THE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE: Late afternoon trips in my family lead to loads of procrastination. After quickly packing our bags 3 hours before the flight departed, we flew tiredly to Dallas, Texas. After some jammimg to elevator music in the Centurion Lounge, we got onto our flight to Lima, Peru. At 6:30 AM after 7 hours of sleeping terribly, we went to the Premium Lounge in Lima and had to wait there 5 hours for our flight to Cusco. Within 30 minutes, 3/4 of the family was knocked out from the lack of sleep, not even minding the fact that the tiny room was fully crowded and had kids running around and crying. After a quick breakfast, we boarded onto the short flight to Cusco—which felt even shorter considering the amount of Stranger Things that we watched.
ARRIVAL: Our driver Juan Carlos picked us up from the Cusco airport to get us to our hotel in the outskirts of Urubamba, in The Sacred Valley of the Incas. On the way, I counted over 100 adorable stray dogs running in packs in the rain, laying down infront of stores and houses, and walking along the sides of the roads. We stopped in Chinchero, 12,504 feet up, and went to the Area de Textiles. They started off by giving us a cup of traditional Coca Tea, and then we were taught about how Peruvians make thread and ink from alpaca hair and cactus parasites. It was kind of funny because the lady showing us had very planned and staged jokes, but then after the presentation they all wouldn’t stop asking us to buy everything— it was still pretty cool though, I liked it. After saying goodbye to the ladies, we saw an amazing view with a little family and their alpacas who we could take pictures with. Uriel and his sister Guadalupe showed off their beautiful alpacas, Mama and Dora, with who we could we take pictures with, while the kids sang us a little song. Alpacas are now my favorite animal ever, I love them so so much.
HOTEL: We finally arrived at our AMAZING hotel, Casa Andina. I can’t even begin to describe how cute and well put together it was. Right as you walked in, there was a little tea station where you could serve yourself different types of Coca tea. On your left was the big, open, glass and wood restaurant, below the lobby was a game room, and if you took the path to the right you could find the gym. The hotel had a nice open field right below the mountains, that had a playground, hammocks, and even a few alpacas feeding on the grass. It was perfect. The hotel rooms reminded me of a ski resort with stone paths going to each one. My parents had the two story room and my brother and I shared the one story room. They both had beautiful views of the mountains and the well-kept green field. We made a reservation to go to their spa, but sadly we were too exhausted to go. We had a really early dinner at 5 PM in the great hotel restaurant, which I would fully recommend! The Ahí de Gallina and Maki roll were really really good!
DAY 2:
On day 2 of our Peruvian journey we visited the many wonders of The Sacred Valley!
OLLANTAYTAMBO: We left the hotel at 8:20 AM and headed to Ollantaytambo with our same driver, Juan Carlos, and our new tour guide, Cati. We got to see their Temple of the Sun and their Temple of the Water. It was pretty high up and you could definetly feel the altitude when climbing up the huge stairs. We were told many great stories about Ollantay and his life and Cati pointed out many carvings in the mountains and explained to us the function of the ruins. It was gorgeous.
THE DRIVE: Atleast in the places where we went, the roads had no stop lights, stop signs, or speed limits that controlled the drivers. I was really surprised because Juan Carlos was such a reckless but safe driver. Diego and I couldn’t really describe him in any other way other than simply calling him a savage. If a person was going just a bit slower than him, even on the top of a hill on a super intense turn, he would pass them. He would move into oncoming traffic, go super fast, and then cut them off. At first I thought this would be extremely unsafe but surprisingly it worked super well. Since there aren’t any signs or limitations people are all just super cautious drivers and are always watching out for people walking on sides of the street and are always stopping for every single little stray dog.
MARAS: When we arrived at Maras Salt Mines, I was amazed. There are over 3,000 shallow salt pools, which were many more than I had thought there would be. We learned about how smart the Incas were to create this and even got to see the workers getting the salt from the pools. Later we were able to visit the small shops above and purchase some snack and the salt that is made right in this very spot! We got to taste it and it was great.We took some amazing pictures and headed to our next destination.
MORAY: Our third stop was Moray. It had 3 circular terraces and was used by the Incas for agriculture laboratories. It was really cool to see all three areas and learn about their functions. After visiting all of those locations, we were no doubt very hungry. We ate lunch at Tunupa Valle Sagrado. It was a buffet style restaurant where all of the tour guides take their tourists. It was gorgeous and the food was great, I really liked it.
PISAC: Next, we went to the mountain about the town of Pisac, an area full of beautiful concave terraces. We learned about how they burried about 3,000 people inside of the little holes in the mountain, and saw the homes of the nobles and priests at the top of the mountain. It was really pretty and I love how many symbols are in every part of the place. We then drove down to this really cute small town at the bottom of the mountain, called. I even payed a sole to hold the softest baby alpaca ever.
We were exhausted after the very eventful day, and even though we had planned to go to sleep early for our 4 AM trip the next morning, Diego and I ended up going to bed at 1AM... with 3 hours of sleep, we were very prepared for the next day’s inca trail.
DAY 3:
We had an early start to the day and headed to the train station to catch the Peru Rail to the Inca Trail. The ride was beautiful, even the top of the train had windows so you could see everything so well. The landscape changed into a tropical environment so quickly which I wasn't expecting, and you could see the water rapids and the mountains all at the same time. We started at the 104 km to do our one day hike. The first stop after going through the checkpoint was a couple of ruins and then we started going up. Not going to lie, you have to be in pretty good shape to do this and I definitely don't recommend it for those of you that are scared of heights. There aren't many railings and one step in the wrong direction would not end well. We climbed to an altitude of about 9,000 feet and it was one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen. I have to say that I honestly liked the trail more than Machu Picchu itself. Near the end we saw these amazing ruins and it was just so spectacular. The best part of the trail is that you can always see where you came from and where you're going--instant satisfaction. It was so cool to see how many mountains you have gone around and how high up you have climbed. If you have time in your schedule I would 100% recommend going on this hike. We ended at the Sun Gate where we saw Machu Picchu from afar and the beautiful landscape surrounding it, and then we walked to the regular viewing spot at Machu Picchu. It was a perfectly clear day, and it was picture-perfect. If you go on the one day hike make sure your tour guide doesn't rush you to not take pictures because the next day might not be as perfect. After this we went down to Aguas Calientes and hung out in the super nice hotel.
DAY 4:
This day we woke up bright and early to go back to Machu Picchu, sadly, we couldn't see ANYTHING... to be continued