Blogs from Cusco, Cusco, Cusco, Peru, South America - page 3

Advertisement

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco November 20th 2013

I previously published a narrative of my trip from Machu Picchu to Cusco. Because of the high elevation I didn't publish these pictures. If you read the narrative, these may be of some interest. This would go with day 7 and 8. ILYS... read more
ON THE TRAIN
VIEW FROM THE WINDOW
VIEW FROM THE WINDOW

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco November 16th 2013

I'm now in Cusco, a city of 400,000 people at an elevation of 11,500 feet, but I started yesterday from the Inkaterra Machu Picchu Hotel by walking to the train station for the ride on the Vista Dome train to Ollanta. Before checking out, however, I took a guided nature walk on the hotel property to observe the hotel's ¨cloud forest¨ environment. The guide explained that, since we were between the Amazon rain forest and the heights of the Andes, we were in a unique ecological habitat to several birds and flowers. Many species of orchids and birdes, including several kinds of hummingbirds were observed. The train ride was about 1 1/2 hours of spectacular scenery following a fast flowing river between towering mountainsides. Really, really impressive. Upon arrival in Ollanta we walked to our bus ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco November 16th 2013

3rd day in Peru and despite every precaution I've suffered some mild altitude sickness. Mainly headache and dizziness, but some loss of appetite which is very unusual for me! Mind you I did have an Alpaca steak with some nice Peruvian beer on arrival at Cusco which sits at 3500mtr despite advice to have light meal and no alcohol for first 2 days. Spent today at 4000mtr seeing lots of amazing Inca ruins in fierce heat, then further light lunch of fillet steak and spaghetti in raspberry sauce (amazing) and more beer for just £6! The people are very friendly but the street sellers in city center are a pain. Met Bruce Robertson's secret brother today...he was our guide..see pic! Tomorrow we head to Sacred valley then up Machu Picchu Tuesday. Wardrobe malfunction!! Someone stole Ross's ... read more
This one please
Some old ruins
Cuy 'bien cuit'

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco October 24th 2013

Bis Abancay (100 km) das Flusstal von gestern entlang, dann in Serpentinen steil bergauf. Aber da waren leider schon die Wolken, es wurde neblig und nass, keine Sicht, kein Tempo, Warnblinkanlage, kalt. Was ich aber gar nicht verstehe ist die Tatsache, dass es jetzt ueberhaupt regnet. Wir haben ja inzwischen die Sonne ueberholt, sie steht ca. 8 ° suedlicher Breite, wir sind 14 ° s B. Also muesste jetzt hier noch Trockenzeit sein. Ausserdem sind wir ja mitten in den Anden, trockene intramontane Taeler und so - warum regnet es????????? Und kalt ist es auch. Die Einfahrt nach Cusco war wieder im Regen, Kopfsteinpflaster, glitschig, Verkehr daemonisch. Der Parkplatz wollte mich nicht reinlassen, sei sind voll. Ich stellte mich dann einfach wo hin, es gab noch etwas Gezetere und dann ging ich. In SAmerika gibt es ... read more

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco October 13th 2013

We arrived at the bus station in Cusco at around 6:30pm and took a taxi over to our hostal (Pantastico Bed & Bakery) in the San Blas area. Whoa!! The taxi started driving down cobblestoned streets hardly wider than the taxi itself!! This place is beautiful!! We had called Pantastico earlier in the day when we passed into Peru and our phone started to work again and they had a 3 bed room for us all ready. After dumping our stuff, we went out across the street to eat in a small restaurant and then took a little walk around the San Blas Plaza! It was beautiful here. But we were exhausted from our bus ride so we crashed and woke early to take in the town. Pantastico lived up to its name as early in ... read more
20131008_174428
20131008_160530
20131008_165647

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco September 29th 2013

Thanks to some last minute calling to American, luckily I got our 3 layovers down to just 2. The second was in Lima, and for about 6 hours from midnight to 6 am. So, we decided to camp out at the airport. Andrew is such a sport with the sleeping in airports. He was even spreading the word about the sleepinginairports.com site and how we have scored some pretty fantastic airport camp spots. This one, wasn't so great. We found a quiet corner, no one else around and thought we had it made. That was until a group of about 100 middle school kids took over the place screaming and being super excited for some kind of field trip. We were completely exhausted when we finally arrived at our hostel at 8 am after being in ... read more
1
002
02

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco September 15th 2013

Up at 6a.m. for breakfast and bus to the airport. New roommie, Sharon, got karate chopped when she (nicely) tried to wake me up. It was early and she's a talker who didn't seem offended so I zombied through my morning routine. By the time we left the room I was awake enough to be laughing at her and she had dubbed me Ninja. Decent start to the day. Also, she promised not to come near me while I'm sleeping which I agreed was the best for both of us. Bus to airport, waiting in lines, bought a cute headband, onto the plane. 50 minutes to Cusco. Off the plane, on a bus (w/our new local guide Jaime talking to us the whole time), arrived at Hotel Puma. Given 30 minutes to settle stuff in rooms, ... read more
Lunch!
IMAG0683
070

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco August 26th 2013

So we got married…and decided to celebrate with a 5 week trip to Peru and Colombia. South America isn’t particularly conveniently located from Australia so getting to Peru required a 4hr flight from Australia to New Zealand, then a 12hr flight from New Zealand to Chile and finally another 4hr flight to Lima. The flight from Chile to Peru was quite enjoyable as you fly along the Andes so the view was pretty awesome. We had rightly assumed we would be fairly exhausted so booked an airport pickup with our hotel. We arrived in Lima at about 6pm which was right on peak hour. I was able to practice my Spanish with the driver which was fairly exciting – particularly when I actually understood what he was saying (I think) and was able to respond. After ... read more
Plaza de Armas
Cusco street
Breakfast

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco August 24th 2013

22 Aug Day 10: free day Cusco Its interesting to see and hear about the people who go on Treks. A lot are unlikely. On Monday night the girls we met and had our meal with, had just completed their briefing for their trek, which as it happens is one of the tougher ones. They told us about a couple of girls on their trek who were asking all sorts of questions such as about the showers. The guide informed them that if they required showers were available. They would be cold but available. The girls were shocked that the showers weren't hot. Mind you this particular trek goes to the middle of no-where. They also wanted to know about packing their bikinis. Well, as it happens bathers of some sort could be useful as the ... read more
Local School children.
The risen Christ
The Fountain in the Main square

South America » Peru » Cusco » Cusco » Cusco August 23rd 2013

20 Aug Day 8: Cusco City Tour Well you might wonder where I've been for the last couple of days. In a word Nowhere. It appears that I met and made friends with a couple of little critters who went to work on me - and won. I thought I had altitude sickness but apparently I'm fully acclimatised to the altitude with a blood oxygen level of 92% and what they considered a good heart rate. In fact I was told that because I felt no ill effect at 5,000 metres it was unlikely to be the altitude. So what have I seen of the City of Cusco, well some lights on Monday night, the inside of my eyelids on Tuesday (yes I slept the whole day and actually fell asleep during a conversation with Garry ... read more




Tot: 0.136s; Tpl: 0.006s; cc: 7; qc: 76; dbt: 0.0753s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1; ; mem: 1.2mb