We messed up. We messed up by not realizing that semana santa, Easter week, was upon us while we were traveling to the coast where everyone and their mom's dog wants to go for their vacation. We came back from Huanchaco thinking that we could get on a bus out of Trujillo to the top of Peru that same day. Oh how wrong we were. We got to the bus station (once again many small ones instead of one main one) to find it packed with people and all the buses up north sold out. We walked around to every bus company we could find and heard the same story.
We ended up buying a ticket up to Piura for the next day and from there we would get into Ecuador. We spent the night in Trujillo (would not suggest it, not the best looking place) and another night in Piura because once again the buses into Ecuador were all full. Piura wasn't to nice either but we did stay in a hostel for cheap and it had a aviary in it. Finally the next day we had a night bus into Ecuador. We were told it would be a semi cama nice bus but when we got on it it was a normal not nice bus. We were pissed because we payed for a nice bus so right before we pulled out a ran inside and was able to get some money back! The bus ride sucked. The driver was blasting music the whole night and the seats were not comfy and the guy behind me kept putting his knee into my back. The border crossing, though, was very easy and at 1am we were officially in Ecuador and on our way to the beach!
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Lima and surfing in Huanchaco
Ok. I've learned something while traveling. We haven't had any trouble (other than the tarp) with people stealing from us, but I am still missing things, and it's myself that is the culprit. So far, I have lost/left somewhere my raincoat, my sunglasses I bought 2 days before, a headband I bought an 2 hours before losing, a hairclip I bought before breaking it the next day, a little notebook with important things inside like passwords, and , the worst one, my frickin glasses!!! and the case!! I left them on the bus from Cuzco to Ica (Huacachina) and tried really hard to get them back but I can safely say they are for sure gone. I asked the bus company in Ica but they said, since that bus ended in Lima, to go there. Went to the company in Lima and asked someone who directed me to someone else who directed me to 3 teens who just laughed when I asked because they probably didn't know what I was talking about and this being South America of course there is no lost and found!! I even went back the next day and talked to the manager!! So now I am stuck with my old glasses that make me look like I have lizard eyes >:( why couldn't I have lost them and not my new ones that change to sunglasses in the sun and are a better prescription!!
Anyway...
First off let me start by saying that we had heard that Lima was a dirty, boring place with nothing to see but we decided to go anyway, just for a night. It is a big place and we stayed in Miraflores which is a nice, chuchi part but a 45 min bus ride to the center. Although, other than some historical stuff, everything one would need is in Miraflores..even some Incan ruins! We were going to stay for two nights but the hostel we found only had a room for one night and all the others in the area were expensive so we stayed for one night. The first night was a Sunday so big hang out night in the plaza of Miraflores. It had a great vibe to it, there were people out walking and people selling their wares and even a Brazilian drum band performing. The next day we headed into the center to see the plaza and San Fransisco cathedral where you can get a tour of the where the monks lived and the catacombs under the church. On the way into the centro we had to get off the bus and buy a bus ticket to Trujillo, unfortunately there is no central bus station so not easy to shop around when all the different bus companies are spread apart. We hopped back on a bus and checked out downtown. It wasn't bad at all. The church tour was good and the catacombs were creepy, the streets were clean and it was a nice day. We found Lima quite pleasant. These people must have never been to Asuncion!! We left that night on a bus to Trujillo and from there we would head to Huanchaco, a surf beach town.
Huanchaco is cool because the fisherman still use reed boats that their ansestors used to fish back in the day. I like that. It's a nice little town where people go to surf or learn to surf. I didn't find the beach that appealing to swim on though and the ground under water is pretty rocky according to nick who had a surf lesson. I sat on the beach and watched. Not a bad deal though, $14 for a 2 hour lesson and rental of the board and wet suit for the day. If we stayed longer maybe I would have tried it! We only stayed for a night though in a hostel that was 10 soles, a little more than $3 (yay budget!) but we needed to move on and get into Ecuador!
Anyway...
First off let me start by saying that we had heard that Lima was a dirty, boring place with nothing to see but we decided to go anyway, just for a night. It is a big place and we stayed in Miraflores which is a nice, chuchi part but a 45 min bus ride to the center. Although, other than some historical stuff, everything one would need is in Miraflores..even some Incan ruins! We were going to stay for two nights but the hostel we found only had a room for one night and all the others in the area were expensive so we stayed for one night. The first night was a Sunday so big hang out night in the plaza of Miraflores. It had a great vibe to it, there were people out walking and people selling their wares and even a Brazilian drum band performing. The next day we headed into the center to see the plaza and San Fransisco cathedral where you can get a tour of the where the monks lived and the catacombs under the church. On the way into the centro we had to get off the bus and buy a bus ticket to Trujillo, unfortunately there is no central bus station so not easy to shop around when all the different bus companies are spread apart. We hopped back on a bus and checked out downtown. It wasn't bad at all. The church tour was good and the catacombs were creepy, the streets were clean and it was a nice day. We found Lima quite pleasant. These people must have never been to Asuncion!! We left that night on a bus to Trujillo and from there we would head to Huanchaco, a surf beach town.
Huanchaco is cool because the fisherman still use reed boats that their ansestors used to fish back in the day. I like that. It's a nice little town where people go to surf or learn to surf. I didn't find the beach that appealing to swim on though and the ground under water is pretty rocky according to nick who had a surf lesson. I sat on the beach and watched. Not a bad deal though, $14 for a 2 hour lesson and rental of the board and wet suit for the day. If we stayed longer maybe I would have tried it! We only stayed for a night though in a hostel that was 10 soles, a little more than $3 (yay budget!) but we needed to move on and get into Ecuador!
 |
| Taking feeding birds in the park to a whole new level in Miraflores |
 |
| the Brazilian drumming |
 |
| Miraflores |
 |
| a statue dedicated to shoe shiners |
 |
| the main plaza |
 |
| San Fransisco |
 |
| the catacombs where practically all of Lima was buried back in the day |
 |
| the reed boats in Huanchaco |
 |
| drying the fishing nets |
 |
| going out to sea, kneeling on the top and using a bamboo stick cut in half |
 |
| Nick surfing |
Huacachina sand dune good times
We arrived in Ica from cuzco after one of the worst 15 hour bus rides we've had on this trip. It wasn't the bus that was bad, it was quite nice...it was the people on it! People on buses should have their cell phones taken away because they were so inconsiderate!!!! The guy in front of us was yelling on his phone, the guy next to us had about 4 really long convos on his phone and the horrible woman behind us not only yelled into her phone for awhile but she also decided she needed to blast cumbia from it at 10:30 pm to fall asleep! Nick actually turned around and told her to turn it off because we were so fed up at that point. Not to mention that a movie was playing and these people didn't care if anyone was trying to sleep or watch the movie they were going to yell on their phone and play their music si o si!! AAAnd of course my ipod had died because the battery sucks so I sat there cursing Apple as beeps, yelling, ringtones and music went off all around me. The best was at 6am the bus helper had music blasting from his phone as he walked up and down the hallway and then played really bad, really loud music through the speakers! We were so happy to get off that bus!
Ica was so hot compared to Cuzco and we quickly jumped into a cap to Huacachina to get to Casa de Arena and jump into the pool! Nick had stayed here 2 years ago when he was last in Peru so that's how we knew about that place. It's a really interesting place because it is an oasis in a desert. Literally. There are huge sand dunes all around it and then a lake with palm trees that Huacachina was built around. That afternoon we ended up going on a sand buggy/sand boarding tour. It was so much fun! It was like a roller coaster flying all over the sand dunes. We would periodically get out and go down a dune on a board, usually on my stomach. It was like sledding! Really a lot of fun. It was also a great hostel as well with a pool and a club attached to it (course we were asleep early each night....lame).
The next day we took a tuk-tuk (small, three wheeled vehicle thing) back to Ica to go to the museum of Ica which had mummies and skulls with evidence of brain surgery and trophy heads. Pretty good stuff.
Ica was so hot compared to Cuzco and we quickly jumped into a cap to Huacachina to get to Casa de Arena and jump into the pool! Nick had stayed here 2 years ago when he was last in Peru so that's how we knew about that place. It's a really interesting place because it is an oasis in a desert. Literally. There are huge sand dunes all around it and then a lake with palm trees that Huacachina was built around. That afternoon we ended up going on a sand buggy/sand boarding tour. It was so much fun! It was like a roller coaster flying all over the sand dunes. We would periodically get out and go down a dune on a board, usually on my stomach. It was like sledding! Really a lot of fun. It was also a great hostel as well with a pool and a club attached to it (course we were asleep early each night....lame).
The next day we took a tuk-tuk (small, three wheeled vehicle thing) back to Ica to go to the museum of Ica which had mummies and skulls with evidence of brain surgery and trophy heads. Pretty good stuff.
 |
| the sand dunes |
 |
| sandboarding laying on my tum |
 |
| sunset |
 |
| the oasis that is huacachina.. I wouldn't swim in that lake tho... |
 |
| the buggies |
Monday, April 2, 2012
Jungle Trek to Machu Picchu
We knew we were going to do the Jungle Trek option to get to Machu Picchu since Paraguay and we also knew that we didn't have to worry about booking it before hand like the Inca Trail trek to MP. Since the Inca Trail only has a limited amount of people, porters and guides that can be on it at one time it's a little more time sensitive. It's also a hell of a lot more expensive! There are actually many options to get to MP...Inca Trail, Jungle trek, Salkantay trek, taking a train there, taking a train to ollataytambo and walking the trail tracks there. All sorts. The Jungle trek was four days, three nights and we searched a couple places in Cuzco to find a good deal. I wish we could go back and book it again knowing what we know now, but all I can do is pass on the information we gathered to anyone reading this who wants to do the Jungle trek!
***First off, some information for people wanting to do it****
.... most of the agencies in Cuzco will lie. If you want a reputable agency you'll have to pay more. We looked into Lorenzo tours, the guy didn't lie and they never take more than ten people. Unfortunately, they we're out of our budget range so we went to a random company. This is what we were told: that the tour was only people from that agency, that he couldn't lower the price from what it was because he pays his guides a salary instead of commission, that there were 9 other people other than us (6 Brazilians, 2 Aussies and a Brit) and that it would be $200 per person. Not toooo bad. What it actually was is that we were put with a bunch of other people who booked with other different agencies, there were 15 people plus us (11 Argentinians, 3 Swedish and 1 Danish) and that it varied what people payed so the whole thing about paying the guides a salary was bs. The Swedish had paid $250 for their tour which didn't include some stuff we got and the Argentinians paid $140 and included stuff we got. Basically we all paid very different prices for the same exact tour! The tour itself was really good though and I would deff recommend it, but just know that you're gonna get the same tour no matter what so make sure you shop around and get a good deal!!!! Our tour included 3 breakfast, 3 lunch, 3 dinner (pretty good food too), 3 nights in hostels in our own room, 2 guides, transportation, bike rental, entrance to MP and entrance to Huaynapicchu (there's only 400 tickets sold a day to go up this mountain next to MP!), the train ride back to Ollataytambo and a bus back to cuzco. Pretty good! Loprenzo tours did all the same stuff and ate at all the same places they just had smaller groups and got tshirts, oh and they didn't include transport back from MP!!********
Ok onto the tour!!
The first day was cycling down a twisty, mountain road. The bus picked us up at 7:30 am. We met our guide, Hever (pronounced ever) and we went to load up the bikes. This is when we realized that we had the most obnoxious group of Argentinians on our tour. 7 of them that were all friends acting like 15 years olds and yelling and being annoying and vomiting out the window. The sad thing was they were probably all in their 30s. We had a 3 hour (very noisy) bus ride to the top of the mountain. Then we got our helmets, bikes and nasty wet gloves and bundled up with fleeces and ponchos because it was cold and rainy at the top. Then we started going down. It was pretty fun but I was nervous at first, the last time I rode a bike was in the beginning of my service in Carapegua and I got made fun of because I was wearing a helmet and the high school kids were yelling our the window 'tortuga tortuga' (turtle) and I never rode my bike again! So I had to get comfortable and relax before I could really enjoy riding down a road that was very windy and next to a cliff edge. Then it started to rain very hard, I could barely see (thank goodness I hadn't worn my glasses!) and I was way behind the group because my tire was flat (I didn't know it at the time). I ended up switching bikes with Hever and finally met up with the group when they stopped, as did the rain. Then I was able to keep up with Nick! It took us 3 hours to get to the bottom where we loaded up the bikes on the bus and drove to the town we would be staying in. There was an option to go rafting but no one had signed up so we just hung out and went to bed early.
The next day we were up early and at breakfast by 6am. This day was all about hiking in the jungle for 7 hours to get to the next town we would sleep in. We started hiking in the rain but I had a feeling it would go, and it did about an hour in. The hike was pretty hard, and it was humid and the sand flies were all bitey, but it was very pretty. Along the way we stopped at a couple peoples houses who were taking advantage of all these gringos hiking through and selling soda and water. At one house they had a pet capuchin who was on a short lead jumpin all over the place, really hyper. We felt bad for him after seeing the capuchins in la senda verde. He really wanted to play with Nick and he was really cute but the people totally just had him out for the tourists. At another house we rested at they had skins of 2 coati's and a jaguar. It was really hard for me to see that especially after volunteering to help the animals. The jaguar was really tough because it's not like there are many left. The guy had shot it 5 months before because it had left the reserve and had killed some livestock. He was trying to sell the skin.
After hiking up the hill for hours we arrived on one of the Incan trais. Not theee Inca trail that people hike on to MP but another one. It was on the side of the mountain, it's amazing to think they used to run around these trails like nothing...they must have been so buff! It was beautiful. We had some lunch after that and hiked along a river which we then had to cross on a cable car which was pretty awesome. We ended the hike at some hot springs that were so much nicer than the ones in Uyuni!
Third day was zip lining in the morning. Only 5 of us did it out of our group and it was awesome. $35 to do 6 zip lines. It was like flying! I really enjoyed it. Then we met up with our group for lunch and started our walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town on the bottom of Machu Picchu. That was a beautiful walk in the valley with the mountains around us. Once in awhile a train would go by and we managed to squish some coins on the track. After about three hours of walking we got to Aguas Calliented, I wasn't sure what to expect from this town but it was nicer than I thought...pretty much made for tourists. We made sure to go to bed early that night because we had a 4am wake up the next day for MP!
Day four..Machu Picchu!!
Tooo early wakeup!!! We had a packed breakfast to take with us and we headed out into the darkness (we forgot the flashlight) and got to the main gait at 4:50am. Time to start the climb up to the top! There are two options, take a bus up the hill or walk up about 1000 or something trains. We chose the stairs...and it was one of the hardest things EVER! think about being on a very uneven stairmaster for an hour! and I had to keep up with people who had a flashlight for the first 20 minutes before the light of dawn showed up so I was rushing and it was high altitude! When there was light it was much better because I could go at my own pace. Nick was like a freakin Olympic athlete running up the stairs and finishing waaay before me, not even out of breath. Once at the top we met up with the other half of the group who took the bus and we had an hour tour with Hever who told us the history of the Incas and showed us some of MP but not a lot. At 7am ..i got to hike up more stairs!!! Up we went on hauynapicchu to the top to see the classic view of MP. Another breathless stairmaster climb for me but this time a little steeper but it was worth it for the view you get at the top. There are also some other ruins up there, not sure what they were. We went back and explored the rest of MP which was really amazing of course. We didn't take a full tour so not sure what everything was but we still enjoyed it...except that there were so many ppl everywhere! I couldn't imagine what it's like at high tourist season! At 1pm we were pretty tired and hungry and the prices of food up there were just unreasonable so we hiked back down the stairs. It was quicker, of course, but my knees were hurting in a bad way by the end. The worst part was we had no where to go, just had to wait for our train that we thought was at 6:30...until we found out it was at 9:30!!! What were we going to do for half a day all tired and stinky! Well, we walked around looking for cheap ice cream, we had lunch, we sat at a coffee shop twice, we waited at the train station to see if we could get on the 6:30 train, we browsed the tourist stuff a bit, and we went back and waited at the train station. So Tired! After the train we still had to take a van from Ollataytambo so we'd be rollin into Cuzco at 1am! We were really nervous there would be no van for us since the rest of our group was on the 6:30 train but amazingly there was and just as amazing the was that the hostel let us in that late! The next day we didn't get out of bed.
Other than all that waiting for the train it was a great trip.
*pics out of order!!*
***First off, some information for people wanting to do it****
.... most of the agencies in Cuzco will lie. If you want a reputable agency you'll have to pay more. We looked into Lorenzo tours, the guy didn't lie and they never take more than ten people. Unfortunately, they we're out of our budget range so we went to a random company. This is what we were told: that the tour was only people from that agency, that he couldn't lower the price from what it was because he pays his guides a salary instead of commission, that there were 9 other people other than us (6 Brazilians, 2 Aussies and a Brit) and that it would be $200 per person. Not toooo bad. What it actually was is that we were put with a bunch of other people who booked with other different agencies, there were 15 people plus us (11 Argentinians, 3 Swedish and 1 Danish) and that it varied what people payed so the whole thing about paying the guides a salary was bs. The Swedish had paid $250 for their tour which didn't include some stuff we got and the Argentinians paid $140 and included stuff we got. Basically we all paid very different prices for the same exact tour! The tour itself was really good though and I would deff recommend it, but just know that you're gonna get the same tour no matter what so make sure you shop around and get a good deal!!!! Our tour included 3 breakfast, 3 lunch, 3 dinner (pretty good food too), 3 nights in hostels in our own room, 2 guides, transportation, bike rental, entrance to MP and entrance to Huaynapicchu (there's only 400 tickets sold a day to go up this mountain next to MP!), the train ride back to Ollataytambo and a bus back to cuzco. Pretty good! Loprenzo tours did all the same stuff and ate at all the same places they just had smaller groups and got tshirts, oh and they didn't include transport back from MP!!********
Ok onto the tour!!
The first day was cycling down a twisty, mountain road. The bus picked us up at 7:30 am. We met our guide, Hever (pronounced ever) and we went to load up the bikes. This is when we realized that we had the most obnoxious group of Argentinians on our tour. 7 of them that were all friends acting like 15 years olds and yelling and being annoying and vomiting out the window. The sad thing was they were probably all in their 30s. We had a 3 hour (very noisy) bus ride to the top of the mountain. Then we got our helmets, bikes and nasty wet gloves and bundled up with fleeces and ponchos because it was cold and rainy at the top. Then we started going down. It was pretty fun but I was nervous at first, the last time I rode a bike was in the beginning of my service in Carapegua and I got made fun of because I was wearing a helmet and the high school kids were yelling our the window 'tortuga tortuga' (turtle) and I never rode my bike again! So I had to get comfortable and relax before I could really enjoy riding down a road that was very windy and next to a cliff edge. Then it started to rain very hard, I could barely see (thank goodness I hadn't worn my glasses!) and I was way behind the group because my tire was flat (I didn't know it at the time). I ended up switching bikes with Hever and finally met up with the group when they stopped, as did the rain. Then I was able to keep up with Nick! It took us 3 hours to get to the bottom where we loaded up the bikes on the bus and drove to the town we would be staying in. There was an option to go rafting but no one had signed up so we just hung out and went to bed early.
The next day we were up early and at breakfast by 6am. This day was all about hiking in the jungle for 7 hours to get to the next town we would sleep in. We started hiking in the rain but I had a feeling it would go, and it did about an hour in. The hike was pretty hard, and it was humid and the sand flies were all bitey, but it was very pretty. Along the way we stopped at a couple peoples houses who were taking advantage of all these gringos hiking through and selling soda and water. At one house they had a pet capuchin who was on a short lead jumpin all over the place, really hyper. We felt bad for him after seeing the capuchins in la senda verde. He really wanted to play with Nick and he was really cute but the people totally just had him out for the tourists. At another house we rested at they had skins of 2 coati's and a jaguar. It was really hard for me to see that especially after volunteering to help the animals. The jaguar was really tough because it's not like there are many left. The guy had shot it 5 months before because it had left the reserve and had killed some livestock. He was trying to sell the skin.
After hiking up the hill for hours we arrived on one of the Incan trais. Not theee Inca trail that people hike on to MP but another one. It was on the side of the mountain, it's amazing to think they used to run around these trails like nothing...they must have been so buff! It was beautiful. We had some lunch after that and hiked along a river which we then had to cross on a cable car which was pretty awesome. We ended the hike at some hot springs that were so much nicer than the ones in Uyuni!
Third day was zip lining in the morning. Only 5 of us did it out of our group and it was awesome. $35 to do 6 zip lines. It was like flying! I really enjoyed it. Then we met up with our group for lunch and started our walk along the train tracks to Aguas Calientes, the town on the bottom of Machu Picchu. That was a beautiful walk in the valley with the mountains around us. Once in awhile a train would go by and we managed to squish some coins on the track. After about three hours of walking we got to Aguas Calliented, I wasn't sure what to expect from this town but it was nicer than I thought...pretty much made for tourists. We made sure to go to bed early that night because we had a 4am wake up the next day for MP!
Day four..Machu Picchu!!
Tooo early wakeup!!! We had a packed breakfast to take with us and we headed out into the darkness (we forgot the flashlight) and got to the main gait at 4:50am. Time to start the climb up to the top! There are two options, take a bus up the hill or walk up about 1000 or something trains. We chose the stairs...and it was one of the hardest things EVER! think about being on a very uneven stairmaster for an hour! and I had to keep up with people who had a flashlight for the first 20 minutes before the light of dawn showed up so I was rushing and it was high altitude! When there was light it was much better because I could go at my own pace. Nick was like a freakin Olympic athlete running up the stairs and finishing waaay before me, not even out of breath. Once at the top we met up with the other half of the group who took the bus and we had an hour tour with Hever who told us the history of the Incas and showed us some of MP but not a lot. At 7am ..i got to hike up more stairs!!! Up we went on hauynapicchu to the top to see the classic view of MP. Another breathless stairmaster climb for me but this time a little steeper but it was worth it for the view you get at the top. There are also some other ruins up there, not sure what they were. We went back and explored the rest of MP which was really amazing of course. We didn't take a full tour so not sure what everything was but we still enjoyed it...except that there were so many ppl everywhere! I couldn't imagine what it's like at high tourist season! At 1pm we were pretty tired and hungry and the prices of food up there were just unreasonable so we hiked back down the stairs. It was quicker, of course, but my knees were hurting in a bad way by the end. The worst part was we had no where to go, just had to wait for our train that we thought was at 6:30...until we found out it was at 9:30!!! What were we going to do for half a day all tired and stinky! Well, we walked around looking for cheap ice cream, we had lunch, we sat at a coffee shop twice, we waited at the train station to see if we could get on the 6:30 train, we browsed the tourist stuff a bit, and we went back and waited at the train station. So Tired! After the train we still had to take a van from Ollataytambo so we'd be rollin into Cuzco at 1am! We were really nervous there would be no van for us since the rest of our group was on the 6:30 train but amazingly there was and just as amazing the was that the hostel let us in that late! The next day we didn't get out of bed.
Other than all that waiting for the train it was a great trip.
*pics out of order!!*
 |
| view of road the bus goes up to MP. Taken from Hauynapicchu. |
 |
| The jaguar skin |
 |
| The hot springs. very welcome at the end of a long day |
 |
| zip lining! |
 |
| walkin along the train tracks |
 |
| I got stuck in a tight spot at the train passed by! |
 |
| view of where MP is from traintracks! |
 |
| Aguas Callientes |
 |
| waiting at 4:50am for the gates to the stairs to open |
 |
| At the top of the stairs |
 |
| Me arriving! |
 |
| mountains around MP |
 |
| there it is |
 |
| Hever givin us a history lesson |
 |
| Huaynapicchu we're goin up there! |
 |
| View from HP down onto MP |
 |
| Temple of the sun |
 |
| steps going back down |
 |
| woohoo we did it! |
 |
| the capuchin on the hike |
 |
| Hever teachin us about coco plants |
 |
| Jungle path |
 |
| Inca trail |
 |
| cable car across river |
 |
| hot springs |
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
Cuzco
The nicest bus we have taken on this trip so far was the bus we took (kinda) direct from Copacabana to Cuzco. It was new and had nice seats and we got the top front in front of the staircase which meant no one behind us! There are many buses going from Copacabana to Cuzco but most you have to change in Puno, Peru's city next to lake Titicaca. In Puno one can visit the famous floating islands made out of reeds. We decided to skip it since we saw the lake on the Bolivian side and we heard that Puno was not a nice place to stay and that the floating islands were waaay touristy. Although some people really liked it I just don't think we would have enjoyed it. Anyway, buses. So we were lucky to get one of the not many buses that didn't change in Puno but we still had to get out in the Puno station, sign into the bus company and get a new set of tickets, and pay the stupid terminal leaving tax (btw, props to Argentina and Paraguay for not making you pay to leave. It sucks when you're running late and you cant' get out the door to your bus until you go find the booth and pay and get the ticket so that you can leave.)
So far we hadn't had a good introduction to Peru. It was easy enough to enter, we just got off the bus at the Bolivian border, got the exit stamp and walked across a bridge and waited in line to get the entry stamp to Peru. Unfortunately the bus driver never gave us the sheet we needed to fill out so we waited in line, got to the window, got yelled at by the stamper guy who gave us the sheet, filled it out and then had to get back in line! Then we get to the bus terminal in Puno and the people there were really rude! I had dropped coins out of my pocket on the bus and didn't realize till I got into the station and when I tried to go back to the bus the lady wouldn't let me without a ticket. I said I didn't have it they took it at the counter when we were re-checking in. She said no. I went back to the counter where the woman was looking for me to give me the new ticket, went back to the lady who told me now I couldn't leave without paying the tax. I said I just need to look on the bus to find my money! So she took my tickets as ransom as I went to look for the money which wasn't even there (turns out it somehow fell into my backpack pocket and I didn't find it till 2 days later!). Then I was walking to Nick and accidentally bumped into this guy and when I said sorry he just glared and walked away. Then that same guy tried cutting Nick when he was in line to pay the exit tax but Nick wouldn't have it. He gave him the finger wag and said 'back of the queue!' which he prob didn't understand but he went. You need to stick up for yourself in these countries or they WILL cut. Then, when Nick was at the window paying, a woman came up and put money down right next to Nick!!! Unbelievable! Fortunately the woman at the window didn't attend to her like they normally do with cutters, she told her to respect the line!! Victory! Onward with the journey!
So we get into the Cuzco bus terminal at 4 am. We had booked the hostel the day before but didn't know if it was too early to go there so we sat in the terminal till 6am. Soo boring! Then finally I couldn't handle it anymore so we took a cab to the hostel. Turns out we could have gone there earlier, they had a couch and a tv for waiting on till check in at 10:30. Unfortunately for us we never saw the check in because at 9:30 I was told that the room we would have is still occupied and the people who said they were going to leave now weren't and that we would have to go to another hostel. Nick got really mad at this since we were told we would have space and the other ppl should leave, the guy just said that the person was sick. He got us a cab and we went to a sister hostel. At first it looked really crappy but our room was big with three beds and a bathroom and we managed to get it for $10 a person per night where the other one was $11.50 pp pn.
Once we were settled and rested after our journey things started to get better. We walked around the city and ate a really good meal then got cake in the market. Cuzco used to be the Incan capitol until the Spanish saw to the end of that, but there are still some Incan structures left like walls and ruins. It also has some really pretty churches and plazas, a nice place to walk around...except that you get pestered on every street to buy something. We find ourselves saying 'no, gracias' every time we turn the corner!
The next day we looked around for a tour company to book our trip to Machu Picchu and took a free walking tour of the city conveniently called Free Walking Tour. It was a really good tour and we saw some of the Incan walls and ruins that were unearthed when the Marriot hotel started to build on this one spot. They had to stop building and find somewhere else and the ruins you can visit which we did. Inside there were 2 vicunas and an alpaca roaming around that you can pet although they're not the happiest! One of them kept going after this girl in our group we think because she had on a brown tourist llama sweater hehe. But she would not leave her alone, kept biting her!
We also tried a Peruvian dish called La Causa which was made for the soldiers when they were going off to fight for the country. It was really good and tasted like potato salad.
We had lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant and learned that the statue in the main square is actually plastic but painted to look like copper. We ended at a really awesome hotel/art gallery that Mick Jagger stayed at recently, with some really cool modern art and the coolest bathrooms ever! One bathroom's theme was hell and it was black and red with roses and vines and the other was heaven and it had mirrors on the wall that were all smashed. The tables in the restaurant part were old bathtubs turned into fishtanks with glass over the top.
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at tattoo designs and re-arranging our bags to start our trip to Machu Picchu the next day!
So far we hadn't had a good introduction to Peru. It was easy enough to enter, we just got off the bus at the Bolivian border, got the exit stamp and walked across a bridge and waited in line to get the entry stamp to Peru. Unfortunately the bus driver never gave us the sheet we needed to fill out so we waited in line, got to the window, got yelled at by the stamper guy who gave us the sheet, filled it out and then had to get back in line! Then we get to the bus terminal in Puno and the people there were really rude! I had dropped coins out of my pocket on the bus and didn't realize till I got into the station and when I tried to go back to the bus the lady wouldn't let me without a ticket. I said I didn't have it they took it at the counter when we were re-checking in. She said no. I went back to the counter where the woman was looking for me to give me the new ticket, went back to the lady who told me now I couldn't leave without paying the tax. I said I just need to look on the bus to find my money! So she took my tickets as ransom as I went to look for the money which wasn't even there (turns out it somehow fell into my backpack pocket and I didn't find it till 2 days later!). Then I was walking to Nick and accidentally bumped into this guy and when I said sorry he just glared and walked away. Then that same guy tried cutting Nick when he was in line to pay the exit tax but Nick wouldn't have it. He gave him the finger wag and said 'back of the queue!' which he prob didn't understand but he went. You need to stick up for yourself in these countries or they WILL cut. Then, when Nick was at the window paying, a woman came up and put money down right next to Nick!!! Unbelievable! Fortunately the woman at the window didn't attend to her like they normally do with cutters, she told her to respect the line!! Victory! Onward with the journey!
So we get into the Cuzco bus terminal at 4 am. We had booked the hostel the day before but didn't know if it was too early to go there so we sat in the terminal till 6am. Soo boring! Then finally I couldn't handle it anymore so we took a cab to the hostel. Turns out we could have gone there earlier, they had a couch and a tv for waiting on till check in at 10:30. Unfortunately for us we never saw the check in because at 9:30 I was told that the room we would have is still occupied and the people who said they were going to leave now weren't and that we would have to go to another hostel. Nick got really mad at this since we were told we would have space and the other ppl should leave, the guy just said that the person was sick. He got us a cab and we went to a sister hostel. At first it looked really crappy but our room was big with three beds and a bathroom and we managed to get it for $10 a person per night where the other one was $11.50 pp pn.
Once we were settled and rested after our journey things started to get better. We walked around the city and ate a really good meal then got cake in the market. Cuzco used to be the Incan capitol until the Spanish saw to the end of that, but there are still some Incan structures left like walls and ruins. It also has some really pretty churches and plazas, a nice place to walk around...except that you get pestered on every street to buy something. We find ourselves saying 'no, gracias' every time we turn the corner!
The next day we looked around for a tour company to book our trip to Machu Picchu and took a free walking tour of the city conveniently called Free Walking Tour. It was a really good tour and we saw some of the Incan walls and ruins that were unearthed when the Marriot hotel started to build on this one spot. They had to stop building and find somewhere else and the ruins you can visit which we did. Inside there were 2 vicunas and an alpaca roaming around that you can pet although they're not the happiest! One of them kept going after this girl in our group we think because she had on a brown tourist llama sweater hehe. But she would not leave her alone, kept biting her!
We also tried a Peruvian dish called La Causa which was made for the soldiers when they were going off to fight for the country. It was really good and tasted like potato salad.
We had lunch at a Spanish tapas restaurant and learned that the statue in the main square is actually plastic but painted to look like copper. We ended at a really awesome hotel/art gallery that Mick Jagger stayed at recently, with some really cool modern art and the coolest bathrooms ever! One bathroom's theme was hell and it was black and red with roses and vines and the other was heaven and it had mirrors on the wall that were all smashed. The tables in the restaurant part were old bathtubs turned into fishtanks with glass over the top.
We spent the rest of the afternoon looking at tattoo designs and re-arranging our bags to start our trip to Machu Picchu the next day!
 |
| around cuzco |
 |
| Plaza de Armas |
 |
| Free walking tour group in front of plastic statue |
 |
| Alpaca face |
 |
| La Causa. Layers of mashed potato, some hard boiled egg and other goodness |
 |
| Incan wall. they used no mortar they just cut angles in the stones so they fit together. Smaller stones on the bottom and they're built on an angle to make them earthquake proof. |
 |
| Vicuna getting ready to spit at Nick |
 |
| Hotel/art gallery |
 |
| 'heaven' bathroom |
 |
| 'hell' bathroom |
 |
| fishtub table |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)