Final thoughts on our Ecuador/Peru trip

I am going to use this to share some final thoughts and things we learned on our trip.  In no particular order..

First some practical info about the ecuador and peru bathroom experience.

•  Oddly the toilet often had no seat (yes even the women's restroom).  I assume you are supposed to hover but I really didn't understand.  This happened even in some nicer tourist places and airports
• Always have toilet paper on you!  It was a 50/50 chance that any given bathroom would have toilet paper available.
• Many places have pay bathrooms (often around 50 cents for entry including a few squares of toilet paper)
• You should basically never put your tp in the toilet.  Their sewer system seems to not be able to handle that
• We never drank the water unless it was boiled or treated.  I did brush my teeth with it and never got sick
• The inca trail bathrooms are grosser than outhouses

The inca trail bathroom experience

Other random thoughts on our travel and practical tips if you are thinking about going to ecuador or peru

• Always have small change.  People will often refuse your money if you don't have something close to the right amount of money.
• Cash is king.  Even if places claim to take credit cards online they often don't when it is time to pay
• Use scotiabank ATMs in Peru.  These atms never charged us a fee while other ones seemed to say we would be charged $5 per transaction
• Have lots of space to bring back things.  There are so many amazing textiles and other things that are so cheap.  For example we got this beautiful 6 foot hand made wall hanging for around $50 and that was the most expensive thing we got.
• Ecuador uses the dollar but mints only coins.  They accept all american money but their coins won't work here.  In Peru they use the Sole but most tourist places accept dollars and atms dispense soles and dollars
• The private tours or small tours are worth it and usually pretty cheap.  For small group 10 hour tours is was often around $40-50 a person.  If you speak better spanish the transportation system might be more managable but otherwise it is hard to get around
• Nearly everyplace even big cities have a strange mix of private transportation.  They are private bus companies that compete on routes so there is no overall system map or good way to understand what is going on if you don't speak spanish.  There is the metropolitan in Peru but that is seemingly always backed to the point that having enough room to breath might be an issue.
• Taxis are cheap (like $2-5 for up to an hour trip) and we didn't get ripped off once (although we always had the hotel or tourist place call a cab if possible)
• South American beer is generally on the level of Bud light and it is hard to get anything better.  It is however generally cheap and drinkable they way that Grain Belt is drinkable.  There seems to be a few brew pubs and microbrews in larger cities but you have to find them and they are not available in grocery stores.
• There is more culture things then you might imagine.  Lima and Quito have lots of spanish places that are around 500 years old plus there are tons of things from older civilizations to see.
• You can get around not knowing spanish but studying basic spanish even for a month was quite helpful since sometimes you run into a smaller place where nobody speaks english
• They love KFC.  Other american chains were available but KFC was everywhere.  Street food was generally less than half the cost and much better.
• Despite having so much fresh food they eat mostly meat and potatoes.  Veggies seem to be a garnish, although you could find places where this was not true.
• Coffee was generally very bad.  Nescafe is all over the place or the Cusco version which is only slightly better.  There are some newer coffee shops that actually serve some of the good coffee they grow there.  Starbucks is only a few places in Peru and it was generally worse than the US
• Don't bring too many clothes.  Laundry is $1/kg to wash dry iron and fold with service in about 8 hours or less.  Don't give them any clothes you can't part with.  We lost a few socks and gained somebody's speedo.  There seemed to be no self service laundry places.
• $30-40/night generally gets you a decent place to stay with breakfast.  It won't be the Hyatt but it will mostly be clean, nicely located and comfortable if you do your research.
• Internet speeds vary widely.  Generally every place we staying in Ecuador had ok internet, but Peru even in big cities the internet could be really slow.  Not sure if that is just where we stayed or a trend.
• If you have TMobile you get free texting and 3G or slower data.  Calls are 20 cents/minute but they don't seem to have charged us for our short calls.
• In Peru if you are using dollars to pay make sure they are new without any rips.  Even strange folds can get them rejected by vendors.
• Flights are cheap especially in Ecuador ($60 round trip for a 1 hour flight).  
• Buses are cheap especially in Ecuador.  Buses in Peru are better though but cost more for the best companies)
• They let you bring most things on the flight for domestic flights, but international flights security is possibly even tighter than in the US.

That is all I can think of for now.  If you are thinking about doing your own trip feel free to contact me and ask questions.  Overall we loved our trip!  It was relatively cheap (about 10k for absolutely everything for 2 people 32 days with the inca trail and rainforest being about 3k total).  We saw such a variety of things we didn't get homesick even after a month.  There are lots of culture and outdoor things to do in both countries.

I will go back and update other days as I get a chance.  I am also already thinking about our next trip.  In Jan I will be going to Mexico, or San Diego or Africa or some combo of those things.  We are hoping to do another big trip next summer probably in July this time so St. Kate's is happier.  Current options are the Balkans, SE Asia or Spain/northern africa.  We are looking for someplace relatively inexpensive that we haven't been too that we should do before having kids.  If anybody has ideas let me know. Thanks for reading!

Day 32 Lima to Home

First I am going to go back and update all the days we missed.  We had absolutely terrible internet the last 2 weeks.  Mostly I am updating this so I have a record of what we did, but hopefully somebody else will find it helpful or interesting.

Going back to our trip home...

We got to the Lima airport slightly after 11 pm.  After getting yelled at by the Lan people (very unhelpful airline) and getting my bag completely taken apart at security we were into the terminal where I shopped and Zach sat around until our 1:55 am departure.

The flight was uneventful but not great.  I got stuck in the middle of the middle, but luckily all I wanted to do was sleep.  Breakfast was horrible.  Eggs was the only option and we got served last so we had about 10 min to chow down before we landed.

Zach's covert picture of me getting searched in Lima

Dinky with the nasty expensive nescafe latte and brownie while waiting in Lima

AA breakfast...no option but eggs and no there is nothing else to eat (not even to pay for)

We landed in Dallas around 9 am (somewhat early).  Of course we had to go through customs  there and that was fun.  They have these new machines that scan you passport, takes your picture and sends you on the way unless there were problems.  Zach made it through ok, but I got a big x on my ticket because it only printed one of my last names and then I didn't match their records.  That meant you had to go stand in line with the other rejected people and go through normal entrance procedures.  They claim it is random but I was the only white person in line...  We got separated when this happened and Zach tried to text me where he was going.  He got yelled at and pushed on his way (no you can't go tell you wife where you are going!).  Despite the fun we eventually made it though...they didn't even search our bags which made Zach sad because he could have brought in the coca leaves he wanted.

Dallas starbucks = way better than Peru starbucks

The Dallas airport seemed ok except for the lack of faster healthy food.  I got starbucks for breakfast and we sat in their lounge charging things.  Then we meandered to our gate stopping at Uno pizza for lunch.  That was a truly terrible cheese pizza, but like I said there were not many options.  Final stop was for some underwhelming chocolate frozen yogurt and then we boarded to MSP.  Our flight was delayed supposedly because they had trouble finding a path around the Iowa storms.  Despite the reroute we still hit some pretty bad turbulence.  I can now also confirm that AA doesn't seem to offer any free snacks on US flights.  We got juice and no option for peanuts (even to buy snacks). We landed about 30 min late at MSP and Ethan came to get us.

Welcome home to flooding Minnesota!

Dinky says goodbye until our next travels

That should have been the end of our travel fun, but unfortunately the check engine light started flashing on 494 and we had to stop in the menards parking lot.  We tried putting new gas in and slowly made our way up local streets home.  The car was shaking terribly and threatening to stall the entire time.  We took it in the next day and thankfully it just needed new spark plugs.  Not so expensive and it runs really well now.  I guess the moral of that story is don't let your car sit for 33 days in the sun and flooding rains

Gas light came on on the way home from the airport :-(

 We did finally make it home and after some unpacking and surveying the damage to the garden we ordered pizza luce and called it a night.  I am already thinking about our next adventure so if anyone has suggestions send them my way.

Our collection of stuff from our trip (yes we made the weight limit on the way home)

Day 22-25 Inca Trail and Machu Pichu

Short Summary:  We did the traditional Inca Trail trek from km 82 to Machu Pichu in 4 days total.  I got very sick on day 3 and Zach got sick when we got back.  Still got to see Machu Pichu though and we made the hard hike despite being sick


We still have bad internet so I will just post some highlight pictures now and update this later.

Day 21 Sacred Valley

Short Summary:  Tour of sacred valley including Chinchero Urubamba Ollantaytambo Calca and Pisac

Woke up at 7:20 to a semi cold shower.  Breakfast was very slow to be served and our tour guide came 5 min early so she had to wait for us.

Our tour guide for the day was Nancy and our driver was Hugo with Resposible Tours of Peru.  We left Cusco through the suburbs.  The first stop was an overlook to see the many snow capped mountains.  Then we stopped at an artisan workshop in Chinchero.  We saw their guinea pigs and llamas and then got some free coca tea.  A local girl then told us how they dye the different colors and gave us a demonstration including the weaving process.  Then of course it was time to shop.  We got lots of nice things for us and our family.  The highlight is probably a big wall hanging made from llama with a bird motif.

Next stop was the ruins at Chinchero.  This place is known as the birthplace of the rainbow.  Here they did experimental agriculture on the many terraces.  As it is everywhere around here there were amazing inca stonework walls with a spanish church on top of it.  After some history from our guide Nancy it was on to Urbamba.

We stopped at a nice overlook of the town and more terraces.  After we got through town we stopped to try the local chicha.  This stuff was pretty good and all natural.  Chicha is fermented corn that is somewhat like beer.  The kind I liked more had strawberries added.

After more driving we got to Ollantaytambo.  We got stopped by a Corpus Christi parade at the main square and our taxi driver seemed to get in trouble since he stopped traffic for a second to let us out to walk the short distance.  The Ollantaytambo ruins are a large steep terrace system up to what they think was a sun temple, although this area was not done when the spannish came to conquer the area.  There was again lots of impressive stone work.  Another highlight is the inca face half carved into the mountain that creates a shaddow on the winter solstice.  I wish we had more time to hike around here because there were many ruins we didn't get to see except for in the distance.

After we reached the bottom of the ruins we stopped at the Chaco Museum.  It wasn't as cool as the place in Mindo but we did get more history and a taste of chocolate tea.

Next stop was lunch in Calca.  We ate at this amazing mostly vegetarian restaurant Panza Verde (or green belly) run by 2 women from Holland.  It is also a charity that helps the people practice better organic agriculture, and the food comes from the locals they are working with.  The food was wonderful and there was also good coffee!  You can see our review on tripadvisor.

Final stop on our tour was Pisac to see ruins and the big market.  The ruins are a hilltop Inca citadel high above the village.  There are 16 regions but we only saw 1.  Most of the site is impressive terracing where many families lived and grew things.  At the top there was some astronomical and worship sites.  Sadly we only had about an hour here and we missed a lot of the ruins.  The final stop was down in the town of Pisac to see the market.  The place was huge and we picked up a few more gifts for people

We then were driven back to Cusco.  In our room we switched into warmer clothes and headed out to find a supermarket, carabeaners and dinner.  The main square still had some bands and processions going on.  Our trip to the supermarket took us through a crowded festival area.  Just about any type of thing and food was on sale and the area was very crowded.  When we finally got to the supermarket they tried to charge us $20 for some juice.  Took a while but we got that fixed and were on our way to dinner.

Inkazuela in San Blas was the place Zach picked for dinner.  They had great stews.  A large strange american family sat by us and entertained us through dinner.  Finnally after dinner it was back to the hotel to pack for the Inca trail.  We leave at 5:20 am and will be back late Mon night.  No pictures or updates until then.  On Tuesday I hope to find better internet so we can get more pictures up.

Day 20 Cusco Corpus Christi

Short Summary:  We arrived by bus from Puno at 5 am.  After a nap in our hotel we went out and explored Cusco including the Corpus Christi procession.

The day started on the bus from Puno to Cusco.  Of course we were about 45 min late arriving into Cusco (seems to be a thing here that buses run 30-120 min late).  A taxi was waiting for us at the airport and wisked us up the hill to our hotel.  It seemed nice, but Zach and I were so tired we just went straight to bed once we got in our room.

We woke back up at 8:30 not so warm.  Even though it is cold at night here it seems nobody has actual heating we just have a space heater in our room.  Actually we woke up a little earlier because it sounded like somebody was bombing the place, but we later found it they just set off fireworks at all hours of the day and night this month.  Breakfast was nice although again very egg based but with the added twist of pepperoni and avocados.  After a brief meeting with the tour lady for tomorrow, the hotel owner was showing us around when we heard a marching band close.  We rushed outside to see what was up and a saint was going by along with a marching band.  Tomorrow is corpus christi so today there are 15 saints parading in from around the area into the main cathedral.  It looks like quite the ordeal.  A troup of teenagers carry the pedestal.  Then a group of older men carry the saint.  they look like they are all really struggling under the weight.  Finally a marching band and some signs round out the group.  Sometimes there were also dancers.

After watching the saint go by we got our laundry ready and dropped it off.  Only 10.5 kg this time, but the lady was still impressed. Then it was on to the main square.  We spent some time looking for an outfitter before realizing they were all small and expensive places.  After some searching we finally found the place to pay for our Inti Raymi tickets.  They are now paid for and ready to be picked up next week.

Next stop was Peru Trek to finishing paying for the Inca Trail trip and get a briefing.  It all sounds great except the second day will be brutal.  15k and a lot of up hills.  Also wake up ranges from 3:30-5:30 am each day.  Good thing bedtime is around 9 pm.

While in the trek office we looked for things to do.  We settled on a nearby museum and then church.  The first stop was Museo del Sitio de Qorikancha.  The place was small but somewhat interesting.  The english translations were all pretty terrible though.  The museum had some pottery and other artifacts.  Plus mummies and deformed heads from the Incas.

The final stop before lunch was Qorikancha which is connected to Santo Domingo church.  This site was the richest temple in the Inca empire until the Spanish came.  Then they covered up a lot of the Inca architecture and built Dominican church over it.  The stonework was incredible and it was interesting to see the juxtaposition of Spanish and Inca styles.

After an interesting search for the ATM (turns out they aren't actually in the banks here), it was time for lunch.  We stopped at a cute bakery La Valeriana.  We had good sandwiches, lattes and cheesecake there, all for around $15.

During lunch we decided to do a walking tour of historic Cusco.  We didn't even make it to the first stop though before we ran into the parade of saints coming into the cathedral. The whole spectical reminded me of mardi gras in a strange way.  We saw about 8 of the saints go in plus finally Jesus.  There were all sorts of instruments and costumes from each different church.  There are tons of pictures you can see on googleplus along with video to hear some of the interesting music.

We watching things for nearly 2 hours and then went into the La Compania de Jesus church on the main square.  The church has the largest alter in Peru.  Unfortunately we weren't supposed to take pictures but I sneaked a few.  We climbed up the bell tower and saw part of the crypts.

Finally we raced up to Sacsaywaman ruins.  This was about a 30 min uphill hike from town.  The views were wonderful and there was lots of nice Inca stonework.  Also there was a statue of Jesus that nobody seems to mention in any guidebook.

After a brief stop at our hotel plus Starbucks (better then in Lima but quite expensive), we went to Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo to listen to native music and dancers.  The dancers were great and it was super interesting to see all the custumes.

Final stop of the night was dinner at Green Point.  This is a great little vegan place in San Blas.  The food was incredible and as a bonus they had actual good Peruvian beer.  We even got 2 free beers because the food was so slow.  The walk back to our hotel was about 1 km up and down.  As of now they are still playing band music and partying hard near the plaza someplace.  Hopefully it will stop soon though because we have a realively early tour to the Sacred Valley tomorrow.  (Pictures coming later, our internet isn't very good here).

Day 19 Puno and Lake Titicaca

Short summary: We kayaked to Uros islands then took a boat the Taquille island.  After a long boat ride home we rested got dinner and boarded a night bus to Cusco

Today's wakeup call at 5:50 was way to early!  We quickly packed up brought our bags down and had a pretty nice breakfast.  There was yogurt for me and Zach got a fried egg sandwhich.  The coffee however was terrible as it mostly has been in south america.

Pretty good breakfast bad coffee at San Antonio Suites

Our ride was late, but at 7 we were finally picked up and along with a french couple taken to the kayak launch spot.  We kayaked about 2 miles through reeds until we reached Uros islands.  The water was kinda polluted in this area, but we did see some birds and it was a nice relaxing trip to the islands.

Start of kayaking in polluted bay

At the islands we were created by a tour guide originally from the island who spoke pretty much perfect english.  She explained how they maintened the islands.  There are about 70-80 islands and 2000 people living there.  They basically get everything for free since they all have solar power free housing and pay no taxes.  We wondered around the island a while, bought a nice mobile with reed boats and some coca/andian mint tea to help Zach's headache.  Just as the islands were getting really crowded our bigger boat arrived to take us to Taquille island. It took about 2.5 hours.  There was some nice scenery but Zach and I did some reading spanish lessons and sleeping on the way as well.

Once we arrived at the island it was a 20 min hike pretty steep uphill to the town square.  We continued as far as we could until we found a gate and then turned around to meet the group for lunch.  Lunch was in a family home.  We had quinoa soup and bread.  I had rainbow trout (headless this time :-) and Zach had an omelet both came with some cool looking local potatoes.  After lunch we got a brief into to the island. There are about 2000 people who live there and since they are pretty much self sufficient they live a long time (mostly over 90 years old).  The type of hat a man wears tells his status (married, single, or town leader).  Basically they are communists on the island.  Everybody works and everybody shares the results and they are all happy.  We also learned about a plant that they use as shampoo.  The demonstration showed it worked really well and it doesn't produce any pollution.

After lunch Zach and went back to the artists market to find a hat.  These hats are amazing!  All handmade with beautiful designs with wool from the island.  Next it was a quick hike to the other side of the island to catch the boat back.  After a nearly 3 hour ride we arrived back in Puno and were transfered back to our hotel.  We took advantage of the hotel lobby to charge everything and upload pictures.

After drinking coffee and hanging out in the lobby we set off for dinner.  This time we succesfully found Machu Pizza.  It was pretty good with typical terrible Peruvian service.  The pizza had almost no sauce but it did come with garlic sauce and salsa.  Walking back to the hotel Zach and I decided to buy some sweaters.  We each got one with an alpaca design for about $12 each!

Thankfully we decided to walk to the bus station early because it was an adventure.  Google had the bus station in the wrong place so after several dark roads and 40 min we finally found the place.  Just in time to board our bus to Cusco.  We were sitting first class with nice seats and personal entertainment again.  Hopefully we will both get some sleep.  (More pictures coming later once better internet is found)

Welcome and pictures links

Hello all (mostly family I am sure)

If you want to see all pictures they are here
https://plus.google.com/u/0/photos/102663946328576645626/albums

There are a lot so I will post just a few highlights here.

This blog will hopefully have our travel adventures from here on out.  For now we are in Peru in the middle of a month long journey.  Feel free to comment and ask questions.  Hope you enjoy!

Day 18 Arequipa to Puno

Short summary: Traveled from Arequipa to Puno Peru by bus.  Short tour of Sillustani and sites by our hotel

Today we woke up to no hot water still.  Not good.  Zach shaved with cold water while I opted to be dirty and warm instead of clean and cold.  We got our stuff downstairs at 7:10 to find the front desk person who didn't speak any english.  Somehow we got him to order us a taxi to the bus station.  While we were waiting we found 2 other travelers eating breakfast even though we were told there would be no breakfast available before we left. You can see our review of Azul Colonial Inn on trip advisor, we would not recommend it

Nice courtyard not good service

Still cold shower

We made it to the bus station after some confusion and had just enough time to grab 2 sandwiches and apples for slightly over $2.  We got near the front of the Cruz del Sur bus.  Sadly I was behind a large german who put is seat all the way back as soon as he could.  The landscape was somewhat interesting, but I was so tired I slept 4 hours.  Lunch was more cheese sandwiches (think fresh cheese curds on rolls) a small glass of coke and a strange caramel dessert thing.

Some scenery along the way

Very small lunch on bus

Arequipa bus terminal

Thankfully we arrived in Puno slightly after 2 with our smiling guide Freddy from Inca Lake waiting for us.  After a stop at the gross bathrooms we were picked up in a nice car and dropped our stuff off at San Antonio Suites.  Nice hotel with big rooms for cheap.  Bonus was free coca tea since Zach and I were feeling the 4000 m above sea level.

It took about 30 min to get to Sillustani ruins.  We got out and it was warmish and sunny but by the time we left it was getting quite cold.  These towers are burial sites built by the Colla and later Inca people.  There were some towers that the government rebuilt but many that were in their original state.  Only 4 years ago they found 20 childrens bodies (probably sacrifices) here.  The surrounding area was also very pretty.  There is a lake around much of the ruins and an island in the distance full of vicunas.  Freddy gave lots of good info about the area including the pre-Inca history.

The most famous tower

Old farming method of building land into lake for warmth

Dinky and the funeral towers at sunset

After the ruins we stopped at a local home to see how they live and take pictures with llamas.  There were some pretty cute guinea pigs chickens llamas and alpacas along with a nice looking local family.  We saw the handicraft making process from alpaca wool to finished product.  We also learned that in this area they eat clay on their potatoes for ulcers.  We got a nice alpaca scarf and some good pictures with a llama that was less than thrilled to be posing.

Guinea pigs at local familys house

Us with the less than thrilled llama

My new llama scarf made completely at that family's house

Puno cathedral at night

Chicha morado (purple corn drink)

Good but small pizza for dinner

Then it was back to our hotel where it was quite cold be this point.  We watched a little of the US Ghana game before heading out to find dinner since we were starving by this point.  After trying to find Machu Pizza and instead finding a small parade of some sort we finally settled on Mojsa right on the main square (mostly because it was someplace we could actually find).  We had pizza, garlic bread and dessert all of which were not as big as we would have wanted but pretty good.  Sitting by the wood fired stove was nice though.  I had chicha marado which was better then the stuff in Lima but still a little strange.  After dinner we found an ATM more water and headed to the hotel for finally some hot water and rest.  All in all a pretty good day

Day 16 Colca Canyon down to Oasis Sangalle

Summary of day: Ride to Colca Canyon to see Condors.  Long hike mostly down to Oasis 

We had to wake up at 3:10 am because our bus was supposed to come at 3:30.  It got lost and it was nearly 4 before somebody came to get us.  Then we stopped for gas and the key broke in the gas tank so we stayed there for 30 min.  Finally we were off to Chivay.  Mostly we slept for the 3 hours on the way there.  

Map of trek (red route)

3:30 am is way to early to leave

At Chivay we went to a very cold restaurant to have breakfast.  Unfortunately it was mostly egg so I got lots of bread with some jam and cheese.  We left of pillows here and then were off to see condors

Coca tea for breakfast

We got to Cruz del Condors around 8:45 and we were lucky to see tons of condors.  We saw as many as 8 at a time and some even sat on rocks to pose.  After about 40 min and lots of pictures later we were herded back on the bus.

Flying condor (10 ft wing span)

Resting condor

Dinky and the condor

Next stop was just outside Cabanaconde to start our hike.  From here we could barely see the bottom to where we were headed.  We hiked for about 6 km basically straight down.  The hike was rough on my feet since I am not used to that much down.  We made it to the bridge at the bottom. After that it was a short upward hike to our lunch spot.

Start of hike

Finally made it to the bottom and bridge

Lunch lomo saltado

Blisters on the toes from 6 km all down

After lunch there was about 3 more hours of hiking including some uphills.  Juan pointed out lots of interesting plants and told us their traditional uses. Along the way we passed a stubborn mule.  After 20 min of pretty hard uphills we saw the oasis where we were spending the night.  40 min of rough downhills and we were there.  It was slightly over 8 miles of hiking total in about 6 hours.

Prickly pear cactus

Waterfall the provides water and power to oasis

We arrived at the oasis at 4:30 with just enough time to take a quick cold swim and grab an (expensive drink).  The price was understandable though since everything comes in and out by mule.

Oasis Sangalle pool and drinks

 We all sat around and watched England Italy play while it was getting colder and colder. They ran power just to watch this game

Watching world cup with some brits

Dinner was wheat soup and pesto noodles with alpaca  Pretty good.  After dinner it was straight to bed at 8:30 since we had to get up at 4:15 to start the long hike up and out.

Spaghetti and alpaca meat

Lemon verbuna tea to warm up