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Manco Multisport + Peru Cuisine Tour

By : Amy Bergrud
Trip Begins September 9, 2010
Trip Ends September 18, 2010

Michael and I both loved many aspects of the Manco Multisport tour but also love cuisine and cooking, so Kassi and Ashley helped us plan a custom tour including our favorite aspects of both the Manco Multisport and the Cuisine Tours that are offered. A fabulous itinerary was now planned - all we needed to do was make sure that we were in shape to handle the Multisport portion of the trip and that we had all the gear we needed.
See my photos : Peru Adventure - September 2010

Want to go? Manco Multisport

I went to: Peru, Cusco, Lima, Sacred Valley, Puno, Amantani Island, Machu Picchu, Manco Multisport Day 4, Manco Multisport Day 5, Machu Picchu Ruins
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September 9, 2010
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Arrival in Lima, Peru!

Costa del Sol, Lima

The planning for this trip actually took place months earlier when my boyfriend, Michael, and I were trying to decide where to take our first big trip together. We'd both traveled a bunch internationally with Michael having been to Europe and Asia and my having gone to Europe, Australia and Central America. We wanted to go somewhere new for both of us, so the obvious choice was South America. Once we decided on that, we both said "Peru" right away. So we narrowed down the country - and now to find a trip that we'd both enjoy. We did lots of research and came across Adventure Life online. We thought an active trip would be appealing to both of us. Then, once I spoke to Kassi for the first time and she was so incredibly helpful and knowledgeable, I knew she and her team would help us plan a memorable trip.

Michael and I both loved many aspects of the Manco Multisport tour but also love cuisine and cooking, so Kassi and Ashley helped us plan a custom tour including our favorite aspects of both the Manco Multisport and the Cuisine Tours that are offered. A fabulous itinerary was now planned - all we needed to do was make sure that we were in shape to handle the Multisport portion of the trip and that we had all the gear we needed. A few (dozen) orders from Amazon and REI later, we were all set!

Michael and I live in different cities - I live in Los Angeles and Michael in Houston, so the first part of my journey was the trip to Houston to meet up with Michael, so that we could travel down to Peru together.

After a long (flight is approximately 8 hours) but uneventful flight from Houston to Lima, we arrived at 9pm and we checked in to the lovely and convenient Costa del Sol hotel (when they said it was RIGHT across the street, they really meant it - literally 50 feet from the airport!). Arriving in the evening was a nice way to start our journey. We got our welcome drinks and hit the sack for a good night's sleep before the flight down to Cusco for the beginning of our adventurous journey!

We are so excited to start the journey together. Our tour group consisted of only Michael & I and our guide, cook and drivers. It was quite a special treat to have a private tour for the next week.

September 10, 2010
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The adventure begins...

Cusco, Peru

We took the 7am flight from Lima to Cusco on TACA airlines. This morning got to a bit of a rough start for me (Amy), as I had some issues with altitude sickness when I arrived in Cusco. I decided to try to sleep it off in the hotel for the day. Our tour guide took my boyfriend out for a brief tour of the city while I attempted to rest. (note: I did take the altitude sickness medication, but I still had some issues). By 8pm that evening, I was not any better (still had a splitting headache), so we called our tour guide, Marco, who immediately arranged for a doctor to come over to the hotel. The doctor arrived promptly and after some half english/half spanish conversations, he diagnosed me with altitude sickness, gave me a shot of pain killer and had the pharmacy deliver some medication and oxygen immediately to the hotel (and it was very inexpensive - less than US$100 for everything). I have to say this was WONDERFUL service - I was so worried I was going to have to sit in an urgent care clinic and wait my turn. I finally got a good night's sleep that evening and was so grateful that everyone was incredibly helpful and understanding.

I'm only mentioning this to let fellow traveler's know that the unexpected can happen, but the team of people including our guide, the doctor and the staff at the hotel were all extremely helpful in getting me back on the mend right away. Altitude sickness happens often there, so everyone is prepared to handle that situation which is nice peace of mind to know. The only thing I would have done differently in hindsight is to call the doctor earlier in the day so I could have started to get better sooner.

September 11, 2010
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Off to the Sacred Valley...

El Sauce, Sacred Valley

We decided to pass on the first morning's activities which included whitewater rafting and opted to sleep in a bit so that I could re-gain my strength. Around noon, we headed off to the Sacred Valley and our first stop, the town of Ollantaytambo. (A quick note to fellow traveler's that have car/motion sickness issues like me- the roads in and around the Sacred Valley are all VERY curvy - do yourself a favor and take a Dramamine every morning if you will be driving around that day and you will be fine!) Once there, we walked to the top to the Temple of the Sun and saw the beautiful views surrounding the area. That night we had a nice meal with our tour guide, Marco and discussed the following day's activities. We stayed at a lovely hotel called, El Sauce. We noticed that each hotel had been thoughtfully chosen by the staff at Adventure Life and that was much appreciated!

September 12, 2010
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A dream bike ride....

Manco Multisport Day 4, Manco Multisport Campsites

Today's adventure started at approximately 14,500 feet at the Malaga Pass. We jumped on mountain bikes, zipped up our jackets (it was chilly up there) and started on our way down this big mountain. The views all along the way were simply breathtaking. We could see the Veronica Glacier at almost eye level when we started out. We passed down through the different levels of the mountain and the weather got warmer and warmer as we descended - and the vegetation got more and more green and lush. Since we started this ride very early in the morning (about 7.30am), only 2 cars passed by us the entire way! There were some steep spots and some hairpin turns, but it was Fun, Fun, Fun all the way down!

After the bike ride, we checked out the town of Quillabamba. First we checked out the local market with Juan, our cook, while Marco and the driver found the campsite that we were going to be going to that evening. At the local market, my boyfriend decided to be adventureous and try the local homebrew called, Chicha. It is fermented corn beer and he says it had a bit of a fruity taste - pretty good he said! I opted not to try it as my stomach isn't quite as tough as his and Marco had mentioned that if it's not fermented correctly there can be, how to say it, "dire" consequences to non-locals! Later in the afternoon we both tried a local beer recommended by Marco - the beer is called Cristal and he recommended mixing it with Coca Cola or Sprite. It was actually quite delicious and a bit refreshing!

We headed off to the campsite in the evening which was at a local's house (in the backyard) and right next to the Urubamba river. It was another beautiful location selected by Adventure Life. We played some frisbee with the owner's dog, got the tents all set up, we went for a walk down to the river, and then had a lovely dinner prepared by the fabulous Juan. We hit the hay early as we had a big day ahead of us. The weather on our trip had been absolutely perfect - tonight we got our only rain on the trip for about an hour when we were in our tents. The weather gods were on our side!

September 13, 2010
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Inca Trail Hike Day....

Manco Multisport Day 5, Manco Multisport Campsites

Today was the big day of hiking on the Inca Trail. We put on lots of bug spray and sunscreen and made sure our water bottles were full and started out on the hike. It was sure steep - Marco said we climbed approximately 1,000 feet in altitude in the first hour of the hike! Though mentally challenging at times (the trail is quite narrow and the drop off is steep), it was a most rewarding experience. We stopped twice along the way - first at a "rest stop" along the trail where we had some fresh papaya (literally, right off of the tree!), tried some delicious "jungle peanuts" and some cocoa beans dipped in honey (it was one of the most delicious treats I'd ever tried - and I would love to know where I can get more of it - probably will have to hike the trail again!!!) The views along the way and from the highest point were stunning. We both felt like we'd been challenged and the accomplishment for finishing it was a great reward.

After the day's hike, we headed to our campsite at the Eco-Quechua Lodge in Santa Teresa. Here we decided to upgrade to the "tree house" room in lieu of camping in the tent and that was a real treat. How often do you get to camp in a room with a bed with mosquito netting and the sound of the river right outside?

Juan, the fabulous cook, made us a wonderful dinner that night. He was incredible - he prepared fantastic gourmet meals in the middle of the jungle- I'm not really sure how he did it - but we loved every meal!

September 14, 2010
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Zipping and Hiking....

Sacred Valley, Peru

Today we modified the original plan for the day....in the morning we decided to try the zipline in Santa Teresa. It's called Cola de Mono (or Monkey's Tail). There are 6 lines and some of the longest ones I've ever been on. The longest was 1,500 feet and across the Urubamba river at least 750 feet up above it! This was such a treat for us - we had a blast. I even took a video of myself going across the zip line.

After that, we chose to walk/hike to Aquas Caliente from the train station in Santa Teresa (instead of taking the train there as originally planned). It was a nice hike along the river and the train tracks. A bit easier than the originally planned hike and I throughly enjoyed it. Marco is also an avid bird watcher and botanist of sorts - he pointed out many birds and plants along the way. I'd like to note that Marco spoke perfect English and in fact at one point was telling us about a bird we had just seen - he gave us 2 Latin names for the bird and one more common name - all of which we had never heard of - at that point he said that he only had those THREE translations for us - I guess he knows more English than we do - at least words for birds and plants!!!

We also got to see Machu Picchu from the back side which was interesting -- then when we were up there we could look down and see where we had been walking! It was a long, intense walk of approximately 3 1/2 hours - it was a real treat once we could see Aguas Caliente come into view. A nice reward at the end of the hike. We checked into the lovely El Mapi hotel (what a great treat after 2 days of camping), then we had dinner and got to bed early so that we could get on one of the first buses up to Machu Picchu.

September 15, 2010
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Simply Incredible....

Machu Picchu Ruins, Peru

I was amazed at how incredible Machu Picchu is in person. I'd seen pictures of it and always thought they were incredible, but in person - WOW! We took the early morning bus at 6.30am and arrived at 7am to see our first glimpse of Machu Picchu through the fog - it was amazing! Marco, was a fantastic tour guide of everything along the way, but the amount of detail that he told us about Machu Picchu was amazing. It felt like a live history lesson and one that I most thoroughly enjoyed (I never liked history as a child, but this completely changed my view on it!) - I learned so much about the Inca's and even more exciting is that Marco has done a lot of his own research on the Inca's and has his OWN opinions of different things at Machu Picchu. It was so fun to hear his stories and theories as well as the standard stories of the Lost City of the Incas. After a couple hours with Marco, we had some free time to explore the place on our own. We walked up to the Sun Gate and highly recommend that - astonishing views of Machu Picchu from there. By noon, we had explored enough and were ready to head back down to Aguas Calientes. We were thankful we woke up so early, as by noon the crowds were incredibly thick - it was like Disneyland! In the early morning, I got many pictures of Machu Picchu with almost no people in the shots!

We took the 2.15pm train back to Ollantaytambo. The train ride was such a treat - probably the nicest train I've ever been on - luxurious seats and incredible views along the way back. From there, our driver picked us up and took us back to Cusco. Back to the Casa Andina hotel - another lovely selection!

September 16, 2010
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Cuisine Day - the central market and A Mi Manera

Cusco, Peru

This day was such a treat for me (Amy) - I love cooking and have always wanted to take a cooking class! Well, this was everything I could have ever asked for and more. The day started out by Marco taking us to Sacsaywaman ruins in Cusco. More amazing Incan ruins where one just does not know how they got all those rocks in place and so perfectly fit together! A real mystery....from that vantage point we saw the entire city of Cusco.

Then we were off to the Central Market to pick up some fresh vegetables for the day's cooking class. We toured the whole market including the meat section - that was an experience of sights and smells! Marco knew many of the vendors which was a unique treat - we also found out that there are approximately 2,700 varieties of potatoes in Peru (and here I thought Idaho was the potato capital of the world!). We had a juice drink at the specialty fresh squeezed juice bar section of the market and they were out of this world - highly recommended!

Now we were off to Marco's restaurant, A Mi Manera for our cooking lesson. First, we started off by donning the chef outfits, then our first recipe was the Pisco Sour. We got behind the bar and were told the order and amount of each ingredient and added them to the cocktail shaker. Then we shook, and shook, and shook the cocktail to make sure the egg white got nice and frothy. We poured them into our glasses, added a dash of bitters and tasted them - YUM - I think it's my new favorite drink!

On to the cooking part - they had everything ready for us in the kitchen - it was like being on the Martha Stewart cooking show - such a treat and so much fun. We made Causa (with avocado filling), Lomo Saltado (the typical Peruvian beef dish), Quiona soup, and Tomato/Avocado salad. The Lomo Saltado was especially fun, because it includes white wine in the marinade, so when I tossed it into the pan it flamed up! I think they enjoyed seeing the look on my face when that happened... The chefs in the restaurant only spoke Spanish, so it was interesting when they were saying something obviously quite urgent, but we didn't know what it was - Marco would translate for us and many times it was something like "be careful with that knife or you will cut your finger off!".....thank goodness for our translator!

After all that cooking, we enjoyed the wonderful meal together with Marcos and then bid him farewell. The rest of the day we spent exploring Cusco on our own. That night, though not very hungry, we tried one of the most amazing restaurants in town. It's called Sara, an organic foods restaurant....and they have some pumpkin ravioli that is out of this world! Highly recommended!

After dinner, we were walking back to our hotel, when we happened across a political rally in the Plaza de Armas. All along the trip we had seen many of these and so many political signs on houses, boulders, anywhere that could be painted was covered! This night, we thought it would be fun to join in - so we started dancing to the catchy music and then all of a sudden we were "celebrities" - people started handing us signs and pulling us in to the circle to dance around. Then they would replace our sign with bigger signs or flags! We even got a picture with the mascot of the political party - the PAN party (pan means bread in Spanish, so the mascot was a piece of bread - pretty cute!).

September 17, 2010
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Lima - the city and the cuisine

Costa del Sol, Lima

We took an early morning flight from Cusco to Lima and dropped off our luggage at the Costa del Sol hotel. Our guide met us at the hotel at 10am for our day of exploring Lima - the culture and the cuisine.

We jumped in the car with our tour guide, Nieva (it translates to Snow in English - what a pretty name), and the driver, Willams, for the day. We toured the Cathedral of Santa Domingo and the Monastery of San Francisco. Both very interesting to see and hear about. Nieva is also extremely knowledgeable on Peruvian history and told us more interesting stories about the Spanish invasion from the a different perspective. Another live history lesson that I truly enjoyed. After the tours, we headed to the Cafe de Museo at the Larco Museum for a fantastic lunch and a tour of the museum. Lunch was fantastic - we tried some new dishes and a drink (non-alcoholic) called Chica Morada - it's like the Chicha beer in that it is made from corn, but this is made from purple corn and mixed with some sugar which makes for a fantastically delicious and sweet drink! This museum was dedicated to pre-Incan and Incan things and has one of the most extensive collections of artifacts in the world. This was a real treat - after having walked on the Inca trail and having seen Machu Picchu and other Incan ruins, it was incredible to see all the artifacts in this museum. Along with this, Nieva explained many aspects of the pre-Incan and Incan cultures so perfectly that we didn't even need to read the signs in the exhibits, Nieva would summarize and explain everything in the exhibits so well. After lunch, we drove around the city more and saw the highlights of Lima. We were so thankful for our fantastic driver, as we'd never seen so much seemingly unorganized traffic - I think there were 3 lanes, but it seemed like the locals made about 4 1/2 lanes out of it! We got to try Pisco Sours and also went to a local winery in Pueblo Libre. We tried a few different Pisco's and chose a couple bottles to buy and bring back with us. After a lovely day of driving around and learning about Lima, we headed to the Huaca Pucllana and the restaurant there. What another great treat! This restaurant is situated on an archeological site that dates back to 400 AD. Before dinner, we got a tour of the site which was absolutely fascinating. We were still a little full from lunch, but there was a menu full of new and interesting dishes to try. Here we tried the tamales and the gnocchi - both were fantastic. Nieva ordered some dessert for all of us to share - though incredibly full, we couldn't pass up such a delicious dessert of Black quinoa tuiles with lucuma mousse, chocolate sauce and fresh berries. Lucuma is a new fruit that we'd never tried and it is now one of our favorites. Highly recommended to try - it can be eaten alone, blended in a smoothie, or made into a mousse - each one is delicious. After an incredible day of sites and cuisine, Nieva and the driver took us back to our hotel and bid us farewell.

This trip was about adventure, fun and exploring new places and we both especially appreciated the depth of knowledge that our tour guides had and shared with us. I came away feeling like I had a really fun time and learned about the history and culture of the area - much different than many of my previous trips and it was very much enjoyed by both of us.

September 18, 2010
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Adios....for now...

Lima, Peru

We wake up early in the morning for our flight back to the States....and again we much appreciated the hotel that was 50 feet from the airport and that serves the breakfast buffet starting at 3.30am!

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