Trip diario #1: Peru

The sister and I have returned from our little excursion to South America, and while I'm uploading pics, I'll spend the next couple entries detailing our adventures.

Cuzco

Actually, first stop, layover in Lima, where we missed our connection to Cuzco due to our delayed flight from Miami. And our airline made one flight a day to Cuzco. Crap. Luckily, we were able to get tickets on another airline and we only had to wait for 5 hrs! I'm not complaining too much bc we really were very lucky to get into Cuzco that day. Also, if you have to be stuck in a airport at 4 am, Lima's not a bad place to be because they have rows of seats without armrests! Score for lying down across 3 seats!

After nearly 24 hours of travel (2 layovers for me, 3 for Andrea) we dragged ourselves to our hotel at Cuzco, rested a bit, and headed into the Sacred Valley.

Saqsaywaman. Say that 3 times fast. Yeah, that's right - sexy woman.

Stones from the INCAN times, man.

Markets at Pisac.

See those charming cobblestone streets? Those stones are actually turned up on their sides, not on the flat faces. Walking without breaking an ankle takes a bit of concentration. This was also our first experience with AGGRESSIVE Peru vendors selling us their wares. They'll even send their adorable children after you - one little girl pulled out all of her finger puppets one by one for display, holding them over her head and narrating: "perro ... llama ... tortuga ..." lol. We spent the rest of our trip saying "torTUUUga ..."

Agricultural terracing in the Pisac ruins

Aguas Calientes

On the way to the train station to Aguas Calientes, we had the following exchange.

Me (eyes widening at a guy carrying half a cow down the street on his shoulders): Oh oh oh. Look! Look!
*sister ignoring me, looking at something else intently on the other side*
Me: Hey! LOOK AT THIS!
Now it's too late.
Me: Dude, you totally just missed seeing a guy carrying a cow carcass.
Sis: Dude, I just saw a guy carrying an entire pig down the street on his shoulders.
Fair enough.

Aguas Calientes is really nicely situated at the base of Machu Picchu, with giant mountains towering above. Too bad it's home to the craziest market and restaurant people of all trying to get you to BUY THIS ("Es de alpaca!") and EAT HERE ("Bebidas gratis!").

Peruvian Cody sleeps under woven alpaca garments. They have such different lives. We all do.

The view from where we were staying

Oh, did I not mention that all of Peru is a shantytown? Where every part of town looks like the bad part of town? This is actually not so bad and it's not until I'm looking at it now that I realize how much it looks like it's all in shambles.

Machu Picchu

We got up early and went to watch the sunrise over Machu Picchu.

It's misty and golden and it's amazing.

We walked amongst the ruins

See that mountain back there? The tall, steep one? That's Wayna Picchu and we OWNED that mountain. (And also the little one to the left of it.)

View of Machu Picchu from Wayna Picchu

Actually, that was the steepest trail I've ever hiked (I thought the Harding Ice Field trail in Alaska was steep), but totally worth it. You can climb to the tippy top and when you get there, you're rewarded with incredible views and butterflies flitting about. BUTTERFLIES! Why, that's just downright magical!

This pic reminds me of a poem. "They came to sit and dangle their feet off the edge of the world and after awhile they forgot everything but the good and true things they would do someday." - Brian Andreas

Had a nutritious lunch of cheesy Ritz and weird chocolate. (Everything familiar we ate in Peru was almost the same, but not quite.) Oh, and wore fobby hats and looked like Japanese tourists. Well, just her.

Back down in the ruins, we sat until it was time to leave.

And we watched the llamas.

The Incans used to sacrifice the brown and white ones. Wouldn't that be weird if we did that sort of thing now? The prettiest ones must die!

Then we ate more cheesy Ritz and did acrobatics amongst the huts.

Why are there no pics of me, you ask? More on that next time.