The largest percentage of our trip will be spent in Peru. Deb lived in Lima for three years as a child, so she is very excited to be returning to this country of her youth for the first time in 25 years. We will enter Peru at Puno, on the shores of Lake Titicaca. We are doing the four-day Salkantay trek to Machu Picchu. We meet up with our friends Phillip, Kathleen and Jessica at Machu Picchu, and after absorbing these breathtaking ruins, we'll all return to Cuzco (via Ollantaytambo) for the Inti Raymi festival. Next we plan to do a four-day Amazon jungle trip out of Cuzco, then it's off to Nazca, Huacachina, and Lima. After Lima, we will head into the mountians near Huaraz where we will do another trek or two. Then it's back to the coast to visit ruins at Trujillo & Chiclayo. We'll cross the border into Ecuador near Piura, after forty glorious days in Peru.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 9:41PM Unfortunately, PeruRail decided that they would go on strike today, so all the trains were cancelled, and we were told the strike could last anywhere from one to three days.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 9:43PM The town is small, and 70% of it is built on original Incan foundations, with quaint cobbled streets and original Inca walls everywhere. The ruins are right beside the main square, overlooking the town, and it was easy to imagine what the town must have been like five hundred years ago.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 9:45PM The ceremony actually begins in the Plaza de Armas (we just caught the first part of it before we bought our tour tickets), and the “Incas” then proceed to Sacsaywaman where they continue the ceremonies that worship the sun. “Inti” means “sun” in Quechua, and “Raymi” means “festival”.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 9:49PM The Pisac ruins are very big, and are spread out over around a kilometre, so we didn’t have time to see them all. One of our favourite bits was the hillside where there are hundreds of holes that were used to bury people.
Thursday, July 6, 2006 at 9:51PM Two flat tires, one broken shock, and two broken rows of seats later we finally made it to our first lodge, only four hours behind schedule! What was supposed to take eight hours of driving took twelve, and by the time we arrived at the lodge we were hungry, dusty and well shaken from the bumpy road (often with sheer cliffs off the edge and no railings) and our seats that were hanging on by only one bolt in the floor.