Bali Bound

Day 15 It's the last day of vacation.  Well, technically since we leave at 12:30 am tomorrow it's the second last day.  But it's a free day until the flight leaves. Catacombs Originally I had thought about doing a city tour. But for less money I could just take a taxi downtown and walk along the ocean so I settled on that instead.  The only thing I missed out on was a tour of the cathedral but I feel like I've seen a lot of churches now. I really wanted to see the catacombs in Lima.  It was an easy cab ride downtown to the main plaza.  The Saint Francis catacombs are also a monastery with around 45 active members.  The catacombs included a guided tour that included much of the church above the catacombs.  And then you descend through the cemetery below.  There are 3 levels with 25,000 remains.  They did have some bones arranged in areas but the part I found strange was that 99% of what they had out was skulls and leg bones.  T...

Day 14 Arequipa from the convent roof, with Misti in the middle Today is a bit of a quiet day as much of the last bit of the trip has been.  We head back to Lima this afternoon and that takes up a good chunk of the day! Convent with the rosary paintings Our morning included a tour of the Santa Catalina convent.  It's actually still active with 15 nuns living in the newer areas.  But we did a tour of the older part where hundreds of women used to live.  It's so big it has streets!  Traditionally the second child was supposed to enter the church, and the girls became nuns whether they wanted it or not.  We did a tour through the public areas and a house as well as the meeting room.  It was the room where the girls could see their families.  But they were blocked from touching and had to bring someone else with them to supervise so they couldn't share too many bad things.  It was a little depressing.  And on top of that they...

Day 13 Strange Dancers Today's big excitement was visiting the Colca Canyon to view condors.  Which we did see.  Only we took the truly tacky tourist route.  We hit up a few scenic viewpoints along the way.  We had a few stops along the way.  The strangest one was a small town where the teenagers do this specific dance in the square every morning.  It involves the boys wearing masks while dressed like girls while they sway around the fountain.  I'm not sure how excited they were to be doing it because it mostly felt like a draw for bringing in tourists.  The square was filled with people selling things, and of course a few ladies and their alpacas.  This stop also had a few opportunities to take a picture with an eagle I believe.  We only seen a few places with birds and most of the tour guides are quite disgusted at the idea of people catching the birds for picture opportunities for a few soles. Our next stop was at another chu...

Day 12 The trip is really winding down.  We're on the last few days of vacation now.  Today mostly felt like a travel day with some scenic viewpoints and we climbed up and down in elevation.  We're heading south to Chivay.  We're off to Colca Canyon to see the condors tomorrow so we're moving closer since the best viewing is in the morning. Up at the highest altitude of the trip We've seen much of the countryside and hit our highest altitude at 4910m!  Most of the group have become used to the altitude.  You still feel it a bit but don't have to walk in tiny, slow steps to have enough energy to move around.  I'll still be happy to be back down low at home. One thing for adjusting to the altitude are coca leaves.  They are the same leaves used to make cocaine.  Of course you need tons of leaves mixed with chemicals for the drug.  You can directly chew the leaves, which are high in calcium so you'll have healthy teeth as wel...

Day 11 We all survived our evening at the homestay.  Again, breakfast was a crazy amount of food.  They just kept bringing out more and more plates of food! Sheep on the way up Our morning entertainment was a hike up to the top peak of the island, Pachamama.  This felt like one of the hardest hikes.  Much of the trail felt like you were walking straight up the hill as you climbed even higher in elevation.  We would have to move for shepards with their sheep along the trails or the men hauling loads on their backs.  There are no vehicles on the island so it's mostly manual labour as I saw more people carrying loads than animals!  There was a temple at the top of the hill that is closed aside from the winter solstice as well as some truly lovely views of Bolivia from across the lake.  It was a tough hike but worth making it to the top. Views of Bolivia and the lake This was the real moment of cultural relativism on the trip.  It'...

Day 10 Today we head further south to Lake Titicaca.  We'll be climbing up to our highest elevation in the coming days.  Here's hoping we've started to adjust! Big Church The novelty tonight is we are staying in a homestay on Amantani Island.  The villagers get a chance for some extra income and we get a chance to see how they live.  We do come here and stay in the posh suburbs, the gated communities and think we have an idea of how things work.  Not that staying in the homes is really going to give us an idea of how they live, but it's a new perspective.  Everyone seems a little anxious of what to expect but I'm sure it'll end up good. On the way to the boat we had a few stops, one at another Incan site -the entire country is littered with them.  The draw of this one was the huge church that remains as well at the out buildings.  The church could hold 1600 people I believe.  Just the supports were left.  As well as giant pile...

Day 9 Today was a final free day in Cusco and there was an optional tour through the Sacred Valley.  As it was a bit of a long tour not too many people were interested so it was just Terry and I on a different group tour.  It felt a little strange to be on a bus filled with people we didn't know, but it was a fun day! The Sacred Valley is filled with a lot of farming and ruins.  The valley is also filled with all sorts of terraces the Incans used for farming.  It was a lovely and lush valley but lost a bit of luster after seeing the valleys in Machu Picchu and Aguas Calientes.  You could tell many of those on the tour hadn't yet been there. The tour involved a drive through the valley, a tour of 2 sites, lunch, and a few markets along the way.  The whole valley felt far more touristy than anywhere we had visited before.  All the scenic pullouts had platforms built to allow the locals to sell all their wares.  Which at this point are also ge...

Day 8 Main square in Aguas Calientes We didn't have an early wakeup from the train, or for any touring today.  But as with holidays was still up earlier than I would have expected.  As our breakfast is really early at the hotel a group of us have opted to go find our own breakfast.  We were awake so we explored a bit of Aguas Calientes.  It didn't take that long!  It was a nice little walk and insane to see all the ladies out scrubbing the place with brooms and plenty of bleach.  Not sure if there was a special occasion, but the place was really clean. Waterfall! One option was to go back to Machu Picchu, whether for sunrise, or just whenever you wanted to see it again.  A few people ended up going a second time.  But we had heard about a walk to see a waterfall.  A big group of us started out and we all broke into separate groups.  I was in the fast group, so we had time for lunch and shopping.  We had priorities! ...

Machu Picchu day is finally here!  Getting here is quite an adventure.  We were up extra early and as the trains travel very slowly it's faster to drive to a closer station.  So we drove an hour and a half to Ollytaytambo and then loaded on the train to Aguas Calientes, also an hour and a half.  And then a half hour bus ride up the mountain and all of a sudden you've arrived! The train ride was interesting.  They have skylights so you can see panoramic views on your way up.  And after the beverage and snack service the workers dress up and bring their cart of random Peru Rail souvenirs for you to browse.  And the train goes really slowly! Cloudy Andes It was a little surreal to arrive up in the mountains with the clouds and fog still settled on the tops of the mountains.  You almost feel like you've arrived into a new world.  But in typical Peruvian fashion the road up the mountain is all switchbacks with narrow single lane roads and...