Journey to Lake Titicaca

So what do you do after spending four day's hiking in the Andes? I'll tell you, you go back to your Cusco home and shower. Then you get up the next day in time to make a 7:00 am bus to Puno that will take 9 hours. Why Puno? Well because that is where Lake Titicaca is, and let's face it you can't go to Peru and not see Lake Titicaca.

On our way to Puno we stopped at the small town of Andahuaylillas. Like many of the small towns in Peru this town is known for its Catholic Church. The church here is dubbed the "Cusco's Sistine Chapel." Unfortunately we were not able to take pictures inside the church. One thing I loved about the small town's of Peru were the squares. Every town had a Plaza de Armas and in Andahuaylillas the square had two beautiful trees that shaded their local market.

After leaving Andahuaylillas, we passed through many small towns. One of the towns Urcos is known for making the tiles that are used on the roofs of buildings in Cusco.

Our next stop was Racchi. In Racchi we looked around at some Incan ruins that were very different from other ruins we had seen. Unlike other Incan ruins the Spanish did not destroy this village. This village was destroyed in a war the Incas were having amongst themselves.

This temple was built in honor of the Incan creator Wirakocha. It is said that Wirakocha's son is the Sun, his daughter is Pachamama (Mother Earth), and his other daughter is Mama Quilla (Mother Moon.)

Side note: We learned on our hike to Machu Picchu that before drinking in celebration the Andean people share some with Pachamama by dumping it on the earth.

Inside the Incan city.

There were once over 200 grain storage buildings here. During the war they were all burned and left as nothing more than mounds of rock. In the background you can see a reproduction of how the storage buildings once looked.

After the ruins at Racchi, we continued on to La Raya (The Line). This was the highest point on our Journey to Puno and it separates the Cusco and Puno regions of the country.

From here we continued on through the city of Juliaca. Juliaca was the only place in Peru where I felt very vulnerable and unsafe. If you are ever in Peru do not stop here just keep right on moving.

Juliaca.

After getting out of Juliaca, we finally got to Puno, and Lake Titicaca.

The Inca Trail

While planning our trip to Peru, Greg and I decided that we wanted to take on the Inca Trail. This trail was made by the Inca's to Machu Picchu, and is a four day hike to the famed ruins. It was an unbelievable experience and we truly enjoyed our time on the trail. While hiking the trail we decided we would never do it again, but of course looking back at the trail I have decided that I am game, what do you think Greg? Hope you enjoy these pictures from our four day adventure into the jungle and to the beautiful ruins of Machu Picchu.

The breakdown of our hike.

We were the first to be picked up the morning of day one. It is 5:30am and I am less than thrilled to be awake.

Kilometer 82. The start of our hike, looking ready for anything!

Our hiking group. What an amazing team of people. We were the only Americans, which made it even more fun!

These were the porters. They are amazing. They carried the cooking supplies, and tents. These guys blew my mind, notice they do not have backpacks but instead use rice sacks for transporting the equipment.

Super excited to start the hike. One of our guides, Henry, is in the red hat. Our friend Rena from Singapore is in the yellow jacket.

Trail head.

Once you cross the suspension bridge you are on your way to Machu Picchu!

View from the trail.

Getting close to our camp the first night.

Corn crib, near our first nights camp.

View through the Wayllabamba ruins near our camp.

After surviving day one...if we only knew what day two had in store for us!

Cuy!

Making sure our tent is ready for sleep.

Dinner on night one.

Day two can only be described as completely insane. It was the most brutal hike of my life. It was a 1,200 meter climb followed by a 600 meter hike down. In this picture I am smelling Andean rosewater, which helps open your lungs. The top of the climb is called Dead Woman's Pass. I told Greg on the way up that "I am thinking of joining the woman in the pass."

View from the top of the pass. You can see the trail snaking it's way down to where we had lunch and beyond that our first nights camp.

We made it!!!!!!

Day two camp site.

These are the porters on the trail. They ran the entire trail. These men would get ahead of us set up dining tents serve us a three course lunch, and then after we left, break down lunch and run ahead of us again to set up our camp. They were truly amazing, whenever you thought you were not going to make it you would see one of these guys and just keep on trucking.

View from the trail.

Me, hiking on day three.

Day three was my favorite. Can you tell?

Greg on day three.

We were the first to the lunch spot on day three! That was the first and last time that we came in first.

Some ruins along the way.

This trail is absolutely beautiful.

View from Wiñaywayna.

Day four, at the Sun Gate with Machu Picchu in the background.

Machu Picchu, we did it!!!!!!

I will post more pictures from inside Machu Picchu, on the other blog.

Hope you enjoyed the Inca Trail!!!!!

A long unfinished honey-do...

Meet Pedo...


He was our guide for the Sacred Valley tour. He was a very nice man and full of information, like the reason these are on almost every roof in Peru. Turns out they are for good luck. People are given two toros to place on their roof when they move into a home. Often they will put one bottle of Chicha (a sacred Incan drink) on one side of the toros and a bottle of holy water on the other.

While on our tour we stopped at Ollantaytambo (Spanish word pronounced: oˈʎantaiˈtambo). It was beautiful. While there Pedo told us that the Inca's were in the middle of constructing several temples at Ollantaytambo when the Spanish attacked, and so the temples were never finished. As a person who loves history this trip just made me despise the Spanish explorers more and more with each passing day. Also as a wife I must say that nothing is as irritating as unfinished honey-do lists, can you imagine having a temple just sitting there waiting to be finished?! Anyway the view from Ollantaytambo was spectacular...

The skinny stones were placed between the larger stones so that if there was an earthquake the small stones would take the most friction and if they broke they were a lot easier to replace than the larger ones. I tell ya the Inca's were incredibly smart!!!

Pedo, in the unfinished moon temple.

The moon temple was made of red granite that was brought from a mountain across the river. They diverted the river twice to get the stone up to the site of the temple. The stone strip behind Pedo is a calendar, similar to a sun dial, but based on the moon.

Red granite at the moon temple.

After I whispered a few choice words to Greg about the Spanish explorers, we were on our way again.

Potatoes in the process of being freeze dried.

We arrived at our last stop on the tour Chinchero, after sunset so we were not able to get too many pictures. However, one really neat thing is that the people that live in Chinchero still use the farming terraces to freeze dry their potatoes during the winter.

Greg and I went up to the Church courtyard in Chinchero, and found a market, where I bought a scarf.

Once back in Cusco, Greg and I dined at Chez Maggy. We drank a Pisco Sour, Sangria and ate...

Alpaca pizza.

Not my favorite, but not too bad.

It was a great last night in Cusco before setting out the next day on a four day backpacking adventure to...Machu Picchu!