Machu Picchu

A quick note about the last post. We put up some pictures on Amy's facebook, so befriend her if you dare. Otherwise, this link might work:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=319170&id=667531677&l=ae3028f251

We've since been exploring the Sacred Valley (between Cusco and Machu Picchu) for the past several days. There has been good food and good hiking from the mountains to the valley with ruins littered along the way. I will make an effort to take more pictures of food since my skills as a food-writer are lacking. The only reason I haven't turned as plump as a pumpkin is that traveller's D is more common here than other Latin American countries (according to a fellow traveller).

Our first stop was Pisac, which had the best non-Machu Picchu hike. Apparently there's a booming craft market, but it wasn't really our thing. Although they did educate me on fake currency, when I unwittingly tried to dupe a vendor with a fake 5 sole coin (less than $2 CAD). She had a good cackle with her friends about how poor a forgery this coin was.

Next was Urubamba, most notable for its quietness. The hostel we stayed at was among the best, however. It was a giant garden, complete with cuy castillo (guinea pig pen) and a ping-pong table. Also, the best meat-dishes we've eaten Peru were at a restaurant in this city. Not much else going on, though.

The third city on our tour of the Sacred Valley was Ollantaytambo, which is apparently the most Inca-like city in the country. Of note were the cobblestone streets that were too narrow for cars and even mototaxis. A highlight for me was trying to rent a bike to tour around the city. The first place asked for $300 USD or my passport as a deposit. The second place gave me a bike with no collateral, payment, or information. Viva el Peru! The streets qualify as a bonafide mountain biking route in my book.

Our final stop, before returning to Cusco was the Machu Picchu's pit-stop: Aguas Calientes. We split a 4-bed room, which was a great way to meet people and practice our Spanish. To be honest, after seeing ruins all along the Sacred Valley and seeing the typical pictures of Machu Picchu, I thought it would be nice, but not as great as it's made out to be. It turns out that the pictures really don't do the place justice, and the ruins blow away the rest of the Inca sites we've seen. It's fun to explore the ruins and there are a few phenomenal hikes right around the site. This paragraph and the soon-to-be-posted facebook pictures aren't sufficient, but they'll have to do.

To avoid duplicated effort, I'm not posting any photos to this blog, you'll have to survive on facebook albums. Here's the public link for the Sacred Valley photos. We lost a few from Pisac (which included some well-timed, well-placed handstands):

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=321456&id=667531677&l=2a4ea72e12

We've just now arrived in Arequipa (bigger than Cusco, smaller than Lima) and we've heard nothing but good things. I'll let you know how it goes.

Arriving In South America

After nearly a full day of travel, we arrived at Lima airport at 10 pm. The plan was to sleep at the airport and catch a 6 am flight to Cusco with Peruvian Airlines.

I should point out that booking flights within Peru online is a small nightmare. After having done some research, I expected to pay somewhere around $50-70 for a domestic flight. It turns out that these fares are now only available to Peruvians and a hefty $180 foreigner-fee is applied if you can't show proof of Peruvian-ness. There are non-Peruvian fares ($350-ish), but they're typically higher than the Peruvian fare even after paying the foreigner-fee. Not to worry though, Peruvian Airlines offers a much more reasonable price of ~$100 with no strings attached.

Our flight was repeatedly delayed due to bad weather, which lasted about 3 hours when it was all said and done. Initially I was going to gripe about the Peruvian Airlines, but I think I was just sour over the unknown wait time and the rapidly spoken Spanish flight announcements that weren't repeated in English (PA was the only airline this was true for -- but maybe it's my own fault for being a gringo). After arriving in Cusco and having no bad experiences apart from the flight delay, I was in a cheerier mood.

[picture of our hotel]

We settled into a classy place that had been recommended to us. Since Cusco is higher than 3300m, altitude sickness, also known by the menacing Spanish name: serroche (sounds like ceviche), is a real concern. Being sensible, and generally less successful at sleeping on planes, Amy decided to nap. Being an idiot jubilant, I wandered the streets, running, jumping, plundering the hilly streets for its delicious treats. Guess who ended up succumbing to the dreaded air-thief, serroche?

Both of us!

Yes, the joys of nausea, headaches, and physical exhaustion belonged to both of us. Initially I caved and tried to get oxygen from the hotel staff, but they were closed. In the morning I felt a bit better and Amy hit the oxygen. In short: I'm the winner.

Today we opted for a humbler approach: massages, plenty of liquids, naps, and a blogpost.