Day 3
Today we had to be up very early to catch our one hour flight from Lima to Cusco. Note Cusco is spelled Cusco or Cuzco in this country. Once again I was very impressed by the airline we flew with- LAN Chile Airlines. We had been warned many times about the effects of altitude sickness and that we would probably feel this at some point in Cuzco or in Machu Picchu. We definitely felt this when we stepped off the plane in Cuzco. I felt nauseous and light headed for the first hour of being there. We were told to simply hydrate hydrate hydrate with water and to drink lots of Coca Tea. We did just this and felt much better. The surrounding area of the airport was beautiful. We were surrounded by hills and many little houses in these hills.
It seemed like way more of a poorer town compared to where we had just been. We drove through the hills of the Andes Mountain Range. We stopped to have lunch a a local Peruvian house/market and experienced being served guinea pig for the first time. Guinea Pig is a sacred dish in Peru that is usually served at religious events such as a wedding or baptism and is usually presented with the whole body and head on a silver platter. Cooked Guinea Pig is called "Cuoy". Of course i couldn’t eat it since guinea pigs are one of my favorite pets. We got to watch some of the some working here dye alpaca fur with natural products and turn it into scarves. Most of the drive was just sites of the beautiful hills with many poor shanty town like houses stacked up on the hillsides. I soon realized most houses in Cuzco look like they are in the middle of being constructed because most of them have iron rods sticking out of them, but they aren't.
We stopped at a mirador (view point) to look down at the valley we were driving to and going to be staying in next. We saw llamas and many local women here trying to sell their goods. We also passed many street markets and were told that most of their produce and food had come markets that did not want the food anymore and so it had been sold to these poorer markets for a very very discounted price.
We stopped at a mirador (view point) to look down at the valley we were driving to and going to be staying in next. We saw llamas and many local women here trying to sell their goods. We also passed many street markets and were told that most of their produce and food had come markets that did not want the food anymore and so it had been sold to these poorer markets for a very very discounted price.
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| LAN Airlines free snack for a 1 hour flight |
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| Food Market in Cuzco |
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| A girl and her Llama (or Alpaca perhaps?) at the mirador of the valley |
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| Tourist Trap |
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| Mirador of the Valley and Andes Mountains |
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| You can kind of see how the houses have rods sticking out of them |
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| This is cooked Guinea Pig "Cuoy"... Yuck! |
Valle de Sagrado, Cuzco, Peru
Day 4
We arrived in a district of Cuzco called “Valle de Sagrado” or the Sacred Valley. To be even more precise the exact town we stayed in was Urubamba. Suzy and I did not pre-book any additional optional tours like most of the group did and decided if we wanted to do an activity that we could research it on our own. We wanted to see a few different famous sites in the area called Moray and Salineras. We ordered a taxi driver so we could be driven around to these different sites. We would pay him 120 soles ($20) to drive us around for 3 hours. This drive was way up on my list of prettiest drives i’ve ever been on. There were rolling hills of red mountains covered in moss and plants, rivers, rancheros walking their animals around and all kinds of small towns. I couldn’t believe my eyes as we drive around and could not stop taking pictures of this beauty. Our taxi driver could only speak Spanish so we knew it was a great opportunity to practice. We were asking him all kinds of questions about the land and history behind where we were and he was answering everything. He was a lot of fun to talk to and played all kinds of Peruvuan and American music. On a side note: Peruvians really like the song Hotel California here.
Our first stop was at Salineras which was an area just above the valley covered in salt ponds. The taxi driver told us the salt pools were created by erosion of the mountains (or something like that is what i got out of the conversation). It was an incredible site. While driving around we stopped at a few miradors and were able to take some pictures of the valley below. We got to the infamous Moray and realized we would have to pay about $20 to get in and we decided not to do this since we had already seen some pretty amazing sites and weren’t dying to see Moray which was an agricultural center. We learned that the rebels of the country back maybe 20 years ago used the sides of hills surrounding the valley to put up propaganda. This practice has since been banned and now they just have important dates on them like their independence day for example.
We later went to visit the village of Olytantumbo which is where tourists can catch the train to Machu Picchu. This town housed the last known remaining Inka House. There were many many hostels and if you are thinking of going to visit Machu Picchu I would definitely recommend staying here.
Our first stop was at Salineras which was an area just above the valley covered in salt ponds. The taxi driver told us the salt pools were created by erosion of the mountains (or something like that is what i got out of the conversation). It was an incredible site. While driving around we stopped at a few miradors and were able to take some pictures of the valley below. We got to the infamous Moray and realized we would have to pay about $20 to get in and we decided not to do this since we had already seen some pretty amazing sites and weren’t dying to see Moray which was an agricultural center. We learned that the rebels of the country back maybe 20 years ago used the sides of hills surrounding the valley to put up propaganda. This practice has since been banned and now they just have important dates on them like their independence day for example.
We later went to visit the village of Olytantumbo which is where tourists can catch the train to Machu Picchu. This town housed the last known remaining Inka House. There were many many hostels and if you are thinking of going to visit Machu Picchu I would definitely recommend staying here.
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| An example of how hills were used for propaganda |
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| A mirador of the valley that our taxi driver took us to |
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| A ranchero and his Bulls |
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| Salineras from up high |
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| Pretty flowers at Salineras |
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| The beautiful drive with the taxi driver |
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| A small village outside of Moray |
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| This is supposedly what Moray looks like... Since we didn't want to spend the money to get in, seeing the statue was good enough for us |
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| Our hotel and a typical Urubamba taxi in front of it (of course we had a normal car driving us around) |
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| In the village of Ollantayambo |
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| Guinea pigs are treating very well in this country until they are sacrificed :/ |
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| Ollantayambo |
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| Ollantayambo |
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| Ollantayambo |
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| Ollantayambo |
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| A fire we saw on the way back to our hotel. We asked our guide what happens when there is a fire like this in these rural areas and he said there is nothing anyone can do except wait for it to go out. Luckily it rained that night. |
Day 5- See Machu Picchu Tab
Day 6
We are back in the main city of Cuzco. The drive in was a pretty shocking experience. There was trash allover the streets and starving dogs laying everywhere also there were a lot of shanty houses once again. Our hotel is located just across the street from the biggest Artisans Market in Peru. We did some shopping there today and passed by hundreds of vendors selling clothes, souvenirs, and food. Our Spanish has come back to us a lot since the beginning of the trip so were able to try to bargain when possible (which felt very good). Since my luggage is pretty much at 49.9 lbs (the limit is 50 on all of my airlines) I decided to buy a few very small gifts for friends and family back home. Suzy and I began to wonder the streets and realized there were a lot less tourists around here. We walked around trying to find some lunch and were so hungry we decided to eat at the first place we saw. This probably wasn't the best idea, but it was a very unique experience to say the least. We ate at this hole in the wall place that was someones house/ restaurant which now looking back seemed more like a soup kitchen. There was a sign in front that said they served breakfast and “segundos” and drinks. So we went in and were greeted by this cute little old lady and asked her for some menus. Instead of bringing us menus she brought us big bowls of soup. After looking at each other and looking at her really confused and trying to talk to her that we just wanted to see a menu she convinced us to try the soup which wasn’t half bad and way better than it looked. She asked us if we were from Argentina which completely flattered us since we thought anyone around here could spot a Gringa from a mile away. She brought us another course which was some type of chicken spaghetti. She also brought us peach juice which was warm and delicious. Suzy had to use the restroom and thought it would be better to take care of business here than some public restroom anywhere else. She said the restroom did not have a toilet, but rather a hole in ground that looked like a shower drain. So she did what she had to do in this shower/toilet drain and came out completely mortified. We laughed about this for the rest of the afternoon. I forgot to mention we only paid 5 soles ($1.44) each for this meal. We also came across a very large statue in the middle of town which actually had a museum underneath it. It only cost 2 soles ( 50 cents) to enter so we paid a man and made our way up to the top. It was an incredible view so it worked out great.
View from the top of the museum
Whenever we leave hotels, street vendors are waiting for us outside of the doors to try to sell us souvenirs as we make our way to the bus. A few days ago when we walked out of the airport some vendors were snapping pictures of us.. I felt like a celebrity for a minute. Then when we were walking to the bus leaving the hotel a lady pulls these post cards out and starts showing them to us and what do you know... the picture of us arriving at the airport is on there and there is one for each of us!. It was pretty hilarious so I had to buy it... It was only $1 and ill send it to my parents as a joke... Ha!
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| "Segundos" from the hole in the wall |
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| Hole in the Wall |
Whenever we leave hotels, street vendors are waiting for us outside of the doors to try to sell us souvenirs as we make our way to the bus. A few days ago when we walked out of the airport some vendors were snapping pictures of us.. I felt like a celebrity for a minute. Then when we were walking to the bus leaving the hotel a lady pulls these post cards out and starts showing them to us and what do you know... the picture of us arriving at the airport is on there and there is one for each of us!. It was pretty hilarious so I had to buy it... It was only $1 and ill send it to my parents as a joke... Ha!
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