped off the trail, my outside foot still behind me, I was on my way off the side of the trail. It took less than a second for my foot to slip and me to be hanging onto some tree roots with my entire body about 2 feet below the edge of the trail. Luckily, one of our Brit friends, Ross, was quick to react, dropping all of his things and pulling me up just as quick as I had put myself in such a precarious situation. I did not look down at the cliff that I hung over, but as Dano passed, he later told me, it didn’t look too good. Anyways, since the adrenaline was already pumping, before my slip off the Andean edge, I just resumed the lead of the pack as if nothing had happened. Dano was smart enough to just tell Grace that I had only slipped so as not to worry her, since she was around the bend when this all occurred. After about another hour or so we arrived at a “staircase” of sixty steps that looked to all of us more like a wall. After crawling up this wall with hands and feet we arrived at the Sun Gate, from where the postcard snapshot of Machupicchu is usually seen, however, all we saw were clouds.
Nevertheless, we were glad to have reached the top, all group members intact.
.JPG)
Through small breaks in the clouds we caught glimpses of the site and we continued on to our final destination, just another half an hour of slippery descent more. We left our backpacks at the entrance to the Machupicchu site, and once we finally entered, we could see how massive it really is. Approximately 521 people lived in this city, which includes agricultural terraces, a main plaza, 16 fountains, the Temple of the Sun and the living quarters of the Inkan King (he got a private bathroom and a huge bed – for his ladies). We were again, amazed at the advanced society the Inkans had and their incredible ingenuity. It is a shame that the Spanish colonials eradicated such a wonderful culture – we may all have been better off if they had embraced it. We toured the site for 2 hours in the rain, with Bobby explaining not only the site itself, but the history of when it was found, the various theories of its purposes and the archeological reconstruction of it. Unfortunately, many of the artifacts that were originally found there had been stolen by its finders, and many are now kept at Yale University, who refuses to give them back to the country of Peru. Regardless, it was an incredibly impressive site. Llamas walked amongst the buildings (keeping the grass cut tidily), orchids bloomed up from the cliffs and hawks soared overhead.
.JPG)
We waited for a while for the weather to clear, but it continued to rain, so after a final look, we decided to call it a day.
We took a harrowing bus ride on a one-way S-shaped road down the mountain (often our bus had to back up around the turns for another bus to pass) until we reached the town of Aguas Calientes, which seems to all of a sudden appear out of the dense rainforest, next to the river. The old railroad that brings people and goods runs right through the middle of the town, which is comprised mostly of small shops and restaurants for the tourists. We walked around for a while, stopping at the main food market with tables and stalls over-flowing with meat, cheese, bread and vegetables. We then met up with the rest of our group for our last lunch together, with many well-deserved beers. We stayed in the cozy little restaurant warmed by the adobe pizza oven until it was time to take the train back to Cuzco. We said goodbye to our group members at the train-station and headed back to our hostel for a shower.
For more, but not all, of our pictures from our 4 day trek, go here:
.JPG)
We met William for dinner and drinks later that night, and he met us again the next morning at the airport. He introduced us to his little brother, aunt and mother who has worked in the little craft market next to the airport for 20 years. We ate tamales and talked until it was time to board our plane to Lima.
LimaIt was a bit of a shock going from the small, calm little town of Cuzco to the big, busy city of Lima. During our cab-ride from the airport, some people jumped from the open doors of moving buses at intersections and others preformed break-dancing tricks during red-lights. Luckily, we had decided to stay in a hostel in the quieter neighborhood of Barranca near the beach.
.JPG)
After sending in our laundry that desperately needed to be washed, we had ceviche at a little café and then spent the evening talking and drinking with our Dutch friends, Didi and Pauline (who rocks at “daffletennis” which is ping-pong). We spent time in the central part of Lima the next day, checking out their main Plaza and Cathedral, and visiting the underground catacombs of the Monastario de San Francisco. Their white house in the central square has a large tank parked on every corner. We also met a man named Richard, who offered to shine our shoes, until he realized we were all wearing flip-flops. He asked us if we liked Lima and we told him we had just returned from Cuzco... he knew exactly what we meant. He told us that he was from Puno, a town near Lake Titicaca, and that he had moved his whole family to Lima so that he could work and his daughter could have a chance at attending nursing school, which she is. He explained to us that the real Peru was found outside of Lima, in towns like Cuzco, Puno and Arequipa. We agreed.
We had ceviche again for dinner (we have missed spicy raw fish!) and again, had too much fun drinking at the hostel to go out on the town. Our last day in Lima was spent packing up, playing cards, and walking around until we watched the sunset over the beach. We then spent our final few hours with Annie and Dano at the airport until they flew back to the states, and we flew back to Buenos Aires.
For more of our Lima pictures you can go here:
We absolutely loved Peru and had planned on seeing quite a bit more. However, we were pretty tired from our hike, Martin was getting sick, and we realized that we wanted to spend Easter with our friends Carlos and Marisa in San Clemente del Tuyu. So we bought round-trip tickets, meaning that, on April 21st, we will fly back to Lima, and from there, we will explore Southern Peru and Bolivia, and then the Northern part of Argentina. We are really looking forward to this, although Peru won’t be the same without Annie and Dano (hellooooo?).
.JPG)
We reached our first destination of Bariloche without any problems. Driving on the highways was easier than expected and small city driving is just as crazy as Buenos Aires driving - except a lot less traffic signals!
For Grace's birthday we decided to stay a fancy hotel and spa instead of a cheap hostel. And oh, how we enjoyed that! It is a small hotel that sits right on the lake on the outskirts of Bariloche. Our room had a perfect view of the mountains and the lake. Since right now it is kind of the off season, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We spent a lot of time in the pool, jacuzzi and sauna - which were always empty...our own private resort. Here is the link to their website, check out some of the pictures of this place! http://www.soldelnahuel.com.ar
On the 25th, we also celebrated another very important day… our half way point to our trip. It has been, 105 days, and nearly 105 bottles of wine since we left home. It has been such a wonderful adventure, we have made many new friends (see photo below), learned new things and had some amazing experiences. We´ve also had quite a lot of fun making sheep sounds on crowded buses and walking through interestingly shaped caves. 
We are very much looking forward to the next 105 days here. On a sentimental note, we want to say how much we appreciate the support and love from all of you. The emails, posts, phone calls and Pesach cards have kept the homesickness very far away, thank you.
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG)
.JPG){kind=link}
.JPG){kind=link}