Week 39: Peru

We’ve been playing house in Cusco most of this week!

We started the week off with a bus ride from Puno to Cusco, through green hills and farmland, snow capped mountains and towns filled with clay brick homes. This bus ride took about 8 hours. Although other buses have advertised that they had wifi, this Transzela bus was the first we rode that actually had wifi, so we took full advantage of that!

When we arrived in Cusco, we settled into an AirBnB apartment with a kitchen for seven days! It felt really nice to be in one spot for a while. We were here long enough to unpack, and had the facilities to cook most of the week’s meals. We felt like we had been on the go quite a bit recently, so we balanced our time exploring with down time to read, catch up on emails with friends, and do some travel planning. While I enjoyed time for yoga, Will was excited to have fast enough internet to stream a few hockey and basketball games!

During our city walks, we found ourselves along some interesting streets. We wound up in the busy Plaza de Armas a few times, which was packed with people trying to sell tours and coax us into their shops. Admittedly, this was not our favourite place. We don’t like recording negative thoughts about places we visit, but with so many people telling us how much they loved Cusco, we really felt unprepared for the pushy salespeople chasing us down as we walked around the square. 

That being said, we spent a few fabulous days in the towns surrounding Cusco! During this week, our main goal was to explore some ruins and do a few hikes at higher altitude. We’ve decided Will’s lung capacity must be approximately 20% greater than mine, since each uphill climb still provides quite the challenge for me, while he is barely out of breath. I wanted to get some more practice in before tackling the Inca Trail next week!

Over the span of two days, we did a self-guided tour of the Sacred Valley of the Incas. We spent most of one day exploring Pisac Archeological Site. We took a 45-minute collectivo ride from Cusco, followed by a steep hike through multiple Inca ruins. We saw buildings that were surprisingly in tact, including a few watchtowers and houses. We walked along terraced gardens that worked their way up the mountainside, and through a tunnel created along the trail. After exploring an Inca gravesite and having some lunch, we hiked back to the main entrance of the site.  

Fresh orange juice, the best treat after a hike!

The following day, we set off in another collectivo to explore Ollantaytambo, approximately 1.5 hours from Cusco. During this scenic drive, we chatted with Kyla from Wisconsin, who is working with a great non-profit organization in Cusco, encouraging girls to get involved in extracurricular sports. She was spending the day taking some American friends, Katherine and Joe, to visit her favourite places. We got great advice about food and drink to make our day plan even better! In Ollantaytambo, we set off for the archeological site first. Again, we had a steep climb followed by incredible ruins as a reward. We saw a Temple of the Sun, a Temple of Water, a military zone, storage buildings, and many fountains. Some of the rocks carved for this site were absolutely massive! The Incas had also created a really intricate fountain system carved into the rock, allowing the water to travel down from the top of the mountain. 

When we were finished at the archeological site, we set off to explore the streets of this quaint town. Filled with cobblestone streets, tall stonewalls, and beautiful flowers, it was love at first sight. Since it is the stopping place for the train to Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo is also filled with great restaurants and services for travellers. 

We enjoyed some delicious Venezuelan arepas in the main square before another short hike to the Pinkuylluna ruins up on the hillside bordering this town. 

We then took a collectivo to Cerveceria del Valle Sagrado in Pachar, where we joined the Americans for some beer tasting. 

Later on, we caught a ride to Maras, and switched over to a taxi with a great French couple to explore Moray and Salineras. Moray turned out to be another amazing Inca ruins with three large, round, terraced gardens. We walked around this site, in awe of the effort the Incas put into their horticultural experiments. We are amazed at how well preserved all of these sites have been, and it has us even more excited about what Machu Picchu will be like!

We then visited Salineras de Maras, where locals work the 6000 salt evaporation ponds. Each pond is no larger than 13 square feet and less than a foot deep. Dug into the side of a mountain, these pools fill with salt water and then eventually evaporate, leaving behind crystal salt. Each pan is owned and mined by a local family, and the salt is sold nearby. This process has been practiced for over 500 years. It was really an incredible sight to see!

During these days of exploration, the skies have threatened thunder and rain, but we were lucky enough to escape it. Today, however, the luck wore off, and we had a fairly rainy day of hiking. After waking up at 3:15 am, we spent a few hours driving with a group of 19 towards Laguna Humantay. We stopped in Mollepata for breakfast, and then drove on to Soraypampa. From here, we hiked up the slippery mud path to the lake. When we first arrived at Laguna Humantay (4200m), we could hardly see the water. 

We climbed a trail next to the lake, and by the time we got to the top, the clouds had cleared enough to reveal the stunning turquoise water below. 

We never did get a clear view of the lake and snowy mountains framing it like the ones we saw advertised, but it was still a great hike. 

Although I don’t love hiking in the rain, I do love rainbows, and this favourite part of a rainy day came during lunch after we left the lake. 

The weather report is saying we will have rain for our whole hike along the Inca Trail, so please keep your fingers crossed for us that Pachemama changes her mind!

Act of kindness:We met a number of really great people this week, but two that stand out are Kyla, who offered to take our extra bags for us while we hike the Inca Trail, and “Freddy Guide” who gave us a ride to Maras and offered us gear to use during our hike! We won’t end up needing to take either up on their offers, but their kindness did not go unnoted!