Trip to Peru

Arrival and Cusco (Click on Pictures for Details)

We left Denver mid afternoon on July 26 for a flight to Cusco, Peru via 1st Dallasm then Miami and
then Lima, Peru. The flight out of Miami was delayed several hours so we spent the wee hours of
the morning on the airport floor in Miami and then arrived in Lima a few hours behind schedule.
Finding our way through customs and the Lima airport was a big challenge for a few of us... some of
us lost our guide... some of us lost items to the customs officials... but we ended up leaving only a
few hours behind schedule and arrived in Cusco close to noon. Rhea had arranged for 'Fransisco',
an english speaking guide, to transport us from airport to hotel. It took two small vans to haul us
and all our luggage to the hotel. We arrived at mid afternoon in good spirits... 24 hours! The hotel,
the Rumi Kuki(editor please?) was a very nice old hotel... walled off from the narrow streets of
Cusco with only a small, iron gated, portal to an small inner courtyard. Most of the rooms of the 2
story hotel surrounded this courtyard. Amazing also that most of the buildings in the city are
actually built on old incan foundations which can still be seen. Shortly after settling into our rooms
we regrouped and headed to a favorite restaurant of Rheas for a dinner of alpaca and multiple varieties of potatos and
corn. And... the countries favorite, pisco sours... a small, very potent drink that is similar to a
margarita but features the local hard liquor of choice, pisco. The next day found us on a morning tour
of the town and an inca ruins on the edge of town.

Orphanage Visit (click on picture for more)

Before the trip began we met with Rhea and the rest of the crew we'd be traveling with. Paul and Susan discussed an orphanage near Cusco that they planned to visit and make donations of clothes, toys, personal items, etc to. Everyone agreed that they would enjoy visiting the orphanage and we all ended up bring suitcases full of donations.

Inca Trail and Machu Pichu(click on picture for more)

We did a one day, 8 mile hike to reach Machu Pichu. First half of our hike was up the side of a valley to reach the real inca trail. The 2nd half we hiked the last 4 miles of the real Inca trail (the full Inca Trail is 4 days worth of hiking). We left Cusco early and traveled by train to our trail head. We reached Machu Pichu in late afternoon and then took a bus down to the small town of (editor please?...) and stayed the night. The next day we bused back to Machu Pichu and spent he morning and part of the afternoon before busing back to town and hopping a train and bus to return back to Cusco.

Sacred Valley and Pisac (click on picture for more)

We had an excellent tour guide, Daniel, who showed us the highlights of the Sacred Valley, an area near Cusco. Included: a weaving studio, pisac market, a chica bar tour and an ancient village where we visited a local's house to see how they live.

Cusco and Trip to Puno (click on picture for more)

We spent some free time in Cusco and then took a bus trip to Puno. Terry spent the free day going to the weaving studio and got a chance to do some weaving with some of the native weavers in the area. That afternoon we explored Cusco. The next day we took a 6 hour bus trip to Puno. The bus was a large excurson bus with a tour guide and we stopped at several places along the way for tours. It was very interesting to see how the rural folks lived in the high plains of the Andes. These people still live much as they did 200 years ago, in mud/adobe huts with wood heat. The fields have no fences and each herd of alpaca/llama/sheep is tended by one or more shepards. Its interesting to see people walking out in the middle of no where, just to get to the next village or field. Not much for transportation here.

Reed Islands (Click on Picture for More)

From Puno we took a tour of the Reed Islands. In the 1500's a group of people began building their own islands in Lake Titicaca, supposedly to avoid the spanish invaders. These islands are anywhere from 3 to 9 feet thick and made basically of stacks of reed mats. The bottom slowly rots and as it does the villagers add more mats on top. The islands are anchored to the bottom with cords but the cords can be cut and the islands moved by boat if necessary. The people live here but many of the men travel to Puno to work during the day. Many of the men also fish for a living. There are many islands and only 3 or 4 of them are open to tourist visits. The rest maintain a private, traditional lifestyle.

Arequipa (click on picture for more)

Most of the trip we were kept on the run but we did get to spend a couple days 'relaxing' in Arequipa. While their we got to visit the Arequipa convent, had an evening out at a very western style restaurant with a beautiful view of the city, stayed in the most unique hotel of the entire trip and visited a very unique coffee shop!

Dune Buggy Oasis and Lima (click on picture for more)

One of the last, unexpected, highlights of the trip was a desert oasis and a dune buggy trip. This was an unplanned stop on the trip but because of scheduling changes turned into a highlight. We traveled by bus, mostly near the coast, from Arequipa to Lima. A large portion of this coast was sand and sand dunes. We stopped and spent the night at this desert oasis/resort and it was just exactly everything you picture when you think of a desert oasis. While we were eating, a guide stopped by and talked us in to taking a dune buggy trip in his huge (12 person) dune buggy. The trip was fantastic... punctuated by several long sand boarding trips down the dunes! The dune buggy trip was like a roller coaster ride... the driver was very friendly... and we ended up watching the sun set from the top of the dune before a wild trip back to the resort... magnifico! From the resort we took a bus to Nasca to see the Nasca lines. This included a small plane fly over of these football sized figures created by incans 500 years ago... the mystery is why they were created when the only way to see them is from an airplane! From there all 10 of us crowded into a small mini van and drove 6 hours to Lima where we visited the national musem and then flew home.