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Published: October 10th 2009
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Wednesday 7th
We arrived in Lima on Andy´s Birthday after flying across the Andes with some beautiful snow topped mountains.....and then in Lima we had a wander around Miraflores (the posh neighbourhood) taking in the funky coloured buildings and sampling some of Peru´s culinary delights.
Thursday 8th
Having arrived in Peru we wanted to make use of our full day in Lima, so headed off early to the zoo, which had a good selection of local and international animals. We went early, which worked out well as it wasn’t too busy for what turned out to be a Peruvian national holiday! We saw Amazonian animals, Tapiers (warthogs with elephant trunks) and a jaguar, plus lots of macaws and parrots (as well as the usual, lions, bears, giraffes etc.).When we had finished and came out of the zoo we were greeted by huge queues of families trying to get in.
Shopping trip in the afternoon, with Liz finding some ‘much needed’ extra clothes - another pair of long trousers for jungle life! Meeting with the GAP rep in evening, where we met others who would be on our Inca Journey trip and sampled the local drink of Pisco Sour (a
brandy, lemon, egg white mix).
Friday 9th
The start of our Inca Journey trip was an early morning flight to Cuzco, which is Peru’s second capital with 500,000 people. The city is high up at 11,000 feet, which could be felt when walking up the stairs at the hotel for example. We enjoyed walking around the town and the main square. Liz chatted with two Peruvian boys with a baby alpaca (llama).
Then we met the hardened travellers, Ben & Hillary in the local Irish Pub, Paddy’s, before going out for a nice meal in the evening, where Ben was enjoying his Guinea Pig meal even if his impression is otherwise! We both tried Alpaca meat (Llama meat) which was a bit like steak served with a rich red wine sauce and risotto. It was lovely to catch up with them on our travels and we are sure the white water rafting the following day went well and hope to catch up with them again soon in Oz.
Saturday 10th
Today was the start of the trip to Machu Picchu with an hour and a half minibus trip for us to catch train that followed the river
through the Urubamba Valley for an hour until we arrived at Aguas Calientes. The scenery was great with the river and huge mountains. As the whole area is mountainous the town is built on the slopes. Having checked into the hotel we walked further up the slope to heated pools where the water is heated naturally and we enjoyed an hour’s rest in the warm thermal waters. Our group of 16 enjoyed a Peruvian meal out that night with more Pisco Sours!
Sunday 11th
Early morning rise to catch a bus at 6am to the base of Machu Picchu. Arriving before 7am our guide took us to the highest section of the old town and we enjoyed views across the ruins through the early morning mist. The guide then gave a detailed tour of the ruins, with sundials and temples to the Sun God, sacrificial areas (where in terrible times of drought the most beautiful teenage girls were sacrificed as they were assumed to then become servants to the Gods), the royal toilet and we enjoyed watching the llamas, who we think keep the gardening costs down!
After lunch Andy walked up Machu Picchu mountain and looked down
on Waynu Picchu and the Inca town. Walking with a group of others it was still a major work out with the severe gradient of the slope and at times not even daring to look at the fall right besides the steps we were climbing. However the view at the top is superb and worth it and given how small the Inca town looked from the mountain top we were impressed how high we had climbed (3,150 metres).
Having returned to Aguas Calientes we caught the return train to Cuzco and unfortunately about an hour into the journey watched mountain fires raging higher up in the mountain slopes.
Monday 12th
In Cuzco we toured the main temple/monastry, which showed how the Spanish had built around an Inca palace, unfortunately taking all of the gold that originally lined the external walls. The tour continued into Cuzco cathedral with lots of paintings, gold and silver displays from various priests and continuing onwards with a coach tour to various other Inca ruins on the hills around Cuzco including Sacsayhuaman (pronounced Sexy Woman!!) and the fountain of eternal youth at Tambo Machay and the catacombs at Puca Pucara, where Andy decided he
was worthy of a sit down in the King’s stone chair.
Our group went out for another meal in Cuzco and we all sampled guinea pig (very salty and a cross between pork and duck) Andy ate most of Liz’s too!
Can't wait for our trip up the Amazon tomorrow....
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