PERU

We arrive to the airport at 4pm, our flight out to Lima was support to be at 6pm, but apparently the flight was late… and I mean really late, we were freaking out, we needed to arrive to Lima this night because we had a 10am flight from Lima to Mexico City, we could not lose this flight. The airline was Peruvian Airline and is by far worse that US Airways, the people form the airline knew absolutely nothing and there were a lot of people like us with connecting flights than could not just lose them, so I have to call the airline in Lima myself and scream at them for like half an hour until they promised me to send a plane within the hour, they finally did, the plane showed up at 1.30 am, this was by far the worse flight we had ever been. Service was the worse, the seats are tiny and there was no even water offered to anyone. We arrive to Lima at 4am took a taxi to the hotel to basically shower and eat breakfast take another taxi back to the airport. On the bright side we were flying back with Avianca and when we got to the counter, the lady notice that we were flying to Mexico city with a stop in Colombia, so she ask us ‘do you guys want to flight direct to Mexico City? I have room in my next flight, you’ll get there like 6 hours earlier…’ are you KIDDING ME??? Of course we want that… but how much?? She said so candidly ‘no charge’… WHAT??? HELL YEA… WE TAKE IT! How awesome is this airline… my God!!

Next morning we woke up early and my awesome sister took us to Teotihuacan but we stopped in ‘Los Colorines’ for another epic breakfast. Any way, it was Sunday so Teotihiacan was full of people, we make like 1 hour line to be able to climb the Sun Pyramid, is was a beautiful day, but by now the trip and our injuries took a lot from us and we were just not feeling right. We also climb the Moon Pyramid toke some pictures and after walking a lot in the esplanade we left; my incredible sister drove us to Coyoacan (I honestly can tell you I’m not exaggerating, she is awesome! Please remember we destroy her little car a week or so early, so in top of that she got a loan car to drive us around… I love her! ), however driving in Mexico city is absolutely crazy and we got to Coyoacan which is in the heart of the City just in time to have dinner, take a few pictures and leave because the drive back to Cuernavaca is long and dangerous, we had however a fantastic dinner, Bryan got to see the church and the old colonial building around the main plaza and see firsthand what people does in Mexico on Sundays.

Next morning in Cuernavaca Bryan and I went to have breakfast in ‘La Hacienda de Cortes’, yes you are reading this right, this was Hernan Cortes home. An absolute jewel, this is a 500+ year old sugar/coffee hacienda full of history, blood and beauty. For the last 60 or so years this is a beautiful hotel and breakfast there is a ‘most-do’, Sunday breakfast buffet in awesome that this was Monday so we have ‘a la carta’ and was perfect, after eating we walk around the gardens and took tons of pictures.

After that, we took a taxi to Tepoztlan, this is one of the 100 magical towns in Mexico, has a very ‘gypsy-artsy’ atmosphere, on this one I was really disappointed, the town has one of the orders Convents in Mexico (the Ex-Convent of Domimico de la Navidad) and in 2016 during the earthquake part of the structure collapse and the instate of culture is doing absolutely nothing about this, also the plaza is been overrun by street market stands and you can barely see any of the old colonial buildings anymore because they are covered in graffiti and street vendors all over the place. I was honestly really mad at this. On the bright side we went to one of the most interesting ice-cream shops in Mexico with 300+ original flavors that ranges from rose pedals’ to avocado flavors, I felt a huge sense of pride when after talking with them they told us that they actually export a few flavors to Africa with the UNESCO because those flavor have a nutritious value of one complete meal. They also have a huge collection of ‘Catrinas’ on their main shop here and is very colorful and beautiful.

After Tepoztlan we drove back to Cuernavaca to my best friend’s restaurant where she and other college friend meet with us; we laugh and laugh and remember old times. I was truly happy to see them well and as beautiful as always.

In all we had a great time, this was our last day in Mexico and we were honestly looking forward to come back home, we were really not feeling well and needed to see our kids and our doctor to make sure we were not really in bad shape… I told you before what happened when we finally got to see the doctor and the realization that we almost died hit us like a boulder, the doctor basically told me: ‘I do not understand how you did not have a perforated lung or a perforated spleen..?? And to Bryan she said, ‘I believe you are the strongest guy I have ever seen, how you are not dead?? I have no idea!! And in top of all that you both took 9 flights total and went up to 13,000 ft+ in elevation!! You are both very lucky to be alive’.

So there, this is the end of this adventure, we will keep you posted for the next one… first we have to heal!

We mentioned before how we found out this tour, 3 days 2 nights in the amazons at like 25 miles from Iquitos in boat along the Amazon river. We were so excited about this part of the trip, we did not know what to expect but we were sure that we were going to find a lot of rural and poor and marginalized communities and we were not wrong. Our tour guide was waiting for us and another group of 10 people in the airport, drove us to the port thought the ‘city’ of Iquitos in a very funny looking bus with no windows and painted with many colors, the ‘city’ of Iquitos looks like its best years came and went a century ago, along the route to the port we saw many big industrious structures that seem abandoned and run-out just like the rest of the town, for the most part they try to keep ‘clean’ with ‘not-to-much-trash’ in the streets, however they are not necessarily successful on this task, the town is dusty, hot and humid, is full of little 3 wheel motorcycles that are the main transportation system for most of the people, is extremely noisy and it requires serious skills to drive here, there are not lines on the street and everybody drives no matter who they run over, none of the vehicles here, buses, car, motorcycles and even the boats could pass an emission test in any developed country, the pollution is thick and we arrive full of grit. We finally got to the port and crossed a little market where they sell all kind of exotic foods that we did not dare to even try because the sanitary conditions are deplorable, they sell snails, piranhas, caiman, and who knows what else.

Finally we boarded a long skinny boat that had also better days but we really felt like ‘Crocodile Dundee’, I was using the hat that I got in Cusco and I honestly felt just like him (LOL!), we were all very excited and for the most part the other guys in the tour (all American from California) were impress for how poor the area and its people look. The color of the river is like chocolate milk, there were a lot of sewers dumping its loads in the river; this is one of the most important rivers in the world, the one that feeds the last lung left of the planet and nobody seems to care if they are polluting it like this! Is an absolute disgrace for Peru to be honest, very disappointing! After 1+ hour ride in the river we arrive to the Manati lodge, we were assigned our cabins that are all in stilts and very rustic, we knew what we were ‘signing-up’, we wanted to have the ‘adventure-not-luxury-trip’, this company also have a 3+ start luxury resort not far from here with all the ‘luxuries’ that the jungle can allow. After getting settle, we had lunch in a buffet style that was actually very, very good, after that we took another boat up-river to a wild life refuge that is run by a local community; they take care of injured and rescued animals; parrots, macaw, anacondas, caimans, ant eaters, tortoises a prehistoric looking turtle and the most cute sloths are their residents here.

There are also some wild Capuchin monkeys that if you offer them some banana and pineapple they would climb all over you, we had so much fun holding all these animals but honestly, we were all kind of fighting to hold the sloths, they are so cute that hurts to know what the poachers do to them. We left the rescue center just at sunset and were gifted by a wonderful show from mother nature, the reds and blues in the sky in combination with the reflections on the river were a picture opportunity for at least 1 hour, it was like Christmas for me and my camera. We arrive at the lodge at night, but we were all carrying lanterns and head lamps, so we found our way through the jungle with no issues. Every meal was buffet style and like I said before was really good, meals were mostly made of chickens that they rise in the camp, fish that they pull from the amazons, veggies that are grow by local communities, the 3 days we were here we eat cat fish, chicken, another kind of fish that was breaded and fried and to ‘die-for’, salads mostly of tomatoes and the center of the palm tree that give the fruit of the Acai, w/ some lemon is absolutely delicious. Shower was interesting, the water is NOT potable, we could not wash our mouths w/ it, we were lucky because back in the port we bought 3 litters of water that we use to wash our teeth and also to rinse off after showering w/ the amazon’s water that like I said before is not necessarily clean, our guide said that the people in the amazons can drink it no problem, but of course we could pretty much die. We have to mention also that our guide that by the way what a nice guy, he is a member of the Cokama tribe his name is Anguilla but he goes for Edwin because is easy for the tourist to remember and say his name, he was born and raised in the amazons his tribe is inside the jungle at 2 days-1 night from Iquitos in boat; he is very knowledgeable about the jungle and all its dangers. He has so many histories, had meet many famous people like one of the Cousteau’s and had helped trained people from the Israeli forces and the US forces on jungle surviving skills, he has so many inside knowledge about the ecological problems of the amazons and what other countries are doing exploiting the jungle for profit; the Manati Lodge and the Irapay luxury lodge are trying to help educate tourists on the impact that we are all doing to the last lung of the planet. I hope that you who is reading this find your way here one day because your money helps the people of the jungle and its animals, then, take what you learned here and spread it around.

Anyway, the second day we woke up at 4.30 am, took the boat again up-river to see the sunrise and the Pink Dolphins, we saw maybe 50 of them, it was absolutely fantastic, we also went to see a native tribe that has a little place on the north east side of the river, the tribe of the Yagua, their settlement is really like 3kms inside the jungle but they come to this location to sell their crafts to the tourist and to send their kids to school every morning. It was an absolute shock to meet this kind people, they are all naked (for the most part), but the segregation and the poor conditions that they live is overwhelming, it totally squishes your heart to see them and the inability to help them, as we interacted with them we understood how little future their kids have, their girls are having kids as young as 13-14 and all they do is fishing, some agriculture and crafts, it was hard for me not to start crying, this was an absolute humbling experience, everybody should come to the amazon and have a little dose of REALITY outside the bubble where a lot of us live.

After that Edwin took us to fish piranhas, they, as it turns out are the favorite meal for pink dolphins, the fishing poles were rudimentary, a wood stick w/ a line and a hook at the end, the bait was chopped Tapir, I must brag about this because I fished 6 piranhas!! I was soo lucky, sadly Bryan fished none, at the end between the 12 of us I fished the most; at dinner time they grilled them for us, I ate 2 of them and even they are not meaty they are delicious!

On one of the nights we took a night hike through the jungle, many animals come out at night, we all had lamps and head lamps wore long sleeves and long pants and water boots, it was kind of terrifying because most of the animals and insects here can basically kill us or damage us forever, we saw several ‘Crab Spiders’ that are one if not the most dangerous in the world, tarantulas and all kind of insects, it took like 1 hour but I was absolutely relieve when we made it back on camp in one peace. One of the afternoons there Edwin took Bryan and I to hike through the jungle with day light, it took like 3 hours and went from ‘low jungle’ to the ‘high jungle’ where some of the biggest trees in the amazon’s live, ‘holy Indiana Jones’ it was so exiting, Edwin walked in front of us with a machete making way through the over grow, the path was there but the jungle keeps taking over it so the machete is a must have, he also mention the danger of anacondas and other snakes that love to be in the trees and can basically kill us in a few minutes (so the machete is a necessary part of the hiking equipment); he told us the story about how his dad died, a seasoned indigenous hunter that went hunting one day and did not came back, so he and his brother went looking for him to find him dead in the jungle by a snake bite, the lesson here is no matter how good you are, something here can always kill you. We talked a lot about the medicinal qualities of plants and trees all around us during the hike, saw wild monkeys on the top of the trees and giant carnivorous ants that honestly freak me out. I was also relieved when we were back in the camp with no issues, that we wore long sleeves, long pants, water boots and TON of DEET, we did not want to bring home any souvenirs like Malaria or Dengue. On the final morning Edwin took us to a canoe ride on a creek that feeds the amazon, the canoe was really old and the water level was almost at the ledge of the boat, kind of freaky, we made our way slowly thought the jungle, it was like being in a movie, on our way back he took us to the neighboring community across the creek from the Camp, and even when they are more ‘developed’ than most, it was shocking to see the living conditions of this people, the kids are so sweet and follow us around, we brought cookies and sweets we us to share so we were kind of a hit!, the little community is in a very swampy area and they have giant lily paths called ‘queen Victoria’ with pink and white flowers, very beautiful. This one last day after lunch we took the boat back to Iquitos where we said good bye to Edwin and then we ride one of those funny 3 wheels motorcycles thought the ‘city’ to the airport, that one ride was an absolute adventure, we arrive to the airport cover in grit.

One thing that I’m keeping to the end of this entry is what Bryan and I did at night, we wanted to try the Ayahuasca ceremony with the local shaman, but unfortunately because I had 2 broken ribs I could not do it, so Bryan did his ceremony the first night and he also did my ceremony the second night. The Ayahuasca is being falsely called a drug, this is really what the locals called the medicine of the jungle. It clears and purifies your body from toxins and is known to cure people of some cancers and drug / alcohol addictions, is a process that starts a few weeks before eating as clean as possible and avoiding many kinds of things.

The reason I was not able to do it is because once the Ayahuasca is ingested within 20 to 30 minutes the you start vomiting and with 2 broken ribs I knew I was going to be in more than in pain (I had pain sneezing, coughing, and in certain movements). The shaman prepared the Ayahuasca the same way his ancestors had done for centuries and realized the ceremony in total darkness, with chanting’s and prayers.

MaWoke up at 3.30am after all the travelling we been doing was really not an easy task, but we did, took showers, got ready, check out of the hotel and left our luggage in their storage, they gave us 2 ‘breakfast boxes’ and then walk for like 10 minutes to the bus stop, we got there at 4.25am and there were already enough people to almost fill up 3 buses. The wait wasn’t that bad, for us is really fun to see what other travelers do and how they approach similar situations, for example, there were a lot of people that decided to walk from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu (8kms  and like ½ mile in elevation), as we were driving in the bus I realized how crazy that is (walked to Machu Picchu) the sinuous up-mountain very steep skinny drive was like going to Taxco all over again but with ‘steroids’ the vertical cliffs are all along the drive and if the drivers makes just one mistake it could pretty much cost everybody’s life, just the drive was an adventure! But the walk was even more impressive, they have carved in the mountain steps that crossed the sinuous drive and there must be 1000’s of them. By the time those people got to Machu Picchu I’m sure was almost noon and they were exhausted. With all the danger of the drive we were honestly happy we took the bus, especially because when we realized the mass of Machu Picchu and all the walk we did, it would had been a huge mistake wasting all that energy just to get there when we needed it to just walk the very impressive archaeological site.

So, got to the gates of Machu Picchu, show our tickets, walked a little narrow cobble stone walk to a look-out and we were just in awe! The place is impossible to describe, in the back of the citadel is the Machu Picchu mountain and the Huayna Picchu mountain that one day of the year with the shadows casted by the mountains they clearly depict the face of a native. The place is impossible to grasp with the eyes and your mind, the ingenuity, the engineering and the mathematics involved in the construction of this place are ‘off-the-hook’ if Pisac seem built by aliens, this place for sure was built by them, the simplicity of the architecture, the stone work, the perfect orientations, the strategic location, the face of the native in the background, the place is a master piece from every angle, nothing is out of place here, everything seems there for a reason, with a purpose, nothing compares to it, it doesn’t seem from this world, they say ‘you cannot take a bad picture in Machu Picchu’ and trust us that is absolutely right; another interesting factor is that the site is surrounded by jungle, because the mountains and the river generated a micro climate that at this elevation seams strange and out of place, since we were in the door at 6am the clouds where risen from the valleys below and the site looked breathtakingly mystical. It took us 6 hours to walk it with a climb to the Huayna Picchu somewhere in the middle, which by itself was an adventure, our tickets included the climb of this mountain, and from the entry of the path to the top you honestly feel like Indiana Jones, one thing we would like to point out is this: not in many travel guides tell you how difficult and dangerous this climb is, when they sell you the tickets they never mention the fact that you have to go UP like another 1000 ft (up) in almost all vertical climb, the path is just steps, with some cables and some wood railings here and there, but if you made a mistake, you pretty much go down hundreds of feet to what for sure is a nasty death, so consider that if you are attempting to do it, you have to have the right clothing and the absolute right shoes, leave you bags in the storage at the door and have your 2 hands free so you can be as safe as possible. Even the most experienced climber could have a nasty accident here. Because of this however, climbing this mountain seems like the epitome of an accomplishment for everyone, when we were at the top we felt like a million dollars because we actually did it (I did w/ 2 -or so I though!- broken ribs and a damage knee none the less and Bryan w/ multiple bruises and back problems, so is not impossible, but very…very dangerous), then come the ‘going-down’ talked about adrenaline…  this for sure will spike anybody adrenaline from the beginning.

After what was the most incredible and adventurous of the days we finally left Machu Picchu in the bus, and just like in the morning the drive was an  adventure but with a twist… in the morning and because we were driving in the 3^rd buss, all the buses were going up, but in the afternoon the buses go UP & DOWN at the same time, the narrow drive is scary with only one bus at the time, imagine when they are passing each other, it was absolutely crazy, not boring or lame at all, it was worth every penny we spend getting here. Any way, we got back to Aguas Calientes and to our hotel where with 10 extra soles each we were able to take a shower before our train ride back to Cusco. The ride back was in complete darkness since we took the train at 7pm, but it was nice since we use the time to write and talk. The ticket back to Cusco included a Bus ride as well so we did not need to figure much out on how to get from Ollyantantambo to Cusco. Once in Cusco we took a taxi to the hotel and went right to bed, we were so exhausted from this so physical and emotional incredible day!.

We arranged a private tour throughout the secret valley through ton of phone calls that I did while organizing this trip, but honestly in the ‘Plaza de Armas’ (down town Cusco) there are at least a dozen little companies that sell you this tours, we had a limited time so we did not have time to mess with a big group of people and we decided to use a person that a few hotels recommended us. Thomas (the guide) picked us up at 8am at the hotel and started our driving tour to the secret valley, to be honest we should had spent more time here ( at least 2 days), because the entire valley has multiple archeological sites, salt mines a huge market, charming little towns and so on than just a few hours can NOT possible cover that, especially considering that every site requires a hike, a climb and a little informal market to wander around, but because our limited time we only stop in Pisac and in Ollyantatambo. Before Pisac, Thomas mentioned a few highlights along the way like a refuge for rescue wild life and Condors and a cultural center were they have Lamas, Alpacas, Acunas, that shows visitors how the Natives work the textiles from the wool of this extremely cute animals (o my God with the lashes!!) we had no idea but they use ‘chinchilla’ (Mexican name use for the insect that grows in the prickle pear plant that gives and absolutely beautiful red color), they also use a huge variety of plans for the other colors that they just boil with the wool in their traditional way (clay pots and wood stove fires), there are several artisans there working their textiles, very interesting and colorful, of course the highlight of the place are the animals, as long as you feed them they gladly pose for pictures, we had never really seen any of this animals in person and were surprise on how agile, and ‘simpaticas’ they are, they are from the family of the camels so their faces are quite similar but cuter (the Lashes for God Sake!!! I love them).

After this we kept driving through Pisac, the views going downhill from Cusco to the sacred valley are breathtaking, the Urubamba river crosses the valley from side to side and because the valley is not really very wide we felt like driving inside a canyon, the mountains in both sides of the narrow highway are for the most part vertical walls and the valley is covered with corn fields at both sides of the river and highway. Everything is green and even when the area is very rural and poor it has an undeniable charm. Our first stop was the archeological site of Pisac up in the mountain (the town is in the valley), to get to the site we drove in a narrow winding road up hill, a little scary since we just had an accident in a road very similar to this one in Mexico, got there in one piece though!; pay our ticket and started walking, as you enter the site in a narrow pass boarding a vertical mountain at first it seemed like wasn’t much… what we didn’t knew was that this was like the lower homes, then we bent to the right around  the mountain and what opened to us to was nothing short to EXTRAORDINARY! I really have no words to describe it (see pictures below) the place seems impossible to be built so many centuries ago with no heavy equipment… Hey! I’m an architect and I know what it takes to build anything and believe me, it’s hard not to think in Aliens when you see these structures up in this crazy rugged hills looking so majestic, the structures are absolutely phenomenal, they are mostly stone of different sized but they all fit together like Legos and had withstand centuries of earthquakes, rain, wind, wars and human stupidity in general, the simplicity of the architecture denotes somethings that it can only be called ‘class’ in my opinion and following the ‘Feng shui’ philosophy of the ‘less is better’ this place could be the epitome of that! they mastered the concept well (if not invented) to the maximum, the minimalistic approach to their buildings is absolutely beautiful, is basically all stone work in it most brutal way, different from other cultures like the Mayans or Aztecs, there are no sculptures, no carvings, or any other decorations or adornments anywhere, is just the structures in its basic form-function relationship, all oriented in ways that allow the sun to warm their home and the wind to vent-cool them down, their doorways and windows are for the most part trapezoidal with a big stone lintel, this is part of their architectural character and for the most part is followed through all their structures all around Peru. Pisco site is another up-downhill fortress that requires some effort (if not ‘a lot of effort’) to explore, you cannot be distracted when you hike it up or down or you can at least twist an ankle, but trust me you can also get killed on a fall here very easy, the place is exiting and invigorating, it feels like an accomplishment just to get to the top. We thought it cannot get better than this but then again, we haven’t been in Machu Picchu yet! We explored the site as fast as we could considering that we just got into a car accident days before in Mexico and we were in pain (well mostly I was in pain because Bryan is like a rock).

We left the site and found Thomas close to the entry waiting for us to keep going; after seeing how long it took us to enjoy this incredible place we opted not to visit the market in Pisac town with the goal of make it on time to Ollyantantambo and visit the archeological site, however by the time we left Pisca we were starving; along the way were several little restaurants (that did not seem to bad) that sell Cuy (guinea pig), this is a traditional dish that the Peruvian people only eat on special occasions, we asked Thomas if this place was good, he said yes so we stop and tried the Cuy. For the most part it was kind of sad, considering that they have a little space where they have a few of them looking all sweet and adorable, not far from that they also have this rudimentary fire rotisserie were they have them all in sticks (like a chicken… just these are a guinea pigs on a stick), but we say that we will try them and so we did!… they taste almost like chicken, not to meaty but not bad; we left feeling adventurous, proud of trying something so exotic, Bryan (my Goat) was perfectly fine, but within 20 minutes of us leaving the restaurant I started with stomach ache. By the time we made it to Ollyantantambo I had a horrible stomach ache, by then we only had 1.5 hour to get into our train to Machu Picchu, so we decided to only walk around the very charming town and not visit the fortress. To be honest you need like 2-3 hours on this site and requires to be on ‘top-shelf-health’ to do it (please see pictures) the site is so impressive that even if we had have the time to do it I honestly doubt I could have make it, most of the site requires a vertical climb on stepped steps made for goats and llamas!! And with my broken ribs, stomach ache and my old knee injury there was no way I could have done this without some tears… But believe me, I guarantee that if we did have the time I would have done it. We could not miss our train to Machu picchu, therefore we concentrated on walking around the town, again the mix of native architecture and Spanish colonial like Cusco but somehow more rural with a lot of adobe is beautiful, the simplicity and character of the houses, the clay stucco and the earth tones made this town a must-see place. I was a little sad we did not have the time to explore the fortress, but it gives as an excuse to maybe come back in another time (hopefully before we are too old to be able to climb this crazy place).

We got to the train station that is like 10 minutes walking from the little plaza, got our final tickets (we bought them ahead of time and needed to exchange them for the real tickets), wait in line and board the train. We were exited, it was the first time that we really travel in train to an actual destination (we had ridden the train to the Grand Canyon, but this is more like a ‘fair ride’ than a real train travel experience), everybody around us was a tourist, mostly from Europe. It was 4.30pm when the ride started (last almost 2 hours) but the experience is incredible, the train travels along the river Urubamba that curves through a series of narrow valleys flanked by almost vertical mountains in both sides, here and there you can see the snowy peaks of the Andes in the distance, the flow of the river is fast, Bryan was saying that the river would make a very fun kayak ride (I though he was absolutely crazy). The ride is a picture-perfect experience, the place looks like from an Indian Jones movie or a James Rollins book, out of this world, to trip was so spectacular that I almost forgot my horrible stomach each. We were happy that we did the trip early enough to see it with day light. After 1.5+/- hrs. we arrived to Aguas Calientes (or Machu Picchu Town) where the people from the hotel was waiting for us. Got to the hotel within a 5-minute walk from the station, got our room and took something for my stomach, felt better after a few bathroom visits and decided to walk around the town to find dinner and buy the tickets for the next morning bus to get to Machu Picchu. The town is in reality a tourist trap, in the middle of nowhere, restaurant after craft store and so on, you can find all kind of food here, Bryan picture it similar to the Tibet where everybody goes to climb the Everest, again, we really not going to suggest an specific restaurant because for that we needed to try them all, but if you happen to be here one day, just walk around, follow your nose and your instincts, I’m sure you won’t make the wrong decision. Food was excellent Bryan had Alpaca Skewers and I had Alpaca steak, they were fantastic, again with vegies, rice and potatoes (the potatoes in Peru taste so much better than anywhere else, they are fresh). Any way the girl in the bus tickets told us that if we wanted to be on the first 3 buses in Machu Picchu, we needed to be in the bus stop at 4.30am (first bus leaves at 5.30, so be there1hr before), and she was right!

Day No. 1:

So, we flew from Juliaca to Cusco, short flight, the hotel sent a taxi for us and the driver gave us a lot of pointers to make our visit as pleasant as possible, we really were desperate to get to our hotel because we were over 24 hours without a shower and after the hike the previous afternoon and all our injuries and bruises we really needed one. We stayed in a very cute hotel within walking distance from the main plaza, after cleaning up and organized our luggage we took our dirty clothing next door to get it washed, they even delivered to the hotel that night. We left the hotel at around 4pm and walked to the plaza where we were able to exchange money, then found a nice balcony restaurant to have a fantastic dinner. Alpaca! It was fantastic! the service, the food, the view, the music….

The historical center is absolutely breath taking, the lighting at night made it so beautiful to photograph and I’m very grateful w/ Bryan for helping me carry the tripod all over. I was really emotional because since I was in 3^rd grade I always wanted to come to Cusco and Machu Pichu, I leaned about it in a project that I put together in school and since then it was number one in my bucket list, it just took me 38 years to get here, for Bryan was kind of the same, he always wanted to come, so we truly enjoy walking around like 2 little kids in a candy store, the colonial architecture mixed with the indigenous made the city an absolute jewel. Everywhere you go (inside the historical downtown) the facades are perfectly preserved, they follow the same ‘rules’ as many ‘magical towns’ in Mexico that UNESCO has declared “patrimonio de la humanidad’ they have a rigorous color pallet and even a few fonts for labels and signages for every store, restaurant… even McDonalds and KFC, the craftmanship of the balconies around the plaza is stunning and there are no bad views from any of them. As an architect I enjoy the experience like nothing I had travel before.

In this post we are just talking about Cusco to not get all over the place with the narratives, we divided our visit to Cusco in 2 days with a day through the Secret Valley and a day in Machu picchu in between; the following is day number 2 in Cusco:

Day No. 2:

We arrived like around 11pm from Machu Picchu, and were more than tired, the train ride was nice, gave us time to write and relax for a bit (1.45hr trip), then we took the bus from Ollantaytambo to Cusco, that took 2 hours, we just sleep all the way. Side note: Incarail has a ticket back from Macchu Picchu to Cusco that includes the bus ride from Ollyantatambo (there are no direct train rides to Cusco).

Anyway, got to our hotel from the bus stop in taxi (6 soles) and sleep, next morning we both had body aches but ready for the next, so got breakfast, shower etc.… and started walking (again). (Side note: We were also preparing for our trip to the amazon the following day and we needed to take the anti-malaria pills, the day before we took 1 pill, and everything was good, this day we took 2 pills hopping for the best).

In our previous day in Cusco we explored one half of the historic district, we planned that way so we could explore the second half the following day, and so we did started in the San Blass neighborhood and walked our way back to the main plaza, crossed it and walk all the way to the local market, and then around to the main plaza from another route, the day was wonderful, a little cloudy and it seems that was going to rain so we carry w/ our rain jackets in the backpack; we had lunch in the San Blass square in a little restaurant and we had pizza, but not any regular pizza but Alpaca ham margarita pizza, I don’t remember if I mention that we forbid ourselves to eat ‘regular-for-us’ food but local dishes and experience their cuisine, so we allowed ourselves w/ pizza only because was Alpaca, honestly was delicious, Bryan ordered a Pisco and I order a Limonada as drinks. the bill was not bad, and the environment was lovely, they made the pizza in a wood fire pizza oven and of course the flavors of the wood are all over the pizza, how to describe this…’Fantastic’!

We are really not going to suggest any specific place to eat, because for that we needed to stay in Cusco for days and days and experience most places and their food, what we can suggest is this: walk around, follow your nose and when you find that place that your stomach says ‘let’s try here’ walk in and enjoy, there are dozens of cool places to eat traditional, nontraditional, and everything in between in Cusco.

After lunch we kept walking, however our stomachs were starting to feel bad, we assumed was something about our lunch but as it turns out was the malaria pills side effects, Bryan only got a mild stomach ache but I got ‘the whole enchilada’!!! as we made our way to the market and back to the main plaza it was time to have dinner, we figure than after we eat everything was going to be ok (well….not for me!! ☹), we tried another restaurant in the second floor with a wonderful balcony setting and fantastic view of the main plaza, we order the ‘Lomo a la Parrilla’ absolutely delicious however I couldn’t finish my food (Bryan finished his and mine) I was feeling horrible, apparently my ‘Mexican-stomach’ is more delicate than Bryan’s ‘American-stomach’ he says he has a goat stomach, and believe me … he does! We left the restaurant in a hurry because I was dying for God sake! in the hotel I drank like 2 litters of hot Muna tea to fix my stomach and I was glued to the bathroom for hours LOL!!! That between the pain in my ribs and my stomach pain and the ‘bathroom-situation’ I had a horrible night!… but my ‘Goat’ slept like a baby…

We are really not planning these posts, we are writing them as we go, and in this particular one we want to start w/ the flight situation, 5am was our flight from Mexico City to Bogota,  we were in a lot of pain and tired so we really did not pay much attention to the flight aside from where our seats were and if our carry-on fit in the overhead (we were flying w/ Avianca), but when we got to Bogota, and after sleeping for 4+ hours we were a little more awake, the first thing we noticed was that the Bogota airport is really nice, nicer than the one in Mexico city, contemporary and easy to go around and find our gate, we didn’t need to wait much for our flight from Bogota to Lima and when we got to the plane we got a few pleasant surprises, and believe Avianca is not giving us commission for what follows: the chairs are really comfortable, not just because they are wider than most, but when you recline the back, the entire chair slides forward a little and becomes really comfy, every seat has a TV, w/ a remote control that doubles up as a video game control, it even has a cup/phone holder w/ and USB port for charging!, of course a folding little table, but that is not all, is has a folding FOOT REST! I have never seen that in any flight if you are not in first class!! We were pretty surprise buy this and by how nice the attendants were and efficient. AND then they rolled w/ the food cars, these were full meals FREE!!, and then Bryan said to me ‘I really need a beer” so I ask the girl of the drinks about the price of the beer, she told Bryan the options and said that the bear was also FREE! I honestly don’t remember when the last time was I took a flight that included meals, drinks and alcohol!! Not in the last 15 years at least. If I must use one word to describe Avianca airlines, I’ll say ‘OUSTANDING’! nothing less. One more thing… they do NOT charge for luggage!!! Awesome!

Oh…. Yes…. Sorry… about Lima,… well, we arrive at the hotel at around 5pm, took showers, organized our luggage for next morning and by the time we were able to go out for dinner it was already 7pm, the hotel suggested to go to the Miraflores barrio and walk around, one thing that we notice is that with the change on backpacks to my sister’s little rolling suitcases we definitely forgot a few items, like my thermal tights and Bryan beanie and gloves, so we needed to do some shopping as well, we cannot really form an educated opinion about Lima because we were only there for a few hours and really the Miraflores barrio is very modern, although the place we had dinner was nice and we ate typical Peruvian food, we really were not in the historical downtown, the areas that the taxi drove us were poor, polluted and with a lot of traffic, so really we don’t feel that we could say that our visit in Lima was eventful, we did not have the intention really to see Lima because our time was really limited, so maybe another time we’ll come back and really spend quality time there, we pretty much had dinner, walked around the shopping district and took a taxi back to the hotel.

Next morning woke up early to catch the 6am flight to Juliaca, again a nice flight w/ Avianca, no problems at all. To experience the lake Titicaca and after a lot of research we found out that we could not do it without a guide/tour, so we arrange a 2 day tour, they pick us up at the airport, drove us to the port through Juliaca and then Puno, the tour people was already there w/ a boat ready to go, now our take on Juliaca and Puno, we were just passing by but you can really see the character of the place, underdeveloped, polluted and not dirty, but very dusty, is a very dry area, the traffic was absolutely crazy and most of the cars there wouldn’t pass emission test , the people is super nice and helpful though. At the port with our guide (Juanito) we were told that we were going to stay w/ a family on Amantani island (we knew that when we booked the tour), He suggested that it would be nice if we bring some essentials to the family, like sugar, rice, pasta, some candies and so on, so we did, there were some little grocery stores at the port and we were able to but those items plus some bottles of water for us assuming there were not bottled water in the island, a little bit later we climbed the boat and were in our way to the Uros floating islands. The place is an absolute cultural shock, these people have been living like this for thousands of years, floating in a really cold and isolated lake and honestly after seen how little they have it make us thing on how wasteful we are in many way, although Bryan did not grow up in a rich family and I grew up in a 3^rd world, we do have a lot of appreciation for most things, however this people have almost nothing, they livelihood is the lake, the ribs that grow in the edges and their textiles that are BTW very beautiful and so un-expensive, we got a few items like Bryans gloves there and the beanie because they were supper cheap (in lima they were 50 dollar for the gloves and beany) we pay 5 dollar in the islands. We learned that in the Peruvian culture there is really not a ‘macho’ mentality, men and women ‘pull’ kind of at the same pace, all work, men even help on the textile work knitting and sewing, the women drive the boats and do ‘men’ jobs…no problems!, you can see the rugger of their work and the environment in their faces, they seem to age really young and the lines in their faces can tell you their story if you pay attention. Our guide (Juanito) was knowledgeable he is a local from Puno, so he knows his craft as well. He explained us the mentality of the people and the damage that the Spanish did to all of them and their traditions and original cultures. Pretty much like what they did in Mexico.

After Uros the boat took us to the Amantani island where the temples of the Pachamama and Pachatata are (they are BTY in the top of 2 hills like 1000ft above the lake level), this is where we were sleeping this night w/ a native ( and I mean NATIVE) family, in route to the island the guide explained how this people live, function and how they were going to take us in their ‘guest rooms’ also what was expected from us and the schedule he needed to follow. We meet ‘Jovita’ (diminutive for Jova, in Peru they all get a diminutive version of their name, in Mexico you get a nickname -I have a few: ‘Flaca and Rata’-), the woman that was taking us in her home, after introductions we walk to her house and I was so impressed with the strength of this lady, Jovita and Juanito helped us carry our luggage (that were not backpacks any more) that was really hard to move w/ them since there are not even roads.

The island has 4000 people living there in 10 little communities and they all have a way to host people every day, it works in a rotation basis. A few interesting things that we found out about this island are: there are no dogs for some reason, they only consider dogs for protection and the island is one of the safest places in Peru, they don’t even have police there, everybody knows each other and protect each other, they have a system where they ‘finger-point’ their leaders and they are picked as per the quality of their character, their work ethics and their intelligence and kindness, they have interesting ways to for example ‘reprimand’ their youth when they do something wrong and as we were told they get ‘whipped’ and the amount depends on the crime, needless to say that their kids behave really good.

Any way after walking for like 10 minutes we got to Jovita’s home where after we got settled she had made lunch for us, very simple but delicious, I was impress on how humble and sweet this woman is. After lunch and clean up Juanito, Bryan and I walked to the Pachatata trail…. HOOO MY GOD!! That was hard… first the elevation (well it help a lot that we were drinking Coca tea w/ muna) the lake is at over 13000ft over sea level and the temples are another 1000+/- more up… by foot, it was cold so we carry our jackets, use my tights and cargo pants, shirt, light sweater, sweater and jacket, Bryan was pretty much the same just no tights, please remember that we are doing this with 2 broken ribs and the multiple bruises, the walk was a really painful process but it was worth the effort, the trail and the people are absolutely beautiful and photogenic, the views are fantastic and mother earth gift us w/ clouds and rain in the distant an even lighting that were a great show, we arrive at the Pachatata at sunset and enjoy the beautiful views of the Andes from there.

In our  way back we got some rain (thank God we took our wind breakers, we walked down hill in the middle of a really not to heavy rain, down hills are always easy so we did good time back to town, Jovita was waiting for us with dinner, again another delicious typical dinner and her and Juanito’s company and conversation about their culture, customs, the way people live in the island, we were impress and sadden when Juanito told us that Jovita carries almost every day big buckets of water from the springs downhill to her house for her use (and her guests) on her back, she doesn’t have running potable water in her house and she is single, she needs to take care of that herself, she is a tiny lady with the strength of Bryan (he is 6’-2 and  solid muscle). We were so tired from the hike that we just went to bed. Side note: her house is made of adobe, and the guest room where we stayed was small but comfortable, but what was surprising was that even though it was freezing and raining outside, inside was just perfect, we slept well. Next morning woke up early, Jovita and Juanito were waiting for us to have breakfast and after that we all walked to the port where we took a water taxi to the closest port in the main land were a taxi was waiting for us to drive us to the airport. Our experience on the island with Jovita was really humbling.

Everything was going great until …how can we say this in a nice way… o yeah… SHIT happened!!! And believe us, SHIT is an understatement!!. Let us start from the beginning, left home, w/ all our luggage  (this is important because on the last trip – Hawaii- we forgot one suitcase and that was Bryan and mine and we ended up buying shorts and swimming suits and toiletries in Hawaii), any way this is important for us to make sure we have everything we need w/ us…. And we did!! (this time), so we got to Mexico kind of late but w/ no major issues, aside for Bryan’s long legs and not enough room for them on both flights, and not really sleeping much… all was ok, after landing we took the bus to Cuernavaca and my sister picked us up at the terminal, drove to her home and slept, is was raining so everything was wet and smelled wonderful!!, Cuernavaca is called the ‘ciudad de la eterna primavera’ (the city of the eternal spring) is really green, and during raining season is absolutely wonderful (for us coming from the desert that don’t see much rain of course) because we get to enjoy rain. Anyway, next morning we got up early, took showers, Bryan his coffee also and my sister let us use her little VW car to go to Xochicalco and to Taxco.

It was really raining, but we were hoping it would clear up in Xochicalco that is like 60 kms from Cuernavaca. we drove almost to Xochicalco to a restaurant that has been in business for at least 50 years in the same place, that specializes in the most wonderful ‘Cecina’ of the country (is a kind of thin cow cut that is also salty and tender, very traditional from this area) (place is call ‘Cuatro Vientos’ -the translation would be ‘four winds’), anyhow, we stopped here for breakfast, had of course Cecina both of us with incredible re-fried beans, super fresh ‘fresco cheese’ and the most delicious sour cream, of course with a ‘Yoli’ which is the Mexican version of Sprite but you can only get it in the state of Guerrero is very refreshing.

Breakfast was really peaceful and relaxing; when we came out of the restaurant it was not raining buckets as before but only a soft mist, we drove for like 30 minutes through some winding roads until we got to Xochicalco (see below a quick summary of Xochicalco), got there it was still ‘misting’ but we try to find the good side on this because the place was deserted and as a photographer there is nothing more wonderful than having a major archaeological site by yourself, so we got to the entry, pay our tickets and started with the museum that is full of beautiful small to mid-size sculptures, tools, music instruments and chunks of ‘steles’ and columns that had been rescued from the site. After the museum, we drove to the actual site, park in front of the guard (convenient because that meant that the car was 100% safe). It was still misting but this was actually a huge plus not just because scare everybody on coming to the site but because the site is up in a mountain at approx. 4000 ft high, there are 5 big esplanade of the complex that had been in restoration for the last 100+ years and because is surrounded by cliffs the site looked crazy mystical with the clouds under the elevation of the esplanades coming up, it was actually a surreal site and believe us beautiful. We walk for a while all by ourselves and the birds, being all “Anselm Adams ish”  taking ton of pictures walking and reading the descriptions next to the incredible beautiful pyramids and ceremonial temples when one of the restoration workers called us from the top of one of the biggest pyramid, interested in us because we were the only people there that morning, so he invited us UP to the pyramid through a service side (for employees only) and started showing us around and explaining us all the things that you can NOT really read on the books or the descriptions of the buildings at its bases, as it turns out this old guy was one on the few locals that is been working with the archaeologist in charge of the rescue and restoration since 1981 and has been on the site ever since, needless to say that he is so well verse on everything that is been discovered there and in most of what haven’t been unearthed yet on the surrounding mountains, hills and esplanades. It was absolutely mesmerizing the amount of knowledge this man has and details of information that you would only knew if you are an archaeologist, this, so humble, sweet guy with broken knees that make him wiggle a lot as he walks all over the place all day, day after day I’m sure he doesn’t have even have a high school education, have a huge wealth of knowledge, the simplicity of his explanations were an absolute gift from God for us.

Anyway, after we thank him and of course tipped him, we parted our ways to Taxco that is at 60+ kms from Xochicalco (it was still misting). As a side note we have to mention that the highway to Taxco is one of the most dangerous of the country, is a winding, Uphill/downhill, narrow and in raining season kind of slippery drive; Bryan was driving very slow, I had to point out that he is a trained driver on all kind on heavy and crazy vehicles, he also can remember the last time that he ever was involve in a car accident (aside from be the one doing rescuing of people). While we were driving, I mentioned to Bryan about what to write in the next post and how fantastic the morning was so far, but Bryan seemed to think that the morning was so far kind of uneventful (this note is important, honestly because coming from a witch/mystical family his words were kind of ‘bad-juju’ we were almost at Taxco, maybe 15kms away, when in a narrow and closed curve from out of nowhere this huge Van lost control in his way down and went right straight to us, Bryan maneuvered the car as best as he could and we honestly were blessed that on this specific curve there was not a vertical cliff next to the highway or you wouldn’t been reading this…. The Van basically t-boned us and pushed us about 10 ft off the road and destroyed my sister’s little car.

Everything after that went in to a complete chaos, I jumped out like an angry cat with my very ‘flowery Spanish’ and put everybody involved in its place, the car that was driving behind us was hit also by the Van and the downhill traffic and uphill traffic just stopped, there was a lot of craziness happening, but I’m not going to bore you w/ all gory details of this mess, however we were injured, I couldn’t breathe right, Bryan was the one that was hit on the side of his body and he went and sat on the side of the highway (he couldn’t do much anyways because his Spanish is limited to the kitchen lol!), we could not just abandon the car to go to the hospital, we needed to wait for the police (Federales) and the insurance, when I finally was able to communicate w/ my sister she of course from the distance w/ her phone while driving to meet us, somehow managed to helps us to resolve the ‘whole enchilada’, needless to say that this mess took a lot of time and we needed to make sure that we did not have internal bleeding because we were about to take a plane at 5am the following morning; when we were finally able to go to a local clinic, got X-rays and to my surprise these was the doctor’s take: Bryan: whom got the hit completely on his side did not have any ‘structural’ damage, all bones were complete, in place, no internal bleedings but a bunch or muscles in a knot, pain in his back mostly because of previous injuries, his shoulder had a huge lump on the left side and he was in ton of pain, however all and all a good outcome (my son thinks that Bryan is from Krypton BTY… I’ll let you in that story in another post) Laura: … I was the copilot, nothing really hit me, it was mostly inertia and backlash but really nothing hit me that I can even record, but I could not breathe right, and it felt just like I broke a rib or 2 (BTY I broke 2 ribs falling from steps like 5 years ago) so I know how it felt (like I said before we were mostly worried about internal bleeding because the 5am flight to Lima a few hours in the future), the doctor say…’mmmm well, not bleeding, that is good’… I was about to celebrate and assumed that the pain while breathing was maybe due to stress or maybe just got a muscle pulled or something like that, when he said: ‘BUT you have 9 & 10 broken…. (ribs # 9 & 10)’… AWESOME!!!  (at this point, this was all we knew we got, however when we got back home -2 weeks later- we were just feeling really bad by the end of the trip, so went to see our family doctor who send us to the Trauma hospital and after X-ray, MRI’s, blood test among other it turned out that I have 5 broken ribs and Bryan got a ‘leak’ on the vain that carries blood to the brain and made a huge hematoma in his neck, doctors were very surprise we were able to continue the trip after all that… well we didn’t knew it was that bad)   I have to say that we were in a lot of pain and still needed to catch a flight and the entire situation of leaving my sister w/ all the issues by herself absolutely killed us; however we weren’t going to be able of really help her much after all the police and insurance reports were filled-out, declarations done and so forth, at the end,  she managed to get us to Cuernavaca (in one piece), then we modify our backpacks because now we were no able to carry anything on our backs, and then she drove us back to Mexico city to get to our flight…. It all sound like a breeze but trust me it was mostly a bad tornado with multiple damage. Of course, with all that happen we never really make it to see Taxco and enjoy most of what is about and that was very disappointing. However there a few things that we got realizations off: from the moment that we woke up to the moment we were seating on the waiting room for our next flight to Lima, there were tons of complete strangers trying to help us, the guy in Xochicalco, the cars that stopped on the freeway trying to let us use their phones and offering to drive us to the hospital, to the guys in the tow trucks and the Federales, it was amazing the kindness, selfness and true honest willing to help. My sister and the friend that drove her from Cuernavaca to Taxco of course deserve the ‘Oscar’ for the best sister and friend of the planet. We are going to be forever grateful for these, we are also very thankful with God, Destiny, Buda, Ala or wherever is out there taking care of us because we survived this one w/ bruises, swollen muscles and 2 broken ribs, but we are going to still be able to see, kiss and hold our kids in a few weeks!

To all the people that helped us, tried to help us and was with us, we send you our utmost thanks, our respect and absolute appreciation!

Gracias Mexicanos for been soooo Cool!