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Arriving in Cusco after a long night bus, Teresa and Kristen couldn’t help but make numerous references to the Disney movie, “The Emperor’s New Groove.” To Joe’s delight, most of those references consisted of singing (many times off-key) whenever someone simply said the word “Cusco”. Luckily for Joe (and anyone else who happened to pass by), there weren’t too many similarities between Cusco and a cartoon where David Spade gets turned in to a llama, so the sing-a-long quickly died out.

A quiet street in Cusco

We had a few days in Cusco to get acclimated to the altitude (10,900 feet above sea level) before taking off on our Inca Trail adventure. With Machu Picchu being one of the “must see” places in the world, it should be no surprise that Cusco is touristy, and it did not disappoint in this aspect. We were constantly approached about anything and everything: massages, tours, restaurants, pictures, buying handicrafts, etc. During one particularly memorable time, we must have been approached at least 10 times in under 3 minutes. While it can be frustrating to feel like a walking ATM, we try to remember that these people are just trying to make a living, and about 95% of the time, most vendors would accept our “No, gracias,” and leave it alone. Despite the numerous tourists, Cusco is actually a pleasant town to spend some time in. The Plaza del Armas (the main square) was large and a pleasant space to wander through.

Cusco's Plaza del Armas

Colorful doors in the San Blas neighborhood

Joe and Kristen both agreed that the town looked very similar to Ayacucho (minus the herds of tourists). Our hotel was a bit out of the center, so it gave us a nice glimpse of local life.

There seemed to be an abnormally high number of Bugs in this town

We took it easy during our time there in order to rest up before the hike and because Teresa wasn’t feeling too well. Before you ask, it wasn’t “stomach issues” like everyone there assumed. She thinks that she caught some sort of bug before she even got to Peru. She was a trooper and we were still able to see and do quite a bit. One day we took a day tour to a few of the sights located outside of Cusco. Our first stop was at a local artisan shop, which was actually an interesting place and it had a some decent deals- Teresa couldn’t resist picking up another llama sweater. They went through a demonstration on their traditional knitting and weaving process.

Cleaning the wool

The coolest part was seeing how the girls use the drop spindle to spool the wool.

Showing us how to use a drop spindle

We would see women using this all over while doing a variety of activities- from just walking to herding sheep.

Women spooling wool

Traditionally, a woman has to be able to create a poncho for her future husband before she can get married. Thank goodness we don’t have that tradition back at home, or I don’t think anyone would be married. Next, we went to check out the beautiful salt ponds in Maras.

The salt ponds

Salt has been extracted from this area since Pre-Incan times. According to our guide, local families each have a certain number of ponds to tend to.

Extracting the salt from the pond

Salt ponds cover the valley

The whole place was spectacular, and like nothing we’d ever seen before. Our final destination was Moray, an impressive Incan ruin.

View over Moray

The theory is that the Incans used this terracing as a kind of agricultural laboratory. The terracing creates microclimates within each terrace. It was fun to walk around them and take some fun pictures.

Teresa and Joe jumping for joy

Supposedly the Incans always worked with nature, so these terraces fit neatly in this valley and created some great lines.

Crazy curves- Check out the stairs!

The stairs were a bit scary to walk on

Fun times with the Incans

After we returned from hiking the Inca Trail and Machu Picchu (don’t worry, that post is coming up soon!), we spent another night in Cusco. While it was nice to be able to take a hot shower and sleep in a real bed, we were really excited that we’d be able to attend the soccer game the following day.

While on our hike, our guide, Edwin, was ecstatic to learn that his local team won their game and was headed to the finals. If they won the finals, they would move up to the next league. When we expressed interest, he instantly invited us to join him for the game, and we were all happy to accept! We met up with Edwin and fellow trekker, Michael, hours before the game was to begin. We walked to the stadium area and instantly knew just by the sheer number of people that we were in for a treat… this was a much bigger deal than the game we saw in Huancayo.

Getting tickets was an interesting feat. The line was so long for tickets that they sold out of the “home team” section before we got there.

The ticket "window" is that hole in the wall

Luckily there were plenty of scalpers ready to help us out.  Our first deal fell through when the scalper’s mom came in and stopped the deal because she thought the 2 sole commission per ticket was not enough. Oddly enough, another scalper came in and offered the tickets we wanted for face value. Kristen immediately smelled a rat and asked the lady a few times why she would want to sell them at that price. She said she just wanted to get rid of them, and Edwin reassured her that they don’t make fake tickets here. “That’s only a problem in Lima,” he said. So we ended up scoring great seats for 15 soles (about $6).

Even though it was over 2 hours before game time, the line was already long to get in and so we decided to head in to the stadium. Edwin said that they sometimes ran out of seats (but I thought fake tickets weren’t a problem?), so we didn’t want to miss out.

The line seemed to wrap around the stadium!

The line was crazy and, us being the only gringos, we were quite the sight. Someone even shook Joe’s hand!

While in line, some sort of cultural parade went by. I was amazed that they made it through the madness!

It wouldn't be Peru without some sort of parade!

Our section quickly filled in and we passed the hours before the game with people watching and eating. The game finally began, and so did the rain. This made the game play a little bit sloppy, at best. The fans, however, were very much in to it. Let’s just say we got a great refresher on the most colorful Spanish words.

Cusco vs. Lima (Blue vs. Pink)

Luckily, the second half brought the sun, a marked improvement in playing, and a win for Cusco (3 to 1). All of us enjoyed watching the crazy antics both on the field and in the stands.

Teresa and Kristen enjoying the game, while Michael cleans his teeth.

Getting out of the stadium proved to be the next challenge.

Surprisingly, this madness moved faster than you would think.

Luckily, we made it out unsquished (a benefit to being “muy alto”). Unfortunately, we had to bid a final farewell to our new friends, Edwin and Michael, before catching our bus out of town.

Cusco, thanks for the memories!

All right!  Teresa here, guest blogging for Kris and Joe.  I’m going to give you all a little flavor of what my first full day in South America was like…

6:00am  Alarm rings.  We awake after a tiring night and not quite a full night’s sleep.  Kristen informs Teresa and Joe that “it’s only 6:00am,” and they should awake easily.  But ‘a four hour ride shouldn’t be that bad,’ Teresa thinks confidently to herself.

7:30am   Hop on the Cruz del Sur bus.  Ha!  Protest schmotest.  We made it and will have a full day in Huacachina. ‘Those fools that told us yesterday that the road would be closed are idiots,’ Teresa again thinks confidently to herself.

9:30am  We are stopped at a blockade (just some strategically placed rocks on the highway).  The locals are mad that the state wants to build a jail in their city rather than in a rural area.

The blockade at our first glance. Seemed cute at the time.

9:34am  Pass the blockade.  They thought they could stop us?  What, did they not hear that Teresa had just gotten in to town and was ready to go?  Next stop, Huacachina!

9:35am  Stopped again.  On a bridge this time, along with other buses and semis.

10:30am  Still stopped.   Confidence waning.  People seem to be settling in for the long haul.  Kristen tilts her chair back.  Joe looks outside longingly for air.  Teresa watches as protesters carrying sticks walk by.

10:35am  Teresa suggests we give the protesters 5 soles from each of us on the bus.  This suggestion is met with a Whoopi Goldberg ‘honey-child’ look from Joe and a laugh from Kris.

11:15am  The stewardess hands out the food and drinks.  Kristen predicts this may have been done too early.

11:16am  Teresa has eaten and, with Kristen’s words in her ears, immediately gets hungry again.

11:20am  Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets ends.  I Am Legend begins.

1pm  I Am Legend ends.  Shouldn’t have watched the dog part.

1:10pm  We get off the bus.  With no engine, nor air conditioning, we’re happy to bail.

Time to get back on the bus. Us gringos are ushered to the front of the line.

1:28pm  We get back on the bus.  The men with sticks were coming by.

1:29pm  The stewardess announces that we should shut the curtains so the men won’t see us.  Teresa flings hers closed and velcroes it.

1:30pm  Good Dog starts.

1:31pm  Kristen and Joe joke about how mad Teresa’s parents would be if Teresa died on their watch.  This joke does not have a soothing effect on Teresa, and she quietly wonders if they are saying this out loud in the hopes that now it can’t happen because it would be too ironic.

1:33pm  The bus’s power shuts down.  Good Dog ends before it begins.

1:34pm  The stewardess blasts some Latin music from the bus speakers.  People sing along and dance.  Teresa is trying to decide if this is the best or worst bus ride she’s ever been on.

2:12pm  Teresa realizes that she has all her Clif and Bobo’s bars in my bag.  Kris, Joe, and Teresa decide to keep this info to ourselves, since we are experiencing more hunger.

2:14pm  We exit the bus again.  Street vendors have arrived and are selling goodies.  Nothing trumps capitalism.

Teresa, amid all the vendors and hullaballoo.

3:10pm  We see a helicopter in the distance.  Apparently the protest is bad in the city and the president is flying in for some reason.

3:19pm  Back on the bus.  Cats vs Dogs begins.  Teresa watches with enthusiasm.  Kristen looks around nervously.  Joe goes outside for more air.

3:42pm  Teresa looks out her window and Kristen points out a guy from our bus chilling on the bridge with a bottle of wine.  We are jealous.

3:59pm  We notice a senor with too much self confidence hitting on a younger girl.

4:13pm  Kristen informs Teresa that this is movie is actually the sequel to Cats vs Dogs.  Something about ‘Revenge of Kitty Galore’.

5:20pm  Movie ends.  License to Wed begins.

5:42pm  The stewardess falls into a dead sleep.  Kristen points this out to Joe and Teresa.

5:46pm  Someone shouts out a request for an Inca Cola.  The stewardess remains motionless.

5:47pm  People take pictures of the stewardess.  Some sing her ‘Happy Birthday’.  Someone pokes her arm.  She sleeps.

6:00pm  Most of the strong men (minus Joe) begin to get their backpacks off of the bus and seem like they are going to try to walk out of the barricade.  Kristen (repeatedly) tells Joe and Teresa that this would be very bad, since it would basically be Joe defending the whole bus on our behalf.  Teresa becomes distraught.

6:18pm  Darkness ensues.  The stewardess wakes up to everyone staring at her.

Our last minutes with the precious, safe sun.

7:01pm  The movie ends.  The stewardess– who by the way is probably 17 and holding everyone together very well– turns the lights on so we can see.

7:02pm  The bus driver runs upstairs and yells at her to conserve the power.

7:02pm  The stewardess becomes enraged and decides to literally ignore every single things the driver tells her from here on.

7:08pm  The driver calls her via bus phone, which is about six inches from her left hand.  It rings 19 times.  The stewardess checks her cell phone messages and does not once look at the phone.

7:10pm  Kristen again voices concern about our group splitting up.  Luckily, the tough men decide that they want to stick it out on the bus.  We are still a complete team.

7:26pm  We get word that we might actually be able to go if we each give 5 soles to the protesters.  Kristen proclaims that this is “kind of like extortion”.  Teresa informs her that, in fact, this is extortion.  Joe laughs while Teresa becomes angry that they could have saved hours if everyone had listened to her earlier.

7:27pm  The women on the bus begin to take off their jewelry.  Teresa thinks this is because they don’t have the soles to pay and are going to offer jewelry instead.  Kristen informs her that, in fact, this is because they are hiding their valuables from possible looters.

7:27pm  Teresa, Kristen, and Joe shove money down their socks and hidden cargo pockets.  Teresa frantically puts her passport down her pants.

7:31pm  The old women on the bus begin saying the rosary.  Kristen looks worried.  Teresa sees this and becomes terrified.  Kristen and Teresa are simultaneously surprised at how much they remember from high school Spanish.

Our bus view. The ladies in front of us, whom you can't see since they are a good foot shorter than the seats, are the ones initiating the rosary. This picture was shot during better, lighter times.

7:34pm  The stewardess again ignores the driver’s calls from the bus phone.  Kristen, Joe, and Teresa laugh.

8:01pm  The stick people don’t come by for money.  Teresa keeps her money and passport hidden, just in case.  She wonders if she should have just gone to Florida for vacation.

8:12pm  Teresa looks out her curtained window and spots dozens of police in riot gear.

8:19pm  The barricade is lifted.  The police are much more fearful than guys with sticks, Teresa realizes.

8:20pm  People are jovial again.  Zookeeper begins. The bus moves for the first time in hours.

10:00pm  We pull into the Cruz del Sur bus station.  We have made it, safe and sound.  Teresa puts her passport back into her pack.

That was the end of a very long bus ride.

But it wasn’t all fun and games.  The next day, we went sandboarding in Huacachina, which is an oasis in the middle of a huge sand pile.

Joe, getting ready to sandboard, which is an adjustment from skiing.

Kristen, looking like a pro while she waits for everyone to be ready.

Teresa, gradually realizing that these bindings are different from snowboarding's.

First, we were treated to a very awesome dune buggy ride, zooming through the sand mountains.  Our driver seemed to relish in the fact that we were slightly terrified.  He even stalled on one hill that was a bit too ambitious for the rickety buggy.

Our dune buggy.

Joe, Kristen, and Teresa also realized after a couple of missteps that, while sandboarding looked cool, it was actually way more fun to lie down on the board on their stomachs.

Kristen sandboarding, before we realized going on our stomachs was way faster.

During our trial phase.

Joe, about to show us how it's done.

The day ended really well.  For Teresa, the long bus ride made for a great story, and the buggy ride and sandboarding could not have been more fun.

We took some fun pictures of us at a good little vista too.

Kristen's "gran jete something something dancey" picture. That's the entire city in the background.

Teresa, dropped from the sky while taking a nap.

Joe, karate kicking the sand out of his shoes.

Next up, on to Cusco…

After an amazing train ride through the Andes, we were ready to take on Lima, which with around 9 million people, there was bound to be a lot to see and do. Lima is well known for it great food, many museums, and more cars than you could imagine, all trying to run you down. As Kristen says, you should consider yourself lucky if you don’t get hit by a car or get in an accident while riding around the streets.

Real life Frogger

It seemed that every other car was a taxi that would politely honk as they passed to let you know they were free.  So nice of them to slowly drive us crazy with the continual honking.

First, we headed down town to the historical center, where there are many interesting colonial building, churches, and the presidential palace.

Plaza Mayor

We showed up to music playing from the Presidential palace and found the slowest changing of the guards ceremony in progress.  They did this interesting slow step, which I am sure the guys getting off shift hated.  Unfortunately, unlike in Ecuador, the President was not on hand, so Joe was not able to wave at him like his new Ecuadorean President friend.

Presidential palace

Seems like the show was so slow that even the guards outside of the gate were bored.  One continually checked his watch and a few others were texting friends.

Keeping an eye on what is important--that's his cell phone down there, I swear

From Plaza Mayor we walked to the Monasterio de San Francisco, which is a beautiful monastery and church.

San Francisco Monastery

There is beautiful artwork all through out the building and also an amazing crypt.  Many of the bones are still visible and the underground area is amazing, but a little eerie.

Bones - Bad picture quality due to no flash allowed

The next day we headed to the amazing Museo Larco to view many artifacts from pre-colonial times.  This museum by far had the best collection we had seen, and we were amazed at every turn.

Could you imagine wearing this?

Sacrificial knife and cup

War weapons

Nice heavy earrings

At one point in our lives we had taken a pottery class and tried our hand at throwing pottery.  We quickly learned how hard it is to make more than an ash tray, and were amazed at the quality of work here.

Amazing pottery

Extreme detail

A bit scary but nice

The most amazing thing about the museum was the store-room, which we were allowed to visit.  It housed thousands of pieces of pottery which were equally as amazing as the ones on display.

Store room

The gastronomical delights in Lima was one of the highlights of our time there.  Being on the coast, Lima had sea food that was to die for, and we set out on a mission to eat seafood until it hurt, and then have a little more.  The things they can do with fish was truly amazing.

Cerviche mix

We visited an amazing famous restaurant called La Mar in Miraflores, which was visited by Anthony Bourdain while he was in Peru.  It lived up to all its hype, and if you could judge the quality of food by quality of cars out front this place was going to be beyond excellent.

Sea food risotto

Causa - Amazing Potato dish

Miraflores is a very swanky part of Lima where many of the rich live and where the tourist flock.  The wind shear on the cliffs made it a great place for parasailers to fly like birds.  It made us a bit jealous watching them soar in this beautiful setting.

Miraflores coast

Our hostel owner recommended another restaurant nearby and again we gorged our self on the fantastic sea food.

More Causa

More sea food

Teresa, Kristen’s sister, joined us in Lima to travel around Peru and Bolivia with us for three weeks.  After picking her up at the airport and getting her settled in at the hostel, we headed to the Magic circuit of the water.

Kristen in a water fountain

This park is full of really amazing water fountains and it was great wandering around and try not to get wet.

Teresa doing a handstand

For those of you who don’t know Teresa, this handstand is par for her.  She is always doing something crazy to make us laugh and to tempt fate.

There was one fountain which created a tunnel of water to walk through.  For the most part you would stay dry, but if someone touched the stream of water everyone would get soaked.

Kris and Tee in the fountain

We wandered around the park for about two hours and checked out all the well-lit fountains.  One of the fountains had laser show in conjunction with the water show, it was one of the coolest things we have seen.

Water fountain laser show

More Lasers

Kristen and Teresa took some time to pose infront of the Rainbow fountain.

Crazy girls

You were able to run around one of the water fountains and tempt faith in not getting soaked by the unpredictable spurts of water.  Joe and Teresa held back, and good thing, because as Kristen made her way to the middle she slipped and went face first into shooting water.

Kristen somewhere in the middle soaked

Joe and Teresa could barely contain themselves as Kristen tried to get the timing correct to make her way back out.

Lima turned out to be an amazing city, and Joe and Kristen have decided if we have some extra time they would like to move in for a while.  The great food, museums and people made Lima an amazing place to visit.

On to Huacachina for sandboarding, and how you turn a 4 hour bus trip into a 15 hour ride.

We knew the bus to Huancayo would be long. Twelve hours to be exact (and that’s if everything went smoothly). As it was supposed to be a scenic ride, we even opted to take the cheaper daytime bus.

Just judging by the fairly dilapidated look of the bus, we instantly knew this was going to be a rough and interesting ride.

The highlights:

-Driving on a bridge with seriously two inches of clearance on each side. I am still amazed we made it through without hitting anything.

You could literally touch the bridge from the bus... scary!

-Driving on rough and bumpy dirt roads. We’ve actually gotten quite used to this. We weren’t really even fazed by the fact that this road had a sheer drop off on one side. However, this road did have a slight lean (towards the cliff, of course) that made taking those bumps a bit more interesting.

-Learning that our bathroom break was a small ravine on the side of the road. Kristen bonded with a few nice Peruvian ladies over that one.

-No TV with bad movies to distract us. The TV looked like it was last functional before we were born.

-Staring at the gorgeous mountain vistas. I think by now we must have seen every mountain in Peru.

Kristen's favorite tree in Peru

-The extra long bus “infomercial.” Often times people board the bus and do a little presentation. Billy Mays would have been proud of this guy- he “presented” for a half hour! The people were receptive though, and he sold quite a bit. His spoke slowly and clearly so it gave Kristen a chance to practice hearing and understanding Spanish. Despite understanding 85% of his message, we didn’t buy any of his vitamin supplements, even though he offered to double the order for free.

Luckily the ride passed relatively quickly and we made it safe and sound to our destination.

Huancayo was a much larger city than Ayacucho, but it still had its charms. The main square was always full of people, and it was fun to watch the action unfold.

Main town square

We are horribly ashamed to admit this, but on our first evening in Huancayo, we caved at the sight of Burger King. We think it was the fact that it was the first yellow cheese we’ve seen in three months, and honestly, it was a pretty decent burger and fries. Don’t worry though, we ate plenty of other local food to make up for supporting the King. 

Since we only had one full day in Huancayo, but we tried to make the most of it.

First, we hiked up to “Torre Torre,” a strange-looking group of “towers” made after years of erosion.

Torre Torre park

Living on the edge

We enjoyed hiking around them and seeing what crazy pictures we could take.

Kristen taking in the view

Later that afternoon, the highlight of the day was attending our first futbol game in South America! We were accompanied by our hostel owner’s son, who was very excited about the game. We were able to chat in basic Spanish, and he even tested out some of his English with us. He was a great sport and answered all of our questions.

Soccer time

The crowd wasn’t as big or rowdy as we were expecting. There were, however, quite a few houses around the stadium with huge groups on their roofs.

Not sure how safe that is.

The game was entertaining to watch, but in all honesty, it wasn’t the most exciting game ever. Huancayo won 3-0, and the crowd was pretty tranquilo, so there wasn’t a need for all the extra police after all.

Keeping the peace

The next morning we awoke bright and early at 5 am to catch the train to Lima. This train is definitely the longer way to get to Lima (12 hours vs. 8 hours on a bus), but is scenic and the second highest in the world.

Our locomotive making a turn

We were lucky to be able to catch this train because it only runs about twice per month and we actually took the last train of the season (the train can’t run during the wet season).

The train left the station on time, shocking for Peru, and we headed out of town.  You could tell that the train does not run to often because all the locals came out of their houses to wave and watch the train roll by.  We were lucky not to have anyone sitting across from us, so we were able to spread out and relax.

Our train car

We quickly left the city and started climbing into the Andes.  We followed the river which carved its way through a canyon while climbing the hills.  The scenery and views continued to get better and better as we went.

Heading up the Canyon

We passed a few different mining operations along the way, which generally aren’t so scenic, but we were surprised to see how they transport the coal.

A coal chairlift

We passed some of Kristen’s favorite animals… llamas! There is just something about these animals that screams, “You’re in Peru!”

A few local residents

As we climbed, the mountains became more beautiful and it got significantly colder. At one point it barely started to snow and the locals were sticking their heads out the window trying to catch a microscopic flake or two. Guess they don’t see the white stuff too often.

More mountains in Peru

When we reached the highest point at 15,681 feet, the trains stopped and we were able to get out for a bit and take some pictures.

That's one high Fry

Taking in the views at over 15,000 feet

Luckily the train didn't suddenly lurch forward

Mountains, mountains, mountains

We arrived in Lima a bit shaky after being jostled around for a little over 12 hours. This wasn’t the smoothest train ride we’d ever taken, but it was one of the more interesting ones.

Off to eat our way through Lima’s many delicious restaurants.