To Cusco and prep for the Inca Trail

One of our goals on our honeymoon trip was to hike the Inca Trail to Macchu Picchu. Even though we planned it at the last minute, we were fortunate to be traveling during the low season, so it was easy to arrange transportation from La Paz, accommodation in Cusco, and the tour. We actually took a bus from La Paz to Cusco for 2 reasons. First, we thought it might be nice to see the altiplano scenery in Bolivia and Peru, and second, we learned there are no reliable, cheap flights from La Paz to Cusco. It would have cost $400-500 each to take 2 connecting flights, while the bus was USD$40 round-trip and 2-3 more hours each way, so it was a no-brainer. Plus, with the money we saved by not flying, we could buy more artisan crafts from my brother's friends!

Generally, you spend 2-3 days in Cusco before starting the Inca Trail, to acclimate to the altitude. Cusco is 3500 meters above sea level, which is about 2 miles. Since we had been in La Paz for a week, we didn't have to spend the time in Cusco, but we did arrive early to finalize our tour booking and arrange for a return bus ride.

In Cusco we stayed at the Hostal de Ninos. This hotel was started by a Scandinavian lady who wanted to stay and help some of the poorer kids in Cusco. She started the hostel and several other small enterprises to fund schooling and food to some of the children in the city.

After arriving from a long day's journey across the Bolivian and Peruvian high plains, we had a great night's sleep and breakfast at the hotel. The next day we took care of administrative stuff like paying for our Inca Trail tour and finding bus tickets back to Cusco, and then took a taxi to go see one of the famous ruins near Cusco, called Sacsayhuaman. It's pronounced kinda like "sexy woman" - it's quite fun to talk about it!

We learned you have to buy a tour pass to see the ruins. Well, I knew that already, having visited Cusco a few years ago, but we thought we could sneak in or maybe pay to see just one of the ruins. The park ranger would have none of it, but after a lot of negotiation they let us in to see the ruins for the price of only 1 partial tour pass at 40 soles, or $13. The full tour pass for all 10 ruins is now 70 soles, compared to 30 soles only 3 years ago!

No one is exactly sure what Sacsayhuaman was. Most believe it was a fortress/castle due to the layout and location. There are massive rock walls with carved stones over 10 feet high and some of them have multiple corners and angles carved into them. One of the amazing features of Inca architecture is that the most important military and religious buildings have walls made of huge stones carved to fit precisely together without the use of mortar, and nearly every stone will have different angles cut on its sides. It is quite different than ancient European architecture, where stones are cut into simple squares or rectangles. In a few places I saw stones with 10, 12 or even 14 corners/sides or more!

After walking around the large ruins of "sexy woman", we walked back down to Cusco. It's a quick 20 minute walk back into the city along an ancient Incan path. I find it amazing that Incan architecture is still usable on a daily basis even after more than 500 years! We had a quick lunch near the main plaza, called Plaza de Armas, and then walked down to the Temple of the Sun, which is in Cusco. This used to be a key Incan temple, and now showcases Incan architecture and Jesuit art and architecture.

The Spaniards destroyed most of the temple, kept the foundation and built a monastery on top of the Inca foundation. However, in the subsequent years strong earthquakes destroyed the monastery, while the Incan foundation was still intact!

That night we had a briefing session with our tour operator, SAS Travel, where we met our two guides, Saul and Juan, and our fellow hikers. Our group was 13 tourists, and we learned people were from all over the world; Russia, Australia, UK and USA. We also received duffel bags and plastic bags to hold our belongings and sleeping pads, since Julie and I paid a little extra to have porters carry our belongings. I wanted us to spend our time enjoying the hike and scenery rather than being tired from schlepping a backpack at high altitude.

Bolivia-Copacabana, Isla del Sol, and cuisine

After spending Christmas at both Julie's and my parents' places in Fremont and Miami, we flew to Bolivia on Dec 29 to visit my family and go sightseeing.

We were excited because my cousin Andrea invited us to spend New Years at Copacabana and Isla del Sol, both which are on Lake Titicaca. It would be a great opportunity to visit these 2 famous areas in Bolivia.

When we arrived at La Paz airport, my aunt Teresa and Andrea were there to greet us. There we learned that we were supposed to leave early the next morning (Dec 30) to go to Copacabana. Oops! A little miscalculation on my part. Normally this would not be an issue, but it's important to understand that upon flying into La Paz, nearly everyone gets altitude sickness. The airport is at 3600 meters or 11,800 feet! So my aunts & uncles were a little nervous about us going off and camping/hiking/whatever a day after our arrival.

I wasn't worried about the altitude, but what we were supposed to bring to Isla del Sol. I didn't know if we were staying hotels or camping out! With little info to go on, we packed our sleeping bags and plenty of warm clothes.

The next morning we took the bus from La Paz to Copacabana. Taking a bus in Bolivia can be an interesting experience. There are many 20+ year old buses that are colorfully painted and are a key transportation mode in Bolivia. The road to Copacabana includes a stop at Tiquina, where we had to get off the bus and take the little boat ferries across the other side of the lake, just a short 1/2 km ride. The buses, trucks and cars crossed via large flat ferries. After a 3 hour trip, for just 20 Bolivianos (USD$2.5) we finally arrived at Copacabana. Here, we quickly arranged our boat transport to Isla del Sol.

We had lunch in Copa. Apparently the trout is supposed to be good here... Well, after eating loads of seafood in NZ and fresh steamed fish Chinese-style at Julie's parents' house, a pan-fried fish filet was just average. During our month in Bolivia, we quickly learned that Bolivia is not known for its excellent cuisine. However, we quickly fell in love with the soups - this country seems to be the capital of soup! yum!

The boat ride from Copacabana to Isla del Sol is 1.5 to 2 hours on a small ferry boat for about 25 people. There are great views of the lake border as you approach the island and it is just amazing to see such deep blue water!

We stopped at south end of Isla del Sol at the little town of Yumani. We planned to spend the night at a hostel here. But first, we had to climb up the 1000 Inca steps and see the Fountain of the Incas! Uh oh... this was definitely not the thing to do less than 24 hours after arriving in Bolivia!

Luckily the 1000 steps are not that many, maybe more like 200. But it took us quite a while to walk up, me with a 40-liter pack on my back. The reward was seeing a 500-1000 year old Inca fountain still flowing with water - the Incans were amazing architects!

We had a lot of drama finding a hostel. We had to hike to the top of the town just to try to find a decent hostel, which was quite tiring for Julie and I, and finally my cousin's friend settled on a so-so hostel; we learned many were already full. The upside was that we had amazing sunset views, with the typical red-fire sunset accompanied by dozens of lightning flashes off in the distance - wow!

The next day we set off for the ruins. That night, we learned that hiking to the north end was a 3-hour trip and we probably would've had to hike back, due to the limited boat schedule. Well, half of us weren't up to 6-8 hours of trekking, so we opted to take a boat ride to a nearby town and and do the short walk to the ruins.

We had a nice 45 minute walk up to the ruins, with a big impromptu tour group, and learned about the place where the Aymaran culture (pre-Inca) believes the world started. There was a big rock shaped like a puma, another rock in the shape of a diety's face, and a set of Aymaran ruins that used to house a small colony of priests. One of my cousin's friends even got a blessing from the priests at a small altar.

Back to Copacabana by boat. We had another night in a hostel in town, as we decided to spend New Year's here rather than on the island. We sort of had running water - Julie and I managed to take a warm shower! Later that night the workers had to carry buckets of water to the roof to refill the water tank!

Well, we had a great New Years watching fireworks all over the town. We had a little bubbly at the hotel rooftop balcony taking it all in. That night we had picana, a typical Bolivian dish for Christmas or New year, which was a 3-meat stew with corn and potatoes. Not bad except for the toonta potatoes.

One thing there is a huge variety of in Bolivia and Peru is potato. Apparently there are hundreds of varieties, including some potatoes that are dehydrated and others freeze-dried. Incredible what the pre-Incan cultures discovered. There are 2 main dehydrated/freeze-dried potatoes. Chuna is the dark-colored one, and Toonta the white one. While chuna tastes like a rehydrated potato, it's interesting and tasty, toonta was our least favorite potato - it tasted like crap! literally...

The next day we woke up at 9 am (yes!) after dancing until 3 AM... Luckily everyone else got up just before we did. Since our bus wasn't until 3 or 4 pm, we wanted to do a short hike in town and decided to hike up Calvary hill in town. It's supposed to have great views of Copacabana and the lake, so we went. We learned there are 12 crosses on the way up, which represent the 12 stations in Christ's crucifixion, and the Catholics supposedly stop at each cross, say a prayer and a wish, and toss a little pebble onto the cross to make the wish come true. I thought it was a nice way to remind us to pray, so Julie and I did this on our way up.

The views at top were indeed fantastic. In addition to the typical South American shrines, what was also interesting at the top was this pagan ritual of renting a small plot of dirt and putting a mini house, garden and cars on it. Apparently this miniature home was to represent the real things you wanted, so you bought miniatures, set them up, and some old guy blessed the whole thing with a prayer and splash of beer.

Well, OK. After taking in the views, we hiked down, had another average lunch of trout, and returned to La Paz via bus. All in all, we had a fascinating introduction to Bolivian customs and managed to stay healthy!