We arrived in Cusco around 6:30pm.
Snow-capped mountains in Peru from the plane
We stayed at the Palacio Nazarenes just off the main square of Cusco. The elegant hotel was a former nunnery and full of stone corridors and small courtyards- and very easy to get lost in. We were wishing we had more time to enjoy it (which we will, just not now). The hotel restaurant, Mauka, was supposed to be one of the bests in Cusco, and also didn't disappoint.
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| Dinner at Mauka |
Our room was spacious and they supposedly pumped oxygen into the room to counter the effects of the high altitude, although we both still suffered from the altitude. Cusco's elevation is 11,200 feet, which we think is the highest we have slept. We bought a pulse oximeter with us for fun and it definitely confirmed we were short on oxygen.
In the morning we walked around Cusco and explored the alpaca shops, saw the 12-sided stone and watched the festival in the main square (which apparently happens the first Sunday of every month).
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| Twelve-sided stone |
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| Festival in the main square |
Our pick up to transport us to the Sacred Valley was at 11. The ride was about 2 hours across the beautiful country side. We stayed at Explora - a brand that focuses on outdoor activities - so it wasn't a surprise that even before checking into our room one of the guides explained the first trek that would start in a couple of hours. We then checked in had a quick lunch and got ready for our hike. It was a short 5K hike with only 600ft elevation with a goal of helping us acclimatize to the elevation, and while lower than Cusco, we were still over 9500 feet.
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| Mid-hike |
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| At the view point |
On Monday morning we had to skip the first exploration because Filip had to attend traffic court (we forgot to renew the registration on the lambo). Fortunately his case was dismissed immediately and we can continue to enjoy Peru!
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| Traffic court! |
After traffic court we took a long walk through the corn fields over to the spa and were impressed with the beautiful gardens set against the mountains.
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| Walk to the spa |
Our afternoon activity was a 16.5m bike ride along the Urubamba river, which we thought would be pretty easy based on the description and the distance, but we were not as prepared for the bumpy terrain as we thought. The views were beautiful when we could look up (which was infrequently).
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| Filip with our guide, Victor (notice Filip's color choices) |
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| That is a horse behind us |
Tuesday we did a full day hike to
Maras Plateau with our guide, Oscar. It was pretty chilly at the start but definitely warmed up towards the end of the day. A lot of the hike was through farm lands with beautiful wild flower-lined paths and oat fields.
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| Oat fields that we walked through |
After about a mile we had our first sitting of the Inca remains of Moray. Oscar told us that the Incas planted a different crop on each terrace level because it was a degree warmer than the one above it.
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| First sighting of Moray from the hike |
We continued around the farmlands closer to the remains, feeling grateful that we hiked, as many people were arriving in their tour vans with this being 1 of their 6 stops for the day.
After enjoying Moray we continued our hike to a secluded area where Explora had set up a lovely picnic lunch for us.
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Lunch at 11,500 feet
We continued the journey after lunch through the town of Maras and then on to the salt flats. There are 633 families in Maras and they all own individual salt flats and participate in the cooperative group. You cannot buy a salt flat- you have to live in Maras and the community has to gift you one or more.
After our hike we were gifted a beautiful sunset at the lodge before dinner. |
On Wednesday we selected a half-day hike to Chinchero called
Kaytucha. It had a very early start (6:45) so we attempted to drink our coffee in the car. (One of us may have worn some of it.) Oscar was our guide again and we had two other Explora guests join us. They were two very young Spanish-speaking women and Oscar had to explain everything twice, but it worked really well.
The best part about the hike was just as we were getting out of the van a dog joined us. Unlike several of the dogs we have seen, this one was really healthy and playful. She was running circles around us and she especially liked Filip and Oscar. We kept thinking she would turn back but she went the entire way with us appearing to know the route, but Oscar (who had done this hike an uncountable number of times) said he had never seen her before. We named her Rana (in honor of Sapo)
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| At the beginning of the hike |
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Filip with Rana
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At the end of the hike we visited the Chinchero archelogical site before heading back to the van- just missing the rain.
We took the afternoon off from explorations and enjoyed some massages at the spa.
On Thursday we had signed up for a full day 10-K hike called the 5 Lagunas with a peak elevation of 14,295 ft. Our guide today was Jose and a family of 3 also joined. We were pleasantly surprised at how well we both handled the altitude and the hills. The hike included two peaks and as expected 5 large lakes along the way. We went through many farmlands and saw several alpaca herds. It was also interesting to see the locals working in the fields.
In front of one of the lagunas
Flowers at this elevation were stemless
With some of the alpacas
We had a picnic lunch beside one of the lakes and thought it was ironic that we were eating duck sandwiches while watching the ducks.
Alpacas, shepherds and Filip
When we finished the hike, both of us had recorded a distance of around 4.5 miles, so we think that Jose had skipped part of the hike- which was disappointing (although understandable as both the mom and the 11-year old had asthma and seemed to be struggling with the altitude).
Local women getting ready to set up their wares to sell us at the end of the hike
Friday's trek was designed specifically for us,
Amor Violento is an 8 mile downhill trek that is the same as the Kaytucha trail but then continues to Explora on foot from Chinchero. As we had already done the first 3 miles, and we prefer uphill as opposed to downhill, Victor recommended we try Amor Violento backwards from Explora to Chinchero, which came with a bonus of being able to leave a little later in the morning. As promised the hike was uphill the entire way - the elevation gain was about 2600 feet over ~4.5 miles and included breathtaking views of mountains, valleys, water-falls and wildflowers.
Nursing donkey - we thought they had great hair-dos
At the first viewpoint - we were pretty exhausted here and opted not to take the stairs to our left down to see a waterfall (as we would have to come back up).
Waterfall beside the Inca trail
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| Along the Inca trail |
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| Finally finished- just beneath the ruins we saw a couple of days ago |
To celebrate our success with the climb, we had special-ordered a guinea pig for dinner (recommended by Nicole). There wasn't a lot of meat and it tasted better than we expected but perhaps the most endearing part was how touched the chef was that we had asked for this traditional celebratory dish.
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| Our guinea pig dinner |
Our last hike with Explora was called
Lloclla, our guide was Brai and we were joined by another woman, Ana, who worked at Explora and had the day off. Our hike was ~6.5 with an elevation gain around 1200 feet, peaking at 14,423 ft, so a bigger altitude challenge today. A bit more than half was a climb - and very steep to the highpoint followed by a pretty steep descent over the next mile before leveling off.
Overall, we love the Explora brand and their focus on nature, the environment and getting people active. We will definitely stay in others, but probably not this one. While the hikes were amazing, those at high altitudes required a pretty significant (1.5-2 hours) van ride there and back.
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