Just Back: 10 Days in Peru
- Rachael Mora
- Jul 19, 2017
- 11 min read
If you haven’t noticed, I was recently out of the country again. I like that saying that has become sort of a trend lately! I love vacations and traveling (Who doesn’t?) and we’re lucky to be at a point where we can use our vacation for trips instead of more responsible adult things like tiny humans. This trip was actually pretty spontaneous for us – a high school reunion trip for Felipe kind of came up and we searched for flights, had the vacation days saved up, found reasonable flights from Chicago, and jumped right on it. Planned it a month in advance and got some things booked literally three weeks prior. NOT my general planning strategy but it ended up all working out fine.
The trip was – in a word – amazing. Peru is incredible, and we’ll need at least 3 more trips to even scratch the surface of all I want to do there. Lucky for us, Felipe lived there 10 years and has some pretty cool friends there so it’ll definitely be one of those places we continue to visit.
So what did we hit this trip?
Believe it or not, living there 10 years Felipe never visited Cusco or Machu Picchu, so that was a must. I had also seen one of those random videos on Facebook or Pinterest about a suspended pod on the side of a mountain where you could climb up and have lunch… so that’s been on our Peru bucket list for awhile. On top of that, we spent some limited time in Lima then went to Paracas for Felipe’s school reunion weekend.
Day 1
Eww travel. We flew spirit airlines from Chicago – Ft Lauderdale then to Lima. We had a 5 hour layover in Ft Lauderdale so we grabbed a taxi to the beach and got two for one mojitos and a beer. That was awesome and absolutely worth it, but for anyone else going I’d recommend a Lyft or the “Sun Trolley” – the taxi was about $10-$15 higher than Lyft rates and the Sun Trolley (form my understanding) is actually free! You just wave to flag them down and they have an app to help you track the trolleys and everything. Very cool little beach area and town.
* The spirit flight down was terrible. I’m not saying I won’t do it again because it’s less than half the price of other airlines to fly to Peru, but I’ve flown a lot of budget airlines and this one had noticeably smaller seats, late departures, plane issues, broken bathroom, etc. It was an interesting trip down and I sat next to a rude man who glared at me every time my arm accidentally brushed his so I didn’t feel comfortable trying to sleep in case I un-knowingly invaded his space.
When we landed in Lima, we hung out with some family friends who cooked me some amazing Peruvian chicken at 3:00am and more Peruvian food the next morning!
Day 2
We walked around and looked at the houses – Felipe’s always told me about Peruvian house style and especially as we’re in the process of designing our new home, it was like walking through a home show of ideas I wanted to steal. We had a “Chilcano” with a friend and some giant pieces of corn over lunch, then headed to catch an afternoon flight to Cusco for a few days.
Cusco. Is. Incredible. It’s exactly as I imagined it, even better actually. The elevation is no joke, but we adapted quickly and didn’t have major issues with it throughout our trip (which was lucky because I call this the “active” portion of our trip). I had the most incredible night in Cusco and if we could just rewind and freeze anywhere on our trip it would be there – something about it is just so great and picturesque, we had a little balcony and cute little place and I could have spent a week there just going out each day and having relaxing evenings at home.
We stayed in a little Airbnb and our host was super nice, he greeted us and made us each a cup of coca tea, suggested restaurants, then we went to get all our tickets for our tours the following days (Sacred Valley & Machu Picchu) and explore the town a little. Link to our airbnbs here and here – we stayed in two (same host/different homes), and the tour company we used here – we had so much trouble finding a tour company online that we felt good about, getting around the sacred valley and Machu Picchu is kind of confusing and can be really expensive so we ended up working through our airbnb host and a company his cousin worked for. They arranged all our tickets and everything for us and it ended up saving us about $200 each from the lowest prices we could find online, but we had to Western Union $500 prior to our trip and that was a little disconcerting (totally understand – they need the money to make the bookings and buy the tickets for Machu Picchu, but I was about 10% wondering if we’d just throw our money away). Luckily it all worked out and we had just the right amount of “Figuring it out and getting where we needed to go” and “Guided tour/stress free”.
*** Note – most Airbnb type places don’t have heat (can’t speak to hotels). It was 30 degrees Fahrenheit while we were there. If you’re going to Peru at all, pack a coat. If you’re going to Cusco, pack pants, boots, a coat, gloves, a hat, and a scarf. You’ll probably end up buying all these things there as well because they have beautiful stuff in the markets and it’s all super affordable, but pack some warm basics for sure.
Day 3
This was the fullest “Tour day” adventure because we saw so many things. First and most importantly, I lost my new favorite hat on the bus in Cusco. I was devastated and being quite dramatic, pulling up photos of the prior night talking about why it was my favorite hat (but babe it doesn’t itch! And it looks cute! And it fits my head! And it matches everything!). More on this later.
We started off with the town of Chinchero (cool ruins & church, but not something you’ll cry over missing). It did have a cool textile demonstration & market where I learned that dye is made from bug blood mixed with other things – What?!?).
Our next stop was the archeological site of Moray – it’s a cool spot, has circular terraces that look insane and were built (they think) to portray the Snake/Puma/Condor that represents the Inca trinity. The circles were also designed in a way that there is a temperature difference of as much as 27 degrees Fahrenheit from the top to the bottom, which may have been used to study climate differences on crops. Those Incas man.
*** Another fun fact about the Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu – dress in layers. You literally never know what you’re going to get from 10 minutes to the next :p.
Next up was a visit and some exploring through the salt pans of the Maras. This place is incredible and a must see. I embarrassingly had no idea (nor had ever cared) where salt was made. When we drove around the corner seeing all these white pans in the valley below (figuratively) took my breath away. Then the drive down ACTUALLY took my breath away because it was a super curvy road and the brakes were squeaking and I squeezed Felipe’s hand a lot.
** Around this time, the guide turned around and gave my hat to Felipe. It’ll remain one of the huge secrets in life how the hat got from the original bus to our bus halfway to Machu Picchu, but I was seriously SO GIDDY. When you see me sporting that hat all winter you’ll always remember this story :p.
We walked through the salt mines – you can actually see where they mine it, put it in bags, the storage room, and everything. If you stick your finger in (which I obviously did :p), you can even feel the salt immediately start to form and it tastes salty! Crazy place, no one fell in so all in all a pretty good adventure.
Last for the day was the incredible site of the Ollantaytambo Ruins. I actually thought this was going to be a stupid stopover spot, and in my mind it was just the town that we catch the train to Aguas Calientes from. I was blown away by this place – first of all, the ruins are huge, you can walk all throughout a fortress, through the mountains to other buildings built within the side of a mountain, and even head onto the Inca trail from here if you’re so inclined. We separated from our tour group because we were doing our own hybrid trip to Machu Picchu afterwards, so we had plenty of time to explore the ruins which added a lot to the experience. We hiked around and walked through little homes and grabbed a cup of coffee in town before catching our Inca Rail train to Aguas Calientes for the evening. What I thought was just a stopover may have even been my favorite part of the day. Never underestimate the stopovers!
The train ride from Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes was incredible – it’s along a river and the mountains just get bigger and bigger – looking at the icy peaks through the clouds is so beautiful. When we got to Aguas Calientes we pretty much ate and went to bed to be rested for our sunrise trip to Machu Picchu in the morning.
Day 4
We woke up early to catch the bus to Machu Picchu before it got too crowded. The bus ride was much shorter than I thought (like 20 minutes or so) and much less terrifying than I feared! We took our tour through the ruins and I learned a lot I didn’t know – I didn’t realize that Machu Picchu was actually discovered by an American guy who came to Peru searching for the Lost City of the Incas. When he eventually did find it, there were a few families living there and it was really overgrown. Apparently when the Spanish came to Peru they killed the Inca king and the people in Machu Picchu stopped receiving supplies so they had to abandon it before even completing it, you can still see the quarry and area that isn’t done.
It’s really incredible to see how they took a bunch of rocks and created an entire city in the middle of the mountains. I’ve visited ruins and generally like learning about them, but ruins + mountains is even better. We hiked to the top of the “Sun Gate” overlooking the city and it was definitely worth the walk, mildly challenging but at no point did it feel un-doable. Next time we visit we’re going to climb Huayna Picchu, but you have to sign up to access that trail in advance.
Also, Llamas. There are llamas living in the ruins and they’re cute, see this picture of me creeping. We walked to the sun gate and back down and this Mama had given birth! It was so adorable to see little llama trying to stand for the first time and a Condor literally flew over our heads as we were watching the llama family. That was a crazy experience for sure!
We had some time to kill in Aguas Calientes so we got a full body Inka massage, a few pisco sours, some dinner, and did some market shopping. We slept on the train and back to Cusco to make sure we were well rested for the next day’s exploring! (I wasn’t kidding when I said Cusco was the “Active” part of our trip.
Day 5
Google “Skylodge Adventure Suites” or check it out here. This was a bucket list item for sure - We woke up and traveled from Cusco to “Base Camp”, saw crazy people climbing to little pods on the side of the mountain, then found out that I booked the “Rock climbing” portion of the trip instead of the “Hiking” option. I almost bailed but Felipe looked excited and I rolled with it. So I went rock climbing for the first time and it was awesome! I didn’t feel like it was overly challenging at all, and I even had to walk over a cable wire suspension bridge!
When we got to the top, we had a glass of wine and a delicious gourmet lunch overlooking the sacred valley. Even going to the bathroom was an adventure as you had to clip into the rocks and climb down the rungs, looking through the floor at the valley below... crazy experience.
Then the part I was actually nervous about – zip lining. Rock climbing didn’t scare me so much as you’re going slow, holding on to things, etc. I was scared to zip line but it ended up being not scary (though I never quite mastered how to brake :p.
That evening we had another incredible meal in Cusco and went shopping in the markets. Stuff is so inexpensive, I bought a gorgeous Alapaca wrap, Felipe got a really nice sweater, a Peru soccer jersey, and some other odds and ends for like 100 soles! (Around $33)
Day 6
Headed back to Lima to meet up with Felipe’s Mom and Dad! Felipe’s dad works for an airline and we’re so lucky they can come visit us sometimes through his work schedule. In this case he randomly got assigned to work in Peru for a month so Mama Mora came too and we had a sweet apartment home base while we took only little bags to Paracas. Having a home base definitely makes traveling through Peru a lot easier!
We had lunch and Pisco sours in Miraflores and the pisco was killer strong. Every once in awhile I have a drink and you’d think I’d never had one in my life – this was one of those times. We had dinner with family friends and then went out for drinks – coincidentally Felipe’s cousin and her boyfriend were also doing a Peru trip at the same time so we got to meet up with them in Lima – I love how small our huge world can be!
Day 7
Started off the day picking up my little sister in law at the airport so she could spend a few days in Lima too. Hilariously, a band called CNCO was coming in for a concert and there were tons of teenage girls waiting and screaming anytime someone walked through the door. We didn’t wait around to see them, but when Nathalie walked in everyone erupted in screams thinking she said they were here :p.
BEACH. We were going to make a pit stop in Huacachina on the way to Felipe’s reunion trip, but a flat tire thwarted those plans. Note to self: People in Peru drive fast. Even Panama traffic is nothing comparatively. I will never complain about driving at home again. ** By this point I’d already realized we’re going to be making 3 or 4 more trips to Peru in life so missing out on Huacachina wasn’t super devastating, we’ll just hit it the next time. It DOES look awesome though, sandboarding around a little oasis in the middle of the desert? #bucketlist
We grabbed some Lucama ice cream and cheese bread (I’m told these are the Paracas road trip staples) and headed to the beach.
When we got to Paracas I found out that we had all inclusive drinks at our hostel, Kokopelli. We spent Friday night having some drinks and I had a blast getting to know Felipe’s friends! It’s so crazy – he’s met (most) of my high school friends here and there throughout visits. But I haven’t been able to meet his because he hasn’t even been home himself since high school! It was awesome to put faces with names and everyone was super inclusive even though I was the only +1.
Day 8
Beach soccer, exploring the Paracas National reserve, and more drinks at the hostel. Now you know why I called this the “Inactive” portion of our trip. If you ask me, we definitely did it in the right order – Hiking/Excursions, City, Beach.
Day 9
Lunch with friends and back to Lima for a day with the family, and of course, more Peruvian food. We obviously had to hit the grocery store for some stuff to bring home and two kinder eggs for my favorite kids. If anyone wants some Pisco you know who to call!
Our flight was overnight on Spirit and I was actually nervous about it but it ended up being roomier than the flight down (and left pretty much on time) so I was able to sleep. We landed in Chicago, had lunch with a friend, then headed home to see our little guys after 10 days away!
What a trip! Highlights were Cusco city, the salt mines and Ollantaytambo, Machu Picchu, the rock-climbing and lunch, lunch with my in laws, and Paracas with Felipe’s friends. Have you been to Peru? What was your favorite thing there? What should we put on our itinerary for next time?
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