Cusco - Part 2, the end of our Peruvian adventure :(

After spending a wonderful day exploring Maras, Moray, and Chincheros, we said goodbye to Henry and were dropped off in Cusco at our hotel in the afternoon.

We spent part of the afternoon having a late lunch/early dinner at Marcelo Batata Restaurant.  This place had the best view of Cusco, and we were lucky to get the best table on the patio.  We tried a variety of potato dishes (homemade chips with different sauces, and loaded potatoes), a chicken avocado salad, tamales, and maracuya (passion fruit) sour cocktails, a spin on the traditional pisco sour.

I remember feeling very bittersweet up on that rooftop that day.  I really enjoyed my time in Peru, as it is such a beautiful country with friendly people, yet I was sad to leave, wishing that we had more time to explore it. 

We spent the evening relaxing in Cusco and I bought a hand painted ceramic pot as a souvenir to store the salt we bought that day in Maras.  The next day we had to wake up early again for our flight over the Andes back to Lima, and then connect on our international flight back to Canada.

Adios, Peru... you were amazing!

Maras, Moray, and Chincheros

After an epic day at Machu Picchu we headed back to Ollantaytambo by train.  I was sad to leave Machu Picchu, as I had enjoyed my visit so much, but I knew that there were so many more interesting things to see on our trip.  Henry was also our guide for our day trip to three amazing places within the Sacred Valley - Maras, Moray, and Chincheros.

The first stop was Maras, where we got to see how salt is mined.  It was pretty interesting and a bit nerve wracking walking along the terraced salt ponds.  I actually thought I was going to lose my balance and fall into the salt on several occasions!  The salt ponds have been in use since Inca times, and it still blows my mind how smart those Incas were!  They mined salt by evaporating salty water from a subterranean stream.  The flow of the stream is directed by the intricate system of channels that have been built, so that the salty water flows gradually down onto hundreds of ancient terraced ponds.  We were able to see some of the local people shovelling the salt that forms after the water evaporates in the ponds.  After visiting Maras, I now strangely have a great appreciation for salt.  We even bought some of the salt mined from Maras to use in our cooking!

The next stop on our day trip was to Moray, an Inca ruin consisting of circular agricultural terraces once used for farming.  Due to the design and location, the Incas were able to experiment with different temperatures when growing crops.  Henry told us that between the highest ring and the lowest there could be a temperature difference of as much as 15 degrees Celsius.  This allowed the Incas to grow different types of crops on different rings, at their ideal temperatures.

From Moray we headed to the small village of Chincheros while driving through a beautiful landscape of mountains and farmland, with random animals wandering onto our path.  After getting out of the van and ascending up the street to the town of Chincheros, I immediately noticed the altitude.  Chincheros was the town with the highest altitude we visisted, with an elevation of 3772 metres.  When you're up that high, you do experience a shortness of breath, but it wasn't enough to make either of us feel sick.

There was a small market in Chincheros and a grassy square with a bunch of potatoes drying in the sun.  We heard some music and realized there had just been a wedding at the nearby church.  When we reached the small church, the wedding procession had already left, but we were still able to go inside.  The church was small and a bit dark, with an ornate wooden altar and many old paintings inside.  Even though I've been in much grander, famous churches, for some reason this one really sticks out in my memory.  I regret not taking a photo of the inside, but at the time there were people inside and I didn't know if photography was allowed.  When we left, Henry took a fun photo of John and I throwing some of the leftover confetti that was on the ground from the wedding procession.  I'm not sure why, but I felt some strange connection to Chincheros even though we were only there for a short period of time.  I was sad to leave, but maybe it was because I knew that it meant we had to say goodbye to our wonderful guide Henry and that our time in Peru was nearly over, as it was our last full day there.

When we headed back to the van, we ran into our driver's parents who were attending the wedding in Chincheros (small world?) and then head back to Cusco.  I really enjoyed this sunny day exploring more amazing places within this beautiful country.

Exploring Machu Picchu

The next morning we woke up before sunrise again and met Henry to join the line of tourists waiting for the buses from Aguas Calientes up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  Due to the fact that it was a national holiday weekend, the bus line was extra long.  Henry was able to get us up near the front of the line by having us join another tour group from Alpaca Expeditions who had been up extra early to beat the crowds.  Even though I felt guilty that we cut off a bunch of people, jumping in line was a common sight to see there.  No one seemed too annoyed, or maybe they didn't realize we did it since there were so many people around!  Oh well...

The bus up to Machu Picchu from Aguas Calientes isn't very long.  Luckily the site wasn't crazy crowded when we arrived.  We were able to sit upon the hill overlooking Machu Picchu and reflect on its historic significance before entering.

Machu Picchu was built around 1450 and was believed to be an estate of the Inca emperor Pachacuti.  The site was abandoned a century later during the time of the Spanish Conquest, and remained unknown to the outside world until 1911, when an American historian named Hiram Bingham was taken there by a local farmer in 1911.  Since the Spanish never found Machu Picchu, it was untouched and overgrown with jungle when Bingham arrived.  In the years after Bingham arrived, the area was cleared and excavated.  Machu Picchu is now one of the new 7 Wonders of the World.  To reduce the impact of tourism these days, the Peruvian government has put a cap on 2500 tourists visiting the ruins per day.

Once we entered the ruins of the ancient city, we found out that there was an area where the lower class people lived, and a separate area for the upper classes.  There were some interesting ruins such as the Temple of the Sun, royal tombs, Temple of the Condor, Temple of Three Windows, and liturgical fountains, among many others.  The stonework was pretty impressive considering the time period in which the city was built.  Also, there were some llamas laying on the grass among the ruins which were pretty entertaining and fun to take selfies with!

It was interesting to imagine what it would be like to live in Machu Picchu as the Incas did.  I can't imagine what Hiram Bingham must have felt when he first laid eyes on the place, abandoned and hidden for centuries.

Before leaving this magical place I stamped my passport as a souvenir.  Machu Picchu exceeded my expectations, which were already pretty high.  It is like no other place I've ever seen.

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu

It was July 28, 2016.  We woke up in darkness to grab a quick breakfast at our hotel before walking down the road to the train station in Ollantaytambo along with many other travellers up at this early hour.  We were met by a representative from our tour company who handed us some train tickets and sent us on our way on the 6:10 am train out of Ollantaytambo.  We were lucky enough to be treated to amazing views through the windows on the roof of the train, allowing us to see the tops of the Andes mountains once the sun rose up.

Many people were taking the train straight to the town of Aguas Calientes, but we were getting off at the mysterious "Kilometre 104."  When the train rolled to a stop at KM 104 about 1.5 hours later, we hopped out and found ourselves with a few other travellers on the side of the train tracks in the middle of nowhere surrounded by trees.  We spotted a guide representing our tour company, a man named Henry who would be leading us on the Inca Trail along with some people from Hong Kong.  After taking the obligatory "Caminos Inka" photo, Henry led us on a bridge over the river and then gave us some bottles of water, snacks, and our passes to the Inca Trail.

We had decided months back that we were going to do the "short" version of the Inca Trail.  The Classic trail is 4 days, and there are some other routes that go for even longer.  Many tourists don't even hike the trail and just take the train straight to Aguas Calientes and ride the bus up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  Tickets to the Classic route sell out many months in advance, and even though I thought we booked early (6 months before), nearly all the Classic tickets were sold out.  The Peruvian government limits the number of Inca Trail passes to 500 per day in order to keep the site well maintained.  Even though we opted for the short version, it still involved hiking from early morning until late afternoon which was about 15 km, and that tired me out pretty good!

The first part of the Inca Trail was a steady uphill climb.  I was very thankful that I had some walking sticks to help me up!  Henry was a great guide and did not rush our group, allowing us to take lots of breaks and stop for photos along the way.  The Inca Trail was really beautiful.  We were able to walk along the edge of the mountain on a well maintained trail, with amazing views of the surrounding mountains and valleys below.  Before going to Peru I was nervous that we'd end up in Machu Picchu on a rainy day, with our views of the ruins obstructed by clouds and leeches on the path (memories of hiking in Nepal in a rain cloud!).  Lucky for us, the weather was perfect.

Along the Inca Trail one of the highlights was the ancient ruin site of Wiñay Wayna, which means "forever young" in the indigenous Quechua language.  This site overlooks the Urubamba River and has the ruins of stone houses and agricultural terraces.  Wiñay Wayna was really impressive, and a great stop along the Inca Trail on the way to Machu Picchu.

After several hours of climbing up, the trail turned to more of an up and down path.  We stopped for lunch at the Alpaca Expeditions camp site, where people doing the Classic 4-day hike stop overnight on their last day.  We were treated to a great lunch prepared by the chefs in a tent, and were greeted by a bunch of llamas who were very curious about us!

Several hours of hiking later, we reached a steep uphill set of stairs to climb.  The steps were so steep that people were using all four limbs to get up!  As I was climbing, using my walking sticks for support, I felt very excited because I knew that at the top of those stairs we would finally reach the Sun Gate (Inti Punku), which was once the main entrance to Machu Picchu.  From that point, we would catch our first glimpse of Machu Picchu down below.  When I finally reached the top of those steep stairs, I not only felt relieved but was overcome with happiness once I could see Machu Picchu with my own eyes - something I had been looking forward to for so long.  I felt like crying tears of joy!  Machu Picchu was even more amazing than I expected it to be, and I'll never forget that feeling of when I first saw it from the Sun Gate.  

After a bunch of photos, including a few with a perfectly poised llama right outside the Sun Gate, we continued down, down, down the trail to Machu Picchu below.  When we finally reached the site, we could not actually enter the ruins because our pass only allowed entrance on the next day.  Our guide told us to stealthily take some photos and then head down to the place where the buses stopped in order to catch a ride to the town of Aguas Calientes nearby, where we would be staying the night.

While the sun started to go down, we took some snaps of the site.  Tomorrow we would be back to explore the ruins.  That evening our group was taken to dinner at an awesome restaurant called Indio Feliz by our guide Henry, where we celebrated our amazing day on the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu.

The Sacred Valley

After spending some time in Cusco, we had an interesting day trip around the Sacred Valley of the Incas.  The drive was very scenic, with gorgeous views of the Andes Mountains and Urubamba River.  The Incas used this valley to cultivate crops, and today there are still agricultural terraces throughout the region.  The terraces were used to efficiently use shallow soil and enable irrigation of crops.  They planted a variety of potatoes, as well as quinoa and corn.  It was really surprising to hear that there are over 4000 types of potatoes growing in the Andes region!

The first stop on our Sacred Valley day trip was a visit to a farm where we learned about different types of alpacas, llamas, guanacos, and vicuñas.  While I liked all of them, I think I still enjoy llamas the most... :)  We learned that alpacas and vicuñas have the softest fur, and got to feed some of them.  I even bought a Christmas ornament made out of alpaca fur!

After reluctantly leaving my new Peruvian furry friends, we headed to Pisac to see the large agricultural terrace and ruins there.  Across from the ruins there was a mountain which used to be an Inca cemetery.  The Incas used to bury their dead in holes in the side of the mountain.

We ended up stopping for lunch in Urubamba which was one of the low points on the tour.  I guess when you book with a tour company you sometimes are at their mercy.  The place they dropped us off for lunch was a total tourist trap.  Along with the many other bunches of tourists that were dropped off at this overpriced buffet, we reluctantly had our lunch while trying to ignore the people coming around to our table trying to sell us souvenirs.  I couldn't work up the courage to try anything too exotic like the Peruvian delicacy "cuy" (guinea pig) and John wasn't up for trying it either.  We quickly ate our food, gulped down some pisco sours, and were back on the road to Ollantaytambo.

Ollantaytambo served as a fortress at the time of the Spanish conquest of Peru.  The ruins of the fortress still exist today, overlooking the small town which has an elevation of 2792 metres.  Near the fortress there were several storehouses called "qullqas" made out of stone.  These were the Incas' refrigerators, as the location up on the side of the mountain at a high altitude and colder temperature allowed the food stored inside to stay preserved.

Today the town of Ollantaytambo has a small bustling square.  We stayed in a great hotel near the train station with beautiful mountain views which was called Hotel Pakaritampu.  They even had a pet alpaca on the lawn there!  I will always look back on Ollantaytambo with excitement, because that was the place where we began our own journey to Machu Picchu with an early morning train ride to the town of Aguas Calientes.  Next stop, Machu Picchu!

Cusco - Part 1 !

Our second stop of our Peruvian adventure was Cusco, the historic capital city of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th century when the Spanish conquest occurred.  Cusco is a UNESCO World Heritage site, and can be reached by plane from Lima in around 1 hour and 15 minutes.  We flew with Peruvian Air on a stunning flight over the Andes Mountains.

You will not find the high rise buildings and modern shopping complexes of Lima in Cusco.  The architecture is very traditional, and while Lima was located on Pacific coast, Cusco is nestled in the mountains.  We definitely felt a different in altitude walking up and down the hilly streets of Cusco.  Upon arrival at our lovely hotel, Rumi Punku, we were offered a cup of coca leaf tea (aka "mate de coca").  People drink this tea to minimize the effects of altitude sickness.  It's actually made from the leaves of the coca plant which contain alkaloids, which are the source for cocaine base when extracted chemically.  You won't be tripping out on this tea though - the amount of coca alkaloid in the raw leaves is very minimal.  Despite this, coca leaf tea is still illegal in the USA (and probably Canada!).  I'm not sure if it really helped us with the altitude, but we drank it regularly throughout our stay in Cusco and didn't have any major side effects.  We also went straight for a long nap upon arrival in Cusco early in the morning, as we heard that being rested and well-hydrated helps to minimize the effects.  The elevation of Cusco is 3399 metres above sea level.

I loved Cusco - with its winding narrow streets filled with colourful vendors and random goats and llamas, historic square, and scenic mountain views.  The first place we explored in Cusco was the main square, Plaza de Armas, with two grand churches dominating the space.  During our time here there was a huge Independence Day ceremony and parade on one of the days, which made walking around pretty claustrophobic.  Beyond the square is the San Pedro market, where you can buy plenty of souvenirs such as alpaca wool scarves and sweaters, and eat all sorts of local foods at the vendor stalls.

On our second day in Cusco we climbed up the stairs of a winding street to the neighbourhood of San Blas.  Upon reaching the Church of San Blas, we had an amazing view of Cusco and the mountains surrounding it.  When walking around in Cusco I did feel myself getting out of breath quicker than I normally would when climbing uphill!

We had a half-day guided tour of Cusco and the surrounding Incan ruins, and the first stop was the Church of Santo Domingo which was built upon the site of Qurikancha, the Incan Temple of the Sun.  This place was the most important temple in the Incan Empire, dedicated to the sun god Inti.  Despite all the earthquakes over the years, many of the temple walls survived due to the fact that they were made out of huge, tightly-interlocking "Lego"-style bricks.

Our guide also took us to some ancient Incan sites, the most important being the citadel of Saqsaywaman which was used as a fortress.  It was dismantled after the Spaniards gained control of the area and all that remains today are some high rock walls and random rocks strewn about on the hills overlooking Cusco.  This was also our first "wild llama" sighting!  Nearby we also spotted the large, white Cristo Blanco statue overlooking Cusco which we first noticed shining at us from atop the mountain while walking around the streets of Cusco at night.

One of the best things about Cusco besides its history are the amazing restaurants.  I was very impressed with the food in Peru.  The quality and the prices were great, and we often found restaurants with traditional local food with a modern twist.  The best restaurant we ate at in Cusco was called Morena Peruvian Kitchen.  We ate there several times and each time the food and service was excellent.  The juices were so fresh and the food was delicious with so many interesting flavours.  The best things we ate there were the Amazonian chicken wings, chicha morada - a sweet drink made from purple corn, and almond ice cream with brownies served in a cocoa bean.  My mouth still waters thinking about all the amazing food there!