30/11/2022 From Huacachina to Cusco
Never want to take another bus again
The bus ride with “Cruz del Sur” was phenomenal! I slept so well and the 18 hours with one stop on the way went over so quickly!
What to expect
Cusco
Already loving Cusco
By the time we checked in our hostel “Eco Bunnu Inn”, it was already 4 p.m.. We walked around the cute old town and could feel the altitude of 3300m. The smallest hills felt like massive mountains. We were out of breath so quickly, which made me feel very old (and out of shape).
For dinner we went to Qura, which was really tasty! The town seemed very promising, so we were excited for the next day to see more of it.
01/12/2022 Cusco
Free breakfast – yes please!
Since our hostel is attached to a café, the free breakfast included a lot of fresh buns as well as oat pancakes, a hot drink and a juice. No complaints for 11€ p.p. per night 😉.
Join a free walking tour
At 10 a.m. we took part in the free walking tour with “Guru Walks”. The tour was very interesting and ended in a restaurant in the San Blas area, from where we had a great view over Cusco.
Furthermore, the tour included a ceviche tasting (and cooking) and we got a free pisco sour at the end (Peru’s national drink).
Visit the San Blas area and its markets
This traditional old quarter of Cusco is the city’s most picturesque district characterized by narrow and steep streets, colonial houses built with walls of Incan stone and numerous art workshops.”
Tripadvisor
After the free tour we walked around San Blas together with an Aussie couple, we had met on the tour, and then went to the market for a sandwich and a massive fresh juice.
Soccer and Indian food
Afterwards the four of us went to Kokopelli Hostel, where we watched the last Germany world cup game.
In the evening we went to an Indian restaurant and soaked up Cusco’s atmosphere by night.
02/12/2022 Cusco and the Sacred Valley
Do a day trip to the Sacred Valley
Today we were going on a day trip to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley includes three archeological sites that were all very impressive. With the high altitude, all those steps on the sites were quite exhausting to climb up (or are we just out of shape?!).
Moreover, we visited a ceramic store where I took the most typical photo you can take as a tourist in Peru – no regrets 😉.
We also visited a clothing factory where Peruvian women explained to us the technique of making their clothes with alpaca wool.
And again, being proper tourists, Blake and I bought lama jumpers (not completely matching, but close 😉).
Let’s spontaneously go to Machu Picchu tomorrow
We got back to Cusco at 6 p.m.. The main reason why people come to Cusco is to visit Machu Picchu. However, many backpackers had already booked their tickets nine months ago (mainly for the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu)! Not us though: We walked into the tourist office at 6 p.m. to buy the train tickets and entrance tickets to Machu Picchu for the following day! That’s how we roll 😉.
03/12/2022 Cusco and Machu Picchu
See Machu Picchu
At 7.30 a.m. we took the train to Machu Picchu. The 4.5-hour-train-ride was very scenic with a lot of Peru’s beautiful brown mountains and green fields.
No expectations
To be honest we both didn’t know what to expect from Machu Picchu since it is so hyped. We were wondering if we might actually be disappointed. But it turned out to be really great!
As soon as we got off the train, a guide approached us (which worked well as we were looking for one anyways). He “took us by the hand” and showed us where to buy our bus ticket and who to show our entrance ticket to. Usually, Machu Picchu is booked out, but there are always some last tickets available. Until the actual day you don’t even know which of the four circuits you are going to get. (Ideally you want circuit 1 or 2 since they both include that iconic Machu Picchu photo.)
The good circuit: Circuit no. 2
We quickly grabbed some overpriced lunch and then took the bus up to the entrance for 25 minutes together with our tour guide.
The views over the mountains and over Machu Picchu were stunning which had been built by Ketcha/ Incan people in 1450.
We covered the whole region in about 2.5 hours and learnt a lot about how the Inca people used to live and how they had created Machu Picchu.
Just a quick turnaround
Back in the town at the bottom of Machu Picchu, we ordered dinner (and free pisco sours) and then caught a train and a bus back to Cusco. Of course, you can also do the five-day-trek up to Machu Picchu, but
1. we didn’t have the time and
2. we didn’t want to spend $800 for it.
So after being overwhelmed by all the different options, we were very happy how it had played out!
04/12/2022 Cusco
A relaxing day at last
And finally we could sleep in (which was 7.30 a.m. in our case). A relaxing day felt so great after all the day trips, long bus rides and just coming off covid.
Change of hostels
Last night we arrived at 10.30 p.m. back in Cusco. Unfortunately, we had to change hostels since our hostel was booked out – just what you want to do after a full day of travelling, walking and exploring.
The new accommodation “Balconcillo Hotel” had a great large room, but the free breakfast (dry buns) was rather sad. It’s funny how Blake’s perspective on food has changed over the years. I’m sure a few years ago he wouldn’t have even noticed the bad breakfast, but now he complains about the “unhealthy food options”. I couldn’t be prouder 😉.
Me-time
After a very relaxing morning, I had lunch in the café “Green Point”, while Blake watched one of the world cup games in a pub. It’s all about priorities and balance 😉!
Taste some Peruvian chocolate
Afterwards I did some chocolate tasting which escalated a little bit (don’t ever let me be alone with chocolate). I felt bad for trying all the free tastings that I ended up buying chocolate for $17 – that’s the way to live the cheap backpacker life!
Veery early morning ahead
Blake and I tried to have an early night since our next big activity already started at 3 a.m. in the next morning!
05/12/2022 Cusco and Rainbow Mountains
Getting up in the middle of the night
When the alarm went off at 2.30 a.m., my first thought was: this can’t be right! Then I remembered that we had booked a tour for today and instantly regretted it. I mean, who starts a tour in the middle of the night? Apparently we did and we were soon going to find out that it would be all worth it. At this time of the night, however, I could not see it.
When our shuttle picked us up at 3.15 a.m., we hopped into a van full of sleeping backpackers. Couldn’t blame them! 1.5 hours later we arrived at our breakfast spot. Another hour later we arrived at our final destination: the foot of the famous Rainbow Mountain.
Visit Rainbow Mountain
So many visitors every day
The reason why we got here so early was to beat the crowd. Rainbow Mountain was only discovered in 2015 and since then it gets over 2000 visitors each day (even more pre-covid). We were hiking up to over 5000m, the highest we have ever been at! In order to cope with the high altitude, we drank coca tea, sucked on coca candies and got a liquid into our hands that was described as “lama pee” – let’s hope for it to be a nickname. Inhaling the so-called “lama pee” helped a lot to expand our lungs, which made the hike up the mountain a lot easier.
As always before challenging hikes, I was a bit worried. But the hike was actually way easier than expected and before we knew it, we had arrived at the first viewpoint. Getting up early was so worth it as we really were the very first ones at the top!
Alpaca-love
We hiked up further to the second viewpoint and got the most typical photo taken that you can think of: a photo with two alpacas while wearing our new matching lama jumpers – no shame!
See the Red Valley
When you are on top of the mountains you can choose to additionally hike to the Red Valley (for 5€). We had quite a fit group. So the majority of the group decided to hike the extra 30 minutes to the Red Valley, which is owned by two Peruvian families. It was very stunning!
We got there first!
When we walked back to the van, we could see all the tourist masses heading towards Rainbow Mountain. Once again, we realized how lucky we were that we got here so early in the morning.
By the time we reached the van, it started snowing and hailing – the first time for us on this trip! Luckily, it had been dry and partly sunny when we hiked up.
We stopped at the same breakfast spot from earlier for lunch and then headed back to Cusco for another two hours.
Treat yourself to a massage
Back in sunny Cusco we were homeless (again). We booked our bus for the night. (We had decided to go with “Peru Hop” for the first time which is a “hop on, hop off”-bus company in Peru made for backpackers). Afterwards we treated ourselves to a one-hour-massage (for 5€ – what a treat).
After dinner we headed to the Peru Hop bus terminal to catch the night bus to Puno on Lake Titicaca. This wasn’t our final destination on this bus ride, however, since we were going to cross the border into Bolivia the following morning.
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So schön eure Bilder zu sehen. Erwecken Erinnerungen an meine Zeit in Peru. Ich glaub sogar das Lama auf dem Bild ist das gleiche das mich fast geküsst hat 😀
Falls ihr in Kanada heiratet bring ich auch meinen Lamapulli mit 😉
Tolle stories :-*
Lg Sarah
Oh wie toll, Sarah :-)!! Haha, herrliche Lama-Story! Ja, dann wären wir Lama-Pulli-Buddies ;-)!