Call Me Dora the Explorer
Oh man! Traveling around southern Peru was an absolute blast! Seriously, so many things to see and do. While Kelsey and I had originally been planning to take the two week vacation by ourselves, Daniel, Roberto, and Roberto's girlfriend Monica were able to come along with us. Though this changed some of our destinations and activities, I'm glad they came. I think we saw so much more with them there as our guides and travel partners!
Rather than writing down all of the tedious details of each days' activities, how about pictures and bullet points?! Woo! Great idea, Nicole!
Wednesday Feb. 24th, 2016 - The Day Before Our Adventure
I only mention this day because we ran into a few hiccups...
- First, the power went out at Daniel's house so we were unable to wash our dirty laundry. This meant backpacks stuffed with smelly clothes and few clean items to wear. Yikes.
- Second, the water in our apartment was practically non-existent, as it sometimes is from time to time. Unable to shower in the evening, I grudgingly set my alarm for 5:00 A.M. so that it would only be my backpack that smelled.
Thursday Feb. 25th, 2016 - The Journey Starts in Ica, Where the Desert Meets the Sea
- From 7:30 A.M. -2:30 P.M. Kelsey, Daniel, and I rode on this lovely bus from Lima to Ica - Moni and Roberto couldn't join us for the start of the trip because Roberto had to work on some things at the school
- quickly found a tour guide/taxi driver at the bus station named Christian - he was the bomb and hooked us up with the coolest activities
- Tacama Winery - the oldest vineyard in South America. Pretty tasty, but still no Chilean wine...
- Dune buggying and sand boarding at sunset in Huacachina
- Parque de las Brujas - in short, there's some palm trees that grew all twisted and unnaturally so locals tell stories of how witches used to live in the area and cast spells on the trees
- Ended the evening in our hotel room teaching Kelsey and Daniel how to play Cheers to the Governor with the wine Daniel bought from Tacama
Friday Feb. 26th, 2016 - Paracas
- boarded a boat around 8:00 A.M. to go out to Islas Ballestas, islands with sea lions, birds, and penguins - didn't see any penguins though *insert sad/crying face here*
- drove around the Paracas Reserve - sand everywhere, beautiful cliffs, colorful beaches, and an ocean breeze - gorgeous
- More rounds of Cheers to the Governor... Daniel loves this game
Saturday Feb. 27th, 2016 - Nazca, Tourist Trap
- At 9:00 A.M. we took a bus to Nazca to see the famous Nazca Lines.
- After breakfast, we went to El Mirador (which means lookout) to view some of the lines - it was honestly quite disappointing - not a great view at all and really hard to see in pictures
- listened to a short presentation on gold mining and watched men grind precious metals out of stones
- visited Inca-made adobe houses, aqueducts, and other lines
- walked around the Plaza de Armas killing time until our overnight bus ride
- 10:00 P.M. - boarded the bus that Monica and Roberto had been riding all day to meet up with us and snuggled into our V.I.P. seats for a very long overnight ride to Abancay
Sunday Feb. 28th, 2016 - Abancay, Mountain Town
- 3:30 A.M. - I awake from my restless sleep (the curvy route plus the bus's rather rapid velocity meant that I was constantly being thrown across my bed-like seat) to hear a little kid behind me getting sick on the bus... poor guy
- By 8:00 A.M. we were finally in Abancay and headed to El Mirador for incredible views and cool animals
- hopped into a taxi to go to La Piedra de Saywite - pretty views and cool ruins, but not worth the hour long drive there and back
- Back in the city of Abancay, walked around in the evening and even saw a parade
Monday Feb. 29th, 2016 - Leap Day Hikes
- Apart from being Leap Day, this day was especially exciting for another reason: WE FINALLY TOOK OUR LAUNDRY TO A LAUNDROMAT. Praise the mighty powers of Tide because Kelsey and I were desperate at this point with no clean clothes left at all. We'll just chalk it up to part of the traveling experience.
- morning/early afternoon - hiked to a dirty lagoon in El Santuario Nacional de Ampay - it's sad to see the lack of respect and care for nature; plastic bottles and trash wrappers littered the trail and the water
Tuesday March 1st, 2016 - Exploring the Andes
- early morning - picked up by a combi at 6:00 A.M.
- Our first stop was in a small village to meet some of Monica's family who kindly served us a traditional Andean breakfast of giant corn, potatoes, fresh cheese, and a mug of warm Quaker (a creamy oatmeal and milk beverage often made with cinnamon, clove, and other spices; homemade or not, Peruvians simply call it Quaker {pronounced quack-er} after the famous oat brand).
- this village was a completely new world to me - incredibly primitive and minimalistic, the family had the bare necessities to survive and still spoke Quechua, yet they had cell phones - it was a strange mix
- next stop: El Sondor - a must-see view!
- Laguna de Pacucha - much nicer than the lagoon we saw the day before
- Our last stop was in Andahuaylas to have lunch with Monica's aunt and uncle. This was exciting because I finally tried cuy! It was actually pretty tasty but looking at the poor dead guinea pig's head while I ate eventually caused my hunger to disappear.
- side note: Monica's aunt and uncle were very adamant that I meet their son (who was currently in Cusco at the time, our next destination). If you're a tall, white, blonde hair, blue eyed girl and ever wanna feel like a mail order bride, just have lunch with Peruvian parents. My word. They practically offered for me to live with them.
Wednesday March 2nd, 2016 - Cusco, This is a City Not a Village
- first thoughts as we drove into Cusco: "Wait. What? This place is huge!"
- why I was expecting a small little town/village, I honestly don't know, but I was so, so wrong - Cusco is huge!
- tour of La Catedral de Santo Domingo
Thursday March 3rd, 2016 - Machu Picchu Bound
- bus from the Plaza de Armas in Cusco to Pisaq, a cute market town and archaeological site
- back on the bus to the ruins of Ollantaytambo
- overnight stay in Ollantaytambo
Friday March 4th, 2016 - We Saw It!
- up by 6:15 A.M. - train ride to Aguascalientes
- 9:30 A.M. - bus ride to Machu Picchu
- 10:20ish A.M. - SEEING MACHU PICCHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- while in Machu Picchu Sanctuary, Kelsey and I hiked to the Sun Gate - breathtaking (both in the pretty meaning of the word and in the I-literally-couldn't-breathe-when-we-reached-the-top meaning)
- ended the day traveling back by bus, train, and more bus to Cusco
Saturday March 5th, 2016 - Tours and Tours and Tours
- at 8:30 A.M. hopped on a tour bus in Cusco with several other excited/sleepy/coffee-buzzed tourists
- first destination: Chinchero for a textile making presentation
- next up: Salina de Maras - salt fields
- finale: Moray - Inca ruins or UFO landing zone??? You be the judge.
- 3:15 P.M. - switch buses for a City Tour of Cusco - this was really quite boring after already touring all day... we basically just saw more Inca ruins
- side note: things I learned from riding on tour buses all day - vendors, musicians, etc. will hop on the tour buses to play music and sell goods, take their earnings, get off at the next stop and climb onto the next unsuspecting bus full of foreigners
Sunday March 6th, 2016 - Puno
- This was a mostly low-key day. The only "note-worthy" activity was a city tour of Puno. (We did a lot of city tours on this trip, if you haven't noticed. Not exactly my cup of tea...) We went to several lookouts and even slid down some pretty sick slides.
Monday March 7th, 2016 - Lake Titicaca Floating Islands
- pictures should suffice here... people build these islands you guys and live on them with practically nothing! The children have to take boats to get to school. And you thought your morning commute was bad...
- 3:00 - 9:00 P.M. - bus ride to Arequipa
Tuesday March 8th, 2016 - Bus Ride from Arequipa to Colca Canyon
- mostly a day spent driving through the mountains and seeing alpacas, llamas, and vicunas
- in the afternoon, Kelsey and I went with the tour group to some heated pools - soooo relaxing (Banos Termales de Chivay)
Wednesday March 9th, 2016 - Bus Ride Back to Arequipa
- Woke up at 5:30 A.M. to go to El Mirador del Condor to watch condors fly.
- This was basically another day spent driving, but the stops along the way had their perks...
- walked around Arequipa a bit at night - really beautiful area
Thursday March 10th, 2016 - Our Final Day of Vacation, Arequipa
- city tour of Arequipa... yay...
- honestly, this was one of the better city tours
- tried queso helado (think homemade cinnamon ice cream)
- visited La Mansion del Fundador
- went horseback riding
- This was frankly super unsafe as all of the horses wanted to lead, nipped at each other, and walked in a giant blob rather than single file (countless times, my legs got squished between two horses' guts) - but, hey, it was only a ten minute ride and I got to be around horses. I was content.
- Kelsey and I booked a later flight than Daniel, Roberto, and Monica so we had the afternoon to ourselves to wander around Arequipa. Unfortunately, despite our efforts, we weren't able to do much but walk around. We tried scheduling massages, but we didn't have enough time before our flight. We tried taking a chocolate making class but we also didn't have time for the 2 1/2 hour class. We opted to grab some ice cream and then headed to the airport. After a flight delay due to too much air traffic at the airport in Lima, we finally left Arequipa. Though our flight was only about an hour and a half long, by the time we landed at 9:00 we were exhausted from our hectic vacation.
Whew. That was long.
Our trip was incredible. But I am very, very grateful that I still have a few hours left to be a coach potato and catch up on some much needed sleep before finally returning to a normal teaching schedule tomorrow.
Questions? Comments? Funny jokes? Thoughts on the new layout? Was I way too lazy about this post and left you totally confused? Tell me all about it below!
Ciao!
"It's a beautiful affliction to love your home passionately and simultaneously want to experience new cultures and places."
Explora el mundo.
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