Day 9 - Festival dancing

The sun shone again, today was a day of exploring Cusco.  After breakfast, we spent some time talking to the loveliest lady (Kelly) who comes to the hotel each day with her little Alpacca.  She told us much about Conchita the Alpacca who is two months old.  We also spoke about her traditional dress which she told us is bespoke to each village.  She was a fountain of knowledge and it was lovely to speak to her and find out a bit about her life.  

We spent the day mooching around museums, picturesque city squares, a Church, shops and local markets.  Unbeknown to us, today was a festival day : “Feliz a Comadres”.  I think, it’s a festival of Godmothers (or something to do with women!).  Musical bands seemed to pop up randomly throughout the day at various different locations, and wherever the bands were, dancing soon followed along with the squirting of foam all over everyone!  It was a very lively affair and much celebrating by local people seemed to go on.  

I left Andy unattended for all of 20 seconds twice today and both times when I returned he had been accosted by local women!  The second time he was up dancing and taking part in the festivities 😁🕺!

We visited 3 museums; a modern art museum, a local history museum which was fascinating and had some incredible Inca artifacts but was also quite sad as it depicted how the Spanish had come across in the 1500’s and persecuted the Incas. By far my favourite, however, was the Choco Museo! I had the most delicious hot chocolate I’ve ever had.  A little pot of melted chocolate came with a little jug of hot milk and you then mixed them together yourself, it was heavenly!  We then ventured upstairs where we sampled lots of different chocolate from different regions of the Amazon and Peru.  AMAZING!!

Andy was on a mission to find the Post Office, which we did. It’s very tricky to find post cards and post boxes when abroad.   I don’t think you could say it was like a post office at home as it had a stall in it with a hand made sign above it which read “Aceite De Cannabis” - which translates to Cannabis oil, they don’t sell that in Pulborough Post Office!.

We’ve seen many dogs whilst in Peru, 99% of them sleeping in the sun.  Today, we saw one which was actually awake, in fact it was on a mission heading somewhere with great confidence and determination.  It trotted past us as we were walking along a street and when it approached the junction it stopped, looked both ways and waited for the whistle of the traffic policeman before safely crossing the road!  That was one street savvy pooch.

The festival celebrations

Local history Museum

A Cusco street

The best hot choccie

Kelly, Conchitta & me

A Cusco church

Cusco main square

Cusco Cathedral

The hotel courtyard

Post office stall

Andy’s dancing 

 Festival celebrations

Day 8 Paddington train & Cusco

Today we had to reluctantly say goodbye to the incredible staff at Sanctuary Lodge, Machu Picchu and head back down the mountain to catch the train to Ollantaytambo.  This meant a hairy bus ride back down the mountain, which zigzags and is hairpin bend after hairpin bend.  The first panic of the holiday came when I thought I had lost my bus ticket, a very patient ticket man waited while I scrambled through my pockets numerous times til I eventually found it.  Once at the bottom we then boarded a train which took us to Ollantaytambo.  Unbeknown to us, it was a Paddington in Peru themed train ride 😂 - when we boarded there was a red Paddington hat on every seat for people to wear and big paw prints all the way down the carriage, it was much fun and rather amusing to see the numerous Thai tourists enthusiastically donning their Paddington hats for the entire 1.5hour train ride! There was also a band that boarded the train, providing music for the journey and after the staff had brought the drinks trolly round for tea and coffee, it was then announced that they would be doing a fashion show up and down the aisles showing local Peruvian knit wear….you don’t get that service on British Rail!

We had arranged for a driver to meet us at the Ollantaytambo train station and take us to Cusco, via any sites we thought we might like to see.  We stopped at some more Inca ruins and had a mosey round them, a mooch around Pisco and a stop at Chinchero which at 12,300 feet, was quite something.

We passed through many remote little villages on our way to Cusco. In every village we noticed a red plastic bag on a long stick flying outside some houses.  It turns out that the red plastic bag is an indication that Chicha (homebrew) is available there.  It’s a moonshine that’s made from corn, takes 2 or 3 days to brew and is pretty lethal!  It’s very cheap, around 20p for a drink, so no wonder the locals love it!

We passed a farmer hearding his Lama down the road, they looked like a handful and very mischievous!  We also saw some road side stalls selling Guinea pigs which had been cooked on skewers - not something we’d see at home but it’s very normal here and apparently delicious according to David, our driver.  Needles to say, I won’t be trying them!

Cusco is much bigger than I had anticipated, but very pretty.  We are staying in an old Convent and our room looks out over the red clay tiled rooftops.  It was a quick dinner and early to bed.  The altitude here is approx 11,200 feet which does make you quite tired. We have been relatively fortunate, and other than a bit of a fuzzy head for a couple of days, we haven’t really suffered from altitude sickness.  We have two more days to explore Cusco which has many museums and things to see so that will be tomorrows plan.

View from Chinchero

Paddington Train 

Inca ruins

More Inca ruins

Day 7 Machu Picchu

We started the day with an orchid tour of the hotel’s gardens.  The head gardener armed Andy and I with big magnifying glasses and spent the next 45 minutes pointing out many of the different orchids as we meandered through the hotels beautiful rainforest gardens.  Many of the orchids were so tiny, we would have missed them had they not been pointed out to us.  It was a fascinating tour, even if there was a slight language barrier!

The bird life is incredible and all round the garden Humming birds can be seen zooming from flower to flower.  They are fun to watch as they travel at great speed but can slam the breaks on and simply hover while they make up their mind what they are going to do next!  A bit like me on a mission to get something from another room, but then completely forgetting what I was going to get when I arrive there!

This afternoon we met the guide, our fellow group members (a lovely American couple called Dan and Joanna who own a chain of mattress shop in America) and we headed to Machu Picchu which was all of two minutes a way.  The weather gods were kind to us and the sun shone all afternoon.  Machu Picchu was a fascinating place to learn about - the quality of the stone work reflects the importance of the people living in that building, Windows held great significance in relation to the sun, the layers of the soil  were hugely important and worked as a filtration system and the drainage of the city was complex and expertly engineered to name but a few inklings.

Dinner this evening was a lively event.  It’s out of season at Machu Picchu just now so Sanctuary Lodge where we are staying is quite quiet.  Today, however, a group of 6 ladies arrived who were celebrating a birthday!  This resulted in dinner being a lot of fun.  Alexander, our Maitre’D entertained us with his numerous card tricks and making coins pass through cups and saucers, Salvatore, the young barman with an exceptional knowledge of spirits and how they are made, spent time talking to us while Andy showed him pictures and taught him some new words e.g. kilt and belly dancing!  Andy was telling Salvatore how good his English was and it turns out there has only been one accent that Salvatore really couldn’t understand…..a broad Scottish one, in particular pronunciation of the word “water”! Andy told him not to worry, half the time he couldn’t understand it either 😂.  The Peruvian band played while we had dinner and ended with a conga round the room, we were all given instruments to play and the Machu Picchu song was sung by all.  We now have mirraccas and a mini drum thing to squeeze into the luggage, I’ve no idea how that’s going to happen.  The staff have been exceptional, in fact we’ve never stayed anywhere quite like it, it really has been a dream couple of days.

I know in the future we’ll read this blog to remind us of our adventure so I’m going to write some names down as I know in a few weeks time (quite possibly days knowing our aging memories!) well be trying to remember them…

Orlando was the receptionist, Edy our waiter, Salvatore the barman passionate about Peruvian potatoes, Alexander Aitken our Maitre’D.

This is our last night in Sanctuary Lodge, tomorrow we head for Cusco.

Machu Picchu

Dan, Joanna, Andy and me

Sanctuary Lodge gardens

The orchid tour

Orchids

More orchids

Day 6 Trains and Rains

 We skipped breakfast this morning, after yesterdays episode of being totally and utterly stuffed we thought it prudent, as we knew we were having lunch on the train.  We got picked up from our lodge in a golf buggy and checked out of the hotel.  While we were checking out the concierge pulled out a drawer and presented us with Peruvian hand woven name tags for our bags, they even spelled my name correctly which hardly ever happens!  I was so touched by this gesture and the hand woven luggage tags are absolutely gorgeous.

A hop back into the golf buggy and a 30 second drive took us to the Hiram & Bingham train station which was actually still in the grounds of the hotel.  It was unlike any train station I’ve ever been in before and more like a very plush hotel lobby!  When the train arrived steps were put up to the train, a Peruvian band exited, set up and played us onto the train.  There was one dinning car, a bar car and a final car which was open-backed.   The band played in this car and you could sit or stand looking out the back watching the world go by.  The railway is a narrow gauge railway so the train travels at a very leisurely pace, especially when the journey moved into the rainforest.

Getting on to the Hiram Bingham train was like stepping back in time - think old world luxury like Murder on the Orient Express.  There were historical pictures and photos on the carriage walls, one of which was of Mr Hiram Bingham who had been an explorer and in 1910ish had rediscovered Machu Picchu and then been involved in the design and building of the railway line.  Hiram Bingham is the person that Indian Jones is based upon.

The scenery was stunning, the tracks followed the route of the rumbling Urubamba river all the way to Machu Picchu.  The mountains are huge and make you feel very insignificant as they tower above.  We were very lucky with the weather and the sun beamed for the whole journey.  We rumbled past one big mountain which had little pods bolted onto it’s mountain face - this was called The Sky Lodge and if you were a rock climber, you could climb the mountain face and stay in one of the suspended pods for the night!  Erm, thanks but no thanks!  Lucky I’m not a mountain climber 😂!

It was an eclectic mix of people on our little train - a family of 7 from Thailand (the two teenage daughters choice of attire for a trip to Machu Picchu was questionable, I’m not sure long macrame dresses would have been my choice and I think as the heavens opened at the end of the journey, they were regretting their outfits.  There were two American couples, a grumpy couple from I’m not sure where and finally the “Selfie Queen Influencer” who watched the whole trip through her phone along with her parents.

The heavens opened just as we arrived in Machu Picchu station.  It was a 5 minute walk to then catch the bus which was going to take us up the mountain to Sanctuary Lodge and Machu Picchu.  The bus trip was only about half an hour but let me tell you - it was not for the feint hearted.  It was thirty minutes of exceptionally steep drops to the side and hair pin bends.  Fortunately Andy was sitting on the steep drop side of the bus so I just kept looking the other way.  It was stomach churning driving so high into the mountains but breathtakingly beautiful if you could bare to look.  I breathed a massive sigh of relief when we finally arrived.

We are staying at Sanctuary Lodge for two nights, which is right at the gates into Machu Picchu.  The hotel is incredible, it’s a once in a lifetime place to stay.  The room looks out onto Machu Picchu and lovely gardens.  The staff,  I don’t think there are words to describe how wonderful they are. Welcoming, informed, attentive and nothing is too much trouble.

We had the afternoon to relax, gazing across the mountains, before going to The Potato Talk at 5.30!  Potatoes and corn are the staple foods in Peru so they’re very important.  We were told on several occasions today that Peru has 3000 different types of potato (I do wonder if they meant 300?), regardless, they love their potatoes!  We tasted different types and were given a demo of how to make a special sauce which tasted amazing with potatoes!  The making of the sauce involved the biggest “postal and mortar” you’ve ever seen.  Herbs, lime juice, tomatoes and black mint were put on an enormous stone plate, then a huge stone was rocked back and forth over the ingredients crush them.  A young chef was initially doing the crushing but they asked if anyone would like to have a go and to Andy’s shock, my hand shot up!  It was great fun, but fear not, the boys remain the head chefs in our house.

The Potato demo was then followed at 6pm by The Bar Tasting which involved tasting some different spirits. The most knowledgeable bar man I have ever seen talked about 5 different spirits: a Pisco, Vodka, Gin, Whisky and a chilli Liquer.  Pisco is a traditional Peruvian spirit used to make the Pisco Sour cocktail - it was 40% proof. Next followed the potato Vodka - 41% proof; a Gin made with 24 botanicals was 42% proof, Black Whiskey which was actually a Bourbon and was made from Black Andean corn and 44 % proof.  The final drink was Andy’s favourite - a chilli liqueur and a more sensible 26%proof.

After all that, we had a quick game of crib and then the most delicious dinner which was served by the loveliest staff.  The restaurant manager had noticed that we had been playing cards so surprised us with a card trick at the end of the meal.

Andy is now snoring very loudly after much sampling of various drinks but what a special day it’s been.  

Helping at the Potato Demo

Test run of the wet weather gear

View from the room across to Machu Picchu

The train journey

Our table

Hiram and Bingham train carriage

Hiram and Bingham train

Enjoying the train ride

Waiting for the train

Happy days 

The waiting room

Hand woven luggage labels

Day 5 Lazy Days

 Rio Sagrado in Urubamba has been the most idyllic place to stay for a couple of days.  Today has very much been a day of doing nothing in particular.  The gardens are beautiful so we wandered round them after breakfast, stopping to say hello to the Alpacas who frequent a corner spot (a couple of naughty ones managed to escape this afternoon then had free reign of the entire garden, they looked very pleased with themselves!)

Breakfast unexpectedly turned into a bit of a mammoth start to the day!  We were brought a fruit platter, cheese and cold meat with various pastries and a fresh juice of the day - only after all that did they take the order of what we would like!  By this time I had no room for anything else but Andy had some very delicious smoked trout with guacamole on brown toast.  Half an hour later, just as we were thinking it was time to leave the restaurant, we were then presented with a complimentary little dish of freshly made chocolate loaf with raspberries and a cup of Coca Tea!  It would of course have been rude to say no thank you, so we remained for another 20 mins.  

We wandered through the garden, trying to identify plants and trees.  The bird song is incredible, the whole area is teaming with life and there’s a constant chatter of birds so there was nothing for it..a bird identifier app had to be downloaded.  Identifying the birds was a joy and I now know what a Golden-billed Saltator & Rufous collared sparrow sound like.  The piece-de-resistance had to be the little humming bird called a Sparkling Violetear.

Andy had a snooze in a hammock by the river and I sorted out my bag for tomorrow which took a bit of time.  We are leaving Urubamba and getting a train up to Machu Picchu where we are staying for 2 nights at a place called Sanctuary Lodge.  The tricky part is that it’s a small gauge rail way so luggage is very limited and we’re only allowed to take a small bag weighing 8kgs.  Careful packing is required because in this limit I also have to fit walking boots and waterproofs.  I think I’ve done it..we’ll find out tomorrow!

Off now for an early night before the train in the morning.  Machu Picchu here we come!

Cheeky Alpaccas

Giant butterfly

A snoozing Andy

The little humming bird

A spot of sunbathing