Peru Part I: Being Lazy in Urubamba, or, Toilet Telephones

After I did the recaps from the Galapagos trip (you can find them all here), I was South America trip recap burned out. It's hard to really talk about a trip without sounding trite and cliche, but this trip was incredible. I loved the Galapagos, but Peru, and specifically Machu Picchu, really charmed me. From the history to the natural beauty it was simply stunning. After a quick night in the hotel in Lima, we were up bright and early to hop a short one hour flight to Cusco. The incredible thing about flying into Cusco is that it is at such a high elevation, with towering mountains on top of that. You can actually see snow covered mountain tops popping up out of the clouds while you're at cruising altitude.

What's up, mountain?

 As usual, we were given a big ol' box of goodies to eat and a drink, even on a 57 minute flight. Get it together, every American airline. South America has nicer planes, friendlier staff, and food all over the place. Come on now.

Upon landing in Cusco, we hung out in the lounge while our guide, Joaquin, told us what we'd be doing over the next few days. In the interest of staving off altitude sickness (especially since we just came from sea level) I had the second of what would be four cups of coca tea that day. They made it with fresh leaves, compared to the tea bag I had at the hotel in Lima that morning.

Totally delicious, and scientifically proven to work. Also, illegal in America.

We left the airport and headed out on a two hour drive to our hotel for the night. The drive was beautiful, and after a week of sun and water activity, plus a day of airplane travel, it was nice to just sit back and look at some beautiful scenery.

 Halfway to our hotel, we broke up the drive by stopping at an open air market. Bobby and I are not kitschy souvenir buyers, so we just wandered around checking things out, looking for a vendor selling food.

 We found a woman selling huge cobs of white corn with fresh white cheese. Bingo!

 This was crazy delicious. I'm not even the biggest fan of corn and I was singing its praises for a few days.

We hopped back in the car and continued on our merry way to our hotel for the night, the Tambo del Inka
in the little town of Urubamba. It was gorgeous, but strangely empty. We got there around 3 p.m., and the entire evening was devoted to chilling out and catching our breath a bit. I was thankful for the scheduled down time. We had an early dinner/late lunch that was incredible.

Yay food!

This mushroom risotto haunts my dreams, taunting me with the knowledge that I can never eat it again

I had my 3rd and 4th cups of coca tea at dinner- this is when I started to realize that it will make you speedy. After dinner we all kind of went our separate ways. Bobby's parents and his sister and brother-in-law went off for naps, and we headed out to explore the place. My pupils were dilated like saucers and my heart was racing from all the coca tea, so a nap was out of the question for me, anyway. But yay no altitude sickness!

Lobby action

More lobby (this was taken before dinner while we were filling out passport paperwork and such)

I loved these columns. And the fireplace was incredible

 We knew we wanted to check out the pool and hot tub, but we also knew that after doing so we would crash into bed for the night. We made ourselves walk around the grounds first, and I'm glad we did. The hotel is right on the Urubamba river, and it was the rainy season, so everything was green and happy.

Bobby's parents in the window :)

We headed back inside as the sun started to set so we could visit the pool. The following pictures are a bit blurry because the flash washed everything out, so I turned it off. We spent about an hour in the pool/spa area, jumping from pool to pool like kids. I'm glad we didn't let our exhaustion get the better of us or else we would have missed out. Bonus- we wore our stinky, funky Galapagos swimsuits in the chlorinated, very hot water. Ta-da! Totally clean.

 Half of this pool was inside, the other half was outside. You could swim under that window to the right and be out on the deck. It was a bit too cool for that, though, so we headed downstairs to check out the hot tubs.

 Between all the different pools, the wooden platform, and the random cold bath I felt like I was back in one of my favorite places on earth- the Japanese onsen. Not quite as awesome, but almost.

 The hot tubs, aka "our washing machines". What can I say, we have no shame.

 We decided that the water had rejuvenated us enough for some night time socializing, so we headed back to the room to change clothes. The dining room, still empty, was all ready for dinner time.

 This was one of the bars, and to the right there was a wall of windows overlooking a porch, that was hanging out over the river. This clinched our decision to change and come back. Plus, we were a bit hungry and who doesn't want another opportunity to eat on vacation?

 All in all it was a nice afternoon and evening of down time, and we found ourselves back in our room exhausted by the very early hour of 10 p.m. Although I'm still wondering- why was there a phone in the bathroom?? Mysteries.

Leaving Ecuador, Galapagos Day 6: Santa Cruz Island, Darwin Research Center

On our last day in the Galapagos we took our last panga ride to a port town on Santa Cruz island. We were going to spend the morning at the Charles Darwin Research Center to see the giant tortoises.

A bus picked us up at the port...

then dropped us off to hike for about 15 minutes up to the research center.

This was a cemetery- I thought the white geometric walls with the flowers were interesting.

Bobby, mimicking a statue.

Once we got inside, we spent some time with the tortoises. It was so hard not to touch them, seriously, I'm 4 years old.

Awww, who's pretty??

I admit that I feel a bit cheated that they get about 200 years of life.

We saw the famous Lonesome George, who is apparently not as old (or as lonesome, wink!) as everyone thinks.

Then we checked out all the different corrals of baby tortoises. They were so tiny it was hard to imagine that they would grow into something so huge.

After the research center we hiked  back to our bus and then drove across the island to catch our flight back to mainland Ecuador.

We left from the same open air airport in Baltra. With a two hour wait, we had more time to hang out this time.

This was the view of the runway from the little cafe. People would watch the planes land and when they saw their land they'd gather their things and start to leave.

The cafe had free, and very slow, internet so we tried to upload some mid-trip pics while we waited. The flight back to Guayaquil was uneventful, although I was (not surprisingly) a bit anxious.

We were served meals on every.single.flight. of this trip- even on flights that were only an hour long- but unfortunately AeroGal gave us meaty-meat for lunch.When we landed in Guayaquil we had about an hour before our flight to Lima, so Bobby and I shared a pile of veggie fried rice. Please note that the soy sauce is labeled "Salsa China".

The flight from Guayaquil to Lima is only and hour and a half, but I wanted to cry the last half because I was totally planed out and the turbulence sucked. I took this picture during the first half of the flight, when it was smooth sailing and I was able to appreciate something like a great sunset. After that things went downhill, and I was so ready to be on solid ground.

Our hotel was right across the street from the airport, and we arrived hungry and tired. I tried to get a shot of the Incan decor, but it basically looks like sticks with random cloth in this picture, so maybe just ignore it. We ate and then fell into bed because we had an early morning flight to catch the next morning that would take us to Cusco to start the second part of our trip- Peru, specifically Machu Picchu.

Galapagos Day 5: Fernandina Island, Punta Espinoza and Isabela Island, Punta Vicente Roca

Our last full day on the ship started off with a three hour long hike around Fernandina Island. This was the first day that it was truly sweltering, and that coupled with the black lava reflecting everything made for an intense hike. But it was certainly worth it to be able to spend so much time on Fernandina.

This pile of marine iguanas greeted us upon our arrival. Here is a video of just how gross these creatures are- they are constantly blowing salt water out of their noses, and defecating in runny yellow rivers all over the rocks and one another. Still, I found their smug faces endearing, despite all the body fluids they were excreting.

See what I mean? When they go balancing lava lizards on their heads and smirking at you, it's all over.

That was a very, very deep crack. I don't know that it was entirely smart for me to hang into it like that.

This is my favorite shot of Fernandina.

Whoops, nearly stepped on a little friend there. They just blended in so well.

Remains of a whale that had been beached many years ago.

After the hike and lunch, we headed out for one last snorkeling trip off of Isabela Island, in Punta Vicente Roca.

This snorkeling excursion was all sea turtles, all the time. When I took this picture there were 3 more floating around me.

The water conditions weren't the best, but it was worth it to get to swim in a group of sea turtles. Although I have to admit, their eyes creeped me out a bit.

This guy got so close to me, I had to back up so I didn't touch him.

Here's another one, right under me.

He's probably pooping in my face here, while I'm having a magical sea turtle moment.

There were a few boobies, although nothing like what we experienced on Rabida.

This picture makes me smile. I imagine a cheesy little tune playing in its head as it shoots through the water.

We only encountered one sea lion, but he was all up on us for a while.

This is right after he put his face up to my goggles and was swirling around me in tight circles.

Done with our last snorkeling trip, with the mask marks to prove it.

 We headed back to the ship to watch the sunset, since it was our last night. It started off pretty good..

and then ended even better. We had a half day left on Santa Cruz island the next day, and we were very sad to see our time on the ship coming to an end. Mostly I wanted someone to continue to make my bed and cook for me :)