Peru Part II - Cusco

Okay, back to the blogging...

After Lima, we were off to Cusco for a couple of days before making the trek up to Machu Picchu. Cusco is possibly to most popular tourist city in Peru, and it was easy to see why: Around 3400 m (over 2 miles) above sea level, Cusco is a beautiful place with crystal clear skies and none of the pollution seen in Lima down on the coast.

We had an early morning flight into town, over the Andes, and when we arrived in Cusco, we noticed pretty much right away how the difference in altitude affects your breathing in the thin mountain air. It probably didn't help that the elevator in our hotel (an nice little place right off the main town square) was out and we had to lug our bags up 4 flights of stairs.

After getting settled in, we met up with a tour guide for a tour of the Incan ruins above the city. This started out with a bit of an adventure, as the guide we arranged our tour with sent someone else in his place, and the guy he sent didn't speak any English. After about a half an hour we sorted it out and our original guide arranged for another woman to come and give us a tour. Everything worked out, but it was another lesson on being careful what you buy in foreign countries... you never know what you're going to get.

Anyways, we toured the ruins, including Sacsayhuaman, (pronounced like "sexy woman"), Qénqo, and the temple for Pachamama, "Mother Earth". It was all very impressive; the structures will built with giant stones that fit each other perfectly, with no mortar used to hold the stones together, and they've stood for hundreds of years, through wars, earthquakes and weather, and they're still there. Not only is the durability of the structures impressive, but when you think that they didn't really have any tools other than maybe chisels, it's amazing to think the amount of work required to make them.

We had two nights and one more day in Cusco, and we used that time to eat some nice local food, including grilled alpaca (tastes like chicken) and more ceviche, and see other sights in town like the old cathedral, the main square and the Temple Of The Sun. When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they tried to tear down the Temple Of The Sun, but found it was too well made and the stones were too difficult to move, so they just built a catholic church on top of it. During an earthquake in the 1960's, most of the church was destroyed, but the Incan temple remained entirely intact, except for one corner of the structure, which was only damaged when part of the Spanish church collapsed on it.

Our time in Cusco was really nice, and while we were sad to go, we were also excited to be off to Machu Picchu for the next leg of the trip. More on that next....

Here are a couple of pictures for now. We'll post some more soon.

Lima Pictures

Here are a few pictures from our time in Lima. Sorry for the delay. Busy living, I guess...

Peru Part I - Lima

One of the benefits of working for a big international company is that sometimes you get to travel to some pretty cool places for work. So when Erin found out she would be going to Lima for a 2.5 day conference, we thought it would be a perfect time to build a quick vacation around the conference and spend some extra time in Peru.

Our first (and last) stop was Lima, the capital and largest city of Peru. With a metropolitan population of over 8 million people, it is a huge city. We didn't see a ton of it, and to be honest, I don't think there is much to see outside of a few nicer touristy areas. There is a lot of poverty, and despite some nice areas, it isn't the most beautiful city.

We arrived on Sunday night for Erin's conference, which ran Monday through Wednesday morning. Erin's company set us up at a nice hotel, the Marriott, a beautiful high rise right on the cliffs overlooking the Pacific. Since we arrived pretty late and would be in Lima until Friday, we decided to rest after a long, long day of travel and just head to bed without seeing any of the town.

One nice thing we got to experience while in Lima was meeting up with a good friend. Our friends Shane and Colleen are currently spending a year travelling around the world, and their time in South America coincided with ours. Unfortunately for them, they had some problems with their camera during their travels, but because of that, we were able to arrange a meeting with Colleen, as we brought a replacement camera down for them and she needed to pick it up. So Colleen flew into Lima on Monday morning and spent the day with us. While Erin was in her conference, Tim and Colleen toured the Miraflores district of Lima. And that night we all went out for dinner and drinks together. Colleen headed back out to (I believe) Bolivia early the next morning after a short but nice visit. If you're interested in following their adventures, you can see them here.

On Tuesday, with Erin still in her conference, I went on my own to visit "Lima Centro", Lima's downtown, which is home to Lima's main cathedral, the main town square, another old church which holds the catacombs of Lima, and the city's main shopping district.

Once Erin was finished her conference on Wednesday, we had plenty of time to see the city on Wednesday and Thursday. We spent more time in Miraflores and Lima Centro, and visited the Mercado Indios, a public market filled with dozens if not hundreds of stalls featuring arts and crafts from the Incan Indians that populate Peru.

We like Lima, but we were happy to be moving on to Cusco on Friday morning. We saw some nice things in Lima, and sampled some great local food like ceviche (raw fish "cooked" by marinating in citrus juice and serviced with cold corn and sweet potato), but it was time to move on.

Check back soon for pictures from Lima. Our computer is running really slowly right now and won't load photos. But some will be up soon, as well as more updates on the rest of our trip.