Although I will write a lot about Colombia, I will share with you the travel I did to Machu Picchu Perú on December of 2012. Perú is a south american country located southeast of Colombia . Remeber Im not a billingual person yet, so be patient with my writing errors. Thanks
This was a fantastic experience because I decided to travel alone this time, when the two friends who had decided travel with me couldnt do it for work reasons.
I started my travel going since my hometown Neiva in the south of Colombia to Bogotá who is the capital of my country, there, I took a plane to Lima, the capital of Perú!!. This is Lima´s airport. I had to wait there 2 ours to take the plain to Cusco who is one hour and a half from Lima by plane.
Waiting for my plane in Lima-perú
My first Typical food in Perú :s
The Alejandro Velasco Airport in Cusco Perú
One thing you have to keep in mind is be careful about take the tourism packages in the airport, I did it and i have a lot of problems that I will tell you about that bad decision I took. But that will be later. Only try to get a good information about the company before buy a tourism packages, in cusco there are a lottttttttt of good ones.
I think Cusco have really good weather, at day (here is when the nightmare prepositions appears, is at or on?) is about 17 to 22 C. grades and at night about 12 to 17 grades, it´s good for me who come from a city who is 24 to 36 grades all days.
I took a taxi from the airport to my Hostel that I booked when I planned my trip, call it Hostal el Labrador, I knew the taxi there would be expensive but I was traveling 5 hours from Neiva to Bogotá by bus, then 3 hours from Bogotá to Lima by plane, then 1 1/2 hour from lima to cusco, without mention the waiting between each fly.
But something happened when the taxi started to leave the normal city and get into the historical part of cusco, I saw beautiful things, streets, churches, colonial houses and I started to talk with the taxi driver about cusco, how is the security in the city, restaurants, I ask him about "soroche" that discomfort that you feel due to the height and many other things. When I saw all these and with the little talk with the driver, my body was full of energy again and I wanted to do only one thing... walk trough the city as soon as possible.
Colonial streets in cusco
I paid the room in the Hostel, its cost me 25 dolars a single room (you can get all the prices you want about rooms) and I went out immediately to know the main square in cusco called it Plaza de Armas.
This is the backyard of the Culture and Tourism Institute In Cusco, when you can buy the tickets for Machu Picchu. I bought trough Internet.
On the road to the Plaza de Armas I had to walked trough the Calle Afligidos "Bereaved street".
This is the University of Cusco.
This was my first view to the Plaza de Armas, really beautiful and I start to see many foreigners.
That is the main Church in the Plaza de Armas
Everything super clean and in its right position.
This is a "llama" or "alpaca" very common in Perú. Be careful, if you close it to much it will spit you. I knew that so didn´t happen to me.
"Amigo" "Amigo" is the word that you constantly will hear when Peruvian people want to try to get your attention.
Teqsigocha Street.
Although the historical center have many alleys, you will be happy to walk trough theirs, they are very pretty safe.
I don´t know why, but I saw many dogs, huge dogs, huge fat dogs more exactly.
"Calle de la Amargura", "street of bitterness"... what happen with the names of the streets people?
An European man beside me said to his partner: That is the gay flag over there? and his friend answered, Whats wrong with you man?!!
Here a old woman followed me selling me a hat and gloves made it from Alpaca (the animal mentioned above) for about 70 metres and said "Amigo, 25 soles las dos cosas", Friend, 25 soles both things ( the currency of Perú), I said no thanks, but continued followed me so I said, I give you ten, after other 10 meters she said ok ten soles. umm
mental note, bargain a lot.
This is a PESEBRE, is a December tradition in many south american countries, also in Colombia. For latin-american people december is the month when Jesus christ was born. So the families who want, it is not a rule, from december 16th to 24th built the pesebre who is a retort of the stable when the bible say Jesus borned and on those nights, the family meets around the pesebre and read, pray and sing about the story (called it Novena) of what happened those 9 days when maria and josé (jesus parents) arrive to belén, a city close to jerusalen and like nobody wanted to give them shelter, they had to go and spend the nights on an stable. The kids love this time of the year because after read the Novena the adults give them candies or icream, for that reason at lest in Colombia you can see many kids knocking the door of their neighbors saying, Mr. o Ms. x at what time are you going to pray the Novena?
On this street you can find many different kind of restaurants like Korean, italian, arabic, spanish and many others. Buy I was in Perú so I wanted Peruvian food!!.
This is Pisco Sour is an "aguardiente the uvas", is a kind of alcohol made it form grapes, really good.
This called it "Sopa criolla" Creole soup very delicious.
This is the famous "MATE DE COCA" is like a te made it of coca leaves, is the best solution for the "SOROCHE" that is like an altitude sickness than many people said to suffer when arrive to Cusco.
At this time the Weather was a cool, 17 grades.
I forgot ask about that man. Who were him? and what did he do? Obviously was a leader on this lands
And the night appeared with all the magic of this town.
