I know I've been a bad blogger this month. We're half way through and this is my first blog in July. I guess I can put the blame on getting over sickness, having my first visitor, and then having more visitors. Anyways, July is just crazy and I like it. I'll get to the summary of the first half of the month and do my best with inserting appropriate pictures. I am still new at blogging :)
Beth arrived late July 2nd and we spent the following two days in Lima exploring my beloved pacific coastline, looking at a pre-Inca pyramid, and basically just eating and walking a lot. July 4th came and went without a lot of fuss around here. We did however manage to squeeze in a drink with Jane and Dan, a friend and her BF, who were at the tail end of their Peru vacation. Otherwise our trip truly start on the 5th when we flew to Cuzco (at an unGodly hour). That day we thought we might try to rest and adjust to the altitude, but that didn't happen. Instead we hopped on a little sacred valley tourbus and climbed the lesser known ruins of Pisaq and Ollantaytambo. Not resting at all, by the time we arrived at our hostal in Ollantaytambo (a city just 60km away from Cuzco) we were in need of relaxation. Unfortunately the place we were finally about to rest our heads was a little buggy, dirty, and lacking electricity. Luckily the lights did come on that night and I killed a bug or two and we slept. We awoke at 5 the next day to get dressed and get on a train for Machu Picchu. Unforunately the
electricity was out for real this time, in the whole town. So we got dressed in the dark (Beth with her shirt on backwards) and stumbled in the dark towards the train station. After waiting, drinking hot tea, and getting on a shuttle we finally arrived at Machu Picchu around 8:30am.We took the ruins by storm that day by starting around 10am with a hike to the top of Wayna/Huayna Picchu. Wayna Picchu is the big mountain in the back of most memorable MP photos, and if you scroll back in my blog you can see it. They only give out 400 tickets to hike it everyday and we got two of the last 30 tickets available which was pretty lucky. The hike was pretty crazy. There were thousands of stone steps going up only getting steeper as wel rose to the top. But the real battle was the way down where our legs literally started to feel like jello. It took us a little over two hours to get down and back, and as sore as we were (for the next three days) it was well worth it. Machu Picchu looked like a tiny thumbnail from the mountain (Photo 3 with me standing, shows tiny MP ruins to my right, very high up). We spent the rest of the day tiring ourselves out some
more by exploring all the ruins and climbing another million steps for another million photos. All in all a fruitful day. The only unfortunate part was that were we stuck with the last train at 9:20pm so we had to kill time in Aguas Calientes (the crazy tourist town which sits at the base of MP). After shopping, eating, feeling sick, and even taking a nap, I still felt like our train would never come. But it did and we arrived back at our gross hostel for another night with bugs and no shower. Forgot to mention that the shower in our room didn't work and another one we could use had very little pressure.Anyways, the next morning we recooperated with the best pancakes ever (at http://www.heartscafe.org/) and a relaxing taxi ride to Cuzco. That Monday we finally had our day of rest. We arrived at Ninos Hotel and were elated. It was clean, warm, and had very powerful hot showers. After resting and more resting we managed to get ourselves out of the hotel and explored a bit of the city, ending the evening with some sub par Italian food. The next day, feeling a little more rested, we did a little shopping and walking around and took a city tour of Cuzco (meaning archeological sites around Cuzco) that afternoon. Basically we were still pooped from MP and didn't pay too much attention. There are only SO many archeological sites that you can visit and learn about. Anyways, Beth and I had our quota of that but went through the tour anyways. The best part of the tour was an unplanned stop at a little shop before returning to Cuzco. Our guide decided to teach us how to feel the different between vicuna, baby alpaca, adult aplaca, wool, and acrylic fibers in woven goods. This was a very tough lesson but it helped since I plan to buy baby alpaca yarn to knit wonderfully soft things as well as buying a possibel sweater or scarf along the way.
Finally it was Wednesday (July 8th) and Beth and I were having breakfast at the hotel and checking out when we asked about getting a taxi. The woman at the hotel looked a bit confused and started telling me (all in Spanish of course) that there were no cars today. I was super confused and totally didn't understand why. Cuzco has the biggest tourist industry in Peru, how could there be no taxis to take tourists to the airport, to the sites, etc. After some more confusing conversation, she said she would get her friend to get us a tricycle. I figured it was one of the three wheeled moto-taxis which was fine. What actually pulled up to the door of the hotel was a cart. Yes, that's right, a cart, usually used for carrying vegetables, fruits, tools, etc. We drew a bit of a crowd and were absolutely hysterical (laughing) that we were about to sit in a cart and be pedaled to the airport. We managed to grab a picture of our driver (seen here) and our feet along the way. It took a little over a half hour, passing more than a hundred laughing Peruvians and photo-taking tourists, but we made it to the airport. Our flight (which
unfortunately was gonna have two stops, which is a lot for an otherwise one hour direct flight) was not for an hour and half. Still crazed from our airport transport, we kindly asked the airline check-in gal to see if there was another earlier flight or just something direct we could get on to make our journey a little easier. To our wonderful luck, she said yes and we basically boarded the plane within five minutes of checking in. We were thrilled that after a vegetable cart ride to the airport we were now in a spacious exit row on a direct flight back to Lima, phew. We got back around the same time our 2 stop-over flight would have taken off from Cuzco and spent the remainder of the afternoon resting and uploading pics from the trip.We finished up on Thursday by shopping in the Merdcados del Indios in Miraflores (a ton of arts n crafts stalls in my hood) and eating delicious Chifa (Peruvian Chinese food). After that Beth packed up, hopped on her plane, and bid adieu to Peru. My first visitor had a lovely time, but boy did we wear ourselves out. Next upcoming post will include Mark's parents visit (July 12-26) and the beginning of Sarah Anne's visit. She arrives tonight! Alright, off to plan the trip to the Amazon that I will engage in at the month's end. Tell me what you're up to, please! hasta pronto ;)
