Day 2

We woke up at about 9am and headed to the hotel's breakfast. It was actually quite nice. We had fresh squeezed juice and local fruit. They made us eggs and we made toast. Carlos and Alex, our white water rafting guides picked us up at 9:45 to take us south of Cuzco.

We drove for a few hours in a van with some other people to a nice spot on the Urubamba river. We helped to pump up the rubber rafts and learned a few basics about rafting. Josh was the only person who had been rafting before, so it was a crash course for the rest of us.

We separated into 2 boats (Josh, Joshy, Linze, me, and another girl in one, and 4 girls in the other) and headed down the river. It was so fun. Our guide realized how strong we were (unlike the boat of really skinny girls) and took us right in the middle of strong rapids. We were a little worried about getting many different mouthfuls of water (which was very brown), but stopped worrying when we were having such a good time. Half-way down the river, we stopped the boat just after a bridge. Our guide offered for us to jump off the bridge into the river and swim back to the boat. Of course, Linze, Josh, and I "jumped" at the chance. Joshy was not feeling as adventurous, so he played camera man. (we'll post the pictures later since they were taken on a disposable water camera that has not been developed yet).

After our jump, we rafted further down river to our picnic spot. The picnic was much nicer than we expected. They had chicken, vegetables, bread, Crush orange soda, and hot tea. We gobbled it down, cleaned up, and headed back to the van to go back to the hotel. Unfortunately, we had lots of sunscreen on, but got very burned on our hands (where I didn't even think to put sunscreen). I also got the tops of my feet burned, and my lips. Josh got it the worst. Over the next few days, he developed blisters and today is peeling very badly. My lips also developed blisters and is just now feeling better.

Once at teh hotel, we went to go shopping at an artisan market where we found many more purchases. We then ate dinner at a restaurant next door to the hotel because we were meeting at 8pm with Juan about our hike the next day. The Boheme Cafe was the best place we had eaten yet. Very good Pisco sours and excellent food at great prices.

After dinner, we bought some local wine (the night before we had some local wine that was very sweet and undrinkable). We also bought a back-up wine from Chile in case the Peruvian wine was undrinkable again. We opened it and waited for Juan. He arrived and asked for a glass too, so we drank and chatted about what to pack, what the trail would be like, and what to expect for tomorrow.

Juan left and we got packing. We sorted through our stuff and took more out. Our hotel was going to keep our extra baggage for us so we could leave a lot behind. The company was going to carry our sleeping bags, so that made more room for our stuff.

We went to bed later than I would have liked (about 11) and took one last shower before our trip.

Peru - Day 3

Day 1

After arriving at 8 in the morning after hardly any sleep, we were picked up at the airport by our coordinator and taken to our hotel. The ride to the hotel was interesting because we were able to see the layout of the city and what it looked like. It was much poorer than I expected (having been to Brazil, Argentina, and Chile). Not that I expected it to be cosmopolitan, but I did not expect to see so many "houses" without windows, tons of random dogs, and general poverty without many buildings that were nice or somewhat kept up. Our coordinator checked us in to our hotel, which was near the main square of town and pretty nice. We settled into our rooms and quickly got back together to do some sightseeing and shopping. We had a great time looking around the main square and finding the local markets. The pictures cannot convey the stench of meat, fish, and other local produce at the "people's market." We did find some cool souvenirs.

We found a restaurant at the square for lunch and all of us tried Alpaca. It is very lean, cholesterol free, and delicious.

The company had a city tour set up for us at 1:15, so we went back to the hotel to be picked up by a sight seeing bus. We toured the main square's cathedral, which was very beautiful and interesting. The Spanish had oppressed the Quetchuan people and converted them to the catholic religion. The local people were trained to paint all the classic pictures of images from the bible to decorate the church. Those sneaky Quetchuan's took classic images and made slight changes to embrace their own bliefs. For example, the last supper painting features cuy (guinnea pig), the paintings of the Virgin Mary feature very large dresses that make their bodies the shape of the local mountains. (they worshiped mountains in their religion, so this image was in several of the paintings). We loved how they subtly stuck it to the man.

After the cathedral, we went to a monistary. Inside the building was some origional walls that were built by the Quetchuan people to honor their gods. The walls were amazing because they were made of huge stones that were hand carved without the use of metal. We also learned more of the history of the Quetchuan people.

We boarded the bus and headed up the hill for a tour of sachsaywaman. Pronounced "sex-ay woman" This is a huge zig-zag wall that was made much like the monistary wall. These boulders were even bigger and moved from much further away. Modern technology cannot figure out how the people built this monument. If you look at the pictures closely, you'll see that the stones fit perfectly together and yet they have no motar between them. They are perfectly placed, smooth, and rounded. It was amazing.

After that, we headed to a gift shop, where we got to try a coca remedy for headaches. The tour bus headed back to the square where we decided to get dinner. We were adventurous and tried some interesting food. Joshy got a whole cuy (guinnea pig) which looked like it was surprised to be cooked. It had an open mouth (complete with teeth), curled toes (with nails), and a crispy ball sack. Josh ordered a sample platter which had beef hearts and cuy. His cuy was exactly 1/4 of a cuy. They literally cut the cuy into a 1/4. He got 1/2 of the head, split lenghtwise down the middle. Again, Linze and I were staring right into the mouth of a cuy while we ate our tamer meals.

After dinner, it was time for bed! We settled in our comfortable rooms, showered, and jumped in bed.

Peru - Day 2

Our travel to Peru

Ok, we are crazy to plan this trip over such a short amount of time.  Here's the time line for our travel to Peru:

Josh picked me up from school early at 3:30pm.  We drove to Linze and Joshy's house by 4pm.  We loaded our car and headed for San Franscisco.

If anyone knows where Portland is in relation to San Franscisco, it is a nice long car ride.  We arrived to the airport at 2:30 in the morning.  Of course, we did not know if the airport would even be open (which it wasn't).  So we parked our car at a park-n-ride and rode to the airport.  Once there, we realized that the counters weren't open, neither was security.  So, we hunkered down in some very uncomfortable seats and waited/tried to sleep.  It was a long, uncomfortable wait until 5am.  We checked in and headed to the terminal to wait until our flight at 9:25am.

Our flight landed at 10:55am in L.A., we had to go to the international terminal.  The L.A. airport is a real hell-hole and under construction, so instead of going to the international terminal via a tunnel or escalator, we headed outside and through a very long line for inspection.  Then, it was hurry up and wait for our 1:50pm flight to Lima.  

As I said, LAX is a horrible airport and there was only 1 store in the whole international terminal, it was expensive, and the food was terrible.  Anyway, we boarded on time and were off to Lima, Peru.  

The flight was pretty nice because each of our seats had a t.v. screen and you could chose any movie, tv show, or game to play for free.  So, of course, instead of trying to sleep, I mostly chose to watch movies and listen to music.  Joshy, Josh, and Linze were able to get some sleep, but I only got maybe an hour.

Unfortunately, we arrived in Lima early!  Just before midnight, instead of 12:25.  It might not sound like a big deal, but when you have already been awake for over 24 hours, any additional minutes of possible sleep (even if on a plane) is desired over waiting in a closed airport.

Turns out, the Lima airport is awake a kicking 24 hours a day.  We found a food court just outside customs where we had to wait until our flight was posted on the bulletin board outside the gate.  So, we were waiting until 2AM in the food court.  Joshy decided to try and sleep on the uncomfortable chairs all lined up in a row (see the picture).  We enjoyed the food choices:  Papa John's pizza, Dunken Doughnuts, and Mc Donald's.  Instead, we indulged in gelato and Peruvian beer.  (it is our vacation afterall)

We were able to get into the terminal just after 2, so we found some pretty comfortable seats and I finally got a few hours of very interrupted sleep.  Every 10 minutes or so, the intercom would bing and a very loud voice would announce a flight that was taking place in a different terminal in at least 2 languages.  It was very annoying, but at least we were able to fully lie down and sleep in between bings.

Our flight to Cuzco was at 5:50am, but of course it was delayed...So we actually didn't leave until 6:30.  We arrived just after 8am and were picked up by the company we  booked our travel with.  This was the offical start to day 1 in Peru.

Peru - Day 1

Machu Picchu!

We got home on Sunday night after 10pm, so we have taken the last 2 days to catch up on our sleep and our sanity.  Here are the pictures and the diary of our crazy, fast-paced week long vacation!