Change of plans

Change of plans. I am not on my way to the jungle.  Butch is sick so I am flying back home tonight.

Before I end the Peru blog, I'll share some thoughts on the food of Peru.  As anyone who has followed my blogs know, I love South America and especially South American food.  Granted I did not care for the Guinea Pig and I ate enough Alpaca for a lifetime but the rest of the food was excellent.  Almost all dishes include potato in some form. Everything was very fresh. Lomo saltado is all the rage at the moment - it is a Peru-China fusion dish with stir fried beef and vegetables, rice and potatoes.   The soup is almost as good as the soup in Ecuador.

As an example, Quinoa coated chicken:

The official drink of Peru is the Pisco Sour.  Don't worry I will bring some Pisco home.

Here is the butler at the hotel in Cusco giving us a Pisco Sour making lesson

To be filed under, "Things you don't see in the United States" -- Here is an arrow indicating that people should not step off the cliff and drop to a certain death 1000 feet below.  In the US, there would certainly be railings to prevent people from plunging to their death.  In Peru, a simple arrow will do.

And one last picture from Machu Picchu.  In the lower left corner, that's me and Angela sitting on the top of Waynapicchu mountain

Cusco

We toured Cusco today.  The Cathedral here is quite unique.  The guide described the style as super-baroque. Imagine baroque style but with more intricate carvings and incorporating a lot of mirrors and Peruvian figures.

They have the best last supper painting ever.  In the painting, the main course on the table is guinea pig and the Apostles are drinking chicha and the crucifix is seen through a window in the back.  The Peruvian painters were confused by the stories as they were forcibly converted to Catholicism. They did not understand that the guy at the last supper and the guy being crucified was the same guy.

We were not allowed to take pictures in the cathedral. A picture of the last supper painting can be found here:  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcos_Zapata.  Unfortunately, the top of the painting showing the crucifixion is not shown in the image.

We are off to the jungle tomorrow so no updates for a few days.  

Traveling in Luxury

The Hiram Bingham train was better than I expected.

We had a 4 course dinner and the food was excellent not like airplane food at all.  I had Beef Tenderloin and they asked how I wanted it cooked. It was not just some heated up junk.  So good.

They also have a bar car with unlimited Pisco Sours.

Here is a view of the inside of the train

We are staying at the Palacio Nazarenas in Cusco - now my second favorite hotel behind the Villa Sant'Andrea in Sicily.

Some pictures of the hotel

Interestingly enough, both the hotel in Cusco and the hotel in Sicily are part of the Orient Express, now known as Belmond, group of hotels.  As much as I love the Four Seasons, it is hard to go wrong at an Orient Express hotel.  The service is top notch and the hotels are smaller and more intimate.  By the way, the hotel in Machu Picchu was not an Orient Express hotel and it was horrible.  It was not that the hotel was dirty or anything. Although, it did have kind of a mold mixed with citronella odor.  It was just that the service at the Inkaterra is HORRIBLE.  

Do One Thing Every Day That Scares You - Peru Edition

I don't like dark, tight spaces like MRI tubes, caves or tunnels. I really don't like tunnels.  I nearly have a panic attack every time the subway stops in between platforms.

Anyway, the waynapicchu climb has a tunnel. Not a particularly long tunnel but you have to crouch down to go through and then climb up some stairs to get out.  I made Angela carry my bag so I could run through the tunnel.   Here I am climbing out

Waynapicchu

Today, we hiked up Waynapicchu.  That's the pointy mountain behind the Machu Picchu site. It is not an easy or especially fun hike but worth it.  The views are fantastic.

It took us about an hour to get to the top. The round trip was 4.2 miles, 10,000 steps and 78 flights of stairs.  You climb up these really steep stairs and sometimes pull yourself up by ropes or cables.  The route has a lot of tree coverage so it is not hot.  The route down included a long stretch of really narrow steps so that you had to go down sideways since that's the only way your feet would fit on the treads.

Here's a view of Machu Picchu from the top of the mountain

Machu Picchu is on the right and the squiggly white line on the left is the scary road that the bus uses to take people to the site.

Tonight we take the Hiram Bingham train back to Cusco.  It's a fancy Orient Express train so looking forward to that.  

5 down and 2 to go

5 what?  Wonders of the New World of course.

Petra - Been There. Colosseum - Done that. Great Wall - Climbed it. Christ the Redeemer - Seen it.

And now I can cross Machu Picchu off the list.

Machu Picchu did not disappoint. The view from the top of the terraces is breathtaking.

For those that don't know, Machu Picchu is an Inca site dating to the 1400s.  Most think it was an estate for one of the emperors.  It was abandoned during the Spanish conquest and was unknown to the outside world until 1911.

It was 21 flights of stairs to climb to the point where this picture was taken. We toured the top section, walked around to the drawbridge and then descended to explore the site itself.  I'll upload more pictures when I get to a place with a better internet connection.

Tomorrow, we are hiking up that pointy mountain behind the site.  Rumor has it that the climb includes ladders and ropes.

We are staying at the Inkaterra Hotel.  It is a collection of cottages and has some excellent restaurants.  More tomorrow...

Horses and Guinea Pig

Horse ride today in the Sacred Valley. Not much of a ride but the views were spectacular. We basically just plodded along at a walk.  The horses seemed well cared for.  They let me take my horse for a solo spin at the end of the ride so I could spend a few minutes actually riding.

Here's the group

And the view

After the ride, the guide dropped us off in the main square of Urubamba for shopping and lunch.  He recommended a restaurant but we could not find it so we went to a random one.  The lady serving us the food was fantastic. She did not speak a word of English and we speak virtually no Spanish.  With a lot of pointing and guessing, we learned that she had a woman from New York stay with her many years ago.  She showed us the pictures.  This prompted us to pull out our phones and show her pictures of our families.  The food was good.  Don't ask me what it was.  I hope I don't get sick from it.

As for shopping, we bought some ceramics at the only shopping place recommended in the Lonely Planet guide book.

To top off the day, I ate Guinea Pig for the first and last time.  It tastes like very salty duck.

We take the train to Machu Picchu tomorrow.