Keeping up with my blog has been a bit more of a chore than I realised. More due to the fact that we've been pretty tired but enjoying every moment of our holiday.
Last week saw us take two flights, one to Lima in Peru, then on Cusco. Wow! Were we in for a surprise when we landed in Cusco. Firstly we were to look out for someone with my name on a card who would be picking us up and taking us to our hotel called Inkarri. That was fine, we found him ok and he took us to his car. Before we hopped in though, he took our luggage back out and said he'd get us to go with someone else as he had our others to pick up as well. We followed him to these other waiting cars and he said, hop in and I'll send your luggage along. I must have looked worried as he gave someone some money and got into this other car. By now my heart was racing. All the images of the documentary we had seen before leaving Australia on tourists being taken in Cusco (Holiday in Paradise) were flashing before my eyes.
I sat on the edge of the seat the whole way and didn't see where we were going except that we were going up narrow, windy, cobblestone streets. Everything looked dirty, old and so unclean. Oh my, if he didn't stop soon, I was going to have to shout at him to stop and let us out. Where on earth would we get out, we couldn't speak a word of Spanish. Then..... suddenly we turned down this narrow walled street and there were the words Inkarri on the wall beside us. A blue door opened and a nice looking man came and helped us out of the car and grabbed our luggage. The car took off as there was a bank of other cars behind him, tooting their horns. We were to see later, that this city is full of taxis, 100s of 1000s of them.
We were lead into a nice cobblestone courtyard and offered a cup of coca tea. This tea is well known for its healing benefits and especially altitude sickness. We were to have quite a few of these teas before we were to leave Peru.
Once we had filled out our room details and handed over our passports..... golly I hate doing that, but they wanted to take a photo copy of them. I got a bit paranoid about them so the lady gave them back until she could take them to be copied somewhere else. I did get them back and kept them close by me the whole holiday.
We then got settled in our little room overlooking the clay roofs of the homes of Cusco. This was unreal. Nothing like the neat tiled roofs of home, this city is old and I mean old. I rang Melissa to tell her we had arrived and were safe. She suggested as we had the afternoon free to walk into the Plaza de Armas, the centre of Cusco. We had thought we would stay put as the streets seemed so narrow and we were sure to get lost, however the reception assured us we'd be ok and gave us a map to follow. So off we went, it wasn't long before we were puffing and running out of breath. None of this was up hill or up any steps, it was just the altitude.
When we arrived at the Plaza after negotiating some very narrow streets with very narrow foot paths full of pot holes and trying not to get run down by the taxis that rattled and honked along. W
ow, there are no road rules in Cusco, just honk your horn and nudge your way through.
Well from here on in we would be jostled to buy souveniers from the people walking around the Plaza or pay to have your photo taken. We each had a photo taken with two girls dressed in national custom and a baby Llama. Then further on this old lady with the blackest of teeth asked us to take a photo of her baby for a tip. Melissa advised us to only give them one sole (50c). We found later that everything was really cheap in Peru, so this one sole and the many more I'm sure they'd get throughout the day, would add up to a tidy little sum.
The whole excitement of arriving in Cusco, being literally lead up a garden path to our room and seeing the people in the streets was a real eye opening experience.
We walked around for a few hours, taking it slowly to become aclimatised. We were told we were at the highest point that we would be going to during our time here, so we wanted to be sure we were going to be ok. we both ended up suffering from a headache pretty constantly for about two days. I had a heap of medication with me as my bronchitis felt like it was coming back again along with a cold, so I was using my asthma spray a lot as advised by my doctor back home. I think it saved the holiday.
We weren't too sure about staying out too late on our first night and not wanting to walk the s
treets in the dark, so we didn't take Melissa's advise and buy a Turisto Econimo meal (about $5 for a 3 course meal), so we headed back to our room and ordered some Mexican tacos. Mine were so hot I couldn't eat them.
The next day we were picked up by our tour companies agent (he was to be excellent over the next few days, keeping us safe, picking us up and generally looking after us). He caught one of these amazing rattle trap taxis with no seatbelts and took us to a bus that was to take us on a tour to see the Inca Salt mines at Moray and a few other very interesting sites. We were meant to be back by 2pm for our City tour however were an hour late, but our little tour agent waited for us to get back and took us to a point where the next bus was coming to and made sure we didn't miss much of the city tour. I'm glad we did this as it was also very interesting. This night we did make our own way back to our room as we realised even though the streets were narrow, they were quite well lit and there were people everywhere, so you were never alone. Truthfully, I felt more safe in Peru than I did in Chile.
We weren't overly hungry so decided to order takeaway pizza for our room again. When it came it was fine, but ever so salty. Most of the food in Peru is very very salty.
The following day was our tour of the Sacred Valley. This was unreal, the scenery was fantastic. The Pisac markets were on this particular day, so we had quite a bit of time to wonder through and buy any souveniers you wanted. Everything was so colourful and there was so much of the same thing that it became a bit bewildering as to what to buy or at what price to pay for it. We became pretty crafty with our negotiating after a while. We had a lovely buffet lunch at Urubama then went on to Ollyantambo to see some more Inca ruins. Bob and I were pretty stuffed by now and decided we'd had enough climbing. One things for sure, we should come back pretty fit. It was quite cold while we were waiting for everyone else on the bus to clamber up and over the ruins so we were on the look out for a nice warm corner to sit in. The only thing was there were 1000s of other people, and at one stage we couldn't find our tour leader and thought they may have already come down and were looking for us!! Oh no, we didn't want to be "those" tourists who held everyone up. All was well and we were ok.
That night we went to a restaurant for dinner and ordered spaghetti bol, Bob had an egg and bacon one, but it was sooooo salty neither of us could eat it. We drank our pisco sour (a very common drink in South America), paid for our meal and left. Oh dear, what were we going to eat. Thankfully we had had a pretty good lunch.
The next day saw us up bright and early to catch the bus to Ollyantambo then the train to Aquas Calieantes, the town near Maccu Pichu. We weren't sure what to expect as we had seen many an Inca ruin by now and thought, oh no, not another ruin. A bit like in the UK, once you've seen a few castles, you've seen them all, then one becomes more amazing than the rest. Well the same
happened in Maccu Pichu. The scenery from the train was fanastic and when we arrived, there was no one to meet us. A guy came along to check on us and rang someone, then said in English to wait as someone was coming. Eventually, about 30 mins later, this lady strolls in and shows us and another couple to our room. We threw our bags on the bed, and went out to look for somewhere to get something to eat. Once again we were warned that the restaurants would beg us for their business and everyone of them did just that. There are 100s and 100s of restaurants here, all wanting your business. As Melissa said, just pick one you think looks ok. Well we didn't want baked guinea pig, so opted for a drink and a sandwich with fries (papas frittas). We were learning a few Spanish words by now and got by fairly well, some can speak English, others none at all, but you get by ok. The sandwich, actually it was a bun but called a sandwich, filled a gap before we went back and grabbed our bathers and headed for the hot springs. This was quite relaxing although I'm not so keen on bathing in water that looks like everyone has peed in it, so we didn't stay all that long and went back to our room for a rest. By this time we were puffing and panting again.
That evening we were met in our room by our tour guide who told us what was to happen tomorrow, where to meet him etc etc. Then just as we'd dropped off to sleep about 9.30 there was a knock at our door and the tour guide came back, change of plans, we were now to meet a guy called Washington with the red flag named Kosmos!! Ok!! Let's get some sleep, big day ahead.
The next morning we were going to get up early, but by 4am we could already hear noise going on as people started waking up and getting off to an early start. They would no doubt be the ones who were going to walk to Maccu Pichu and up to Waynu Pichu. Not us! So we waited and eventually came down for breakfast which consisted of a dry bun with jam, warm cup of tea and a banana. hmmm... ok. We had also asked for a boxed lunch, as Melissa said the meals on the mountain were very expensive. Well no boxed lunch arrived, so we grabbed a banana and thought we'd just have to get something up there or come back down to the town and have a late lunch, which is exactly what we did, even though we did share a piece of quiche and a corn drink.
At 7am we were on a bus and heading up the mountain. This was another unreal experience, the bus went around and around these switch backs, sheer drops down the sides and an amazing view. At the top we decided to go into Maccu Pichu for a quick look before meeting our guide as Helen and Melissa had both said to go early to beat the crowds. When we went through the check point and around the corner and up a few stairs, there before us was this amazing view of the Inca village and mount Waynu Pichu. I couldn't resist and just had to ring Melissa. She was surprised we could get reception. I then sent a text message to Karen as she has always wanted to go to Maccu Pichu. I was excited to be there for her.
After about 15 mins we made our way down to meet our tour guide. There were so many people starting to gather and it was becoming a little overwhelming. The guide was talking in Spanish and although we could see our names on the list, we didn't hear him call us out, so pointed our names out to him. I think he may have called them, but in such an unrecognizable way, we didn't hear. All was good, and the tour took 2.5 hours, all over the inca village. The English guide we joined up with was excellent and the whole experience was well worth the trip to Peru. It is something I would recommend everyone put on their bucket list. We can give you a few tips on what to do and not to do!!!! Like yea!!!
I don't quite know what happened but I either got a bug from some food or the water and have ended up with diarrhoea which has been around for about 4 days now. You think you're right, then nope, it's all on again. Feeling well otherwise.
More blog as I get time to fill you in on the last couple of days adventures.
Last week saw us take two flights, one to Lima in Peru, then on Cusco. Wow! Were we in for a surprise when we landed in Cusco. Firstly we were to look out for someone with my name on a card who would be picking us up and taking us to our hotel called Inkarri. That was fine, we found him ok and he took us to his car. Before we hopped in though, he took our luggage back out and said he'd get us to go with someone else as he had our others to pick up as well. We followed him to these other waiting cars and he said, hop in and I'll send your luggage along. I must have looked worried as he gave someone some money and got into this other car. By now my heart was racing. All the images of the documentary we had seen before leaving Australia on tourists being taken in Cusco (Holiday in Paradise) were flashing before my eyes.I sat on the edge of the seat the whole way and didn't see where we were going except that we were going up narrow, windy, cobblestone streets. Everything looked dirty, old and so unclean. Oh my, if he didn't stop soon, I was going to have to shout at him to stop and let us out. Where on earth would we get out, we couldn't speak a word of Spanish. Then..... suddenly we turned down this narrow walled street and there were the words Inkarri on the wall beside us. A blue door opened and a nice looking man came and helped us out of the car and grabbed our luggage. The car took off as there was a bank of other cars behind him, tooting their horns. We were to see later, that this city is full of taxis, 100s of 1000s of them.
We were lead into a nice cobblestone courtyard and offered a cup of coca tea. This tea is well known for its healing benefits and especially altitude sickness. We were to have quite a few of these teas before we were to leave Peru.
Once we had filled out our room details and handed over our passports..... golly I hate doing that, but they wanted to take a photo copy of them. I got a bit paranoid about them so the lady gave them back until she could take them to be copied somewhere else. I did get them back and kept them close by me the whole holiday.
We then got settled in our little room overlooking the clay roofs of the homes of Cusco. This was unreal. Nothing like the neat tiled roofs of home, this city is old and I mean old. I rang Melissa to tell her we had arrived and were safe. She suggested as we had the afternoon free to walk into the Plaza de Armas, the centre of Cusco. We had thought we would stay put as the streets seemed so narrow and we were sure to get lost, however the reception assured us we'd be ok and gave us a map to follow. So off we went, it wasn't long before we were puffing and running out of breath. None of this was up hill or up any steps, it was just the altitude.
When we arrived at the Plaza after negotiating some very narrow streets with very narrow foot paths full of pot holes and trying not to get run down by the taxis that rattled and honked along. W
ow, there are no road rules in Cusco, just honk your horn and nudge your way through.Well from here on in we would be jostled to buy souveniers from the people walking around the Plaza or pay to have your photo taken. We each had a photo taken with two girls dressed in national custom and a baby Llama. Then further on this old lady with the blackest of teeth asked us to take a photo of her baby for a tip. Melissa advised us to only give them one sole (50c). We found later that everything was really cheap in Peru, so this one sole and the many more I'm sure they'd get throughout the day, would add up to a tidy little sum.
The whole excitement of arriving in Cusco, being literally lead up a garden path to our room and seeing the people in the streets was a real eye opening experience.
We walked around for a few hours, taking it slowly to become aclimatised. We were told we were at the highest point that we would be going to during our time here, so we wanted to be sure we were going to be ok. we both ended up suffering from a headache pretty constantly for about two days. I had a heap of medication with me as my bronchitis felt like it was coming back again along with a cold, so I was using my asthma spray a lot as advised by my doctor back home. I think it saved the holiday.
We weren't too sure about staying out too late on our first night and not wanting to walk the s
treets in the dark, so we didn't take Melissa's advise and buy a Turisto Econimo meal (about $5 for a 3 course meal), so we headed back to our room and ordered some Mexican tacos. Mine were so hot I couldn't eat them.The next day we were picked up by our tour companies agent (he was to be excellent over the next few days, keeping us safe, picking us up and generally looking after us). He caught one of these amazing rattle trap taxis with no seatbelts and took us to a bus that was to take us on a tour to see the Inca Salt mines at Moray and a few other very interesting sites. We were meant to be back by 2pm for our City tour however were an hour late, but our little tour agent waited for us to get back and took us to a point where the next bus was coming to and made sure we didn't miss much of the city tour. I'm glad we did this as it was also very interesting. This night we did make our own way back to our room as we realised even though the streets were narrow, they were quite well lit and there were people everywhere, so you were never alone. Truthfully, I felt more safe in Peru than I did in Chile.
We weren't overly hungry so decided to order takeaway pizza for our room again. When it came it was fine, but ever so salty. Most of the food in Peru is very very salty.
The following day was our tour of the Sacred Valley. This was unreal, the scenery was fantastic. The Pisac markets were on this particular day, so we had quite a bit of time to wonder through and buy any souveniers you wanted. Everything was so colourful and there was so much of the same thing that it became a bit bewildering as to what to buy or at what price to pay for it. We became pretty crafty with our negotiating after a while. We had a lovely buffet lunch at Urubama then went on to Ollyantambo to see some more Inca ruins. Bob and I were pretty stuffed by now and decided we'd had enough climbing. One things for sure, we should come back pretty fit. It was quite cold while we were waiting for everyone else on the bus to clamber up and over the ruins so we were on the look out for a nice warm corner to sit in. The only thing was there were 1000s of other people, and at one stage we couldn't find our tour leader and thought they may have already come down and were looking for us!! Oh no, we didn't want to be "those" tourists who held everyone up. All was well and we were ok.
That night we went to a restaurant for dinner and ordered spaghetti bol, Bob had an egg and bacon one, but it was sooooo salty neither of us could eat it. We drank our pisco sour (a very common drink in South America), paid for our meal and left. Oh dear, what were we going to eat. Thankfully we had had a pretty good lunch.
The next day saw us up bright and early to catch the bus to Ollyantambo then the train to Aquas Calieantes, the town near Maccu Pichu. We weren't sure what to expect as we had seen many an Inca ruin by now and thought, oh no, not another ruin. A bit like in the UK, once you've seen a few castles, you've seen them all, then one becomes more amazing than the rest. Well the same
happened in Maccu Pichu. The scenery from the train was fanastic and when we arrived, there was no one to meet us. A guy came along to check on us and rang someone, then said in English to wait as someone was coming. Eventually, about 30 mins later, this lady strolls in and shows us and another couple to our room. We threw our bags on the bed, and went out to look for somewhere to get something to eat. Once again we were warned that the restaurants would beg us for their business and everyone of them did just that. There are 100s and 100s of restaurants here, all wanting your business. As Melissa said, just pick one you think looks ok. Well we didn't want baked guinea pig, so opted for a drink and a sandwich with fries (papas frittas). We were learning a few Spanish words by now and got by fairly well, some can speak English, others none at all, but you get by ok. The sandwich, actually it was a bun but called a sandwich, filled a gap before we went back and grabbed our bathers and headed for the hot springs. This was quite relaxing although I'm not so keen on bathing in water that looks like everyone has peed in it, so we didn't stay all that long and went back to our room for a rest. By this time we were puffing and panting again.That evening we were met in our room by our tour guide who told us what was to happen tomorrow, where to meet him etc etc. Then just as we'd dropped off to sleep about 9.30 there was a knock at our door and the tour guide came back, change of plans, we were now to meet a guy called Washington with the red flag named Kosmos!! Ok!! Let's get some sleep, big day ahead.
The next morning we were going to get up early, but by 4am we could already hear noise going on as people started waking up and getting off to an early start. They would no doubt be the ones who were going to walk to Maccu Pichu and up to Waynu Pichu. Not us! So we waited and eventually came down for breakfast which consisted of a dry bun with jam, warm cup of tea and a banana. hmmm... ok. We had also asked for a boxed lunch, as Melissa said the meals on the mountain were very expensive. Well no boxed lunch arrived, so we grabbed a banana and thought we'd just have to get something up there or come back down to the town and have a late lunch, which is exactly what we did, even though we did share a piece of quiche and a corn drink.
At 7am we were on a bus and heading up the mountain. This was another unreal experience, the bus went around and around these switch backs, sheer drops down the sides and an amazing view. At the top we decided to go into Maccu Pichu for a quick look before meeting our guide as Helen and Melissa had both said to go early to beat the crowds. When we went through the check point and around the corner and up a few stairs, there before us was this amazing view of the Inca village and mount Waynu Pichu. I couldn't resist and just had to ring Melissa. She was surprised we could get reception. I then sent a text message to Karen as she has always wanted to go to Maccu Pichu. I was excited to be there for her.
After about 15 mins we made our way down to meet our tour guide. There were so many people starting to gather and it was becoming a little overwhelming. The guide was talking in Spanish and although we could see our names on the list, we didn't hear him call us out, so pointed our names out to him. I think he may have called them, but in such an unrecognizable way, we didn't hear. All was good, and the tour took 2.5 hours, all over the inca village. The English guide we joined up with was excellent and the whole experience was well worth the trip to Peru. It is something I would recommend everyone put on their bucket list. We can give you a few tips on what to do and not to do!!!! Like yea!!!
I don't quite know what happened but I either got a bug from some food or the water and have ended up with diarrhoea which has been around for about 4 days now. You think you're right, then nope, it's all on again. Feeling well otherwise.
More blog as I get time to fill you in on the last couple of days adventures.
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