Our first week...from Lima to Cusco

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24 hours after finishing our MBA´s we jumped on a flight to Toronto to visit with family and friends. It was wonderful to meet and see everyone...we just wish we had had more time! We landed in Lima the next day at midnight and somehow managed to bargain for a cab in our broken Spanglish to Miraflores (trendy area of Lima). We were exhausted but excited. The next morning we wanted to absorb some of the local culture so we headed to Huaca Pacllana (an archaeological site) nearby…but it was Tuesday so of course it was closed…haha. But the security guard who worked there snuck us in for a few photo opportunities! For lunch we had heard so much about trying a local dish, cuy, (guinea pig) that we were considering splurging on a fancy restaurant but a local Peruvian man offered to show us a better, less expensive restaurant. Always up for an adventure we decided to follow him…he was our tour guide as we wove through streets and then outside the Gringo Territory (a gringo is a tourist). We ended up at his friend´s restaurant and he promptly requested that we buy him lunch for his services…and here we thought he was just being a friendly local! We ended up at a popular local restaurant (Punto Azul) that was famous for ceviche…so over a cold cerveza (beer) we had an incredible meal (yes I know…the girl who can´t stomach sushi loves ceviche…go figure!). After lunch we wandered down along the waterfront to watch the surfers and just take it all in. The weather was great and we were enjoying people watching in one of the parks. Even though we didn´t make it into Central Lima we loved our chill day in Miraflores as we were able to just unwind.



The next morning we hopped on a flight to Cusco (elevation 3300m above sea level…get ready!). The weather was beautiful (hot at 25 degrees) and we had an airport pickup from our hostel this time…yay! For the next three days we focused on relaxing, acclimatizing, and learning about the Sacred Valley before we started our 4 day/3 night trek to Machu Picchu. Cusco is surrounded by reddish mountains and it looks almost desert-like. I can see why it was chosen as the Inca Capital. We spent one day in the Sacred Valley at different sites. Our first stop was at Pisac at a local market where the women were dressed in beautiful colourful dresses and their children carried around baby sheep…adorable. We picked up an alpaca blanket and a toque for Adamovsky as the nights are chilly.<span> Also in Pisac was an Inca Citadel perched on top of a mountain with the village below. We learned more about the culture and advanced technology of the Inca´s. We spent time wandering through the site before heading to Ollantaytambo. This city is the best surviving example of Inca city planning. Again, it´s perched on the highest mountain overlooking the Rio Urubamba (river) and some of the stones were quarried from a neighbouring mountain weighing 40lbs…crazy to think about how they moved them from these far distances. We could also see the trail that the Inca´s took when they fled to the jungle when the Spanish arrived. Another day we spent on a walking tour with one of the hostels. Our guide showed us how to make pisco sours at a local bar, where to buy cheaper handicrafts, the new chocolate museum with coca tea, and other smaller parks and plazas that we probably wouldn´t have seen otherwise. Our final day in Cusco we spent chilling at a local coffee shop overlooking the Plaza del Armes as we were feeling the effects of the altitude and wanted to be ready for our trek the next day. We wrote in our journals, organized our flights to Quito, and tried to learn a little more Spanish from our phrasebook.



All in all a great first week and we are stoked to start our trek tomorrow morning at 4am!!

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