Tag Archives: peru
Days 29-30: Returning / Jul, 19
My return home was a gradual, multi-city one. I flew first to Lima, where I spent one night, and then Toronto, where I spent another. Then, anticlimactically, I took a short morning flight in a prop plane to Cleveland. At the Cusco airport the morning after Machu Picchu, I felt tired and craved sugar. I […]
Day 26: Inca Trail Day 2 / Jul, 16
This is known as the hardest day of the classic four-day trek, because you navigate two high-altitude mountain passes and hike for a total of about 10 hours. But we woke at a relatively leisurely 5:30 a.m. After breakfast, the sun was just starting to rise. As we ascended to Dead Woman’s Pass, the highest […]
Day 24: Cusco / Jul, 14
Seth and I spent the day exploring Cusco. It was a Sunday, and a lot of stuff was closed, including almost all the museums. That, along with the dreary weather, meant I was probably destined not to like this city quite as much as Puno or Arequipa. Still, it’s a remarkable place. The San Blas […]
Day 23: Train to Cusco / Jul, 13
I had kind of rough night last night, woke up very early judging myself for not taking a “harder” trip. Something where I wasn’t spending any money, where I’d removed myself entirely from civilization and was roughing it. Something, in fact, like what Cheryl Strayed did in Wild, which I finally finished reading. I want […]
Day 22: Titikhaaakhaaa / Jul, 12
Today I gave in to being a tourist. Temporarily, I think, because ultimately I like exploring things better on my own. But it also was kind of relaxing just to ride around in buses all day, allowing a tour guide to herd me from place to place. Seth and I woke early and found that […]
Day 21: Puno / Jul, 11
Today I rode a bus that was determined to act like a plane, complete with TV monitors for each seat and an endless safety video and a well-coiffed stewardess who asked me to turn off my cell phone before we departed. (So it wouldn’t interfere with Bus Traffic Control I guess?) This would be the […]
Day 19: Juanita the Mummy / Jul, 09
After the Santa Catalina Monastery, Arequipa’s second-most famous attraction is Juanita the Mummy. Housed at El Museo Santuarios Andinos, Juanita is a 12- or 13-year-old Inca girl who was the victim of human sacrifice sometime in the middle of the 15th century. (I say “victim” because even though the museum’s displays and tour guides kind […]
Day 17: Arequipa I Love You / Jul, 07
Another travel-dominated day, one that would take me 1,600 miles from Santiago to Arequipa, Peru, where I’d begin the next chapter of my trip. My flight, operated by the Chilean airline Sky, hopscotched its way north, landing first in Antofagosta and then Arica, both cities in northern Chile surrounded by brown desert and mountains, before […]