Create your Trip Journal [click here]We arrived at 10:30 pm to throngs of people at the gate. Boris, our Croatian-Peruvian surfer escort, was surprisingly easy to spot in the crowd. His expert navigation got us through the darkened, narrow streets of Lima, all in the style of a Russian spy novel. Let the Adventure [Life] begin!
We flew to Cusco and then had a spectacular drive to Ollantaytambo, feeling a bit of the altitude on the higher passes. We walked around town a bit and had many kids ask us for "propinas." Instead, we danced for them and requested that they give us tips. Many of the buildings were built on Incan foundations made of huge rocks.
We went to Pisac with Marco. There is a great outhouse at the top that we tried out before exploring the ruins. Unbelievable stone work and terraces. We hiked from there down to the market in the town below. On the way back to the hotel, we tried corn and strawberry beer. Very tasty - however Marco recommended that we only have a glass so we didn't get sick.
We went through the ruins at Ollantaytambo - the ones we could see from our hotel room. We started early before there were a lot of people around. After touring there we went mountain biking up on the high plain to Moray. We toured around Moray which was an Incan agricultural research center, then mountain biked a great trail down to the salt "mine". This is an area where the creek is very salty. People make pools to evaporate the water and get salt. We biked down to the highway and got a ride back to the hotel right before it started raining. We went to dinner that night and happened to get a table with a view of a Quechua beauty contest happening in the square
We took the train to Aguas Calientes. Very interesting ride along the river. The climate went from dry to tropical along the way. After we checked in to the hotel, we took the bus up to Machu Picchu. It was a perfect day to be there - the weather alternated between clear skys, heavy fog, and rain. It was awesome to see the ruins in different weather. The views were outstanding - during the clear periods, we could see far off mountains with glaciers on them. We took a hike along an old trail to the Inca Bridge. I highly recommend it - unless you get vertigo. The trail went along sheer cliffs with drops that had to be several thousand feet. When Machu Picchu closed for the day we took a bus down the winding, switchbacked road. As we left, boys dressed in traditional Inca clothes would race the busses down by cutting the switchbacks. When they beat the bus down, they got on for tips. Amy stiffed him. For dinner I had alpaca - it tasted like Labrador Retriever.
In the morning I went on a bird watching tour and Amy went looking at orchids. on the birding tour there were more hummingbirds than I've ever seen and also several birds that were very rare to see. We got on the train back to Ollantaytambo. It was an interesting ride back - the train workers had some sort of fashion show on the way back. It made the ride go quickly. When we got bac to Ollantaytambo we got a ride to Chinchro then Cusco
We toured the Cathedral, the convent, Saqsawaman ruins, and the caves.
We went to the Inca Museum then the market in San Blas. We got our shoes shined by a couple of kids. We paid them a few dollars but they wouldn't leave us alone so we retreated to the relative safety of Paddy Flaherty's "the highest Irish pub in the world". We had a good time there even though I felt a little guilty not be be out at a Peruvian bar.
We flew back to Lima. We toured around Mira Flores and Kennedy Park. Went to the mall on the cliffs. There are great views of the ocean and a museum there we went to.
We took the Lima City tour. It was fantastic. We saw great old buildings, plazas, and also the catacombs. Under the San Francisco church hundreds (maybe thousands) of skeletons are in the catacombs. When we got back to Mira Flores we took a bus tour of it too. After that we walked down to the beach from our hotel.
