Machu Picchu

Well the last few days have been quite eventful, after much deliberation lindsey and I decided to go on a four day three night Incan Jungle Tour.  On the 27th we set out at 6 in the morning on our adventure with 15 other travelers and one guide.  The first part of the trip was to go up to 4,300 meters and ride mountian bikes down the mountian.  Due to my recent biking adventures we abstained and watched the other fools get on subpar bikes and hurtle down a mountian highway in the pouring rain.  We then arrived at our first accomidation of a gas station where a dog with fleas was kicked out of his room so we could sleep there (joy).  We then became the high matience americans because we complained.

The 28th we rose at 6 am to hike (we had no problem getting up and leaving).  We then trekked through the jungle on an Incan trail for 8 hours.  It was beautiful at times we gained 1,800 meters and looked out over the valley at the raging river and others we walked beside it.  We then finished our long hike at a hot spring.  It was awesome!!!  
The 29th we got up early again and hiked again for another 6 hours.  We then arrived in the bustling tourist town of Augas Calientes.  This town is formed for the pure fact of giving tourists a place to sleep before they journey to Machu Picchu!  But the hostel was clean and dog free!!!
Today we woke at 3:30 and hiked for a hour and a half up hill to be the first to enter Machu Picchu!!  It was truely an Epic place.  It was amazing to walk where the Incas tread 100s of years ago!!  Tonight we take a late train back to Cuzco and tomorrow an early flight to Lima!

Lindsey's Post Xmas

Hope everyones Christmas was good. Selina and I had a great German

dinner after getting to talk to the fam for a bit on the phone. Cuzco

seems to have everything and I couldn´t help but order the tenderloin

with spetzle and have a glass of red wine. The spetzle were good but

not nearly as good as moms.

We spent today browsing trek companies and finally decided on an

alternative from the Inca Trail. We´ll be doing a 4 day 3 night trek

staying at hostels in small villages. Check out our itinerary below.

We´re pretty stoked sans the biking and rafting parts. We dont want

any injuries so well be hiking all of it.

In search for one of our Trek companies, which no longer existed, we

found ourselves far enough away from the tourist areas to enjoy a

lunch for about $1.50 a piece. Their sign outside had many options but

really that just means that you might get one of those options. We sat

down and without asking we were brought a bowl of chicken noodle soup

(good for my cold!) After that we had an option of something we

couldn´t understand in spanish or chicken. We went with chicken. Good

choice the neighboring table was served some sort of fish. To finish

off our lunch we were served some sort of red flowery drink. I forget

the name but Selina said it was a Christmas drink made from flowers

that only bloom in December.

Other than that we have really enjoyed Cuzco. We wandered off the

beaten path into some of steets with local markets and shopping. It

was crazy. Their were tons of vendors obviously with their Alpaca

goods but the food vendors were off the hook. Katy would have a field

day with the assortment of meats, veggies, fruits, spices and a lot of

stuff that I didn´t even know what it was. You name it they had it.

Although I probably saw one too many pig heads and chicken claws than

I needed too. Selina and I were tempted by the long row of chocolate

vendors and I was disappointed that we had just eaten lunch before we

got there. Some rows of vendors cooked up food right there on the

spot. We could have sat down and enjoyed a bowl of soup or freshly

made smoothy form any of the many many vendors.

Well, we´re off to get some pizza. Suposedly Cuzco has the best in

Peru because of a special cheese that they use.

Lindsey's Christmas

Feliz Navidad,

Just another update and hello from Selina and me. I think my last

email ended in Arequipa. The next morning we took a posh bus ride to

Puno for $25 but I would have paid $50. It was probably the most

luxurious part of our trip with first class seats that reclined,

movies, and snacks. The 6 hour ride was absolutely beautiful and very

similar to places in the US around Colorado, Utah or Arizona. The one

surprise were some flamingos in some small mountain lakes. Yeah,

random.

Our bus ride got us into Puno, the largest Peru town around Lake

Titicaca, in the late afternoon. We hopped into a cab for about $1 to

get us into the main area of town and started our search for a hostel.

After bargaining and seeing a few rooms we ended up at one of the

worst of the bunch out of pure exhaustion. The elevation was starting

to hit us and at that point we didn´t care where we were laying our

bags. We walked around the streets of Puno and stopped for some Coca

tea in hopes to remedy our weary bodies and pounding heads. After an

hour rest we went to run some travel errands. Dropping off some dirty

clothes at a laundry (the one thing more expensive than in Chicago),

looking for a book exchange, and picking up some fresh fruit and

veggies to take to the locals on our lake visit the next day. By the

time we ventured through Punos streets and picked up some Chifa

(Puruvians version of Chinese) for dinner we were exhausted and ended

up in our hostel room. We were a pretty pathetic sight with gross

Chinese, in a dingy room, freezing and Selina´s elevation sickness

getting the best of her (puking). At 6 am the next morning we were up

and heading for the bus station. Unfortunately missing our trip to the

islands on Lake Titicaca, but also giving us more time in Cuzco to

relax and plan a fun hiking trip to Machu Picchu. Puno was not a loss

though, the markets were fun to experience especially around the

holiday season. Rows/stands of meats, potato, grains, etc. I guess the

Lima version of the Westside market but not as sightly. Although the

food looked good and the prices were right!

Yesterday we made the mistake of taking a ¨"local" bus and not the

tour group bus to Cuzco. Luckily the bus tickets we chose were first

class leaving us with decent window seats which was way more than our

options of standing or an armrest on the upper level. The views were

again beautiful. We were both feeling sick and nauseous but it was a

good experience to see the small towns and mountain farmlands. We

pulled into Cuzco around 8 and had a cab drop us off in one of the

nicer neighborhoods surrounding the main Plaza de Armas. We luckily

stumbled into a nice looking hostel within our budget. It feels a lot

like being at camp with bunk beds and timbers lining the ceilings. The

only thing we cared really about were clean beds and hot showers (or

at least luke warm). We settled in and ventured out finding some Thai

food which was a welcome surprise. Peruvian food is fine but we were

over bread, white rice and chicken. We ended the night early and were

excited to crawl into warm beds. The occasional firecrackers were

going off as we crawled into beds. By midnight the city´s sky was lit

up. Up and down the mountains and through the streets people were

setting off bottle rockets which created a display much like shooting

stars all around you. Every few seconds a large firecracker would

appear high in the sky somewhere in the city lighting up the sky.

Luckily our room has a small window on the second story and I got to

watch the show from my cozy pjs. Happy birthday Jesus.

And here we are on Christmas. After getting a good night rest Selina

and I (now with a cold) had a relaxing day walking up and down the

streets and around the plazas of Cuzco. It reminds us very much of an

old European town. Maybe its the small cobble stone streets or the

backpacker haven that we have stumbled into. After visiting Arequipa

and Puno we seem to blend in a lot more. We picked up some local

crafts for souvenirs and found a great coca/chocolate shop. You will

all have a sample of some unless I eat it all on the plane ride home.

Feliz Navidad!!

Hello and Merry Christmas to you guys!!

Well after a very fancy bus ride to Puno we arrived and I pretty much instantly got sick from the altitude. Puno was small and pretty but I pretty much spent all my time in the crappy hotel sick.   I did get to see Lake Titicaca and all of its glory. 

The next morning got up early and went to the bus station to go to Cuzco which is about 1000 meters lower.  After 7.5 hours on a bus through the Andean countryside we arrived in beautiful Cuzco which looks like an European city built on huge hills made of many squares.  Today we have walked around shopping and drinking cocoa tea which is supposed to help with the altitude.  Tomorrow we are off to find a trek to Manchu Picu

Lindsey's Arequipa

Selina and I have been keeping busy the past few days and have covered

a lot of ground in experiencing the Peruvian culture. After our last

emails we had a few hours to relax back at our hotel before venturing

back out to check out a little bit of the nightlife that Miraflores

has to offer. In search of dinner we circled the main square a few

times not wanting to make the same mistake as we did for lunch. We

ended up at a moderately priced restaurant where we had our waitress

laughing at us when we were confused by how to eat our appetizer. Cold

corn on the cob with a dipping sauce and cheese.

The next morning we woke up early for our flight to Arequipa on

Peruvian Airlines. This is a new airline that just started flying this

past fall. Their planes looked like they were made of recycled plane

parts from the 1980s. I´m glad we landed and that part of the trip is

over.

We´ve been enjoying our time in Arequipa just bumming around the main

square of the city and into the neighborhoods. Our hostel is decent

with a nice staff that endlessly tries to sell us tours to Arequipas

neighboring Colca Canyon. We decided that hiking the Grand Canyon was

enough desert hiking for one year and declined the 3 hour bus ride to

look at another big hole in the ground. What we were really excited

about was a museum that has a frozen body of a 12 year old girl,

Juanita, that was offered to the volcano gods as a sacrifice by the

Incas. The artifacts were discovered by a geologist after the

neighboring volcano erupted and it´s ash thawed the frozen ground

enough to reveal Juanita and the trail that the Incas had taken

hundreds of years ago. Everything from her skin, hair, clothes and

other offerings were preserved in the frozen ground. In the early

evening we wandered the streets and came across the main downtown

markets with everyone out and about shopping for the holidays. At

first it felt like Arequipas version of the cluster of people on

Michigan Ave. (Obviously not nearly as big). The farther we got from

the main square the more the lights of the store fronts gave way to a

market feel. I started to go into a booth with shoes and realized

about 20 feet in that it might have been an endless black hole of fake

Addidas and Converse. We resisted the bootleg DVDs and went in search

for dinner. We ended up having a great 5 course meal for 23soles which

is about $8 each of soup, chicken, potatoes, crepes, coco tea, and of

course a pisco sour.

Today we have kept just as busy wandering the streets enjoying some

more market areas and views that look out over Arequipa and some of

the nearby volcanoes. I visited the main cathedral in town and had a

few minutes to say a quick prayer. Their nativity seen was gigantic

and I´m sure will be a site on Christmas. (definitely an easy place to

forget your children haha) We also spent part of our afternoon

visiting the Santa Catalina Monastery. It is considered one of the

most impressive colonial structures in the city and takes up a few

city blocks. The monastery was built in 1579 but has not been open to

the public until recently in the 1970s. Very good experience but our

tour was probably a little bit too long when the only descriptive

verbs our guide could describe things were as ¨old.¨ No shit.

Well we´re off to grab a small dinner and then bed. Early 6 hour bus

ride to Puno in the morning. We are hoping to go to one of islands in

Lake Titicaca, Amantani Island. They are the only island that is part

of Peru that has a small family run inn. Hopefully we won´t have too

much of a problem with the Christmas holiday.

Hello From Lindsey

Just wanted to send an update, Selina and I made it to Peru safe and

sound last night. It was a long day of flying with a six hour layover

in Costa Rica. We had an airport pick-up pre scheduled which worked

out great. Our driver was very friendly, a women born in Lima, who

gave us some good tips for visiting the city. Last night we didn´t

venture out much since it was late and not safe to be walking. But we

did enjoyed some Mexican style food "pollo" chicken tacos that we

found right next to our hotel. And obviously we had to try our first

(and second) Pisco Sours. A peruvian drink that even had me taking a

few Excedrins this morning.

Today we slept in and decided to have a relaxing day bumming around an

area of Lima called Miraflores. It is probably the most affluent area

in Peru. We had a 20 minute walk to the beach this morning, stopped in

a grocery store (to our surprise very similar to Whole Foods) and then

had lunch at a steak restaraunt. The main attraction in the beach area

isn´t necessarily the beach itself. Miraflores sits along a cliff edge

and at the bottome of it is a rocky beach, some surfers, and a few

families and beachgoers. Along the ocean front cliffs is a beautiful

park which Selina and I called the "Lincoln Park" of Lima. We were

hoping to have an ocean view for lunch but the only thing that we

could find was very similar to a shopping mall with a Tony Romas and

Starbucks. Unfortunatley we headed in the wrong direction and

eventually ended up eating at an expensive steak house due to our

hungary bellies. Lets just say it´s a good thing I´m no longer a

vegetarian. The meat platter that the table next to us ordered was

very impressive. Although the beach front wan´t necessarily what we

expected it was still beautiful and we saw an awesome display of

paragliders flying off of the cliffs.

Right now Selina and I are at an internet cafe in one of the main park

areas of Miraflores. Since our hotel is a little pricey ($60 a night)

we found ourselves a hostel  for our return visit over New Years Eve.

Other than that we´ve enjoyed the outdoor parks, shops, neighborhoods

and cafes that the area has to offer. Its about time to head back to

our hotel to wash up and relax a bit before finding dinner this

evening. We´ll be calling it an early night since we  have an hour

flight out to Arequipa tomorrow morning.

There hasn´t been anything too shocking on our trip. Other than the

language barrier things are relatively easy to figure out. I´ve

learned how to say, "no, hablas espanol" "I do not speak Spanish¨"

Selina has been keeping us afloat from having some phrases down after

her 5 weeks in Panama this summer.

Lima

After a very long journey (left apartment to blue line at 11pm, airport at 12;30, 2 am flight, 3 airports and 7 hours of layer over time) We arrived in Lima Peru!!   Our hotel owner meet us at the airport and drove us to the hotel.  We put down our backpacks and ventured out the door looking for a pisco sour!!!  Found them around the corner at a Mexican Resturant we sat outside on the patio eating fresh gauc and sipping our drinks. 

Today we slept in went to the beach watched the surfers and then returned up to the cliffs to watch the paragliders.  There were soo many of them the sky was covered with colorful sails!! It is about 70 outside.  We got a little lost and ended up eating lunch at some fancy meet place.  My minimal Spainish is working well and we have had two meals and booked our accomidations for New Years Eve.  Kinda proud of myself (thanks gina for all those lessons this summer)  was even able to tell the lady at the grocery store that I didn´t want a bag!!  Tomorrow we are off to Arequipa to see a volcano and the world´s deepest canyon.