Home for a quick turn around

Travel * ER * Laundry * Packing *Cancelled flight * Bike ride

Gratefully our travel home was uneventful. With the exception of everyone feeling a bit off and a red-eye flight we survived. From Lima Eric made a doctors appt for the day we arrived home (June 30) to be certain that he didn’t have any awful Peruvian gomboo. It’s a good thing he did - his doctor was very concerned about his racing pulse and shallow cough that she sent him to the ER. Thank heavens for American hospitals and medicines. They were able to quickly get an EKG done, run blood work, start and IV, and get a CAT scan done without problem. Turns out Eric has a bacterial pneumonia and covid on top of that. However, the covid is a red herring because the pneumonia is not a covid pneumonia which is very different. Eric’s pneumonia is settled in the bottom part of his lung and should respond well to antibiotics.

We decided that we all better take covid tests to know what were up again and Charlie and Sydney tested positive (Lara did not). This is tricky as we are supposed to leave for DC in 48 hours. Right now the CDC recommends isolating for 5 days from the onset of symptoms. Charlie’s symptoms started long enough ago, but Sydney is mostly asymptomatic (other than the vomiting).

I spent Friday trying to come up with our Plan B. Eric will fly out in 10 days to join us in NYC. Sydney, Charlie, and Lara will go to DC as planned, but stay in a hotel rather than in our airbnb with Caitlyn, Stewart, and Riley. It took a while to adjust all the logistics of the flights, hotels, and rental cars - but it should work out. At least that was what we thought until Delta cancelled our flight on July 2nd and we can’t leave until July 3 now. Traveling right now is hectic with so many flights being cancelled due to strikes, low employment, and a lingering pandemic. It’s all going to work out though - Stewart and Caitlyn are enjoying some DC time on their own until we arrive.

We passed our time in Salt Lake doing laundry, catching up on yard work, and running a few errands. We managed to squeeze in a lunch run, picnic to In and Out Burger and an evening Mountain Bike ride with a stop at our favorite gelato store. Eric joined us at In and Out, but certainly could not do the bike ride. July 2nd was our anniversary - which both of us nearly forgot. We didn’t celebrate much as we were supposed to be on a plane to DC.

Highest Lake in the World

 Amantani * Taquile

We woke early this morning for a 6:45 a.m. breakfast. Charlie did not have a good night, and after breakfast Sydney’s stomach began to bother her. It’s probably a good thing we are headed home from Peru today. Eric of course stayed back at the hotel in Puno last night and other than a quick call, we really didn’t know how he was feeling. Breakfast was a decent pancake and scrambled egg.

Our only stop today with the guide was Taquille Island. From what I can figure this island's sole purpose is to provide a sort of “living museum” of how these people live. The islanders dress in traditional clothing each day and wait for the tourists to arrive. Since our schedule is a bit rushed today, we arrived early - before tourists or locals were moving about. After a 30-minute walk straight up the island, Sydney’s stomach was really bothering her, so we stopped at the Plaza de Armas for several minutes to drink a Coca Cola. A few tourists wandered into the Plaza and 1 restaurant was opened.

We took a leisurely pace to the top of the island then headed down 500 steps to catch up with our boat. I’m not sure we had the proper Taquille Island experience. The regular tourists wander in about noon (after their visit to Uros), have lunch, shop and then go home in the afternoon. Since we had to leave by 10:00 we missed the “Tacquile Island Show”.

Our 2 1/2 hour boat ride back to Puno was uneventful, except Sydney slept most of the time, only to throw up just after we got in the transfer van. Lucky for us (and the driver), she grabbed a plastic bag to throw up in and very little made it onto the floor of the car. Charlie was great at helping out and even cleaned up the floor of the van as best he could. After reuniting with Eric and some showers at the hotel - we are ready for the long journey home. Time to feel better and do some laundry and regroup for Part II of our sabbatical.

Lake Titicaca - Uros and Amantani

 Puno * Uros * Amantani

Eric woke up this morning still not feeling well, so he decided to stay at the hotels while Lara, Sydney, and Charlie had their adventure on Lake Titicaca. They packed their overnight bags as they would not be returning until tomorrow.

The day started early again, 7:30, with a quick ride to the Puno port and a transfer to our boat. We had the boat completely to ourselves - it seemed excessive - 3 Maxfields, a guide, and a boat driver. We traveled the short 30 minutes to the Uros community. I don’t know what we were expecting, but it was very clear that this community was entirely set up as a “show” to the tourists. There was an entrance fee and then we were assigned to a floating reed island to visit. Since our guide new that we were LDS, he was able to arrange our visit to the Island where a few members lived. Charlie did a great job communicating with them in Spanish and we learned that they had 5 children, 3 of whom had been missionaries. Even some of their handy work showed pictures of the temples. We took a selfie with them and gave them a small token of our appreciation. It would have been nice to do more.

After a ride on their boat across the channel, we jumped back in our own boat for the 2 1/2 hour boat ride to the island of Amantani. This island is specifically designed for travelers to visit a host family and experience the authentic culture. Our host family ran a small bed and breakfast service and could have as many as 24 guests. There were only 7 of us though at the time - us and another family from Columbia.

It’s a good thing Eric didn’t come, the conditions were very basic and although appeared clean, not really sure if it was. He would not have appreciated that being sick. After Charlie jumped in Lake Titicaca, we climbed the 20 minutes up the hill to our hotel for the night. The town was extremely sleepy and we felt like we were the only ones around. We wandered accidentally into the kitchen and watched for a few minutes while our lunch was being prepared. Probably a good thing we were able to eat in a dining area as the kitchen wasn’t very clean. We had a fried fish fillet with rice and some vegetables. It was more than we could eat.

After lunch we walked to the Plaza de Armas and watched a handful of locals wander around. We passed the time playing "wordle" on our phones. After our rest, we started the slow hike to the top of the island to watch the sunset. Slow because we were tired, and the elevation peaked at 13,500 feet. From the top of the Island, we could see the high peaks of the Bolivian mountains and a beautiful 360* view around us. The sunset was stunning.

Dinner was potato soup and a potato omelet. With nothing much to do, we were in bed by 8:30. Sydney and I shared a full-size bed, and Charlie slept next to us in a twin. It was a good thing we decided to be in a room together as Charlie had a hard night with a bad head cold. In the middle of the night, we were up fixing him a hot drink and trying to make him comfortable. Sydney and I slept pretty good on our bed that had about 4 heavy wool blankets and a comforter. In fact, we had to get rid of 3 of the blankets because it was too warm.

Drive from Cusco to Lake Titicaca

 Raqchi* Andahuaylillas Church * Museum Pucara

Today we reached the highest elevation of our trip - 14,310 ft according to our phones, 4335 meters according to the local sign.  

Church, Chinchero, Moray & Mara

Church * Chinchero Ruins * Market * Moray * Maras

Today is our last day in Cusco. It’s been nice to have been at the same hotel for 4 nights. Our next 3 nights will be spent in 3 different locations. Lucky for us the church was a quick 3-minute walk down the street. We weren’t the only visitors in church today, there were a couple of other gringos hanging around. We stayed for both hours, sending Charlie to young mens by himself. He said the lesson was on dating and the law of chastity. Good to know those topics are important around the world.

We started our touring immediately after church heading to the town on Chinchero to visit the market and ruins. As we were walking to the ruins, we passed a processional of mountain people in traditional clothing playing music on a drum and violin. We weren’t sure what that was about, but it was fun to watch. When we arrived at the archeological site, we quickly looked at the Catholic Church and then noticed a group of worshipers outside in traditional clothing, separated by gender. It looked like there were having some sort of Catholic, traditional religious ceremony. At this sight we also got another glimpse of the Inca Trail.

After an hour ride along bumpy dirt roads with a few wrong turns we arrive at the Moray archeological site. This is an amazing display of circular terraces in this area, all built into a recessed area of the mountain. We walked around getting a overview of the impressive structure.

Our lunch was amazing today. We drove into the town of Maras which looked like other run down, Peruvian towns, only to be surprised with a beautiful home behind a secured gate. It was elegantly decorated with a gorgeous view of the Andes. We enjoyed a delicious, private lunch which we needed! (It was already 3 pm)

The final stop of the day was the Maras salt mountain. First, we visited a little family shop where their darling 16 yo daughter gave an explanation of how the salt mines work and what different products can be made from the salt. We tasted chocolates and smelled all sorts of salt rubs. Of course, we had to buy some chocolate. Afterwards we visited the impressive sight were 500 families own the hundreds of salt ponds. During the dry season, the ponds fill with water from a nearby saltwater springs. As the water evaporates, the salt is collected and harvested to be sold all over the world. The salt ponds are hundreds of years old.

Ancient Temples, "Modern" Churches, Wandering

Walking Tour Cusco * Relaxing Afternoon

Today was the first day in a long time that we didn’t have a formal guided tour for the entire day. It was nice for a change. Our morning was spent with Roger again visiting nearby archeological sites and the city of Cusco. We started at Sacsayhuaman, the final location of the Inti Raymi festival yesterday. We marveled at the amazing stonework the Incas left behind. It’s too bad not more of the temple remains.

Afterwards we visited the temple to the water where a spring supplies water to some waterfalls and pools. Still today the Mountain people come early in the morning to bath in the holy waters. Our last archeological site was an Incan “funeral home” or “mortuary”. In-between and under a set of huge stones was an area created for preparing the dead for a funeral and for the family to take the mummy back to their homeland. The area was cold, and the stones acted as refrigeration while the body was being prepared. There was a small opening that allowed sunlight in which was then reflected into the dark space using a devise made of gold or silver.

Our last stops on the tour today were inside Cusco City. Roger isn’t too fond of the Catholics, so even though we visited a monastery and two Catholic Churches, he was quick to point out the Incan influences. One of the Catholic Churches was built on top of Coricancha - we didn’t even realize that until we walked out and saw the walls from the ancient Incan Temple and the site of the first part of Inti Raymi.

Inside another one of the Catholic Churches was a large painting of the last supper with “cuy” or Guinea Pig as the main dish and represent Judas - Pizarro. A definite dig on the Spanish conquistadors.

We finished off the day with a nice lunch chased by a McDonalds McFlurry, some souvenir shopping, and hot tubbing at the hotel. Dinner was a traditional roasted chicken with fries and salad.

Inti Raymi Festival

 Inti Raymi Festival

Our entire trip was built around the Inti Raymi festival that was on Eric’s bucket list. We didn't even really know what this festival was until Eric started talking about this at the beginning of our planning. The festival use to be an ancient Incan festival practiced from about 1400 AD until the Spaniards took control of the region. It was resurrected again in 1944 as a way to preserve the Incan culture and a way to show the Catholics that there were many Peruvians that did not want to participate in Catholic festivals.

The festival started at the Sun God Temple Coricancha in the center of Cusco. Our tour company had rented out a school that overlooked the plaza, so we had amazing seats. It immediately reminded us of a church pageant with colorful costumes, music, and wonderful dancing. After an introduction of the different regions under the Incan empire and a visit from the Incan king, we moved to the next site, the main square in Cusco.

Here the festivities continued, and the local dignitaries were recognized. Once again, the tour company had reserved a restaurant with a balcony that overlooked the main square. Roger knew that we would need to move fast to get the front row, so we put on our best Disneyland fast walked and worked our way through the traffic to be the first at the restaurant.

The last stop of the festival was the Sacsayhuaman archeological site where the Incan King performs a number of ceremonies to the sun god. The most curious was killing the llama on the alter, however, the llama was only hog-tied and held down while the King fake killed him. However, the king did pull out a real llama heart for show that he then threw into the fire.

The festival lasted all day, from 9 until 4. The music was catchy, but repetitive. It was mostly drums with the Incan flute. It was fun to watch the dances in their amazing costumes. After the festival we wandered around Cusco a bit before having dinner at a Peruvian Steak house. Irene and Dave leave tomorrow for Iquitos.

Cusco Food, Arts, and Culture

Urubamba * Ollantaytambo * Chinchero * Cusco

Our bodies needed a solid, nights sleep. Even after a good nights rest in a comfortable bed we have very sore muscles! Arms, back, calves, thighs, it hurt to walk this morning.

Roger let us sleep in just a little bit (in comparison to the Inca Trail) and we met him in the hotel lobby at 900 a.m. Our first stop this morning was a local market in Urubamba. It was great because we were the only gringos in town. If felt very authentic. Roger walked us around the market, grabbing small samples for us to try. Roger seems to have friends everywhere. In the market Irene purchased some peas and then proceeded to eat them raw, the ladies in the vegetable stands did not like that at all. They said we should cook them.

After the market we drove to nearby Ollantaytambo to visit a traditional mountain home, complete with guinea pigs running around and a corner dedicated to their worship of idols and ancestors. Ollantaytambo was built hundreds of years ago and the streets are narrow with water channels down the sides and middle. After our city walk, we climbed a nearby hill to visit the old grainery, but mostly to get a good view of the Ollantaytambo site. Our legs screamed as we climbed up the mountain.

The most impressive part of the Ollantaytambo site are the huge stones that are perfectly carved and shaped together like a big jigsaw puzzle for the Temple of the Sun.  The temple is unfinished because the Incas abandoned it when the Spainards arrived. We looked at the ramp at the back of the site where the Inca likely moved the stones from the valley floor up to the top of the site to build their temple.

After Ollantaytambo we had a yummy lunch with traditional food and Marinera horse and people dance. The horses pranced around on their light feet and were beautiful. Lunch was followed by a fun pottery class at a local artist studio, Senor Seminario has been an artist in Cusco for over 40 years. His inspiration comes from all the ancient Peruvian cultures, but he has become more famous and even has some pieces in the Smithsonian Museum of the American Indian. We enjoyed learning about his art and then making our own clay tile and mask.

Our final stop today was the high town of Chincero to learn about how traditional clothe is made. The workshop was run by a coalition of single women, and they did an amazing job of teaching us about traditional methods of collecting wool, dying it, and then weaving it into clothe. They had an amazing selection of blankets, sweaters, and other items that of course we couldn’t resist buying several items.