The locals have taught us something very important about travel in Peru --- all travel happens through Lima. And, all flights are scheduled to “encourage” a stay over in Lima. So, after our great trip on the Amazon, we flew back to Lima for a night before catching a flight to Cusco early the next morning. We returned to the Miraflores Park hotel – a hotel considered one of the best in the world – for what we had hoped would be a restful night. NOT. It turned out someone was having a party in the hotel and the hotel was literally shaking from the news. Our first phone call at 10:30PM got a response that they would turn the volume down. So, we turned out the lights and hoped for the best. The “earthquake” continued; asleep; then awake again. At 12:30 we grew tired of this nonsense as we needed to be up at 6:00AM to go to the airport. Not only could we hear the music, we could feel it in the floor. You would have thought the Rolling Stones were playing at the Miraflores Park Hotel. Well, a second call to the front desk and the answer this time was that our only option was to move to a higher floor. First they offered us the 6th floor, and then the 7th; and finally the 10th (the highest floor). They moved us to a suite that is probably larger than our condo in Seattle. However, size meant nothing and we could still hear the music and the people cheering. We didn’t get to sleep until the party ended after 3AM. Needless to say, we were quite upset (and tired) when we checked out the next morning. A good review on TripAdvisor will not be forthcoming.
We landed in Cusco – the former Inca capital – now inhabited by about 500K people. The air is very thin here at over 11,000 feet. Arn has been fighting a bad cold since our second day in Peru and he wasn’t sure what was what – fever, sore throat, running nose – and now no sleep and a bit of a headache – presumably from the altitude. He thought the altitude headache strange as he had been as high as 18,500 feet before in the Andes with minimal problems.
So, we headed off to the Sacred Valley. All through this valley are Inca ruins – terraced hillsides (still farmed in some cases), structures and roads. We traveled through Pisac and stopped at an amazing hacienda for lunch – hidden high off the main road in the middle of nowhere. We arrived at our hotel for the night in the town of Urubamba along the river by the same name. This section of the river is very mellow and it gave no indication of what the river would look like as we traveled downstream (by rail) to Machu Picchu. But more on that later as we are getting ahead of ourselves.
Our “hotel” for the night turned out to be a house which included a local woman, Roxana, as a cook. Roxana cooked us dinner and breakfast for the following two days and we both fell in love with her delicious soups and quinoa pancakes. It was funny how some coffee managed to cure Arn’s altitude sickness – can you say, caffeine withdrawal??
The setting for our villa was spectacular and reminded us both of the setting at the base of the “Remarkable” mountains in Queenstown, New Zealand. The Andes Mountains never fail to impress us and this was a mere hint of what was to come. Our hostess was kind enough to loan us two wireless connections for the night. So, after many days of being disconnected from the world, we sat outside, enjoying the lovely gardens and flowers around the villa, feasting our eyes on the very impressive Andes, and indulging in the internet for the first time in many days. Once it was dark, Roxana built a fire in the fireplace and we moved inside. Note – without Roxana’s fire skills, we would not have enjoyed a fire. We are on an international registry list that forbids us from lighting natural fires indoors (a long story, but let’s just say what they taught us in school was put to good use that night). So in case it is not clear, we really enjoyed ourselves at the Urubamba Villas. If you are looking for a place that offers heaven on earth, look no further.
We were teased the next day with Inca ruins in the towns of Chinchero and Ollantantambo. The engineering of these hillsides and structures was truly amazing. The amount of labor required to build them must have been immense and the stone masonry was truly spectacular in spots – especially given the tools they had to work with. At this point, we had been in Peru for over a week and save for an hour or two of rain in the jungle, our rainy season excursion to Peru had landed us the title of “lecheros” – milkmen – but in this case simply an idiomatic way of saying that we were lucky. Perhaps the milkman “got lucky” down here in Peru at least as often as legend holds in the US. We were hoping our luck would hold for two more days until we got to Machu Picchu.
On December 23, we boarded the train to Machu Picchu. This wasn’t really the way we had wanted to go. We wanted to hike the Inca trail but the weather is so iffy in December that we felt it wasn’t worth the effort to hike in the rain and camp in the rain only to have limited views. “No vale la pena” as they’d say here. The town of Aguas Calientes is the end of the line for the train to Machu Picchu. From there you take a bus to the ruins. Most people stay at one of the hotels in town and then go to the site the next day after arriving (that was our plan as well). So, we settled into our hotel and had a wonderful lunch overlooking a much angrier Urubamba river. Big water class V+. No thank-you.
Our alarms were set for 4:30 AM so we could eat a quick breakfast at 5AM followed by a bus ride at 5:30 AM to the site. We were disappointed when we woke up to rainy dreary weather. Think low cloud, lots of fog, wind and rain. Well, at least it wasn’t too cold, so with raingear in hand we headed up to the top, hoping for the best.
We had most of the day to explore the ruins. The beginning of the day was spent on a guided tour of the ruins and even with the weather, it was spectacular. Seeing this city up close has to be one of the best experiences of our lives. It is hard to imagine the planning, engineering and execution necessary to build something this grand with the tools the Incas had on hand. We were mesmerized by the craftsmanship. It was interesting to see how the Incas dealt with things like moving heavy loads, planning for earthquakes, separating the water drainage from the sewer drainage, attachment “systems” for the roof to the stone structure, interior storage, cooking areas, working areas, farming areas and building stability. While a sunny day might have been ideal, the rain gave us the opportunity to see how the drainage systems worked (which were, actually, quite fascinating). The rain also confirmed that packing our rain gear was a good idea. Just know this, if it rains long enough and hard enough, you still get wet. We looked and felt like a couple of drown rats.
After our tour, we set off on our own towards the Sun Gate on the Inca Trail. This road was impressive as well - though our views were pretty limited given all of the fog that blocked our view. Arriving at the Sun Gate, we found a very friendly park ranger. He was explaining a bit about the site and offered to take us to the real entrance to the city. So, down we went to the true entrance to the city, listening to stories from this ranger about the role his grandparents played when work was going on to restore the site. He was a friendly guy and our time with him was a nice experience for us. We climbed back to the Sun Gate to find that the fog had lifted and we had the “money shot” of the city. It meant a great deal to us to see this and was the icing on the cake for the day.
Still, we were hoping for one more view of the city by climbing up Wayna Picchu, the tall peak on the right and behind the city on the classic photo shots. So, we quickly headed back to the city and over to the trail up Wayna Picchu. Think Stairmaster or a steeper version of Stawamus Chief for those that have climbed that trail near Squamish. It was almost continuous steps to the top and the wet ground made us worried that the downhill would be tough. But the Inca were incredible engineers and all of the steps canted up such that the descent was easier than we could have imagined. It made for a good workout and another beautiful view. After 6 hours of touring, hiking, and experiencing the changing weather at Machu Picchu, it was time to catch the bus back to Aguas Calientes. We both enjoyed a long hot showered followed by a fantastic lunch. Deborah thinks the best tomato sauce of her lifetime might have been enjoyed at the Inkaterra Lodge.
Now, it was time to travel to Cusco. After 1 ½ hours on the train and 2 hours in a car, we arrived at the main plaza in Cusco. It was complete and total chaos. The time was 8pm and Christmas Eve festivities were in full swing. It took nearly an hour to cover just a short distance to reach our hotel. If we had understood our true proximity, we would have gotten out and walked. All the time in the car gave us the opportunity to watch the party. It appeared that everyone in Cusco had joined the party. It seemed like every street corner featured someone selling fireworks and the children were carrying sparklers with them as they went. People were drinking wine and buying Christmas Cakes. It defied anything we had ever seen before and everyone seemed to be truly having a grand time. We checked into the Hotel Monasterio. While it definitely looked like a monastery, it was actually once a seminary. The building was beautiful. The hotel also offered a feature like none other – for $100 per night, you could have oxygen pumped into your room. The elevation in Cusco is 11,000ft and the oxygen is meant to help with altitude sickness. Luckily for us, we were okay without it. We enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner in the hotel with a young couple from India. We first met each other while we boarded the train to Machu Picchu. As we predicted, they were on their honeymoon. It was a great evening and it was wild to hear about their wedding --- over 2000 guests and it lasted over 10 days!
We spent Christmas Day (our last full day in Peru) in Cusco, exploring an Inca site close to town– Saqsaywaman (pronounced close to “sexy woman” and thus it gets a nickname) followed by a walking tour around all of the churches and other impressive buildings in this city. For us, a defining feature of Cusco is the very narrow streets. The sidewalks are really wide enough for one person. The roads are wide enough for one car. Everything appears to be a one-way street. The roads are cobble-stoned and everywhere you look, you see building foundations built by the Incas with colonial additions.
And, in Peruvian travel style, we returned for one last night in Lima. Our Christmas Dinner was enjoyed at a fantastic Italian restaurant and we walked along the water back to our hotel. We came to Peru with undefined expectations and curiosity. We enjoyed our time in Peru and were enchanted by the place and the people. While the jungle was fantastic, it the mountains that will call us back again.
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