Going home

Hello Lima! You were a welcome sight after our terrible day yesterday. 

Cheryl made up a list of all the shopping we wanted to do here before we left... We did none of it. We spent the day in our room, in bed sleeping. We also missed our farewell dinner at the Largo museum. That couldn't be helped though, we were both too sick to go. 

We are both feeling fine this morning though, and will go downstairs in a little while for breakfast. Then we'll pack up to head to the airport. 

We'll see you all soon!

On our way to Lima

Like I said last night, there is a strike in Jaliaca. Our flight boards at 8:05am,and usually the airport is only an hour away from the hotel. But today we got a 3am wake up call. 

To make matters worse, Cheryl an I are both sick from the eggplant at dinner last night... We were both up for the few hours of sleep that we had available. 

Our bus driver had to bribe his way through one strike blockade. The other two blockades that I saw, he managed to get around using side streets. I also saw at least one fire. I learned later that the strikers were burning tires 

At the airport there were two large groups of police with 30-40 each holding blast shields. There was a long line to get into the airport, another long line for ticketing. We finally made it to the gate with only an hour to spare before boarding. Our tour director just told us that all roads to the airport are now closed. We just made it! Hooray for our tour director, Barbara! Hopefully the flight crew made it too and we'll be on our way to Lima. 

Lake Titicaca

Good morning, Puno! This is the view that we woke up to this morning. Bright, early, and COLD!!! 36F this morning. Time to layer up and catch a boat on the lake. 

Our first stop are the floating islands of the Uros Indians. The islands and boats are built with reeds. They showed us a model and demonstrated how they built the island that we were on. 

We got to meet the families that live on the island, except for the kids because they were in school. 

Our group was separated between the families and invited into their homes. Cheryl was dressed in typical Uros everyday wear. 

Then we took a ride in one of their reed boats. 

Across the channel to a different floating island. 

After we are finished with the Uros, we head to real island, Taquilla Island, to visit with the Quechua. 

They made us a great lunch of freshly caught trout. It was WONDERFUL! Even Cheryl ate it all. 

After that the boat took over an hour to get back to Puno. What is that? A Peruvian Alcatraz? 

Ha ha, no. That's our hotel. 

We got some news this morning which is changing our travel plans. There is a major strike going on in Juliaca. That is where we are supposed to catch a flight back to Lima. So, to try to get around the trouble, we are leaving the hotel at 3am tomorrow morning. They are expecting 27F ... Brrrr...

So, early dinner and early bed tonight.

On to Puno

We got to sleep in again this morning. Wake-up call at 8am. We left the hotel at 9 am to tour the museum next door to the hotel, called Convento de Santo Domingo del Cusco. It had a pretty courtyard and great views of the city. 

Now we are on a 60 minute flight to Juliaca. 

I was a little shaky when we got off the airplane in Juliaca ~12,550 feet. After we took the bus to Sillustani at 13,200 feet high, we must have adjusted to the altitude because we felt fine. The short story is that Sillustani is an Incan burial ground. There is a real long story (the tour was two hours long). 

More and more people are succumbing to altitude sickness. One guy is confined to a wheelchair and is on oxygen. Cheryl and I are fine though. Since so many people are sick, we skipped the visit with a local family. That's too bad because seeing how people live has been my favorite part of the trip. Here is an example of a home that we would have visited. 

We made it to the hotel in Puno. It's not like Cousco where there was a lot to do around the hotel and it was safe to go anywhere. There is nothing around the hotel here, and we were told to remain on the hotel grounds.  But it is very pretty here at night. Our room has a view across Lake Titicaca.  

Buenos noches!

Cusco

Welcome to Cusco... And we're dropping  like flies. One fellow came down with the flu 3 days ago. He then passed it to his son, yesterday. The lady from Singapore is vomiting, and so is one lady from Canada. There are also others down with montezuma's revenge, colds and altitude sickness. As for us, we are trying to avoid all the sick people. Well on to today...

Our tour director, Barbara, let us sleep in until 8am this morning. But being so used to getting up early, Cheryl and I were both up at 5:30. We had breakfast and now we are sitting in a "history of Incas" talk given be a local university professor. Very boring...

Our walking tour of the city started with sacsayhuaman... More Incan ruins. 

After that we hit a couple of churches. Those were really interesting, especially the paintings. In the paintings the camels are llamas and in the Peruvian painting of the Last Supper, Christ and his disciples are eating guinea pig, and Judas is depicted as Incan.

Templo de la Sacrada Familia

Templo de San Blas

There were no pics allowed inside the churches. 

After that we were on our own for 5 hours. Cusco is a very safe city. Our guide told us to feel free to go anywhere, so we did. 

Hasta luego!

Tomorrow we head to Puna. At 12,421 feet, it is the highest we will stay overnight.

The return to Machu Picchu

... 4:45am wake up  call this morning! We want to get to Machu Picchu before it gets too hot and crowded... And to see the sunrise from the Sun Gate. 

It was supposed to take us 2 hours to hike to the Sun Gate, but it took Cheryl and me less than an hour to get out there and back with many photo ops. It was very steep, uneven and rocky, but it was no problem for us. 

Since we had a lot of time left before we have to catch the train to Cusco, we decided to hike out to the Inka Bridge too.

This was supposed to take us one hour and it took us less than half an hour. 

Next since we still had lots of time, we went up to the guard house. 

AND since we still had time, we went shopping in the handicraft market. I did pretty good with the bargaining; 30% discount and 2 for 1 discounts. 

We finally caught our 1.5 hour train ride, and this guy showed up to entertain and freak Cheryl out. Haha

Right now we are on a two hour bus ride back to cusco. We have free time tonight, Cheryl and I are pretty tired so we are having dinner at the hotel and turning in early. 

Buenos Noches