Visiting Peru

Lima
 The Lima airport is nothing remarkable.  It actually has a Starbucks and a decent food court (pre-security), and some shopping at duty free (post-shopping).  There is no free wifi for general use.  The international side has a lounge that both One World and Star Alliance premium members can use (I'm not sure if other brands can use it, so please check), which serves OK food but has very slow wifi.  It has computer terminals that are infinitely faster though, so if you are not limited to your own device, try to snag one.

When you exit the arrival area, immediately on your right will be the official taxis called Taxi Green.  The rates are fixed based on where you are going, and we were charged S/. 50 to Miraflores.  It took us about 40 minutes.  The driver said normally it would be about 30 minutes, but there was highway construction which resulted in a diversion.

There are Scotiabank ATMs on the second floor of the airport that do not charge you a fee, so when you exit arrivals you can walk straight ahead and take the escalators on the left up, turn right, keep walking, and see a bunch of ATMs.  There are also other banks, but we found Scotiabank to be sufficient.  :-)

Figuring out a SIM card was a pain, but basically you have to go to a shop that sells the card itself (they call it "chip" there).  We found a department store with Movistar and Claro desks, and managed to get a chip, but then had to go to a pharmacy to get a top up card.  We paid about US$5 for the chip, and US$10 for 500MB of data for 30 days (but the maximum daily use was 10MB).

Restaurants generally do not include tip (one did, Senzo in Cusco for 18%, which did not have very good food though service was good and the ambience was lovely), and the Lonely Planet told us to tip 10%.  Sometimes when restaurants run your credit card, they include a buffer for authorization of up to 20%, but will only charge whatever tip you write down on the paper.

Negotiate a rate before you get into a taxi.  To/from airport/Miraflores is S/. 50.  We managed to get S/. 20 rate between Miraflores and the old historic center, and S/.10 between Miraflores and San Isidro.

The folks in Lima do not speak very good English.  Do try to learn some key Spanish words, otherwise I suppose pointing and gesturing might help.  Lol.

Food was generally salty.  This applies to all of Peru.  I felt like a salt pan after this trip.

Puno
Airport seemed like a giant container.  Do not expect anything.

Altitude here is high, I think around 14,000 ft.  Consider taking diamox or some other kind of altitude sickness pills.  Coca tea is supposed to help with altitude sickness.  I liked the taste, and warm drinks, so I kept drinking it but not sure if it actually helped (maybe, maybe not).

Taxi fare is around S/. 80 from Juliaca airport (JUL) to town, and takes about an hour.  We managed to negotiate S/. 75 on principle heading into town, but got our hotel to get us a taxi back to the airport for S/. 80.

Our Lake Titikaka tour cost S/. 75 each.  The hotel said it is possible to go to Uros (reed islands) on our own, but not Taquille (boat might go there and not wait for you to return, no scheduled boats), so we opted for a tour.  Taquille was just OK, so if you have limited time or just want to chill in Puno which has lots of great shopping (we are told it is much cheaper than Cusco) you can just take the scheduled boats to Uros to see the reed islands.  It is really amazing how they built them!

Cusco/Sacred Valley
Airport sucked, had some food.  There was free wifi but Dawg had to fiddle around for a long time to get it to work, so just take it as there was no free wifi.

Cusco is also at elevation, I think around 11,000 ft, but lower than Puno.  Diamox was also recommended.

Our friends' hotel included a free transfer to the airport.  Lingon and I took our taxis separately since we came on different flights - he arrived earlier and negotiated S/. 20, so I did the same.  Lonely Planet said it would cost S/. 12-15, and Wiki Travel said S/. 10.  The official airport taxi price is S/. 40, so unless you are the sort who is embarrassed to bargain, you can save quite a bit here.

Food in Cusco was much more expensive.

Shop around for a Sacred Valley tour (Pisac, Ollantaytambo and Chinchero).  The Lonely Planet said we could get one for $22 (not including the tourist ticket, which is either S/. 70 for 2 days or S/. 130 for 10 days (about US$25 or $46).  Zito and Dawg's hotel was quoting USD$75 and ours was quoting $88 including the tourist ticket and lunch, but we went near the main square and found a travel agency that charged us S/. 30 not including the tourist ticket and lunch.  What a deal right?  Not sure how the tour would have been like if we took a more expensive tour, but we enjoyed the ruins anyhow and our tour guide spoke some good English so I was happy.


Inca Trail
I believe we start around 9,000+ ft. of elevation.  It is VERY highly recommended to stay in Cusco for a few days to get acclimatized and I completely agree with this if you plan to do the Inca Trail, because the Inca Trail is brutal.

Of all the big hikes I have done (the other two being Kilimanjaro and W Trek at Torres del Paine), this was the most interesting, since there were ruins to see and stories to hear along the way, since people lived here many many centuries ago.

While I think this is a really amazing hike, I recommend it with reservations, since it really was quite a physical challenge.

Cell service was poor.  Toilets were poor.  Please practice the third world squat if your tour company does not bring a portable toilet for you.

After the hike, you will be taken to Aguas Calientes for lunch and to take the train back to Poroy where probably your tour agency will meet you and transport you back to Cusco.  We were booked on the second train at 4.43pm, which was way more time than we needed.  There is a 3.20pm train, so try to get your travel agency to book that for you if possible.  We did the Huayna Picchu hike and managed to finish up around 12.30pm and be at our designated restaurant (where our bags were stored) at 1.00pm, and for us we just wanted to go back and relax so waiting there was brutal.  All the restaurants in Aguas Calientes seemed to be cash only, so make sure you have some cash to pay the bill!  They also take USD but the exchange rate is poor.

Visit Peru!!!!  :-)

Peru Days 7-10 - Inca Trail with Trek Peru

This is the third time I've been on a hiking trip, and the third time I've underestimated the physical toll such an activity would take on my body.  I suppose it teaches me a good lesson to always be humble, respect nature, and be in a decent physical shape at all times.

Visiting Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for many years now.  This year, I checked that off the list.  Most of the tour operators were around the $600 range, so I chose the one that promised me a private toilet tent - Trek Peru.  I have to say this is NOT an endorsement of the company.  In fact, I was deeply disappointed as my toilet tent did not show up.  At this point they are investigating what happened to the darned thing.  Our guide Martin was well informed, all our stuff arrived intact and before us, and for the most part our tents were set up well and in time for our arrival, the food was generally good (although the lack of dessert made me sad and I saw another group had a cake) but this toilet tent thing simply blew my mind, especially after I had asked multiple times for confirmation on this.  So, dessert and toilet tent aside, everything was as expected.

We met some folks on the way.
1)  Team New York - I spend a bit of time walking with some of the gentlemen on this trip.  They seemed nice and one even fed me a Kind bar when I was dying which I really appreciated.  I never learned their names, but thank you.
2)  LA Engineer - We met on day 2, and he gave me me a CLIF blok when I was dying.  I like it when people save me from dying.
3)  Toronto bros - Liked wearing infinity scarves/bandanas.  They piggy backed each other on cliffs (I seriously thought they may fall over) for photos, carried porter packs for fun, did push ups and shot gun beers.  Champions of the world.
4)  Brazilian bros - Liked riding on people's asses to try to overtake.  Also into the infinity scarves/bandanas.
5)  Fat Mexican dude - Truly entertaining.  He was a very huge man (with a huge mother and sister also on the trip).  Paid the porters extra because they couldn't carry their day packs.  On the last day when everyone was standing in line in the dark, he tried to get ahead of the line with no flash light, tapping his stick like he was blind.  Zito turned on his headlamp to show him the way, and he exclaims "don't ruin my night vision!".  We were all stunned and unsure what his deal was, and then he proceeded to tell us how to get used to the dark and see better.  People sure are weird!

Camp toilets are gross.  We all had to do the third world squat, and learned how to do pachamama (really means mother earth, but we used it to mean bodily function) in the great outdoors.  Thank you to all my gym trainers or work out friends who made me do squats, to save me from falling into a squat toilet.

Our guide Martin was a pretty funny dude.  He entertained us with many stories, and knew a lot about the history of Machu Picchu.  He seemed to play down the amount of physical activity we had to exert on the trail, which led to poorly managed expectations.  His explanation for the ruins and the significance that was built into the construction seemed to be for the most part aliens.  He also told us most of the tourist clothing items they sold were made in Bolivia, not Peru, and the local joke when one was trying to buy alpaca items was "maybe alpaca", not "baby alpaca".  Glad I did not buy any maybe alpaca except for 2 hats for Lingon and I.  He told us of how parents in the Incan times would give up their children as sacrifice, and their children would be prepped for months and then taken up to the glaciers where they would be made to drink some hallucinogenic liquid and then whacked in the back of the head and offered to Gods.

Here are some photos from the trip.
-Day 1:  Relaxing, we only started walking around 10am or so, and for the most part it was pretty easy.
 -Day 2:  The most physically challenging.  The uphill section was long and the altitude was high, I felt myself getting weaker and weaker, and got really queasy in the stomach.  Thanks to our friends Team New York and LA Engineer, plus all the other random people on the trail feeding me and cheering me on, I made it, and was totally wiped out after.
-Day 3:  A very long day, with what Martin said was downhill 2000 steps, which probably destroyed my knees.
-Day 4:  Sheer exhaustion, more because we had to wake up very early and it was after all the last day of the hike.  Part of the early day was because the porters needed to catch a 5.20am train, which is crazy, so we had to wake up at 3.30am, leave around 4.30am, and then stand in line for 1.5 hours for the control to open.  Many people were still in line, and before the start of the whole hike I wanted to be first, but was glad I was not, since that would involve being awake about 2 hours earlier  I was cold and miserable for quite a while, but eventually the control opened and we were allowed to start walking and eventually I warmed up.  Nothing could prepare me for the beauty of Machu Picchu.  The photos I took simply do not do it justice.  The guide took us around and explained the various parts of the lost city.  At 10am we went to climb Huayna Picchu, which was about 10,000 steps up and down (I think this number is sheer exaggeration, but it certainly felt like it at the time), and the breath from the top was unparallel.

Day 1 - most relaxed

Day 2 - toughest day, a lot of uphill, up to about 14,000ft.  Here is a photo of Zito and Lingon just 10 steps away from the top!!

Day 3 - lots of ruins, lots of downhill stairs, but overall not too bad

Day 4 - the jewel, took my breath away

Here were some photos of the food that was made for us on the trail.  In general food was pretty good, albeit salty, and I supplemented with a coca tea (these leaves are used to make cocaine, but the tea form is very benign and supposed to improve health, and especially help with altitude sickness).

Martin said there is a chance they will restrict Machu Picchu and have people stand on observatory platforms.  If you get a chance to go soon, please do, but please take care of the site and preserve it as well as possible for other people to see.  It is such a stunning site.