Week 36-38

Peru!! We finally went on my “Giving up smoking bribe” trip. It was absolutely fantastic!! Trip of a lifetime!!

We started off in Lima for a couple of days where we went on a tour round the city. As Lima was founded by the Spanish conquistador Pizarro most of the buildings are Spanish in origin. There are some pre-Inca sites still left and Huaca Pucllana was amazing, it’s from around 400AD and made of adobe and it still here because of the lack of rain in Lima. Lima is the second driest city in the world, is cloudy and overcast for 9 months of the year and has over 3000 earthquakes a year. What was Pizarro thinking?!

The next day we flew to Puerto Maldonado for a 3 hour boat ride into the jungle. We were really lucky that the people who were in our small group were lovely. We spent 4 days there and it was definitely my favourite part of the trip. The things we saw were spectacular – Black Caimen, Toucans, Capuchin Monkeys, Leaf Cutter Ants, Scorpion Spiders and Macaws. I really would like to go back some day.

After 4 days we flew to Cusco. This city is really pretty and there are a lot of Inca remnants still left that they have used as the foundations for modern buildings. We saw some amazing Inca ruins; Sacsayhuaman, Quenqo, Chinchero, Ollantaytambo and Tambomachay. OH tried alpaca which he stated was a cross between Beef and Lamb. The altitude effect was harder than I expected, you got out of breath just turning over in bed!! We drank plenty of coca tea which they recommend, it didn’t help with the breathing but the headaches disappeared quickly!

The highlight of the trip was a visit to Machu Picchu. We took the cowards route and went by train from Cusco alongside the Urubamba River to Aguas Calientes the town at the base of Machu Picchu. As we were the only ones in our small group who took the train we ended up having a private 3 hour tour round the ruins……fantastic! We spent the night in Hotel Machupicchu Inn and the next day chilling and shopping for gifts.

Time went really quickly after that as we returned to Cusco for a day and then flew back to Lima ready to fly home. :o(