Et 9-dagers eventyr av Linda Les mer
  • 25fotspor
  • 3land
  • 9dager
  • 125bilder
  • 0videoer
  • 25,3kmiles
  • 25,3kmiles
  • Dag 3

    Day 3, part 5

    19. mai 2017, Australia ⋅ 🌧 16 °C

    • G Adventures for Good: Parwa Community Restaurant the Sacred Valley
    Contribute to sustainable tourism in Huchuy Qosqo, a small village of 65 families in the Sacred Valley, by eating at the Parwa Community Restaurant. This is a successful farm-to-table program that boosts the local economy and several spin-off microenterprises. We had a 6 or 7 course meal here, including warm yam pudding (I had 2). Simon was very concerned about fish cross contamination because of his severe allergy to fish. Another hiker thought there was fish in the meal but Simon was told no. Next day he did not feel very well at all, lasting about 2 days. It was either cross-contamination here or at dinner tonight or from something else. I was stuffed from lunch. While having lunch, Victor announced that his boss had given him an envelope to open at lunch. He did so and found that he had a Golden ticket. Only 5 are given out each year in Peru. It is for a one week’s guest stay in Toronto getting trained for G Adventures. G has many employees in Peru; they run daily Inka trail hikes, Amazon adventures, and more. Keep in mind that our group of 16 had people on at least 4 different tours.
    • Continue on to the town of Ollantaytambo. Take a guided tour of the large ruin site adjacent to the town. Ollantaytambo is the first taste of what lies ahead in Machu Picchu.
    • Ollantaytambo Ruins Guided Tour Victor took us on a tour the town and fortress of Ollantaytambo with a local guide. Take a step back in time at this Inca archaeological site; it still shows signs of its former glory, including agricultural terraces, a Temple Hill, and storehouses. Learn how the area, overlooking the Urubamba River Valley, was an important stronghold during warfare between the Spanish and Incas. It was climbing the ruins and descending them that I first worked my quads into a 2 day recovery. But that was good b/c by the time I did Machu Picchu and after, I had no leg pains.
    Pictures: Ollanta (this is how it's abbreviated sometimes)
    1: Ollantaytambo ruins
    2-3 Ollantaytambo ruins- climbing to flat area at left top
    4 Ollgroup dinner in Ollanta - chicken/vegies, riceantaytambo ruins closeup of how stone fit
    5
    Les mer

  • Dag 4

    Day 4, Part 1

    20. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    Day 4 Ollantaytambo/Cusco (Sa, May 20) Ollanta: 9260 feet, Cusco 11,152 feet
    The hikers left at 8 am and the Cusco stay people (5 of us) returned to the Sacred Valley with the CEO to visit the sites of the Maras Salt Mines and Moray. Simon was very sick and miserable. The bumpy car ride didn’t help. I think our guide was now Jose/Pepe (driver also named Jose).
    Notes on picture 5 (blurry): these bubbles represent hostel accomodations that you have to rock climb to and then zip line back down. On a later day we saw rock climbers.
    Pictures:
    Ollanta - central square
    Ollantaytambo ruins This is where we climbed to the previous day.
    Ollantaytambo ruins view from afar of what we climbed to top left (see people up there)
    Ollanta - cute kitten
    Road to Cuzco - better picture later- see notes-hostel
    Road to Cuzco
    Les mer

  • Dag 4

    Day 4, part 2

    20. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    • Maras Salt Mines and Moray Visit Maras – Moray 11,483 ft
    Drive a little more than an hour to get to the Moray archaeological site. Tour these unique Inca ruins, consisting of circular terraces and a sophisticated irrigation system located at 3500m (11483 ft). Learn about the history and study of this fascinating site – speculation has it that it was an Inca agriculture experiment station.
    Visit the impressive Maras Salt Mines, after Moray. See thousands of individual ancient salt pools spilling over a hillside. Each pool is probably 4 ft x 6 ft. Learn about the different varieties of salt, and try the renowned pink salt, famous worldwide.
    pictures:
    1-2 Moray archaeological site. circular terraces & sophisticated irrigation system(11483 ft).
    3-5 Moray archaeological site.
    6 Maras Salt Mines - 1000s of individual salt pools
    Les mer

  • Dag 4

    Day 4, Part 3

    20. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 14 °C

    After a long bumpy ride back to Cusco, Simon opted to stay in bed and the rest of us went out looking for a restaurant to eat. We found what appeared to be a nice upscale restaurant near the Plaza. Kayla and I both had burgers, ben had spaghetti and I forget what Sarah had. Rachel had said I needed to try pisco sour. Since it was happy hour, I ordered 1 to be split into 2 glasses for 10 soles ($3.33). No one else wanted the extra drink.
    About 11 pm that evening, both Kayla and I got very sick. I vomited all night and she did that as well as diarrhea. I think my pisco sour killed those germs off so all I had to deal with was vomit.
    Pictures:
    1 Maras Salt Mines- different levels/types of salts produced
    2-5 Maras Salt Mines each pool is about 4' x 6'
    6 Cuzco main square - taking pictures
    Les mer

  • Dag 5

    Day 5

    21. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    Day 5 Cusco (Su, May 21) Cusco Elevation: 11,152 feet
    Our local guide, Jose/Pepe, was to meet us in the square at 9 am for our 4 hour city tour. Kayla and I opted to stay in bed. Jose called me at 9:15 or 9:30 asking if we were coming. I told him the others had left 45 minutes earlier. He said he hadn’t looked for them yet. (later, Sarah said he had gone to pick up 2 others from a different hotel but they decided not to go). In the meantime, Simon was leading Simon, Sarah, and Ben to the G adventures office to complain that the guide had not shown up. Jose caught up with them and basically showed them the same things Victor had shown us, except for the Choco Museum. It lasted under 2 hours.
    Fortunately, the rest of the day was free time. I just stayed in bed. Simon brought me a Gatorade and later I went out by myself to look for some rice. I caught up with Sarah, Ben, Simon at a chicken restaurant and they gave me some of their rice. But that was all I could eat. I hadn’t been sick since about 5 am but food did not hit the spot.
    Pictures:
    1-3 (from my sick room) view of Sunday parade down Avenida del Sol
    Les mer

  • Dag 6

    Day 6, part 1

    22. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 11 °C

    Day 6 Cusco/Aguas Calientes (Mo, May 22) Elevation: 6,693 feet
    Travel back by bumpy van to Ollantaytambo to catch the scenic train to Aguas Calientes. I can’t remember who our guide was if we had one. The train was nice – assigned seats, refreshments like a plane-juice, cookie, etc. I sat with 2 people from London doing 6 month tour of S. America with their next and last stop being the Galapagos and a woman from San Francisco who had just done Galapagos. It turned out they did/were doing the same boat excursion with gourmet meals. On my own I walked around Aguas Calientes (steep inclines and declines), did some souvenir shopping, checked out massage places (it seems that my first step onto the steep decline pulled my back just a little). Later I went back for a $20 (60 soles) massage but it was very difficult to tell them what was wrong. Very little English is spoken anywhere. I did not do dinner with others I don’t think.
    Pictures:
    1-2 car ride to Ollanta
    3-4 Train staton-Ollanta
    5 cusco stay group at train station: Ben, Simon, Kaela, Sarah
    6 Train ride to Agua Caliente
    Les mer

  • Dag 6

    Day 6, part 2

    22. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 15 °C

    At our 7 pm meeting, Lares hiker Mike showed up with his guide Marco(s) and 2 other hikers. Marcos took over our group and told us to be up at 5 am to eat breakfast and then head for bus at 5:20 am for 1st bus (5:30). He would give us a 2 hour tour and then we could do whatever. Luckily, Mike and the 2 young women wanted to do Sun Gate so it was going to be perfect. Victor had told us to meet him and the Inka trailers at 8:30 at the entrance to MP and then we’d have a tour and then free time. In hindsight we would never have made it at 8:30 b/c we didn’t know that there were long lines for the bus. Also, the plan was for everyone to take a bus noonish to meet up in Aguas Calientes for lunch at 1 and then head to train by 2:15. So, it would have been tough trying to squeeze in the Sun Gate.
    Pictures:
    1-2 Train ride to Agua Calientes
    3-5 Agua Calientes-main square
    6 Statue near bus station
    Les mer

  • Dag 6

    Day 6, part 3

    22. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 18 °C

    DUH!!! – It just dawned on me that Aguas Calientes means “hot springs” which I knew they were known for.
    Pictures:
    1-2 Agua Calientes
    3 Lunch with Ben and bottle cozy

  • Dag 7

    Day 7 - part 1 Machu Picchu

    23. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ☁️ 15 °C

    Day 7 Aguas Calientes/Cusco (Tu, May 23)
    Machu Picchu – 7972’ and Sun Gate – 8924’ (almost 1000’ higher) Cusco 11,152’
    Rise and shine – the best time to see the Lost City of the Incas is in the early morning light. I gained local insight into the Inti Mach’ay cave, Inti Watana, the Temple of the Sun, the Temple of the Water, the Temple of the Condor, and the Room of the Three Windows. [This 15th-century site, now both a UNESCO World Heritage site and voted one of the new Seven Wonders of the World (in a worldwide Internet poll).]
    Pictures:
    1 MP- Linda on trail to MP
    2 MP- view from trail to MP
    3 MP-getting closer
    4 Linda - at a lookout above MP
    5-6 Getting closer to MP
    Les mer

  • Dag 7

    Day 7 - part 2 Machu Picchu

    23. mai 2017, Forente stater ⋅ ⛅ 16 °C

    The Cusco 5 and Mike and the Lares hikers (about 7 in total) took an early bus to MP. We did see Victor; Simon and Ben chose to go with them. Mike had brought his walking sticks but only elderly and incapacitated were allowed to use them. So when he went to check his sticks, I told him I’d be happy to be elderly for him. He was kind enough to let me use one for MP and the Sun Gate. When you enter the park, everyone must walk up and then back down to the actual ruins.
    Pictures: 1. Lares group passing through the Entrance
    2 you can see the trail that visitors take to get to site
    3-4 MP
    5 Linda
    6 MP-view from Temple of the 3 Windows
    Les mer