The Pilgrimage of Peru - The first step is the largest
Well, mostly on request of the Muscle Bound ShanMonster, I thought that I should do a bit of a write up about the trip that we had taken to Peru. I'm not sure if there is a word limit or not, so I may just put this in a couple of parts just to make sure it all fits in.
As an overall statement, I can say that I greatly enjoyed the trip. During it, certainly more times then not my body felt pretty battered and worn out. The sights and the experience of it all however was just awe inspiring. While the word Epic gts tossed around quite a lot nowadays; I can certainly say that our journey would classify as such. How so you ask? Our hourney itself spanned over countries, we faced some moments of peril (well alright, that was a lot of my own personal thoughts of peril of falling off a damn steep cliff side), we meet a new a vibrant culture, and we learned of the Gods (in specific, the Great Mother Earth.).
Well, the beginning is always a good place for any kind of story right? Why Peru you may ask? Well, there are a few reasons for this. The first being that it was Shan's year for a choice of trip. She was rather unimpressed with the level of activity on our last trip, (not to say it wasn't good, she just detested that bus quite a lot.). Since last year we've both seemed to have caught a travel bug of sorts, and we enjoy traveling together.
However, that still doesn't really explain why Peru was chosen overall. While the scenary in pictures looked stunning, you could find pictures of almost anywhere in the world that could give a compelling reason to go. So why you may be saying. Well, the answer is quite simple; Machu Picchu itself. Machu Picchu is one of the largest tourist attractions that Peru has. Unfortunately this also means that there have been a whole lot of tourists from all over the world that would want to see it. Unfortunate; some world traveler's are not so kind to the places they go then others may be. With this in mind; the site itself has had quite a lot of damage done to it over time, despite closing it for a month (February I believe?) to do repairs, but they only do so much. There was a rumour that they may eventually close it off to tourists entirely. Well, with that thought, rightfully or wrongfully protrayed, we had our destination; Inca Trail here we come!
The preparations of the trip itself differed quite a lot between the two of us. Shanmonster was riddled with thoughts for almost a month prior to the trip on how to optimize the luggage spac she had, and how to pack as lightly as possible. She kind of had a lot of moments of freaking out that she would forget something important, and made a note to register with the Canadian Registrations Abroad Agency fo Canada. She worried about her shoes, she worried about being able to get internet connection and keeping everythign charged up for the entire trip. She looked up the cost of most things there (though we both forgot to se about food; surprising note, it's very simular in price to here at home. We both had the needed vacinations that our respective Doctors reccomeneded for the trip. Despite the fact that she was panicing until we got there, she was better for it I believe.
I on the other hand was very laid back about the whole thing. I was given an amazing traveling backpack by Jordan and Chantal to use for the trip (well, actually they're letting me keep it, assuming that I might need it for some other trip sometime.), I wasn't worried about my carry weight as I assumed I was fine with it. The only really unknown factor was going to be the difference in altitude, but I had gotten prescription medication for that, so I felt reassured. That's when something pretty awful sink in the day before we left for our trip. I had a sharp realization that I didn't know much Spanish what-so-ever, I had no idea how well versed people were in English there. I had never been on a mountain, never mind just be in a city that would be so high up. I had what I packed looked at and prtty well told no as I got a smack on the back of the head for taking so much with me. In short, I kind of started to freak out a bit. This really took form in the shape of dizzyness, headaches, vomiting, diaherria, and a few other less fortunate effects. It seemed that my body, despite me trying to rationilize that I would be fine had taken my sub-conscious through the park of Worry and What the Fuck. I felt a bit better the next day as we were getting ready for our flight itself thankfully though.
The drive to the airport was much to be expected. I was given the token advice to not push myself too hard, and to try and enjoy myself; oh and not to die, that was repeated quite a few times. The airport and security was pretty well standard, though it was a bit concerning on how many of the workers looked like they would rather die then work there another minute. It could have just been the day, but their disposition was sour at best. Not having lunch before we got there, we decided it would be a good idea to look around the shops and get some better quality food before our flight. I was actually pretty happy with our food there, but then agin, I suppose Nachoes are pretty hard to do all that wrong. We also had a sandwich along with it; and found that the stores generally had nothing of interest. As we waited for the boarding to start, Shan felt that we should get some pushups in, as she was certain we would not have the energy for them while on the trip itself. We both did our daily amount, much to the confussion of the others in the gate. We did them between rows of seats, which was kind of hilarious.
The flight wasn't all that spectacular to talk about. We watched some movies, had some not great food, and failed in attempts to get some sleep. The map of the route was interesting as always. it was particularly exciting when we had passed over the Equator. Much to my surprise, I was informed of some of the different constellations we would see in the night sky; that was kind of awesome. After that point however, we had the unfortunateness of having a large storm where we were flying for a better part of the trip. For some odd reason, seeing lightning flashes wasn't so comforting when we were right in the middle of the storm. A couple of hours before we were expected to land, we were given Immigration papers to fill out. It was a bit confusing at certain parts, but thankfully we filled out the paper work correctly.
Our flight had two stops; one being in Lima, the other being in Cusco. The airport in Lima was quite different then the airports here in Canada. For lack of a better term, security was a lot more laid back. There were drug dogs being lead by security staff that happily sniffed people and bags alike. Sometimes they would even climb on the conveyer belts to get to a bag more quickly. I don't think they were treated badly though; the dogs seemed pretty happy about the whole situation. Thankfully there were no instances of the dogs finding anything suspicious; I had a creeping feeling that the police and Security in Lima may not be so gentle as the ones here might be. Our travel agent had never told us that we needed to get our luggage between stops, which is a good thing that we had asked the attendants there and were told that we would need to. It didn't take too long to get our things, and we had a long layover to worry about. At this point, neither of us had gotten much sleep at all, so we kind of shambled like zombies a bit.
We didn't really know where we were supposed to go. There weren't that many signs that were helpful either. Eevntually we found our way over to Security, and got in line. Going back to my laid back statement earlier, the same thing persisted here. There scans done, but you just put your bag in; but they didn;t really make sure you put everything in that you should have. Many people had smaller hand bags with them and didn't put it through. Problem for security? You're joking right? After this, we eventually found the waiting area by the Gates, and lemented on the hours we would be waiting. There were signs saying there were Wi-Fi zones available, but the connections to them were unreliable at best. There was an Information desk, so I thought I would try to find out if there was a better connection somewhere, and which gate we would need to wait at worry about. At this point, neither of us had gotten mu for our plan. Well, the attendant there had tucked himself in a dark corner and was clearly trying to get some sleep in. Much to my aggrevation, the only answer I got about where we needed to wait was, "Too soon, too soon." The waiting game started, and eventually the information came up on one of the TVs. From there, we tried to loop ourselves in our luggage, and get some sleep. It really wasn't happening. When it finally came time for our flight, we were met by another surprise. We were brought from the Gate, to a bus that drove over to the plane then loaded us up. This flight was a lot easier to deal with, I think it was under two hours in total length. Did I pass out right quick? Most certainly.
Cusco Airport left us with a very familiar sense of being lost. We eventually were able to find our way outside, then were puzzled on how we would get to our hotel. As we started looking for phones to call our travel agent, we saw there was a large group of taxis outside, many with Hote and Tour company signs. Foregoing using the phones, we found the correct taxi for it, (a small relief that they had our names on a list.). Shan was handed the a cell phone while we drove to the airport, but due to a lot of tired there wasn't a lot of effective communication going on.
Driving in Peru! An exciting bit you'll imagine. Thankfully, we were at least driving on the same side of the road. The part that wasn't much like home was the lack of any real stop signs, or traffic lights, or... well any indications in general. It was quickly explained to us that the best drivers in Cusco were the quickest, plain and simple. Horns blarred at almost random spots, and the whole driving experience felt more like a big game of chicken. One thing of note that was different to see that most cars (roughly 4 in 5) had reflective strips all along the vehicle. Made a lot of sense. There were stray dogs just about everywhere. We later started a game that I will get into later.
The environment in general was very dusty, and the emissions from the cars were pretty terrible. I don't think that emission testing really happens there; as I say many vehicles that look liek they were past their last leg. Surprisingly the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, it was truly a blessing. Another thing of note was that many of the washrooms didn't seem to have hot water, and toilet paper in itself was pretty scarce. I was glad we both brought our own with us.
The world seemed quite different here. I felt my heart ache a bit seeing the poverity that was so rampant through the streets. Many buildings were falling apart, and garbage was litered almost everywhere.
After a pleasent conversation with a couple from Austriallia, we had reached our home away from home, the Prisma Hotel. The employees there were friendly and helped us get settled in our room pretty well. A bad indication happened at this moment. Our room was on the fourth floor; doesn't sound like much at all right? I'll let you know something though, we were both gasping for air around the thrid floor, never mind when we reached the fourth. Needless to say, whn we reached our room, some good quality sleep was one of the first thoughts that we had. After getting in a nap, we were invited to meet with a group of fellow travellers to go over the details of the hike. Curiousity set in, and we were pleased to see such a large group gathered. As the details were laid out, we also went into what I'll call the State of Confussion. We were told that while we were sitting in with this group that it would not be the group we would be going on the hike with. While it was a bit strange, we accepted this fact and continued to listen in. It was then that we had learned about the Sacred Valley tour.
Our Tour Guide hadn't told us about this option at all. Interested in seeing more sights, and more importantly try to get used to the altitude, we asked about being able to join in on this one day trip. We were told we would be able to, however the current trip with the group we were sitting with was booked up. It was explained that there was another Tour Company that they knew quite well that would be able to take us with one of their groups. While it didn't sound ideal, it would be better then nothing. With that sorted out, we thought we should probably have some dinner. The hotel had a restaurant in it, so we decided to have dinner there; not wanting to go off to far adventuring with the sky quickly darkening. It was here that we had, perhaps the best hot chocolate I've ever had.
Speaking of the night sky, it didn't creep along the sky in many stretching colours. It more seemed to have a bright shine, then darkness quickly flooded the sky itself. With it, the heat rapidly dropped. It was almost like we had plunged into a lake and sank low in the Ocean floor.
Might as well make another post from here.
As an overall statement, I can say that I greatly enjoyed the trip. During it, certainly more times then not my body felt pretty battered and worn out. The sights and the experience of it all however was just awe inspiring. While the word Epic gts tossed around quite a lot nowadays; I can certainly say that our journey would classify as such. How so you ask? Our hourney itself spanned over countries, we faced some moments of peril (well alright, that was a lot of my own personal thoughts of peril of falling off a damn steep cliff side), we meet a new a vibrant culture, and we learned of the Gods (in specific, the Great Mother Earth.).
Well, the beginning is always a good place for any kind of story right? Why Peru you may ask? Well, there are a few reasons for this. The first being that it was Shan's year for a choice of trip. She was rather unimpressed with the level of activity on our last trip, (not to say it wasn't good, she just detested that bus quite a lot.). Since last year we've both seemed to have caught a travel bug of sorts, and we enjoy traveling together.
However, that still doesn't really explain why Peru was chosen overall. While the scenary in pictures looked stunning, you could find pictures of almost anywhere in the world that could give a compelling reason to go. So why you may be saying. Well, the answer is quite simple; Machu Picchu itself. Machu Picchu is one of the largest tourist attractions that Peru has. Unfortunately this also means that there have been a whole lot of tourists from all over the world that would want to see it. Unfortunate; some world traveler's are not so kind to the places they go then others may be. With this in mind; the site itself has had quite a lot of damage done to it over time, despite closing it for a month (February I believe?) to do repairs, but they only do so much. There was a rumour that they may eventually close it off to tourists entirely. Well, with that thought, rightfully or wrongfully protrayed, we had our destination; Inca Trail here we come!
The preparations of the trip itself differed quite a lot between the two of us. Shanmonster was riddled with thoughts for almost a month prior to the trip on how to optimize the luggage spac she had, and how to pack as lightly as possible. She kind of had a lot of moments of freaking out that she would forget something important, and made a note to register with the Canadian Registrations Abroad Agency fo Canada. She worried about her shoes, she worried about being able to get internet connection and keeping everythign charged up for the entire trip. She looked up the cost of most things there (though we both forgot to se about food; surprising note, it's very simular in price to here at home. We both had the needed vacinations that our respective Doctors reccomeneded for the trip. Despite the fact that she was panicing until we got there, she was better for it I believe.
I on the other hand was very laid back about the whole thing. I was given an amazing traveling backpack by Jordan and Chantal to use for the trip (well, actually they're letting me keep it, assuming that I might need it for some other trip sometime.), I wasn't worried about my carry weight as I assumed I was fine with it. The only really unknown factor was going to be the difference in altitude, but I had gotten prescription medication for that, so I felt reassured. That's when something pretty awful sink in the day before we left for our trip. I had a sharp realization that I didn't know much Spanish what-so-ever, I had no idea how well versed people were in English there. I had never been on a mountain, never mind just be in a city that would be so high up. I had what I packed looked at and prtty well told no as I got a smack on the back of the head for taking so much with me. In short, I kind of started to freak out a bit. This really took form in the shape of dizzyness, headaches, vomiting, diaherria, and a few other less fortunate effects. It seemed that my body, despite me trying to rationilize that I would be fine had taken my sub-conscious through the park of Worry and What the Fuck. I felt a bit better the next day as we were getting ready for our flight itself thankfully though.
The drive to the airport was much to be expected. I was given the token advice to not push myself too hard, and to try and enjoy myself; oh and not to die, that was repeated quite a few times. The airport and security was pretty well standard, though it was a bit concerning on how many of the workers looked like they would rather die then work there another minute. It could have just been the day, but their disposition was sour at best. Not having lunch before we got there, we decided it would be a good idea to look around the shops and get some better quality food before our flight. I was actually pretty happy with our food there, but then agin, I suppose Nachoes are pretty hard to do all that wrong. We also had a sandwich along with it; and found that the stores generally had nothing of interest. As we waited for the boarding to start, Shan felt that we should get some pushups in, as she was certain we would not have the energy for them while on the trip itself. We both did our daily amount, much to the confussion of the others in the gate. We did them between rows of seats, which was kind of hilarious.
The flight wasn't all that spectacular to talk about. We watched some movies, had some not great food, and failed in attempts to get some sleep. The map of the route was interesting as always. it was particularly exciting when we had passed over the Equator. Much to my surprise, I was informed of some of the different constellations we would see in the night sky; that was kind of awesome. After that point however, we had the unfortunateness of having a large storm where we were flying for a better part of the trip. For some odd reason, seeing lightning flashes wasn't so comforting when we were right in the middle of the storm. A couple of hours before we were expected to land, we were given Immigration papers to fill out. It was a bit confusing at certain parts, but thankfully we filled out the paper work correctly.
Our flight had two stops; one being in Lima, the other being in Cusco. The airport in Lima was quite different then the airports here in Canada. For lack of a better term, security was a lot more laid back. There were drug dogs being lead by security staff that happily sniffed people and bags alike. Sometimes they would even climb on the conveyer belts to get to a bag more quickly. I don't think they were treated badly though; the dogs seemed pretty happy about the whole situation. Thankfully there were no instances of the dogs finding anything suspicious; I had a creeping feeling that the police and Security in Lima may not be so gentle as the ones here might be. Our travel agent had never told us that we needed to get our luggage between stops, which is a good thing that we had asked the attendants there and were told that we would need to. It didn't take too long to get our things, and we had a long layover to worry about. At this point, neither of us had gotten much sleep at all, so we kind of shambled like zombies a bit.
We didn't really know where we were supposed to go. There weren't that many signs that were helpful either. Eevntually we found our way over to Security, and got in line. Going back to my laid back statement earlier, the same thing persisted here. There scans done, but you just put your bag in; but they didn;t really make sure you put everything in that you should have. Many people had smaller hand bags with them and didn't put it through. Problem for security? You're joking right? After this, we eventually found the waiting area by the Gates, and lemented on the hours we would be waiting. There were signs saying there were Wi-Fi zones available, but the connections to them were unreliable at best. There was an Information desk, so I thought I would try to find out if there was a better connection somewhere, and which gate we would need to wait at worry about. At this point, neither of us had gotten mu for our plan. Well, the attendant there had tucked himself in a dark corner and was clearly trying to get some sleep in. Much to my aggrevation, the only answer I got about where we needed to wait was, "Too soon, too soon." The waiting game started, and eventually the information came up on one of the TVs. From there, we tried to loop ourselves in our luggage, and get some sleep. It really wasn't happening. When it finally came time for our flight, we were met by another surprise. We were brought from the Gate, to a bus that drove over to the plane then loaded us up. This flight was a lot easier to deal with, I think it was under two hours in total length. Did I pass out right quick? Most certainly.
Cusco Airport left us with a very familiar sense of being lost. We eventually were able to find our way outside, then were puzzled on how we would get to our hotel. As we started looking for phones to call our travel agent, we saw there was a large group of taxis outside, many with Hote and Tour company signs. Foregoing using the phones, we found the correct taxi for it, (a small relief that they had our names on a list.). Shan was handed the a cell phone while we drove to the airport, but due to a lot of tired there wasn't a lot of effective communication going on.
Driving in Peru! An exciting bit you'll imagine. Thankfully, we were at least driving on the same side of the road. The part that wasn't much like home was the lack of any real stop signs, or traffic lights, or... well any indications in general. It was quickly explained to us that the best drivers in Cusco were the quickest, plain and simple. Horns blarred at almost random spots, and the whole driving experience felt more like a big game of chicken. One thing of note that was different to see that most cars (roughly 4 in 5) had reflective strips all along the vehicle. Made a lot of sense. There were stray dogs just about everywhere. We later started a game that I will get into later.
The environment in general was very dusty, and the emissions from the cars were pretty terrible. I don't think that emission testing really happens there; as I say many vehicles that look liek they were past their last leg. Surprisingly the weather wasn't too hot or too cold, it was truly a blessing. Another thing of note was that many of the washrooms didn't seem to have hot water, and toilet paper in itself was pretty scarce. I was glad we both brought our own with us.
The world seemed quite different here. I felt my heart ache a bit seeing the poverity that was so rampant through the streets. Many buildings were falling apart, and garbage was litered almost everywhere.
After a pleasent conversation with a couple from Austriallia, we had reached our home away from home, the Prisma Hotel. The employees there were friendly and helped us get settled in our room pretty well. A bad indication happened at this moment. Our room was on the fourth floor; doesn't sound like much at all right? I'll let you know something though, we were both gasping for air around the thrid floor, never mind when we reached the fourth. Needless to say, whn we reached our room, some good quality sleep was one of the first thoughts that we had. After getting in a nap, we were invited to meet with a group of fellow travellers to go over the details of the hike. Curiousity set in, and we were pleased to see such a large group gathered. As the details were laid out, we also went into what I'll call the State of Confussion. We were told that while we were sitting in with this group that it would not be the group we would be going on the hike with. While it was a bit strange, we accepted this fact and continued to listen in. It was then that we had learned about the Sacred Valley tour.
Our Tour Guide hadn't told us about this option at all. Interested in seeing more sights, and more importantly try to get used to the altitude, we asked about being able to join in on this one day trip. We were told we would be able to, however the current trip with the group we were sitting with was booked up. It was explained that there was another Tour Company that they knew quite well that would be able to take us with one of their groups. While it didn't sound ideal, it would be better then nothing. With that sorted out, we thought we should probably have some dinner. The hotel had a restaurant in it, so we decided to have dinner there; not wanting to go off to far adventuring with the sky quickly darkening. It was here that we had, perhaps the best hot chocolate I've ever had.
Speaking of the night sky, it didn't creep along the sky in many stretching colours. It more seemed to have a bright shine, then darkness quickly flooded the sky itself. With it, the heat rapidly dropped. It was almost like we had plunged into a lake and sank low in the Ocean floor.
Might as well make another post from here.