Peru

May 3-4, 2016
Satomi and I spent the day flying to Peru.  Satomi had access to the fancy lounges at layovers due to her frequent flyer miles, which was a nice luxury.  We were exhausted by the time we arrived at a cute little B&B in Lima and went straight to sleep.

This is Satomi.

May 5, 2016
Satomi and I were always on the move.  Every day of our trip, we checked in to a hotel to go to sleep, checked out early the next morning, and then ate breakfast after checking out.  Breakfast at each hotel was the same: bread with jam, eggs, fruit with yogurt and granola, and coffee served with heated condensed milk.

Typical Peruvian breakfast

Fruit with yogurt and granola

Heated condensed milk and coffee

We spent the day in Lima, Peru's capital located on the Pacific coast.  We walked through the city and enjoyed a fancy lunch at La Mar, a famous seafood restaurant.

Lima

Ceviche

Arroz con Mariscos (dish made with rice and seafood)

We flew to Cusco in the evening.  Both Satomi and I had peripheral neuropathy, which was a little disconcerting.  It wasn't until days later when we finally had internet access that we learned it was a common benign side effect of our medication (acetazolamide, which we were taking to prevent altitude sickness).

May 6, 2016

Coca tea was everywhere.  I did not realize it at the time, but coca leaves contain alkaloids, which when extracted chemically, are the source for cocaine.  The amount of coca alkaloid in a cup of tea is about 4.2 mg, and a line of cocaine is about 20-30 mg.  

Free Coca Tea

Coca Leaves

Our tour guide over the next three days was Richard, an enthusiastic hippie who enjoyed spiritual pilgrimages, idolized Incans, and was angered by Spaniards.

This is Richard.

We spent the day visiting 7 places in the Sacred Valley: 
1. Ccochahuasi Animal Sanctuary, a family-run organization that rescues injured and exploited animals.  

Hanging out with a llama

Breeding program for the Andean Condor, a gigantic vulture with a 3-meter wingspan

2. Pisac Incan Ruins.  The Inca hauled richer topsoil by hand from the lower lands to the elevated terraces, which allowed production of food that normally would not be possible at such high altitudes.

Pisac agricultural terraces (right side)

3. Pisac Village, best known for its colorful market.

Me walking through Pisac Market

4. Lunch break in Yucay, a beautiful little town surrounded by flowers.

Yucay

5. Moray, famous Inca ruins with enormous terraced circular depressions.  The depth, design, and orientation with respect to the wind and sun creates a temperature difference of as much as 27F between the top and bottom, so it is suspected these were created to modify and grow different types of crops.

Moray

6. Maras Salt Mines.  The flow of the natural salty stream is directed into an intricate system of channels so that it gradually runs onto several hundred terraced ponds.  As the water evaporates, salt precipitates.

Maras

7. Ollantaytambo, an Inca royal estate.  We stayed overnight in a hotel right next to the railroad track, and it was soothing to feel the rumble of the trains going by.

Ollantaytambo

May 7, 2016
Satomi and I took a gorgeous train ride through some beautiful landscape.

View from the train

We hiked the last 6 miles of the famous Inca Trail starting at The Vilcanota Footbridge (AKA Kilometer 104).  The views were spectacular.  Along the way, we passed through Winay Wayna, old Inca housing complexes surrounded by agricultural terraces. 

Winay Wayna

At the end of the trail we reached the Sun Gate.  We had our first view of Machu Picchu, which is a UNESCO site and one of the New 7 Wonders of the World.

View of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate

We stayed overnight in Aguas Calientes, another cute little town by the railroad.  We visited some overcrowded hot springs, where a creepy guy kept moving in really close and staring at us.  Afterwards, we went out for a massage; mine was really nice, but poor Satomi said hers was just plain awful.

Aguas Calientes hot springs

May 8, 2016
Our tour guide Richard was supposed to meet us early at the bus station to go see the sunrise over Machu Picchu.  Richard no-showed, so we were left stranded with no bus tickets and no tickets to get into Machu Picchu.  Fortunately, we were able to use our passports to get our tickets reprinted, and we made our way back to Machu Picchu without our guide.  We called our tour agency emergency contact to let them know where we were, and Richard managed to catch up with us.

Waiting for the sunrise over Machu Picchu

We went on a walking tour through the Machu Picchu citadel.

Machu Picchu citadel

Then we hiked up Huayna Picchu, the mountain in the background of all the Machu Picchu photos.  We bought our entrance tickets about 9 months ago, because only 400 people are allowed on the mountain in a given day.

Top of Huayna Picchu

We continued hiking past the Huayna Picchu lookout point to visit The Temple of the Moon, a cave with a temple and throne.

Temple of the Moon

Then we hiked out to Huchuy Picchu, a small mountain with a 360 degree view at the top

Hiking up Huchuy Picchu

On the train back to Cusco, we ate dinner, watched a fashion show, and Satomi danced with the devil.

Satomi dancing with the devil on the train

May 9, 2016
We spent the day walking through Cusco, a UNESCO site that was the historic capital of the Inca Empire.  We saw all 11 churches in the city, went to the local market, and visited the San Francisco museum which featured crypts of human bones and the largest painting in South America.

Satomi in the Cusco main square

Our walk was interrupted by being offered a sketchy horseback riding tour.  We were told we'd have a round-trip taxi ride to a ranch, where we'd go on a 2 hour horseback ride to a waterfall, Saksaywaman (a famous citadel), and Cristo Blanco (a famous large status of Jesus).  I'm not sure why we agreed to this, but fortunately we did not get robbed and killed.

Spontaneous sketchy horseback riding tour

We did not go to any of the sites we were promised, and at the end we were left stranded at the ranch.  We didn't mind too much because the horseback ride was beautiful and we were walking distance back to Cusco.  Plus, we did end up getting pretty close to Saksaywaman and Cristo Blanco on our walk back, so I guess the scam kind of worked out for everyone.  At one point, we were stopped on the road by a tollbooth guard and asked to pay to continue but when we refused, he let us pass through.

Saksaywaman

Cristo Blanco in the distance (small white statue on the left)

Our last meal in Peru was our best.  We split one pisco sour (which was more than either of us could handle), grilled octopus, guinea pig, and a chocolate dessert made out of heaven.

Octopus

Guinea Pig

Happiness

In the evening, we were scheduled to take a local flight from Cusco to Lima, and then an international flight from Lima back to the USA.  All the flights were either delayed or cancelled, and I was getting nervous because I didn't know what to do if I missed my international flight.  To make matters worse, I had managed to lose my immigration card. 

We started boarding our plane over two hours late, and as we got into line, announcements went off cancelling the rest of the flights for the evening and directing everybody else to leave the airport. 

May 10, 2016

I was extremely relieved to make it to Lima.  At the Lima Airport, I stood in line with the other suckers who had lost their immigration cards and nervously watched the people in front of me going through long interrogations in Spanish.  The person in front of me made a payment with a $100 bill and I couldn't see how much change she got back.  By the time I made it to the front, I felt pretty shaky.  In a very anticlimactic moment, the guy at the desk charged me $6 and sent me on my way.  The rest of the flights home went smoothly, and I returned home from my fantastic trip safely and on time.

Neat orange juice machine in the Lima Airport lounge