Lake Titicaca - the Peruvian side

The next day we woke up at 6am (yes, that equals four hours of sleep, and yes this was vacation) to hop on a bus to Puno. Puno is on the shores of Titicaca and about a 7 hour drive from Cusco, winding through the high Pampas region. The scenery was incredible despite a somewhat obnoxious tour guide and we got to stop at some interesting sites along the way.

These are live sheep riding on top of a van. Saw it multiple times.

The next day, we spent on a boat out on Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is at about 12,000 feet and is the highest navigable lake in the world. The weather was beautiful, though chilly in the mornings because of the high elevation.

Puno city

Our first stop was the Uros floating islands. Way back when the Spanish came, they were trying to enslave the locals. Some of them took off in their boats made of reeds and began living on their boats to escape the Spanish. Eventually they discovered that they could create floating islands made of the reeds that grow in the lake, and began creating and living on these islands. Today it is fairly overly-touristy but it was still incredible to see the way that these people had been living for 500 years.

Our next stop was the Island of Taquile which is known for its amazing textiles. We got to walk across the island, visit the textile market, and eat lunch with a great view.

We had heard Puno was a boring/ dirty town but actually found it to be quite agreeable. Decent $2 local meals, great $12 tourist food, and fairly lively and safe feeling. The boys ordered Cuy our second night there. Cuy is a Peruvian delicacy also known as guinea pig. Ashley and I each tried a bite and all agreed it was fine but somewhat like chicken wings....greasy and boney. But hey, now we had all tried both guinea pig and alpaca.

Machu Picchu

***Warning: lots of pictures. Sorry.


Machu Picchu was amazing. Beforehand I had wondered if it might be one of those very touristy things that is underwhelming when you actually see it. It was not. It was truly very impressive and beautiful. Machu Picchu was built by the Inca in the 1400's and abandoned only 100 years later as a result of the Spanish conquistadors. Experts believe it was both a sacred place as part of their religion and a place where the royals may have lived. There are a number of temples and other things relating to their worship of the sun god. Unlike many of the other ruins we visited it had not been discovered by the Spanish, and as such, was very intact. The Spanish carted off many of the stones from Inca sites that they discovered to build their own cities, so Machu Picchu is an impressive intact example of Inca architecture. It is also in stunning surroundings.

We woke up at 4 in the morning to head up from Aguas Calientes. We wanted to climb Wayna Picchu which is the pointy mountain you see in the background of many pictures of Machu Picchu. It is an incredible viewpoint of the whole site, but only the first 500 people there each day get the passes to climb it. We arrived at the site at about 5:30 am just as it got light. It was amazing to see the sun come up over all the surrounding mountains and we had an absolutely perfect blue-bird day which helped us forget about any rain we had seen up until that point. Lucky for us, almost everyone there was in a group with a guide and they all take the same circuit around the site. We quickly darted away and headed in an opposite circuit from the rest of the people. It was great to get there early and be able to explore and take pictures without the hoards that arrived later.
There's not a whole lot else to say besides showing the pictures. It was incredible. I ended up getting sick, so didn't make it up Wayna Picchu with the three others, but they had a great climb up the very, very steep path. I made friends with a local guide while waiting for them. :)

Ash + Steven

Terraces for agriculture

That mountain in the background is Wayna Picchu, the one they climbed

lil baby Alpacas. Cute!

A view of the whole complex from Wayna Picchu

Late afternoon the three non-sickies went to the hot springs in Aguas Calientes. No pictures because...who wants to carry around a camera at hot springs. We took a train and two buses back to Cusco late that night arriving at 2pm after being up for 22 hours. It was a long, but fantastic day.

Treking Days 3 & 4

Day three dawned to...no rain! and a beautiful view of the surrounding mountains.

We started out above 13,000ft  in the green rocky area that looked like Ireland and immediately began descending into a cloud forest. The scenery quickly changed to be jungle-like. Much warmer, more humid, full of tropical plants.

We had lunch at a beautiful outlook where three valleys come together.

We crossed a river and came to an amazing waterfall. It was HUGE.

(this is only half of it you can see, the other half is below us. we walked through it)

We descended 7000ft. Our knees hurt. We saw lots of sheep and horsies and cows and donkeys.

Just as the sun began to set and we were nearing 'La Playa' the rain began again. We were all thankful that we had had a full day of nice dry weather, but it really began to rain in earnest. Our little guidebook had suggested camping at one of a couple fields on the outskirts of town but by the time we got there it was nearly dark and the fields had all turned to lakes. Dear, brave Steven went wandering around town asking people where a good place to camp might be when a man who owned a little mini-market said we could come into his store and camp behind it. We were all tired and gladly accepted this offer. We piled into his store, pointing to Pringles, beer, and various other items that would console us. He let us sit down at a table he had to enjoy these items. We drank slowly to draw out the experience of being dry. We finally asked if we could cook dinner on his covered porch. The family ended up sharing some of their dinner with us which was amazing. We hung out more, and slowly drank more beer. Eventually I think they felt bad for us and asked if we wanted to sleep in this covered/walled-in/but open air dirt area at the back their store. Boy were we ever thankful for them. I think they all had a fun evening spying on us (quite a few local kids happened by the store), and we got to set up our tents somewhere dry. Certainly not what I had imagined for the evening, but honestly it was a good time. Sorry, no pictures. It was awkward. But here's one I took as we left town the next morning.

Day four was sunny and hot. Hot hot. We got an early start out of town and spent the morning hiking along and up and large ridge above a valley.

Just after we crossed the top of the ridge and headed down, what did we see but Machu Picchu. One of the cool things about the 'back door to Machu Picchu' is that you get a view of it wayyyyy accross a valley the day before you get there. It was pretty cool to see it in the context of everything else that is around it.

look closely...

After descending for quite a while more we crossed a river and got to another amazing waterfall. This one somehow simply appeared out of a hole in the mountain. It was also gigantic.

The whole trek was truely beautiful and full of surprises. Besides unpleasant rainy surprises, I thought the scenery was very interesting. We hiked about 50 miles total and none of it was 'out and back' like our Patagonia trek, so it really felt like we covered a lot of ground. I feel like we walked through 15 different valleys during those four days and every time we turned a corner it was a new sight. From arid, to Ireland, to jungle - it was stunning.

Late afternoon we got to the 'Hidroelectica'  (hydroelectric plant) where there is a train. The trail dumps you out at the back of Machu Picchu and you have to take a train around to the front. After a nice little train ride, you get to Aguas Calientes. You can't actually sleep in Machu Picchu, so Aguas Calientes is the town with all the hotels and restaurants for the tourists that go to Machu Picchu. Boy was it ever touristy. Poor Steven was suffering from a case of heat exhaustion and perhaps something flu-like at this point so we left him sleeping in the hostel while we went to dinner. We ate at Indio Feliz, and if you are ever in Aguas Calientes go there. It was delicious. Reasonably priced. Its off the main drag, so ask about it, and make reservations.

Then we went to bed because the next morning we were up at 4am to catch dawn at Machu Picchu. Stay tuned.