Advertisement
Pam & I leave SFO on April 21, 2015, for Lima via Miami. We arrive in Lima after midnight and are exhausted. We stay at the Belmond Miraflores Hotel arriving after 1 AM and then get up at 6:30 AM for breakfast and meet our Tauck Tour group at 7 AM. Our hotel is a five star property in the upscale Miraflores area of Lima and overlooks the cliffs and Pacific Ocean. Lima has a population of 10 million and is spread out length wise or 60+ miles along the Pacific Ocean. There is lots of traffic- cars, buses, taxis. Residents live mostly in 1-2 story apartments, many pretty old and dirty. Many are made of red brick clay or cement. We see many 3 wheeled Tuk-tuks like you would see in Asia.
We meet Gaston, our Tauck Tour Director after breakfast. We are introduced to the other tour participants and then depart for the Larco Herrara Museum in Lima. It is an excellent museum with thousands of Inca artifacts donated by a private Peruvian family. We take numerous pictures of the clay, ceramic and metal artifacts. Some are 2000-5000 years old. The museum has a beautiful outdoor courtyard as
well.
Afterward we
Artifacts in Larco Museum -Lima travel 30 or so miles from Lima to the Hacienda Mamacona- a horse breeding ranch with high stepping horses. We watch the display of horses and dancers perform while drinking Pisco Sours....and swatting flies! We have a nice lunch with wine and dessert and then return to Lima driving past refineries, cement factories, slums and housing. We return to the hotel and Pam takes a 2 mile run around the area. Afterward we take a bus through the City past the Governor's Mansion, City Hall, and the main soccer stadium. There are many different styles of architecture - Spanish, colonial, and some French. We visit the St. Peter's Cathedral with its carved altars, ornate gold main altar and side wood altar. All very beautiful.
We have dinner at Casa Aligata- a private residence from the early 19th century owned by the same family. It has beautiful carved ceilings, antique furniture and and open interior. We have a lecturer- Carsten from Denmark who discussed how Peru has changed since the 1980's when terrorism, hyper inflation, the corrupt government changed things but the situation improved in the 1990's. After dinner we return to our hotel for
Pam & Bob
Machu Picchua good nights sleep!
April 23, 2015. We fly from Lima to Cusco- about a 90 minute flight. The City of Cusco's population is half a million people. The area is known for copper, zinc, gold and silver. Major industries are tourism and agriculture- corn, quinoa and potatoes-over 1,000 varieties. In addition, the area is known for vicuna and alpaca.
It is an interesting area with hills where the poor people live. The law states that if people live on land for 10 years & maintain it, they obtain permanent rights to it. You see many shacks in the hills obviously built by the poor. Barbecue guinea pig is a delicacy. "Chicheria" is beer made from corn. Red & blue flags outside a house indicate that beer is available for sale.
History: the Inca Empire was 1438 - 1540. The Spanish came led by Pisarro.
Our group takes a two hour bus ride to Ollyantaytamba- a small town next to Inca ruins in the mountains. Pam and I climb to the top. The Incas carried boulders up the mountains and built buildings and terraces. We also stop at a small museum with Andean and Inca artifacts.
Hiram Bingham
Discovered Machu Picchu We stay the night at the
Fabulous performance at Sol Y Luna Sol Y Luna Lodge- a beautiful lodge in the Ollantayatamba area. We have our own casita which is very luxurious. We see a fantastic presentation of Andean gods performed in the evening- well done and very colorful and elaborate. We enjoy an excellent dinner. Jim, a traveller from Paso Robles has "cuy" = guinea pig for dinner!
We return the morning of April 24, 2015, to Ollantaytambo. We visit a local family at their home. The home has guinea pigs running around inside. As noted, guinea pigs are considered a delicacy in Peru. The house is modest and small. The town has cobblestone walkways and stone gutters to guide the rain fall away from the homes. People live a traditional life. They wear clothing including shawls, colorful sweaters made from local alpaca and vicuna.
We transfer to the train and ride 90+ minutes to the Sacred Valley down of Aqua Caliente. Along the way, we follow a river and see mountains and paths many people climb to get to Machu Picchu. The scenery is outstanding. Aqua Cliente is at the base of Machu Picchu and we ride
a bus up steep hair pin turns and finally arrive at the Belmond Sanctuary Lodge, a beautiful lodge adjacent to the gate of Machu Picchu.
Diego is our guide here and we immediately go on a hike thru Machu Picchu. The ruins are elaborate and to think this was built by hand over 600 years ago is unbelievable. As you will see, words do not do justice to the beauty. It is hard not to take hundreds of pictures to remember this Wonder of the World. You must see it to really understand the beauty and also try to understand how this was built to such precision with the huge boulders. It is amazing how they were carved with straight lines and abut one another with our mortar. Its must have taken millions of man-hours to do this. Some stones weigh 50 tons. There are terraces for plantings and growing crops. We see llamas walking around. We learn the Incas worshiped the sun, moon, stars and mother earth.
April 25: Pam & I get up at 5 AM, have a quick breakfast and get in line at the gate to enter the park which opens at 6AM. We
are in line with Bob from Illinois, Tom from New Hampshire and Jim from Michigan. Our goal is to climb to the Sun Gate by sunrise and then go for a walk with our Tauck group by 7:30. The climb is pretty steep with big rock steps. We have beautiful views of the Inca ruins. Pam climbs like a maniac but I'm having a tougher time with the altitude and I'm huffing and puffing. The mountains surrounding us are beautiful and the sun is starting the show on all the hills. We reach the top all sweaty but excited. We take pictures and fortunately we are there just as the fog starts to roll in. The walk has taken 50 minutes so we walk back down and try to find Diego's group but no luck. The fog came in but the sun burnt it off and now the scenery is fabulous again.
We finish the viewing of Machu Picchu one last time, head to the hotel, buy some T-shirts and depart with the group by bus down the mountain. We take the train from Aqua Caliente to Ollantaytambo. We then take a long bus ride to Cusco stopping by
Machu Picchu
Belmont Sanctuary Lodge at Machu Picchu a small group of peasants selling trinkets. The kids are cute and hawking for money.
We arrive in Cusco mid afternoon with great weather at the Belmond Monasterio Hotel- a beautiful property near the center of town. It is an old monastery that has been converted to a hotel. We enter to register in a gold leaf chapel. It is quite amazing. Cusco is very old and we are located on a small plaza with nice shops selling alpaca, jewelry, etc.
We visit Koricancha-a historic Incan place with walls of boulders with carved straight spaces that are notched so they don't move. They are several hundred years old. The Spanish took it over and plastered the walls and painted murals on them later.
We have dinner at Tupay restaurant, an elegant restaurant in the Belmond hotel. We have Opera singers singing that add to the ambiance.
April 26, 2015:This morning we travel to a farm with llamas, Vicuna and Alpacas. They are quite beautiful and we see Peruvian women weaving on the property.
We drive back to Cusco and visit Inca ruins outside the town. Again, these are enormous rock formations in the Incan style.
Battles between the Incas and Spanish occurred here at Sacsayhuanman- the "House of the Sun".
In Cusco, we visit the Baroque cathedral which is very unique. We meet David & Barbara of NY and have dinner with them. We eat some ice cream at Quindora-similar to a Coldstone Creamery. Its owned by a guy from Cusco and his girlfriend from Stillwater, MN. Pam and I walk the city, visit a artisanal museum with looms, walk the are where farmers lay their fruit and vegetables, cakes, meat, drinks, cheese along the street to sell. This goes on fro several blocks. We walk back toward the hotel, stop in a Starbucks(of all places). We see girls walking their llamas down the street. Pam stops in a jewelry store and buys a Mother Earth ring. She looks at $1,000+ Vicuna scarfs. Barbara buys a pendant at a store.
April 27, 2015: We take an early morning flight to Lima, then a short flight to Guayaquil. After arriving, we take a short city tour by bus then register at our Hilton Hotel. We learn there is lots of crime in the town and its suggested we eat in the hotel which we do
with Dorothy & Michael Thomas of FL. Nice chat as they have traveled a lot around the world.
April 28, 2015: We feel the earth move and a bang: It's a 5.8 earthquake as we eat breakfast!
We fly to the Galapagos Islands to San Cristobal Island. At Cerro Colorado museum we see some birds, learn a little history and for the rest of the day take a tour of the island. We are now on the boat as our home for the next 5-6 days.
April 29, 2015: We move to Genovesa Island and climb the Prince Phillip steps. Pretty rocky as we on on the inside of a caldera island/volcano. We take a nice walk through a lava field. We see lots of frigates and red footed boobies., swallow tail gulls and mocking birds. We snorkel along the rocks, pretty good but only 4-5 kinds of fish. Pam does well in spite of extreme nervousness. We swim the farthest of anyone from Tauck. Back to the boat for lunch then back for a hike in another area of the island. We see egrets, red footed boobies, swallow tail gulls, frigates, sea lions, finches, black iguanas,
crabs. We then snorkel some more but the water is more murky but still see larger fish. We have dinner with David and Barbara and David tells several jokes!
April 30, 2015: The ship moves next to Santiago Island. We get a better night of rest and sleep but still get up at 5 AM. Pam goes to the fitness room but it is too steaming hot.
We go on a zodiac ride along the island and see blue footed boobies, red tail hawks. The water is very clear and we see schools of fish, red crabs, fur seals and sea lions plus a small shark swimming by. The island is volcanic stone and is very scenic and beautiful. We sail into a dark cove.
We then snorkel and see schools of fish, a sea turtle and sea lion swimming by us. We return for lunch and after lunch I do more snorkeling but Pam declines. I go with Mike of Huntington Beach, CA. Again, we see schools of fish and sea lions. Later in the afternoon, we hike with Viviana, our guide, and see numerous marine iguanas, red orange crabs, volcanic lave rocket with unique shapes, and lots
of lizards. It is very hot and humid.
May 1, 2015: We move to the Fernandina and Isabela Islands. We get up to very hot and intense sun. We hike Punta Espinoza where we see hundreds of marine iguanas, some lizards and cormorants plus a sea turtle, blue heron, mockingbirds, sea lions chasing iguanas. Later we snorkel and see a sea turtle and some fish. Pam does not like the current so she quits after a short while and returns to the panga boat. We see iguanas swimming in the water and feeding on the ocean floor. After lunch, Pam and I go kayaking in the drizzle around an island. We then take a power walk on Tagus Cove to the top of Isabela Island. It looks like a lake is an ocean cove. We sweat like crazy from the heat and humidity but still enjoy the invigorating hike. We take a zodiac ride along the coast and view penguins, cormorants, sea turtles and pelicans. After dinner, David plays the guitar for about 20 people and everyone loves him and wants him back again!
May 2, 2015: On Isabela Island at Urbina Bay. We have a wet landing
and it is a hard landing with 10 foot waves crashing us into the shore. We hit the rocks on the shore with our bare feet and it stings. We hike and see 2 foot tortoises plus 3-4 foot land iguanas- really neat gold color. Also see three big hawks. It is very hot and humid at 8 AM. Kathy is our guide and takes us on a nice hike on flat ground. After the hike we return to the panga which is tough to get into due to the strong wave action. Betty and Susan need help and are knocked down. The waves feel good and cool us down. Our shoes and socks are full of rocks from the shore. We return to the ship for lunch and a presentation by Kathy about Charles Darwin(1809-1882) who came to the Galapagos in 1835 from England when he was in his mid 20s. He took samples of finches and other animals. He later wrote "Origin of the Species" on natural selection.
After lunch, Pam finds her iPad is totally dead. Later, our ship moves to Punta Vicente where we see hundreds of small dolphins jumping and swimming along side our
ship. Our ship Captain steers the boat to stay with them for over 30 minutes. It is fun to watch them jump and swim with our ship. We stop at Punta Vicente Roca Island for deep water snorkeling but unfortunately the waves and current are too treacherous. We take a zodiac along the coast and see sea turtles and sea lions, frigates, blue footed boobies and big waves crashing the island. We return to the ship for a Champagne toast as we cross the equator!
May 3, 2015: Rabida Island. We take a hike through this gnat infested island and do see red soil(from iron). We see a beautiful flamingo in a small lake Afterward, we go snorkeling and view sea turtles and sea lions, two sharks and schools of fish. The water is fairly clear and I am hoping I get good videos on my Go Pro camera. Afterward, we return to the ship for lunch. Pam takes a siesta. Again we see over a 100 small dolphins swimming around the ship. Tonight is our last night on the ship and we have a farewell dinner with the staff.
May 4, 2015: Santa Cruz Island. We take
a long bus ride to a farm where there are huge giant tortoises - 100-175 years old. They are really interesting to see but disappointed that we only see 5-6 of them We spent little time there. We visited a tunnel underground that was a little scary as the tunnel was formed from an earthquake many years ago. We get some pictures of the tortoises and then take a long bus ride to a ferryboat to the main island and then another bus to the airport for a long boring wait at the airport. We all wonder why we didn't spend more time at the tortoise farm. Our plane takes us to Guayaquil where we get a short bus tour of the city and then to the Hilton Hotel. We are told the city is unsafe to walk around. The farewell dinner is pretty lame with Gaston hosting us in a room at the Hilton.
May 5, 2015: Flight home is long after a six hour delay in Miami(from Guayaquil).
Overall a very nice trip- very active all the way through. David and Barbara of NY have become very good friends. Had good times with Jim and Susan
Claypool of Arroyo Grande, CA. Our guide Diego in Machu Picchu was fabulous as were Kathy and Viviana on the Galapagos Islands.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.115s; Tpl: 0.017s; cc: 6; qc: 47; dbt: 0.0604s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
