Chilling in Cusco, magical Machu Picchu, Huaraz and Mancora

We took a little break from travelling and ‘settled’ ourselves for some time in the beautiful city of Cusco for about 3 weeks. Lots of time for Spanish classes, yoga classes, a bit of sightseeing and chilling out in our cosy apartment.

INTI RAYMI
We planned to be here at this time, so we were on time for Cusco’s largest annual fiesta called ‘Inti Raymi’ which is the Inca festival of the Sun. Sacsayhuaman, a ceremonial centre and fortress on a hill just north of the city, seemed to be the best place to experience this spectacular event. This place is also known as the jagged tooth-packed head of the puma – Cusco’s city plan is shaped like this animal. We were told to get to the hill early to claim a spot as it would get crowded later, which turned out to be true…after waiting for more than 3 hours the event still didn’t started and people started to get impatient…the atmosphere was changing when some started to shout at each other. Others were throwing food and little stones to the ones who weren’t sitting down, then we decided to leave…a beautiful colourful event, a bit overly commercial but interesting to be part of this. We lost our appetite on the huge food market where the local delicacy guinea pig was prepared in huge quantities.

CUSCO
Cusco itself has many impressive tourist attractions to visit (e.g. San Blas temple, Sagrada Familia cathedral, Temple del Triunfo, Museo de Arzobispal, Templo de San Cristobal, Q’orikancha complex, Christo Blanco). Very interesting to see how in almost in all of the sights the Inca religion is mixed with the Catholic religion, this is all due to the influence of the Spaniards. For example the painting of the last supper in the Sagrada Familia cathedral shows a guinea pig and Jesus is brown here.
We spend a lot of time studying or reading in the sun, going to the local market for fresh fruits &vegs, cooking or going out for dinner in some of the nice restaurants. The Peruvian food remains unbeatable 😉

RAINBOW MOUNTAIN
A beautiful day hike up to 5020m to Cerro Colorado – bright blue sky and sunshine. This mountain is considered as holy for the locals, they offer coca leaves and potatoes and bring their colourfully decorated Alpaca’s with them. Incredible to see them walking up through snow on their worn off sandals. For us it was a heavy but short trek (±3h up, 1.5h down), because of the very nice views on the way and on the top it was really worth it…

SALKANTAY TREK TO MACHU PICCHU
A 5 day hike that eventually took us up to the lost city of Machu Picchu. We now understand why the Inca’s have chosen this place, it’s so isolated and hard to reach. It was discovered in 1911, or better to say rediscovered as the locals knew about this place but they simply thought it wasn’t that special (!). It is with right one of the world miracles created by humans. Build around 1450 it was inhabited by ~800 persons. Luckily the Spaniards never found it, as it would probably have been destroyed then. It’s an impressive World Heritage site that is visited by ~3000 people daily, so no wonder some areas were a bit busy 😉
It was quite a challenging hike but so beautiful. The first few days, part of our luggage is carried up by mules. We also spend a morning ziplining, zooming over a river that crosses the valley as superwoman/man, what an adrenaline kick! Landscapes and temperatures changing all the time, from -6C till almost 30+C, we passed snow-capped mountains and walked through thick jungle and green forests, and as a reward we relaxed in nice hot springs.

LIMA
Maybe not that attractive at first for tourists like us, especially not now in winter months when the city is mostly covered by mist forming a solid grey blanket over the capital. We visited Lima centre which is also called the old city and holds nice colonial architecture around the Plaza Mayor and Plaza San Martin. Miraflores is where we stayed, it’s a suburb and the modern commercial heart of Lima. On the sea side there are lots of activities going on like surfing, paragliding, and people running. The Parque del Amor made us feel like we were in Barcelona with its mosaic Gaudi style tiles. Via ‘the artist quarter’ Barranco we walked all the way south to the Fisherman’s wharf in Chorrillos with its many ceviche kiosks, you probably can’t get your ceviche anywhere more fresh than here. Rene checked the chess qualities of the locals, looks like he challenged the wrong guy, an old man that is probably sitting here playing chess every day…

HUARAZ
We spend a couple of days in Huaraz – the valley here is dominated by the Cordillera Blanca mountain range which is the highest range in the tropical world (35 peaks over 6000m) and has over 300 glacier lakes. We visited the magnificent Lagunas de Llanganuco, whose waters change colour according to the time of year and the sun’s daily movements. From here we had a view on the highest peak of Peru, Huascaran (6768m). We hiked up to Laguna 69 at 4800m which was the bluest lake of all times, even brighter than any of the lakes we saw in Patagonia, impressive!

MANCORA
Finally after many cold nights in the mountains we’re now at a sunny beach in Mancora, north Peru. The geographical position creates near perfect surf conditions as here the northern tropical current meets with the much cooler southern one. It’s a bit of a party place with nice hippie market. We’re very happy to stay here for a few days in our laid-back bamboo hostel just outside town.
Tomorrow we’re continuing your trip further north to Guayaquil in Ecuador. Goodbye Peru you were amazing!

Nightbus arrives too early in Cusco, waiting in the cold

Reunited in Cusco

Inti Raymi at Sacsayhuaman

Beautiful colorful dress at Inti Raymi

Foodmarket on Inti Raymi

Guinea pig is a delicacy for Peruvians, tradition at Inti Raymi

The tourist posing with the locals

Streets of Cusco

Street art in Cusco

View from Qorikancha on Cusco

Inside the Qorikancha

View from Sacsayhuaman

Peruvian woman working on her handcraft

Spanish classes in Cusco

Studying in the sun

Traditional Inca music and clothing

Lamas

Beautiful traditional old woman with her Alpaca

Hello there…

Shoppping at the local market

Rainbow mountain

On top of Rainbow mountain

Peruvian woman doing her handcraft with view on Cusco

San Blas square by sunset

Plaza de Armas Cusco

Pancake breakfast in our cosy apartment

Rainbow flag in streets of Cusco

Route of the Salkantay trek

Mules carrying part of our stuff

Meeting cows and bull on the way

Campsite for first night (3900m)

Hiked up to a glacier lake near our first camp

Local salesmen

Playing cards while waiting on the Salkantay pass (4600m)

Second campsite

Local women carrying wood

Crossing a river

Entering the jungle

Coffee beans drying in the sun

Viv ziplining as superwoman

Rene ziplining upsidedown

Spotting parrots

Mountains surrounding the Machu Picchu from the other side

Hiking along the train tracks

Rain in the jungle, rainbow

Climbing up to Machu Picchu during sunrise

There it is, Machu Picchu, the lost city of the Inca’s

Parque de amor in Lima

Lima

Fisherman’s Wharf in Lima

Playing chess against a local

Plaza Mayor Lima

Llanganuco lake with Huascaran (6768m) in the background

Laguna 69, bluest lake ever…

Hostel in Mancora

Finally reached a sunny beach