Puppies of Peru

When we visited Peru last November, one thing we noticed is that there are a lot of dogs all over the country. For starters, there's the Peruvian Hairless Dog. There were adorable puppies, fancy lap dogs in Lima, and even a dog hanging out at the salt ponds of Maras. For your viewing enjoyment, here's a small selection of some canine friends we met in Peru.

Ok, that last one is a lion. Close enough. :)

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu is arguably the most impressive archaeological site in the Western Hemisphere.  The ruins themselves are great, but the main attraction is the setting.  Nestled high in the mountains, the view is amazing.

Getting to Machu Picchu takes a while. We caught the first train from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes at 5AM, then took a 25 minute bus ride climbing 1,300 feet up the mountain, arriving at Machu Picchu around 7:30AM.

After you enter the site, the view is breathtaking. We had perfect weather with a deep blue sky, and a clear postcard view across the ruins and the surrounding mountains. Like the Pyramids of Giza or the Great Wall of China, this is a wonder that lives up to the hype.

PeruRail train arriving in Aguas Calientes

Our first view of Machu Picchu

Inca ruins on Machu Picchu

Hanging out at Machu Picchu

Incredible views on all sides

Seconds before David got yelled at by employees for jumping. Also, Coke should buy this picture for advertising.

The mountainous setting is gorgeous

View through an Inca window

While we were walking around, we saw a llama that looked like it was squatting to go to the bathroom, but nothing was coming out. A few minutes later as we were passing by again, we noticed feet sticking out of the llama, and realized it was about to give birth. The employees helped with the birth, keeping the other curious llamas away and pulling out the baby. Seeing a baby llama being born at Machu Picchu was like living a Peruvian stereotype.

Just some llamas, nothing to see here

Wait a minute, it's a baby llama!

Awwww....

The famous mountain behind the ruins is called Huayna Picchu. 400 visitors a day are allowed to climb 1,180 feet up an Inca trail to the top of the mountain. We booked our tickets a month in advance to make sure we'd have the opportunity. The climb was strenuous, taking about an hour and going up a lot of steep stone stairs and even through a cave and up a ladder. We finally made it to the top and were rewarded with amazing 360 degree views of Machu Picchu, the surrounding Andes mountains, and the Urubamba River below. We highly recommend this climb, but make sure to bring lots of water (we didn't have enough and were very dehydrated by the end of the hike).

The top of Huayna Picchu. See the tiny people?

Looking down at the river

So many steps at such a high altitude

That winding trail is the road the buses take up the mountain

Stephanie at the end of the cave

We made it!

Like being on top of the world!

The breeze at the top was great after the long climb

Watch your step!

View back to Machu Picchu from near the top

Back in Aguas Calientes, we had some guacamole as a reward! :)

David above the river in Aguas Calientes

Time to catch our train back to Ollantaytambo. We had the same train attendant we had for our morning ride!

The scenery on the train ride wasn't too shabby either!

We caught a cheap combi (shared taxi van) back to Cusco, arriving around 9PM after a very exhausting day. Machu Picchu was an amazing experience. It's an expensive and complicated journey: you have to buy your entrance tickets on a confusing website ahead of time (especially if you want to climb Huayna Picchu), travel from Lima to Cusco, take a train (it's the only way to get to Aguas Calientes), and take a bus for the final leg up the mountain. We highly recommend staying both the night before and the night after visiting Machu Picchu in Ollantaytambo and/or Aguas Calientes. Our hotel (Tunupa Lodge) is a great option. We went all the way back to Cusco on the same day, and it was a bit too much travel. We all got a little sunburned and our legs were sore, but visiting Machu Picchu and climbing Huayna Picchu is an experience we'll never forget.

Cusco and the Sacred Valley: Part 2

We've really been enjoying our time in and around Cusco. After our first two days in the area, we spent the third day exploring more of the city, and the fourth day visiting a few sites on the way back to Ollantaytambo. Our first stop was Qorikancha, an impressive temple to the sun god that was the most important site in the Inca empire. It used to be covered with gold, but the Spanish pilfered all of it and built the convent and church of Santo Domingo on top of the site. In its current form, it's an interesting mix of huge Inca stone blocks and Spanish colonial architecture with Moorish influences.

Inca windows at Qorikancha

Church built on top of the ruins of Qorikancha

Plaza de Armas in Cusco

Coffee for Pablo!

Cuy (Guinea Pig) at the last supper - painting in the regional museum

There was a sudden downpour. The rain dropped the temperature by 25F for the rest of the day.

There are still lots of traces of the Inca throughout Cusco

Traditional dancing and music at Centro Qosqo de Arte Nativo

Plaza de Armas on a wet night

San Pedro market

Little kid eating breakfast by the market

On our way to Macchu Pichu, we went from Cusco north to the town of Ollantaytambo, stopping at several interesting sites. The scenery was spectacular. This was our first sunny day, and traveling on dirt roads across the rolling plateau above the sacred valley was breathtaking. Parts of it looked like mixes of the American West with Switzerland. We went to Moray, an Inca agricultural site. There are several large circular terraces. There's a big temperature difference between each terrace, which allowed different crops to be built on different levels - it's considered by some modern researchers to be an Inca agricultural research station that contributed to the thousands of different potato varieties in existence today.

Scenery near Moray

One of the smaller circular terraces at Moray

The main terraces of Moray

Floating steps so the Inca could walk between terraces

Crossing the high Plateau.

Our next stop was Salinas, which has been a salt collection site since pre-Inca times. An underground saline stream emerges from the mountain and is channeled into a series of dramatic shallow ponds that cascade down the mountain. When the water evaporates, the salt is collected. We walked around the site for a while, taking in the great views.

Salinas

Walking around Salinas

Salinas

More awesome high-elevation scenery

Watch out for animals in the road!

After descending to the city of Ollantaytambo (which is still at 9,160 feet above sea level), we wandered around town for bit before eating dinner and going to bed. Our hotel, the Tunupa Lodge, had a beautiful location right next to the river, and was easy walking distance to the train station and the town center.

Ollantaytambo main square, with Inca ruins on the mountain behind

Ollantaytambo has the most intact system of Inca streets

The moon and Venus in a long-exposure shot from Tunupa Lodge Hotel

The Sacred Valley is an awesome place - we've loved every minute of our stay here!