We knew the drill very well by now. If we were with a Gate1 tour, and if we were traveling to another place and another hotel, we would have to put our suitcases outside the door by a predetermined time in the morning for pick up by the bellboys. This time would be well before we actually left the hotel. When we returned to the rooms after breakfast, the bags would be gone. The next time we saw them would be at the next hotel room.
We went through the routine for the last time during this trip to Peru. And then we went down for breakfast. I should mention that breakfast in this hotel included quinoa juice, something we had not tasted at any of the other places that we had stayed in. People seemed to like it, but I could not handle the somewhat glutinous consistency of the drink and the way it felt in my mouth. To each his own.
It was another early start for the day since our flight to Lima was from Juliaca, the town we had passed through on our way by bus to Puno, and the flight was scheduled to depart mid-morning.
Juliaca, uniformly, has a very bad reputation as a city for tourists. It is generally recommended that tourists not linger there longer than necessary. The best thing you can do for yourself is to get out of town quickly. It is apparently a place for smugglers. Street crime seems to be a significant issue. The city government is not very functional.
Puno is a tourist town because of its location, but Juliaca still has a larger population. We were told the the airport was in Juliaca and not Puno because of the geography of the area. Another article mentioned politics as a reason for the location. In any case, the airport is small, and there are very few flights out of it. The whole place was almost empty when we showed up for our LATAM flight.
The only commercial airports that are at a higher altitude than the one in Juliaca are in China and Bolivia. Juliaca also has the longest runway in South America. This is because of the altitude.
We ended up being joined at the airport by another tour group from Gate1 that was heading back to Lima. (There was a suspicion that these folks were a part of a more expensive tour package, and that they might have stayed in the prison/hotel in Puno.) Gate1 customers took up a significant number of seats on this flight.
The security process was a little different than I am used to during recent travels. The security check was in a small space, and the single scanning machine was apparently not very sophisticated. I had to open up up my computer bag and all of its pockets to show what I had in it. But they did not create a hassle.
Sitting in our aircraft seats prior to departure, we noticed a few sheep being loaded into the cargo compartment. What fate awaited them in Lima?
The aircraft departed the terminal area without having to to be pushed back. It turned around and headed straight for the runway. And then the aircraft was rolling down the runway. And we kept rolling down the runway as if we were going to remain on it for a while. Finally, after about 40 seconds, the plane gently lifted off the ground. I know the time because I measured it. (We had been warned about what to expect ahead of time!) It all had to do with the thin air at that altitude.
It was an uneventful flight over the Andes.
Soon, we had landed in Lima, and we were back to sea level – breathing in the heavily oxygenated, but perhaps more polluted, air.
By the time we got from the airport to the hotel and had our lunch, there was not much time left for further explorations of Lima. We took a walk along the cliff that ran along the coastline at Miraflores.
It was going to be difficult to get down to the beach itself.
We walked to a supermarket not too far from our hotel to buy some local goods. Got some Kiwicha for breakfast and local chocolate bars.
Back at the hotel, we got on a bus and headed out to a restaurant for our final dinner as a group.
We said our goodbyes back at the hotel. We had made a few friends during the trip.
Our tour manager was also heading home to be with his family in Cusco. He would not be seeing us off at the airport.
We had to leave the hotel before well before daybreak in order to catch our early morning flight to Orlando, Florida. We were accompanied to the airport by a local agent from Gate1. Everything went smoothly. I was surprised that the aircraft that we flew out of Peru on was a small one. It was packed with kids, most probably headed out to see Mickey and friends.
With customs and immigration taken care of after landing in Orlando, we were back on ‘Merican soil. There was a vague sense of being back in a familiar, and even comfortable, place, but the sense of adventure and expectation that comes with being in a new place had also come to an end. You could feel the senses immediately beginning to dull. The rest of the trip was going to be very predictable – even if there were any issues that cropped up during the rest of the trip home.
We got back home in time for dinner. There was nothing in the fridge that could be consumed immediately. Our regular standby, California Tortilla being closed, we had to settle for the 24 hour Wendy’s close to home.
And then it was over.
But the memories of this exciting trip will stay with us for the rest of our lives.
We walked past a little hamlet. There was a setup for an open market on both sides of the street. Not many of the locals were out selling their stuff at that time. I noticed a few signs for paid restrooms. Another business opportunity for the locals!
The hill on which the tombs of Sillustani stand lies on a peninsula that juts out into a lake called 
You could see signs of human activity along the shore of the lake. We were told that there were reeds that were harvested from this lake, but that these reeds were not used in the same way as the totora of Lake Titicaca.
The Aymara respected the ways of their predecessors, and this is reflected in their adaptation of the use of vertical towers for tombs. Their designs seem to be even more sophisticated than that of the Incas. Unlike the Incas, they cut their rocks to specific sizes to fit in regular patterns. The outside surfaces of the rock were also flattened perfectly, unlike some of the rock used in Inca constructions. The difference between the two architectures in the picture above is striking. We saw tombs of both kinds in Sillustani, mostly in a state of disrepair.
This particular chullpa was completely broken on one side. You can see the smaller chamber within the structure at the bottom. This is the chamber within which people were buried. Many people (often from a family) could be buried together in a tower. The bodies were placed in a fetal position. I got the impression that they were placed sitting up. People were buried with some of their belongings. As an aside, the Inca practiced mummification. They used to bring out the mummies of their ancestors for big occasions, and also “consult” with them for big decisions. I do not know if the Aymara practiced anything similar.
There are two other chullpas that have survived on the hill at Sillustani. We next visited the place where they were located. In the picture below, you can see that we were prepared for rain during the walk. The weather had been threatening for some time.
The two chullpas are at the head of the peninsula on which Sillustani is located. As we crested a rise in the area of the chullpas, the grand vista of Lake Umayo opened up in front of us. The view was simply amazing, especially with the threatening storm clouds around us. This was the kind of grand view that one expected to see on the shores of a well-known lake. This looked better than Lake Titicaca!
Even though the weather was threatening, we had to take an additional moment or two to celebrate, because, at 12,800 feet, this was highest level to which we had hiked during the entire trip. It was even higher than Puno! (It is true that we were at a higher altitude at the Continental Divide, but we did not do any walking of significance when we stopped there.) We had hiked about a little less than a mile at this point, and climbed a couple of 100 feet during this time, and we were feeling fine in spite of the altitude (although I did hear Broz breathing quite heavily in certain sections when we were climbing, when he was trying to get ahead of the rest of us).
The rain started falling about this time. We could observe the lightning bolts in the distance. Then came the distant thunder. The storm was approaching.
We started making our way back to the bus. It was all downhill from there. We were able to pick up the pace.
We were a little wet by the time we got back to the bus, but it was not too bad.
This is an alpaca.
And this is a hybrid of the two animals above.
All of the animals pictured above are members of the 
There were a couple of storage rooms in the compound including this one.
The folks who live here raise the domesticated variety of cuy. (More about cuy in one of my earlier blogs in this series.)
The inside of the living quarters was tiny and crowded with stuff.
They had some food laid out next to their cooking space for the tourists to look at and sample. The lady of the house stuck her hand into one of the still steaming pots in the cooking area and pulled out a few potatoes of different kinds. Broz cut one of these potatoes and added a paste on top of it. The greenish-grey paste was basically a local clay mixed with water. He then ate the piece of potato. A couple of folks from our group also sampled the potato with “mud” on it. They said the clay was tasteless. It is supposed to be 
Here is a closer look at the cooking space.
The man of the house was working in front of a separate building, creating items from alpaca wool to sell to the tourists. There was a display of such items.
We returned to the bus after looking at their wares, after unsuccessfully trying to bargain down the price of a shawl that they were selling.
This church is of Spanish origin and was rebuilt in the 1960s after it had burnt down. It has an interesting facade. The cross in front is most interesting since it includes both Catholic and Inca symbols on it.
The inside of the church was more traditional.
Close by, at the center of the central square, or the Plaza de Armas, is a statue of 
Soon after we returned to the hotel, we set out on the trip to lake Titicaca with the rest of our tour group. We were visiting the Uros Floating Islands on the lake. We had to first walk from the hotel to main road to catch the bus to the dock.
Here is a tourist boat approaching the dock area, probably one that takes visitors to the Uros Islands. The lakeside in that area actually did not look very inviting.
On our way out to the islands in our boat, we passed this luxury hotel that was once a prison. I hope it was worth it for the people staying there.
The islands were not too far from Puno. The boat had to pass through a narrow channel to get to them. These guys were monitoring entry to the floating islands.
Once we got through the channel, we entered an area where there were a large number of floating islands set in an approximately circular configuration. There were boats going hither and tither, from one island to another. It was immediately obvious that this space was a destination for tourists. It was not always that way for the Uros people. They did not always depend on tourism.
Once on the island, they sat us around in a semicircle for a presentation. They talked about their way of life. There was demonstration of the process of building an island.
The base of the island is made from the roots of the totora reed. Bunches of totora roots are bundled together and they are anchored to the bottom of the lake to keep the island in place. Next, the reed itself is spread out in layers over the base to create the foundation on which life takes place on the island. You can actually feel the island move when a passing motorized boat creates waves. It takes a little getting used to. Our particular island was more than 20 feet above the bottom of the lake.
As time passes, the totora reeds begin to rot and the layers of reeds that form the island need to be replenished. The floating islands also have a limited lifetime. (It sound like a difficult life.) The islands are of different sizes, and generally support a small community. We were told that the one we were visiting had about 20 people.
Somewhere along the line, I began to feel that the demonstration was beginning to take on the appearance of a comedy show that was being put on for the benefit of the tourists. I felt a little bad about the fact that this was part of what the Uros people felt they had to do to survive. It felt like they were going through a certain loss of dignity in the process, and we, the “rich” tourists, were playing our own role in this process.
You can see a couple of solar panels in the picture above. Electricity was brought to the Uros people in the late 1980s by the then 
In the picture below, our local guide, Broz, is showing us that the islanders hunt birds with guns that they make themselves. (Broz indicated that he had spent a few months living with the Uros people on their islands in order to learn their ways. This was a part of his training.) They also make a kind of jerky from the dead birds, and consume the eggs that they lay.
We decided to take a ride in a balsa boat belonging to these islanders to get across to another island on the other side of the expanse of water. As we left the ladies sang some of their traditional songs to wish us adieu.
As we were leaving, I took picture of the island that we had just been on. To the left you can see one of the new composting toilets that is being installed on the islands. (Things seem to be a little rough today on the floating islands when it comes to attending to the call of nature.)
All of the tourist activity in the area was very obvious as we were rowed across to the other side.
We landed on an island which seemed to be the focus of the most tourist activity in that space. It had a regular restaurant and bathrooms, and the tourist presence was actually obscene. I could not wait to depart.
We had to get back to the hotel quickly after returning to shore at Puno. We had a short time for a quick lunch before the start of an afternoon trip to our next destination. It turned out that the only people who had signed up for this optional trip was our small group of seven people. The 
This was going to be one of the longer travel days of the trip. We were about to go on a bus ride that was expected to take about 8 hours. We were going from Cusco to 
I could not help but notice the mess of cables on the lampposts lining the city streets. This is fairly typical, not just in Peru, but in many developing countries. I have no idea how people keep track of where particular cables go, and for what purpose.
I was surprised by the size of Gate1’s bus depot when we arrived there. There were many vehicles in the facility, pointing to the existence of a very big operation out of Cusco. The bus that we got on for our onward trip to Puno was big and comfortable. It even had a restroom that we could use while the bus was moving – so that we could minimize bathroom stops.
It was a fun time. They sang for us and we sang to them (try singing “The Itsy Bitsy Spider”).
It looked very different from the other temples we had seen thus far in Peru, which were usually open structures on tops of hills. This is what remains today of the temple.
Other structures have also survived from the time of the Incas in Raqchi, including warehouses
and some living quarters.
On a wall in the church was a picture of the Last Supper at which cuy was being eaten. If the reader has been following my blogs about Peru, he or she will remember that we were not able to see the more famous version of this picture in the cathedral in Cusco. So, it was a very nice surprise to see this particular picture here, in a humbler setting that seemed more appropriate.
An old caretaker silently appeared from the back of the church as I was walking around. He started talking to me in Spanish. I did not understand a word he was saying. He might have also indicated that I could give some money to light a candle, but I was not trying to follow carefully. I regret that I did not do that.
A short while after that, we passed the place where the Urubamba river begins. There was smoke from a fire that somebody had set in the vicinity of that location. The place that was pointed out to us had the look of the remains of an old crater. 
Soon after that, we reached the 
Being a railroad fan, it was a great thrill for me to see the train from Puno to Cusco stopped at that location. It looked like a regular stop for the train, and it also looked like the train was going to be stopped for a while. Passengers had gotten out of their carriages and were walking around. This train is meant for the tourists. It is considered one of the highest railroads in the world. Considering that the train does not operate every day of the week, I was very fortunate to see it.
An ice-cream seller on the street in Juliaca.
A Bajaj autorickshaw service location in Juliaca.
Crowded street in Juliaca.
During this trip, I began to notice little structures like the one below all along the highway. I confirmed that these were memorials to people who had died in accidents. These look a little more permanent than the roadside memorials we see in the US.
We got to Puno descending one of the hills that surrounds it. We got our first view of Lake Titicaca.
The city looked big.
Because of the city’s narrow streets, we were dropped off a few blocks away from our hotel. We had to do the walk between the hotel and the spot we had been dropped off every time we needed to catch the bus or return to the hotel. Walking the streets gave us a little better feel of the town. It certainly looked commercial.
but you would also have agents from these restaurants approach you on the street with menus, to try to entice you to enter a door that could lead you to a some hidden place somewhere, perhaps even up one or two flights of stairs.
We enjoyed our lunch. It was a chance to relax and catch our breath.
At this restaurant, as in a few others, we were each given a complementary drink. Some of us had 
I coined a name for the french fries on my plate – Jenga fries! I also partook of some additional liquid refreshment during lunch. It was needed after all the exercise that had been done in the morning. You can see what remains of my drink in the glass in the background.
was supposed to have a somewhat famous painting that showed a guinea pig being consumed at the Last Supper.
Here are a couple of more pictures from the plaza.
A statue of Pachacutec stands at its center.
(In addition to this statue, I saw at least two other statues of the emperor in different places around the city.) One can also see the statue of Christ on the hillside in the background in the picture below. That hill is next to the one Saqsaywaman is located on, and in fact you can take a trail from Saqsaywaman to this location.
We gathered together after the shopping was complete and continued our exploration, walking towards the big indoor market (or mercado).
We walked past the Arco de Santa Clara.
to arrive at the market.
The market itself was quite an interesting place to wander around. It was huge inside.
You could buy almost anything you needed for the home, including foods,
and other kinds of stuff. 
They had a section with counters at which you could buy fresh food and sit down and eat. These were very small places where you did not necessarily get a table to put you food on. Here is one instance. There were many other such counters.
It was beginning to get late by the time we were done with the market. We walked back to the hotel using the back roads. On the way we passed crowded streets, on one of which a street market seemed to be underway.
The pavements were packed in some of the streets.
You saw some interesting food in the store fronts.
And you always had to be careful to avoid getting hit by road traffic.
Once past the markets, we continued our way back to the hotel. We walked through a neighborhood that looked somewhat questionable. The group of people in the background in the picture below are near a building from which a lot of noise was emanating. It might have been a music club, one that was open early in the evening.
But we did arrive at the Jose Antonio Hotel safely.
A short while after the departure of our train from Ollantaytambo, the valley that it was traveling in began to narrow, and we entered a canyon with Urubamba river flowing next to the train tracks. We were getting into the park area.
The train ride was very comfortable and there were some nice views. It was difficult to take pictures of the scenery through the window. We were in the woods and among the trees. In a short while we were offered some complementary snacks and drinks. We were traveling on the Inca Rail. (The other train operator to Machu Picchu is Peru Rail.)
Our tour manager was determined to get our group to our destination quickly, before the crowds. Based on his experience from trips past, he knew that most people were delayed because they had to stop at the restrooms in Aguas Calientes before boarding the bus. He devised a strategy that required all of us to use the restrooms on the train before we got to our destination. He was going to signal to the group when we should starting lining up in front of the restroom on the train in order to use it. And that was what we did! It was somewhat amusing to see folks queued up in the narrow corridor, blocking the way, concerned that this might be the last pit stop for a while. The other passengers in our carriage who were not part of our group must have been wondering what was going on.
You have to cross the river from the train stop to start your trek.
The trail rises immediately on the other side of the river.
It had started raining by the time the train arrived at Aguas Calientes. Members of our tour group quickly assembled and exited the train. We headed off in a line towards the bus stop on the other side of a bridge across the Rio Aguas Calientes. We managed to follow our leader who was carrying a sign above the crowd with the name of the group. We followed him through an enclosed space of small shops while trying to get ourselves organized with our ticket and the rain gear. I almost lost my raincoat in the process, but one of the other members of our group picked it up from the floor behind me. In the chaos of the situation, I could not even get myself organized to take pictures.
There was a good climb at the beginning of the walk. Machu Picchu is close to 8000 feet high. It is a challenge for some people.
When we arrived at one of the well known viewpoints, we were greeted by a cover of fog in the valley.
But the clouds were moving rapidly, and one had to be patient in order to be able to get a view of the ruins. The mountain to the right side in the above picture is called 
We walked further up the hill, and on to the Inca trail.
The picture below shows the Inca trail headed in the direction of a pass in the mountains. This place was full of temptations to do some real hiking!
There were a lot of llamas around the area. This one looked particularly majestic with its long neck.
It was munching on the grass on one of the terraces.
You can see the crowds that throng the place in the picture below. I had thought that the authorities managed the number of tourists visiting the site at any particular time, and that tourists had to be accompanied by guides, but this obviously was not the case. The place was packed! Navigating our way through the crowd while staying with our tour group proved to be a challenge.
The passing clouds and the fog gave us some amazing views of our surroundings. This is indeed an intimidating and otherworldly place to live in. The Urubamba river flows at the bottom of the valley surrounded by the towering mountain peaks. 
While descending to the ruins, we walked past the Temple of the Sun, or the Torreon. Two of the windows face the direction of the rising sun during the solstices. There is an altar in the middle. Observe the stone work in the construction of the walls.
The picture below once again shows the nature of the crowds visiting Machu Picchu. We ourselves had been up there in the higher sections of the mountain that you see in the picture during the initial part of our tour. (We did manage to cover a few miles during our visit to the place!)
The picture below shows the temple in the main plaza. Unfortunately, a part of the wall is collapsing. Note the precise work with the rocks. Behind the temple is a hill with the 
The four sides of the Intihuatana represent the 4 cardinal points (north, south, east, and west). There are mountains particular mountain peaks surrounding Machu Picchu in these directions.
We left the ruins after walking through the central plaza area. I will not post any of those pictures. I took so many pictures during this visit that I had a hard time selecting the particular ones to show here. I did not wish this blog to be overwhelming.
People took time recover during the ride back.
These were our tour managers. They looked exhausted.
Arrival at Ollantaytambo.
At Ollantaytambo, we boarded our bus to Cusco, our stop for the next two nights. The day had been busy and tiring so far.
The travelers were encouraged to take part in a game of 
The sun set while we were on our way to Cusco. We stopped along the way to look at the night sky. I tried to take some pictures but I have not yet mastered the use of my camera in the dark.
to arrive at the starting point for the climb to the 
The 
This is a closer picture of one of the granaries on Pinkuylluna.
You can see the town sprawled out in front of you as you climb Temple Hill. The buildings towards the middle of the picture house shops for tourists.
You arrive at the temple at the top of the steps, and the first thing you see is a structure called the Wall of the Six Monoliths. You can get an idea as to how big these pieces of rock are, and also how perfectly the rocks fit against each other. This is another example of the great Inca construction capabilities.
Above the Wall of the Six Monoliths, you find an open space with ruins, and you can also see that the ruins extend further up the mountain.
Worthy of note is the fact that this temple was left uncompleted.
On the other side of Temple Hill you can see the fields in the valley to the west of Ollantaytambo. The train to Machu Picchu departs in this direction.
The steps to get to the Temple of the Sun are rather steep. We were told that the steps here were more regular than at Machu Picchu. Our tour manager had convinced some of us to buy sticks to help with tackling the steps. It was probably unnecessary.
The stairs were generally crowded – packed with tourists going in both directions.
I noticed that there were other trails on the mountain that led to other destinations beside the Temple of the Sun, including this one. We, unfortunately, did not have the time for further explorations.
After getting to the bottom of the hill, we had to walk though the shopping area to get back to our bus.
Once on the bus, we drove past the town square once again to get out of town.
That evening, after we returned to Urubamba, we went out to a local family home for dinner. The dinner was an optional part of the tour, and was part of a program set up by our tour group, Gate1, to provide local people with an additional source of income, and at the same time give tourists an opportunity to meet and get to know some of the locals.
to get to the room where dinner was being served.
Gate1’s dinner program helps the families during hard times. I understand that occasional flooding is an problem in places like Urubamba and others that depend on agriculture.
After passing town, we drove down the dirt road towards the hills.
Here is a patch of red quinoa that we saw on the way. We saw quinoa in many places in Peru. 
The fields looked fertile. Winter will soon be coming to Peru.
At the agricultural center we encountered some dry desert vegetation.
We were told that the agricultural terraces at Moray were used by the Incas to develop varieties of crops that could be grown all over the country. Because of the levels of the individual terraces that you can see in the picture below, the temperature difference between the bottom-most level and the top was about 27 degrees Fahrenheit. Each level of the terrace is at a slightly different temperature from the ones above and below it, and experiences its own micro climate. The temperature at the bottom is more in keeping with the temperature at sea level, and the temperatures at the top correspond to those in the mountains. By slowly moving plants through different levels of the terraces over long periods of time, the Incas got them to adapt to the micro climate corresponding to that level. The modified plants could then be grown in other parts of the country. (FYI, the Inca empire covered an area greater than that of the Roman empire at one time in history.)
FYI, Potatoes originated in Peru, and there are over 3000 varieties of potatoes that grow all over the country.
We saw tour groups on ATVs on the dirt roads during our visits to Maras and Moray. This is a different way to see Peru!
I snapped this picture as we were descending back into the Sacred Valley and Urubamba, on our way back after our morning trip.
Here is the bridge under construction over the Urubamba river.
Here is a picture of another very common form of mototaxi in Peru. It seems to be a modified motorbike.
Next blog in the series 
Breakfast in the hotel introduced us to a Peruvian grain called 
The gardens were beautiful,
and behind the hotel was a big field on which some sort of grain was growing. It could have been corn. Peru is a major producer of corn, and it is consumed in different forms at different times of the day. There are many kinds of corn available in different colors. The kernels are huge, and they do not look anything like what you see in the United States.
The picture below is an advertisement for transportation to what may be the most popular destination in the country for international tourists.
As we drove out of town, we passed a hill with a statue of 
There was another monument to the Emperor Pachacutec, beside the road that we were driving along. 
We climbed out of the valley that Cusco is situated in using a series of switchbacks. The bus made a stop somewhere along the way, on the hillside, to provide views of the city. While we were stopped we got instructions on the use of 
We stopped for lunch at the village of 
The 
I was fascinated by the way the kids were carried around by their mothers.
Who can resist pictures of cute children! This one continued to turn around and look at me as mom walked away.
Lunch was followed by a demonstration of the process for creating different colored threads from the wool. This thread is used for making the different products sold by the cooperative. 
Most of the people in this part of Peru are 
While walking through town we passed a procession. It could have been the procession in celebration of Easter.
There also seemed to be some kind of meeting going on in town. I heard two different accounts regarding the subject of the meeting. One was that this was a funeral service. The other was that this was a meeting of the mayors of the local villages. They are sitting to the left of the picture below. I was told that the mayors carry their official staffs with them, and these had been collected in a standing pile in front of where they are seated. A good amount of 
Then it was onward to our destination for the night. The view beside the mountain roads was beautiful. We stopped for pictures. The snow-capped peaks of the Andes appeared in the distance.
The valleys were covered with meadows, green fields, and clumps of trees. There were flowers by the wayside. For some reason I began to think of 
The clouds moved swiftly across the sky.
And then we began our descent into the Sacred Valley following a series of switchbacks down a steep mountainside.
The sun was beginning to set as we got to our hotel on the outskirts of the town of 
Urubamba is a small place beside the 
At dinner we were entertained by a musician playing music on different kinds of 
While you are in Peru, you will hear the song 
Splattered Brains 