Days 8 and 9 – 3/23-3/24/12 – Cusco; Lima

The Ubiquitous Alpaca Picture

Dear Reader, our voyage is coming to an end, and thus is this round of blogging.  Friday and Saturday were travel days, with Friday seeing us head to Lima from Cusco and Saturday seeing us head back to the ATL.  While in many ways my favourite days of this trip due to a lot of solid leisure time with my family, there is little to tell of interest to anyone other than ourselves so I will wrap up this travelogue.  I must say, however, that this trip wildly exceeded expectations.  Peru is a hell of a lot more than just Machu Picchu, with parts of Lima like Miraflores and San Isidro being as beautiful as any urban areas that we have visited.  I did not realize the degree to which Lima has rebounded from the awful civil war and terrorism of the 1980s and early 1990s to become a truly thriving regional economic engine.  Given a reason, I would very seriously consider living here.  Cusco was something else entirely – far more of the Andean capital / Spanish colonial city that I expected and much more in line with places like Quito and Panama than with Lima.  Despite the obvious Andean and Spanish connections, however, the vibe of the town reminded me most of Kathmandu, which really took me by surprise.  I will leave you, dear Reader, with one last though on Peru:  this country has done something that none of the other 30 or so that the Lady and I have been to this century has accomplished.  During this entire trip, we did not hear a single rendition of Hotel California.  Congratulations, Peru – you have broken a streak well over a decade long!  And thus, Dear Reader, I bid you adieu until our next journey.  Until then, I hope your life is well and your travel is smooth!

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Day 7 – 3/22/12 – Cusco

Cusco

Dear Reader, one of the best things about travel is that the days from which you expect the least often turn out to be the best days of a trip.  Today was a perfect example, as we were not expecting much.  The plan was to meet Gilmar in the morning for a leisurely stroll through Cusco, including a visit to the main city market, take a siesta, then spend the afternoon visiting Inca sites.  This didn’t sound all that appealing given yesterday’s tough travel day, but at a minimum the morning’s walk sounded good, so rather than take the day off we went ahead with the plan.  As it turned out, we underestimated the morning, and were just flat wrong about the afternoon.

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Day 6 – 3/21/12 – Machu Picchu; Cusco

The post-card shot

Well, Dear Reader, every trip has at least one tough day, and today was it on this one.  Things started off very well as today was an unchaperoned day at Machu Picchu.  The Lady, TBJ and your Blogger headed out for a hike, originally planning to take the relatively easy trail to the Sun Gate, but making a game time decision to hike up to the top of Machu Picchu Mountain.  As it turned out, this was a bit ridiculous.  The trail to the top of the mountain would have been challenging on its own, but with the added weight of TBJ in a backpack it became excruciating.  We made it about 2/3 of the way up until we got to a little clearing and realized that we had just made it to the hard part, then headed back down.  Even that, though, as a good 2 hour hike, so we were feeling pretty good about ourselves.  Since we had already checked out, we had a few hours to kill before catching the Hiram Bingham train back to Rio Sagrado, and from there a van ride to Cusco.  We spent a nice few hours hanging out in Sanctuary Lodge’s botanical garden watching TBJ play in one of the absurd number of fountains in Peru, as well as a few hours in the bar attending to miscellaneous matters including jotting down this journal for your benefit, Dear Reader.

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Day 3 – 3/18/12 – Lima; Sacred Valley

What awaited in the Sacred Valley

Sunday was largely a travel day for us, starting in the morning in Lima and heading for Cusco, one of the major Andean cities located roughly 12,000 feet above sea level , and the historic heart of the Inca empire.  While the ride to the airport was uneventful and our time at the airport was memorably only for the remarkable number of Chick Taylors’ on display, the flight to Cusco was one of the most challenging of TBJ’s young life.  For the first time, TBJ had a truly bad flight.  The good news is that we were surrounded by families, other than two poor souls with window seats in rows in which all 5 other seats held at least one kid and to old, well, assholes, in the first row.  For most of the flight TBJ had no issues whatsoever.  However, we could not get him to take a bottle once we started our descent about 25 minutes out (on a 1 hour flight).  As a result, poor TBJ couldn’t equalize his ear pressure, which resulted in 20 minutes of the loudest, most agonized crying I’ve heard from him.  Making it even more difficult, there was absolutely nothing that The Lady or I could do to help the little guy.  I have never felt so helpless. 

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