Wow, Peru went by in such a whirlwind! Here's a recap of my last 2 weeks, where I tackled some of the highlights of Peru.
Started out in Lima, where I ate some good food, and browsed some markets for an evening. I didn't spend much time in Lima as I was anxious to get to Cuzco, but from what I saw it seemed like a nice city. I flew from Lima to Cuzco with TACA airlines to save myself a 24 hour bus ride, but that turned out to be a rough morning at the airport. Luckily, someone had told me it took over an hour to get to the airport, so I left the hostel extra early in the morning... In reality it only took about 30 minutes, but when I arrived at the departures terminal the line-up of people trying to drop their baggage off stretched the length of the whole terminal. Literally, I'm thinking there were over 2 thousand people waiting in line... I patiently waited for an hour and a half, before i realized I might miss my flight and hurried to the front to drop my bag, run through security, and run to my gate just as the last people were getting on. So in the end everything was fine and I made my flight, but I'm certainly not impressed with taca right now!
Cuzco was awesome! I stayed at Loki hostel, which was non-stop fun. I had 2 days before leaving for Machu Picchu, so I spent some time in the local market getting decked out in tacky tourist llama gear, and went on a free walking tour of the city (we tasted alpaca, chocolate tea, and saw lots of old buildings). I thought Cuzco was a really cool city with so much to see and do, I could have easily spent more time there.
Machu Picchu! I chose to do a bit of a non-traditional trek to Machu Picchu and went with Lorenzo Expidition's Inka Jungle trek, which ended up being a blast! It was a great combination of hiking on inka trails, and adventure sports that are so prominent in the region. The first day, we drove a few hours from Cuzco to the top of a mountain at 4,600m and strapped on our helmets and elbow pads, and hopped on some bikes to cruise down the mountainside until we reached the jungle hut by the river we spent the first night. The second day, we woke up bright and early, donned some bathing suits, and jumped into some rafts to go white water rafting down the river! After that, we changed into hiking gear and were dropped off at the start of the inka trail, where we climbed stairs. So many stairs. Hours upon hours of stairs. But, we had lots of stops along the way where our guide Wilburd would give us lots of interesting information about the region and history, and many many photo-stops. The third day, we woke up and started the day getting our heart rates' pumping with some zip-lining! One of the zip lines between two mountains was over 1.5km long and you zoom along at over 80k/hr. Then we were back into hiking gear for the last leg to Aguas Calientes, or Machu Picchu town. The last day, my alarm went off at 3:50 am, and we were off walking to the gate of machu picchu before 5am. The gate opened promotly at 5, and for the next hour we were stampeding up stairs to reach the main gates of Machu Picchu and get inside before the sunrise. Our guide spent a few hours showing us around the ancient city and explaining the history, and then I climbed up Machu Picchu mountain (which was another hour of mothing but steep rock stairs... But it was completely worth it for the view!). We left Machu Picchu early afternoon, I went to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes for a quick soak for my sore legs, and then we hopped on the train back to Cuzco! All in all, I was so happy with my tour. The destination was amazing, but the journey to get there was so fun and filled with adventure that it was worth it in itself.
Last day in Cuzco was pretty chill. I was fairly sore, so Rebecka and I walked up to some ruins near Cuzco (they're pronounced "sexy-woman", and for the life of me I can never remember how they're really spelt, so i'll just call them that), and rented some horses and let them do the walking to a few ruins. Was a fun way to spend an afternoon.
That night, we jumped on a night bus to Puno, which is a town on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. We arrived and had a tour arranged to the islands that left right away. The tour of Lake Titicaca was so much fun! We started off visiting the Uros, who live on floating islands made of reeds. Then we went to Isla Amantani, which is one of the 6 islands that are inhabited in the lake. We had a local family who we stayed with, which was a really cool experience. They made us a delicious meal of quinoa soup and fried cheese and salad, then we hiked up to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset. In the evening, our house-mom pulled out a bunch of the local traditional clothes that they wear and got us dressed to head to the fiesta! We enjoyed some local musicians and some circle dancing until bed time. The next day, we visited another island (Isla Taquile) to walk around and eat lunch. We spent the night in Puno, and enjoyed a delicious last-Peruvian meal of quinoa, alpaca, and pisco sours.
Today, we woke up super early and hopped on a bus to Copocabana, which is just on the other side of the Bolivian border on Lake Titicaca. This town is AMAZING! We couldn't have picked a better place to take a day to just chill out and enjoy the views. I think I was over-due for a mini-vacation from my vacation. Tomorrow, we are going on an island tour of Isla del Sol, then taking a bus to La Paz! My time on my trip is going by so quickly, I have less than 2 weeks now to explore Bolivia before I head back home. I'm so grateful that I've had so many positive travelling experiences so far on this trip, and hope that this continues into Bolivia. Cheers!
