Peru - Day 8 {A Miracle Occurs}

I went to bed the night before feeling really sad that we would skip our Sacred Valley tour to do laundry and buy our Machu Picchu tickets but I knew both tasks were important. I said a prayer that night and in the morning that everything would work out and we'd be able to do what we had planned in the Sacred Valley.

The next morning I got up and was ready a little bit before Danny. I decided to go down to breakfast by myself. As I was eating there was one other couple in the breakfast room and I noticed they spoke English. I started to chat with them about their itinerary and discovered they had visited the Sacred Valley the day before. I asked them if they had gone on one of the tours and they told me they had found a fabulous taxi driver that took them on their own private tour of the valley and arranged tours of the ruins for them and everything. I explained our situation with our laundry and I asked if they had the taxi drivers name and phone#. The husband said, "of course!", went to go get the # from their room, and when he came back told me he had given the # to the front desk girl and asked her to call the taxi driver to arrange for him to pick Danny and I up around noon for a tour. A miracle!!! I seriously almost cried right then and there. I couldn't thank them enough! We were going to be able to get everything done and see all the sights we had planned. The couple left the hotel to catch a flight to Brazil about 5 minutes after I started talking with them. I don't think it was random that we happened to meet at breakfast. They also were the coolest retired couple I've ever met. They had the craziest stories about their travels (orangutan attacks in India, close calls with cobras, bees that pull hair, etc). They made me feel like a wimp!

When Danny came down to breakfast my new friends had already left and I could hardly contain my excitement about how everything had come together. He was a bit shocked.

We dropped off our laundry and tried to find the Ministry of Culture where we could buy the much coveted Machu Picchu tickets. We followed our googlemap and it did not led us to the Ministry of Culture. We asked 3 police men, a security guard, and the concierge at a 5star hotel and everyone gave us different directions. We walked for 2 hours through the tourist areas and not so tourist areas. We couldn't find it anywhere. I wanted to turn around. The concierge told us to take a taxi but I refused to hail one on the side of the road (the US warns against it). Danny was super angry. We finally gave up. **Peru seriously needs to hire a consulting firm to help them with their Machu Picchu business. Their website doesn't work and it's near impossible to get tickets unless you book the train, hotel, guide, and tickets as a package...which is way, way more expensive.***

We had some time before our laundry was done so we decided to walk to the San Blas artist district for some quick shopping. I was excited about this part of the day but Danny's sour mood was quickly ruining the experience. I tried to stay positive. Unfortunately when I tried to buy some stuff from a shop the sales lady kept trying to rip me off by changing the exchange rate and the price of the items and claiming they didn't take specific credit cards despite having a billion stickers for that card in the window. I got angry and decided to buy only an ornament for a few soles. Next I stopped into a nicer boutique and decided to buy a cute headband to wear at Machu Picchu. I was excited about my purchase for about 30 seconds when I came across the same headband for a fraction of the price at a booth on the side of the road. While I was looking at said headband at the booth a street vendor was harassing Danny about buying some paintings. When I came back Danny was holding a tube with something rolled up in it and told me not to ask questions. Turns out he paid the guy $20 to leave him alone (that's quite a bit of money in Peru) and got a crappy picture in exchange. I seriously did not like Cusco.

I grabbed McDonalds for lunch while Danny grabbed our laundry and we met back up at the hotel. We barely had time to eat before our taxi driver showed up. We rushed to stuff our laundry in a duffel bag and threw Danny's ipod in the side pocket. We grabbed our luggage and were ready to go with our taxi driver when I reminded Danny that we needed to settle on the price first. The taxi driver told Danny the price and I was shocked. It was WAY more than my friends had told me they paid. I was mad and didn't want to go but Danny told me to suck it up. As we walked through the crowds (festival still going on) to where the taxi was parked I may have gotten a little overly emotional about how I felt the Peruvians were taking advantage of me. We were poor students, and had worked hard and saved our money for 4 years to go on this trip. Why were people trying to take my hard earned money from me through lies and trickery? I was NOT a happy camper in the car.  Our taxi driver kept stopping at spots he said made good pictures and insisted on taking pictures of us together. After awhile it won me over. He was doing a good job.

 Pisac Market

I had arrange our itinerary so we would be doing the Sacred Valley tour on a day that the Pisac market would be open. It was our first stop. I was a little hesitant about the whole shopping business after my experience earlier that morning but with our taxi driver as our guide I was hoping things would go better.

 Mural

 Silver Jewelry Factory

Checking out the goods

I did end up buying a purse for my mom and some pendants from the silver jewelry factory. Next we visited the ruins on top of the mountain above Pisac. I had zero expectations and knew nothing about these ruins before going. They were really cool and I wish we had had more time. Our taxi driver arranged a tour guide for us and he was pretty awesome.

 Terraces at Pisac

Upper class part of city

 The Sacred Valley

Spiritual Cleansing

Our guide playing his flute at the sacred or mystical spot

 Burial Caves

 "Incas built around the mountain"

 Cave

 The high point

 Where the priests lived?

 Above the temple district

 The temple district of Pisac

The house of the virgins

We had to cut our tour short because we still had another ruin city to see, Ollantaytambo, and it was an hour away from Pisac. Our guide was a little bugged that we left before seeing the most important part of Pisac (the temples) but it was already getting dark.

We made it to Ollyantaytambo just in time. We ended up with only about 30 minutes at the site and we didn't get a guide because we just didn't have time. The funniest thing happened while we were there. A Peruvian man asked me (in Spanish so of course I didn't understand) to take a picture of his family but after I said yes all of a sudden they were all taking pictures WITH ME! Danny had already climbed up some terraces and didn't have the camera but he was laughing so hard. The family took about 15 pictures with me and I was so confused about what was going on. I never did find out because they only spoke Spanish.

 Storehouses. That is a long way to climb to store and get food!

 The town and market

 Human sacrifice

 In prison

 Fancy fountain

It got dark so we decided to head to our hotel outside Urubamba. When we arrived I about cried. It was nice. I was so relieved to be somewhere nice again after our 3 days of staying at our sub par hotel in Cusco where I couldn't sleep. Our luggage was taken right away by bell hops and we were brought glasses of delicious fruit juice (which we shouldn't have drunk but did). We said good bye to our taxi driver and when Danny gave him the money our taxi driver said it was too much and told us the price was what my friends had paid. Still not sure if he changed his mind about the price after seeing my emotional reaction or if Danny just heard him incorrectly. We asked him if he knew anyone who could give us a ride to the train station the next morning and he arranged for his taxi driving friend to take us.

After settling in our room we decided to head to the restaurant for dinner.  We decided to splurge and got Alpaca and Gnocchis. Both were absolutely delicious. While we were waiting for our food we say two different families from our Cusco city tour at the restaurant as well. Small world!

Teriyaki sesame Alpaca fillet with sweet potatoes

Beef tenderloin with Gnocchi

Yummy food makes Danny happy

The hotel

After dinner we went to the business center to try and get our Machu Picchu tickets for the billionth time. It didn't work. I was panicked that there were only 400 tickets left and there were way more than 400 people on the trains arriving before ours. I was worried we wouldn't get tickets after traveling all this way!

 It was also around this time that we discovered that Danny's ipod, that had been in the outside pocket of his duffel bag, was missing. Danny was really sad. I felt violated because he didn't have a lock on it and it had a ton of our pictures on it. It was a little weird because I had been extra watchful all day because the ipod was in the outside pocket. I knew better!

Curse you Ministry of Culture. You win again!

Trying to decide what to do

Hotel near our room

The old school key and lock on our room door

Angry after calling the Machu Picchu ticket hotline at the Ministry of Culture. "Don't worry lady."

Moments after the above picture was taken I moved the euro pillow on the bed and the biggest spider I have ever seen came running towards me. I screamed for Danny and he came running and then screamed because the spider was just so big. He used two shoes to kill it and it made a huge mess. I was really impressed with his courage because it was a beast. We moved the other bed away from the wall and used our heavy duty bug spray from the Amazon to spray a barrier around the bed and the door. I was looking forward to restful sleep at this nice hotel but didn't sleep well because I was stressed out about our Machu Picchu tickets and spiders attacking me!

Peru - Day 7 {The Day I Had 9 Lives}

Oh what to say about this day. I'm trying to block it from my memory.

The night before I emailed my parents saying, "We're going on a mountain bike tour tomorrow and it's kind of sketchy. If you don't hear from me by tomorrow night be worried."

I barely survived.

We met our tour group at 9am in the morning. The travel agency had told us there were 4 other people signed up before we signed up. I think they were lying. Two other people were in our group...both young men, solo travelers, from Europe. I knew immediately I was going to be the one holding the group up. Ugh. We got our bikes in the main plaza and then biked together through the traffic to the bus station. It was super crowded because of the festival and of course I got stuck behind by a red light while the others in the group continued. I screamed for Danny to wait and luckily he heard me the second time. As we were weaving through the traffic I kept thinking to myself  "I'm going to die." We finally arrived at the bus station and boarded our bus with the other locals. I was so glad to be off the bike for awhile. The bus was really crowded and the locals seemed a little bugged we were on their bus. We were on the bus for a little over an hour and then got off  in the middle of no where.

Loading the bikes

Danny's super excited

We got off the bus on the side of the freeway in the middle of no where

The beginning of our bike adventure

We started on a flat dirt road. Then it go steep rather quickly. Despite being on altitude sickness pills the altitude started to get to me and I had a really hard time breathing. I didn't get very far when I had to get off my bike and walk. I had made a huge mistake. I should not have been on this tour!! I saw a whole bunch of other tourists on biking tours and saw they had a white van following behind them. Ah, that is why their tour was so much more expensive. They had a private van following them in case they couldn't make it or they didn't want to ride any more. I wondered how much it would take for them to add me to their tour. Did I have enough cash on me? We were barely starting our day and I was already WAY behind everyone else. I felt horrible. I wanted to go back! Our guide re-routed us to a flatter route but it was still too steep for me. The travel agency totally lied to me! It was NOT all down hill. So far it was only up hill.

I was walking my bike again and still having asthma attacks. I stopped for a bit and actually contemplated lying down in the manure filled fields and dying. How was I going to survive this day?!?!  I finally caught up to Danny and I said, "I feel like I'm going to throw up." Then surprisingly, HE started throwing up instead of me. I'm not going to lie, I was kind of happy about it. Now I wasn't the only one struggling. He told me to continue walking so he could throw up in private.

We caught up with our guide and group who were all waiting for us at the top of the hill. Our guide said we needed to make a decision. We were supposed to visit pre-inca experimental agricultural terraces but the ride was ALL up hill and very steep. Our guide said I wasn't going to make it. He wanted us to ride to the nearby village, Maras, and hire a private van to drive us to the terraces. The van would cost everyone more money. Danny told everyone we would pay for them because I was the problem but they wanted to do the ride. We finally convinced our guide to let Danny and I separate from the group and go to the village by ourselves and they could meet up with us after they went to the terraces. He did not like the idea but when we told him we had a cell phone he finally gave in. We got our directions and were told to be very careful and watch our bags constantly. Danny and I road our bikes to the town and then tried to find the main plaza. I was a little freaked out because it was very apparent we were out of place. This was not a tourists destination. When Danny's chain broke on his bike and we stopped to fix it I noticed the same people kept walking by. I started to get nervous. We decided to keep moving and just walk our bikes. We asked for directions and finally got to the main plaza. There was a police station on the main plaza and we sat down on the curb right in front. Doesn't get any safer than that right?

Our curb

The main plaza. Not much to see.

We ate our lunches and people watched. Finally our group showed up and our guide was so relieved we were still alive and had all our belongings. After they ate their lunches we started our downhill journey to the salt mines. I was really looking forward to this part of the day. Finally something I could do! Wrong. Turns out the trail to the salt mines is a technical mountain biking trail used for competition! WTF. I was certain I would die. I wish I had gotten a picture of the trail but I was too busy trying to stay alive.

After a quick google search this might be the trail. At least it looked like it on the easy parts.

This is the bike version of the death road. No kidding. The death road is just on the other side of the ravine. As I was making my way white-knuckled over the boulders on the 2 foot wide (sometime much narrower) trail on the edge of a cliff I was also saying what might possibly be the longest prayer I've ever said in my life. And just as I thought I was going to make it through the day without injury I got freaked out by a big drop and turned my bike into the mountain and ended up with my bike on top of me and my back right on top of a very pointy boulder. Luckily I didn't break my back and only ended up with some small bruises there but I did end up with a pretty swollen and bruised knee. Not too bad though. No broken bones and no stitches. I wasn't even the only one to fall that day.

I'm having a horrible time. Someone please help me. I'm going to die.

Death road by bus on one side. Death road by bike on the other. Salt mines in between.

Danny was loving it

We finally made it to the salt mines and I thought my troubles were over for the day. I was physically and emotionally drained. I was so stressed out from the ride down I thought I was going to started crying hysterically any moment.

Salt Mines

YOU OWE ME BIG TIME

Salt

Then I found out we had to keep riding down hill on the same trail. I couldn't handle anymore. I walked my bike down. Then we had to ride our bikes FOREVER UPHILL through multiple towns to the bus station. I was SO mad. Danny told me to change my attitude and he quickly learned that was the wrong way to motivate me. We finally made it to the bus stop and got seats on our bus but not before Danny got into a fight with a lady in the men's bathroom.

The Sacred Valley from the bus

After over an hour on the bus (part of which Danny spent in very close/awkward) proximity to a young local girl...haha) I was dreading getting back on our bikes for our ride back to the main plaza. Luckily our guide arranged for someone to come pick up our bikes but we still had to walk back to our hotel and we had no idea where we were. We made it to the hotel safe and sound, grabbed McDonald's for dinner, and emailed my parents we were alive. But we soon realized that besides the obvious the bike tour might have been a mistake. We needed to do laundry desperately which would take 2 hours and we had to do it the next day because we wouldn't have access to laundry facilities after. We also needed to get our tickets to Machu Picchu. We were suppose to go on a tour of the Sacred Valley the next day but those tours started at 9am... way before our laundry could be done or before we could get Machu Picchu tickets. What to do?? After lots of discussion we decided we had to do laundry and get the tickets so we were just going to have to miss the Sacred Valley ruins. I was so sad and mad when I went to bed. We never should have gone mountain biking!!

Looking back...Danny had an amazing time and I survived and kind of had a spiritual experience in the process so I guess it worked out okay. Our guide was really patient and kind and it was not his fault I was mislead into signing up for the tour. The travel agencies will tell you whatever you want to hear to get you to sign up. Beware. Just another reason I strongly disliked Cusco.