Inca Trail

The boys had an AMAZING adventure on the Inca Trail. Happily they both survived no problems and had the time of their lives. Knowing both of these men very well, it is hard to meet their very high standards, and both of them agreed that it far exceeded their expectations.

They had a great group of people to hike with, even some fellow Canadians, and loved their tour guide Freddy. It was a 4 day hike, being three solid days of hiking and then the fourth day arriving to Machu Picchu. It was very nice to meet the boys at the gate of these immaculate ruins and just to know they were happy and healthy.

Here is the group right before they started their trek. They began at the 82km railway marker.

 

Andrew said that his dad did a great job. John was the oldest member in their hiking group, I believe, and was usually the first one to arrive at the next pit stop. Apparently hiking, exercise, stairs, nor altitude can slow him down!

 

 

Their porters carried the majority of their things and had their tents all set up when they arrived at camp. They were fed three solid meals per day, plus snacks and tea. Apparently on their last night there was a freshly baked cake. Nobody knows how it got there and whether it's even possible for the cooks to bake a cake on the side of the mountain, but they said it tasted good!

Here I am sharing some of Andrew's pictures of the trail. It was very heart-warming that Andrew got to do this with his father, and I'm sure this is something that neither of them will ever forget.

As they started their hike, they went over the Urubamba River. On the right side you can see the railway tracks where Penny and I travelled to get to Aguas Calientes.

This fortress and agricultural centre is called Llactapata. They came upon these ruins after only hiking a short ways.

 

The first day they hiked about 6 hours. The landscapes were beautiful and they were approaching the mountains. They saw a lot of donkeys, alpacas and cows along the way. Some Peruvians live along this portion of the Inca Trail so they did pass a few small villages on the first day.

 

Don't ask me what any of these places mean or where exactly they stopped, but here is a sign indicating the trek for the Inca Trail.

 

 

They encountered a pack of llamas running down the trail just before arriving at their first camp site in Yuncachimpa.

 

The second day was the worst for hiking. Four hours of ascending hiking and then another 6 hours of strenuous hiking. They claimed it was fun. This is a picture of Andrew and John finishing the toughest section of the trail to Warmi Wanusca (i.e. 'Dead Woman's Pass') at 13,800 feet.

 

 

 

Of course with Andrew's new camera, he was testing out all sorts of lenses and angles. I'm pretty sure he took like 2000 photos along the trail and narrowed it down to 60 for his Facebook album! He enjoyed also taking pictures of the animals and the flowers.

 

 

 

The sunset from the Sayaqmarka ruins. Now that they are in the middle of nowhere, Andrew couldn't come around the corner with a 1L bottle of beer like he did the first night...

 

 

The sunset from their campsite at Chaquiqocha on the second night. You can also see a couple more of the friendly neighbourhood llamas.

 

Here is a picture using his fish eye lens of their campsite on the second night. I have to admit I gave him a hard time about buying this lens a few months back, but he really has turned out some really spectacular photos with this lens.

 

 

Andrew said the third day was his favourite of the trail. It had the nicest scenery getting into the cloud forest and it was also mostly downhill, ha ha.

 

The ruins of Phuyupatamarca, is one of the most beautiful sites in the Inca Trail, almost always with clouds, typical of the cloud forests.

 

 

 

Although they hiked 'The Inca Trail', they only walked 44 km of the 40,000 km of trails that were built by the Incas across South America. Their vast empire stretched through large sections of Peru, Chile, Ecuador and Argentina.

 

Although the porters carried Andrew and John's tents and supplies and blankets and food, they still were supposed to carry their necessities. In Andrew's words, this means giant camera bag, several different lenses, and a tiny bottle of water. He was known on the trail as the crazy guy with the big camera and tripod.

 

 

On the third day they saw quite a few Incan ruins. 'Intipata' is a fairly newly discovered site, which was primarily an agricultural settlement due to the absence of plazas, religious structures or fortifications.

 

 

The view of the Urubamba River down in the valley below. Machu Picchu is less than 10 km away from here.

 

The second most beautiful Inca ruins along the trail (the first obviously being Machu Picchu) was this site very close to the last campsite named Winay Wayna (Quechua for "forever young", named after a variety of pink orchids that live here). This large complex was not discovered until 1942.

 

 

 

One last shot of the gang before they got to Machu Picchu.

 The last morning, they woke up at like 4am because the porters wanted to catch the train to get home for the rest for the week. Most of them do the hike once per week.

After hiking for 4 days, they finally arrived at Inti Punku (the 'Sun Gate') early in the morning and got their first glimpse of Machu Picchu, the mysterious 'Lost City of the Incas'.

 They hiked another half hour or so and then met Penny and I at the front gates of Machu Picchu for our morning at the amazing site!!!!!!!!

Aguas Calientes

Our last morning in Cusco and I woke up SICK!!! It was a rough night. Considering that we ate lunch at the same restaurant we had dinner when Andrew's mother got sick, it was a lesson sadly learned as I was sick for three days with food poisoning. It was awful. There was no way to stay in bed all day, as we had to check out of our hotel, drive through the mountains and make it to the train on time to meet the boys the following morning.

So Olga picked us up and we drove to Chinchero on a private tour in a taxi. Considering that the cabs are so cheap in Peru, I guess it was cheaper for the travel agency to hire us a cab rather than an actual tour bus. We took Penny to the Chinchero market, with different women who showed her how to make all of the dyes for the yarn. We even dressed up in their clothes and took a picture with them!

 

One remarkable thing about this country is that their old women don't have gray hair. All of the natives have dark dark long hair and even the older ladies don't have a single gray hair! They claim it is because of their root that they use as shampoo. Seriously, someone should smuggle it back to North America because they'd make a fortune!

After that, we drove to the salt mines of Maras. This was really neat. Each mine has its own owner, who mines their own pool. Then they sell their salt to the company, who processes it and sells it. There are over 3000 salt pools at this mine. It was really cool.

Then we drove to Moray, which had nice terraces. Unfortunately by this time I'd had enough of the car so I was not game for hiking to the bottom, but it was a nice view from the top.

We stopped at the Alhambra restaurant again in Urubumba, as Penny didn't get to experience it the first time. I don't think I got my money's worth but it was nice that Penny got to enjoy it. They drove us to Ollantaytambo, where we caught the train for some first class service for 1.5 hours to the town of Aguas Calientes. This is known as "Machu Picchu Village", as the buses leave from Aguas Calientes and drive you to Macchu Picchu ruins from their bus terminal.

This village is really tiny, with only one road for cars. The rest is all hotels, restaurants and pedestrian walkways. This is exactly a tourist town!!!! The hotel was situated right beside the train station, so Penny and I both had a terrible sleep, but we were very happy to be up in the forest and so close to Machu Picchu!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cusco Without the Boys

Well, the boys were gone by 5am but that didn't stop Penny and I from exploring Cusco! We had a morning city tour planned and it was really nice. Our guide Olga met us and took us to the San Blas square and the AMAZING workshop of Antonio Olave P. These pieces were absolutely incredible and got to meet his son. Penny bought two really nice pieces for the boys to congratulate them on surviving the Inca Trail. Of course, if they hadn't finished, it would have been a consolation prize so they don't feel like losers.

We visited another artist workshop and walked through town to see the 12-angle stone and the Inka Museum. After that, we split from Olga and had some drinks at a pub overlooking the town square and some lunch. Being the typical women, we found a giant town market and went shopping for the whole afternoon. Bought many souvenirs at ridiculous prices. It was fun to practice my Spanish!!

After dinner we went to the spa, where we enjoyed a 1 hr 20 min full body massage, which cost us only 60 soles. Ridiculous!

The next morning was a free day. We walked around to do some more shopping and found a parade. Happily we finished our souvenir shopping and spent the evening at a Native dance show, where there was a live band and a performance of all different cultures, costumes and dances from Peruvians all over the mountains. It was very nice. That evening we had dinner and started packing, as we were leaving Cusco the next morning to venture off towards the boys.

It was very nice spending time one-on-one with Penny, and an opportunity to do some shopping without having the boys hanging over our shoulders prying for us to move along. But of course we were worried about the boys and were excited to see them, in whatever shape they would be....

Cusco With The Boys

We got to spend two days in Cusco with the boys before they left for the Inca Trail. It was a beautiful 1.5 hour flight over the Andes Mountains from Lima to Cusco. The city is a common stop for people travelling to Machu Picchu and it is a wonderful city. Very clean and friendly city in the canyon surrounded by mountains. Due to the height above sea level, the weather is very strange, as it could be 20 degrees during the day but like 3 degrees at night. I found we were constantly taking off and putting on clothes depending on whether we were in the shade or sun and the time of day.

The first day we toured the Cathedral, Main Square, the Temple of the Sun, Saksawayman ruins, Q'enqo, Tambomachay, and stopped at a local shop to learn the difference between alpaca, baby alpaca, and fake wool. I splurged and bought a gorgeous baby alpaca scarf!
























The next day we had booked an all day excursion around the Sacred Valley of the Incas. Unfortunately Andrew's mother woke up with altitude sickness/food poisoning and had to stay behind. We drove all through the mountains viewing the landscapes and enjoying the culture. We stopped in Pisaq and enjoyed their market. We got to watch men fitting stones into handmade jewelry, which was really fun. They drove us to Urubamba and had a spectacular buffet lunch in this restaurant retreat, with alpacas and macaws and beautiful scenery. We then travelled to Ollantaytambo to see a spectacular Incan ruin where the Incans actually had to transport these giant stones, weighing many tons each, from the river many kms below, up the hill to this site.

 

We stopped on the way back in Chinchero, where local women showed us how they spin their wool to make yarn and then dye it in all colours. Every colour of yarn is made from some sort of natural colouring, it was really fun. That evening the boys met up with their Inca Trail guide for a meeting. It was nice to meet him and calm our nerves - I think I speak for both Penny and myself when I say it was nice to hear that he climbs the trail one per week for the past 17 years!!!!!

 

 

 

 

That evening we enjoyed our last meal with the boys and helped them pack up all of their things. It was pretty cute to see how excited they were. The Inca Trail for both Andrew and John has been a lifelong dream and we were happy to see them begin their adventure.

xoxo
Kim

Peru Post #1 - Lima

We flew into Lima in the evening and were greeted by representatives from our travel agency. We immediately felt like royalty, as 4 people came to greet us and there was only 4 of us guests!!

My immediate thought on the way to the hotel was that the city was extremely disorganized. Roads go everywhere, traffic is awful, busses are jampacked full of people, and the horn honking is almost a constant noise.

However, the next morning we started a great day of exploring Lima. We walked down the main strip towards the water. Lima is situated on the cliffs overlooking the ocean and it is very picturesque. Along the cliffs is the Park of Love and also Larcomar, which is a very richy shopping centre. Immediately we noticed how clean the Miraflores district of Lima is. Of course this is where the majority of tourists stay, but there were city workers everywhere cleaning everything.













Things plentiful in Lima? Security guards standing outside of basically every store. Casinos on every corner. And money exchange people selling their services on the street. We also found several Scotiabank branches!!

In the afternoon we enjoyed a city tour and then attended the Lima Water Fountains show in the evening. It was very nice to stroll through the giant park and view all of the different light/water exhibits. They also had a laser water show which was quite amazing.

We had a very delicious steak dinner in the restaurant at our hotel after enduring the MOST INSANE taxi ride of my life. The guy was insane, the drivers are crazy, but couldn't believe we paid the equivalent of $4 for the four of us to squeeze into a taxi and go about 20km through the city to our hotel!!! I guess you get what you pay for??

Like the rest of Peru, you cannot drink the tap water and you cannot put your toilet paper in the toilet, it must go into the waste basket. Definitely something to get used to and it was a weird transition once we got back to Canada, ha ha!

Lima was a nice start to our trip, but of course we were very excited to begin the next phase of our vacation in the Andes Mountains and the Incan ruins.

xoxo
Kim

Our Trip to Canada!!!!!!!!!!

I'm finally going to start posting about our trip to Canada. It was spectacular. Besides me being the craziest woman on earth travelling on an airplane for 9 hours with two young kids by myself, it was so wonderful to spend so much time with my family and friends!!!!!!!!

I went down first with the kids, and we spent three weeks driving around Ontario and visiting with everybody. Andrew came and spent a weekend with us before Andrew, his parents and I set off for Peru. They stayed for a week and then headed back to Canada, and Andrew and I stayed for a total of 16 days. It was a very adventurous and wonderful trip, unlike any of our others. It far exceeded our expectations!! We would recommend it to everybody, especially our travel company.

We got to spend another week in Canada before we headed back to Finland. We missed the kids terribly but they flourished without us. Charlie's new snuggle buddies were Oma and Grandma and I'm pretty sure they enjoyed each and every single snuggle and hug from my little boy. Maddy was thrilled to have so much fun with her cousins and family.

They spent a lot of time in the pool! It was remarkable to see her transition - when we arrived in Canada, she refused to get her face wet or put her head under the water at all. By the time Andrew arrived three weeks later, she was running and jumping off the diving board like nobody's business. I was so proud of her!

We were very blessed for all of the effort and time that our family put into seeing us and spending time with us. And of course to the grandparents, who cared and loved and watched our children so that Andrew and I could have a vacation without the kids. We are very blessed, and we know it!

xoxo
Kim

Getting Darker...

Well, it's nearing the middle of November and getting to the time of year that all Finns despise....the darkness of the winter. I have to admit that I am noticing that people are coming home from work earlier, as the roads are getting noticeably busier when I pick Maddy up from school.

Charlie usually sleeps from 1 to 3, and now if I put him to bed a bit later, it's actually kinda dark when he's waking up from his nap!!! A little bit confusing for the little guy, that's for sure.

The good news is that people are beginning to hang up the Christmas lights outside, and lighting their outdoor candles. I'm hoping dinner goes down quickly tonight so that Maddy and I can stroll through the neighbourhood looking at the lights.

It's a beautiful day.
Kim

MOvember

Seriously, how is it November already???
Or shall I say MOvember?

Am I the only wife who refuses to let her husband grow a beard for the month of November? Does this make me mean? Just curious how many other women out there have to listen to them beg and plead every single November.....