Author: RobO

Hello everyone!
We´re currently sitting in the Lima airport waiting to fly to Ecuador. Our flight has been delayed for 4 hours (could be more) so we´ve got some time to kill. Why not blog?

Over the last 2 days we did the condensed version of the Inca Trail and visited the amazing city of Machu Picchu. I will admit, I wasn´t sure that I was going to really be that thrilled by looking at a bunch of ruins (especially after looking at all the pictures), but I was pleasantly surprised. I would highly recommend going if you´re ever in the Sacred Valley area and have a few days to kill.

We started our journey by taking a train from Cuzco to kilometer 104 of the Inca Trail. We hiked for 6 hours, stopped at all the ruins along the way and got a bit of a history lesson. It was a typical RobO/DawnO hike because it started out raining and by the end of the day the sun finally broke through and was gorgeous for the rest of our trek.

At the end of day 1 we got our first glimpse of Machu Picchu as we entered the Sun Gate. I can only imagine what a rewarding experience it would have been if we had done the 4 day version, but it was still quite spectacular for us.

We stayed in a hostel that night and the next morning we were up at 5:20am to watch the sun rise over the city.

We got a guided tour through the city amongst the other 5 billion tourists, but it was still pretty cool. We had 4 hours of free time in the afternoon so we took advantage of all the trails (including the one up Waynapicchu – the one that reminds me of Mt. Olympus in the old Hercules cartoons). I feel that the blog isn´t doing the place justice so you´ll just have to go (you too grandma!)

We´re looking forward to Ecuador and the Galapagos Islands.

As we sit in a smoking lounge (the only internet available to us in the airport) we are reminded that congratulations are in order to the City of Medicine Hat for going smoke free in all public places today. We can´t wait to take advantage of the stink free nightlife!

We´re back from Lake Titicaca (yes, the 12 year old in me giggles everytime I say that) and we´re ready to blog again.

We spent the last three days on various islands on the lake and it was quite a bizzare experience. The first stop was the floating islands. These man-made islands are made up of millions of reeds which also make their homes and boats. They are quite tasty as well.

Next up was the island of Amantani where we had our first homestay. As soon as we got off the boat we were handed over to our new family. We stayed in a mud house with no running water, but pantloads of charm. Our new mom cooked in a wood burning stove and our little brother, Nilton, was busy playing with his hoop and stick.

We climbed to the top of the island and explored some Inca ruins and got a great view of Bolivia which is across the lake.

That night we were treated to a strange surprise. We were told that we had to attend a Fiesta, but we had no idea what we were in for. Our Mom dressed us up in traditional clothing and we were taken to a room where we were joined by a dozen or so other confused tourists. We sat along the wall and were prodded into dancing with the locals along to some pretty catchy folk music. Note, we did not sign up with a tour group, but felt like we were on a local tour because we were herded from place to place.

The next day we went to a different island called Taquile. This is where the tour group feeling crashed and burned. We were on our own with a local family who appeared to be afraid of us. In fairness, we hadn´t showered for over a day.

This new island was full of tourists but we managed to escape and find more ruins to explore until they all flooded back to their boats and left us with our timid family.

We enjoyed learning about the people who live on these islands. DawnO mentioned that it was like we went back in time. Most of these people have never seen a vehicle before and electricity is quite a luxury. Their livlihoods are based on sheep herding and tiered farming. Though everything was very simple, we were treated to some nice meals and friendly people.

This morning (day 3 without a shower) we headed back to Puno on the mainland. We´ve since freshened up and are going to take another night bus to Cusco. DawnO hooked us up with VIP tickets so we´ll be sleeping in style. We are getting ready for the Inca trail and finally Ecuador. It´s hard to believe that in one month and one day, we´ll be back in Canada.

The Canadians have landed. We safely made our way to the Caracas airport and successfully flew to Lima, Peru. We tried to get a night bus to Arequipa when we arrived but apparently mother’s day is a huge travel day for Peruvians, because every bus was booked solid. We spent the night in and area of Lima called, Miraflores. It reminded us of Vancouver which meant a cool sea breeze, domesticated dogs on leashes and reverse culture shock.

So how does one deal with culture shock? Well I haven’t gone through that VSO course yet, but I can tell you what we did. We took refuge in a supermarket. We may have spent more that 4 hours browsing, shopping, eating lunch and putting the sample tray people to work. Is it wrong that we had such a wonderful time? Probably.

We are currently in Arequipa, Peru and are loving it. It’s known as ‘The White City’ and not just because of all the tourists. Tomorrow we’re doing the Colca Canyon tour tomorrow. It will take 3 days and 2 nights and should be pretty cool. Afterwards we spend one more night in Arequipa before we take yet another bus to Puno.