October 6th – The
wrong “campsite”
After a leisurely morning of
coffee and exploring and watching the local high school marching band prepare
for the community’s founding anniversary celebrations we started driving back
towards the touristy section of the Sacred Valley, the community of
Ollantaytambo. The drive was a dramatic
ascent up one side of a mountain into the clouds then down the other side. The elevation change from where we started to
the top of the mountain was almost 2000 metres.
During this drive we encountered two police road blocks, since we have entered Peru we have only encountered very casual road blocks, but this one was incredibly formal and consisted of an inspection of all our paperwork. Obviously everything was in order but we were curious why we encountered these stops within 37 kilometers of each other. We had originally planned to stop at some miradors and some smaller Incan ruins but the cloud cover was just too extreme or there was no logical way to get to the site.
By the time we arrived in
Ollantaytambo it was the early afternoon.
We found a campsite for the night, the municipal parking lot and
explored both the artisanal market and the food market. After purchasing a few things we returned to
the van where Kendra, not feeling as well as she had previously felt decided to
take a nap. After she awoke we learned
that this probably was not the right campsite for us.
As the camping spot was a parking
lot we ended up getting locked in at 5pm.
Thankfully we weren’t on the other side to be locked out. We had thought about exploring the community
in the early evening but this plan was no longer possible. We also learned that the toilets were out of
order meaning that when Kendra was feeling her worst there was no place logical
for her to go, luckily if there’s a will there’s a way..and there’s always a
way.
October 7th –
Investing in Incan Ruins
The main attraction in
Ollantaytambo was the archeological site of the same name. We had two choices when it came to purchasing
tickets to see the site, the first was to purchase a two day pass to it as well
as 3 other sites across the Cusco region for $25 CAD per person or a 10 day
pass for double that. We opted for the
10 day pass.
We mistakenly did not get a guide
when we entered the archeological site assuming we could eavesdrop once again
but there was no guide anywhere near us.
We ended up wandering around taking pictures without any context of what
we were looking at it. This likely
resulted in us not enjoying the site as much as we had hoped.
After taking our own photos we
stopped in a shop to purchase some products made from the salt, from smoked
salt and flavouring salt for our meals but also a few chocolate bars that
begged to be complemented by a bottle of red wine. However, as we still hadn’t
heard from any campground we decided to see one more Incan site, Moray.
Moray was an Incan laboratory
where they had terraced a mountain/valley to do experiments on how different
crops grow at different temperatures.
It was quite a site and showcased the intelligence of the Incan people.
We had just about started to
stress out about where we were camping when we went to one last brewery for the
day. While enjoying some average beers we finally heard back from a campground
in the community confirming that we could stay.
After setting up camp we decided to open our final bottle of Peruvian
wine from our time in wine country. This
was our most expensive bottle and thankfully tasted decent on its own and paired
excellently with the salted dark chocolate we had purchased. We finally found a Peruvian wine we can
tolerate, a Borgona (specifically from Tabernero winery).
October 8th – One of
the best meals we’ve purchased
The plan was to explore Urubamba
today as it was their market day. Paul
ended up going by himself to pick up a few groceries before returning to
camp. We ended up going to the market
together later in the afternoon to get some lunch. Unfortunately, the market was almost done for
the day limiting our options for lunch.
After a quick google search we found an extremely well reviewed
restaurant where we had the best lunch we have had at any restaurant, including
rivaling some of the best meals we have had at a restaurant on this entire trip
(which was in Daajing Giids back in B.C).
Both meals were a simple meat and grain meal but the flavour and the
tenderness of the meat was unreal. Plus
the restaurant is dabbling in brewing beer, so we had to try their lager, which
was fine. Of course the meal was so good we forgot to take a picture of it or the restaurant itself.
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| Rupert found something he really wanted at the market |
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| Sometimes Paul seems like a giant in these communities |
We decided to get a few drinks at
another local brewery where the bartender drew us a map labelling the places we
cannot miss between here and the Bolivian border. Next we purchased another
bottle of wine and returned to the van with almost a half kilo of kalamata
olives purchased at the market for further wine parings and some board games,
specifically Lost Cities loaned to us by Cole and Charley! (Thanks!!!)
October 9th – A Cute
Peruvian town
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| Our odometer reading as we drove through the "Sacred Valley" |
The plan was to hire a guide at
the site but when we arrived it was so busy that there were no guides around so
we entered and foolishly copied our mistake from Ollantaytambo. We wandered around taking pictures without any
context of what we were looking at. We
really wish that any information, even just a billboard would give even a
nugget of detail about the site. That
being said it was a beautiful site with many interesting things to look at and
miradors overlooking the entire valley.
We can see why many people list this Incan site so highly on there
favourites list.
We had read on our favourite app
iOverlander that the market in Pisac was massive every Tuesday (tomorrow) and
Thursday so originally we had talked about staying the night but after seeing
the archeological site we decided to just take a walk around the community then
leave towards Cusco. After we started
our walking around the community we quickly changed our mind; we decided to
stay and we wanted to stay in a hotel so that we could be close to the central
square.
Pisac was what we can only assume Aguas Calientes was trying to emulate itself after. Its streets were extremely walkable, it was surrounded by mountains and filled with cute buildings filled with unique shops and restaurants. We fell in love. This also gave us the opportunity to get our bedding washed since we wouldn’t be using it, something we hadn’t done in a while….
We spent the rest of the day
going from café to shop and streets filled with clothing and souvenirs. The day flew by and in the very comfortable
and clean hotel room we slept great.
October 10th –
iOverlander has lied to us
After a delicious breakfast
provided by our hotel and a leisurely morning we went out to experience the
Tuesday Pisac market. This is when we
learned that there was no such thing as the Tuesday Pisac market, every day was
pretty much the same. Since our laundry
wouldn’t be done until the early afternoon we ended up repeating our steps from
yesterday but going into different cafes and shops. We even found a sweater for Paul, ate a
delicious sandwich at the food market and shopped around and debated purchasing
a rug. In the end we decided against it.
Once our laundry was ready we
made the short drive to Cusco and its famous overlander campground, Quinta Lala. This campground is a must stop for most
overlanders as it is a bit of an overlander meet up spot with it being walking
distance to the historical centre of Cusco.
We pulled in and immediately felt
at home quickly making conversations with our neighbours before cooking up a
nice dinner.
October 11th – SEXY
WOMAN
One of the most misheard names of any Incan site is the site of Saqsaywaman a fortress that would house the Incan King and Queen as well as their nobility. As it was included in our 10 day pass and a mere 5 minute walk from our campground we headed to this famous Peruvian site.
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| What was going to be the Royal Baths |
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| The view of the site |
We finally learned our lesson an got a guide learning about why it was going to be created and why it was never finished (the Spanish Invaders). We saw how they paid homage to each Incan god and how they would spend their own leisure time in baths and slides made from the sides of the mountains. It was definitely a much more enjoyable experience due to our guide. We even learned some Quechua and got to ask some questions we wished we could have asked when we were at other Incan sites. In general most things that were told to us would align with anything you could read on Wikipedia but it was nice being told it when we were staring at the specific object, design or place within the archeological site.
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| The natural slide, historically only used by nobility |
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| The drainage tunnels from the baths |
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| The Sacred Rock Saqsaywaman |
The afternoon was filled with socializing with other overlanders and updating the blog as well as other little tasks we had been putting off. Since we had no food left to cook our own dinner we decided to head to the historical centre of Cusco for dinner.
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| The view of Cusco from Saqsaywaman |
We see why so many people like
Cusco as it was like a bigger Pisac. It
is definitely a place we can see ourselves exploring a few times. We wandered the narrow roads and window
shopped before settling on a restaurant for dinner (another brewery). There was some sort of event occurring in the
main plaza, but after listening to them
talk for an hour and not a lot happening we opted to return to the campground
to socialize a bit more. *We did a quick Google search and it seems there is a
mountain biking race sponsored by Red Bull happening
October 12th – Food
Poisoning, the return
After a restless sleep (for no
reason for Paul) Kendra awoke feeling sick again. In the hopes of feeling better Kendra took it
easy while Paul spent the morning continuing to catch up on the blog, while periodically
talking to some new campers that had arrived to the site.
Paul did make his way to Cusco, about a 25 minutes walk downhill from the campground for some food as we were pretty much out. He wandered the market which was unlike any other food market he had been too, it was definitely more for tourists than locals, but there were a few meat, cheese and vegetable vendors who seemed quite surprised by a tourist buying food.
Paul spent the evening visiting
with other travelers, cooking and drinking wine with complementary dark
chocolate while Kendra kept hydrated hoping to feel better tomorrow. Kendra
debated whether this was food poisoning again or altitude sickness, but since
Cusco is lower than her 4100 meter threshold she is convinced it was something
she ate yesterday.
October 13th – Getting
Lost
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| Who needs to go to a tourist location to take a photo with the Cusco sign, just go to the mall |
Central America (and Mexico) is
also where many travelers have some odd feelings about. Many talk about getting lost and spending too
much time. The term getting lost while
on the road seems to have picked up a new meaning, for many it means staying in
one place and getting lost within it.
Due to timelines and excitement for everyday that followed we never felt
like we got lost but we can see how it would happen, and we could see how we
could get lost in the Cusco area; this is an unbelievable part of Peru.
Paul’s pants had ripped due to
their age and his shoes that he bought 6 months ago in Guatemala had no
grip. We were convinced that Cusco would
be one of the last places we would be able to purchase things in his size so we
made our way to the mall which looked exactly like any Canadian or American
mall in a large centre. It was actually
really weird to walk into the mall as it felt like we were transported back
home. We did have a bit of reverse culture shock, but that being said we did find
everything Paul needed.
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| The San Blas neighbourhood where so photographic |
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| The "model" was too bad to look at either (Rupert) |
Our afternoon was spent getting
lost within the San Blas neighbourhood which overlooks the historical centre of
Cusco. With so many miradors and cute
colourful alleyways it was easy to waste the day. We went into many shops, even buying some
art, we ate some of the best pie we have had on the trip and had a few subpar
pints. Before we knew it the early
afternoon turned into the early evening and thanks to some rain we decided to
return to the campground and cook a nice dinner. Sadly because of the rain a lot of the other
campers were hiding so we had some time to just enjoy our own company.
October 14th – The
Honey-Do list
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| Spent a good part of the day reorganizing the van |
There were numerous little things
we had been putting off for the last few months that we decided to
complete. Nothing we did was all that
interesting, a lot of cleanup, organization and preventative maintenance but it
still took most of the morning to complete (greasing some joints, putting
compressed air through our propane hose and re-velcroing our sunshades/window
covers). However, by lunch time we were
happy to sit down to a meal feeling accomplished in all our tasks.
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| Paul made a new friend, he followed us for hours |
We did not want to spend all our time around the campsite so we did start reexploring Cusco in the daylight together. The community is a great town but the historical centre can be a bit overwhelming with people constantly trying to sell you things, both illegal things (drugs and “special massages”) along with typical souvenirs, normal massages, and shirts you see throughout Peru. In general the issue we have with Cusco is that it is unlike all communities in Peru. It is very Colonial with an odd mixture of areas seemingly specifically designed for tourists. Regardless this finally day of exploring made us realize it was time to leave the Cusco area and see our final few things in Peru.
Our goal was to drive from Cusco
to a parking lot a couple kilometres from Rainbow Mountain, one of the most
visited sites in Peru, after Machu Picchu, of course. We knew the drive would be long with many
kilometers on dirt single track roads that would take us in the Peruvian
highlands above 5,000 metres. Lucky for
us our drive would take us through two more ruins of pre-hispanic settlements
both of which would be free for us to enter thanks to the 10-day pass we had
purchased in Ollantaytambo.
Leaving Cusco was a bit
stressful, but not for the typical reasons such as driving, navigating or
interactions with Police/Locals. Our
stress was due to our selection of supermarket, google directed us to a large
supermarket called Makro. We hadn’t
heard of it before but the second we arrived we realized that it was unlike
other supermarkets we had been to in a long time; it was like Costco. After a bit of googling we learned that most
Makro around the world require a membership, something we obviously don’t have
and we were unsure if we would be able to purchase anything. Paul found a employee and asked if a
membership was required, which they responded “No”, but Paul was concerned he
had used the incorrect word in Spanish meaning that throughout our shopping
purchase and up to the point we paid for the groceries we were waiting for
someone to ask us for a membership card or just kick us out. Thankfully none of that happened and we
walked out of the Costco like place mimicking the old Ikea commercial to each
other saying “Start the car”.
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| The fountains of Tipon |
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| How they moved water around Tipon |
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| The farmland of Tipon |
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| The streets of Pikillacta |
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| The Residential area of Pikillacta |
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| An Alpaca heading back home |
The remainder of the day was
thankfully uneventful, the dirt road to the east parking lot of Rainbow
Mountain was…fine. We got to see some
llamas and alpacas as well as some valley views, but nothing we hadn’t seen before. The only stress came from when we had to
drive under a large banner that said Private Property. We knew we had to pay to be on the land but
we had arrived late so there was no one at the building beside the banner nor
any way for us to confirm this was actually where we were supposed to go. After a slightly nerve-racking 10 minute
drive we were happy to see that we had driven the correct way and made it to
the parking lot, that there was a local there who confirmed we could camp at
that location and best yet some fellow travellers we had met in Huacachina were
also there.
We spent the even having a couple
glasses of wine and chatting while watching herds of Llamas and Alpacas leave
there grazing area and return to their homes.
Before too long it was too cold to stay outside due to our altitude
(~5,000 metres) so we said goodnight and headed to our vehicles planning to
hike up to Rainbow mountain together tomorrow.
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| The van in front of a mountain under the stars |
October 16th – A
colourful day
After returning to the van we
started driving towards a lesser known area with other Rainbow Mountains known
as Montana de colores Palccoyo. It was a
long drive even resulting in a few wrong turns make the day feel far longer
than needed but we finally made it to the start of the hike to the various
miradors of Palccoyo.
Thankfully this hike was well
worth it with views of three rainbow mountains, one of which we could walk
on. The views in the distance were of
the southern portion of the red valley making the landscape even more
dynamic. Best yet Rupert was allowed to
come with us on this hike which he seemed thrilled about.
Just as we got to the end of the
trail the weather started to turn, the sun had disappeared and rain started to
fall with more and more intensity. By
the time we returned to the van the rain and turned into hail and that hail
seemed committed to turning the landscape white. Although we were exhausted the idea of
camping in a hail storm high in the Andes mountains seemed unappealing so we
drove to another camping spot 1,500 metres lower in elevation and slept.
October 17th – Finishing
our list from Urubamba
Almost 10 days ago while we were
in Urubamba we were drawn a map from a local bartender of all the things he
recommended us to see between Cusco and the Bolivian border. We had done our best to see as many of them
as possible, most of which being ruins and hikes. The final two items on that map were the
community of Raqch’i and some hot springs.
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| The view of Raqch'i |
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| A Herbal Sauna; AMAZING |
When we arrived in the community of Aguas Calientes, not to be confused with the Machu Picchu community site of the same name, we were immediately curious how this experience would be. The bartender recommended the hot springs here. The site itself looked incredible worn down with many cracks in the walls, chipping paint and large holes in some of the change rooms (Kendra made Paul stand in front of the holes while she changed as they were large enough to allow anyone to see almost everything). That being said it was very inexpensive and the water was perfect. It definitely was not at the same caliber as Santa Teresa but it did not smell of urine. The best part of the hot springs were the saunas where local plants and herbs were placed on the floor of what looked to be a green house where hot spring water would run under the floor boards creating a natural aromatic experience. It was so relaxing and rejuvenating and had us discussing how we could recreate a similar experience for ourselves at home.
Thankfully we were able to camp
in the parking lot of the hot springs as there were no viable spots to camp
within a couple hours radius. We had
hoped to travel further south towards Bolivia but the Puno region close to the
border with Bolivia on the Peru side of Lake Titicaca is a no go area according
to the Government of Canada meaning we wanted to make sure any time spent in
the area was spent in a safe spot.
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| It did have good ice cream |
October 18th – Sketchy
communities
Our drive from the hot springs to
Puno was uneventful but gave us a feeling of uneasiness. We are sure the communities are fine with
interesting things to see in them, but they didn’t make us feel safe. We only stopped in one community, Juliaca to
go to its market and purchase some food for our remaining days in Peru. We had originally planned to go together but
in the end Kendra felt it would be better for her to remain at the van to
ensure it also was safe.
After a quick stop for ice cream we arrived into Puno and found a campground close to the centre of the community that was secure and safe. It even offered tours to the floating islands nearby, a must do according to some Peruvians we had talked to. We decided to purchase tickets to see the islands tomorrow.
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| Our trip through Peru was made a little cheaper as many toll booths were burned from protests a few months ago |
Although we had talked about exploring Puno we decided against it opting instead to prepare for our trip into Bolivia. We wanted to do research and plot a route through the country as well as prepare some of our customs forms for our vehicle. By the time we had completed all those tasks it was almost dinner time so we spent the remainder of the evening playing board games and drinking wine.
October 19th – Tourist
Trap or Desperate Community
After a quick breakfast we were whisked
away into a taxi to go to the port of Puno to board a boat to the Uros
Islands. These islands are inhabited by
the Uros people and are built using reeds laid on top of each other. Every week more and more reeds have to be
added to each island, of which there are approximately 120, so they can keep
afloat. As these islands are artificial
they can float which was historically done for defensive reasons. Today the islands are mostly a tourist attraction
with each island only being visited by tourists one day a week or so and inhabited by a couple
families each.
We spent the remainder of the day trying to visit the historical center of Puno. Every time we tried the rain or hail would start and we would run back to the campground, mostly because every time we left the rain would start within a few minutes. Finally, around dusk the rain had stopped and we grabbed a taxi into the town.
Puno was…fine. There were a few nice pedestrian walkways and
some colourful historical buildings but in general it was nothing special. We did; however, have some sushi for dinner
which was pretty good and a great way to celebrate our final night in
Peru. Tomorrow we head to Bolivia!
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