It's been many months since I posted last in September 2013. Life has been busy for us since then. In September, October and November we had some nice weather here - warm pretty much every single day, but not too hot. The sun here is amazing - so close and you can get sunburned so easily. In October we celebrated Halloween here at our school with our students and then jumped on an evening flight from Guayaquil to Lima, Peru. We stayed in Lima for a short time (long enough to go to a Hostel, sleep for 4 hours, and head back to the airport), and then flew from Lima to Cusco - with the goal of Machu Picchu in our sites! When we landed in Cusco and arrived at our Hostel we were pleasantly surprised. They greeted us with warm Coca tea and showed us to our rooms to put our bags away. Our guide, Jose, met us there and we all walked into the center of town called Plaza de Armas. We spent some time walking around the area there which is a nice big park with a fountain, plants, nice historic buildings and cathedrals, shops, and restaurants. Best of all... I found a Starbucks there! I was very happy about that and just happened upon it while focusing my camera to take a picture. Needless to say, I had to make a couple stops there before we left Peru. The first day we walked around the city and then took a taxi up the mountain to a place called Saksaywaman. Saksaywaman is an Inca ruin that has high rock walls (a walled in complex), that is on the outskirts of Cusco - which used to be the former capital of the Inca Empire. We walked around there for quite a while as our guide told us the history of the place and showed us around. It was quite interesting. But WOW, did we ever feel the altitude when we were there. Just going up some steps made you out of breath. We had only been there a couple hours and despite the fact that we were taking altitude sickness pills - it really did affect us and our breathing. Later that night Sam got a headache and actually got sick briefly. However later that evening we felt okay and we made sure we got to bed at a decent time and got plenty of rest.
The next morning we headed to the train station bright and early. The taxi picked us up and it was a 25 minute taxi ride to the train station. We had purchased our train tickets the previous day at the Lima airport - which was very easy to do. You need to know which train you will be taking and where your getting off at. We took one of the nicer trains with windows on the ceiling so you can look up and see the mountains, hillsides, and scenery. The train ride was very nice and very comfortable. It included a light breakfast too which was pretty good. However, the train is not the cheapest mode of transportation... tickets were around $84.00 per person each way. We could have taken the bus for less, yet we wanted the experience of the train ride. I will do the train again in a heart beat - very comfortable, very clean, and safe! Well worth it. Once we arrived in Aguas Caliente we got off the train and walked right over to our hostel, which was literally just steps away - Great location, but you do hear the trains. This small town, Aguas Caliente is centered between a river and the train station - so we requested a river view room which is on one side, whereas the train station is on the other side of the hostel. Regardless, we were so tired we didn't really hear the trains and the sound of the rushing river put me to sleep fast! Okay, back to my story... when we arrived in Aguas Caliente we checked into our hostel and then walked into the town. We met our guide there, Jose, and we quickly got onto a bus that took us up to Machu Picchu. Upon arrival we entered the gates and made our way quickly through to the other side so we could get to the opening of Wayna Picchu (or pronounced and written Huayna Picchu). We had tickets to hike Wayna Picchu that day and we wanted to start the hike early so we could reach the top and then still have time to come down and tour Machu Picchu. It was a good hike... not easy by any means, but not too tough either. The view from the top was amazing! At the top of Wayna Picchu you can look right down onto the hidden city of Machu Picchu. Never seen anything like it before... and it was so much more amazing to see it in person! We took pictures and headed down Wayna Picchu and then spent the rest of the day inside Machu Picchu with our guide learning about the different historical facts and sites within Machu Picchu. We would love to go back and hike the Inca trail into Machu Picchu someday. We had planned to do that this summer but tickets sell out very quickly (in January for June!), and they only allow a certain number of people on the trail at one time. So... if we go back someday we will need to fly from the states because we won't get a chance to go from Ecuador before we leave here. I am posting some of our pics from this trip below...
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| Flying to Peru |
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| walking to our hostel in Cusco - the streets are very narrow |
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| Yes, indeed that is a Starbucks! Yay! |
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| These are little sleeping pods built on the side of a mountain. People can rent them and repel down to them and stay in them. Crazy! |
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| Machu Picchu with Wayna Picchu in the background. |
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| The registry to enter the trail to Wayna Picchu. |
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| The big mountain behind Machu Picchu is Wayna Picchu. That is what we hiked. |
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| At Machu Picchu with Wayna Picchu behind us. |
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| on the train back - entertainment :) |
Overall we had an amazing trip to Peru! The people there were so friendly, our guide Jose was wonderful, and we really loved the city of Cusco! The weather was great too... sunny but cool in the evening. What a change it was from Guayaquil, Ecuador. Maybe someday we will go again.
I'm going to close for now and at least get this part posted. I will do another update again soon to share what we have done since this trip. In the meantime... enjoy life and continue to love what you live, and live what you love!
~ Michelle
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