Today was a bus ride to the airport for our trip back to Lima.  Of course had time for one more last stop at an ancient site –Sillustani.  This was actually pre-incas and a burial site.  It was amazing to see the artistry and workmanship of the stone blocks.  The stone blocks were not erected into straight walls but rounded towers. These were.

There was always a small opening at the base, facing east. It is speculated that since the Inca, and presumably earlier people were “sun worshippers” these doors related to the religious belief system that it may guide the departed soul to some kind of afterlife.

Landed in Lima  — with luggage.  We stayed in the Miraflores district of Lima, known for its upscale shopping and restaurants and very near the pacific ocean.  We were treated to a beautiful and wonderful dinner at La Rosa Nautical Restaurant.

I stayed pretty warm during the night and was awakened at around 530am by the sunrise and sound of a donkey. No need for alarms here. I sat for awhile looking out the window and watched the community come alive. We had breakfast of quinoa pancakes and then our host mama took us to our boats by 8 am.

We took a short boat ride over to the island of Taquile. Our day would be spent walking around the island seeing and experiencing local culture. One of the local authorities was there to check us into the island. We would learn there are 20 of these men that volunteer to be the officials of the island. Each day they walk around taking to the members of the community to see if everything is ok. There are no police or firearms but they do carry whips.

The St James (San Santiago) Festival & Taquile Textile Art Fair

There are 2,200 Taquileans living on the island.  They speak Quechua and we were to learn that they live in a cooperative society where all work is done to benefit the community  The local economy bases itself on fishing, potato farming, textiles, and tourism.  The work such as knitting, a male task, and weaving, a female task, is undertaken as part of the daily chores.

We just happened to be visiting during the time of year that they had a festival dedicated to their patron saint, the Apostle James.  It hit me that St. James was appearing again in my life – the Camino de Santiago being the first.  They had demonstrations showing their how they made  their hand-woven textiles, considered the best in Peru.  Taquile´s textile art were proclaimed by UNESCO “Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity”.

When we reached the main plaza many of the community members and the officials were watching and enjoying singing and dancing.

The doorways and arches were decorated with their national flower – Kantuta.

We walked along a beautiful path – the islands only way of getting around.  Our destination was the other end of the island where our boat would pick us up.

But first, we stopped at a wonderful and beautiful home for lunch.

After lunch we were treated to a presentation about the local traditions and customs they’ve preserved for centuries:

No handshake, just coca leaves

When two people meet on Taquile, both parties pull out a handful of coca leaves from the waist bag on the right side and exchange. Chew the coca leaves first, and then you can start talking.

Prove your worth by drinking out of your knitted hat

When a man wants to marry a woman, he needs to prove his worth by drinking water out of his knitted hat. If the hat is knitted so tightly that the water doesn’t drip, he has successfully proved his abilities.

We thought we were in for a “perfect storm” kind-of trip back to Puno – but our captain simply went around it.

Waking up in Puno – this is the view from our window.  If you look high to the right on the hill you will see a statue.  This is a statue of a condor.  The condor is part of the Incan trinity: Condor, Puma, Snake.  In these three animals, sky, earth, and the underworld are represented. Condor, we would learn, is the only bird strong enough to fly up to the heavens and deliver messages to God.  Puma has patience and strength. The snake travels to the underworld, and when it sheds its skin, is reborn, transformed. All part of the circle of life.  We would experience this belief throughout our trip in-scripted  in ancient sites, textiles, and modern symbols.

Today we met our guide José.  He will be the guide for our Lake Titicaca adventure and we headed to the docks. We were told to buy some gifts of rice, oil and fruit for our family hosts where we will be staying tonight on the Island of Amantani.

It was – again – a beautiful day and we had our own boat, traveling through the reeds towards the Uros Islands.

These islands are man/women made from the surrounding reeds and can each hold around 25 people or a few families. There are about 85 floating islands with approximately 2000 inhabitants.

It was not until the 90s that the island people allowed tourists to stop at their island. They have since embraced tourism but in their own way. The entire community shares the responsibility dividing the days that tourists can stop among them.

We were shown how the islands are made and how the people lived on these islands.

A very cold ride on a Kon-Tiki boat compliments of Rick and we were back on the boat for a 2/12 hour ride around the peninsula of Capachica and to the isle of Amantani.

On Amantani, we were met by our host families – our mama’s and papa’s for our overnight stay.  Names were called and I had the honor of joining Matt and Char to stay with a family.

Our family of fourThe family speaks Quechua and understands a little Spanish and no English  – which proved to be a challenge to communicate but there is always the universal language of charades and children.

We were served lunch in their kitchen of potato soup, okra, tomatoes and fried cheese. After lunch the three of us met up with the rest of our group to learn about the daily life of these farmers. Life has not changed very much over the 100’s and 100’s of years that these people have lived here. They still were traditional garb and are self sustaining. There are six communities on the island and a school. To our way of life it is very primitive but who is to say?

There was another amazing experience waiting for us after dinner. We were dressed up in traditional dress and met in the community center for a good ole neighborhood dance.

At over 13,000 feet just walking up to the center was a challenge much less dancing. We all had a great time dancing together and with our host Mamas.

It was very cold at night probably in the 30s and no heating in the homes. But they piled on at least five alpaca blankets on top of our beds that kept us warm.

We left Cusco around 730am, loaded up a bus and headed out for a 7 hour journey to Puno – with Rick as our guide.

We made a stop at the archeological site of Pikillaqta. We have been visiting Incan sites and this was pre-incan.  The amazing part of this site is the fact that it has been used since 5000BC

The Sistine Chapel of the Andes

We stopped at St. Peter the Apostle Church, Andahuaylillas. We were not allowed to take pictures inside but the link above takes you to a lovely video. This church acts as a community hub and feeds nearly 400 children a day, an after-school program, library  all supported in part from the fees to see the church.

We continued driving through the country side seeing small farms being worked by women in tradition garb, cows and Llamas. We stopped at a rest stop at the top of a pass at 14,000 feet – the highest elevation of our trip.  There were ladies selling goods and even a bathroom. You can see the top of the bathroom which had actual toilets and a man with a bucket of water that would come in after you to flush.

We made it to Puno and we stayed at the Qelqatani Hotel.  It was beautiful and just a few blocks off the plaza.

Today was a day of laundry, shopping and enjoying the local cuisine. For me, the laundry was all the clothes I borrowed and the first day of wearing my own clothes.

Cusco

Cusco was was the historic capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th until the 16th-century Spanish conquest. In 1983 Cusco was declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. It has become a major tourist destination, hosting nearly 2 million visitors a year. The Constitution of Peru designates it as the Historical Capital of Peru.^[2] In 1983 Cusco was designated as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO with the title “City of Cuzco”.  Like many places we visited it is a mixture of the traditional and the modern.

The first tasty experience was in the local market. As soon as you walk in there are rows of ladies waving at you to come to their station to make you fresh juice. It had everything in it. Fruit I had never heard of, vegetables, bee pollen honey and the secret ingredient was dark beer.

After enjoying that treat everyone went their ways to explore the market. Rick and I set off to comb the market for food and snacks for our bus trip tomorrow. The market had everything. A isle of breads that were being sold by the local women, an isle of cheeses, rice, beans, fruits and potatoes. There was a isle of raw meat that we did not go down-it is not like Wegmans were everything is sliced, packaged AND refrigerated. Just a huge isle of slabs of unidentified meat and chickens. We bought fruit, nuts, empanadas and sweet bread.

We all met back from our daily adventures for dinner at a wonderful restaurant complete with music and entertainment.

We interrupt these wonderful pics of delicious food to tell you about Cuy.

This would be a good time to tell you about Cuy. What animal sounds like Kweeeeeeee? Give up? Ok, I will tell you, Guinne pig. Guinne pig is eaten all over the area. You can order in restaurants or on the streets. Guinne pigs are pests for the farmers that eat the bread crops so there is an abundance of them. You have heard of Man vs Food.  Well we had Tom vs Cuy  – the brave one amongst us to try it.

Ok, then — that’s it for this day……

After I good nights sleep in a comfy bed and hearty breakfast we started out early to beat the crowds going up to Machu Picchu.  We caught the bus and back up the winding road. The bus would serpentine up the side of the mountain climbing 3000 feet- with no guard rails and at times having to pass the bus coming down. There were a few of us that had to sit on the inside isle seat and look the opposite way.  Thank you Mr. Tom for being my seat-mate down and up and up and down again – and for always looking out for me the entire trip.

Machu Picchu

First, we were taught how to properly say Picchu. The first “c”is a hard one. So pronounce it from now on as Pickchew or else you are saying Penis. Instead of saying old mountain you would be saying old Penis — I will leave it at that.  Things you never thought you would learn.

There is so much history and questions about this site. Why is it here, what was it used for and how did they construct this without tools? No one knows for sure but there are theories.  Chino and Omar were our guides explaining history to us along the entire site.  Do yourself a favor and watch some videos on the history of one of the 7th Wonders of the World.  It is truly amazing.  Here is a link to the a National Geographic 101.

After going yet again down on the bus ride from another demension  – we spent a few hours in the town, met up for a phenomenal lunch and got on a 2 hour train to take us back to Cusco.

This was no ordinary train ride.

They served tea and dessert, performed a traditional dance and even put on a fashion show of the finest alpaca sweaters (200-300$).  Here is a little bit of the experience.  YES – that is my roomie!

And through the entire experience our fearless heroes were planning the next adventure.

Another 2 hour bus ride back to Cusco and I have clean pants, shirts and not only women’s underwear — but my own!

TRAIN CRASH

No, not ours, but exactly hours later on the very same train there was a collision.

We were woken up at 530am – or early as I told you —  to climb to the top of the campsite to watch the sun rise. Our Wawqi’s were up there waiting with hot tea. With..hot tea.It was a celebration that the hardest parts were over and we ONLY had a 6 hour trek DOWN to Machu Picchu. ONLY! And my feet and legs are barkin. I will never forget all of us being up there  – being together as a f-a-m-i-l-y and being alone in our thoughts at the same time – with new friends and old.  I continued to be blessed and surrounded in my life with people like these folks — crazy?  a bit.  Loving and kind — a lot.

Have I mentioned how much cocoa tea we had?  Oh and check out the wawqi’s headlamp holding the sugar.  I hope one of us left him ours.

Wait till you see this – 

We came down from tea and breakfast was waiting. We had our last breakfast el fresco and the cook made us quinoa pancakes with bananas and kiwi! What a treat and with maple syrup. They don’t have pancakes in Peru and they made it just for us.

This has to be my favorite picture and moment of our trip:

Today our destination was down to the Machu Picchu.  It would take us 5 hours through a vast set of Inca terraces full of swallows and orchids

Omar

Omar was all about the “MOUNTAIN”.  We loved him. He was so knowledgable about plants, birds and was always talking and learning from others.  He was also the one that would teach us about the traditional beliefs and you could feel the deep pride he had for his country and heritage.

Hey — Llama ahead! Yes, we were told to put our hiking poles on the right side and simply pass them.

They don’t call me a Llama Mama for no reason….

If you look to the left of the picture in the middle you see some buildings.  Yes, that is what we need to get to for our lunch.

But first navigating down the steps…

After another amazing lunch complete with jello.   This would be our last time we would be with our wawqi’s.  We had a thank you ceremony for them and shook each hand, thanking them for their service and presented them with a tip. It was such an honor to do so after seeming how hard they worked to make our experience seamless.

We said goodbye and started the final leg of the trip.  Chino had one more surprise for us.    We got to the Winaywayna sign and he had us look down to the right and face the mountain side.  He then had us all turn around at once to see this:

and this

Winaywayna

The name means “forever young” in Quecha. At this site, the Inca terraced the entire mountainside for growing food, and built a two-level complex connected by a cascade of fifteen baths. Since it is only 3miles from Machu Picchu it is thought that it was a  religious center.  The complex is divided into two architectural sections, with temples at the top and more rustic structures below. As many as 19 different springs carry water to various stone baths located at different levels throughout the characteristic Inca terracing.  We had a few moments to explore and experience the majesty like this pic —

And then of course one of us had to make the most of it !!

And 2 hours later we reached our destination.  We all stopped on the trail just before the Sun Gate – or Intipunku.  It is believed that this was some kind of control gate for the people who enter and go out of Machu Picchu.  It was a celebration thanks to Izzy for the chocolate. It was a first glance of the site.  If you are wondering what the zig-zag roads are that is the only way up to the site by tourists.  Yes, will tell you about the bus that we took to get down and up again on those roads.

We would not be touring today but walking past it to get to a bus to take us into town where a shower and bed awaited. We were a bit bedraggled looking group and very pungent as we passed the tourists. A cold beer while waiting in the long line for the bus hit the spot. We took a crazy bus ride down the side of a mountain into town and found our hotel the High Classic. It was quaint and beautiful and most importantly had an elevator

Today was the big day. It was going to be a 11 hour day climbing up and down two passes. I was either going to make the 13,800 foot pass or would be a dead women myself. We were starting from approximately 12,300 which may not seem like a lot of elevation but at that altitude and the rise it was tough. Well, I am writing this so I made it but not without going through some of hardest physical and emotional times along the way.

They woke us up at 5:00am, breakfast at 5:30am and started walking by 6ish. This picture shows the pass we are heading for over my left shoulder. Look for the boob with the nipple.  Oh, sure it looks close enough…… 

At about 9am I reached the pass. Chino was playing music, the family was cheering and my roomie came down to meet me with a snickers bar.  Once you reached the top we received a pin for our hats by Omar.

A quick rest, a few pics and then down we go. We had another 2 hours of a rocky trail before we would stop for some soup.

On the way up when ever a Wawqi was passing us you had to stop  to let them pass – and of course yell out Allillachu Wawqi to them – Hello Brother!  Going down was a bit different because on top of carrying 50lbs on their backs in addition to navigating the rocks they like to run down. We could keep walking but had to stick to the mountain side as they ran by. Just……..unbelievable to see their agility and strength.

There were so many times I would look back and see where I came from.  It was true amazing what Mr. Peru (ask me about that) and I did — I mean we all did.  My F-A-M-I-L-Y.

Down that side of the mountain and then a nice lunch was waiting for us at around 3:00pm.   The goal was to get to our campsite before sundown and all we had left was a more gentle 2 hour hike to our 11,300ft campsite.  It was amazing and a little scary at the same time. It was on top of peak proving the most glorious views. It was very cold and we were tired.

We all hopped in our tents to rest and get ready for the cold night ahead. Dinner at 7:00pm, bed by  8:30pm. I did it. We did it, as a family does – supporting and loving each other……um, hate to interrupt this wonderful moment of celebration to tell you that we were just told that we are waking up again early, early, early to climb up a hill to see the sunrise.  La la Salama…….

Did I tell you we were sharing our campsite with chickens?  At 6am the Wawqi’s came around with cocoa tea and hot water.  Today’s hike would take us from 8,737 to 12,300 ft. It was a beautiful hike — always up of course.  Wow – it was always amazing to look back to see how far and high you came.  We started at the bottom on the brown mountains just the day before.

Our campsite was always “just a little further”  – but I heard instead of chickens we would have Llamas.  It is hard to see but the little red dot is a farmer with Llamas and we are heading there.

My Roomie – Linda

Linda and I were tent and hotel mates.  It was so much of her support and love that added so much to my experience of this trip.  Overnight we would get into our tent and there would always be a break out of the giggles.  We were told that it was going to be very cold this night – down in the 30’s/40’s.  On top of that we had the longest and hardest hike the next day.  We would sit in our tent and meticulously plan out how we were going to keep warm, what we were going to wear the next day and the most important conversation was about how we were going to get up in the middle of the night to pee.  The grey tent was not that far away, but when you have to leave the warmth of you sleeping bag in the middle of the night it is a long and cold walk. Sooooooo, sometimes you just go outside your tent.  I have no idea what time it was, but I had to go.  I unzipped the tent and I hear from Linda “be careful when you pee – it flows towards the tent.  Well that started the giggles.  Then trying to get back in the tent and in the sleeping bag was like trying to stuff the Michelin Man in a stuff sack.  That was it — we both just burst.

This is a Linda stroke of genius — she used her puffy jacket to keep her feet and legs warm.

Thank you Pablo – we decided instead to go with Paul’s suggestion of filling our water bottles with hot water as a thermos to keep our feet warm.  Perrrrrrrrfectissssimo.