October 9, 2024 - Lima, Peru to Fort Collins, Colorado

Today was another LONG travel day. Up at 6:00 am, breakfast, and everything was packed by 7:45. Our driver and guide picked us up and we made our way to the airport. 

The traffic in Lima is horrible! There is no way either of us would want to drive here. While there may be two or three lanes marked on the roads, cars form five lines and merge in while motorcycles weave in and out of traffic. The cars and busses are so close together, you could reach across and shake hands with someone in the next vehicle with barely stretching out your hand! Thanks to our good driver, we arrived safely at the airport and once checked in, our guide walked us to the security check point which does not offer TSA precheck. If you are over 65 in Peru, you can  get in the "priority" boarding line which boards ahead of all the boarding groups.

We found our gate then went to the Priority Club lounge to grab a snack and drink and charge our phones. We were both a little concerned about Hurricane Milton, but we had a smooth flight to Atlanta, then a 3-hour flight to Denver, finally arriving at midnight. Bags collected, we took the shuttle to the car, and made our way home utilizing the toll road. By 1:30 am we were in bed and thankful to be home.

Now it's time to start thinking of the next adventure.

October 8, 2024 - Urubamba to Lima, Peru

Today is our last full day in Peru and we started off with our departure from Urbamba at 7:30am with our drive back to Cusco to catch a plane to Lima. This was a statue at the turnoff to our hotel. Corn is one of the major agricultural products in Peru and we saw lots of places selling corn on the cob (and the kernels are huge!).

Sights along our two hour drive.

Llamas

More terraces up on the hill

Back in Lima

After our 1-1/2 hour flight, collecting luggage, and herding 18 people to the bus, we finally arrived back at our hotel at 2:30 this afternoon!

Tobey took off for a massage and I took a walk and did a little shopping. I ran into one of the couples on our tour and they were lost in search of the Indian Market where I had just been so Googlemaps and I helped them find their way!

We had our farewell dinner tonight at Restaurant Pucllana right next to the Huaca Pucllana Archaeological site we visited on our first day in Lima. The food was great and we had a fun time visiting with folks on our last night here. The view at night was beautiful!

Our time in Peru has been interesting and we have enjoyed all the sights we have seen. Neither of us are sure we're cut out for tours, but it's often the best way to see a place. Driving here is crazy and for the most part, the roads are not very good, so having someone else take care of that was good. One of the things that neither of us got used to is how heavy the hotel blankets are and how hot the rooms are. (air conditioning is not a thing here!) 

Tomorrow we have a LONG travel day - leaving the hotel at 8:00 am and scheduled to arrive back in Denver about midnight. We fly through Atlanta, so we are hoping Hurricane Milton does not disrupt that part of the trip! We are both looking forward to sleeping in our own bed, but then it will be time to start thinking of the next adventure!

October 7, 2024 - Machu Picchu, Peru

Today was the day ... Machu Picchu!

We were up before 5am and on the bus from our hotel to the train station in Ollantaytambo about an hour from our hotel by 6:15.
We were on the RailPeru Vista Dome train and it was quite nice!

We had beautiful views all along the Urubamba River.
That is our tour guide, Washington, standing next to Tobey. We were served snack boxes and tea, and had live entertainment on board!
There were musicians and some unusual dancers in the last car of the train.
Once the train arrived at Aguas Caliente, or Machu Picchu Village, we had to wait to board a shuttle bus to the actual entrance to Machu Picchu and what an experience that was!
We had the 10:00am boarding and walked up that hill with the line of people and waited, and waited, and waited - almost an hour before we were on the 30 minute bus ride to the entrance.

A view of the town.

FINALLY, we arrived! First a brief history of Machu Picchu, then lots of pictures.

Machu Picchu is a 15th Century Inca citadel located in the Eastern Cordillera of Peru's Andes Mountains. It is on a ridge at 7970 feet and believed to be occupied from around 1420 to 1530AD. It is renowned for its sophisticated dry stone walls that fuse huge blocks without the use of mortar. The buildings have astronomical alignments and panoramic views. Machu Picchu is an iconic symbol of the Inca Empire's architechtural and engineering prowess and features a sophisticated water managment system and terraced fields. Often referred to as the "Lost City of the Incas", it was brought to international attention by a United States professor, Hiram Bingham in 1911. Why wasn't this site destroyed by the Spanish when they arrived in Peru? Because it was a royal estate, many Incas may have not have known about it and because of that, the Spaniards had likely never heard of it either.

It is located in the cloud forest and we started off with a bit of overcast skies, which turned sunny! It rains over 200 days a year here, but we were lucky - no rain! We were warned about mosquitos, but got lucky there, too. No bites! We did get a little sunburned, but not bad.

About 2,500 people visit Machu Picchu every day! We were on a 3 hour tour, while many others only get a 45 minute tour. We hiked up and up and up, often stopping to let other groups go by.

This is the iconic view that most folks think of when they hear Machu Picchu.


From this position, we turned and looked up at the "caretaker's house" and saw a couple of llamas hanging out.

We wondered what the bright green tarp was in our view. Apparently, they used to allow helicoptors to land in that area. There was a huge monolith that they moved for that purpose and now they are replacing it in its original position.

If you look at the V in the picture below you can see where the folks that hike the Inca Trail come out and get their first good look at Machu Picchu.

There were terraced fields here, too.

Several of the structures on the right were used for housing.
The structure below has a huge altar in the front.

This is near the alter area with the three windows looking to the west.
There are stairs, stairs and more stairs.
All too soon it was time to leave and head back to catch our bus back to Machu Picchu Village. Again, we had to wait almost 45 minutes to have an empty bus. We had about 20 minutes to shop before catching the train again. We had dancing again, but this time it was the female dancer and she picked Tobey as her partner. See video here:  https://youtube.com/shorts/sVg-mZuRbPI?feature=share

The attendants served snacks and tea again, then treated us to a fashion show as we made our way back UP the mountain to town to catch our bus back to the hotel. The picture below shows where the train stops to let "trekers" off and the start the 4-day Inca Trail hike. I think I am too old to give that a try, but definitely wish we could have done it when we were younger!

We finally arrived back at our hotel about 6:45 - more than 12 hours after leaving this morning. We ordered a pizza to share from the hotel bar and are calling it a day. Tomorrow we have another early day leaving the hotel at 7:30 heading to the airport in Cusco for a flight to Lima. There has been so much packed into this trip, it's hard to remember everything!

October 6, 2024 - Cusco to Urubamba, Peru

This morning we were on our from Cusco about 8:30. As we headed out of the city we climbed the hills and saw street after street with this sidewalks making their way upward. I would hate to leave in the morning and realize halfway down the hill that I forgot something at home and had to go back!


We stopped at one of the roadside stands and our guide, Washington, bought a loaf of "chuta" bread for us to sample. Chuta is usually eaten on Sundays or is given as a "hostess gift" when visiting someone. The consistency reminded us of raisin bread, but it has chocolate in it, too, and is seasoned with raisins and sometimes chocolate chips. I liked it!

Further down the road we stopped for pictures of the mountains. Cusco's elevation is 11,150 feet and we are heading to the Sacred Valley. Out hotel tonight in Urubamba is at 9,420 feet!


We had beautiful panaramic views as we made our way to Chinchero (back to 12,150 feet) where we had our first tour stop. It is located in the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The square once held an Inca palace. Today, following the traditions of the people here, the people carried out the local market and wore typical clothing of their ancestors.

From our bus stop, we climbed a series of stairs to reach the square and church.


We lucked into a celebration of the people in the area. The men had sceptors and some carried conch shells which they blew during the procession. There were drummers, too.

The women followed behind carrying offereings in the packs.

This was part of the music and marching: https://youtu.be/2XkoLL2jcUo

They marched from the large church to this smaller chapel.
We were lucky to see this!

We continued on to visit another part of the community where we watched a silver making demonstration and had a chance to shop. We then had a traditional lunch - with the special Peruvian food, baked cuy. What is cuy? WELL, it's baked guinea pig. In the Peruvian culture, cuy is a symbol of prosperity and good luck. During special occasions and festivals, families often serve roasted or fried guinea pig as a sign of abundance and good fortune. This is the oven our meat was cooked in.

Here it the fancy presentation:

Clockwise below: chicken, corn, beans, corn tortilla, stuffed pepper, cuy, squash, and corn.

What did the cuy taste like? Well, kind of a cross between duck and rabbit. It has lots of little bones.

This is the family that cooked and served our meal.

After lunch, the women gave us a weaving demonstration. Next to the weaving area was the "cuy hotel."


Washington modeled some of the typical clothing worn by the people in this area. All of these were woven by this family.

The red dye is made from a fungus that grows on a cactus.

All the wools, whether from alpaca, llama, or sheep, are dyed with natural products.

Weaving

It was interesting and the local community makes all of the clothing they wear. We continued our journey to Ollantaytambo after saying goodbye.

Ollantaytambo is one of the most important towns in the Sacred Valley of the Incas in Cusco. It is the only place that preserves its ancient Inca urban design. It is the only Inca town that is still inhabited. Its stone streets preserve the Inca architecture combined with colonial temples and squares. Its believed it was constructed between 1438-1471AD.

The split in the walkways was part of the Inca irrigation system and still carries water today.

We visited the archeological site and it was HUGE. We split into two groups - the Condors and the Pumas. We were Condors, meaning we climbed the 400 stairs to the top of part of the sight where the Temple of the Sun is located. The Pumas walked around the ground level parts of the site. It was very croweded when we arrived!
This was looking back when we finished the walk.


Our guide, Luis, was pointing to 20 miles away where the rock was brought from to build this site!
The Temple of the Sun is the HUGE blocks of flat granite in the picture below. It was never completed.

This rose granite rocks weigh up to 120 TONS!

Looking back down to the lower level of the site.

We passed through a doorway on our way up.

Looking across the valley you can see two storehouses built high up the mountain. There is also a face carved into the rock. There are hikes that go up there, but we didn't have the time to do that!

While going up the hill was difficult because it was steep, coming down was worse! Most the way didn't have handrails and we were walking on stone steps, but we made it!

Children from the community

We arrived back to the town square and our bus drove us about 30 minutes to our hotel in Urubamba where we spend two nights. Our room tonight is HUGE, and pretty fancy.

We weren't too hungry so we shared a burger and fries for dinner tonight. Tomorrow morning is another EARLY wakeup - 5:00 am. It will be worth it because we head to Machu Picchu, so good night!