Peru Part Two

Sorry for leaving you all hanging on the last entry of our international blog and wondering whether we made it back from Peru. It took us a little while to finish as we've been busy back in the US and also just didn't want to come to the realization that our international adventure was over.

The last week of our trip went by just as quickly as the rest of it all did. We continued life at high elevation by heading to Puno, Peru. Puno is most famous for being near Lake Titicaca. Lake Titicaca is officially the highest navigable lake in the world and unofficially the most fun name of a lake to say.

The view from the roof our hotel in Puno

We decided to explore the lake by taking a boat ride across part of it and then kayaking around some of the more undeveloped coast line. It was really cool to see how big the lake is and to paddle around. After our paddle we ate a traditional meal that was cooked underground in clay pots. On the boat ride back we got to stop at one of the floating island villages and see how the people live out there. We were told it was a "non touristy" floating village, but based on how quickly all the villagers pulled out their hand made tourist souvenirs, I don't think we were the first foreigners ever to set foot on the island.

Ashley making friends with the local kids

Master kayaker

Paddling along the shoreline

Our kayaking group for the day

The dream team, Bryce got booted to a single boat

The view from our lunch spot

Our lunch is under that mound of dirt, now dig, Ashley!

Mmmmm, dirt.

Reed island. We tried to get a soccer game going, but the field space was limited.

This guy is the chief of the island

She's having fun, this is just what she looks like when you point a camera at her

The next day after exploring Puno on foot for a little while we took a bus ride to Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru. We also got a pleasant surprise when our friends Pete and Christina ended up in Arequipa after being denied entry to Bolivia since they didn't have their yellow fever vaccines. Bolivia's loss was our gain as we got to hang out with our friends for a few more days. 

We started our first day by doing a walking tour around the city and getting to see the sights. Arequipa had many old beautiful buildings and a great backdrop with the 20,000 foot volcanos behind the city.

The main square in Arequipa

     Volcano Misti

On the tour we also learned about a great place to get drinks and watch the sunset, which did not disappoint. After our sunset drinks we headed to our next watering hole, which was a craft beer bar and also a gourmet chocolate shop. They had the best beer we've had anywhere on our international trip and delicious chocolate chip cookies. 

View from our sunset drink location

Our vaccineless buddies were forced to hang out with us a little longer

Ashley watching over the city like a freaking superhero

A couple of the beers from the great selection at Chaqchao

The next day was a sad one as it was Ashley's last day with us in Peru. We did some last minute shopping and got one last pisco sour before Ashley had to catch her flight back home. It was awesome having her along with us and hope that she'll be back with us on another adventure in the future.

The last adventure of our trip was heading out to the Colca Canyon, which according to its advertisements is the deepest canyon in the world, but is in fact about 100 feet shy of the title. The bus ride out was quite an adventure in itself as we went up and over a 16,000 foot pass and made many stops to pick up every farmer and vendor along the way.  It was incredibly beautiful going through the mountians and then dropping down towards the canyon.

Heading up over the pass

Heading into the town of Chivay

That baby llama rode in the luggage compartment.

We spent the next day exploring the canyon. Gina, Pete and Christina made the steep descent down into the canyon, and as I had gotten sick on the way there, just explored from around the rim.

Down in the canyon

A view down the very steep trail

The Sangalle Oasis at the bottom of Colca Canyon

Pete and Christina on the way back up 

Gina made it back to the top!

The view from Cabanaconde

The next day was our last in Peru. We had an even more exciting bus ride back to Arequipa, as we hit another bus at the beginning of the journey and then the bus broke down towards the end of the journey.

We had one last amazing Peruvian dinner with Pete and Christina and made a trip back to our favorite beer bar. We went back to our hotel, packed up and got a couple hours of sleep before our alarms went off at 3:30 so we could catch our 5:45 am flight out of Arequipa.

It was a very long trip home as we had three flights and eight hours of layovers. The bright side was that we somehow lucked out and found first class tickets that were less than economy and particularly enjoyed the first class lounge in San Salvador.

After 24 hours of travel and our friend, Shashi, being a superstar and picking us up at the airport, we made it back to Woodacre. And after 135 days on the road our international trip was over.

We are incredibly grateful for the adventure and everything we got to see and do. We're also very excited about continuing our adventure this summer in the US and returning to life in the Bay Area once summer is over.

We'll probably post some pictures from the summer here at some point, but for now, the blog in this form is over. Thanks for reading, commenting, liking, sending us messages and thinking good thoughts. 

All the best,

B and G

Peru - When our duo became a trio

Cusco was one of our favorite cities so far. It is high up in the mountains (about 11k feet), which makes for nice scenery and had a lot of pretty plazas and a really cool market.

We also had a good crew to explore the city with as our friend Ashley had flown from the Bay Area to meet us in Cusco and our friends Pete and Christina (that we had met in Chile), were also in town.

View of Lake Titicaca from our plane to Cusco from La Paz

Cusco

Plaza de Armas, Cusco

Our first night we had a great dinner at Kusikuy where we got to experience pretty much all of the food that Peru is known for; alpaca, ricotto rellano, ceviche and cuy (guinea pig). It was all delicious. Since Ashley hadn't done much traveling abroad before, we were a little nervous about making sure she had a good time and got to eat food she liked. She quickly allievated our concerns when she ordered the guinea pig the first night.

Eating ceviche in San Pedro Market with our new travel buddy!

Going big on the first night, eating Cuy (Guinea Pig)

The next day we did the free walking of Cusco where we got to see the sights of the city and learn about Cusco and Inca history. We also got to try more Alpaca meat and got a free Pisco Sour at the bar where the tour ended. The bar had a great view of the city and we ended up staying there for a couple more drinks. That night we continued our exploration of Cusco bars and went to Paddy's Irish Pub, which at just over 11,000 feet is the highest Irish Pub in the world.

Enjoying Pisco samples with the crew

Beer time! (One beer was enough at this altitude)

We spent our last day in Cusco getting ready for our trek to Machu Picchu. The most important part of which was buying a bottle of Johnny Walker and transferring it into a Nalgene bottle.

Now we are ready for our five day trek

Our bus left early the next morning so much of the ride was in the dark, but as it got light we could see the incredible peaks and valleys in the area. We started our hike and quickly climbed up into a beautiful valley. After about four hours of hiking we reached our camp, which was just below Salkantay Pass and had great views of a couple of the glaciers in the area.

Breakfast in Mollepata- first morning of our Salkantay trek

The start of our trek

View down the valley

Made it to the top (for the first day)

Night one's campsite in the valley below Salkantay Pass

Our first lunch of the trip set the tone for the trip as we had a ceviche appetizer, pumpkin soup, trout, potatoes, some delicious avocado dish and rice. Pretty much every meal was spectacular in quality and quantity.

Our cook was AMAZING 

We also had a great group of people with us on the trip. With our group of 16 people (14 Americans and 2 Canadians), there wasn't one person that complained a lot or whined about stuff. The only person that we didn't like too much was our head guide. He was kind of condescending and just wasn't really friendly to anyone in our group. He eventually earned the nickname Señor Dickhead. The assistant guide was really friendly so we just went to him if we needed anything. 

The second day of the trek was the most spectacular as we hiked up to Salkantay Pass (15,200 feet) and had great views of Salkantay Peak (20,000 feet) and the surrounding glaciers. The way back down off the pass was really pretty and looked kind of like Scotland mixed with The Never Ending Story. It turned into the never ending descent as we dropped over 5,500 feet from the top of the pass.  

The beginning of the climb to the mountain behind us

Can't get enough of the view

High mountains and hanging glaciers near night one campsite

Making our way up, up, and up

Testing her strength at high altitude 

We've reached the first high point

We made it to highest point, Salkantay Pass- Salkantay mountain behind us

Breathing hard but feeling good

Salkantay mountain coming out from behind the clouds

Ashley disappearing into the fog

Expecting to see Falkor coming up from the mist

The third day of the trek we dropped even further down into the jungle. It was really pretty as it was along the river and there were lots of side canyons and waterfalls coming in.

Walking along the river

Our most random encounter of the trip also happened that day when I ran into Jane Elliott in the middle of the Peruvian jungle. Jane is the younger sister of John and Pete, who I went to high school with and played basketball and volleyball with. We didn't recognize each other since Jane was 11 the last time I saw her and I didn't look like a homeless guy the last time she saw me, but thanks to my Warriors shirt we were able to play the where are you from game and make the connection. It was great chatting with her and her boyfriend, Eric, and catching up on her life after elementary school.

Bryce and Jane (such a small world!)

It was a short hike that day so we got to camp early and Ashley and I were able to play a little soccer with some of the local village kids. We also took a side trip to a hot springs, which was really beautiful and refreshing and also served beer!

Enjoying the hot springs at Santa Teresa

Our last day of the trek we had a steep climb up a pass where we got a view of the backside of Machu Picchu, saw some other ruins and after a long day made it to Aquas Calientes where we actually got to stay in a nice hotel that was included in our tour. 

Hiking up another pass

View of Machu Picchu from Llactapata Inca Site

The girls!

View on the way down from the pass

Walking along the river towards Aguas Calientes

We woke up early to catch the bus up to Machu Picchu for sunrise. Machu Picchu was beautiful and our guide made up for some of his unfriendliness by giving us a good guided tour of the sites. We also got to climb Wayna Picchu, where we got great views and saw a condor soaring overhead. After our exploring was over we began what was a fairly long bus, train, bus ride back to Cusco and celebrated with some delicious burgers and beers, while watching the Dubs win game 4.

The crew at Machu Picchu

Before sunrise

After

So many cool ruins to explore!

Llama living in one of the coolest places in the world

Waynapicchu peak

Looking down on Machu Picchu from Waynapicchu Mountain

A long way down

Hiking down from Waynapicchu (super steep!)

Condor sighting at the top

We'd purposely built in the next day as a rest day, which is precisely what we needed. We had one last meal at Kusikuy, which has become our favorite restaurant of the trip. I had a dish of steak, grilled onions, a fried egg, avocado, bacon and cheese. It was like they just instinctively knew my six favorite foods and got them onto one delicious plate. 

Last dinner, again going big and eating bull hearts

The next morning we caught an early bus to Puno, which is about seven hours from Cusco. We had heard some not so great things about the city, but found it to be quite pleasant. More on that to come in our final blog of the trip.

See you all soon!

B and G