Our Trip to Machu Picchu

Since my family's visit to Buenos Aires in May, we have been planing our next trip. I have been dreaming about a trip to Peru, especially to Cusco,  since I was a little girl and reading Eric von Daniken books, thinking about whether or not "Gods" helped some civilizations in tecnological advances and creating incredible structures and cities. Mom and my brother shared this dream, my aunt Jackie and her husband Traver, two natural born globe trotters confirmed their presence, so did mom's friend Sadife and her cousin, two turkish women I admire a lot.  I took care of the reservations and accommodations (including the Inca Trail to climb to Machu Picchu) for all of us to spend November in Peru, and Bolivia!




PART I: MEETING IN LIMA


It is a hassle organizing a trip when participants live almost in all 4 corners of the world. Mom flew to Miami to meet up with Feyzi to fly to Cuzco directly from there, where as Jackie and Traver traveled directly from Honolulu to Lima (almost 36 hours) and we met up with Sadife and Aysegul in Bs As, showed them around for a day or two. Our party arrived in Lima--while riding from the airport to San Isidro I realized that this was one of the ugliest cities in Latin America in terms of urbanization--and spend a day in a half with J&T,  sightseeing, pisco drinking and hunting for the best ceviche in town!





I had a recommendation from a Peruvian friend: she told us to go to Rosa Nautica (picture above) restaurant in Miraflores. We had a 4 hour lunch there, and it was fabulous! It reminded me of a place in California or something, and we tried probably every bichito and fish from the pacific in ceviche form with bottles of cold Chilean sauvignon blanc. We could not see too much of the city afterwards, as we had to lay down for long naps in order to function the following day, at 2800 meters in Cuzco.


PART II: CUZCO, the City of Gods


Excitement was building up so much that I could not sleep well.  We took a van from the posada to the Lima airport--mom and brother arrived earlier that day and were waiting for us at the airport to catch their connection/our flight to Cuzco--Approximately 2 hours later we were in Cuzco, welcomed by our hosts, the agency I booked for the inca trail and other excursions in Cuzco. Tanya, who I corresponded for months, was much younger than I thought. We have taken our sorochi pills (for altitude sickness) so except Sadife, none of us felt sick or dizzy, but climbing up 8 steps with backpacks when we arrived to our tiny posada was tough. I have been training for this for 3 months, on a treadmill and quit smoking, still I felt the lack of oxygene.


The posada was nicely located but it was dodgy (!):  Rooms, bathrooms, even the stairs looked as if they were going to collapse on us.  But the view of the incredible city from our rooms worth the risk.  Cuzco, or Qusqu in quechua language is the capital of the Inca Empire and is located near the Urubamba (sacred valley) in southeastern Peru, on Andes mountain, approx 3000 meters above the sea level.  


A couple of important details about the city:  Cusco was the capital of one of the most important civilizations in the human history and according to Inca legends, the city was planned to be shaped like a puma. 

The city had two main sectors,  the urin and hanan, which were also divided to four provinces: Chinchasuyu (NW), Antisuyu (NE), Qontisuyu (SW) and Collasuyu (SE).  And of course a road led from each of these quarters to the corresponding quarter of the empire. Each local leader was required to build a house in the city and live part of the year in Cusco, but only in the quarter of Cusco that corresponded to the quarter of the empire in which he had territory. Empire had approximately 20 thousand kms of roads, connecting cities to each other, capital to the other provinces. 

One of the legends I have read about the city told  that Cusco was built by Sapa Inca Pachacuti, the man who transformed the Kingdom of Cusco from a sleepy city-state into the vast empire of Tahuantinsuyu. The city fell to the sphere of Huáscar in the division of the empire after the death of Huayna Capac in 1527. It was captured by the generals of Atahualpa in April 1532 in the Battle of Quipaipan, and nineteen months later by the Spaniards. 

As no one felt sick or dizzy, we decided to take a walk around town; the architecture left from Incans still holds to this day, and is mind-blowing.  It was great to have mom with us, the architect, who could not close her mouth from awe, and telling us how innovative her Incan peers were making such durable yet beautiful constructions 500 years ago! I could walk for hours in the tiny streets of this town but we were all too hungry so we sat down at a local eatery and had more ceviche, quinoa and lama meat!  

After lunch--without Pisco Sour this time-- and later took a long nap. Sadife was still suffering from the altitude, but assured us she was getting better.  The next day was a full day of excursions around Cuzco: it almost felt movie like as I walked on Inca ruins: one looked a lot like an airport, or an arena for celebrations.

PART III: INCA TRAIL

PART IV: MACHU PICCHU

PART V: TITICACA AND OTHER BOLIVIAN MARVELS

PART VI: LOST IN SAN PEDRO, FOUND IN SALTA "LA LINDA"