This fall, Mom, Dad, Janie, and myself went down to Peru!
Lethy was busy with her student teaching and begrudgingly could not join us.
We arrived to Lima and checked into the Miraflores hotel rather late. The hotel is very nicely renovated and sits on a cliff overlooking the Pacific.
We enjoyed breakfasts on the roof and several lunches in the executive lounge with this view:
Oct 16 Pachacamac
A late start but we arranged a trip to go see Pachacamac, a pre-Inca religious site based around an Oracle.
The urban sprawl of Lima overran parts of the ruins, but they are working hard to restore what remains:
Here we see the main temple of the sun, from which they strangled virgins and tossed their bodies off the side…
You can see just how dry it is there naturally… and this is not far from a river. Despite the ocean and mountain runoff, it really is practically desert.
Back at the hotel, we had a nice show every afternoon of people who’ve lost their minds:
Dinner the first night was at a place whose name I forget. We ordered the tourist sampler menu, it was a good introduction to Peruvian cousine. We also tried Intipalka wine, it was drinkable but unspectacular.
OCT 17 Lima tour
Our 2nd full day in Lima we did a city your. It’s a vast sprawling city, but has a colonial historic center which was actually founded by the Spanish pretty far up a river from the ocean, for defensive purposes. It has all the typical colonial things. Lots of churches and houses of nobles.
They are renovating like mad and really trying to entice tourism. Also all colonial buildings have these enclosed balconies. Some are very elaborate.
From there we went to the Larco museum, which has a ridiculous amount of pre-Inkan and Inkan pottery.
And very nice grounds with flowers, ferns, and cacti everywhere.
That night we went to La Huaca Pucllana. There was a wedding going on so we couldnt see much of the ruins, but the food was fantastic.
OCT 18 to Cuzco then to Urubamba
This day we got up early and flew to Cuzco up among the Andes, then made our way to the Urubamba valley.
The altitude bothered us a little bit at first because we actually went up from Cuzco quite a bit before starting to go down again. Plenty of water helped.
We stopped at a traditional farm where they were making baby alpaca goods. We fed Alpaca, Llama and Vicuna.
One can easily understand how crafting these goods can take weeks or months. There is a sense of guilt haggling over what is a small sum of money to us, relatively.
Compared to Lima and Cuzco, the Urubamba valley is actually very green. That is likely what made it a sacred place.
We stopped at another market and watched them make jewelry and had some local street food. We also saw guinea pigs live and … roasted!
We arrived at the Tambo del Inka and had a snack at the bar/lounge, then walked their very nice grounds and looked at the water features and gardens.
Dinner at the hotel was an adventure. Jane ordered the guinea pig, but they had no steak knives. Also the sommelier didn’t know the word vintage. The food looked nice and tasted good enough, but the missteps of the staff left an impression.
OCT 19 Urubamba Valley
On the 19th we got up early and went to Ollantaytambo. It really is impressive. The terraces, the stonework, the irrigation and waterworks…
Our guide Maria continued to inform us of the Inkan way of life and how it all changed when the Spanish arrived.
Hundreds of years and multiple huge earthquakes later, the stonework holds. In many places you can see how they 1) Utilize existing features and 2) make notches and pegs to hold it all together. To me though, the real feat is that they understood how to build sand, dirt, gravel, and rock foundations under these massive stones to provide proper drainage and support.
From there, we made a few stops:
A 1 room house a family is living in traditionally (with the addition of cellphones and satellite TV)
A woman who makes the corn beer called Chicha
At a horse farm where we had a traditional meal and saw a horse show…
And lastly at the workshop of a local potter.
For dinner we walked into the town of Urubamba for a wonderful meal. The place was simple and the name escapes me, but the food was all fantastic.
OCT 20 Macchu Picchu!
Up very early we went and got on the train… It’s actually down hill and we could tell as everything got much greener and lusher.
Eventually arriving to the bustling town of Aguas Caliente.
From there on a bus up the mountainside to Macchu Picchu itself, where we stayed at the lone onsite hotel literally just outside the gates.
We quickly dropped off our bags and headed into the park with good weather to start.
The site is huge. Terraces upon terraces many with houses or temples. After lunch, the weather began to turn on us.
To honor surrounding peaks, there are natural rocks carved to match the contour behind.
Finally rather soaked, we called it a day. The food and service at the Sanctuary lodge were spectacular. The rooms however, are in desperate need of updating.
Also of note, there are really bad biting flies at Macchu Picchu and they found me quite tasty.
OCT 21 – Hiking Macchu Picchu
Up very early again (most days we were up by 5AM) we had a hurried breakfast and rushed across the park to use our special Waynapicchu entry tickets.
It’s quite the climb. Basically a never ending staircase with some sections having steel cables to hold yourself upright.
Oh… there’s a rather tight CAVE to go through too…
But when you get to the top and look way back down on Macchu Picchu, its all worth it…
Oh, and at the tippy top of this thing is more terraces… because Inkas don’t care how insane it seems to drag stones up a mountain and build stuff…
Down is actually scarier especially with big feet that barely fit on their tiny little Inka-sized feet steps.
Being Froneks, after having lunch, one strenuous hike was not enough, we decided to hike the Inca trail in the opposite direction towards the Sun Gate…
I hadn’t included many of the surrounding mountains shots, here’s a nice one with the layers of mist making it picturesque.
From the Sun gate we see Macchu Picchu, the road up from Aguas Calientes, and to the right, Waynapicchu which we had summitted in the morning…
After cleaning up at the hotel, we headed down to Aguas Calientes and boarded the posh Hiram Bingham (re-discoverer of Macchu Picchu) train to Cuzco.
OCT 22 Cuzco
Back in Cuzco, we visited some of the pre-Columbian sites surrounding what was the Inkan capitol.
The first and largest was Saqsaywaman (Sexy Woman). This site had the most enormous stones of any site. 3000 TONS. Legends say a stone being pushed (Inkans did not have The Wheel) up hill once got loose and killed thousands of workers.
Back in Cuzco, we went to a local market. So many interesting foods and wares.
From there we went to Qurikancha, the temple of the sun. This place was the most holy of sites in pre-Columbian times. The stonework is the finest. It is said that the thatch roof was made of straws of gold and the garden was filled with golden statues of all the types of fauna and flora of the Inkan world.
The Spanish melted it all down and built a church, but plastered over the stonework which was only rediscovered in modern times during remodeling.
From there we visited the main cathedral and then several other churches where the artistic skills of the locals was on display. Amazing wooden pulpits and typical Christian paintings with subtle hints at Inkan roots. No photographs please!
In the afternoon after a lunch at the hotel (very good, in the courtyard), we went to the Inka museum. The organization was perhaps not the best, but it had a lot of interesting pieces.
OCT 23 return to Lima
Up super early again, we flew back to Lima. Perhaps a little weary from the road, we took the day to catch up on work and take a swim in the Miraflores’ rooftop pool.
Dinner was at “IK” and was really a unique experience. Typical Peruvian ingredients in a tasting menu of all types. Truly a fantastic ingredient for conversation and a wonderful time.
OCT 24 Lima
In the morning more catching up on work, but Jane and Mom went for a walk down to the beach. They are making it one continuous park down the length of the beach atop the cliff, then down below there is surfing and in some places soccer fields.
After lunch in our favorite balcony spot in the lounge, we went to the Museum of Gold.
A really astounding amount of pre-Columbian gold. Earrings, masks, vases, nose rings, on and on and on.
Then the other half is a mix of arms… from ancient to modern. Largely 20th century firearms.
Dinner was at Maido, which was a Peruvian/Japanese fusion restaurant.
The tuna sushi was by far the best I’ve ever had. Really just melted on your tongue.
All the entrees were very inventive and tasty as well.
A great way to end a great trip! All photos from the trip can be found here.
