Peru Day4 - Machu Picchu

Peru Trip day 3 last stop post is here..

On day 4 we were asked again to get up at 4AM. We were to leave the hotel at 4:30AM on a 2 hour car ride to Ollantaytampo train station. Get a short restroom and breakfast break there and leave on a 7AM train to Aguas Caliente, the small town at the base of Machu Picchu. The train ride was almost 2 hours. 

So off we went. It was a scenic drive early in the morning with snow covered mountains for backdrops.

A slide show of pictures from the taxi and train rides..

Once we got into the train after that long drive, we settled in to enjoy more scenery along the way.

It was a Mystic experience, alright! To add to the mysticism, they kept serving coca tea to help with the altitude sickness. 

The train winds its way along the banks of the Urubabma river and the Andes mountains provide a breathtaking backdrop..

Eventually we started seeing terraces and Inca housing and we knew we were close. 

Once at Agua Calientes we were in for a rude shock. Everyone on the train made a mad dash to the bus station. We knew we were to take a bus to the top and meet our tourguide at the entrance to Machupicchu. San and the little one decided to take a "restroom break" in the train station before going on the bus. By the time they came out of the restroom, we were standing in the bus line somewhere in the next town. I was not in a talking mood at that point. It took 5 minutes at a minimum between buses and we were going to be in bus number 15 or so.. Then all of a sudden more buses showed up and after waiting for only 45 minutes, we were on our way up. 

A funny thing happened while we were in line with Jr. debating the merits of taking a break on the train as opposed to on the ground. She suddenly said "there is a guy asking for your name". We all said "seriously, there is a guy saying sundararaman ?" and after a few minutes we had a face palm moment when a guy actually was reading out my name. Turns out jr. was right. The tour guide was also late and he had not made his way up and was trying to find us at the base! Always listen to your kids and take them seriously, especially when they tell you things that sound ridiculous!

We made our way up on an interesting bus ride into the clouds! You can see it in the video below..

Once up there, it was a steep hike from the entrance. I was completely drenched in sweat by the time I made it up on that trek with my camera bag. It was worth it though. The view of Machupicchu just makes you take a deep breath and go "how the hell did they do this up here?" It is truly a wonder of the world!

For a few minutes on the hike I was thinking 'there is a reason this place is on the bucket list for a lot of folks.. but it would be better to put it on the end of the list.. one might hit the bucket just going on this hike!"

Kept clicking photos from every vantage point. Here are some of my favorites..

The rest are in the slide shows below..

We did get two family portraits thanks to our tour guide.. 

After that sweat drenching episode, things took a good turn and my body finally adjusted to the altitude and the hiking. Eventually I put on my new Alpaca sweater that had been purchased the previous day at Chinchero.. 

It started raining after we had spent close to two hours up there. We stood in line for the return bus again for a good 45 minutes and made it down to Aguas Calientes. There were a lot of restaurants on the bus stand but we did not find anything Vegetarian with good quality. Had to settle for some fries and some Mexican food that was too oily. The kids were not happy, but we had cookies, chips and other snacks to fill up and got some Gatorade to go. 

I ran in the rain to get this picture just before heading back to the train station. This small base camp of sorts was beautiful. 

Finally at the train station, we met a lot of our previous tour buddies from before and sat together and chatted for a good hour. Then we said our byes and made it back to Cusco via train and car. When we first boarded the train we were wondering why our tour operator had booked us in the expensive Inca Rail train intead of the cheaper Peru Rail. We found out why on the return. Apparently the government owned Peru rail is cheaper but not reliable. They cancelled the previous train and the train station was packed with folks from two trains scrambling to make it into one! After a 30 minute delay we were on our way back..

That night was going to be our last night in Cusco. So we found a real nice Andean food place, but this time the owner was standing outside the restaurant trying to get customers. He saw me and asked "you are looking for good vegetarian food?" and I said "yes!" and he says "we will custom make whatever you want. just come inside". It was called Ama Lur Restaurante and they made us really good food that we picked from the menu. He even gave us rice and Yogurt! Finally the kids came back to the hotel all happy. 

When we reached the hotel, we got one more piece of good news. We had to get ready only by 5:45 AM the next day instead of 4 something! We were going on a 12 hour bus ride with 5 or 6 stops... that will be the next post!

Peru Day 3 - Fourth stop - cooperative store

Previous post on this series is here ...

There was one photo of Urubamba river that I missed in previous posts.. so here it is! We did not go back through the same route we came. It was more like a loop from Cusco to Ollantaytambo to Chinchero and back to Cucso!

The last stop on day 3 was a workers co-operative of sorts where a group of ladies do wool products, arts and crafts that are ethnic and sell it to tourists. As an added service they provide free restrooms in an otherwise desolate place.. it is a win win.

They also tried to make it interesting for the adults and kids by having a few stalls.. the first one was a display of a jillion potato varieties. Did you know that my favorite vegetable came from Peru?! For that alone, I owe these people. If someone gave me an award just for living this long and I had to give a speech, it would start with Peru for potato and move on to the folks who came up with Noodles  and that would be it.. if they gave me a three minute time limit that is..

My mouth is suddenly watering for things like sambar and soan papdi because of my recent sickness, not that I can taste a thing.. where were we? Potato! 

 Then there was an Alpaca pen.. the kids got to feed the Alpaca's

San got to pet them..

then we got to see this lady carrying a baby on her back and keep weaving the wool..

That was one incredibly cute baby..

 Then we had a demonstration of how the wool was sheared, cleaned using a local root, colored using different natural colors.. (she pulled a parasite from a cactus leaf, crushed it and used its blood as the red coloring.. that was bizzare)! 

She made some jokes about how it is too late for me to use that root to get strong hair as I have lost it already. At least that is the one thing that the kids remember from that whole stop! Showed this picture to the little one and asked "rememeber her?" and she goes "she made that joke about your hair.. ha ha!"

After the demo and some shopping we came back to Cusco. It was our second night in Cusco. The first night dinner was a disaster. We asked our guide to just drop us off at the Plaza de Arma and he obliged. We found an "Italian restaurant" and asked for Vegetarian items. There was a Nepolitano (cheese) pizza and Spagheti with tomato sauce (not marinara.. just tomato). We got that and ate what we could and crashed. It was better than the previous night, but we felt something was missing. 

The little one was pale and she barely managed to eat anything. The altitude sickness somehow hit us hard from 7 to 9PM.. we went back to the hotel room and crashed.

The next day was going to be interesting.. the most interesting.. Machu Pichhu was beconing.. 

Peru Day 3 - Third stop - Chinchero

Previous post on this series is here..

When we left Ollantaytambo, it was already getting late. So it was a race with the sun to get to our next stop, Chinchero. Our guide told us that this was a relatively new excavation site where more things were unearthed every day!

We were treated to some really rural sites on the way throughout the journey..

Here is also a video of day 3 from the bus..

We were up in the mountains again and on the way we saw some scenery that was breathtaking. It was also getting chilly..

Finally we reached Chinchero. It was a beautiful place on a hill with another Church built on what was originally an Inca Sun temple. The church was beautiful (gold as far as the eye could see, paintings that would rival Renaissance art done by local artists) and so was the view from the sun temple.. 

There were little shops that were opened for our bus and folks were going about their daily lives of farming and closing out chores. This dog kept barking at us as we walked past it.. Did I mention that Peru has even more street dogs than we see in India?! stray dogs everywhere.. at least a dozen in every street corner!

The view of the street(s?) in Chinchero..

Every street has that drain in the middle.. very well done given the sudden rains! They have lasted hundred's of years!

The Church and Sun Temple.. 

The views from the edge of the hill into the Andes mountain range was spectacular.. My pictures don't capture them well enough.. 

We wrapped things up with a family portrait and were off to our last stop... a workers cooperative store of sorts that sold handicrafts, woolen things etc. . another engineered rest room stop from our tour operators to encourage shopping.. 

I did buy a nice Alpaca sweater at Chinchero to wear on the reminder of the trip just before heading out of the square.. 

Tomorrow.. the cooperative store..

You don't decide when you go..

That was pretty much the summary of my conversation with my grandma. Spent an hour with her on the three day trip. Wish I could spend more time with her. Grandma never sat up and walked after her surgery more than a year ago. 

My conversations with grandma have the usual points (from her or me)

Her points :

1. Grandpa is gone. I have no reason to live. Just praying that God takes me soon. (understandable given she got married to him at 5, started living with him at 13, had 8 kids, had a long and happy married life for 65 years and he passed away)

2. the doctors did something to me after the surgery. I try to move my body but it doesn't respond

3. I am doing my best but it is not working

My points :

1. you don't decide when you go. 

2. as long as you are here, might as well try to do your best and do the rest room thing yourself

we have had the same conversation twice in the two one hour visits over last year and this year. 

She is still sharp and is probably the most progressiver person in the family given her age and situation. She always wants to know if the kids are still practicing music. Never asks about their academics or school.. Only "are they still learning music? are they practicing?"

The woman truly believes that the only thing worth leaving our kids is art ! Sometimes I actully agree with her. 

Hopefully, next year when I see her, she will be up and walking to the restroom on her own! She is trying... 

The little one and her violin

The little one has been learning the violin for one more year. She has definitely grown in confidence and has improved in spite of not practicing enough (we agree, her teacher agrees and most importantly, she agrees!) 

Here are some photos and a video snippet from the Winter Recital from the Music school.

There was a big surprise at the recital! Haik, who had come to the US to play on Sunday to a sold out concert came to encourage the students. 

Imagine you are warming up in your schools playground and suddenly the gym teacher says "kids, I have a little surprise for you. Usain Bolt happens to be a family friend and he is here to show you how he runs the 100m and will also answer questions on how he trains and anything else you might want to ask him and you can take pictures with him after the recital! " In violin terms, that is what happened !

The kids loved it. They also saw "how easy" it was to play like that if you practice for only 25 years! 

We enjoyed the evening with the little one doing her recital without mistakes and Haik's little cameo. Next year, if she practices well, the little one might be going on to doing more nuanced pieces. We wait with bated breath...