Traveling the Andes by 6 Wilbury's

Lima

2008-08-16T17:51:00.003-07:00

Lima is always chaotic. The traffic is a nightmare, especially during rush hour. But it is much worse now because they are doing road construction everywhere in Lima for a major economic summit coming up in November. Ironically, it doesn't appear that they will be ready on time, so the summit traffic will be much more chaotic than usual, defeating the purpose. It took us 45 minutes to make it to the hotel. Nevertheless, we had a good time. We arrived into the El Olivar Hotel, checked in, and then went to dinner to one of the most fabulous restaurants in the world, called Fusion. They specialize on fusion of Peruvian cuisine with other parts of the world (Italy, Japan, etc.). The food was simply out of this world. We ate lots of seafood. The tuna tartare there is simply the best.

Next day Mark and Cindy split because it was their last day in Lima and they wanted to tour the archeological museus, downtown Lima, the Catacoumbs and other places of interest. The rest of us went to visit the town, beaches and Barranco. Did a little shopping in Barranco. Barranco is suppose to be "the place" for local music and fun, but it is all run down because of so much road construction all over the place. We then had lunch with Michael's client and his wife at "Pescados Capitales", which is one of the best seafood restaurant in Lima. Our pretty savvy waiter suggested a variete of specialty dishes and we went along with that. Had some tiradito, octopus, jalea, etc. We had a great time and ate like kings.

Again, we toured the city, then came back to say farewell to Super Mark and Cindy. We learned about their Lima city adventures. For example, Cindy went to buy some jewelry at one of the silver stores, but Mark was wearing his shorts and unshaved face. Most people thought he was a thug because nobody wears shorts in the winter in Lima, but given that he was accompanied by a very sophisticated looking lady, he was allowed into the jewelry stores, not without a dirty look, though. Mark and Cindy finally left for the airport. The resto of us went back to Barranco for a show of music and dances of Peru that started at 9 pm and went until 3 am. We left around 2 am and went back to the Hotel in a beat up taxi. With no traffic at nigh, we made it to the hotel in about 10 minutes. What a difference!!

The next day was Mike and Lynn's last day. We went to downtown Lima. The traffic going there was horrendous and we went through pretty bad neigborghoods, which you can't avoid with all the road construction going on. Once we got there it was nice. The plaza is painted in its original colors and they have done a great job of keeping the Plaza nice and clean (except for the pollution glued to the buildings).

The Town Hall has some pictures of what the plaza used to look back when informal street vendors were allowed and, boy, what a difference!! We visited the San Francisco Catacoumbs where they had bones from some 10,000 people that were buried. It is a very interesting but creepy tour and the church is in bad need for renovation because of earthquakes. Nevertheless, the San Francisco convent is very historic, interesting and beautiful.

To give Mike and Lynn some idea of how the Limenios live, we went to Miraflores, by the water. We saw peopla paragliding from a cliff by the water and the infamous (some think is tacky) "Love Park".

We then went to Jose Antonio, which is a typical Peruvian restaurant that serves some of the best Pisco Sours in town. We had a great late lunch with tiradito (raw fish in lime juice), octopus and other local dishes.

At night we went to Larco Mar, which is an amazing complex of shops, theaters, restaurants and bars by the water with fantastic views. We had some ice cream, did some shopping, Alberto and Mike smoked Cuban Cohibas, and then went back to the Hotel. Mike and Lynn departed shortly after, bringing to an end our fantastic Peruvian journey. Alberto and Delphine stayed another week to visit with the family. Attendend Luis's son's baptism (Alberto was the godfather), his sister Zambi's birthday, and even managed to do some work at Pacifico University, where he gave a talk to an audience of 100 business people.

Cuzco

2008-08-16T17:51:00.001-07:00

The first thing we did after breakfast was to go to the Sachsayhuaman ruins. Lynn had trouble with the pronunciation so she kept calling it "sexy woman", which seems to be a popular thing with the tourists. Super Mark and Super Cindy went up to the ruins by foot from Cuzco and the rest of us took a taxi. We found each other at the top of the ruins where we took this picture.

From the construction perspective, Sachsayhuaman is the most impressive of all ruins. Machu Picchu is breathtaking because of the size and location of the ruins and its shear beauty. But Sachsayhuaman has the biggest stones you will ever see in a construction site. The stones are so perfectly put together and bound that you can't put a razor blade in between them. Moreover, the fit is three dimensional. These runins were built as a fortress to protect Cuzco, but people wonder why the Incas decided to build a fortress that required such an amazing amount of labor. Pulling those rocks from their origin must have taken thousands of labor hours and, to this date, there are no modern cranes that can lift some of those rocks.

Notice in the picture how Delphine sneaked on Mike and Lynn's picture. Also notice the size of the stones in the pictures. Some stones are about three times as high as a person and 15 feet wide or more. Mike and Alberto returned later to take night pictures because they have lights, but it appears that they had some electrical problems and they shut the lights early that night. Bummer!!

We then returned to the center of Cuzco and walked over to the San Blas area, which is a beautiful part of town with a little plaza and church at the top of the hill.

There are several cafes, shops and restaurants in this area. We found a coca shop where you can buy coca gum, tea, candy, leaves to chew, etc.

We then returned to the center of town where Mike and Alberto took this picture from inside the Jesuite church, which is very old and beautiful. The Town Hall plaza in Cuzco is a really happening place with restaurants and bars all over the place. We walked for a while and visited the Cathedral, the Jesuit Church, and many other places of interest around the plaza. While we were visiting the Cathedral we spotted Super Mark and Super Cindy enjoying some Cuzquena beer from a second floor balcony at some restaurant at the plaza.

We then re-convened and walk back to the San Blas area to have dinner at Pachapapas, which is an awesome local reasturant. Here Super Mark insisted in drinking Chicha de Jora, which is basically fermented corn juice. The waiter told him that it was too late in the day to drink it and that he would get sick because of the fermentation in his stomach, but this didn't stop Super Mark. He later reported that he felt a little funny that night, but didn't quite get sick. This is when we began to suspect that Mark was a real Inca disguised as a gringo tourist. The vase he is using to drink the Chicha Jora is actually a replica of the vases they used to offer blood to the gods. Seco y volteado, go Mark!!

After visiting museums, the Monasterio Hotel (operating in a real historical monastery) and other places in the area, Mark, Cindy, Delphine and Lynn went to an artistic play at some theater (the local version of Circ du Soleil) and they reported that the show was fantastic. Mike and Alberto stayed at the plaza taking night pictures. We later gathered at the Inka Grill, had some Pisco Sours and went to a local bar called Kamykazi where a local band called Awar Inti played several modern Andean tunes with pan flutes, charangos and other Andean instruments. The band was outstanding and we had a blast. We drank beer for several hours. The tab? about $5 per person. Can't beat that.

The next day we had until early afternoon to tour around, so we split to see and do different things individually. Alberto and Delphine went to the Koricancha temple and Santo Domingo church, which are right across the street from our hotel. This is an interesting temple because it exemplifies how the Spanish built their palaces and temples on top of Inca constructions, where the two types of construction co-exist, like in many other places in Cuzco.

We were then picked up by Viajes Pacifico to take us to the airport. But the airport was closed because of bad weather and there were like 1000 stranded tourists at the airport due to all the flight cancellations. We heard the LAN Peru people explaining to passengers that when there are weather cancellations they are not responsible and that some tourists would probably have to stay 3 or 4 extra days because all flights were fully booked. Miraculously, the sky opened up for a few minutes, our incoming flight which was circling Cuzco was able to land, and we embarked on our flight with only a 30 min delay. This trip really went without a glitch. Except for the traffic in Lima. What a nightmare!!

Sacred Valley

2008-08-16T17:50:00.003-07:00

Upon our return to Ollantaytambo our van drove us 20 minutes to the Posada del Inca Yucay Hotel located in Yucay where we checked in (see link to the Sacred Valley map). We changed and went out for dinner to "El Huacatay", which was recommended by Luis. Huacatay is a Peruvian herb, which is very popular with local dishes. I think it is part of the black mint family and it has a unique and wonderful taste (almost like basil, but more potent). Alberto grows this in his garden if you want a sample. El Huacatay restaurant is a hole in the wall (as described by Luis) in Urubamba (10 min from the hotel) but the food was outstanding.

The hotel was very nice and it is built and decorated like a small Andean town with a church and everything. But it looks like they have some management problems. Cindy's luggage got full of ants in her room and there was some white powder falling from the ceiling in the outdoor restaurant, some of which was falling in the food. Not very nice. But the rooms were very comfortable and clean and the awesome headboards were the creation of Luis' wife Claudia. The rooms were designed by Luis himself when he was a manager of that hotel a couple of years ago (and the hotel was much better managed).

Our Viajes Pacifico tour guide Dagmar picked us up with our star driver who was the one who didn't bring the Machu Picchu tickets to Cuzco. We had a hard time remembering Dagmar's name and we called her everything, except Dagamar for a while, including Magma, Dogma, Madagascar and even Matilde. She was a good guide although we discovered that if we asked her questions she had much more knowledge than she was voluteering during the regular tour descriptions. One funny moment happened when Lynn asked Dagmar if she was "Vieja del Pacifico" (instead of Viajes del Pacifico), which translates to "the old woman from the Pacific". We started our tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas and we made our first stop in the town of Ollantaytambo where we saw these guinea pigs. This is when Super Mark figured that guinea pigs looked cuter running around that on a plate.

We then went to the Ollantaytambo ruins, which are amazing. We had to climb several terraces all the way to the top, where you can see several unfinished pieces of rock. The Sacred Valley of the Incas runs mostly along the Urubamba River and it has several ruins along the way where the Incas came to rest and vacation while en route to other places.

We then backtracked through Urubamba and Yucay all the way to the town of Pisac. We drove along the Urubamba River and we learned that the Urubamba River starts near the highest point of the Andes crossing in the Arequipa-Cuzco highway at the Vilcanota knot (which we passed en route). We arrived into Pisac where they have some interesting ruins there too, but not as impressive as Chinchero, so concentrated on their famous handicraf market for the sake of time.

We then went in the direction of Cuzco and stopped at Moray, which is the most amazing system of terraces built by the Incas as an agricultural lab in which they could test how various crops fared at different altitudes. Adventure note: on our way to Moray we went to a very narrow dirt road with a steep hill on one side and a steep cliff on the other side. Half way there we ran into a hugely wide tractor coming the other way. We had to backup down the slope until we found a spot where we could go around the trator about 2 milimiters from the cliff, where we heard the famous words "yikes!!" a bit louder than usual from Lynn.

We then continued towards Cuzco and stopped at the town of Chinchero, where there are other ruins with terraces co-mingled with Spanish construction with a plaza, church, bell tower and a small Andean handicraft market. Here we visited a beautiful church with very intricate art, scuptures and detailed paintings on the ceiling (every inch of it). Here is where we learned by questioning Dagmar that this church was the fruits of true labor of love
because this church is very poor and all construction and art was done by the locals with no outside financial help.

A picture anyone? Mike capturing the moment!! After a few more photo snaps we continue our journey to our final city destination for the day, Cuzco!!!!!

We arrived to our wonderful El Libertador Hotel, part of which is built in an old Inca Palace. We were getting ready to go to dinner and, guess what? We ran into Ms. Talkalot and Mrs. Talksolittle. We chatted until there was a split second pause in the story we were hearing and headed out to the Inka Grill for dinner. Excellent food and nice music.

Machu Picchu

2008-08-16T17:50:00.001-07:00

Mike, Lynn, Delphine and Alberto met our Viajes Pacifico guide Celio at 6am at the Inkaterra hotel and walked to the bus stop where Mark and Cindy were waiting for us ready to go and coffee on hand. They had tried to get tickets to climb the Huayna Picchu hill (big hill in front of Machu Picchu) the night before, but they couldn't get them because there was a long line and they only allow 400 visitors per day. We took the bus up to Machu Picchu following the hairpin steep and narrow road shown in the picture. The ride took about 20 minutes and the buses leave very frequently. We were at the top around 6:30am.

Our guide Celio turned out to be the most awesome guide you could hope for. He was very knowledgeable and proud of his culture and had several interesting stories that made our Machu Picchu visit very special. You can see him in the photo posing for a celular telephone commercial. Who knew that you would find strong celular signal at the top of Machu Picchu. The Inkas are probably looking down saying "what on earth is that in their ears".

Celio had a great route for the tour, starting at the very top where we could see the entire ruins where he explained the entire layout of the city and then walking down progressively to the main yard. If you've never been to Machu Picchu, the very first time you see it from the top is an experience that will never be replicated in your life. But some of us who have seen Machu Picchu a few times still get the chills and goose bumps and the same feeling of awe caused by the breathtaking views, the mystical feeling of being at the top of a steep mountain looking down a the deep valley and surrounded by even higher mountains, and most importantly, one of the 7 wonders of the world right in front of you with its masterfully planned fortress layout, beautiful stone buildings, perfectly engineered terraces for agriculture, contention walls and water drainage, and then beautiful alpacas roaming around (they are the natural lawn mowers of Machu Picchu). We took these photos at the top.

We then descended to the main yard and visited just about every room in the ruins. The photo opportunities are endless, but it was great to get there early and be able to take pictures before the tourists coming from Cuzco arrived. Our tour was 2.5 hours, so we were finished around 9:30am and were free to roam around and the heavy masses of tourists began to arrive around 10am.

Great timing (sleeping in Aguas Calientes the night before is a must if you want to see the ruins without massive numbers of tourists -- around 4pm is a good time too when the masses begin to dwindle).

After the tour, we each went different ways but we kept finding each other, which was great for taking turns taking pictures. Here are a couple of tourists we found along the way with pretty fancy outfits and photography equipment. I think he is a rock star and she is a fashion trend setter.

We decided to hike to the Sun Gate, which was a great thing to do. It is a 45 minute hike uphill from Machu Picchu. If you hike the Inka Trail, you would be walking for 4 days going up and down the hills a few thousand feet in altitude difference every day. Imagine being tired, thirsty, hungry and sleepy for 4 days until you finall see a steep stone path and the Sun Gate in front of you. At this point you would know that once you reach the Sun Gate you can see Machu Picchu, so you can imagine the excitement that hikers would feel at this point, and then even more excitement when the hiker finally sees the view of Machu Picchu shown in the photo.

So, in essence, we hiked the last 45 minutes of the Inka Trail to the Sun Gate and then back. Delphine and Alberto were way behind the group with Lynn, but Lynn suddenly got a shot of adrenaline and darted to the top like a gazelle. Delphine decided that she had enough hiking for the day, so Alberto decided to continue by himself. On his way up he found the rest of the group returning and the Gate was only 10 minutes away. Super Mark went back to the Gate with Alberto, got to the top, took some pictures, starting descending when they found Delphine very near the top. So, Alberto and Mark returned to the top to walk with Delphine to the Gate. So, Super Mark now claims to have been to the Sun Gate 3 times. But it was nice to have Mark there to take the picture of Alberto with Delphine at the top. Then next picture shows the view of Machu Picchu that the Inka Trail hikers see when they reach the Sun Gate. We then returned from the Sun Gate a bit tired and hungry and had a fabulous buffet lunch with Andean live music at the Machu Picchu Lodge, which is a 5-star hotel and very expensive. Our lunch was included in the tour and it was all you can eat, so we ate all we could possibly eat and had a few beers. After that we split, walked around some more, took more pictures of the ruins. Mark, Cindy, Mike and Lynn decided to walk back down the hill to Aguas Calientes. Alberto and Delphine stayed behind to enjoy the ruins for another hour or so and then took the bus down.

Once at Aguas Calientes, Alberto and Delphine got a tour of the orchid gardens at Inkaterra, which is said to be one of the best orchid exhibits in the world. This was not the blooming season, so we only saw a few orchids, but the variety of orchids they have is amazing. Some orchids are the size of a pin head and you need a maginfying glass to see the perfectly shaped miniature orchid. Delphine and Alberto were also lucky to see a Cock of the Rocks bird flying by and then an amazing collection of colorful hummingbirds.

We then gathered with the group for a final beer at Aguas Calientes and then proceeded to take our train back to Ollantaytambo. We were surprised with a very colorful dance and fashion show by the train attendants, making this return trip most enjoyable.

From Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes

2008-08-16T17:49:00.006-07:00

The trip from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes is simply "spectacular". The left side of the train provides the best views. Mike got lucky with his left window seat and was snapping photos like a Japanese tourist. This trip is great because one goes progressively from the arid highlands of the Andes towards the Amazon where the vegetation is more lush. So the views are out of this world with a combination of very high and vertical snow peak mountains, vegetation, the Urubamba river, stone terraces build during the Inca and pre-Inca times and huge stones. One minor thing was that Peru Rail has too many trains running on a single track, so the train has to stop several times and wait to let trains pass from the opposite direction. About 4 minutes from the Aguas Calientes station and our final stop we were informed that there was a broken train ahead of us and we had to wait for almost one hour to move again. We finally arrived to Aguas Calientes and the tour operator from Viajes Pacifico was waiting for us to coordinate the excursion to Machu Picchu. The hotel people were at the station waiting for us too to carry our luggage all the way to the respective hotels. Now, that's service!!

Aguas Calientes is a happening little town, but a bit disorganized and not very inviting. The train used to stop at the following station at Machu Picchu, so most tourists except those on tight budgets bypassed Aguas Calientes. Today Aguas Calientes is the main stop for Machu Picchu and the town is slowly developing into a popular tourist destination. Despite the fact that it was dark when we arrived, knowing that Machu Picchu was at the top of the steep mountain in front of us made it very inspirational. Mike, Lynn, Delphine and Alberto retreated to the beautiful Inkaterra Hotel (see picture - it has one of the most complete orchid gardens in the world - some orchids are the size of a pin head and you need a magnifying glass to see them) and Mark and Cindy left for the Hatuchay Towers Hotel (the Inkaterra Hotel was full and we could not get any more rooms there).

From Cuzco to Ollantaytambo (Sacred Valley)

2008-08-16T17:49:00.005-07:00

This part of the trip was a little bit of a fiasco. The Viajes Pacifico Tours driver showed up ontime, which was a good start. He had some woman on the passenger side of the van. I though she was a tour guide, but she was just a guest of our clueless driver. When we made the tour arrangements, the reps in Lima insisted that we met their tour people at the El Libertador Hotel because it was a Sunday and there was no other way to get our train tickets to Machu Picchu (we originally wanted to meet them at Ollantaytambo). It is only because of this fact that it ocurred Alberto to ask for the train tickets. The driver said that we were supposed to have the tickets. We told him we were instructed to get our tickets from him. It took about 15 min of phone calls and the driver finally said that he "thought" that our tickets were with our tour operator in Aguas Calientes, but that he didn't know his name. So, Alberto asked him to double check to ensure that our tickets were there and to get the name of the operator. It was only then that the Viajes Pacifico people found that our tickets were left behind by mistake in the Cuzco office. We almost travelled to Ollantaytambo without our train tickets and admission and bus tickets to Machu Picchu. This would have ruined the whole trip to Machu Picchu. A little guy showed up a few minutes later in a beat up taxi with all the tickets, including a ticket for some tour guide who never showed up.

We finally left for the Ollantaytambo train station 30 min behind schedule. The driver insisted that we would make it to the train station on time (train rides are sold out this time of the year, so missing our train would have been a major headache). However, the driver had to drop off the mystery woman in the van in some obscure neighborhood, which took extra time. He then darted towards Ollantaytambo driving faster than what most of us thought it would be a safe speed through the hairpin curves of the Urubamba valley. This was evidence by the frequently heard expression "yikes!!" by Lynn in the back of the van before every turn. The ride was so beautiful with snow peak mountains on the top and the beautiful Urubamba Valley at the bottom, but we were not able to enjoy it much because we were concern about the driving and making it to the train station on time. Ollantaytambo was very busy with a lot of traffic, mostly going towards the train station. The driver had to drop us off 1 block away from the gate. We ran to the tracks and made it to the train with ample 3 minutes to spare before the train left. To make the trip more social, our assigned seats were not together. But we shuffled and negotiated seats with other passengers and we were able to seat next to our loved ones. We don't want to beat on the Viajes Pacifico Tour folks. This experience was a real fiasco and someone goofed with the tickets, but the remaining and larger portion of their services (including the Atisa Tours service in Arequipa and Colca) were top notch. Because of our concerns with the driving speed, we did not take any pictures on this ride. But feared no more because we had a full day tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas (Urubamba) at our return from Machu Picchu.

From Puno to Cuzco

2008-08-16T17:49:00.003-07:00

With Mark a little pale but recovered from the guinea pig experience, we left in a hotel van for our road trip to Cuzco. Luis, his colleague Adrian and the driver accompanied us on the trip. It was a beautiful drive north along the Andes mountains, in between the Black Range (Cordillera Negra) and White Range (Cordillera Blanca). Most of the road to Cuzco is through a beautiful valley wedged between these mountain ranges with snow peaks. We made it safely to the El Libertador Hotel in Cuzco where we had lunch and waited for the Viajes Pacifico Tours folks to pick us up to take us to Ollantaytambo. We left our heavy luggage at the hotel and traveled with backpacks only. We are glad we did because the luggage space in the Machu Picchu train is the size of a shoebox.

Puno and Lake Titicaca

2008-08-16T17:49:00.001-07:00

The Lake Titicaca tour must be one of the most beautiful ones we took. At Alberto's nephew's request, Alberto and Mark first started early with a presentation to 25 or so hotel staff on team coordination across geographic distance. We were then take to the hotel dock where the fastest boat in the Titicaca Lake operated by the Peruvian Navy's Coast Guard. We enjoyed the beautiful ride (see picture of Luis, Delphine and Alberto)

We first went to Taquile Island which is about 1.5 hours away. We docked in the back end of the island and started our 1,500 ft ascent to the top of the hill where the locals live in the island. We enjoyed gorgeous views and were lucky to found the locals in festive clothing dancing in the square because it was their annual patron saint's day (San Santiago). Coincidentally, Delphine was dressed just like the high society local ladies.

Lot's of shopping (go Lynn, Mark) and picture taking (go Mike sir Snapalot, Alberto). On our way back we took a path by the front end of the island, but we first had to ascend another 500 ft or so. We then descended about 500 huge stone steps down to the dock. "Super Mark" ran most of the way, Mike, Luis and Cindy were somewhere in the middle, and Delphine, Lynn and Alberto were dead last far behind everyone else. in the middle with where the Coast Guard boat was waiting for us to take us to the Uros floating islands, another phenomenal experience. The locals claim that they live there but rumor has it that they commute to nearby Puno city by boat at night. In any case, the Uros are a full city built on floating wicker. Quite impressive.

Back in Puno we treated ourselves to a fabulous local dinner where Mark and Mike made the mistake of ordering guinea pig. They didn't know that the local dish is "cuy chactado" which is served with the whole guinea pig on the plate pounded flat with their teeth and claws pointing at you. Mark's face says "I can do this"; Mike's face says "this doesn't look good"; and Luis' face says "I am the best hotel host in the world but I am not responsible for what will happen next". Mike ate the whole thing and it tasted like chicken. Super Mark took a bite and had to run to the bathroom. It became evident that guinea pig was Super Mark's "cryptonite".

However, later analysis left our evidence inconclusive because Super Mark had been chewing the coca leaves seen on little dishes on the table, which may have done him in. Aparently, these leaves have been there for days and they are only for decoration, but Super Mark had no fear for the dirt and pollution accumulated on the leaves. But being Super Mark, he recovered quickly and return to the table with a pale face. Mark had some oxigen at the hotel and recovered his full powers after a good night sleep. Oh, by the way, we ran into Ms. Talkalot and Ms. Talksolittle at the hotel.

We enjoyed the beautiful night views of Puno from our hotel and retreated to sleep for our land journey to Cuzco next day. First, another beautiful sunrise lake view from our hotel room.

From Colca to Puno

2008-08-16T17:48:00.003-07:00

The trip from Colca to Puno took 5 hours. Driving back to Arequipa would have taken 3.5 hours, so it made sense to continue to Puno by land and enjoy the wonderful scenery of the Andes. We drove back 2 hours to the Arequipa-Puno highway (with more shopping by Mark along the way) and then continued east 3 hours to Puno. We saw more alpacas, vicunas and llamas. We crossed the Andes at about 14,000 ft. of altitude. From this point rivers flow both ways, west to the Pacific and east to the Amazon and the Atlantic. Actually, it is around this highest point that the Urubamba river gets formed from ice glaciers. This river goes East all the way along most of the Sacred Valley of the Incas.

We passed several little towns. In one of these towns they had a beautiful small church and locals with an eagle and little llama for pictures. Lynn and Mike couldn't resist (see picture). We then arrived to Juliaca where the train station and airport are located. Juliaca is a busy commercial town and the traffic was a bit heavy because of the Juliaca-Puno highway construction project.

We finally arrived into Puno and were able to see the small houses all over the hill. We also saw far away the Steves Island where the El Libertador Hotel is located (see picture). This hotel is over 30 years old (used to be the Hotel de Turistas -- a government run chain) and every room has a breathtaking view of the Titicaca Lake and some rooms also have a view of the city lights which is very pretty at night. The hotel is beautiful and it is impecably run by Alberto's nephew Luis.

Mike and Delphine posed for a picture and Luis greeted us with pisco sours, typical hors deuvres and a bottle of premium pisco in each of the suite rooms he reserved for us.

Colca Valley and Canyon

2008-08-16T17:48:00.001-07:00

We woke up early and proceeded drove a few miles through dirt road from the Colca Valley and entered the Colca Canyon. We drove through a narrow dirt road for about 2 hours. Went through a few small towns and several artisan vendors along the road where Mark and Lynn explored each and every item of merchandise with intense desire in their expressions and occasional modeling of sweaters and hats.

We finally arrived to the Cruz del Condor to observe the condors. We first saw nothing. We then saw a condor sitting on a rock far away and we thought that was it. All of a sudden condors started flying and we enjoyed some of the most beautiful sights ever seen with condors flying right and left and some of them in tandem (see picture). They flew for almost an hour and it was simply amazing. By the way, the deepest part of the Colca Canyon is twice as deep as the Great Canyon making it the deepest canyon in the world with several thousand feet in depth.

From Arequipa to Colca

2008-08-16T17:47:00.000-07:00

We were picked up by our guide Andrea (excellent tour guide) and driver Juan (the best driver in the whole trip) from Atisa tours from the hotel and we started our land journey to the Colca valley. We took the road to Puno for about 1.5 hours, then took a secondary road to Colca for about 2 more hours. En route we saw many herds of beautiful wild vicunas. We also saw alpacas and llamas (which can be domesticated).

We drove through the highest point (approx 15,000 ft) where we took the photo. We then arrived into the small town of Chivay, capital of Colca. We stopped for a few minutes at a restaurant where we lost Mike and Mark. After searching the little town we spotted them carrying several bottles of Cuzquena beer they bought at a local bar.

We then proceeded another 30 min to the beautiful Colca Lodge (see picture) where we stayed. A few kilometers before the lodge we went though very narrow and steep roads in which occasionally one encounters a vehicle going in the opposite direction where one vehicle has to stay very close to the edge and the other one has to backup to find a wide enough point to pass. The views of the lodge were breathtaking and the lodge itself was beautiful. The rooms were rustic but comfortable. Nice dinner then hot spring baths where we met Ms. Talkalot and her mother Talksolittle, who were apparently following us from Lima all the way to Puno. Smoked cigars and then went to sleep to wake up very early for our longest day next day.

Arequipa

2008-08-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

We were picked up by Atisa tours (excellent service). We checked into the fabulous Hotel El Libertador where they have alpacas and a huge turtle in the backyard. We were greeted with coca tea, left our luggage. Mark, Cindy, Mike and Lynn went to down town Arequipa. Delphine and Alberto took a little nap and met the rest of the group by the cathedral. Delphine and Alberto walked around the town hall (Plaza de Armas, see picture).

We then walked to the Santa Catalina convent, but we first stop to have drinks because we were all dehydrated from the Diamox altitude pills we were all taking. We tasted Cuzquena beer but it tasted funny because of the Diamox. Mark didn't believe that this was the reason so he had a second beer (Corona) to see if it was true. Yeah, right. Good excuse.

We then enter the Santa Catalina convent (see photo with Cindy and Delphine) which has existed for around 400 years and has only been open to the public for 70 years or so. The convent is an amazing complex were nuns were secluded from the outside wold. On our way out we stopped at some of the alpaca shops where Lynn fell in love with a modern andean tapestry. Alberto stayed with her to help her decide and bargain. She finally bought it. Cindy, Mark and Delphine went to the restaurant ahead of us and we followed after the tapestry sale transaction.

We then went walked to the Zig Zag restaurant. We found Delphine and Cindy in a nice private room at the restaurant. But Mark was supposed to be waiting for us outside, but was nowhere to be found. Alberto went to look for Mark and found him shopping a sweater at a little handicraft shop. This is when the rest of us found out that, yes it's true, Mark is a shopaholic. We had a fantastic new Arequipeno cuisine dinner at Zig Zag (highly recommended). We ate like celebrities with wine and everything. The whole bill? about 16 dollars per person. That felt very good.

Departure a Peru

2008-08-02T18:55:00.000-07:00

After months of planning, our big trip to southern Peru was ready to go!

Mark and Cindy arrived on a luxurious van taxi (a bit dirty) to pick up Delphine and Alberto. Drove to the airport and checked into our American Airlines flight. Excellent service !! No food, no peanuts, all food places closed at the terminal. But at least the flights were smooth and we only arrived 1 hour and 45 minutes late into Lima's Jorge Chavez Airport. Customs were a breeze -- thanks, Lima, for letting us in! Mike and Lynn went to the airport driven by a close friend, checked into their American Airlines/LAN direct flight and only arrived one hour late. Alberto's niece Sandrita came to greet us and pickup one suitcase. After running around trying to find Mike and Lynn, we smacked our heads and realized that it was obvious -- Lynn was in the concourse shopping area, excitided looking at all the souviners, while Mike took some snapshots. This turned out to be a harbinger of the trip.

Lima would have to wait. We saw some of the city through the terminal windows while we dined on delicious coffee, eggs, tamales and Peruvian donuts, but headed right for the next spot in the itinerary -- a LAN flight to Arequipa. Complements to the city; all luggage arrived on time and we started our journey withouth a hitch.

Introduction

2008-07-09T00:19:00.000-07:00

This is a blog created to share our experiences, notes and photos from our trip to the Andes. The planned tour: starts in Arequipa; we then continue by land to the Colca valley and canyon (deepest in the world) where we hope to see condors; we then continue by land to Puno where we will stay at the El Libertador hotel on Lake Titicaca (the hotel is built 1/2 mile into the lake and the lake is the highest navigable lake in the world); we then move on to Cuzco also by land an on to the Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley to take the train to Machu Picchu. We will spend the night at Aguas Calientes at the bottom of the Machu Picchu hill and we hope to get up early to see the ruins at sunrise; we will then come back to Ollantaytambo and stay one night at the Sacred Valley and tour the valley the next day; we will then come back to Cuzco and enjoy it for a couple of days; finally, we fly back to lima where we will be treating ourselves to awesome peruvian cuisine and pisco sours.