This is a section of our honeymoon blog. The main post can be found here.
Day One – Home to Lima
We left home at 4am thanks to a lift off the mother to catch a 10:30am flight from Heathrow to Miami. No problems yet thankfully and writing this on day 7, I still don’t think we forgot anything!
It took 9 hours to get to Miami, then we had to catch a 6 hour onward flight to Peru. I thought it was a bit of a piss take that we had to get a $21 ESTA/visa for the 3 hours without having any intention to leave the airport.
Flying over Miami was nothing like I had expected. We didn’t get really close to downtown or the beaches I guess but away from there it looked pretty typical albeit a few extra swimming pools in gardens and very few high risers. Adding to this, whilst sat on the plane for Lima we were told taking off or not would be hit and miss due to the incoming thunderstorm. I personally haven’t been on a flight that departed in such bad weather! The “Sunshine state” my arse…
In terms of long haul flights, it’s been a number of years since we’ve had anything over 5 hours (Egypt)… even Hong Kong was broken up by short city visits to Amsterdam and Beijing on the way.
So, forgive us, after 18 hours and very little sleep, for suspending our excitement over our first ever steps in South America to crash and recover. Once our driver picked us up and took us to our Mercure Ariosto hotel it had just passed midnight.
Day Two – Lima
More sprightly than expected at 6am for breakfast, this morning we had a three hour tour of Lima city by minibus with a few stop offs.
Our tour guide Carlos was very informative and I’ll steal some of his statements and turn them in to some mega fun facts shortly.
Our first stop was Huaca Pucllana. This is a historical Inca site, a clay pyramid constructed around 400AD. Unfortunately it was largely neglected until 40 years ago. It even has a main road running through it! Carlos made a point of looking at the way the stones were assembled, like a bookshelf, as to protect the structure from earthquakes. Incredible knowledge given the time. We did bookmark this as a definite thing to visit and enter, but with the guides information and it being somewhere just to walk around, I thought that was enough.
When moving through the very slow city centre traffic Carlos delivered some great facts about Peru. So without delay, here are some terrifically fun facts…
Peru are prominent in metal ‘production’. They are second in the world for copper after Chile, 3rd in silver, 10th in Zinc and 6th in gold.
They also have similarly impressive stats for agriculture. They were the first exporters of quinoa. They have 3500 different varieties of potatoes. In terms of exporting they are the highest exports of blueberries, 2nd avocado and 2nd for asparagus.
Coca also originated from the Andes, spanning a large part of Peru. I must admit we tried a few sweets and tea as apparently it helped with the climate (probably just buzzing my tits off) but left them in the hotel when we left the country… so don’t be bringing your grinders or whatever is used down the pub when I get back.
Roasted guinea pig is widely eaten in Peru, more so in the rural areas where we saw a plethora at roadside stalls. Call me a snowflake carnivore but I didn’t fancy consuming anything with its head still on.
A final fun fact before moving on. Cusco, our next destination and a 90 minute flight away, would take you 22 hours in the car, being some 4,000 meters up in the mountains.
Back to the tour, I was visibly delighted to pass the national stadium, accurately named Estadio Nacional, albeit I learnt we couldn’t enter and it looked a bit bland from outside. Later we learnt it is the second biggest stadium in South America (we’ll also visit first and third). Here’s a photo anyway.
Our next stop was further north and at the old square in the historical district; Plaza de Armas. Here we were taught about the Spanish colonisation and how it shaped the Peru of today. We were told about the independence of the country in 1826. The British actually significantly helped this… Not because we liked Peru, but we didn’t like the Spanish.
… I’m surprised we didn’t steal it for ourselves too… The Argentine’s probably assisted the most and the bromance is still evidenced today with many a statue.
We were told a bit about another invasion from neighbouring Chile. Whilst relations are now amicable, you have to feel for Bolivia, another neighbouring country who once had a coast, but not only did Chile invade areas with metal resources they also made the country landlocked making import and export significantly more difficult.
The square itself packs a few sights in. Three sides are taken up by the Lima cathedral, city hall and Palace / Presidential residence.
A short walk from here is the Basilica and Convent of Santo Domingo. Regular readers know I don’t hang on to religious stuff too much, so apologies that you’ll have to use Wikipedia. A lady named Rose of Lima did take up quite a bit of the tour though and is prevalent in today’s society, known for her life of severe penance (including wearing a crown of nails) and her care of the poverty stricken of the city.
They also had a library, that sorted Kay out whilst I spent way too long in the toilet working out the bog roll was in a dispenser outside of the cubicle. Hmmm, might cut this bit out if I go over my word count…
Our final stop was close to our hotel in the tourist centre called Miraflores. On the coast (minus the road below the cliff edge) was Love’s park. Parque del Amor sounds much nicer though doesn’t it?
Yes there was a statue of a couple canoodling in an area that is similar to Guadi’s work (see my Barcelona post for more on this fella) but my main interest was the paragliding above.
I was set on having a go at this months ago when first looking at what we could do outside the set itinerary. For only 40 quid you could leap off the cliff and ride around the sky and have it filmed. When I looked again a few weeks prior I then noticed the weight limit, which was a real shame. Since then I have managed to do a lot of other things I thought my body would say no to that you’ll read about, so it’s not all bad.
After getting dropped off at our hotel, it wasn’t long until we were back out taking advantage of the ridiculously cheap Uber rides.
We went to a market that really wasn’t that interesting unless you like pig heads looking at you, before going to the Bridge of Sighs, one of the most visited tourist places in the historic district, and a meeting point for couples in love. So cute I might be sick.
To settle my stomach we went somewhere local for lunch and had a traditional dish Lomo Saltado. It was a decent, tasty, filling meal but nothing unique… The beef being in a soy sauce means your local Chinese probably offers something similar. For about a tenner each it wasn’t cheap although we did have a few Peruvian Sol to get through (this is a thing called “cash” for the youngsters).
From here we attempted to walk to the coastline. Google Maps had other ideas though and took us to a lovely vantage point instead. Thinking this was good enough we returned to the hotel.
After a few hours rest, we felt a bit lost with what to do in the evening. This is a common theme as we don’t drink when away, most attractions are closed so options are limited aside from dinner.
However, we caught the tour guide mention a fountain light show just before driving past the stadium earlier. This would be good enough.
The park, Parque de la Reserva, is open access during the day but after sunset is gated so visitors pay to enjoy the show. At 2 quid each you couldn’t really complain.
We caught the first of three hourly shows and even before it started it was good entertainment for a short time.
The show itself was good enough. One particular impressive technique was to play a film actually ON the fountain spray. The show itself was very Peruvian, showing off the country. Bit annoyed the best of few photos taken was of the flag to finish.
I was also disappointed that the fountains didn’t dance along to music. I am certain I heard ABBA somewhere along the line so was expecting some tunes to break up the story that was difficult to follow.
Before bed we visited a shopping centre on the coast for tea (KFC for a bit of culture FML) and strolled 20 minutes back to the hotel.
Was one full day enough in Lima? Hmmm. I’ll say yes but two would have certainly kept us occupied.
Day Three – Lima to Cusco to Sacred Valley
At 6am we only had a 30 minute go at the breakfast buffet before our flight from Lima to Cusco. I may refer to here as Cuzco but note this is not my usual error, they’re both right!
The flight took two hours or so before we landed at the tiny airport in the middle of the city. The big issue here was the altitude. We had gone from sea level to FOUR THOUSAND meters above. The first time either of us had been at “high altitude” (fun fact = this is defined at above 2,500 meters according to NHS) and for context, Snowdonia is a paltry 1,085m.
No one really knows if they’ll get altitude sickness or not, so our automatic thinking was to worry, which in turn took up more oxygen! The ciggy outside arrivals was a bit of an effort not gonna lie.
The panic of suffocation remained as we arrived at our pit stop towards “Sacred Valley”. This is an area rather than a specific place, which includes Machu Picchu.
The pit stop was at the “Sulca Museum” where they made clothing and other textiles from the wool of native animals such as the Alpaca, Llama, Vicuna and Guanaco. The fabric was interesting as it keeps you cool in the heat and warm in the cold but was REALLY expensive. Local families make the garments so I hope they do a good trade.
Here we had our first taste of the cocaine tea before letting us loose on the farm animals, the highlight of the brief stop.
I’m not much of an animal person and when feeding them some grass assumed they wanted to bite my hand off, but after a few minutes they were rather cute.
I mean… Look at it’s pretty face….
The activity also settled the altitude stuff a little, I think.
Anyway, the ride to our hotel in the middle of nowhere took 90 minutes. We shared the ride with Scott and Vicky from Surrey who were good company. We met them on the Lima tour and would bump in to each a few more times before they went on to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands whilst we went to Argentina and Brazil.
Our hotel, the Inti Punku Valle Sagrado, was something we hadn’t experienced before. The setting was magical and it even had two pet llamas.
As great as the location was, we did get a little bored of having to eat at the site’s restaurant. Google did show a few places that didn’t look open when passing (for a long time) but they were an hour round trip with no lighting.
With some bourbon biscuits smuggled in from Aldi UK, and a few more mugs of readily available class A tea, we had a very zen evening before the big one tomorrow.
Day Four – Machu Picchu
Leaving before breakfast time, we grabbed our prepared packed lunch to take a taxi to Ollaytantambo, where we were to catch the train to Aguas Callientes, to finally catch a bus up the windy mountainside to an undisputed Wonder of the World.
Catching the train was a little manic amongst the tourists and street traders, but we were in good time to catch our ride. The train itself was very slow, taking 90 minutes to travel about 50 kilometers.
I would have usually appreciated the scenary a lot more than I did on the train, but we had been spoilt with the views from yesterday and we knew that the best was yet to come.
Aguas Callientes is basically the closest settlement to the park, and the only way for tourists to get to Machu Picchu is either to walk or grab a minibus that can manage the tight uphill turns. This was okay, although the queue, easily half a kilometre long, felt a lot longer than the 45 minutes for our turn to board the bus.
But we got there. Getting in to the park was simple and with our guide – the name of who escapes me (sorry it has been a long trip…) started the tour.
I do not really know how to play this. I am considerate enough not to give you a really shit history lesson or chuck all of my 100 odd pictures on. So I will try to summarise.
Machu Picchu is (was?) a citadel created by the Inca civilisation in the 15th century. Its name roughly translates to “old pyramid”
The tour/guide itself was really interesting. It covered how nataives lived, worshipping the sun, making human sacrifices (typcially young girls; always the case).
When the Spanish conquered Peru they didn’t come across Machu Picchu, which is not that surprising given the location. In fact, the area was sold to an American lecturer for just one US dollar at the start of the 20th century. By that time the inhabitants had already vacated the area, well, those lucky enough to stay alive drinking the contaminated water from the streams running nearby… or not being sacrificed!
Please do consider reading up about Machu Picchu. It really is fascinating and I could not do the place justice without obvious copy and pasting!
The route of the tour got the worst over with first, climbing about 200 steps in unshaded heat. It was worth it for *THAT* photo above, just like a computer wallpaper, and resulted in the rest of the tour around the plaza and circling back around much more relaxing.
You probably cant see it on the photo below, but the very top of the rock behind is another area and farming terraces you can climb up to. What a view that would be, but no thanks.
The site itself was left unattended for hundreds of years until 1912 when explorer and Yale University lecturer Hiram Bingham discovered the area and I am not surprised people think it is a bit Indians Jones-ey. Sadly whilst doing his work, he was also smuggling some 40,000 artifacts from the site and out of Peru. We were told some of which are still available on the black market today, and in 2012 Yale started to return these, but no idea how many.
Fun fact – This place is actually a thousand meters LOWER than Cusco.
Not so fun fact – Machu Picchu is considered to be a site in danger and the worry that one day soon it will close indefinitely to tourists it a big reason we wanted to visit whilst we could. The tour guide suggested that in future they may erect some sort of cable car to visit the site from above, but no walking between the ruins like we were lucky to do. Saying that, I did feel the paths did not impose themselves too much on the ruins and it definitely not access all areas. Still, how can thousands (2,500 daily limit) of people visiting not have an impact I wonder?
A simply idiotic fact (I think…) – in the 1980s, the Spanish PM visited, but insisted to arrive by helicoptor. The Peru geezer in charge at the time agreed to this, and removed a rock of obvious significance from the central plaza (grass lawn in the middle) to give the helicopter enough space. Christ. I must mention that our guide shared this story and without knowing any Spanish cannot find a lot to back this up.
Random photo above of a rock shaped to mimic the mountain behind it. The cloud didn’t want to play ball but you can get the resemblance.
Where were we… pretty much at the end of the tour now. The bus back to the train was another 45 minute wait in the heat – hang on – I have yet to mention that I accrued SIXTY TWO bites on my legs throughout the day. I wondered why so many people were flogging bug repellent. I had two silly wristbands on that – for want of a better term – did bugger all.
Now absolutely knackered after the wait and the 20 minutes meandering the downhill route, we boarded the cramped train and utterly joyous when our air con fitted taxi picked us up to return to the hotel.
That night aside from scratching the shit out of my calf’s, we made the most of the quietness of our surroundings one final time, with the highlight being that the dwelling next door was actually a pizzeria. Seriously, I must have been there only customer that night / that week / this year so far but it was very nice and a welcome break from average steak, rice and chips.
Day Five – Sacred Valley to Cusco
We were gratefully afforded a lie in today as we were not due to be picked up until late morning, although we were still at breakfast circa 7:30am.
Since our friends mentioned that they were using their day in Cusco tomorrow to go on a long-ass tour to Rainbow mountain, I felt it impossible not to take the opportunity of going myself. Knowing this would be even more difficult that yesterday, with the elevation being over 5,000m, it took some courage to choose a trip, that you can read further down!
For today though, we arrived in the comparitable busy city after lunchtime and checking into our Hotel Xima, something much more that we were used to (although as with every hotel, a bit more posh than what we are historically used to.) Until now, we had only driven through Cusco for ten minutes, and with tomorrow pretty much a write off we had to see as much as we could in the afternoon and evening.
We sacrificed an included half-day tour of Cusco tomorrow, but were able to use tickets for the cathedral and Qoricancha Museum.
First though, it was time for some lunch and we went cheap and cheerful in the market over the road from the hotel. I did feel a bit guilty having an Alpacca steak after seeing the fellas at the farm earlier in the week, but I assumed it was not one of them.
I also had to replace a jumper left at Macchu Picchu with a wooly knitted number that will be great for a Christmas outing or two, but after its first wash I think it will be of little use. It was a miracle anywhere had anything that could fit me in the first place!
They say things come in threes, which was evident shortly after lunch taking some cash out the ATM, not realising I had left the card in before the machine swallowed it. That was a jumper, a bank card and our luggage store ticket (for our big suitcase back in Lima) within 24 hours. I am usually good with things like this, so spent the rest of the day having my phone wrapped around my neck to be on the safe side! Between us we still had two cards, and a seperate account I could pay with my phone that lasted us for the rest of the holiday!
Undeterred, we set off to see as much as possible to make up for our lost day tomorrow. Starting with a mini Christ the Redeemer statue called remarkably named “Statue of Christ” overlooking the city.
Again using Uber, a welcome return after no such thing in the Sacred Valley, we climbed the narrow rocky road where surprisingly there were a few tour buses that had managed to squeeze up there. The Jesus statue was impressive standing at 26 feet, but the view it was overlooking took my interest more. From here we could plan the rest of the evening stops and had a good view of the murals in the mountains, one saying Viva el Peru and the other, the coat of arms adorned on the flag.
Fun fact: the emblem incudes a vicuna animal, a cinchona tree which at one point was the only effective treatment against Malaria, and at the bottom a cornucopia (animal horn) spilling coins to signify the richness of Peru.
To the mid-left of the picture would be our first stop, with the cathedral in the open square in the bottom-right-ish. We paid our driver a few more quid to wait around for us before he took us to the Qoricancha Museum.
The Qoricancha Museum was once the most important Inca Empire temple. As far as the self guided walk around was considered, it wasnt overly imformative. It did share some resemblances with Machu Picchu with the sun windows, altars, brick formation and courtyard. To be fair to the gaff, it was never going to be easy to supersede yesterdays collection of rocks.
Next up was the cathedral based in the main square Plaza Mayor de Cusco. We were definately clock watching by now due to our 2:30am wake up call tomorrow, so did hurry this somewhat. It was forbidden to take photos inside but lets just say it looked more glamorous within the walls.
The plaza where it lived though was pleasant and we spent ten minutes here half people watching, half saying no to street traders (literally one every minute at least). I still wonder how they would expect me to chuck an A1 canvas in my carry on lugagge…
That was it for day five. A bit of travelling and walking, not quite the rest day we had hoped for before what we expected to be a hell of an effort tomorrow.
Day Six – Rainbow Mountain
3:30am – our tour guide and minibus picked us up outside the hotel. I hope Mikayla will not mind me saying this but she was certainly NOT looking forward to this and I am unsure how she ended up going with her concerns over riding a quadbike for the first time, no doubt a lot of uphill walking and the altitude being ANOTHER thousand meters on top of where we were. We do not have to explore whether I would have ditched her for the day and went on my own, on our honeymoon… But she went with a lot of encourangement (me forcing her) and in hindsight we were delighted we both went.
The tour itself cost £90 per person. Similar tours did start from £20 quid each, but we thought with the quad bikes and a lift from a motorcycle almost to the top, it was by far the easiest option.
The tour included breakfast and lunch, both of which was in this kinda tourist canteen half way through the 3 hour journey. Between Kay’s nerves and my guilt we didn’t have much to eat… which probably came in handy when we started to scale the mountainside VERY close to the edge and certain oblivion.
We eventually arrived at our stop and disembarked the minibus, in a tiny village with a shed. The 40 pence I paid to use the lavatory was WAY overpriced (trust me) as the guides emptied the shed of a dozen ATV’s.
We were given a quick run through of how to operate the vehicle that I thought was confusing at first, but made sense one we were hands-on. After a little test run I fully expected Kay to have settled down and was starting to enjoy the experience.
“No of course I am bastard not” was her reply there or thereabouts.
*Disclaimer: as a well respected teacher of the English dialect, of course she never said such language*
With the practice session over it was time to climb uphill for a good 45 minutes. It was very enjoyable and calm enough to take the odd photo and video along the way.
At the car park base, you have to either walk the rest of the way for 45 minutes, take a horse or a lift on the back of a motorbike, the latter of which was included in the price. We werent going to be walking up there. Even after the ride it was probably another 100 metre hike to the top where you could get that perfect Instagram post. I really struggled here, only walking about 10 steps at a time between breaks.
… but worth it, right? I did have the crop out the hundreds of tourists at the bottom but it really was spectacular – and a real achievement for a number of reasons, not least the horrible wake up time, the quadbikes and that final hill climb.
Five thousand and thirsty six meters above sea level. I can safely say that I will not be that high up without being on an aeroplane again, no matter how much you inject me with your coca leaves.
The edge of the Andes in the background were even higher…
Our ramble back downhill was now enjoyable given that we made it to the top unscathed and we were back in the minibus back to Cusco just after midday remarkably.
Finally at that point Mikayla did thank me for encouraging/forcing her to go. I was really proud of her and the tour guides also commented on how much of a natural she was. Hopefully the next time she will think she can’t do anything, she will remember this day.
You wouldn’t be surprised that the evening was rather uneventful. The highlight being us finding a laundrette nearby to replenish our wardrobe at a cost ten times cheaper than the hotel… then some average dinner in a restaurant next to the hotel.
Day Seven – Cusco to Lima
For our last day in Cusco we had something unfamiliar – a flight not ridiculously early. After breakfast we checked out and hung around reception whilst I watched the opening game of the season (Newport lost 3-2 to Cheltemham with a last minute goal FML) with Mikayla patiently tapping away on Pokemon Go, giving me evils every time I made a noise = County had a chance.
After this we still had a few hours available and with the main stadium in Cusco a ten minute walk away, a visit was a no-brainer.
The language barrier paid havoc, not for the first time, as we tried to get entry just to take a photo. Some very nice chap seemed to agree to this, until we were being invited inside to the hospitality section.
Not to give up, I did manage a little peak through one of the gates where there was a ladies match being played. Not quite sure why this has made it to the blog to be honest in comparison to our experience yesterday, but when you go, you can decide what shit to put in your blog or not.
An Uber then transported us to the main San Pedro market, which over time has sprawled in to the surrounding blocks, with traders taking up most of the sidewalks selling everything from roasted sweetcorn to little doggie puppy’s (in cages way to small…).
We seen so much in the slow taxi ride we didn’t see any value in trapsing through the congregation, instead walking back to the main square for some lunch.
Lunch was McDonald’s I am sorry to say, but it did present a couple of fun facts! They served fried chicken (KFC next door were delighted at this no doubt) and the happy meal was more expensive than in the UK at £4.
It took us about half an hour to gently stroll along the main road back to our hotel (via the aforementioned museum and another pic of the mountainside murals), before our flight back to Lima.
We didn’t get back to our initial hotel until gone 10pm that night, and were to be picked up at 7:30am the next morning for our flight to Argentina. It would have made sense to put us in an airport hotel, but we did make use of the couple of hours at our leisure to hit a food market and a wonderful burger.
And that was our time in Peru. A very welcoming country. It still feels bizarre that one day we were in coastal, cosmopolitan Lima and another day thousands of meters up surrounded by trees looking at a wonder of the world.
You can continue following our honeymoon, on to Argentina (and then Brazil when finished) by returning to the main post. Thanks for reading.
How Not 2 Life 