Peru

South America: Week Two

 

From Atlantic to Pacific: Rio to Lima. Sad to say goodbye to 2 friends, yet anxious to see another. A beautiful sunny day, Carmen retuned from a walk to the park (with wifi access...awesome lol)...and our reunion reminded us of meeting in the Vietnam airport in 2009. The best part about this trip to Peru, was that it was a pact to see Machu Picchu before we turned 30.  We were successful in this goal by a few months, and yet somehow our curiously is still roaming as we're planning the edge walk around the CN tower come summer. But before the story of seeing the brilliant ancient ruins, we had a lot of fun coming our way. A walk around Miraflores in Lima led us both to an unexpected discovery that Lima had parts for the rich and famous to enjoy. We stumbled upon a beautiful outdoor mall, overlooking the ocean and felt a little underdressed in our tanks and shorts. We aimlessly header toward another part of the district, and were approached by some surfer dude, asking us if we wanted to take lessons. A tad skeptical, we quickly realized that you cannot 'fake' being a surfer. They have a look, and a vibe, and we decided to check out his deal. Turns out he was legit, and his posse took pics for us. We surfed for about an hour and had a blast!! It took a couple times before we were successful, but eventually got the hang (ten). Tired and saltwater logged, we headed back to our sweet hotel to shower up before hitting El Centro, the centre square. We felt here a bit more of a need to clutch our purses, but mostly because there were hordes of people around the centre square and shopping area. We reached what we think was a government building and there were loads of cameras and heaps of people around, but no one seemed disgruntled. After a broken Spanglish convo and running into some American folk...we found out that it was an Election Day for the mayor, which meant a dry weekend as voting is mandatory. We then had to save our St Patrick's day drink for the following days in Cusco.  Day two, back on a plane to Cusco, the more cultural city, nestled in the Andes. With flying to Cusco comes a high altitude and we had to drink lots of coco tea and water to combat sickness. Cusco is just plain cute. It's touristy, combined with culture; like Incan people dressed in their colourful clothes, walking around with their llamas (pic for a small price), and selling alpaca scarves and sweaters on every corner. The mix of Spanish and Incan architecture was stunning and we enjoyed the food too (Ill get to that) :)

We felt slightly hung over and stunned waking up the first morning in Cusco...sans any alcohol, we knew we'd been cursed with the altitude. But we rallied and chewed some coco leaves (uck)...they are the plant that is used to make cocaine, but obviously not a narcotic in it's raw form. Nonetheless, tasted bad but was good for us. Rafting, class 4 rapids ... Heck yes! This is how we spent our day, with basically the UN in our rafts. Spanish/Peruvian guides, Brazilians, Scottish, Aussie, Americans, English and us Canucks. Getting the right, left, forward, back down in a couple languages, we finally started responding to all languages lol. The rapids were strong, as it's the end of rainy season, but we did great! I've now tested my white water rafting skills on 4 continents and hope to add to that list eventually :) We stopped half way through to play a random rafting version on dizzy bat, that being dizzy paddle. Then we ran to the river bank and had to circle around a paddle in the ground. Well, I guess Carmen and I were too successful, because they playfully pushed us in when we we were dizzied up, then rescued us with a rope lol. Buggers. The group of guides were a riot, and constantly taking the piss out of each other by calling each other names and making fun. Youthful at heart, but years of experience on the river, it made for a lighthearted day. Post cool water, we hit the sauna...hot, hot, hot and then a warm meal of quinoa soup and chicken/veggies. A bonus feature, we also zip lined across the river a few times before the storm struck.  A quieter ride home, we settled on 'treating' ourselves to the national delicacy ... Drum roll... Our favourite childhood pet, the guinea pig aka cuy. Nothing like little Pisco sour to buzz us up a bit before embarking on the first (and only) rodent cuisine. A Pisco sour is their drink...Pisco, a 42% Brandy, mixed with lemons ... Was strong and just what we needed to cut up the little fella with the tomato toque. He actually tasted a bit like chicken, and hey, it's a meal the Peruvians eat during special occasions ... And our dirty 30s trip was just that. Day 4, off to the country side in the Andes, we drove higher and higher along switchback roads.  We learned a lot from our guide on the drive .. Asking loads of Q about life in Peru (anyone who knows Carmen or I, would not be surprised). After learning that I was a teacher, we made a special stop to a rural school and visited a grade 3 class who spoke Ketchwa language, and were in the midst of copying Spanish words into their notebooks. They were pretty shy at the beginning of our unexpected visit, but when our guide explained that we were from Canada visiting, they broke out into applause. It was priceless. Next we visited this agricultural field that was arranged in terraces and was quite deep below in the ground. It was used by the Incans to test various crops, before planting them in fields.  Next we went to these salt terraces in the Sacred Valley that were created because of the saline river (42%) that runs through the valley. They created these small pools for the salt water to run into, and during dry season the water evaporates, leaving lots of salt behind to be extracted. Finally the day(s) we'd been anticipating.  Inka Trail to Machu Picchu.  We suited up in hiking gear and took Peru Rail to km 104 to hike with our guide, Fredy to MP. We did 2 days vs the 4 day hike, which was a nice mix of hiking combined with Q time at the ancient site. We had a mix of weather over the 2 days. Sun, clouds, rain..but that was to be expected. We were totally, 110% awestruck as we approached MP. Jumping for joy (literally during jump shots pics),  we high fived, hugged, took a moment to be thankful, took many -- too many-- pics and all of the planes, trains and hiking it took to get there was worth it. After day 1 of 2 at MP, we hit up the hot springs and a dinner w our guide and his friend, Freddy 2. Our hotel was cool bc our balcony faced the swiftly running river, but we didn't need the white noise to fall asleep bc 5 am came early. We set off to hike some more to the sun gate (this time in clouds and drizzle). We stopped to make an offering to the sun gods with 3 coco leaves. We got to make 3 wishes and then had to blow on the coco leaves, bury them, put a drop of Pisco on them and then take a swig of Pisco. Hopefully they come true! Later on we walked through the ruins and learned about the different rooms, the astronomical and sun dials and walked alongside llamas and chinchillas! Carmen and I had a couple hours on our own to explore and we spent it hiking to the inca bridge, built dangerously on the side of a mountain. And then we sat, staring and loving our every moment of life. We also got a kick out of watching people perfect the infamous MP pic and jump shots (while realizing we were likely the butt of jokes the day previous during our photo shoot).

Ahh...satisfied and sleepy, we boarded the train back to Cusco where we spent our final night in Midore Hotel (our fave new home).  Reluctantly we said goodbye to coco tea, church bells at 4 am bc of Lent (grrr lol), llamas, inca cola and cobblestone roads and headed for beloved home. A fantastic vacation, with fantastic people...while I was still happy to return home to family and friends. 

Buenos Noches