Machu Picchu

(we felt this deserved it´s own post and lots of pics. )

So after 3 days trekking through the Sacred Valley we had finally arrived at Aguas Calientes, the doorstep of Machu Picchu, where we had to wait overnight in anticipation of the big day. Most people trash A.C. as a being a very crappy place that you want to spend as little time in as possible, but we felt that was going a bit far. It was definitely touristy and not worth more than a night, but there was nothing particularly trashy or unpleasant about it. Anyways, just wanted to set the record straight about A.C.

On Machu Picchu day we started at the weee hours of the day by getting up at 4:30am so that we could be fed and waiting in line for the bus to Machu Picchu by 5:30 and hence to the park at 6:00 when they open. A handful of the real crazies from our group decided to walk from A.C. to Machu Picchu, which is about 80 minutes mostly uphill and to be at the park by 6am means you set out in the dark. ewww. we didn´t do that. In any case, getting to the park by 6am for the opening was totally worth it because you get the beautiful morning views with fog rolling in and out around the mountains …

After spending a good 30 minutes or so up at the guardian tower where you get the best angle of the whole city we headed down to start our tour of the park. I wish I had some kind of really special information to give about the city, but the reality is that Machu Picchu really was just a city for the Incas. A special city for sure, but similar to other Inca cities in most respects aside from the grandeur of its location.

The most fascinating thing about Machu Picchu is its location, surrounded on all sides by massive peaks as well as the Urubamba river, it almost feels like you are at a city in the clouds. The term Machu Picchu actually means “old peak” and the city sits almost on a ridge or arm of the Machu Picchu mountain which extends out a little ways and connects over with Wayna Picchu which is “young peak”. The typical photos of the park are taken from the guardian tower which sits a little higher up Machu Picchu mountain and shows Wayna Picchu in the background (the really tall, narrow peak). It´s also quite startling how quickly and steeply the edge of the city falls off …

After doing a loop around the city in our tour we took a short break before heading off to the far end of the park to make an attempt to climb Wayna Picchu. This is probably the biggest highlight of the park aside from the main city site and it´s basically a 50 minute hike straight up via a narrow rock staircase …

It was a fair amount of work getting to the top, but totally worth it because the views are amazing. Not only do you get to have a birds eye view of the park and a better sense of scope of the city and the surrounding mountains, but if you try twisting your head side to side a bit you should somehow be able to see that the city is actually made somewhat in the shape of a condor (or so say the specialists) …

After a well deserved 30 minutes or so admiring the views from the top of Wayna Picchu we fumbled our way back down the mountain and made straight for the food shack. Lunch time =) At this point we quite sadly waved goodbye to the rest of our trekking group because everyone else had to catch the afternoon train back to Cusco while Chels and I had decided to take an extra night in A.C. so that we could have a full day in the park. So once we were properly rested we set off for Intipunku, the Sun Gate, which is the opposite side of the park from Wayna Picchu and represents the place on the Inca trail where you can first see the city. Along that walk in the early afternoon we got this nice photo of the park being sprinkled in sunlight …

The rest of the afternoon up to the Sun Gate and back was very quiet and peaceful as there weren´t many people in this part of the park at this time of day. So we strolled along (actually it was far more laborious than that considering we had been walking all day since 6am) and were able to enjoy a fairly peaceful afternoon just admiring this amazing place …

Then some time in the afternoon when we had relaxed just enough to be able to walk again we made our way out of the park and took the bus back down to Aguas Calientes. We very graciously took advantage of the 3 for 1 happy hour in A.C. that night and relaxed a bit before getting up the next morning to begin heading back to Cusco.

The Lares Trek

So after much anticipation and planning, we actually survived the trek and made it to Machu Picchu. As some of you may know, booking an Inca Trail tour can be a complicated task. There are tons of companies and mulitple routes to choose from, leaving travellers often confused and a little anxious about the adventure. Nonetheless after it´s all said and done, we think we chose the right trek for us and highly recommend it for anyone wanting to do a trek in the area.

After multiple reports from other travellers, books, and tour companies saying that the actual “Inca Trail” is not necessarily the best route to Machu Picchu because it´s overcrowded, somewhat tough terrain, and not the best local scenery, we we´re happy to go with the Lares Trek instead, which is an alternate route that passes through a different valley stopping to visit local Andean villages and mountain people. (Not to mention, if you want to do the “real” trail you have to book abt at least 4 months in advance).

We went in a group of 16 people with SAS Travel, which was good fun and our group really got along and had a blast together (you can tell best by the partying we did upon return to Cusco…). All the food was great, gear was good, leaders were good fun, etc.

Here´s the rundown of our route:
Day 1 – 2 1/2 hr hike in Totora Canyon with views of Vilcanota Mtn Range (3,700 to 4,200 mts.), lunch and hot springs in Lares, continued with 3hr hike to Huacahuasi (3,200 to 3,700 mts.). It started to rain 1/2 way through this section, so we arrived to camp wet and cold ready for hot drinks and biscuits. Rained all night making me a little grumpy (in the words of Allen), but certainly added a little spice and challenge to our trip.

Day 2 – Rain cleared by morning, but our clothes were still wet, so we had to put on the same rags hoping they would eventually dry out. We toured the house of a local family that we camped near and then continued climbing from camp to Ibsaycocha pass (4400 mts. – our highest point). It started hailing about 30 min before we reached the peak. The last portion was a challenging climb that made breathing a bit difficult, but was worth the effort. Stopped for lunch drenched and freezing. Continued hike for 2 1/2 hours back down to 3700 mts. where we reached our 2nd camp at Patacancha (thankfully it cleared up the last hour, so we were able to dry off and warm up). Rained again that night.

Day 3 – 5 hr hike to Ollantaytambo in the Sacred Valley. Thankfully, it didn´t rain. We visited a school in the mountains and handed out tons of pens to kids who popped up on the trail in the middle of nowhere. Took the train to Aguas Calientes (access point to Machu Picchu) and the group hit the hot springs and had some much needed showers and cocktails. Went to bed early for 4:30 am wake-up call…

Although a little chellenging due to the altitude and weather (we thought we were ahead of the rainy season, but apparently not!), this trek was highly rewarding. Eventhough I´m not the best hiker or mountaineer, it was definitely worth the effort to get to really experience the Andes and see how local people live in the mountains. We saw tons of alpacas and llamas, beautiful mountain scenery, and lots of traditional Andean people (dressed in native clothing – and not for the tourists as in Cusco!).

What really makes this region so interesting is the mountains, so doing a trek is one way to really immerse youself in the sites around Cusco and experience the region to its fullest, not to mention it´s a pretty good build up for Machu Picchu. Although it was a lot of walking and we had to bear some unpleasant conditions, the trek was definitely doable and I didn´t really feel exhausted until after we conquered Machu Picchu…

Lares Trek and Machu Picchu photos online

Okay kiddies, it’s what you’ve been waiting for. We’re back from our 4 day trek and Machu Picchu and the photos are online. Enjoy.

Some form of description will be coming soon, but first we need massages =)

Cusco

Sorry we´re falling a little behind here folks, but we´re too busy traveling to be writing…

Anyways, just to catch you up, we´ve been in Cusco for the last four days hanging out exploring the city and nearby ruins. We´d heard Cusco would be a real highlight from other travellers and they were right!!

There isn´t much more to say than this city is beautiful and you have to see it for yourself. The cobblestone streets and colonial architecture mixed with Inca ruins is just beautiful! Although it´s a bit touristy, there is lots of shopping, good cafes, interesting ruins, and fun streets to wander around. You can easily spend mutiple days here enjoying this gorgeous city while you aclimatize to the high altitude (11,000 feet).

Here is me buying some warm alpaca gear outside one of the ruins…yes, I now own this poncho!

Tomorrow we begin our 5 day adventure to Machu Picchu. We are doing a trek through the Lares valley, stopping to visit local Andean villages and Inca sites along the way. It should be an adventure because hiking at this altitude is no easy feat. We´ll see how we do, but I think we can hack it. Following our 3 day trek, we´ve booked 2 days in the ruins to fully enjoy them and all the hikes around.

Stay tuned for more news on whether we make it Machu Picchu in good health…

Trujillo, Huanchaco, and Chan Chan

The coast of northern Peru; Wow, what a difference a couple hundred Km can make. After a rather wearisome overnight bus trip from Ecuador we awoke to a rather baren desert landscape in northern Peru, a complete 180 from the day before. To be honest, it was a bit eerie driving through desert like that as there was very little to see yet somehow there were still people living out there. As I said briefly before, from Piura we had about 6 more hours of bus rides left to make it into Trujillo, all of it through a flat desert landscape. Luckily they were playing a rather nice copy of the Bourne Ultimatem (in spanish) as the movie so we didn´t have to stare out at the sand the whole time.

Once in Trujillo we actually decided to take the advice of some other travellers and stay about 25 mins outside the city in a smaller town on the beach called Huanchaco. The town was nice, but since it´s currently the off season for the south american coast line right now it was pretty empty. We spent a fairly relaxing afternoon cruising the town a bit before retiring early so that we could be set for a big next day.

On our second day in Trujillo we took a full day tour around the various historical sites which are the main attraction in the area and included most notably Chan Chan and the Huaca del Sol/Huaca de la Luna. Both of these sites mark the location of a pair of ancient cultures which used to inhabit the coastal valley where Trujillo is now back between 200 A.D. and 1470 A.D. leading up to the time when the Incas began their reign. The first site we hit was Huaca de la Luna which was a temple used by the Moche people back almost 2000 years ago. It needed quite a bit more excavation and restoration, but it was still interesting to see …

The most amusing thing about Huaca de la Luna was that it was a temple which had been regularly redesigned by building the new structure right over the old one. So after 6 renovations what was actually there was 6 temples piled on top of each other kind of like those Russian dolls. Again, the excavation was still pretty limited when we saw it, but supposedly they just got a big grant for more work, so in a few more years it should be a lot nicer.

Later in the day was the larger and even more interesting site of Chan Chan which was created by the Chimu people around 1300 A.D. and holds the titles of largest pre-Columbian city in the Americas and largest adobe city in the world. It used to house an astonishing 60K people at one point which in it´s time was believed to be one of the largest cities in the world, bigger even the largest cities in Europe at that time. Sadly since the city was adobe it was fairly thrashed over the last 600 years by weather and a very small portion remains …

So that´s what happened around Trujillo, kind of a warm up for Cusco and the Sacred Valley of the Incas really.

Ecuador Highlights and Tips

Now that we´ve officially departed Ecuador and are on our way through Peru, we wanted to share some of our advice from our 5 weeks there for any of you who are planning or hoping to visit Ecuador in the future…

Highlights in and around Quito:

• Simon Bolivar language school – Learning some Spanish will give you at least a clue about what´s going on around you. This school is well established, has great teachers and was just a ton of fun. We highly recommend it.
• Homestays – We loved our family and it was great for our Spanish. Everyone else we know also loved it. If you have the chance, its a great experience. Even if only for one week, its still worth it.
• Restaurants – Marabel and La Naranjilla Mechanica (just go, you´ll love them). We also tryed a restaurant named Sake for sushi and thought it wasn´t really worth it.
• Salsa! – They love it and it´s a huge part of the culture, so you have to go at least once or twice. Our favorite salsa club is Seserìbo, it´s cozy, friendly, and there are always some excellent Salsa dancers there for you to watch.
• Around the city – walk around the old town and visit La Compañia church and take a ride up the Telferiqo cable car for a great view of the city. The museums aren´t much to rave about, but Casa de Cultura has some interesting stuff on the development of Ecuador and you should definitely check out some Guayasamin paintings, they are great. At the end of the day there isn´t tons of stuff to do in Quito, so if you aren´t doing schooling then 2-3 days is sufficient.
• Around Quito – The mitad del mundo is fun if you´ve never been before, but skip the monument and just check out the museum. More importantly, if you have time, take trips to Mindo and Otavalo.
• Food and Drink – Canelaso, llapingachos and all the fruit juices (especially mora and guanabana). Yum!
• Thermal Baths – These are a real treat if you can make it to one. We did it in Baños, but its also possible in a town called Papallata closer to Quito.

Elsewhere in Ecuador:

• Cuenca – Frankly, we would send you here before Quito and for longer. This is really a beautiful town for strolling and admiring architecture. National Park Cajas is a great spot to get out there and see some unique mountain scenery while gasping for air in the freezing cold! There is an excellent bar/hostel called El Cafecito which is a good place to stay if you don´t mind a bit more noise and excitement, otherwise just come by for a drink and a snack one night. In the middle of the block next to El Cafecito there is a great Columbian restaurant called Moliendo Cafe. Great food and very cheap.
• Vilcabamba – If you make your way to Vilcabamba then Izcayluma is a very relaxing and accomodating place to stay. It´s probably the most full featured hostel we´ve been too and includes nice rooms, a good restaurant, bar with games such as pool and ping pong, a pool open 24hrs a day, and even some spa services.

Good things to know before you go…

• They say its a third-world country, but don´t be surprised that everywhere you go will have toilets and modern accomodations (hot running water is another story!)
• Eventhough its on the equator much of the sites are in the mountains and thus have a relatively cool climate so bring layers and plan to hit the coast “on season”
• Although tourism is growing here, they still don´t speak a lot of English, so learn some Spanish
• The shopping is not very good here. They mostly sell knock-offs and out-of-date American brand clothing, so if possible wait to buy clothes or bring what you need (If needed, Cuenca has the best selection, although the same prices as in the US). Electronics are another story. The cameras and other goods are pretty cheap here, so if you need one it´ll probably be cheaper.
• Bring a money checking pen and leave the $100 bills at home. They have a substantial counterfeit money business here, so everyone checks their bills (even the $5s). Unless you know the tricks for deciphering the difference, then coming prepared could be handy.
• The bus system is relatively convenient here, but the only catch is that they are often overcrowded. You can get a ticket with an assigned seat for most buses, but arrive to the station early and try to sit in a window seat. Locals board the bus for shorter rides throughout the journey and often crowd the aisles. Good public transportation for them, but can be uncomfortable for you.
• Expect to meet lots of Germans!!

That´s our topline summary of recommendations, but of course I am diligently tracking our travels, so if you´re planning a trip and want more details, just ask. You know we love to blab about this stuff. We have tons more info on places to stay and eat and things to do that we´d recommend. We also have friends here that would love to show you around if you´re up for it.

We hope you all make it to Ecuador one day and better yet if you return with us the next time we go!

Last days in Ecuador

k … time to catch you guys up.

After leaving Quito we headed directly south to Baños, a small and quiet town known mostly for its nice valley of waterfalls and its natural geothermal baths. We didn´t spend a whole lot of time here, just a night, but that was enough to enjoy some time in the baths and take a trip to visit all the neighboring waterfalls.

From Baños we continued on to Riobamba where we were *supposed* to take the devil´s nose train ride down to Alausí then continue on to Cuenca in the same day, however for no easily explicable reason the train didn´t run Wednesday morning and we didn´t want to wait until Friday to try again, so we ended up on a bus straight to Cuenca. This is a keen example of why the moto in Ecuador is “todo es posible, nada es seguro” which means everything is possible but nothing is for sure =)

Cuenca is referred to by many as Ecuador´s prettiest city and while we certainly haven´t been everywhere in Ecuador, so far we´d have to agree. The city is on the small side, only around 200k people, but it´s clean, reasonbly lively, and has a beautiful main area of town which features old colonial architecture, cobblestone streets, you know, the works. Not to mention some lovely churches and a nice river side area just below the main part of town …

Cuenca also has some nice attractions within distance of a day trip, such as the National Park Cajas which has some amazing scenery and a very unique ecosystem for it´s altitude of just over 13k feet in some places. It was amazing how much some of the scenery reminded me of the highlands in Scotland. Very rugged, very unique. Sorry dad, wish you could have been here to see it, you would have loved it.

After Cuenca we made one more short stop off in Vilcabamba, a sleeply little town even smaller than Baños but well known as a beautiful and relaxing valley which at one point was thought to have brought it´s inhabitants unusually long life. After a peaceful day and a half in Vilcabamba it was time to try our luck in another country.

Not a whole lot to say about Peru so far. We were on an overnight (a.k.a 8 hr) bus ride from Loja, Ecuador to Piura, Peru last night which we kindly followed up with two more 3 hr bus rides to get us to Trujillo where we´ll be hanging out for another day or so before heading toward Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu.

Well, that´s the news up until now. One country down, seven more to go =)

Travel Tip #23

(No, you haven´t missed the other 22, I just like picking random numbers =)

Big fat multi-country/full continent books suck and individual country/city books rock. When doing long trips involving long distances and lots of detinations you need as much info as possible and the “fatty” books as I like to call them really have pretty sparce info which doesn´t really help you decide what to do at all. So skip the big books and buy the smaller books on each individual country. Ideally keeping 2 at a time, one for your current country and one for your next country, then when you leave a country you can just sell/trade the old book and pick up a new one for your next destination.

Sometimes you learn the hard way.

Goodbye Quito

On Monday we finally left Quito after a fun-filled weekend in Mindo, a cloud forest 2 hours from Quito with good hiking, waterfall jumping, and tubing (like rafting, but with giant intertubes). It was a classic group outdoor trip, but extra fun with our 3 crazy Ecuadorian teachers joking and partying all weekend (not to mention hitting on all the young gringo girls). It was certainly a good send off from Quito.

On our last Friday in Quito we went out salsa dancing with our Ecuadorian parents which was a blast. Our parents although 10x more settled than us are only a few years older, so they like to party as much as we do. They are much better dancers than we are though, that´s for sure.

Funny story from that night: Fernando drives a really old manual VW Beetle and insisted on driving to the bar. Mistakenly, we tried to cross through a busy plaza and got stuck in traffic. While waiting, Fernando jumped out of the car and ran to a local market for beers. When he returned, we were still in the same spot, just sitting there without a driver, but thrilled to have beer to entertain us while we inched through the plaza. They do have drinking and driving laws in Ecuador, but its not a problem b/c you can just pay the cops…

All in all, leaving Quito was a bittersweet goodbye to our first month in South America. While we have to forge on to see more of the world, we are going to miss our family, friends and teachers there a lot. It was a great beginning to our adventure.

You know you´ve spent a day & night in Quito if…
1. The trendiest neighborhood in town is called ¨Gringolandia¨
2. Everything is ¨chevre¨ (cool)
3. You tried to buy native clothing, but couldn´t find anything but Abercrombie and Gap
4. You caught a bus on the side of a highway and jumped off while it was practically still moving
5. You for sure had white rice with every meal, but were fine with it b/c it only cost $2 for a huge plate of food
6. You got drunk off of canelazo (hot Ecuadorian drink made from local fruit, naranjilla, and rum)
7. Everyone in the salsa bar had rhythm, but you (although you tried your best)
8. In the morning you were ¨chuchaki¨ b/c high altitude + alcohol = killer headache
9. You just kept telling everyone you were ¨chuchaki¨ because you love the word so much…
10. The cold shower in the morning cured your hangover real fast!

Saquisili

Ack, already getting a bit behind on this thing. Anyways, lots of photos were just added to the photo group, so feel free to check them out.

So, last Thursday we actually had a nice little field trip and a total of 6 students and 4 teachers took a full day excursion out of Quito to a small town called Saquisili which is really only known for it´s large and very active market. They trade live animals in the morning until around 9 or 10 and the rest of the day it´s just about everything else including all other manner of food, clothing, furniture, etc, etc. everything.

It´s pretty interesting to see how people use these markets to buy so many things because the reality is that we really don´t have much of an equivalent in the US, kinda sad really. Anyways, what trip to the market would be complete without buying a couple of chickens right? Yep, one of the students on the trip actually had the somewhat silly idea to buy some live chickens and try and cook them somehow, so the teachers helped out and we bought all the proper ingredients to make “caldo de gallinas” for dinner that night.

I wish I had the pics from the night we made the soup because there are some pretty funny/amusing pics of me killing one of the chickens and all of us de-feathering them. It was my first time =) In any case the soup turned out great and it was a lot of fun because we had a big dinner with about 12 or 14 people. food, friends, music, ahhh.

Anyways, before we had actually returned to Quito and done all the work killing chickens for our soup we stopped off for a rather traditional yet unconventional Ecuadorian lunch of Cuy (guinea pig). The pic below shows how it looks and that´s only ordering a half plate! The interesting thing about eating Cuy is the curious combination of really fatty taste with the crispy texture of the skin, a truly unique experience. It wasn´t my favorite meal so far, but it was definitely worth the taste.

So that was our field trip to Saquisili =)