Peru: Travel Day

Whenever I come back from a vacation I feel a little overwhelmed with writing my blog.  So reader beware there's gonna be lots of pictures and info.  This was such a trip of a lifetime and I don't want to forget it!  

This trip was by far the hardest to pack for.  It required lots of things for the hike (which we had to buy everything new because we had nothing), but also because everyone (the internet) told us we had to pack for all weather seasons.  The weather is constantly changing and you need to dress in layers. And boy were they right!  One minute it feels like summer, the next its raining so you need a rain coat, and then its freezing so you need your winter coat.  It was crazy.

With our passports getting ready to board our flight!  It was an EXTREMELY long day of traveling.  We left at 8:30 am to get to the airport.  With a layover in Mexico City, we didn't reach Lima, Peru till 10:30 at night.  Neither of us was tired, so we didn't nap on the plane, but boy did we wish we had! Our flight from Lima to Cusco didn't leave till 3:30 a.m.  They wouldn't let us past security until 2 hours before our flight, and there was no seating except in the food court which was packed!  Everyone was sleeping on the floors since there was nowhere else. When we finally did get past security we tried to sleep as much as we could on the benches.  It was hard and uncomfortable and didn't last long until it was time to board, but once on the airplane we fell fast asleep and slept the whole 1-hour flight.  We made it Cusco at 5 in the morning.  It was too early to check into our hotel so we sat in our hotel lobby for a few hours (I might have dozed off) until it was light enough to go explore the city until our city tour (next post).  When all was said and done we didn't get to sleep until late the next evening.  So we were running on 48 hours with only a little more than an hours worth of a nap.  We were pretty exhausted!

 Our Hotel.  Placedio Del Inka.  Probably one of the best hotels we've ever stayed in.  The staff was amazing and very accommodating.

Our hotel has a long history.  Its stone walls were once part of the adjacent Temple of the Sun (will be in my next post), built in 1438!

Our morning ritual. Or really anytime we left/arrived back at our hotel.  Drinking Coca Tea.  Coca Tea helps with altitude sickness so we were drinking this as much as we could when we first arrived.  I think it really helped.  Anytime Brad or I were getting even the slightest headache we either drank this or drank lots of Coca tea and our headache went away. Altitude sickness is a big deal since we were 12,000 ft. above sea level.  It can be crippling and that is the last thing we wanted.  So lots of coca tea it was!

Our hotel felt like a museum.

A 8 angled stone Inca wall.  Its amazing the precision that it took to build this!

The beautiful patio

The first half of the trip (before the Inca trail)  the hotel upgraded us to a suite.  Maybe they felt bad that we arrived so early and they didn't have a room for us.  Either way it was awesome.

Brad's last minute purchase before our trip.  A gopro.  I think Brad was really happy that we ended up getting it.  We have lots of video.