Thursday April 4,
2019 - Santiago, Chile
We leave the ship this morning. We were up in time to grab
some breakfast and say our goodbyes and be on the dock by 8:30 AM. Our driver
was waiting and we headed inland towards Santiago. The drive took about 2 hours
and the driver never shut up. The coastal plain seems quite productive.
We were in the city by about 11 AM and the driver wanted to
explain every building and every street light. Deidre liked him, I must have been
feeling out of sorts – I had a cold and had used up all the hankies I could
muster and few packets of tissues.
We were dropped off at our hotel by about 2PM and I was free
to crash in our room, except that it was not ready. So we headed to the restaurant to have lunch
or breakfast, whatever it was. Then we had a sleep.
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| Off the ship. Time to find our driver. |
After 2 or 3 hour snooze we went out for a a walk and to find some dinner. We found an interesting pizza place that looked OK. Then home to bed.
Friday April 5, 2019 -LaPaz, Bolivia
Huge day today and we are suitably exhausted. We were up at
1:45 AM and in Reception at 2:30 AM as requested. The driver was waiting for
us. The drive to the airport in the dark was uneventful and took about 45
minutes, so it was about 3:30 AM when we stood in the departure’s hall
wondering “what now?”. We had the flight number, the departure time and the
destination, we were not sure which airline it was. We could not find any
electronic departure screens with all the flights. But after a few questions it
was all making sense and so we were thru Immigration and Security in good time.
Its interesting to note hat a USA citizen requires a visa to enter Bolivia, but
an Australian does not, so we are now travelling on our Australian passports.
We had time to grab a coffee and bagel before our flight,
and it departed on time. It was still dark so we tried to sleep. The Bolivian
time zone is an hour back, so it was still only 7:30AM when we were looking for
our ride.
The La Paz airport is 800 meters higher than La Paz, and La
Paz is already about 4,000 meters above sea level. So we were also thinking
about altitude sickness. On top of the altitude, my cold was not getting better
so I was taking it very easy.
The ride into La Paz and our hotel was 100% on crowded local
streets. It was fascinating to see the local indigenous people, especially the
older ladies. Its rude to photo them, so I will have to get a bit sneaky. La
Paz is in a valley surrounded by huge snow-capped mountains. It looked like the
city was built inside a volcanic cone. The “main” road from the airport wound
down this serpentine road giving us all sorts of views of the “terraced” houses
clinging to the side of the mountains.
We are delighted with our hotel – its modern and clean and
welcoming. We had to wait an hour for our room so had “breakfast” in the
restaurant while we were waiting. Then back into our room for some rest.
At about 3PM we headed to a local market and stocked our
larder for our road/boat/train travels over the next week. I bought some medicine
for my cold at a “Pharmacia” – had to pantomime my symptoms to the ladies
behind the counter. In bed early.
Saturday April 6, 2019 La Paz, Bolivia
We were both in bed last night at 8 PM utterly exhausted. My
cold and the altitude issue was probably not helping. Bit of a rough night, but
according to my Fitbit I managed 9.5 hours of sleep, which as got to help. Reached
for the “Ibuprofeno” at some time during the night.
Our guide “Fabio” and our driver “Rolondo” met us at the
front door right on time at 8 AM. The roads in La Paz are a bit of a maze,
there seems to be no “main roads” at all. Progress to our first attraction “moon
valley” was appropriately slow.
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| Our guide - Fabio |
The city is was founded by the Spanish when they found gold,
running water and a mild climate high in a protected valley in the Andes. Over
the next few hundred years the city grew and now over a million people live
here. A decade ago the city invited international experts to recommend ways to
solve the city’s internal transportation problem. The answer was tunnels or
overhead rail. Those choices were too expensive and so they settled on a system
of cable cars!
We had a look at Moon Valley, which was interesting, but not
much else, then headed to the cable car station. In the next hour or so we crisscrossed
the city and enjoyed some great sights. Overwhelming observation is that the
city is seriously squished into the valley.
The cable car system has only been installed over the last 5 years. There are X "lines" and they criss cross a large part of the city. The system was built by an Austrian company and I felt I should be skiing. We probably traveled about 10 miles over the city and took some great photos. Just look at the terraces of houses on the hill side.
In one of the photos you can see snow covered mountains. Is now early fall, and so the snow has lasted over the summer.
For lunch we stopped at a fancy high rise building and
enjoyed lunch in the restaurant located on the top floor. After lunch we
wandered thru the old part of the city, some markets, government buildings and
the main square
Fabio is a nice guy (once had an Australian girlfriend) and is a fountain of information. The photo above is the "palace guard" dressed in 19th century uniforms. I now understand why Americans need a visa (there is no diplomatic relations between the two countries) and how Bolivia lost a lot of territory to Chile because the British backed anyone fighting the Spanish.
The cathedral was hosting a wedding on its front steps so we
sneaked in to take a peek. I want to take some photos of the various dress
styles we have seen in LaPaz, and here was a chance (It seems a bit rude to
front up to a lady and take her photo)
Across the square we spied what seemed to be some
traditional dancing and took some photos there also. The population of Bolivia
has not integrated as deeply as other South American countries, and it still has
about a 55% indigenous component. The new President is the first indigenous President
and is encouraging indigenous people to be proud of their background.
Other than the observation that I am taller than most
residents here, the most distinguishing feature of the indigenous people is their
manner of dress, especially the women. They wear bowler hats! (and very
colorful and full dresses). This is not a 1,000-year-old tradition.
According to our guide, back in
the 19
th century there was a lot of English business people working
in Bolivia, involved in building the railroads, and they wore bowler hats. An Italian
hat company wanted to get into that trade, so sent a shipment to LaPaz, but the
hats were all too small! So they sold them at rock bottom prices and the
indigenous ladies started wearing them…………….
Sunday April 7, 2019
Another 9 plus hours of sleep, much needed. And a quiet
morning – Deidre needed to rest her knee and I needed to do the EP Rent Invoices.
A few times we looked outside and noted how inviting the day was looking.
At about 1 PM we gave in and decided to find the big Sunday
Market we had been told about. We were also told – leave valuables at home, put
cameras and money in zipped pockets, make back packs “front packs” and etc.
We planned to travel by cable car so I spent a few minutes
with the lady on the front desk practicing my Spanglish: “Dos adultos hasta el
Prado”. We caught a cab to the closest cable car station (just $B10 – about $1.50)
and successfully purchased the tickets, moving the two ladies in the ticket
booth into peels of laughter in the process.
In all we travelled on three lines – the GREEN, the YELLOW
and the SILVER. The views from the cable cars were simply amazing. Each time we
entered a new car (they carry 8 adults each) one of the local occupants engaged
us in halting English and advised us on the next step. A really delightful
experience.
We initially saw the market from the cable car – it stretched
for miles thru the streets and was teaming with people and stalls. Quite
intimidating. The variety of stuff and people were quite amazing. Street food was
plentiful but we did not dare. I took as many photos as was polite. After an
hour or so we were satiated and headed back to the hotel. Really fun
experience. La Paz is an interesting place.
There was plenter of "Ladies of La Paz" at the market but they definitely did not want there photos taken.
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| Just have to get Deidre a hot! |
Tomorrow we head off at 8 AM with our driver and guide. We
will travel by van, boat (across Lake Titikaka) and van for a total of about 7
hours. We sleep in PUNO, Peru.
Monday April 8, 2019
Our La Paz enthusiasm was quickly shattered as we headed out of town in the van with Fabian and the driver. It took us at least 60 minutes to clear the city. There was no "main road"- just one little street to the next, poverty and degradation at every turn. So sad. From time to time we saw human effigies hanging from lampposts - the message "Rob my house and we will kill you!"
Eventually we made it out onto the Altiplano. The plain was wide and flat with scattered settlements. When we passed through the villages they were rather sad. The agriculture was rather sad also. The plots small, nothing like the large scale crops in the west. But this is the home of Quinoa and we could see small plots everywhere.
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| Taking a break |
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| Our first llamas |
The road was new and old. Quite frequently the driver would take the car up onto the berm (or where a berm would be) to avoid rouge spots.
After about 3 hours we made it to a very narrow neck of Lake Titikaka and we crossed in a wooden boat with a very beat up Evenrude motor. Our car crossed on a wooden barge. We were taken to an attractive restaurant for lunch, and I had llama steak.
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| Crossing neck of Titikaka. Fare was about 5 cents |
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| First view of the lake |
Shortly there after we arrived in the town of Copacabana. We were shown a big church. We were told people drove here to have their cars blessed. Other than that, apparently this place is special, but I do not remember why. Shortly thereafter we reached the border with Peru where we were to cross and be "handed over"
This is probably a good time to chat about some "modern history". In the 5 years 1879-84 Chile, Bolivia and Peru fought a territorial war, and the Bolivia and Peru lost, big time. As a result Chile took all of Bolivia's coastline and a slug of Peru's, and gained some very valuable mineral resources.
In Bolivia we were told that Chile started the war. In Peru we were told that Bolivia started the war and called upon Peru for help. Bottom line is that Bolivians and Chileans still do not like each other, and Peruvian and Bolivians still blame each other for losing. Which explains why getting a flight from Santiago to La Paz was so hard.
Also, Bolivia has no diplomatic relations with the USA or Israel. Which is why we avoided a costly visa by flying into La Paz using our Australian passports.
The border was an image from a Clint Eastwood B Grade cowboy movie. A few run down buildings, a dusty rutted road and 50 yards of No Mans Land in the middle of nowhere. We paid a few Pesos to an old guy with a cart to carry our bags and to wait outside why we were processed.
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| Who? |
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| Crossing the border |
So after we exited Bolivia and walked the dusty 50 yards into Peru, we swapped passports. (No Geoff, not with each other but from Australian to USA). But on the Peruvian side the man in uniform searched thru my USA passport looking for our exit stamp from Bolivia - I have no idea why, who cares?
Then followed by Spanglish questions along the lines of "where did we come from, out of the sky?" Of course, I had swapped passports two minutes previously (so the stamp was in the Australian one) and had forgotten all about it and so I was wondering if this guy was short sighted or just an asshole. Meanwhile Deidre was having the same problem.
We were basically told to go back to Bolivia and get a stamp. Which is when Deidre pointed out the obvious to me and we went back to the counter and showed them the two passports. Fortunately, they did not arrest us as suspected drug smugglers and just stamped away and were happy and content. Outside we were met by our Peruvian driver who had invented a whole new way to spell "Deidre"
The drive to Cusco took about another 3 hours. This may be another appropriate moment to introduce another aspect of Bolivian/Peruvian society. It is obvious to the even casual observer that Bolivian/Peruvian buildings are never completed. Houses are occupied but not finished, with bare brick, concrete and re-bar sprouting everywhere. We had noticed the same thing is Greece. I asked all our guides why, and here are the answers:
1. Mortgages are not generally available, so people must build their houses as they save the money.
2. Families are traditional, and houses are often simultaneously occupied by several generations. So if you start a new house, plan on the assumption that your parents and your kids will all end up living in the same building.
3. It is written in the Constitution (really?) that Property Tax dos not have to be paid until the house is finished. This was also the Greece explanation.
Our hotel in Cusco was rather disappointing. The place was on a noisy street, the building was a bit shabby looking, there were no lights in the hallways, and only a bare bulb in our small room. The bathroom fittings were old/shabby, the shower over tub was ugly and it was a "put toilet paper in the basket" place. Oh well.
Deidre crashed on the bed, I went out to find a money exchange. I discovered a very clean and lively looking pedestrian-mall downtown and spotted a couple of likely places to eat. Things were looking up.
Tuesday April 9, 2019
Up early again to catch our "islands of Lake Titikaka Tour". The bus took us down to the tourist port where it was not subtly suggested that we buy some school supplies for the kids on the island. The tourist boat was quite comfortable but the drive train was obviously way out of balance and so when it tried to go faster it shook out our fillings. But it was a nice morning.
Lake Titicaca is a large, deep lake
in the Andes on the border of Bolivia and Peru, often called the "highest
navigable lake" in the world. By volume of water and by surface area, it
is the largest lake in South America. About 15% of the surface area is covered by reeds, but the rest of the lake is quite deep, up to 800' deep. The surface is at 12,500' above sea level.
First stop was the floating reed islands. They were rather cool. Its such a tourist attraction that the Government now pays a subsidy to the people who permanently live on the islands. We visited a couple of islands, lots of handicrafts for sale, rode a reed boat etc etc.
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| Reed boat |
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| Handicraft workers on floating islands |
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| Floating islands |
Our boat then continued on for another couple of vibrating hours to the island of Amantani, our destination for the day, where we were scheduled to stay the night in a local house. The islands are all steep and rocky with no roads or vehicles - and we had expressed concern as to how Deidre would manage to climb up to our house. But our guide "Bruno from Puno" had solved this by arranging for us to ride horses! From my perspective the cure was worse than the complaint. But all went well, except that I fell off as I tried to dismount.
Our house was quite substantial Peru style concrete block structure. They had solar electricity, in the form of one bare bulb in the eating room and our bed room. There was a trickle of running water in te toilet, but flushing was achieved by a ladle of water out of a 55 gallon drum. The toilet had a seat. All good.
We had company - a couple from Lyon in France. They could speak a bit of Spanish, so that helped and they were good company. Lunch was boiled potatoes, boiled rice, a huge boiled pea thing and a boiled piece of sweet corn. There is no McDonalds on the island.
That afternoon I went on a hike to the peak of the island at about 13,500' above sea level. I was not having any issues with the altitude, except headaches at night. Dinner was basically the same as lunch but breakfast was pancakes (sort of).
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| OK, lets go! |
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| Inside courtyard of our house |
The Incas (or previous civilizations) were obviously into terracing. As we headed further into Peru we saw more and more terracing in the hills, and our island was no exception. To my eye the soil looked very poor, but the islanders still used the terraces to grow mainly root crops and stunted corn.
The women seemed to work a lot harder than the men, and carried everything from babies to potatoes on their backs. The old ladies were virtually bent double after a lifetime of burdens.
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| View on my hike |
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| View on my hike |
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| View of our island from the boat |
Wednesday April 10, 2019
This morning we roe the horses back to the lake side and then vibrated over to Isla Taquile for a hike and lunch, and then back to Puno by 5 PM. Back at our "favorite" hotel we successfully insisted on a larger room but still had to find our room in the dark. Strange.
Thursday April 11, 2019
(Its now Friday as I write this note. The train ride over the "altiplano" and to the east side of the Andes at Cusco was fantastic. We are now in our new hotel in Cusco, and as usual feeling a bit tired and a bit under the weather. Deidre has some tummy issues and I still seem to be affected by the altitude. (I thought getting down today from 14,300' above sea level to a mere 11,150' would have resolved that!)
Thank goodness we have an easy morning today. Sadly we are now both running to the toilet, but at least its a nice one (with a seat!). Last night I made it thru with only a minor headaches, so maybe I am making progress. Tour of Cusco this afternoon. The morning also brought news of Collingwood's sloppy win.
The train ride from Puno to Cusco was always going to be a highlight of this trip and it totally lived up to expectations. We were picked up at the hotel at 6:45 AM and checked our bags at the station by 7:00 AM , were in our assigned seats by 7:15 AM and the train pulled out of the station on time at 7:30 AM. It looked like it would be a nice sunny day, again.
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| Even the seat was polished |
There were only 3 passenger cars, and one seemed empty. The last carriage was a partially "open air" club/observation/bar carriage. The carriages were "Pullmans" circa 1930 and they were is first class condition with polished wood walls and plush "grandma" style seats, everything clean and shined. The bathroom was a delight, with toilet seats!. Each pair of seats had its own polished wood table with starched table cloth. All we needed was Agatha Christy! I have always liked train travel and this was the ants pants.
Personal service was provided by a bevvy of staff, all immaculately dressed. I started the day with a hot Cappuccino and it was just perfect.
We were on the Altiplano (The High Plains) on the west side of the Andes. As we headed south and away from the lake we progressively entered a wide flat sparsely populated valley with huge bare and steep mountains on both sides, maybe 5 to 10 miles away. Occasionally we would get glimpses of snow capped mountains in the East. There did not seem to be much agricultural activity, a bit of grazing and some rather sparse dry crops. There seemed to be plenty of water around. Some people may have found the scenery boring, but I found it to be huge and spectacular.
After an hour or so we entered a small town. (I was able to watch our progress on Google Maps). The train line literally went down the middle of the local streets, some of which were quite narrow. One such street was a market, and as the train approached the people scrambled to move their stalls and produce of the tracks. Some produce stalls just left their potatoes and cabbages or used car parts (or whatever!) between the tracks and the train ran over the top leaving them undamaged (although maybe a bit dusty?). Overhead canvas was pulled back and replaced immediately as the train passed. People, kids and dogs all just got out of the way. The train crossed many side streets and there were no "gates" or "booms" to stop the traffic. The loco just kept blasting its horn and people and vehicles scampered accordingly. It was hilarious. I have a bunch of video that I will need to edit before I can post it.
The next treat was lunch. Sadly Deidre's tum was acting up and she had no appetite, but not me (Yet!). It was all very fancy: flowers on our table, starched table cloth, 3 courses, heavy silverware, white gloved service. What a treat. Not a bit like Amtrak! I had the fillet steak wrapped in bacon and the double chocolate cheese cake. (No wonder I have a gut ache today!)
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| Our guys - Oscar & Carlos. Very smart and great service. |
Sometime after lunch we reached the highest part of the route, and the train stopped and let us out to stretch our legs and spend some money at a little handy crafts market that had set up for the tourists on the train. I am not much of a spender but I do feel for the poor buggers sitting there every day to sell a few of their hand made items for such small amounts of money. Anyway I purchased a hand made alpaca wool scarf and an alpaca fur hat - for someone.
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| View over the train at our high point |
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| Stopped at our high point. |
In the morning about 10 AM and the afternoon about 3 PM the band played in the club car - and there was a fashion show (more selling) and a bit of a dance show. The music was Andean style and created a simply magic environment for me as we rattled thru the Andes. I was pretty chuffed.
Our guy, Oscar, told us that we would seen reach the "Cusco Pass" and after that the train would descend faster and the land would get greener. Soon after the pass the track settled down next to a river that got bigger and bigger as we passed new streams from left and right, and the "valley" turned into quite a gorge. We saw quite a few "squatter" style gold mines. It was obviously down hill, if indicated only by the lack of soot from the engine.
The rain arrived in Cusco at about 6 PM and we were met at the station as promised. The driver brought us "close" to our hotel and dropped us off on a very steep street. The hotel's "street" was too narrow for a car. But a porter ran out from the hotel and helped us with our gear.
Before we were given our room key, our new guide "Larry" talked to us about our new schedule for the next few days and gave us what seemed to be a huge number of forms and tickets. (The Peruvians seem very bureaucratic to me - we had to fill out our room registration twice because my signature was not exactly like on my passport, and I had corrected my email address and corrections were not allowed.)
Friday April 12, 2019 - City tour Cusco
We are in a great room with lots of space (The honeymoon room!) We enjoyed our "free" morning.
Our Cusco "city tour" started after lunch in the cathedral.
In general I keep out of cathedrals (and organized religion in general) but in this case we had little choice as that is where the tour started, and we ended up inside for at lease an hour.
Our guide "Puma" claimed to be an ethnic "Inca Indian". Of course he explained that he was not an Inca because Inca means "King" and he was not an Indian because the Spanish were mistaken as they thought they were in India.
Bottom line was that when the Spanish came they deliberately destroyed as much as they could and build the cathedral in the ruins of the Inca temples and murdered anybody who would not convert. Nothing in that does not conflict with my thoughts about organized religion. Mind you, the Incas used to sacrifice babies and black Llamas if their crops failed.
"Puma" was our guide for the rest of the afternoon and that included several more sites around town. Sadly, Puma was one of those people who tended to tell you in great detail about leaves, twigs, berries, branches and trunks but never explain he was talking about a tree. This began to annoy me.
The tour continued into the darkness. By now we had seen a lot of old stones.
The bus we were riding could not get into the narrow street that connected to the even narrower street where our hotel was located, so we were dropped at the "top of the hill" with some seemingly simple instructions on how to proceed. We were instantly lost. Thanks goodness for Google maps.
After taking a break, we headed into town in the dark and with Googles help made it to the city square. Once you get "downtown" Cusco really is an attractive place - lots of life, shops and restaurants. We were headed for an "Irish Pub" because we were told the shepherd's pie was "to die for" and our tummies were still angry and we though a dose of mince meat and mashed potatoes would be the perfect meal.
Well, Paddies turned out to be a bust but we found an outdoors shop nearby where we purchased a small back pack and a hiking stick for Deidre. While we were there Deidre spotted some shoes/boots that she really liked. sadly, here feet were "between sizes" but we were told they could make a custom pair by Sunday, so we bought them too.
Saturday April 13, 2019 - Sacred Valley
We we required to leave our cases at the hotel and pack enough in two backpacks for the next 36 hours. (Most of mine was filled with toilet paper.)
This had the potential of being a great day but did not quite make it. The "Sacred Valley" is a 50 mile long mountain valley that is accessed a few miles out of Puno. It is quite spectacular - with a narrow fertile and flat valley floor surrounded on both sides by steep and huge mountains. It is quite fertile and frequented by remains of Inca communities that were just too large and plentiful for the Spaniards to destroy. We stopped at two of these Inca sites out of the many. The town of Ollantaytambo lies at the other end of the valley, and we were dropped off there to catch the train to Aguas Calientes.
So what could go wrong?
1. There were 6 of us in the van, our guide and our driver. The other four were Pohmies (Which is OK). As usual, I was a gentleman and allowed the other 5 to "mount" ahead of me so I had a middle seat. Deidre was in the back row but had a window. All of our heads were higher than the top of the vehicle windows. My view was off the side walk (If there had been one) Deidre could see the buildings alongside the road (if any) and if she bent double she could see the valley floor. The guide told us it was a spectacular valley surrounded by huge mountains. Its a good thing he told us.
2. The road was paved but with many potholes and speed bumps and a fair amount of traffic. The driver drove like a maniac, weaving in and out of potholes, slamming on the breaks and then accelerating at full pace after speed bumps, and overtaking whatever was in front regardless of double lines and hairpin bends, oncoming traffic dogs, llamas and children. Being the furthest back in the vehicle, Deidre bounced around like a rag doll. We were all hanging on for grim death. English people tend not to complain when they are not in Australia, but no-one was happy. Australian are a little less restrained, and after a while in response to comments from the guide like "Look at that Inca storage ruin on the RHS" my responses was "All I can see is the side of the road" and "Can you wait till I climb back into my seat" and etc. All to no avail. When we stopped for lunch I took the guide aside and made my feelings 100% clear, because by then I was more concerned about surviving than seeing any more piles of rocks. But that made no difference after lunch either.
3. Sadly, our guide today was the same as yesterday - "Puma". He could talk endlessly about a ruin without explaining fundamental data like - "When was it built and occupied?" and "How many people lived here?" and "Why was it built?" and "What was the purpose of building such a massive thing if they were just farming corn?" and "Did they sacrifice virgins?"
4. My tummy was not especially happy and toilets in the area "rare and rural". I was OK until after lunch, but there was a good toilet in the adjacent hotel so all ended OK. So far so good. But by the time we reached the Ollantaytambo ruins Vesuvius was ready explode. Fortunately there was a "stand up, no paper, put (your) paper (after use) in a trash can, toilet". I am sure the resulting explosion could be heard at the railway station. But all ended OK.
Confucius was so right when he taught: "Never trust a fart!" I suggest he also add "a sneeze".
In Ollantaytambo we were handed over to a Tuk Tuk driver. The traffic was so bad (it was barely a two lane road) we got out and walked the last 1/2 mile.
The 100 minute ride to Aguas Calientes up the XXXX river valley would have been spectacular but by now it was dark. Our hotel was adjacent to the railway "station" (refer to photo) and our room was FANTASTIC. The toilet had a seat, there was paper, you could let your pants and undies rest on the floor and flush the used toilet paper! Plus there was a two person hot tub, a real fire place (?) and a huge bed. The XXX river was running just outside our window (No wonder we could flush our toilet paper!) Seriously, it was a great room.
The city is the launching pad for Machu Picchu and was very appealing. After we settled into our room we headed out for some dinner. I believe in distracting a stomach problem by giving it something to do, so we split a big bowl of Spaghetti Bolognese and a beer and a fast walk back to the hotel. The good news is at this lower altitude, I slept thru the night and no headache!
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| We exited the train and entered the hotel - right next to the potplant |
Sunday April 14, 2019 - Machu Picchu
Our guide appeared right on time at 8:30 AM. This time we were required to cloak our two back packs at the hotel and proceed with one smaller back pack (filled with you know what). Now we had two suitcases at one hotel and two back packs at another and our toilet paper with us.
Our guide "Sonya" lead us to the bus station where a lines of buses and people reached to the horizon. She pulled some strings and we alighted the first bus and were on our way. The ride to "the top" was maybe 5 miles on a gravel switchback road. The sides of the road covered with either jungle or precipitous chasm.
Not much I can say about Machu Picchu that you have not seen on National Geographic. Quite impressive, but really amazing how much we simply do not know about it. Most times when I asked Sonya my questions her answer was an honest "We don't know".
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| Sorry to spoil the view! |
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| Taking a break with Sonya |
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| Looking down to the river from the site |
We had achieved our "emotional fill" by about Noon and headed back. Bus to Aguas Calientes, late lunch in Aguas Calientes, pick up our "big" backpacks, 90 minute train to Ollantaytambo, and 2 hour drive back to Cusco. The hotel had put un an a different room - so small we virtually had no place to put our cases. Its tiring.
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| Lunch overlooking the river |
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| Window view from return train while there was light |
Monday April 15, 2019 - Tax and Rest Day in Cusco
Its now 12.30 PM and we have not moved from our new "spacious" room, other than to get breakfast. Some time soon we plan to go downtown to pick up Deidre's shoes and have some lunch. Deidre has a head cold, but her tummy is feeling a bit better. My digestive system is still is still complaining.
We headed downtown at about 1:30 PM. It was obvious something was going on down town - people milling around, lots of police and lots of people dressed up in some sort of garb. We picked up Deidre's new boots, and she is happy with them. The store keeper explained that there would be an Easter parade starting about 2 PM so we stuck around
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| New Custom Peruvian Boots |
Lo and behold, at about 2:15 Jesus on the cross made an appearance in front of the cathedral accompanied by all sorts of smoke, bell ringing, brass music and some other very strange noises. The platform was being carried by a large bunch of dressed up people. There was lots of police and other sorts of enforcement people. Progress was a bit slow, but we had bumped into a young South African couple and enjoyed a conversation while we waited.
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| A brown "we know who" leading the Easter parade. |
We learned that the procession was headed to another church but would be back by 7PM where all would be blessed. We decided to get a cab and head home - home was up some very steep hills. We found a cab, showed him the hotel location on Google maps, agreed to a price and jumped in. I watched our progress on my phone. Every turn this guy made was wrong, plus traffic was affected by the parade. We were steadily getting further from our destination. The guy was an idiot. So I told him to stop in Australian, gave him the fare and we got out. It took us 90 minutes to walk to the hotel, poor Deidre was buggered.
Tuesday April 16, 2019
Up early, picked up and taken to the AP. No complications, arrived Lima on time and driven to our hotel. Had to wait for our room, but met our travel agent for lunch at a modern mall down by the ocean. That evening we took a cab back to the same place for dinner.
Wednesday April 16, 2019
City tour. Was a giant waste of time. Five hours of driving, maybe an hour of touring. Lima seems a pleasant place, but the traffic and lack of rules is appalling.
Our flight was at 1:10 AM on Thursday. We tried to have an afternoon sleep but that did not seem to work. We were picked up at about 9 PM and endured 90 minutes of battling the traffic. Thank goodness the Delta line was short and we had an hour or two to calm down.
Flights back to Charleston were uneventful. It was good to get home.
