Sleepless in Peru

So these past few days I went to Peru.  It was quiet an adventure…  You may notice the title of this blog is “Sleepless in Peru”.  Continue to read on and you will see why.  Oh, and I have many photos.  I had to choose the best from the over 600 pictures I have.  So go to the bathroom, grab something to drink, take a seat and kick your shoes off because this is going to be a long one.  Hope you enjoy!!!

Me sitting at the Border of Peru and Bolivia with Lago Titicaca in the Background

Friday after work we went to meet our bus that would take us to the border of Bolivia and Peru.  It was about a 2 hour ride and we had no clue what we were getting in to.  Once at the border everything was so hectic.  We had to get out and walk to the Bolivian immigration office and pay to leave Bolivia.  Once done there we had to walk across the border.  It was the eeriest thing I have ever done.  I was alone walking into a place I had never been in the middle of the night looking for the Peruvian immigration office.  We all had to hurry to get there because the border was about to close.  Eventually we were all standing in line to enter Peru.  Then the doors shut behind us.  We had made it just in time.  After filling out a paper and getting our passports stamped we were in Peru.  We then had to walk to the Bus terminal that was about a mile down the road.  Once there we waited for our bus that was to take us to Arequipa.  We loaded on the bus and settled in for the night in hopes that the next morning we would arrive in Arequipa.

Main Plaza and Cathedral in Arequipa

After an 8 hour bus ride and little sleep we arrived in Arequipa around 5:30 in the morning.  We left the bus terminal caught a minibus and made our way to the Plaza de Armas in the center of the old city.  The city is also known as the “White City” for the numerous white houses and buildings lining the streets.  Once in the plaza, we found an empty park bench and took out our bread and liverwurst and had breakfast.  We then went to the huge cathedral to take a look around before it got to crowded.  It was pretty amazing inside.  We then proceeded to venture around the plaza some more until we came across a McDonalds and decided to stop in for a bite to eat.  I hadn’t had McD’s in over 6 months, well over due!  Afterwards we went on a tour of the city to see all the amazing sights.  My favorite part was the volcanoes that are around the city.  They are so big and look like ghosts shadowing the city.  I could not get over how beautiful they were. I’m not even sure that photos even do them justice.  Afterwards, we stopped in a small restaurant to have a traditional plate for lunch.  We ordered Ceviche Mixto.  It is a combination of raw fish, octopus, and some other time of sea creature, smothered in onions and lime juice.  The lime juice actually cooks the fish a little bit.  It was very strong but I really enjoyed the meal.  I was very surprised at how much I liked the octopus tentacles.  After finishing our meal we went to the Monasterio de Santa Catalina.  It was a Spanish convent built in 1579 that served as a residence for cloistered nuns.  Young girls would enter at the age of 12 never to return home to their families.  Their whole life was devoted to the Convent and God.  It was an extremely beautiful place with dark red and blue walls everywhere.  I was very surprised at how much I enjoyed this place.  It was a city within a city.  Upon leaving the Monasterio, we made our way back to the main plaza to go to Starbucks (Yes Starbucks!) to have a coffee and charge our batteries.  After enjoying a relaxing coffee, we headed back to the bus terminal to catch our next bus to the big city of Cusco.

I was so excited to see a McDonalds

Volcano outside of Arequipa that looks like a ghost

Ceviche Mixto (YUM)

Red walls from inside the Monasterio

Blue walls from within the Monasterio

Me enjoying a White Mocha Late at Starbucks... (Heavenly)

Early the next morning, after another grueling bus ride with little sleep, we were in Cusco.  Standing there in the bus terminal, still groggy, we were hounded by many people trying to get us to stay at their hostel.  It was very overwhelming and quite annoying.  Eventually, we made it past all of them and caught a taxi to the main plaza.  It was raining a bit so we found a nice dry place to sit down out of rain and began fixing some more breakfast sandwiches.  We sat there for awhile deciding what exactly we wanted to do.  We came to the decision that we would go find a hostel and then go explore the city.  So, that’s just what we did.  We found a hostel nearby and negotiated good price then went exploring.  We made our way through a few plazas around the city and then we split up.  Sonja and I decided to go horseback riding on the outskirts of the city and through some ancient Incan sights.  Cusco was the center of the Incan Empire at the time when the Spanish Conquistadores came to South America.  So there is very much ancient history and Incan ruins all around the city.  While on the horses we made our way to some Caves where some Incans lived.  After exploring the caves we made our way to some Ancient Incan ruins that over looked the city.  It was a very interesting trip which I really enjoyed even though my horse had a few issues with the other horses.  Afterwards, we walked to the giant Jesus statue that overlooks Cusco before we made our way down to the main plaza to meet up with the others to enjoy a quick lunch (McDonalds).  We then went to Qorikancha, (The convent of Santo Domingo Del Cusco).  This convent was built on the top of the ancient ruins of the Incan religious temple.  The Incans and the Spanish Conquistadores had many problems with one another as the Conquistadores forced them out of their cities and began hunting them down.  The history is very interesting and I think I will find a book because I would love to learn more about the Incan history.  Afterwards, we went back to our hostel where we watched a bit of the Superbowl before dinner.  We went just down the street to a small restaurant to have a traditional plate from Cusco.  We all ordered Cuy, an Andean rabbit (also known as Guinea Pig).  It was an interesting taste, not bad but interesting.  May have been the seasoning, but I think I would prefer it if it was fried.  Afterwards we went back to the hostel to sleep because we had to be in the Main plaza at 7 in the morning to go to Machupicchu.

 

Main Plaza of Cusco

Me standing above Cusco looking down at the city

Me exploring caves.

Me riding a horse

Incan Ruins outside the City

Jesus looking over the city

Me sitting in the main plaza enjoying some McDonalds with the Cathedral behind me

Cuy (Guinea Pig)

We woke up early in the morning to have breakfast (McDonalds) before catching our minibus.  We loaded in the bus and set off for Machupicchu.  The ride went off through some of the most beautiful countryside that I have ever seen in my life.  We were surrounded by farmland that was framed by snow covered mountain peaks.  The sight was breath taking.  Soon we began winding up a valley turn after turn after turn.  It soon turned into a car sickening ride through the mountains.  We continued winding up the beautiful mountains trying our best to keep from throwing up with each turn.  Soon we were over the mountain and had to wind our way down the other side.  After a few more hours we were skimming around mountain cliffs that overlooked a treacherous river below.  It was maybe the scariest road I had ever been on!  Finally, after 6 hours of nearly vomiting, we were in Hidro Electrica where we had to begin our walk to the small city of Aquas Calientes.  There is no road to this city, just a train which is very expensive.  We began our 2 and a half hour walk down the train tracks.  The views of the mountains surrounding us were amazing and the river that was gushing by had a low roar.  The whole time we had to carry our rack sacks on our backs with all of our things.  The walk was exhausting, but we finally arrived in the main square where we met our guide.  He then took us to our hostel where we would stay the night and have dinner.  I was excited that we would hopefully get some sleep that night, but the guide broke that excitement when he told us we needed to meet him in the plaza at 4:30 in the morning…  So we enjoyed our dinner and bought some bread and fruit in the local market before going to bed around 10 or 11 that night. 

 

Train tracks we had to walk to Aguas Calientes

The alarm came early in the morning as we slowly rolled out of the beds and packed our stuff so we could meet in the plaza.  We were told that we had to carry all our stuff with us on the hike because we would not be coming back to Aguas Calientes.  So I threw my 30-40 pound sack on my back with 2 big bottles of water and we made our way down the trail to the bridge that would take us across the river to the base of the mountain. Still pitch black outside; we began our climb up the more than 1,650 some stairs that lead to the top of the mountain.  It took about 1 and half hours to climb up all the stairs.  I thought that I would never make it, but I kept pushing on until I reached the last step.  Once on top, we waited for the main gaits to open so that we could be the first ones in the ancient city as the sun was rising over the mountains.  We scrambled down the foggy paths trying to find the city.  Finally, the clouds cleared off a bit revealing the ancient city.  We stood there in awe admiring the city and then soon thereafter it was shrouded by clouds again.  We then met our guide who took us on a tour of the city and explained all the history behind it.  It was amazing!  The city survived the Spanish Conquest because many Incans did not know the city was there and the Conquistadores could not find a road that led to the city because the Incan roads were in the mountain tops.  We ran around taking many photos of the stone ruins.  We then walked up the Incan road to the adjacent mountain to the ruins of Intipunku.  It is a small temple that overlooks Machupicchu.  From there you can see the face of PachaMama (Mother Earth) in the mountains.  The mountains of Machupicchu form a face that looks up into the sky.  It was cloudy but every once in a while the clouds would clear and you could see it.  Running out of time, we quickly made our way back to the city and out the gate.  We had 3 hours to get back to where our bus dropped us off in Hidro Electrica.  We then made our way back down the stairs, across the bridge and down the train tracks.  Finally, with our heavy backpacks, we were back to our bus.  We then set off again on our 6 hour sickening bus ride to Cusco.  After we arrived, we went to get some quick dinner (McDonalds) before heading to the bus terminal to catch our late night bus home.  We were so excited because we had a cama bus (the chairs are almost like beds) for the return home.  So we got cozy and set in for our 12 hour bus ride home hoping we would get plenty of sleep.

 

Stairs leading up to Machupicchu

First to Machupicchu as the clouds clear. (I was still sweating)

You get an eerie feeling when everything is shrouded in clouds

Our group picture from above Machupicchu

Yum Tabasco double cheeseburger

Happy in my Cama Bus

So I woke up the next morning and noticed the bus was not moving.  I thought that maybe we were sitting at the border waiting for it to open so that we could cross.  So I dozed back off for about another hour.  When I woke back up I noticed that we still hadn’t moved and it was about 7 o’clock.  Eventually, the bus driver came up and made an announcement.  It wasn’t good news.  He said that there was a road block ahead and that there was no way that we could pass it or turn around.  He then said that we could wait a day or two on the side of the road for the road to clear or we could walk through it to the other side and find transportation to the border.  We were somewhere in Peru in the middle of the altiplano (the middle of nowhere).  After translating the news for a few weary tourists me and the guys grabbed our things and threw them on our backs and started walking towards Bolivia.  We said heck it is just a bloqueo.  We have them all the time in La Paz so it is nothing new for us.  It may have been the best bloqueo I had ever seen.  These guys had put a lot of work into this thing.  There were huge rocks, broken glass, telephone poles, and fires scattered all over the road for about 3 or 4 miles.  Then there were large groups of people protesting but they seemed to be no harm to us.  Finally, an hour later, we were on the other side of the bloqueo and found a minibus to take us to the border.  We hopped out and went through immigration very rapidly.  We had never been so happy to be back in Bolivia.  I never realized how much I loved Bolivia until I traveled to another country in South America.  Once across the border we took another minibus to Copacabana on the Bolivian side of Lago Titicaca.  I had been wanting to go back to Copacabana but I had no clue it would be this week.  So we went to the beach and had a plate of Trucha while looking out across the water.  After we finished eating, we hopped on our bus back to La Paz.  We hadn’t planned on going home that way but the important thing was we were heading home.  We finally got home last night around 6 o’clock in the evening.  The first thing I did was took a shower then went to my bed.  The trip was like the title of this blog “sleepless in Peru”.  I was so happy to finally be in my warm cozy bed where I was soon fast asleep.

Leaving our bus behind starting to walk

Center of the bloqueo. (Notice the protest)

Rocks and glass bottles were everywhere!

The sign in the middle of the bloqueo clearly says not to throw rocks in the middle of the road (maybe the people couldn't read the sign?)

Looking out over the lake as we wait for our lunch.

i Love Trucha!

Us sitting in the Ferry crossing the lake to go home