The Picchu!

 

Caitlin and I just got back from a week long vacation to Cusco, Peru to see the world renowned Machu Picchu! We stayed a night in Cusco after a day of traveling; since there are no direct flights from Piura to Cusco you have to change in Lima which is a frustrating process since you have to go from arrivals to check-in then get your boarding pass and go through security all over again. But it all worked out! Well, kind of. Our hostel ended up being in San Blas, which is waaaay up on the hill (Cusco is already at 11,200 ft so really everywhere is cold) and therefore REALLY cold at night. Our hostel also didnt have heat, so at night we wore everything we brought:

So after our chilly night in Cusco, we woke up at 4:30am to catch our train to Aguas Calientes, which is the jumping off point for Machu Picchu.

Checked into our hotel and went shopping at the HUGE souvenir market down the street from us and explored the town.

Woke up the next morning at 4:00am (waking up early was a big theme of our trip) to hike from Aguas Calientes (6,693 ft.) to Machu Picchu (7,970 ft) to see the sunrise over the mountains. It was a very hard, very long journey, but TOTALLY worth it! We got there before most of the guards so we were able to frolic around with the llamas and just generally explore areas we were not supposed to.

We had gone to Aguas Calientes in the midst of a ticket shortage, apparently. When we got there they sold us tickets for July 31st instead of the day we needed which was the 30th, but assured us they would permit us to enter. The real catch was they they "HAD to" sell us a ticket for Machu Picchu AND Intipunku (8,924 ft.) for a little extra money since the real Machu Picchu tickets were sold out. It was a bit of a bother at first, but turned out to be a great little side hike after we were done exploring the main grounds of Machu Picchu.

My fingers are more or less where Aguas Calientes is.

Look how far we climbed!

After a very exhausting but very rewarding 8 hours of frolicking around Machu Picchu and its surrounding mountains/ruins, we returned to Aguas Calientes (by bus this time, too hard on the knees to go down). We spent the remainer of the day walking around, shopping some more, and eating sweets to compensate for all those calories burned ;)

Then up at 400am again to catch our train to Ollantantambo (called Ollanta by the locals). Ollanta is about a 1 1/2  hour colectivo (small bus) ride from Cusco, so instead of having another long travel day we decided to stay in Urumbamba (the neighboring town that serves as a transportation hub for the region) and see the sights of the Sacred Valley. We found our hostel, "Los Perales" in my Lonley Planet and true to form, it did not disappoint.

Right when you walk in the door.

Bleeding hearts?

Looking out into the "back yard" of our hostel.

Around the corner on the way to our room.

Fresh fruit on all the tables.

Looking out at the seating area  from the back yard.

Delicious breakfast of fresh juice, fresh jam from the garden, fresh bread, and a banana pancake!

 After enjoying our breakfast we headed out to Moray, more Incan ruins, Salinas, salt flats, and Ollanta.

The ruins at Moray, a very gorgeous hour long ride from Ollanta.

A woman harvesting from one of Salinas' salt flats.

We hiked across the flats then down to the highway. Beautiful!

On our hike down.

We pasear-ed through Ollanta and happened upon a really neat handmade fabric store/NGO called Awamaki:

We spent the night in Urumbamba and got up the next day to go to Cusco. We spent that afternoon and the next day exploring!

Plaza de Armas

Then we stumbled upon the BEST part of Cusco...a chocolate making class!!!

All the different ingredients used in their chocolates.

Ours didn't quite look like this...

Stirring the cacao beans so the shell gets soft so you can peel it off, revealing just the "nib".

Sampling cocao tea, made from the shells we just peels off.

Stirring up the paste you make by grinding the nibs with steamed milk for some hot coco!

Our group filling in our chocolate molds with various ingredients.

Los chefs and our guide Estela.

Finish products :)

Phew, long post. Congrats if you made it all the way here! It was a really great trip. It was also really nice to get out of Chulu for a bit, although I did definitely miss it here (mostly the heat since I was so cold the whole time). Hope you enjoyed getting to see a few glimpses :)

Paz,
Dani