Oldies On Tour

Having had a brilliant nights sleep in our 7′ bed, we showered and went to breakfast, the

Reception

Our huge bed!

Hotel is amazing, it was an old Inca House, very easy to get lost, it twists and turns, but we found the restaurant, which has a quadrangle off where you can sit and enjoy the ambience of everything.

Soldiers leading the parade

Soldiers goose stepping

After breakfast we wondered down to the local square, and the

Native costume

had a parade going on, not sure why, but it was brilliant, most of the industries were represented, dancers in native costumes, and then all the school children, there were marching bands, soldiers, it seemed as the whole town was there,

Construction workers drilling

fantastic atmosphere, Geoff had his shoes cleaned by a young boy, and I bought a pair of sunglasses, obviously fake, but who cares I needed them.

We met some people who seem to be following us everywhere, and they had problems with their room last night, so glad we were upgraded, apparently they have no windows, so not comfortable at all, we have lovely views, will have to pinch myself again.

Outside the Cathedral

Back to the Hotel in time to meet our guide Eva, we are touring around Cusco in a group today, we first went to Basilica Catedral, which apparently was the 6th best in the world, we were not allowed to take photographs, but there was gold leaf everywhere, it was amazing, we had the story of how the Incas and the Spanish integrated into society, it was

The original wall built by the Inca’s at the Sun Temple

very interesting.

We then walked through the town to see their Sun Temple Qorikancha, apart from the bits where the Incas had built, we

Some of the paintings inside the Sun Temple

both found it was a bit boring.

Back on the coach we then went to the National Park it was called Saqsayhuamán which means zigzag, this was stones bigger than Stone

Some of the smaller stones

Henge, all piled on top of each other, and you could see the sacred animals included in the stones, we think you need a bit of imagination for this, but they were sort

The biggest stone in the Park with Fernando our guide in front

of there.

We walked through this lovely area, and boarded the coach again, where we went to Tipon which is a temple of water, we had both had enough by then so we and several others stayed on the coach. Later we stopped at a craft shop, where we also stayed put, we are knackered.

The walls all zigzaged along the path

We did enjoy the day, but with the altitude being 3800 meters, we are still struggling a bit, so we decided to stay in the Hotel and have a meal, which was lovely.

Then to bed as we have an early start tomorrow.

Saturday 20th April 2013

Hooray, today we could have a lay-in, no rush, mainly due to the local agents making a slight change to our itinerary with an un-foreseen knock-on.  We were due to do the Machu Picchu Inca City  ruins today so that yesterday we had a nice day in and around the hotel enjoying the hot springs and 13 acres of tropical jungle

The “Jungle” garden at the Inkaterra

followed by a nice dinner and then today the visit, followed by lunch and the train back to Cusco.  So today we enjoyed the hot spring’s pool, re-negotiated last night’s missed dinner as lunch for today and sat in this beautiful garden surrounded by high mountains.  This beautiful hotel The Inkaterra, again with the Casitas (cabins)

Part of the 13 acresw

but unfortunately here

One of the Casitas set in this 13 acre jungle garden

there are many steps and of course, our cabin was at the top!!!! Still when we had climbed these steps and opened the door, the interior was superb.

So back to today; A leisurely breakfast was enjoyed whilst looking out onto mountains and  the very fast moving river

The fast flowing river below the Inkaterra Hotel

with the sun shining.  After a short time we donned our swimmers and went and enjoyed the hot spring pool,

The Hot Spring pools

very hot so had to keep popping into the cooler one for rest bite!!  We didn’t venture into the third one in the series as

The pool below the hot springs at the Inkaterra Hotel

that would have been too cold!

After about an hour, it was back to the room for a shower and pack.  We had to be out by 1100 hrs but managed to persuade them to extend, which they did by half an hour, generous

One of the many fountains in the Inkaterra Garden

or what.

Packed an out of our room by the appointed time we sat in this jungle garden playing crib until we went into launch around  1400 hrs, we enjoyed a three course lunch choosing local dishes, superb and

One of the many stalls in the market by the train station

washed it down with some very nice Peruvian white wine which I have to say was excellent, I must look out for it in the supermarkets, if it gets to Europe.

We eventually left this first class hotel and apart from all the steps, would fully recommend it to anyone.  The hotel organised for our bags to be taken to the train station for us,

The Railway Station at Manchu Picchu

so we meandered down carefree, and boarded the train Carriage A, seats 15/16, everything was allocated.

This return journey was certainly different, apart from the “trolley dolly” handing out snacks and drinks, (included in the fare) we were then subjected to a court type jester (that obviously meant something) then a fashion show.  The

The Court Jester

train attendants became models and displayed a number of local Peruvian outfits followed by the hard sell!  These clothes were very nice and probably all made from Alpaca wool, they were so soft. As we are struggling with case weight, we resisted temptation.

Now for the worst part of the journey; we had to leave the train and catch coaches for the last 1 1/2 hrs of the journey back to Cusco, we didn’t know why but had no choice.  Boy the driver must have thought he was in the Brazilian Grand Prix, how the coach stayed on all its wheels at times I don’t  know and overtaking was very reminiscent of Indian driving something coming, so what!  Still we arrived shaken but safely, to be met by our guide and  taken to this 5 star hotel; because we complained about our changes to the original program and then queried why they were changing our hotel, not only did they upgrade us they had also organised us a suite.  Is that good or what?

We arrived at our hotel and our mouthed dropped as you walk through the lobby that is reminiscent of an art gallery, paintings, yes paintings everywhere, I suspect there is a lot of history to this building, and we will have to find out more tomorrow.  We checked in and up to our suite where we were reunited with the cases we had to leave behind in the sacred valley. This suite has the biggest bed

That “Jumbo” bed

we have ever seen, you could get lost in it!!!!!

By this time we were exhausted so Christine did some “small’s” washing, we showered and went straight to bed, exhausted but very happy after a great time visiting Manchu Picchu and the surrounding area.

Friday 19^th April 2013

We are gradually getting acclimatised, but I was still awake before the alarm went off at 6.30 am, so we both got up, had a lovely lazy breakfast, and were ready to go by 7.45 am, we were collected from the Hotel and delivered to the train station in Ollantaytambo, another busy station, but very organised, we were told that our train was after the one waiting in the station, so we sat and watched it depart, shortly after ours arrived and we boarded, trouble was Geoff had only given me one ticket, and he had already boarded, but they let me on, then of course he had no seat number, so he took someone else’s seat, after a few words they agreed he could sit next to me.

Lovely comfortable train, with everyone having tables, and the views on the way to Machu Picchu were very spectacular, the river runs alongside the railway, and some of the mountains were covered in snow.  Whilst travelling the 90 minutes they served us with a roll, fresh fruit, and a drink, very civilised.

Inca settlement in the hills

On arriving at Aguas Calientes (hot springs) we met our guide named Sonia, she arranged for the bell boys to take our baggage to the Hotel where we were staying tonight.

Hair-pin bends on route to the Inca trail

We then walked to a bus which took us to Machu Picchu it was a 25 minute single track road, where at certain points other buses could pass,  8km of road that had lots of hairpin bends, with cobbles in most places, very bumpy, and we were glad to get off.

Young Pincchu in distance with urban houses in front

A visit to the famous archaeological site, no one quite knows the real history, but most agree it was built in the mid 15^th century by the inca emperor Pachacuti. Inca legend relates that Pachacuti ordered the

Beautiful day in Machu Picchu

construction of Machu Picchu to celebrate the defeat of a rival ethnic group called the Chancas.

The city was abandoned when due to the

Amazing site, the way they managed to build all those years ago

Spanish invaders the Inca Empire fell.

It was a fascinating trip, and although history goes over my head most of the time, I found it interesting.

We went up and down the steps, wandered through the houses, temples warehouses and central square, which made up the lost city.

Farming area with store rooms beyond

Marvelled at the way stones had been carved to fit, how did they do this all those years ago.

Later we left the site, and had lunch at the sanctuary restaurant, Pan Pipes were playing, before descending in the bus again, we then slowly walked through the town, until we arrived at our Hotel Inkaterra.

We were given our room which is very nice, but so many steps to get up to it, poor Geoff was struggling to breathe at the end, we tried to change rooms, but the Hotel is full, so we will just have to take it easy. When unpacking Geoff found his train ticket!!!

We did not feel like anything else to eat, with the high altitude, we are having trouble digesting food, and breathing, although at present we are only 2000 meters above sea level, tomorrow we will be 3800 meters, so we will have to take things easy.

18th April

Well, after an 11 hour night and having slept right through we were back to normal; boy did we need it!!!  Down for breakfast for 0600 hrs, fantastic spread again, completed and out of the restaurant by 0640 where our guide was waiting to take us to the airport.  Again another “interesting” drive.  Driving here in Lima is between being in Cairo and a Banger race track, mad or what?  And the noise from horns is constant, yet no one takes a blind bit of notice! Our guide also gave us advice about living in the high altitude in Cusco etc., only eat easily digested foods as it takes twice as long to digest and have lots of energy drinks.  Cusco is a little under 4,000 meters, fairly high.

We arrived at the airport and our guide chaperoned us through and deposited us at security, now we were on our own.  An excellent flight and though only 1 hour 20 mins unlike Ryanair or Easy Jet, not only did we have massive leg room, we were given a soft drink and a box containing several types of biscuit, there’s a novelty!  The flight followed the Andes, this reminded me of the flight I took along the tops of the Himalayas, These snow capped mountains are just as rugged but not quite so high.  I felt sorry for the pilot as he had a tortuous route in around the mountains before dropping down to find the runway, still he did, and it was  a fine landing, better than the one arriving into Lima.  As soon as they opened the plane’s door, we could feel the thinner air, the guide was right.

After collecting our bags we met our new guide as we walked out of the airport and into our own private bus.  Here we were briefed on the next few days of our adventure.  We were then left to the mercies of our driver, a very nice chap but with little English, but with our little Spanish, we all did very well.

This was a very interesting drive, up mountains and down dales, with numerous stops along the way to take ‘photos.  Beautiful scenery, very green, yet with a fabulous back drop of the rugged Andes mountains.

Finally we dropped down into the Sacred Valley and then found our hotel, the Sol y Luna. Wow, this is an amazing hotel, no normal bedrooms here, just 28 individual chalets called Casitas set in the most amazing gardens that neither of us have experienced before.

Before we could go exploring or have lunch, we had to re-organise our cases as we can only take one piece of small hand luggage on the train up to Machu Picchu yet have sufficient for two nights, still task completed and off went our main cases with our guide, hopefully to be repatriated in a couple of days time, keeping our fingers crossed.

Bags away and into the restaurant where we ate “local’, I had Crispy Guinea pig legs and Christine had Alpaca Steak as starters followed by local farmed Trout, everything was excellent.

Following lunch we wandered around these beautiful gardens and sat in the sun, yes hot sun, wonderful, then back to our chalet for showers before dinner.

Well we didn’t actually make “dinner” as we’re were still bloated from lunch however, as we didn’t have desert with lunch we did indulge with a desert as our evening dinner with a Piña Collada for me and a fruit (no alcohol) punch for Christine.

A nice stroll through the gardens at night, equally magnificent, then back to our chalet for another early night as we have to be up by 0630 hrs tomorrow morning to catch the train to Machu Picchu

16th April, 2013

Well we left Horndean, having dropped the dogs at Kathleen and Tom’s, they then came and collected us to take us to Heathrow.  On route we stopped at The Links, at Liphook, I have not been there for years, very nice, and we had a lovely meal there, a bit expensive but hey its the start of the honeymoon.

We arrived a bit early so we did a bit of shopping, before we could hand our bags in, our flight was at 6.40 pm, we flew on an old air bus, which was very comfortable plus it was empty, we arrived at Madrid with two hours to spare for the next one, we managed to change our seats to sit together, then we played crib, and soon it was time to board.  This flight was packed a Boeing 767. 300 much smaller plane, and heaving, not a spare seat in sight, it was not too bad as we had plenty of leg room, and we managed to sleep plus take in two movies.  It was a 12 hour flight so you can imagine we were knackered, plus for some reason my feet have swollen. We did the immigration and customs and there outside was our taxi to the Hotel, so far so good.

The traffic on route to the Hotel was amazing, horns hooting, everyone jostling for space, five lanes, crammed into three, reminded me of Cairo City, most cars had damage, but no one seemed to care, they just kept going.

When we arrived we were told we could not book in until 10.00 am we are six hours behind UK, so it was only 7.30 am, so we decided to go and have a two hour buffet breakfast in the Hotel, it was lovely, and just what we needed.

We were given our room, which is really comfortable, had showers and rested on the bed, we then went to the pool for a swim, sauna, and general chill out, very refreshing.

Went back to room, showered again, and then went for a walk down to the Ocean that is what they say out here, we call the sea,

Dinner by the Ocean

we wondered around, and then found a restaurant looking over the ‘Ocean’ and had a lovely meal.

Busy place Lima we were in one of the districts called Mirofoiles, the upmarket part, the problem is we could be anywhere as the shops are all the same, Next, Guess, Radio-shack, Starbucks, KFC,  etc.,  etc.,

We wondered back slowly, taking in the embience, back to the Hotel, and I am ashamed to say we were in bed by six, and asleep probably a minute later