Myra and Gerry Peru and Bolivia 2017

This trip to Peru and Bolivia was special in that we were able to experience the best of both worlds - travel on our own for the first part of the trip followed by a very nice tour by Tauck.  We have found over the years that we enjoy both travelling on our own and going with a Tour and this was one of the best places to do both.  Our first week provided us the opportunity to  explore, on our own, the culture and food of Lima, see the Nazca Lines from a small airplane, enjoy a private desert adventure and meal and for Myra to paraglide over the Pacific Ocean and dramatic cliffs of Lima.  Our second part of the trip provided us with a guided tour to see Machu Picchu, Lake Titicaca, Cusco and La Paz - places that are difficult to get to and from within Peru and Bolivia. One of the things that was very apparent from the beginning was that there are very few by-passes, freeways and highways in this part of the world.  This greatly slows down travel and is mu...

This morning we visited the Valley of the Moon which received its name after Neil Armstrong apparently visited the site and remarked how the landscape resembled that of the moon.  It isn’t actually a valley at all, but a maze of canyons and giant spires. The formations, composed mainly of clay and sandstone, were created by the persistent erosion of mountains by the area’s strong winds and rains. We then proceeded to the Bolivian National Museum of Ethnography and Folklore,  a public non-profit institution dedicated to Bolivia’s ethnic diversity, the promotion of research into Bolivia’s ethnology and the preservation and expansion of its cultural artifacts collection.  Spread across two buildings is a wide collection of works including pre-Hispanic relics, colonial and contemporary festival masks, Andean ceramics, elegant fabrics, feathered costumes, weapons used throughout history and coins of Bolivia. One of the highlights of the museum is t...

Friday was a long travel day as we left Puno, Peru on Lake Titicaca and traveled to La Paz, Bolivia. While the trip is only about 160 miles by bus, with the border crossing, rest, lunch and site seeing stops and horrible conditions of the roads, it took us almost 10 hours.  Once we left Lima we actually did not see anything but two lane roads until we arrived in La Paz.  And while the road conditions in Peru are bad, nothing could have prepared us for Bolivian "highways".  We boarded our Peruvian bus at 7:00 a.m.  From there, we drove about 2 and 1/2 hours to the border town of Desaquadero which is located on Lake Titicaca.  Since Friday is a market day and the streets are packed with local merchants and customers, there was no way that our bus could even get to within seven blocks of the border.  After going through the official, formal distribution of our passports and visa the night before,  the border process just got more curious....

We arrived in Puno after a flight from Cusco to Juliaca and a bus ride to Puno. Juliaca is known as the ugliest city in Peru. It is a place, due to its closeness to Bolivia, where there is much smuggling. There really was not a trace of beauty anywhere.  Puno, a city on the shores of Lake Titicaca is 12,600 feet altitude - the highest we have been on this trip. Our hotel has nice rooms that have a spectacular view of the Lake. We set an alarm for 5:00 am so we could capture a beautiful sunrise.  Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world. It is 116 miles long at its longest point and 42 miles in width. The deepest part is 930 feet deep. Lake Titikaka (spelled this way by indigenous people) means gray cat.  Life surrounding and on this lake is varied. Our first visit this morning was to one of the floating reef islands inhabited by the Uros people. There are 87 of these floating reef islands housing approximately 2,0...

We toured a church and the Basilica in Cusco this morning. The Basilica is amazing. The amount of silver, gold and original paintings is jaw dropping. They say there is over 3.9 tons of silver and that the sale of 1 painting would pay all of Peru’s debts. The Basilica contains the Andean version of The Last Supper painting. There are many differences but the main one is that instead of a lamb in the plate, there is a guinea pig. There was a parade that we had to negotiate around. It was a parade to honor the day of “signs”.  Children were dressed up as cars, traffic cops, and holding signs. Adorable! We then travelled from Cusco to Puno (altitude 12,600), a town on the shores of Lake Titicaca by charter flight. As we were landing several oxygen masks deployed!  A sign?

  Today we started our day with a tour of the San Pedro Mercado. They sold all the great agricultural products of the region. We then toured  Saksaywaman, a citadel on the northern outskirts of the city of Cusco, Peru, the historic capital of the Inca Empire.  The citadel was built to honor the God of Lightening to protect the city from earthquakes. (It was believed that lightening caused earthquakes.) The stones are laid out in a zigzag fashion to imitate lightening. We then had fun feeding the alpacas and llamas, watching women weave and see oxygen shots (for altitude sickness) being sold in stores! The four of us (Deborah, David, Gerry and Myra) went to Cicciolina, a restaurant close to our hotel and one that was Laura and Cole’s favorite. We had a delicious dinner which started with sharing an appetizer of mashed potatoes, avocado and guinea pig with a great sauce on top. It was surprisingly delicious. (We had to try it since we passed up the g...

Today we were on the road again. We left Aquas Calientes by train back to Ollantaytambo.  Peru Rail, the operators of the train, put on a show about half way through the ride to sell alpaca products complete with an employee dressed in Inca costumes who performed a native dance.  After we reached Ollantaytambo we met our bus to go to Cusco. We arrived around 6:00pm.    The drive into Cusco is very depressing. The town is built on bluffs with “houses” built everywhere, garbage thrown down the sides of the canyons and stray dogs running in packs of 5-7 rummaging through the garbage. Everything is muddy. The water and rains come down the canyons and coat everything in sight.   And this continues until you get within the very center of the city. They try to call these the “young neighborhoods” but they are what we would call “slums”. However, the poverty is not hunger - just lack of money. Peru is such an agricultural area ...

Today we travelled to Machu Picchu - it was quite a journey -  a half hour bus journey to the train in Ollyantambo, then an hour and a half train ride to Aguas Calientes - the town at the base of Machu Picchu - then a transfer to a bus for the 20 minute ride to the entrance.  In Ollyantambo there are children who follow the tourists.  They come into town with their families.  The father comes to town to be a porter - a local who comes down from the mountains to work for hire on the Inca Trail by carrying luggage, food, tents, supplies etc., for those who hike to Machu Picchu.  They will carry over 100 pounds on their backs.  They will run ahead of the groups and their guides on the trail to set up camp and begin preparations for meals.  The porter's wife accompanies him into town and brings potatoes to barter or sell for other supplies.  Their children, who dress in their native costumes, follow tourists and will let you take their p...

This morning we left our beautiful resort,  and went to Ollantaytambo – the Temple of the Sun.   We are still stunned about how such a wonderful place can be located in such a miserable looking town. The Temple of the Sun, which is at the end of the Sacred Valley before you enter Machu Picchu, was constructed by the Incas and is actually higher than Machu Picchu and contains more steps. To ascend to the top you need to climb 600 steps to reach the actual temple.   There are many terraces along the way where agricultural products were planted for the inhabitants.   At the top, one can actually track the change of seasons. After climbing back down the 600 steps – we returned to the hotel for a Pisco Sour lesson (our third) and a cooking demonstration – ceviche and lomo saltaldo (Peruvian beef stir-fry dish). After lunch, the group was blessed by a “Healer” or Shaman. The ceremony was to honor the Mother Earth - Pachamama. The ceremony consisted of each...

Today we were on the move again. We flew from Lima to Cusco which is at an elevation of a little over 11,000 feet. We immediately loaded onto a bus and descended down to 9,000 feet to Urumbamba in the Sacred Valley. Hopefully this will help everyone  acclimate better to the high altitude. We had a lovely lunch at a private home (Huayocari Ranch) followed by a show of their Peruvian Paso horses, the horse with the smoothest gait in the world. There are several symbols we see repeated all over Peru: Pachamama (Mother Earth)                                                The feminine power. The Triple Spiral. She is the living, life-giving Mother who loves us unconditionally. We plant a single seed and she gives us one hundred back. We give her our heavy energy (hoocha) and she gives us new light energy (sami), a n...