Cusco

Since the boys were done with all of their school stuff, we were able to take a week to travel Peru, and we had so much fun! I have to break up our trip into three parts because it would be way too long if I didn't! 

Saturday: Left Trujillo at 11pm, had a 5 hour layover in Lima, and then flew to Cuzco. The Trujillo airport is so small, you have to walk up the stairs to the plane. And Brad was so nice to paint my right fingernails for me on the plane. ;)

 Sunday: We arrived in Cusco at 7:30am. Our hotel people picked us up from the airport and took us to our Hostal- the Orquidea Real. We relaxed for a bit and got caught up on our sleep- taking about a 6 hour nap. Then we walked around the city, did a little shopping, took a picture with some girls and their lamb, had dinner at a yummy mexican place, had some pancakes and chocolate, and played card games in bed.  The altitude in Cusco was 11,000 ft, so we all had a little bit of altitude sickness, but luckily we were used to it by the next day.

 Monday: we woke up early to purchase our Machu Picchu tickets, then had breakfast and took a tour of the city on a double decker bus. It took us up to the top of a mountain and on the way we saw: lots of churches, cathedrals, an all boys school, cemetery, a haunted house, llamas, Saqsewaman, and the lucky bulls on the roofs.

 When we got to the top, there was an awesome view of the city, a Christo Blanco (a white Christ who looks out over the city), and a lady with a llama and baby lamb.

For lunch, we had clay oven pizza and pina juice. We hung out at our hostel, took naps, and had dinner. Then we all got an hour long massage- a first for Brad and I- and it was amazing! They were only 15 soles each.

 Tuesday: We took a bus to Pisaq (about 45 min away) to go to the flea markets. They had the biggest selection for the best price, but unfortunately we had already done most our shopping. We had some lunch there, at the Blue llama, and we saw a real llama! They had this awesome little house for some guinea pigs that I thought was pretty sweet.

 When we got back to Cusco, we checked out the Museo del Cacao (Chocolate Museum) and learned how chocolate is made- by cacao beans grown on trees. We got a delicious brownie there as well.

Aguas Calientes/Machu Picchu

Wednesday: We rode in a train to Aguas Calientes- 3 1/2 hours away. A train ride is the only way to get into this small city, and it was not cheap but it was a beautiful ride! We checked in at our hostel (we shared a room with Dani and Derek this time), had lunch and walked around the beautiful city. 

We went to the butterfly museum and took a tour to see exactly how they are made and each step of becoming a butterfly. The tour was in Spanish, so Brad had to translate for us. It was pretty interesting, but we only saw one butterfly, because they free them once they become butterflies.

We also walked across the bridge to the start of Machu Picchu to check it out a bit and to see the stairs that you can walk up to the top. Looked too intense for me!

Thursday: We took a 30 minute bus ride up to Machu Picchu. The bus ride up was a little scary because it was on a very narrow road with lots of switch-backs, but we were pretty used to scary bus rides by that time. We hiked up to Waynapicchu and it was hard- but definitely worth it! I really have no words for these pictures other than it was beautiful and I loved every minute of being there. (warning: there are a ton of pictures!)

We also hiked over to the Inca bridge. The trail is blocked off so you can't walk on it- but I wouldn't have anyways.

 On the train ride back to Cusco, we got a yummy dinner and the workers put on a fashion show. This creepy guy did some dancing for us and guess who he chose to dance with him?? yup.. I swear I always get picked for embarrassing things like that.

Puno/Lake Titicaca

We went to the bus station in Cuzco for our 7 hour, over night, bus ride to puno.

Friday: We got a taxi to our hotel and got there at about 5:30am. We had a relaxing day and tried to catch up on our sleep. We found a yummy place to eat breakfast, took a nap, walked around the city center, watched a movie, went to dinner and went to bed early.

Saturday: we got picked up from our tour guide where we went on a boat on lake Titicaca. We first saw the floating reed islands and saw and learned about how it was created and how they live. We also dressed up like them. It was very interesting to learn about it all. 

Our next stop was to another Island that took 3 hours to get to- where we would be staying the night. We each got a 'mama' and stayed with a family. Our family had a 3 month old baby boy (lucky me). This was definetly another highlight of our trip- staying with the family. It was an eye opener for me to see that this is the way their EVERY day is like, and they don't know anything different.

Our family served us a yummy lunch and then we met up with everyone from our tour group to hike up to to top of their mountain to their 'temple' and to see the sunset.

Then we went back home to have dinner which was the best food we had in Peru- soup, rice with this creamy sauce, potatoes and peas. The drink was hot water, sugar and minty leaves which was actually pretty good. We got dressed up and went to go have a dance party with everyone. I do realize that those clothes make me look extremely fat...

Saturday: We had pancakes with our family and then left to go to the next and final Island about an hour away. We hiked up to the top of that mountain (if I would have known we'd be doing so much hiking, I would have brought my tennis shoes instead of my sandals). We saw their city center and had lunch and then walked down about 500 stairs on the other side of the mountain to our boat. When we got back to our hotel, we went to dinner at a really yummy place and then watched a movie. We flew back to Trujillo the next morning. It was a fabulous trip and I'm so glad we were able to go and squeeze in so many fun things!

Life as a Peruvian

We went to Huanchaco again, this time to surf. Derek and Brad surfed and Dani and I boogie boarded. Brad had never done either one before and even though neither one of us caught any waves, it was still way fun and totally worth it. It only cost us 15 soles for the wet suits and the boards for however long we wanted. Plus they had a place to lock up all our stuff so it didn't get stolen. The part that we hated the most was that the water was shallow for a ways out and there were big rocks instead of sand so it hurt our feet since we didn't have water shoes. 

After surfing, we went to the shops, ate muffins (with jelly in them- wasn't expecting that), took a nap on the beach and ate at My Friend. 

Just some more Peruvian food!

The money here in Peru- 1 sole= 40 cents.

This is no Thanksgiving meal.. but I did get my mashed potatoes from KFC so I was happy!

Derek and Brad had to do some visits with the people they have been teaching to make sure it's a good place to put their business. Dani and I tagged along to a few of them. The first was to a guy named Luis. We had to take a motor-taxi to get to his house. It was basically half a motorcycle with a little carriage on the back of it. His roof is made of reeds and branches and he has cement floors. They have 2 rooms in their house, one is the living room and the bedroom separated with a curtain. The other is a kitchen and another bedroom. While we were talking to him, a rooster and some chicken walked out into the room. It was very interesting to see the difference in culture. He wants the loan to put a mini market in their living room. 

The next place was Irma. She had invited us over on Thanksgiving to have a turkey sandwich but then had to cancel so we did it the next day. We had to take a 2.5 hour bus ride to get out to her parents place. They grow and sell pineapples there. We had to hike up this little mountain to get to the fields of pineapples but it was cool to see how they all grow. They pick the pineapples every 2-4 weeks. They also grow a few other things including avocados, and papaya. They also own a small car washing place next door, so that tank of (dirty) water is where they get the water to wash the cars. Irma wants the loan to do some construction so that they can have a mini market in their house. 

We then went with Irma to eat lunch. I had a chicken foot in my soup that grossed me out just a little. 

 The last place we went was to Hipolito's. He lives out in the sand dunes and wants the loan to start up a chicken restaurant- which will be in that room with the tables and chairs. He already owns an arcade business (which the boys had fun playing). They had just bought a new puppy that Dani and I quickly made friends with. He was so darn cute, even with missing eye.