Now this is going to be the fun one!!!
I have a ton of pictures and I'll overwhelm myself trying to pick the best ones...but I'll try to pick some to illustrate all the fun we had. When I think of all the things we did I guess in words it could be summed up pretty quickly, however the inside jokes that were created, the culture we experienced, bonding that occurred, the new friends that were acquired the list really goes on and on and that it hard to capture in a recap of the trip.
In an attempt to take the pressure of doing justice our amazing time, I will just make this a log of the activities we did, recommendations I have and punctuate every line with a "You should really see for yourself!" because it's almost a guaranteed good time.
I guess I can start off with
Lima. We stayed in Miraflores and I would definitely recommend that area.
It was a neighborhood made up of small streets quaint little stores and pretty easy to maneuver. We were in walking distance to the Malecon Mall (not the official name lol) that was a shopping center that overlooked the ocean! Preeettyyy amazing.
We went there several times during our visit and we were only there a couple of days.
Our first night we had dinner there and watched the sun set on the water. We went to a place called CafeCafe. The food was pretty good, I think, but considering it was my first meal after a two day bus ride, my delicate pallet's taste may not have been as discriminatory.
We DID make it for happy hour and their drinks were excellent. I wish we could have gone back from one more. Another place we stopped by in Miraflores was "The Corner Sports Bar" which was pretty much a magnet for
extranjeros because they show baseball and basketball and even football all the time.
We made some friends there as well, so if you're ever in that area and your feeling down on your Spanish, I think if you swooped through there you'd make a buddy or two.
We went downtown in attempt to go to the museum but it was closed by the time we got there. We did however find another mall that was attached to the Sheraton. It was this strange underground outside mall that was pretty cool. We ate there twice, but the two places we went weren't anything to write home about, so the names escape me. We went to this one "pizza" place that was a nightmare for dining but seemed like it turns into a happening salsa club, so check that out for some nightlife!
The one Lima mention that cannot be forgotten is the
restaurant Alfrescos, direccion Santa Luisa 295, San Isidro. We went to this place twice and it was AMAZING. Both times we went we received free drinks! Bonus! The first time we went upon the recommendation of our wonderful hotel El Ducado, we also received free drink vouchers were we got to enjoy the drink of Peru a Pisco Sour! Whoooo we, we got a sample of that and were ordering them everywhere we went. Delicious! The second time we went, I'm not even really sure why...as a desert drink we got Chocolate Pisco Sours on the house after we had paid our bill.
The service at Alfresco is out of this world amazing. The atmosphere manages to be somewhat formal feeling but free at the same time. We also ate great gourmet cuisine for great prices. Alfresco is my kind of restaurant for sure.
Next stop
Cuzco (or Cusco)
After leaving the big city of Lima I was more than delighted to arrive into the quaint ciudad of Cuzco. It has a small town feel complete with cobblestone streets.
We were welcomed with a
desfile, or parade, that was celebrating the traditional dances of the area but it seemed like it was just for us :)
We got to see a church that now is a University and a Library. Our guide was speking in Spanish of course,I believe he said the place used to be a holding area for prisoners and even THE Tupac Amaru stayed there. It was all in Spanish and he was going a mile a minute.
We walked around the lovely downtown area which was delightful. They have small shops of everything and I only wish we had more time to explore. Definitely if you have time go to downtown area and don't leave a corner unturned. Later we heard about chocolate shops we missed and some great food we skipped over too. Apparently there is a chocolate shop that has THE BEST hot chocolate. Oh well, next time Cuzco!
We also went to the
mercado which I was excited to find. It was finally something
that looked like something I was used to and not so touristy. In the center people are selling food, cuts of meat,
batidos,
almuerzos etc. on the perimeter people are selling their alpaca wares, shalls, sweaters, scarves, all things alpaca. SO many rich colors! It was just beautiful. My sweetie bought me an alpaca shirt that will be great for my trips to Quito.
For me a huge highlight of the trip was just hanging out at Niños Hostel. They had a super cute cafe with surprisingly delicious food. We hung out, played cards, listened to music and conversed with the staff. The environment there is like none other. Hotel Niños is SUCH A special place. It's more than just a place to lay your head, it's a foundation. You have to do yourself a favor and look it up
here. But basically Niños Hotel uses the money from the hostal the children in Cuzco . They provide the children with a place to stay, hot showers, food, work with homework, support on their projects and the list goes on. It's an AMAZING Project and an Amazing place. Everyone wins in the situation. You get a cute place to stay with great service and even delicious cafe you don't have to leave the grounds to enjoy AND The children of Cuzco benefit from your contribution. What could be better!!?
After spending the night there we got up bright and early to catch the train to Agua Calientes. Due to the rainy season we actually had to take a van to the train, but the train company PeruRail handled all of those changes and it was a really seamless transition. The drive to the train was Beautiful. The crew slept, but I couldn't peel my eyes away from the sprawling landscape. It was so beautiful the whole way. When we get to the train station we had bit of a wait until ours came. The train was nice and smooth and again another Beautiful ride.
The river runs along the train, there are waterfalls from time to time and the green mountains peak and valley as the train trudges on. I love it. We got a snack on the train as well. We had been drinking our
Mate de Coco since Cuzco to help us adjust to the altitude.
The Mate de Coca is a tea that they make out of the Coca leaves... You might be thinking Coca as in... Cocaine? Yep...Same stuff. The thing is there it's not illegal. I think only in the states are the ones trying to make it illegal.(or it totally is not sure...we didn't take our chances) People were chewing it for strong effects or for us, to adjust we were drinking the tea, which was just the leaves in hot water. Delish! The locals feel Strongly opposed to the attitude that Coca is a drug because for them it's part of the history and culture. The wise men in the mountains can read the leaves and predict the future. I had woman from Washing gave me a first hand account.
A girl in my group had bought some leaves
para llevar (to go) but everyone abandoned the idea i.e. threw them away, when we realized not every border and country has the same views as Machu Picchu and Agua Calientes.
Once we got off the train we were finally in MACHU PICCHU!!! The Main Event!! Now this is the part that I have few words I feel but so much happened.
We get there get our hostal and first thing we want is some gruuub! The people on the street totally bark at you to come to their place. We finally caved for a place that offered free guacamole. Big mistake. The food was awful and expensive. I loathe tourist traps! They claimed to have Mexican food. We thought that was strange, we should have all followed our first instinct.
That ick experience just made a later experience so much better, so it is what it is. We then go to buy our tickets to Machu Picchu. The entrance fee to MP is about 130 soles which is about $50 there was a student option that was considerably cheaper, so I'd say if you're a student get that national student card to prove it. You have to pay in soles, no credit cards allowed. We then went and bought our $15 ticket to ride up to the Lost City. I thought $15 was a LOT to pay...but when you're the only ones providing the service 'tis your right I suppose. We only had a few hours and it was a debate whether we should pay the money to go MP that day. We are all glad that we did...
We were able to behold the lost city and all of it's glory. We saw Llamas and chinchillas and even a RAINBOW! It was incredible. We ran up stairs and felt like we were goin to pass out. Once the initial awe semi wore off (because let's be honest I'm STILL in awe) I noticed that people were on tours with guides.
I had heard about guides which I quickly scoffed at. However, as I snapped shots of the amazing house like structures and seeming to be altars, I wanted to know the history. I was becoming aware that this rock was maybe more than just a rock. I told the group that day 2 I want to get a guide so that
we can really get the scoop on this Lost City. To extend our adventure we decided to take the "stairs" we had heard about back down to Agua Calientes. The part closes at 5:00 I'll say 5ish...sometimes.
We had arrived at around 3ish. So we gallantly take to the stairs. I guess when people said stairs I envisioned a pretty straight forward staircase. No sir. It was a rocky windy descent
through a leafy woodsy canopy forest. It was fun at first though, very adventurous. However, when the sun started going down and the descent seemed endless we all started to worry. We were an hour into our adventure but still not to Agua Calientes. We finally reached a road indicating our journey had ended, but that's where we were wrong. We still had a bit of a hike up the road, and by this time shadows are turning into people and people into shadows and all I can say is that I was happy we were 4 deep. WE FINALLY made it to Agua Calientes well after dark.
So my advice. Totally take the stairs up or down. Give yourself an hour or more, just what I wouldn't recommend is doing it right before sundown!
Day 2 we get up at what, 4:00 am to be one of the first in line for Huana Picchu or Waynapicchu. The hostel provided us with wake up call and breakfast which was really sweet. We also had packed our bags the night before with cheese, bread, jam, crackers, carmel and granola bars since we were going to be there ALL Day. When we went outside and got in line at around 5:00 (we left later than we had anticipated) The line was already all the way up the hill, DRAT! The thing about Huana Picch is this: Only 400 people can go up a day. 200 in the morning at 7:00 am and 200 later on at 10:00 am. To even have a shot at going up you have to be in the first 400 people. So I heard in the past it wasn't a big deal but now people start camping out as early as 4:00 am to be in line for the first bus that leaves at 5:30 to ascend the mountain to Machu Picchu. From there you have to sign up and say which time you would like to do.
So when we approached the line we were trying to count and see if we had made it, there was no tell though. We HAD gotten our tickets the day before (round trip this time up and down the mountain no more walking down for us), while some people had to wait for the ticket office to open, so that was a score. When the buses finally started running we held our breaths and went up to the Inca City. The lines had already formed and we totally forgot to consider that people staying at Sanctuary Lodge, the only Hotel up at Machu Picchu, might also be wanting to go to Huayna Picchu (also spelled WaynaPicchu) . Double boo. Well we kept faith alive and waited in line and sure enough WE GOT A SPOT!
10:00 am just what we wanted. A little birdie at our hostal told us that you want the later time because by then the fog would have had a chance to clear. Great advice.
We got our stamp to go to Huayna Picchu and then we realized we had a lot of time to kill. It was raining at this point so we camped out under some umbrellas and had some coffee, hot chocolate and egg croissant sandwiches. Finally the rain slowed up and we're like, we might as well do the Inca City again. As we get up a man approaches saying he'd guide us on a tour. We were really hard about the price and we finally got a really good deal. Man I can't remember how much it was though. I think he was originally asking for 20 soles but we wouldn't budge for more than 10, he finally agreed and off we went. Um, turns out this guy was the truth and wonderful at his job! We thought it was just a hustle are on, but our guide was the real deal. Just as I suspected a guided tour really added dimension to our preview from the day before.
Sure enough the rocks we had seen turn out to be alters, sacred rooms, sun and moon mirrors, sun dials, condor rocks, sun gates the list goes on. You have to go. You don't HAVE to have a guide, but I will say it really enriched our experience. We told our friends our guides name and told them don't let them up the price but it turns out we got a REALLY special deal and they wouldn't able to swing it. Finally our time came to ascend Huana Picchu!!!
Now this I REALLY can't describe but was definitely a highlight of the trip. We laughed, we sang, we gasped for air, we stopped and rested, we booty scooted the steep parts and scaled the wall at other parts, did the electric slide hundreds of feet up, it was THE BEST TIME!!!
We had a feast on the mountain and photo shoots galore. When we saw how high we were none of us could believe. A lot of people were passing us but for us we were in it for the fun not the race so I would say no matter what your fear level and physical level I think you can do it. Just pace yourself going up and down. TOTALLY worth it though.
One we finally got back down we just sat and reflected and recapped the awesome time we had. It was so surreal.
Climbing a mountain is always a metaphor for life and it's challenges and we definitely felt like we had accomplished something huge. The sun was shining the wind was blowing and we literally had just be sitting on top of the world. It was a special moment for us.
Another bonus was that night we discovered this upstairs market of food that was AMAZING. It was the local people cooking the local food at the local prices and the food was out of control delicious. We had some fried fish that knocked our socks off and fresh fruit batidos to go with it. We were through the roof overjoyed to have found that place and I don't think we would have been as appreciative had we not had that awful food the day before. If you ask were the fresh food market is go there and the GO UPSTAIRS to the second floor and viola. We ALMOST missed out and though we couldn't find it, but my sleuthy sweetie figured it out.
The next day we went our separate ways due to different train tickets. The girls left bright and early to head back to Cuzco and my sweetie and I went Back to Machu Picchu to SUMMIT the actually Machu Picchu mountain and to check out the Inca Briddge we had heard about. Our train didn't leave until the evening so we had all day to explore.
We bought a map this time (worthless) trying to figure out where the Machu Picchu mountain was. Here's the thing. We entered the Inca City and everyone would be talking about "going to Machu Picchu" and I was like "aren't we at MP now!?" well actually the ruins are known as the Inca CIty or now it has been officially named Machu Picchu city and Machu Picchu is actually the mountain. Once we heard that we decided we HAD to climb it just off principle!
As I said the map didn't really help but we found the entrance to climb Machu Picchu anyway. We passed some llamas grazing just to set the tone I suppose.
It was a foggy day, it had rained that morning and we were hoping that it would clear by the time we reached the summit. When we signed in we saw we were 10th on the list, versus being number 222 at Huayna Picchu. Okay so not the popular choice of the day... Our guide from the day before had put it into our heads that "Machu Picchu is flat" Um, lost in translation, there is nothing FLAT About this mountain. It's a steep ascent that only gets steeper and steeper! It was beautiful though. I definitely felt more winded this day and I'm not sure if it was just me being exhausted from days before or if MP is just that high up. It took us as long to go up as it did down, which was about an hour and a half. Again, I'm at a loss for words when it comes to describing the majesty that is the climb of Machu Picchu. All I can say is that I recommend it. When you reach the top there is a little hut and seats for one to bask in all of their glory of such a great feat.
As I said going down took just as much calculation as going up...but that could be because it started raining. I'll say this the lack of sun going up was a blessing and the view was still nice, albeit foggy at times and the rain coming down actually wasn't that bad. It was kind of magical in a sense. I didn't mind it. Once we made it out of the canopy and out into the open though we got pretty drenched, and then we got cold and then it got a bit uncomfortable.
We had checked out of our hotel but the lovely people at the hostel allowed us to keep our bags behind the desk while we enjoyed the day. We didn't want to be high maintenance but were desperate to get out of those drenched clothes. They kindly let us change in the kitchen which was hilarious but oh so sweet! Shout out to Hostal Varayoc!
We change ate at that fabulous market again and headed to our train. It was a great journey back, long but great. The train ride was okay,
but waiting for a van to take us back to Cuzco due to the rainy season issue as a bit daunting. We got back around midnight with all of our bags and no one was answering the door of our hostal. Now I knew my girls were waiting for us to come back so we started getting worried. We had phones to call each other and everything but nada. No one was answering the phone and no one was answering the door. FINALLY the man we came to know as Fernando answered the door flustered saying something ins Spanish about my friends were the reason why he didn't hear the doorbell.
Upon entering the cafe of Niños Hotel I figured out why. It was like it was a surprise party just for us! There were drinks, a fire and good friends gathered around. It was a great end of a long journey. We stayed up all night talking and laughing. It was such a great moment looking around at my friends both old and new and soaking in the moment of how lucky I am, how lucky we are all are. It felt like the finale of the trip but it was a great way to go out. Fernando who worked at Niños was SO accommodating and sweet. Later we reflected on how much noise we must have been making and just hope he is still working there!
We finally said our good nights, not before exchanging Facebook information of course, and headed to bed... or so we thought. We had our wet clothes hanging up everywhere the girls had their stuff out from being there all day. We had quite the packing task ahead of us and we needed to be leaving the hostal at 6:00 am! So we pretty much took naps on and off and packed for those couple of hours we had in between the ending of our party and catching our flight.
We ended up making our wake up call, pre ordered taxi and our flight to Lima.
Once back in Lima we bought our tickets to head back to Guayaquil. The only bus back was leaving at 8:30 pm so we had a whole day to kill. No worries we headed back to the beach front mall and actually ended up going to the beach, it was lovely.
The bus ride back was eternally long. There was traffic leaving Lima, our bus kept stopping but we finally made it to Guayaquil, after that we had to hustle to get tickets back to Atacames but once we made it we had arrived and couldn't be more pleased. What seemed like the end of an epic trip only was accented by an encore experience of spending the most perfect day at Atacames beach. Only my friend Crystal has those pics and I don't know when I'll have those, so you'll have to take my word for it.
All in all, life changing trip.
For more specifics travel and lodging check out this
post.
P.S. WE TOTALLY went to the Hot Springs too, that's why it's called Agua Calientes!! We went at night and they were open until 8 or 9 at night. I completely forgot to add that...sigh...Good times :)
P.P.S I couldn't wait till Sunday to Post this!
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