12/03/08 cont - so we finally arrive at Machu Picchu, well actually it was Aguas Caliente, a small village outside of the actual site. It was a touristy site and we needed to take another bus to the entrance of Machu Picchu. After finding the bus station and taking the bus, a long 30 min ride snaking up the mountain, we arrived at the entrance of the great Machu Picchu. Tickets in hand, we were on our way to main destination. Upon entering Machu Picchu, from now on I'm calling it MP for short, there were more steps and hills to climb. Then there it was, the site we have came all the way from the Bay Area to see, the famous MP. It was a cooler day with overcast skies and the temperature was about 75. It was an impressive view, even though it wasn't as grand as I had thought it would be. There were plenty of more steps and once we got to the top of the site, we were able to appreciate more of how the ruins were built in the first place and now we can see why the spanish never found MP. You can also see from the pictures that MP is hidden in a valley at 12,000 ft. We spent about 4 hours in MP and then we had about 3 hours left before our train back to Cusco. We had spoken with another traveler back when we were on Lake Titicaca, and she recommended a restaurant IndioFeliz to eat at in Aguas Caliente. So we did and it was WONDERFUL. The bread was great with fresh butter, and we had an avacado and papaya salad to start. The avocados were so big and fresh in Peru, and both that and papayas were melon balled and served with a vinaigrette. Very Good. Then came the soup, which I had the Peruvian creme, which was not creamy at all, but full of veggies and good stuff. Then the main course was salmon with a spicy tomato sauce. This was probably the best grilled salmon I've ever had. It was the tail of the salmon with skin still on. And finally dessert was fresh fruit with ice cream. It was a mix of fresh fruit grown locally (kiwi, pineapple, papaya, orange, apples) and it was in a orange juice mix. Also very good. Overall i think both Shiz and i concluded that this was the best meal we have had in Peru, and the second would be at Inka Grill, and thirdly the cuy and goat spine at La Chomba. We then did some souvenir shopping and slept on the train on the way back. It was the longest train ride ever, I thought it would never end, and finally after 3 1/2 hours, we finally arrived and had to hike back to our hotel. I think MP was worth our time and effort and was kind of happy that we didn't hike the trail. It wasn't because I didn't want to, but I think that having a few more days in Chile would be better spent.
This would culminate the end of Peru for Shiz and I. We had started in Puno with a night stay on Lake Titicaca, and then headed to Cusco for a visit to MP. Overall it was a great start to our vacation, minus the the whole altitude sickness part. Now we are off to Chile!!
So the morning of 12/04/08 we had to get to the airport, we had changed our flight to 11am so we weren't as rushed as we had originally planned. Shiz had read that we should always try to get on early flights because LAN airlines has a bad habit of delaying or cancelling flights. And low and behold our 11am flight was delayed until 1pm, at first it was because of plane not available, ie "plane not there" and then it was delayed again for security issues, I guess they were fixing the plane or something. The were in no rush to get to Lima because our flight from Lima to Santiago, Chile was at 5pm and once we got to Santiago, we were staying there overnight, so no rush, just enjoying the last parts of Peru and waiting in anticipation for Chile. After arriving from Cusco to Lima, we were waiting for our flight to Santiago. Flying domestically in Peru incurred an Airport tax ranging from $3-4. But since we were flying international, we were slapped with a $30.25 charge, what a robbery. That was our last contribution to Peru. We still had some soles left, so we just bought packets of snacks. On the flight to Santiago, Shiz read a bit and I watched Hell Boy II. It was an ok movie, made the time fly. 4 hour flight into Santiago. Our plan is to wait at the airport from 12am to 6am for a bus ride from Santiago to Valparaiso (a ocean side city that Shiz heard of). We arrived into Chile and had to go through Custom's again, but Chile charged us $132 dollars for a reciprocity fee, since the US charges Chile that fee when its citizens visit the US. Then we had to declare stuff too, because Chile was very strict on what we can bring in, I had to declare my half bag of trail mix which had nuts, and dried fruit in it, and Shiz had to declare some tea that was gifted to her from our hosts on Amantani Island. Our first image of chile sucked, charging us money before we did anything and throwing away our stuff...oh well at least we found some comfortable seats to sleep on for a few hours. That's what we did, locked up our stuff and took a nap, I awoke randomly at 3pm and took a picture of Shiz sleeping, and apparently she did the same to me. Photo documentation.
The next morning arrived and we found our buses pretty easily. We found this Bed and Breakfast place on the hostelworld.com site and it had the best reviews I have ever seen. They were at 97% with over 20 reviews, unheard of. All the reviews raved about the great price, central location, the wonderful service and suggestions they got from the hosts, Renee and Carolina. We booked 2 nights to stay at their house and wasn't due to arrive until 10am, but we got there early at 8:30am. Rang their doorbell and boom, we were let in. At first I was surprised that there was no one at the door to greet us. Then I saw Renee standing at the top of the stairs and he had jimmied a long string so that he could open the bottom front door without having to climb the stairs each time, ingenious. Renee was the owned the B&B business with his girlfriend Carolina. Renee spoke english and spanish, but Carolina only spoke spanish. It was 8:30 in the morning and they were both making breakfast for their other guests. We apologized for arriving early, but they were both so welcoming that it didn't really seem to bother them. Right away Renee showed us around and went through rules of the house, and proceeded to give us suggestions of what there is to do in Valparaiso. He had maps, and writings and he drew locations of things to see, food to eat, places to drink. I could tell right away why people loved this place, it was not because of the beds, or the shared bathroom, but because of the care and love Renee and Carolina put into each one of their guests and their city. The room we were staying in wasn't vacated yet because we got their too early, but Renee put our stuff in the living room and offered us coffee/tea and a hot shower. After our showers we went to take in the city.
Valparaiso is known for its beautiful scenes, nice beaches, and wonderful graffiti work. The first sights we saw were graffiti ave. It was really like several streets that had graffiti everywhere, from the street to the walls to the trash cans. It was not just tagging of gang names or symbols, but full on art work (you need to see my pictures to appreciate that). After that we went to the financial district where all the banks were at and withdrew money. I have never seen so many banks with so many people. It took Shiz and I a few tries before we figured out how to get the ATMs to present in english instead of spanish. With money in our pockets we headed out "the best place to eat chorillanoes" according to Renee. It was a small restaurant at the end of an alley. At first glance it looks very dirty and dark, there are people's pen marks and messages all over the table cloth and the walls and whiteout messages on the windows and glass cabinets, but since it was the best, we still ate there. It was simple to order, we ordered one chorillano, big enough for 2 people and some sodas. Chorillano is french fries with steamed onions and grilled pork chunks on top. It is served with bread and some chili sauce. It was absolutely delicious. Afterwards we were so stuffed we knew we had to walk around or else we would fall asleep. We continued to see the city and took their "lifts". These are like cable cars of San Francisco that ran up and down hills only. We saw the port and Shiz wanted to see sand so we tried to take the local train along the coast until we saw sand. All we saw was port, no luck there. We stopped at a supermarket (first we've seen in South America) and bought some fruits and juices and Shiz bought a bottle of wine. It was some of the cheapest wine in the world. The wine averaged about 2000 pesos a bottle, which comes to about $3.50 ($1 = 650 pesos). It was ridiculous. But the line to checkout was even worse, it took us 15 min to cruise the aisles but it took 30 min to check out. After that we cabbed it back to Renee's and went straight for a nap. We didn't awake until 9pm when Renee knocked on the door asking if we wanted to go horse back riding tomorrow. Of course we want to. Renee also offers these activities like horse back riding, kayaking, and mountain biking. He has friends who owns these businesses and I guess we get discounts for going to his friends. So we planned on going there tomorrow morning. After we got up Shiz and I went to eat at a Tapas place around the corner from Renee's. It was a very cute and small place, but the food was absolutely delicious. We ordered 4 items to share and it would barely fit our small table, I guess most people go there and drink wine and snack on a dish, instead of like us, pigging out on 4 dishes. It was good anyways. Then we stumbled home in a food coma state and slept some more.
Horse back riding day, Renee and Carolina prepared breakfast and afterwards we were off to horseback riding. It was about an hour away up along the coast and we passed Vina del Mar, another cute coastal city. There were about 7 people riding, Shiz and I, Maria and Christian (a couple from Santiago on vacation), Renne and Carolina, and a German woman who has vacationed here before. There were beautiful horses and mine was called "Tribiall", a yellow horse. It was a 3 hour ride that took us from the ranch over the sand dunes and onto the ocean beach. We rode horses on the beach, but my horse got stubborn after awhile. ok more to follow, proximo tiempo
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