Thursday, February 20th
While roughly half our class was
headed home on Thursday, 14 of us made the trek back to Santiago in a separate
bus for an afternoon flight to Lima, Peru.
The day was pretty uneventful with a long bus ride to Santiago and 3
hour flight to Lima.
Arriving in Lima late in the
afternoon, we were greeted by our tour guide and were able to walk directly
across the street to our very nice hotel and got settled. After putting our
luggage away, we loaded up on Peruvian currency (Soles = 2.83 to 1 $USD).
Friday, February 21st
On our travel day to Machu Picchu,
we felt a bit like we were playing the Amazing Race. We all awoke around 2AM after
getting just a handful of hours of sleep. Meeting in the hotel lobby around 2:45AM for
breakfast, we then walked across the
street to the airport shortly after 3AM for our 5:00AM flight to Cuzco. We quickly
learned that our flight had been canceled due to "maintenance" issues
and that they were unable to get us on the 6AM flight either so 9:40 AM would have
to do.
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| Stranded at the airport in Lima |
After spending the next 6 hours
lounging around the airport, we were to make the 1.5 hour flight to Cusco. We had missed our 9:15AM train to Machu
Picchu, leaving our travel company scrambling to adjust our schedule. Upon landing we were quickly escorted to a
private bus that would drive us almost 1.5 hours to meet the train at a station
between Cuzco and Machu Picchu. On the
bus our travel guide encouraged us to eat cocoa candies to help fight altitude
sickness as Cuzco city is located at 11,000 feet. I believe he said there is roughly 20% less
oxygen there compared to where we came from.
We saw a lot of construction both in the downtown high-end part of the
city and also in the shanties on the outside of the city center. Interestingly we learned that residents
always add a second or third story to their home that they never finish because
once it is finished, then they have to start paying taxes.
The bus ride across the countryside
was filled with outstanding views and a tremendous amount of information from
our tour guide. We learned that the land
was suited for growing many types and kinds of crops and was done so by farmers
that managed usually less than 0.25 hectares each. Land was collectivley owned by the local
community and was split to the families; legally it could not be bought and
sold. Driving thru some small towns we
learned cock fights and bull fights were common and popular. Also, some of the towns were built on ancient
Inca sites with numerous streets, foundations, or buildings becoming part of
the present day city and dwellings. Our
driver had his pedal to the metal the entire time because we were going to be
late for our train. Arriving at the
station, we all more or less ran, chasing our guide as he made sure the train
didn't leave.
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| Train view |
Our train ride was an experience
in itself. With very nice accomodations
and large open windows letting in the warm air and breezes, we ate fresh fruit,
sandwiches, and beverages as the train made its way through the mountains. We were now in the rainforest and followed
the river with no roads for vehicles.
Most of the time there was just enough room for the raging river and our
train track between the jungle covered mountains that shot up 1000-2000ft on
each side. The ride lasted around an
hour and a half and brought us to the little tourist town near the base of
Machu Picchu. This little hidden hub is
not very big at all and is very much surrounded by jungle. It has streets just wide enough for people
to pass in each direction and can be quite steep along the jungle valley. It was very nice with markets, restaurants, and little hotels and hostels around every turn.
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| Little town in the rainforest |
Upon settling into our little
hotel with an amazing view, we ventured out to find something to eat. We tried
our hand at brick oven baked Guinea pig which actually wasn't too bad. Wasn't a very well marbled critter, but it
was edible. After supper, some of the
group wandered through the shops while the rest of us headed to the hot
springs. By following the little stream
that flowed right through the city up the valley, we found the numerous hot spring
fed pools and relaxed there for a bit.
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| Hot springs |
