DAY 1
Hola Amigos,
Day 1 has finally come to an end. Today felt like a week for some reason. For the first half of the day, I walked the streets of the center-city area, spending the majority of the time at the Plaza de Armas. Really cool area; theres a couple old cathedrals and a lot of shops surrounding the plaza. I have noticed there are a lot of old, big churches thoughout the city, I think stemming from the Spanish conquistadors. At lunch, I ended up meeting with some people on the trip. (They spotted me wearing an NC State shirt). So far the food has been really good. I tried to embrace the Peruvian food instead going to my go-to pasta. I actually just had alpaca for dinner, which was good but nothing to write home about (pun intended)! Tomorrow actually marks the beginning of the Contiki trip. We have our kick-off meeting at 8 tomorrow morning; however, we all pretty much met today. Seems like a really good group. Theres a few of us from NC State and UNC, and then the rest are mainly Australia. We also have one Canadian. Tomorrow is going to consist of mainly touring the city by foot, similar to what I did today actually, but we will have guide this time to tell us what we are looking at.
Time for bed. I am pooped.
Hasta Luego,
Bert
Day 2
Hola mi familia,
Today was the first official day of the trip. We toured the city of Cusco by foot stopping at the various sites while our tour guide/trip guide, Gabby, told us the historical significance. Gabby is going to be our guide for the duration of the trip. She was actually born and lives just outside of Cusco so she was able to describe every little detail of the sites. I found it all really interesting. Cusco was actually the capital city of the Incas so there is a lot of history here. Unfortunately a lot of it though was destroyed by the Spanish. Seems to be a common theme from the European countries. The Inca culture still very much lives on here as our tour guide pointed out. One thing i did not realize is that the majority of the people in Cusco and Peru are direct descendents of the Incas. Our guide said she is 98% Inca. Anyways, i learned a lot about their culture pre-spanish and found it all very interesting.
In the evening, we went to this bar that gives Salsa lessons. I of course joined in and i of course was terrible. It was still a lot of fun though.
Tomorrow is off to the Sacred Valley to see some more Inca ruins!
Adios!
Berto
Day 3
Hola Amigos!
J you are asking too many questions! Regarding Georgia cabin, I will not be able to make any of the days. I am getting back in to Charlotte early Sat morning, but I need to be back at work on Monday.
Day 3 in Peru had us leaving Cusco by bus to travel to the Sacred Valley region. It is close to Cusco so it was not a long trip, fortunately. The valley is incredible; its surrounded by these super steep mountains (obviously) with some of them being snow-capped. We made a couple stops along the way, one of them to visit the Pisac ruins. These were pretty interesting because they showcased the terrace farming system that the Incas used to use. You can probably do a quick a google search to look it up, but they would cut into the mountain side in order to plant their crops without the risk of them being washed away by rain. It is pretty amazing some the ideas that the Incas were able to come up with. From the Pisac ruins, we made our way to the town of Ollantayombo, which is where we are staying the night. This is another town that was important to the Incas during their time and has a lot of ruins. It is located at the center of three converging valleys which makes for an amazing landscape (and pictures)! We have been doing a lot of hiking and a lot of stair-climbing so I think my calves are permanently sore (I know J, its pretty sad). Tomorrow, we will be spending the majority of the day here. I signed up for a bike tour that starts at the top of a mountain and we work our way down. Theres supposed to be some awesome views so I am looking forward to that. After that we train over to Aguas Calientes where we stay the night before making our way to Machu Picchu the following day.
So, so far so good! All of the food i have had has been really good, which kind of suprised me. They eat a lot of beef, potatoes, and corn. And a lot of fruit. The group has been a lot of fun. Most of them are around my age. About half of them are Australian and the rest Americans. We did a mini celebration for the 4th of July. Our travel guide printed out a picture of the US flag, and we all played flip-cup at dinner. It was pretty funny. Our travel guide, Gabby, is a lot of fun; she hangs right with us.
Anyways, I am off to bed. Ma, dad, tweeds glad you guys made it back. I cannot wait to hear more about the trip when I get back.
Adios,
Berto
DAY 5
Hola!
Today was Machu Picchu day. And let me tell you, it was un-freaking-believable. The mountains that surround Machu Picchu provide an absolutely stunning landscape. We got up there bright and early and were able to catch the sun rising. I had a slight scare with my camera as i forgot to charge it the night before (and i didn't charge my phone either, of course) but fortunately i was able to get in a few pictures before it went out. I was about to be pretty disappointed if i made it all the way to Machu Picchu only to have all my cameras run out of battery haha. But we're good, i was able to get a few. Hopefully they turned out ok. Anyways, after getting the trademark panoramic pictures, we made our way into the ruins where our guide gave us a tour of the whole place. Its basically split into 3 sections: agricultural, industrial, and religious. It was really cool getting to hear all about the history. Most of it however is just a best guess based on artifacts that were found there along with stories that have been passed down. The Incas never had a written language. Following the tour, a few of us hiked along a couple trails along nearby mountains. More opportunities for photos.
Following the hikes, we had to make our way back down the mountain where we trained, then bussed back to Cusco which is where we are staying for the next 2 nights. We're about to head out for a late dinner and then its "mandatory" for us to go out afterwards per our travel guide haha so it could be a long night.
Tomorrow is a free day. Nothing was planned for the group but there were some optional activities you could sign up for. I chose whitewater rafting and a massage haha. I've never got a massage before so should be interesting.
Adios,
Berto
DAY 6
Buenos Dias Amigos,
Day 6 consisted of whitewater rafting and a massage as i noted the other day. The rafting consisted of Cat II and III rapids so nothing too extreme but it was still a lot of fun with some great surrounding scenery as well. And then in the evening a few of us went out to celebrate our last night in Cusco. Today we fly out to the jungle where we will be for the remainder of the trip. I believe the name of the town we're staying in is Puerto Maldonado. I'm not sure we have any plans for the evening but i know while we'rethere we will be doing a few hikes, kayaking, and a canopy climb. Seeing the Amazon rainforest is one of the main reasons why i signed up for this trip so I'm really excited to be going out there. Hopefully we will be able to spot some good wildlife. Anyways that's it for now. I got to pack my stuff up for the flight.
Adios,
Berto
DAY 7 & 8
Hola mi familia,
I did not really have an opportunity yesterday to get on Wifi so I was not able to send an email.
Day #7
The first half of yesterday consisted of traveling to the jungle from Cusco. It was only a 35 min flight to Puerto Maldonado (would have been 12 hours if we drove!), so we are finally out of the Andes mountains and onto to level ground. In order to get to our lodge, we had to take a 45 min bus ride, followed by a 45 min boat ride up a river. Its the only way to get the lodge. I mean it was well into the rainforest. As we were in checking in, a group (family?) of monkeys were in the trees right next to us! The lodge was really cool. Everything was open to the outside, including our rooms. They were only surrounded by 3 walls, the 4th was open to the forest. There were mosquito nets, of course, and a railing, but other than that there was not much that could stop anything from wondering in. Fortunately, nobody had any issues with critters coming in other than bugs. There is a lot of bugs in the rainforest, but I dont really mind it. After check-in, we did a group hike through the forest to a canopy tower nearby. It was just a staircase with a platform on top, but it was 120 ft tall! It was above almost all of the trees and the view was pretty amazing. Took lots of pictures, of course. After that we had dinner at the lodge and then went on a night boatride down the river to look for cayman (similar to an alligator). Unfortunately, we only saw one small one, but it was still pretty cool. Then went straight to bed as we had an early morning the next day.
Day #8
Today was our last full day in Peru. It started with a busy morning at 4:00 AM. Our travel guides took us out to a nearby lake (10 min boatride, 30 min hike) to fish for piranha; we ended up catching a few, and then just released them back to the lake. They are actually a lot smaller then you might think, smaller than the size of your hand. After that we went straight to kayaking down the river. It was pretty cool going down the river just enjoying all the scenery. Following the kayaks, we went on a hike to a canopy climb. Only a handful of us signed up for this activity. It was similar to the canopy tower we did the other day except this time instead of walking up stairs to get to the top, you had to use climbing ropes (which I had no experience in). Fortunately, we had a good guide who showed us how to do it properly. It was a little scary since the height we were climbing to the top of the tree was 100 ft! My arms were burning by the time I got to the top. It took me 10 min. J, you could probably do it in 2 minutes. The guide said their fastest time was 50 seconds, which is just insane. Anyways, the views up top were amazing once again. So by the time we finished that, it was only noon! Later, in the afternoon, we boated and buss-ed back to the city of Puerto Maldonado where we are staying tonight. It is definitely not the nicest of towns. Probably the prototypical "South American town" haha. A lot of the roads are dirt, the streets are filled with motorcycles and three-wheeled covered bikes, and a lot of the buildings dont appear to be finished. But its a cool experience. We are about to go out to dinner and then out for a couple drinks for our last night so I need to get going. Tomorrow we make our way to Lima, where I fly out at around 10 PM to Miami. I will make it back to Charlotte around 8 AM on SATURDAY morning. I will send you more specific flight details later.
Adios amigos!
Berto