My husband and I went to Peru in December 2009. Like all the other trips, we planned this trip ourselves. Well, mostly by me and when I was overwhelmed my husband and me went over the plans, tried to be practical and realistic and optimized. It is so much fun to plan out these trips. But this time I did not plan out as extensively as Paris and Italy. I guess in those places I researched like a maniac..hehe. We started out by looking online for tour packages. There are several sites like Peru For Less, South American Destinations, etc. This will give you a good idea of the most popular destinations in that country. Peru is a vast and varied country, there is a lot to choose from. I think we covered a lot of Peru except the Nazca Lines near Ica , Arequipa and Colca Canyon, Paracas etc. Maybe next time.
Best research links:
Best research links:
http://www.andeantravelweb.
Tripadvisor for Peru - You will find the best hotels/hostals to stay & places to visit here.
Tripadvisor forum for Peru - For small titbits about Peru you wont easily find anywhere else.
Notes and advice:
-Peru is not as travel friendly as Europe in terms of self-travel, but you will find tours which are really inexpensive and can be easily arranged, so in a way it is good because it takes away most of the headache of planning.
-Weather can be very unpredictable making air-travel painful and unreliable, especially during their summer and especially to/from Cusco. February being the worst month. Plan for that.
-Tickets to Peru can get very expensive in December. Book early.
-We had booked our air travel in Peru through TraficoPeru. This is an excellent service and I highly recommend it, they are quick to respond to emails and though I had to call them a couple of times to clear some doubts, it was very easy. The reason I used this service was because the tickets I got through them were about $100 cheaper than if I had booked them myself. Another tip I got from Tripadvisor.
Peru
-Lima
-Amazon (Sandoval Lake Lodge)
-Puno, Lake Titicaca
-Cusco
-Sacred Valley
-Machu Picchu
Day 1: December 18 2009, Lima
We reached Lima at about 3pm and we were staying in Hostal Killari in Miraflores. All the forums kept saying that Miraflores is the best and safest place to stay in Lima, especially for tourists, even though it is a 30 minute drive from the airport, without traffic. Our hostal had arranged for a taxi pickup from the airport and we reached the hostal by 5:30pm or so. I had heard a lot about paragliding in Miraflores and was hoping to do it, but by the time we reached there, they had stopped for the day. If you reach there by 4:30pm, I think you can glide with them.
Other than that, we had just decided to relax there a bit, so we walked along Miraflores.It has a very "Queen's necklace"-ish/ Bandra bandstand-ish feel. There is a lovers sculpture in the park near the ocean and some lovely mosaic work around there. We went to one of the restaurants and had ceviche(ymm) and pisco sour among other things for dinner. The day in general was nothing to write home about. We didnt have anything major planned for Lima. The hostal however was good and the hosts were very hospitable.
Day 2: December 19, 2009, Amazon Jungle.
The day started pretty early. Our hostal guy had a taxi booked to take us to the airport, but the taxi guy was a little late. Fortunately we had some buffer time so we reached the airport on time. We had a flight to Puerto Maldonado, which is a small little town in the Amazon. As what seems to happen very regularly in Peru due to bad weather in summer, our flight was a bit delayed. We met another Indian couple from the Bay Area who were travelling by our flight so spend some time talking to them.
I had researched places to stay at in the Amazon and from the reviews had decided to stay at the Sandoval Lake Lodge(SLL). There are several options to choose from and you can choose them based on your interests and what you would like to do. Our guide from SLL, Javier came to the airport to pick us up. They took us to their office in town, gave us raingear to wear along with gumboots, had us pack whatever we needed for our 2 night stay at the lodge in a small duffel bag and we left the rest of our bags there.
To reach SLL from Puerto Maldonado, you have to travel by car to the Madre de Dios river bank(15 mins), take a 30 minute boat ride, then hike for about an hour through a muddy trail. Javier had bought lunch for us to eat in the boat. It was simple fried rice but it was quite good. The trail was nice and relaxing that time of the year but I can imagine it getting really nasty during the peak rainy season. A porter had carried our duffel bags and some other stuff on his back all the way from town to the lodge and he was walking faster than us. Javier showed us some interesting fauna and flora along the way. We saw the most big beautiful blue butterflies which shimmered when the sunlight hit their wings.
At the end of the trail, we took a canoe ride to the lodge. It was such a peaceful ride, so quite and beautiful. Initially it was wading through this narrow gap between trees and then suddenly it opened up to the beautiful Sandoval Lake. Photos cant describe the beauty of this lake, it is serene and large and amazing. You just want to soak it all in. 20 minutes later we were at the lodge. So it takes a total of 2 hours from the town to the lodge.
We had a free afternoon which we spent relaxing and looking out at the lake. Our room was pretty good, clean with hot showers. That is more than we could ask for in a jungle. Our group under Javier had 2 more couples. One of them was a young couple from Hong Kong, who were in Peru for their honeymoon, the other were a retired couple from Victoria, Australia. They were in the middle of their month long trip to South America and had already visited the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and were going to visit Puno, Bolivia and Cusco. Their oldest daughter had travelled around the world for a year after she graduated from law school and that is what inspired them to travel to South America. Isnt that awesome. It is so interesting to know how different people lead different lives. The group was fun and we enjoyed spending time with them.
That evening it rained very heavily Fortunately it stopped raining just as suddenly as it had started and Javier took us out into the jungle for a night trip to see some tarantulas and monkeys and all kinds of wierd insects you would see in the Amazon jungle. For dinner, we had some traditional peruvian fare. Our meal was soup, a dish called 'Causa' made with mashed potatoes and tuna, and some dessert. Peruvian food consists hugely of potatoes, corn and meat. Overall a pretty tiring day. It was raining all through dinner and most of the night. The loud noise the rain made when hitting the roof was like a lullaby.
Day 3: December 20, 2009 Amazon Jungle
We woke up in the morning not sure if we would get to see anything because it was still raining.
We got ready and had breakfast, it was awesome. Fortunately it stopped raining soon and Javier took us to an excursion of the lake. We were lucky to see a big family of river otters hunting and eating fish. We saw different spieces of birds and monkeys. My husband who loves wildlife viewing absolutely enjoyed this. We had some time to relax after we came back at the lodge, had lunch and then Javier took us for another excursion in the jungle, this time showing us brazil nut trees, exotic insects etc My husband and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the hammocks in the lobby.
In the evening we went for another excursion at the lake, this time trying to spot caimans. These are basically smaller crocodiles. The setting sun was casting this beautiful light and made the whole atmosphere quite amazing. This marked the end of our excursions in the Amazon. The next morning we were going back to Puerto Maldonado.
Day 4: December 21, 2009, Puno-Lake Titicaca
We started out pretty early in the morning to reach the airport on time. Fortunately it was not raining. We had our final ride on Lake Sandoval, it was just us on the lake early in the morning with the early morning fog, cool air and beautiful sunrise. So peaceful...
After a 2 hour journey in the rain we reached the airport. On the way we saw a bunch of green macaws hanging out. We were flying out to Puno via Cusco. Thankfully the weather was not that bad when we reached the airport. A very interesting thing happened to us when we on-flight. The elderly gentleman sitting next to us started talking to us, he told us that he had seen and recognized us from the flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado which we had taken 2 days ago. He went on to tell us that he was a philosophy professor at the Lima University and had read the Bhagvad Gita, Mahabharat and Hanuman. He had travelled to US in the 70's and had actually served in the US Army. He told us that he has always wanted to travel to India and how highly he regarded Indians. It was fascinating to talk to him and hear from him what he thought about our epics. What was more fascinating was he was a canditate for the upcoming presidential elections in Peru and gave us one of his pamplets. I love meeting people like this when I travel. You get to hear the most fascinating stories especially in the most exotic places.
We reached Juliaca (Puno) airport in the afternoon. Juliaca is THE smallest airports I have ever seen. It's like a bus terminal :). I had informed our hotel in Puno about my flight and was expecting someone to pick us up, but when I didnot find anyone waiting to pick us up I realized that I had goofed up and had given the hotel incorrect arrival time, so we got into the collectivo going from the airport to town and they dropped us right in front of the hotel.
Totorani Inn is probably the best hotel we have stayed at ever, in terms of hospitality. The hostess is so awesome. She made sure we had a very very comfortable stay. Puno is at an elevation of 12,500 ft which is higher than Cusco and Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. Coming down from the airport to the town, you see a lot of incomplete buildings, a puma and a statue of Christ looking over the town. We saw the Christ looking over the town in EVERY town in Peru.
The elevation was a little hard to getting used to at first, since we were coming from the Amazon lowlands. Climbing a small flight of stairs took some effort. We drank a lot of coco tea which helps with altitude sickness. Fortunately we got used to the altitude pretty quickly. We didnt have much planned for that day so we just visited the town center, had dinner, arranged for a tour of Lake Uros for the next morning at the hotel front desk and called it a night.
Day 5: December 22, 2009, Puno-Lake Titicaca
Breakfast at the inn was awesome. Specifically the bread, my husband and I were totally nostalgic and thinking about the freshly baked "kadak" bread that we enjoyed in India. Neways after a good hearty breakfast, our tour bus came to pick us up at the hotel. Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. Once at the dock, we boarded a boat and went towards the Uros islands. These pre-Inkan man-made islands are made out of floating reed and consist of several small villages. Their main source of income is tourism, every tour company seems to have a village that they prefer and the villagers there are excited to see you. The women and kids are dressed up in their fine attire and the men put on a show for you and show you how a model village looks like, how they hunt, how the village floats, etc. I got to wear one of the dresses for a photo-op. :)
We bought a hand-made tapestry from the village woman, she was persistent and my husband was gullible :D. Before leaving the village the women sang a song for us in English: "My Bonny lies over the ocean.....My Bonny lies over the sea.."It was cute. The tour guide then took us on a reed boat to another village where they had a watch tower, a school and they also had solar electricity. Later when we came back to Puno, we went to their handicraft market near the dock and bought some gifts. (We found a similar tapestry for about 1/3rd the price :D)
In the afternoon we went back to our hotel, ate some more bread, had some tea, and relaxed a bit. We had a Sillustani Burial tour scheduled for the afternoon with the same tour company. Our guide explained how this pre-Incan area was the site where the elite were buried. These people had also discovered irrigation centuries ago. It was getting very windy and we could see lightning in the distance so we headed back soon. On the way back we stopped over at a farmer's farm-house where we could pet/ take pictures with alpacas and Llamas, try out some home made cheese. We also bought some Pukara bulls which you can see on the roof of almost every house in this region, they are supposed to bring prosperity and good luck.
By late evening we were back at Totorani. Our hostess recommended a restaurant called 'La Choza De Oscar' which had Peruvian style entertainment. We were so glad that we went there. It was a very entertaining place, with live songs and dance performances from 9pm-10:30pm . Each dance is supposed to represent a different regional Peruvian folk dance. The dances started out slow but later on were very very energetic, the dancers had to have great stamina to dance that vigorously for 2 hours. Dances alternated with music played by a local band and each time the dance troupe changed into a new dress. The food was also very good. We had ceviche (my favorite Peruvian food) and Alpaca steak among other things. In my opinion Puno is a city that should not be missed when travelling to Peru.
Day 6: December 23, 2009, Puno-Cusco
Finally it was time for us to leave Puno and the amazing hosts and amazing bread. Our hotel arranged a tour bus for us to go from Puno to Cusco and dropped us to the bus terminal. You can go from Puno to Cusco by bus or train. But we choose the bus because it is much cheaper and it takes you to some of the tourist spots along the way and does not take a lot more time.
We went with First Class bus company and started about 1/2 hour after the scheduled time and 45 mins later, our bus broke down. :) It took about an hour for it to be fixed and then 15 minutes later it again broke down. Argh :@. This time we were sitting there for about 1.5 hours for a new bus to show up and take us to Cusco. While waiting there, we started talking to one of our fellow passengers. He was a French guy who worked in England. Since he realized we were from India, he told us that he worked at CricInfo. My husband had a great time talking to him about cricket crazy India and Sachin Tendulkar, for the rest of the journey till we reached Cusco, we had a fun time with him.
Along the way, the tour bus makes several stops, one at La Raya, 4310m - 14172 ft above sea level with beautiful views, at Raqchi: "Temple of Wiracocha"- very nice, Andahuaylillas: "Sistine Chapel of America" with a stop in between for lunch. Lunch was pretty good and again there was some Peruvian style entertainment. Fortunately since we were there during summer time the days were longer and we were able to go to all the sites inspite of our delay. By the way, our tour guide spoke just like drunk Dharmendra in Sholay. Very entertaining.
So eventually after all this, we reached Cusco late in the evening. We took a cab to our hotel and settled in. Before dinner we went to a local tourist office and booked a Cusco city and Sacred Valley tour.
Day 7: December 24, 2009, Cusco City Tour
Every year the day before Christmas, artisans flock to the historic Plaza de Armas in Cusco to participate in a street fair. I had planned our trip so that we would be in Cusco on this day. We woke up early in the morning, around 6:30-7, went up to the terrace of our hostal. From there we had a view of Cusco with Plaza de Arms right there in the center. I had read that it is best to visit the fair early in the morning because later on it gets so crowded that you cant even walk. After breakfast we went down to the Plaza, which was very walkable from our hostal, and checked out the stalls there. There were a lot of nativity scenes where Joseph, Mary, Jesus and the 3 shepherds were dressed Peruvian style with alpacas and llamas alongside and they were all brown skinned. There was other local Peruvian art like chess boards with the Incas facing the Spaniards, hand made purses etc. We spent about an hour there and bought some gifts for our family and some little titbits for our house. It was fun bargaining :) By the time we left, we could see the place getting more and more crowded. We went to a local office, got our entry tickets to Macchu Picchu, went to the train station, got our train tickets to Aquas Calientes and then went back to the hostal.
At about 10 am, our Cusco city tour bus picked us up from near our hostal. We went to a local cathedral near Plaza de Arms, which had a statue of Jesus where he was black. It was just nice to see Jesus be a different race :). It was pouring pretty hard so we waited in the cathedral for another 1/2 hour till the rain subsided and then we went on to our next stop, the temple of the sun. It was a nice temple with some Inca stonework, the guide gave us more insight into the stonework and showed us details such as the trapezoidal entryway, which depicts an important room, etc
Then we went to the outskirts of the city to Saqsayhuaman. This complex has some impressive stonework. This is a first glimpse we got to the impressive Inca stonework on a large scale. The way in which the various rocks were moulded to fit into one another to fit like a glove, forming a wall, all without using any mortar and without mordern tools is commendable. These walls were placed in such a way that they could survive the frequent earthquakes that Peru experiences. There wasn't a single crack or shift in the wall because of the earthquakes. Most of the destruction was during the Spanish inquisition. The view from Saqsayhuaman of Cusco is incredible as well. From here you also see the statue of Jesus overlooking Cusco (as we saw in almost every town in Peru, and I think all over South America, since Rio de Janeiro also has Christ the Redemmer overlooking the city). Cusco is shaped like a puma and Saqsayhuaman is supposedly the head of the puma.
While here, we met an Indian professor from some university in the Northeast (US) who was travelling alone to Peru. Our tourbus also had a family from Portugal and I was telling them that my parents come from Goa which was once a Portuguese colony and that my mom knows some Portuguese words. It was kindda fun to connect. :)
Next stop was Tambomachay which had some nice aqueduct work and fountains which was build by the Incas and still function well. We also visited Qenqo, which was the place where they offered animal/human?? sacrifice at the altar. Then we visited a shop which sold clothes made of authentic alpaca wool. It was a huge store. We didnt get anything from there, but they did offer us some coca tea which we happily drank. The bus then went dropped us close to our hotel by about 7:30pm.
After about 1/2 hour we headed out for dinner. We had decided to go to this place called 'Divina Comedia'. It had great reviews and the food looked great. It took us some time to find this place, but thankfully we reached before they stopped serving dinner. The waitress who attended to us was dressed in a fine red dress. Shortly after we settled in, a man started playing the piano and the waitress started singing an opera. She had a beautiful voice and the whole experience was very entertaining. The food I remember was very good, we were thinking of having the guinea pig (cuy) since that is another popular meat in Peru, but I think they were out of it so we had the lamb. It was delicious. But that star was the dessert sampler, which my husband loved very much. After dinner we walked to our hostel and waited till midnight.
Every year on the eve of Christmas Cusco celebrates with fireworks and this year was no different. Inspite of being incredibly tired and sleepy we stayed awake for the fireworks. The advantage of staying in the hotel where we stayed was that it was at a higer elevation and the terrace of the hotel overlooked Plaza de Arms and gave a great view of the city. So we were able to enjoy the fireworks from the terrace. It was not as grand as the 4th of July fireworks that you see in SF, but you could see fireworks going off from different parts of Cusco. The general environment was very festive.
Day 8: December 25, 2009, Sacred Valley Tour
We reached Lima at about 3pm and we were staying in Hostal Killari in Miraflores. All the forums kept saying that Miraflores is the best and safest place to stay in Lima, especially for tourists, even though it is a 30 minute drive from the airport, without traffic. Our hostal had arranged for a taxi pickup from the airport and we reached the hostal by 5:30pm or so. I had heard a lot about paragliding in Miraflores and was hoping to do it, but by the time we reached there, they had stopped for the day. If you reach there by 4:30pm, I think you can glide with them.Other than that, we had just decided to relax there a bit, so we walked along Miraflores.It has a very "Queen's necklace"-ish/ Bandra bandstand-ish feel. There is a lovers sculpture in the park near the ocean and some lovely mosaic work around there. We went to one of the restaurants and had ceviche(ymm) and pisco sour among other things for dinner. The day in general was nothing to write home about. We didnt have anything major planned for Lima. The hostal however was good and the hosts were very hospitable.
Day 2: December 19, 2009, Amazon Jungle.
The day started pretty early. Our hostal guy had a taxi booked to take us to the airport, but the taxi guy was a little late. Fortunately we had some buffer time so we reached the airport on time. We had a flight to Puerto Maldonado, which is a small little town in the Amazon. As what seems to happen very regularly in Peru due to bad weather in summer, our flight was a bit delayed. We met another Indian couple from the Bay Area who were travelling by our flight so spend some time talking to them.
I had researched places to stay at in the Amazon and from the reviews had decided to stay at the Sandoval Lake Lodge(SLL). There are several options to choose from and you can choose them based on your interests and what you would like to do. Our guide from SLL, Javier came to the airport to pick us up. They took us to their office in town, gave us raingear to wear along with gumboots, had us pack whatever we needed for our 2 night stay at the lodge in a small duffel bag and we left the rest of our bags there.
To reach SLL from Puerto Maldonado, you have to travel by car to the Madre de Dios river bank(15 mins), take a 30 minute boat ride, then hike for about an hour through a muddy trail. Javier had bought lunch for us to eat in the boat. It was simple fried rice but it was quite good. The trail was nice and relaxing that time of the year but I can imagine it getting really nasty during the peak rainy season. A porter had carried our duffel bags and some other stuff on his back all the way from town to the lodge and he was walking faster than us. Javier showed us some interesting fauna and flora along the way. We saw the most big beautiful blue butterflies which shimmered when the sunlight hit their wings.At the end of the trail, we took a canoe ride to the lodge. It was such a peaceful ride, so quite and beautiful. Initially it was wading through this narrow gap between trees and then suddenly it opened up to the beautiful Sandoval Lake. Photos cant describe the beauty of this lake, it is serene and large and amazing. You just want to soak it all in. 20 minutes later we were at the lodge. So it takes a total of 2 hours from the town to the lodge.
We had a free afternoon which we spent relaxing and looking out at the lake. Our room was pretty good, clean with hot showers. That is more than we could ask for in a jungle. Our group under Javier had 2 more couples. One of them was a young couple from Hong Kong, who were in Peru for their honeymoon, the other were a retired couple from Victoria, Australia. They were in the middle of their month long trip to South America and had already visited the Galapagos Islands, Ecuador and were going to visit Puno, Bolivia and Cusco. Their oldest daughter had travelled around the world for a year after she graduated from law school and that is what inspired them to travel to South America. Isnt that awesome. It is so interesting to know how different people lead different lives. The group was fun and we enjoyed spending time with them.
That evening it rained very heavily Fortunately it stopped raining just as suddenly as it had started and Javier took us out into the jungle for a night trip to see some tarantulas and monkeys and all kinds of wierd insects you would see in the Amazon jungle. For dinner, we had some traditional peruvian fare. Our meal was soup, a dish called 'Causa' made with mashed potatoes and tuna, and some dessert. Peruvian food consists hugely of potatoes, corn and meat. Overall a pretty tiring day. It was raining all through dinner and most of the night. The loud noise the rain made when hitting the roof was like a lullaby.
Day 3: December 20, 2009 Amazon Jungle
We woke up in the morning not sure if we would get to see anything because it was still raining.
We got ready and had breakfast, it was awesome. Fortunately it stopped raining soon and Javier took us to an excursion of the lake. We were lucky to see a big family of river otters hunting and eating fish. We saw different spieces of birds and monkeys. My husband who loves wildlife viewing absolutely enjoyed this. We had some time to relax after we came back at the lodge, had lunch and then Javier took us for another excursion in the jungle, this time showing us brazil nut trees, exotic insects etc My husband and I spent the rest of the afternoon relaxing in the hammocks in the lobby.In the evening we went for another excursion at the lake, this time trying to spot caimans. These are basically smaller crocodiles. The setting sun was casting this beautiful light and made the whole atmosphere quite amazing. This marked the end of our excursions in the Amazon. The next morning we were going back to Puerto Maldonado.
Day 4: December 21, 2009, Puno-Lake Titicaca
We started out pretty early in the morning to reach the airport on time. Fortunately it was not raining. We had our final ride on Lake Sandoval, it was just us on the lake early in the morning with the early morning fog, cool air and beautiful sunrise. So peaceful...After a 2 hour journey in the rain we reached the airport. On the way we saw a bunch of green macaws hanging out. We were flying out to Puno via Cusco. Thankfully the weather was not that bad when we reached the airport. A very interesting thing happened to us when we on-flight. The elderly gentleman sitting next to us started talking to us, he told us that he had seen and recognized us from the flight from Lima to Puerto Maldonado which we had taken 2 days ago. He went on to tell us that he was a philosophy professor at the Lima University and had read the Bhagvad Gita, Mahabharat and Hanuman. He had travelled to US in the 70's and had actually served in the US Army. He told us that he has always wanted to travel to India and how highly he regarded Indians. It was fascinating to talk to him and hear from him what he thought about our epics. What was more fascinating was he was a canditate for the upcoming presidential elections in Peru and gave us one of his pamplets. I love meeting people like this when I travel. You get to hear the most fascinating stories especially in the most exotic places.
We reached Juliaca (Puno) airport in the afternoon. Juliaca is THE smallest airports I have ever seen. It's like a bus terminal :). I had informed our hotel in Puno about my flight and was expecting someone to pick us up, but when I didnot find anyone waiting to pick us up I realized that I had goofed up and had given the hotel incorrect arrival time, so we got into the collectivo going from the airport to town and they dropped us right in front of the hotel.
Totorani Inn is probably the best hotel we have stayed at ever, in terms of hospitality. The hostess is so awesome. She made sure we had a very very comfortable stay. Puno is at an elevation of 12,500 ft which is higher than Cusco and Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. Coming down from the airport to the town, you see a lot of incomplete buildings, a puma and a statue of Christ looking over the town. We saw the Christ looking over the town in EVERY town in Peru.The elevation was a little hard to getting used to at first, since we were coming from the Amazon lowlands. Climbing a small flight of stairs took some effort. We drank a lot of coco tea which helps with altitude sickness. Fortunately we got used to the altitude pretty quickly. We didnt have much planned for that day so we just visited the town center, had dinner, arranged for a tour of Lake Uros for the next morning at the hotel front desk and called it a night.
Day 5: December 22, 2009, Puno-Lake Titicaca
Breakfast at the inn was awesome. Specifically the bread, my husband and I were totally nostalgic and thinking about the freshly baked "kadak" bread that we enjoyed in India. Neways after a good hearty breakfast, our tour bus came to pick us up at the hotel. Lake Titicaca, on the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. Once at the dock, we boarded a boat and went towards the Uros islands. These pre-Inkan man-made islands are made out of floating reed and consist of several small villages. Their main source of income is tourism, every tour company seems to have a village that they prefer and the villagers there are excited to see you. The women and kids are dressed up in their fine attire and the men put on a show for you and show you how a model village looks like, how they hunt, how the village floats, etc. I got to wear one of the dresses for a photo-op. :)
We bought a hand-made tapestry from the village woman, she was persistent and my husband was gullible :D. Before leaving the village the women sang a song for us in English: "My Bonny lies over the ocean.....My Bonny lies over the sea.."It was cute. The tour guide then took us on a reed boat to another village where they had a watch tower, a school and they also had solar electricity. Later when we came back to Puno, we went to their handicraft market near the dock and bought some gifts. (We found a similar tapestry for about 1/3rd the price :D)
In the afternoon we went back to our hotel, ate some more bread, had some tea, and relaxed a bit. We had a Sillustani Burial tour scheduled for the afternoon with the same tour company. Our guide explained how this pre-Incan area was the site where the elite were buried. These people had also discovered irrigation centuries ago. It was getting very windy and we could see lightning in the distance so we headed back soon. On the way back we stopped over at a farmer's farm-house where we could pet/ take pictures with alpacas and Llamas, try out some home made cheese. We also bought some Pukara bulls which you can see on the roof of almost every house in this region, they are supposed to bring prosperity and good luck.By late evening we were back at Totorani. Our hostess recommended a restaurant called 'La Choza De Oscar' which had Peruvian style entertainment. We were so glad that we went there. It was a very entertaining place, with live songs and dance performances from 9pm-10:30pm . Each dance is supposed to represent a different regional Peruvian folk dance. The dances started out slow but later on were very very energetic, the dancers had to have great stamina to dance that vigorously for 2 hours. Dances alternated with music played by a local band and each time the dance troupe changed into a new dress. The food was also very good. We had ceviche (my favorite Peruvian food) and Alpaca steak among other things. In my opinion Puno is a city that should not be missed when travelling to Peru.
Day 6: December 23, 2009, Puno-Cusco
Finally it was time for us to leave Puno and the amazing hosts and amazing bread. Our hotel arranged a tour bus for us to go from Puno to Cusco and dropped us to the bus terminal. You can go from Puno to Cusco by bus or train. But we choose the bus because it is much cheaper and it takes you to some of the tourist spots along the way and does not take a lot more time.
We went with First Class bus company and started about 1/2 hour after the scheduled time and 45 mins later, our bus broke down. :) It took about an hour for it to be fixed and then 15 minutes later it again broke down. Argh :@. This time we were sitting there for about 1.5 hours for a new bus to show up and take us to Cusco. While waiting there, we started talking to one of our fellow passengers. He was a French guy who worked in England. Since he realized we were from India, he told us that he worked at CricInfo. My husband had a great time talking to him about cricket crazy India and Sachin Tendulkar, for the rest of the journey till we reached Cusco, we had a fun time with him.
Along the way, the tour bus makes several stops, one at La Raya, 4310m - 14172 ft above sea level with beautiful views, at Raqchi: "Temple of Wiracocha"- very nice, Andahuaylillas: "Sistine Chapel of America" with a stop in between for lunch. Lunch was pretty good and again there was some Peruvian style entertainment. Fortunately since we were there during summer time the days were longer and we were able to go to all the sites inspite of our delay. By the way, our tour guide spoke just like drunk Dharmendra in Sholay. Very entertaining.So eventually after all this, we reached Cusco late in the evening. We took a cab to our hotel and settled in. Before dinner we went to a local tourist office and booked a Cusco city and Sacred Valley tour.
Day 7: December 24, 2009, Cusco City Tour
Every year the day before Christmas, artisans flock to the historic Plaza de Armas in Cusco to participate in a street fair. I had planned our trip so that we would be in Cusco on this day. We woke up early in the morning, around 6:30-7, went up to the terrace of our hostal. From there we had a view of Cusco with Plaza de Arms right there in the center. I had read that it is best to visit the fair early in the morning because later on it gets so crowded that you cant even walk. After breakfast we went down to the Plaza, which was very walkable from our hostal, and checked out the stalls there. There were a lot of nativity scenes where Joseph, Mary, Jesus and the 3 shepherds were dressed Peruvian style with alpacas and llamas alongside and they were all brown skinned. There was other local Peruvian art like chess boards with the Incas facing the Spaniards, hand made purses etc. We spent about an hour there and bought some gifts for our family and some little titbits for our house. It was fun bargaining :) By the time we left, we could see the place getting more and more crowded. We went to a local office, got our entry tickets to Macchu Picchu, went to the train station, got our train tickets to Aquas Calientes and then went back to the hostal.At about 10 am, our Cusco city tour bus picked us up from near our hostal. We went to a local cathedral near Plaza de Arms, which had a statue of Jesus where he was black. It was just nice to see Jesus be a different race :). It was pouring pretty hard so we waited in the cathedral for another 1/2 hour till the rain subsided and then we went on to our next stop, the temple of the sun. It was a nice temple with some Inca stonework, the guide gave us more insight into the stonework and showed us details such as the trapezoidal entryway, which depicts an important room, etc
Then we went to the outskirts of the city to Saqsayhuaman. This complex has some impressive stonework. This is a first glimpse we got to the impressive Inca stonework on a large scale. The way in which the various rocks were moulded to fit into one another to fit like a glove, forming a wall, all without using any mortar and without mordern tools is commendable. These walls were placed in such a way that they could survive the frequent earthquakes that Peru experiences. There wasn't a single crack or shift in the wall because of the earthquakes. Most of the destruction was during the Spanish inquisition. The view from Saqsayhuaman of Cusco is incredible as well. From here you also see the statue of Jesus overlooking Cusco (as we saw in almost every town in Peru, and I think all over South America, since Rio de Janeiro also has Christ the Redemmer overlooking the city). Cusco is shaped like a puma and Saqsayhuaman is supposedly the head of the puma.While here, we met an Indian professor from some university in the Northeast (US) who was travelling alone to Peru. Our tourbus also had a family from Portugal and I was telling them that my parents come from Goa which was once a Portuguese colony and that my mom knows some Portuguese words. It was kindda fun to connect. :)
Next stop was Tambomachay which had some nice aqueduct work and fountains which was build by the Incas and still function well. We also visited Qenqo, which was the place where they offered animal/human?? sacrifice at the altar. Then we visited a shop which sold clothes made of authentic alpaca wool. It was a huge store. We didnt get anything from there, but they did offer us some coca tea which we happily drank. The bus then went dropped us close to our hotel by about 7:30pm.
After about 1/2 hour we headed out for dinner. We had decided to go to this place called 'Divina Comedia'. It had great reviews and the food looked great. It took us some time to find this place, but thankfully we reached before they stopped serving dinner. The waitress who attended to us was dressed in a fine red dress. Shortly after we settled in, a man started playing the piano and the waitress started singing an opera. She had a beautiful voice and the whole experience was very entertaining. The food I remember was very good, we were thinking of having the guinea pig (cuy) since that is another popular meat in Peru, but I think they were out of it so we had the lamb. It was delicious. But that star was the dessert sampler, which my husband loved very much. After dinner we walked to our hostel and waited till midnight.
Every year on the eve of Christmas Cusco celebrates with fireworks and this year was no different. Inspite of being incredibly tired and sleepy we stayed awake for the fireworks. The advantage of staying in the hotel where we stayed was that it was at a higer elevation and the terrace of the hotel overlooked Plaza de Arms and gave a great view of the city. So we were able to enjoy the fireworks from the terrace. It was not as grand as the 4th of July fireworks that you see in SF, but you could see fireworks going off from different parts of Cusco. The general environment was very festive.
Day 8: December 25, 2009, Sacred Valley Tour
We checked out of Piccolo Locando for the day and the hotel had agreed to keep our 2bags for us for a day. Our plan was to take a small handbag with us to Aquas Calientes, stay there for the night and then come back. We went to the same location where we had been picked up the previous day for the city tour. The bus was about an hour late to pick us up. It started raining slightly as we drove towards Pisac. On the way we stopped at some beautiful vistas of the Urubamba(I love how it sounds) river. Since it was Christmas we also saw several tribal groups dressed in fancy gear travelling to other towns for a performance.
Pisac offered some beautiful views of terraced farms, the Inca path and ancient burial grounds. We were in Pisac for a short stop. From there we travelled to Ollantaytambo. On the way we stopped for lunch at a buffet place. The food was good. We reached Ollantaytambo by about 2pm or so. At first look, it may not impress you, it just looks like a big vertical stone wall, but it was actually a town. Our guide took us through the whole area and showed us the aqueducts and the area where grains were stored and more stonework and terraced farms. The more you get to know and see Ollantaytambo, the more you are impressed by it. He also showed us Viracocha's face on a nearby mountain :). The temple at the top was very impressive. Both my husband and me were very impressed by it.
Our bus then left for Cusco again while we parted ways and went to the train station at Ollantaytambo. Our plan was to take the night train to Aguas Calientes(AC). The train ride was about 1:15 hrs. We reached AC by 9:30 at night, someone from our hotel was there to pick us up at the station. The night was uneventful, we just had dinner and slept.
Day 9: December 26, 2009, Macchu Picchu
Pisac offered some beautiful views of terraced farms, the Inca path and ancient burial grounds. We were in Pisac for a short stop. From there we travelled to Ollantaytambo. On the way we stopped for lunch at a buffet place. The food was good. We reached Ollantaytambo by about 2pm or so. At first look, it may not impress you, it just looks like a big vertical stone wall, but it was actually a town. Our guide took us through the whole area and showed us the aqueducts and the area where grains were stored and more stonework and terraced farms. The more you get to know and see Ollantaytambo, the more you are impressed by it. He also showed us Viracocha's face on a nearby mountain :). The temple at the top was very impressive. Both my husband and me were very impressed by it.
Our bus then left for Cusco again while we parted ways and went to the train station at Ollantaytambo. Our plan was to take the night train to Aguas Calientes(AC). The train ride was about 1:15 hrs. We reached AC by 9:30 at night, someone from our hotel was there to pick us up at the station. The night was uneventful, we just had dinner and slept.
Day 9: December 26, 2009, Macchu Picchu
We woke up really early in the morning, by 4:00 am, got ready, headed to the hotel lobby for breakfast. Had a wonderful filling breakfast, kept our handbag at the hotel lobby and went off to stand in line for the Macchu Picchu bus. We were hoping that it didnt rain this day but unfortunately it had been raining since late last night. AC was covered in cloud. Neways the bus starts at about 6:00am, but the line starts earlier. I think we were in line by 5:15am. My husband went and got the tickets while I stood in line. We were in the 4th or 5th bus to leave AC for MP. It took a long zig-zag road and finally we arrived at MP at about 7:30am. We got our passports stamped with the Macchu Picchu stamp and we got our tickets to hike Wayna(Huayna) Picchu. This is the mountain you see in the background when you see any picture of the Macchu Picchu. Only the first 400 applicants of the day are allowed to hike Wayna Picchu and since we hadnt hiked Macchu, we decided to hike Wayna.
The doors to Macchu Picchu opened at 8am. It was stilled foggy and mistly from the morning rain, and it was still drizzling. We hired a guide at the Macchu Picchu entrance and joined a group of young tourists on a guided tour.
Long story short, I had to spend the next 5 days in hospital recovering from brain swelling, Abandon our plans to go to Brazil (where we were going to spend the next 5 days and New Year's in Rio) and rebook our flights. Looking back I wish I hadnt done the hike up Wayna Picchu and I wish I had listened to my instincts.
We started at the Gatekeeper's hut which had a great view. Unfortuanely because of the cloudy rainy weather, we didnt have a very clear view. Macchu Picchu is built at such an amazing location and at an incredible height. In such foggy weather, it could even be difficult to see where you are going and at some points I was afraid I would fall over. Slowly the clouds cleared and it stopped raining. Llamas and alpacas were freely roaming around and easily maneuvering around the hilly terrain. We took some pictures with them.
Macchu Picchu was a combination of the stoned walls of Saqsayhuaman with the terraced farms at Pisac and the town of Ollantaytambo. But the location, set on a mountain between 2 rivers, gave them the advantage 0ver their enemies. The aqueduct system is amazing, the separation of the royal quarters and the commoners area, the living area vs the agricultural area is so well thought of. The stone condor, the temple of the sun, the solstice stone were all so beautifully done. Just looking at the stonework around and knowing that that was all done without modern tools and mostly by hand, you can imagine how long it would have taken the Incas to build this whole place. Nowadays you a see a 12 story building being build in 18 months or sooner but this was ages ago. So much time and labor was spent on building towns which were later abandoned, it kindda makes me sad thinking about it. But the good news is, they weren't demolished and we still get to see how these structures were built, to know that they have survived the various earthquakes that are so frequent in Peru is incredible.
The tour of MP took about 3 hours and then we went to hike Wayna Picchu. We planned to hike at about 11:30am. There were other members in our group who also had the tickets and so we all started climbing. The road was narrow, made of granite stone and steep. At various spots only one person could go ahead at a time. When researching about this hike, several people had said that if you are afraid of heights do not do this hike. But I had ignored most of these warnings since a that fear is relative, what some people find scary, others may not. There were some spots where you had to crawl between the stones wedged on the path to get across. We crossed them and then I think we both thought can we do this again to get to the other side on our way back? There were several points during the hike, where I kept thinking, maybe we should go back, but I ignored my instincts and kept telling myself, so many other people have done this and continue doing it, it cant be that bad. We saw some people hiking in slippers and we had hiking shoes on. Finally we reached the top. There were people sitting on the granite stone hanging on top of the mountain but I did not have the guts to do that. It was way too scary for me. I kept thinking I was going to fall. It took us about 1.5 hours to reach up.
Finally we started our descend and I was a bit relieved but thought of the how difficult it would be to climb down that narrow route. We were hardly 10-15 mins away from the top of the mountain and suddenly I lost my balance on a turn and I slipped and tumbled. While I was tumbling I just kept thinking about my husband and was hoping to be safe. Finally I landed on what seemed to me a stable spot. My poor husband who was hiking in front of me had heard me scream and was running towards me. My fall was about 40-50 feet (about 2 floors). When I landed, the first thought I had was, God is awesome, I am safe now and the worst is behind us. I had an amazing sense of calm, like nothing had happened.
I had probably hit a stone while tumbling or something and had a injury on my head. One of the hikers who had seen me fall offered her shawl to cover my wound and my husband held it on my forehead and applied pressure. Fortunately for us there was a ranger close to us and he radioed in the medical staff at the site entry. I was wondering if I would be air-lifted from there to a hospital, but they are not that equipped out there. About an hour or so later, 1 doctor, 1 nurse and 6 porters had reached us. They were panting from the hike, the nurse (who was the only English speaking person there) asked me how I was feeling, they applied some bandage, gave me a painkiller and tied me to a stretcher. The doctor later told us that in his 2 years at the clinic he had never climbed Wayna Picchu. My husband finally was a little bit relieved. Then began the hour long journey downhill. I decided to shut my eyes and trust the porters to not drop me because from my perspective if even one of the porters had slipped, I would have had a short ride till the bottom of that mountain. But these porters were very sure footed. They took us to the small clinic at the entrance of Macchu Picchu and the doctor gave me a painkiller shot again. After about half an hour they had arranged for a pickup truck to take me to Aquas Calientes down the zig zagged route, porters helped hold me in place in the pickup. My dear hubby was holding my hand the whole time. Once we reached the train station in AC, my husband went to our hotel, got our bag, then we boarded the train and went to Ollantaytambo in 1.5 hours. From there, an ambulance picked us up and took us to Cusco. Our doctor from Macchu Picchu was with us this whole time. By the time we reached the hospital in Cusco it was 8:30 or so. I had a CT scan and then was transported to a private hospital where I was stitched up. So now 8 hours later, I finally got the medical attention I needed.
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