A Nibble Bit

This blog is apart of my Peru travel post series. Read my previous posts about the Amazon rainforest, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, Lima, and Huachachina!


In addition to my blog posts about all the places I visited in Peru, I created a video summarizing our trip: 

• Bug repellent - be sure to spray yourselves down to avoid being bitten by mosquitos! Mosquitos are typically not present in the higher altitude places, such as Cuzco or Machu Picchu. If you are, however, planning to make a visit to the Amazon rainforest, be sure to buy enough bug repellent. I believe you need at least a Deet percentage of 30% and higher in order for the repellent to be effective.
• Here are the ones that I used:
• Permitern (sp): Spray down your clothes in advance so insects and mosquitos are not attracted to you!
• Long pants and long sleeved shirts. I bought moisture-wicking workout clothes so that I could reuse them for the gym, thereby saving money in the process.

• Small backpack for your hiking adventures. I purchased this backpack from REI and found it very helpful when hiking Machu Picchu. It even had space to put a camelback water pouch in it, which was very convenient during hiking.
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• Comfortable shoes - I bought hiking shoes from REI and used them for walking through cities as well. I adore these Merrell shoes I purchased:
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• Snack and granola bars in case you are unable to access food whilst hiking. My favorite are Kind Bars!
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• Light jacket - weather can be unpredictable at Machu Picchu, so a light jacket is important to have.
• Camera - I took my go pro and used chest and head straps while hiking. I also carried around a extended stick to capture group photos without having to ask strangers. My friends brought their nice cameras, so it was the best of both worlds!
• Travel Guide - I bought Fodor's travel guide and found it very informative in terms of history, recommendations on places to stay and eat.
• Note: Do not use TripAdvisor as a guide on where to eat. We ate at one restaurant because of high ratings in TripAdvisor, and we were sorely disappointed.
• Wool socks: i was able to wear my socks for 2-3 days without washing at a time! You can buy these at REI.

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• Book/Kindle: for the long bus and train rides during your travels. I really like my Kindle Paperwhite because it is so lightweight to pack and I can read for hours on its battery.
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• Hat: to shield yourself from the sun.
• Sunglasses: see above!
• Sunblock: high altitude (and use of Diamox): more sensitivity to sunlight
• Other things to pack: http://www.lan.com/onlyinsouthamerica/insiders-guide-ultimate-peru-packing-list/


Things to consider


Other things you might consider for your trip are travel medications.

• See and consult your doctor for prescription travel medicine that you may find necessary, such as:
• Diamox for altitude acclimatization.
• Traveler's Diarrhea medication
• Yellow fever vaccination
• Malaria vaccination: we were told that Malaria was not prevalent in the places we visited in Peru, so we personally opted out of this. However, please asses your own health needs as necessary!
• Dramamine for motion sickness
• Typhoid medication


Getting to Machu Picchu
Getting to Machu Picchu takes a bit of planning. I've included the two options that are most common for those interested in visiting Machu Picchu.


Option 1: 
1. Landing in Cuzco airport 
2. Renting a van from Cuzco to Sacred Valley (about a 2 hour car ride). We rented our van through our hotel, Hostal Iskay, in Sacred Valley
3. Staying overnight in Sacred Valley
4. Taking a Perurail train from Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes to stay overnight. The trip from Sacred Valley to Aguas Calientes was approximately a 1 hour 45 minute ride. We stayed at Casa Andina Aguas Calientes, and though on the pricier side, we felt it was well worth it to rest up before our big Machu Picchu day. 
5. We also bought our bus tickets up to Machu Picchu the night before to save time in the morning. (You can ask any local for directions to the bus ticket booth.)
6. Waking up at 5 am to line up for the bus ride up to Machu Picchu. 
By taking this route, you get to go to Machu Picchu earlier in the morning to avoid the crowds, thereby ensuring prettier pictures!
Option 2: 
1. Landing in Cuzco airport
2. Taking the Perurail train from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes in the morning. Keep in mind that this train takes roughly 4 hours.
3. Taking the bus from Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu. You would buy tickets at the bus ticket booth.
By taking this route, you will arrive at Machu Picchu around 11 am, which is when it is most crowded. I would not recommend this route simply because Machu Picchu is not as magical when there are hordes of people in your pictures.


Other Resources
• Peruhop: We used this service to go sandboarding in Huacachina.
• Machu Picchu Tickets: be sure to purchase your Machu Picchu tickets in advance on the government website. 
• If you would like to hike up either Machu Picchu or Huayna Picchu mountain, be sure to buy the appropriate ticket.
• This website is a great guide on how to purchase your Machu Picchu tickets as the website can be slightly confusing. Be sure to have your passport ready.
• Bolesto Touristo for Sacred Valley sites: You can buy this at the entrance of the Sacred Valley sites. We bought ours at the Ollantaytambo Ruins.
• Amazon Planet: We stayed at this all inclusive resort during our stay in the Amazon rainforest. They were wonderful for the price and I highly recommend them!
• Peru Rail: We used Peru Rail to travel to Aguas Calientes, the town right below Machu Picchu.
• You can travel to Aguas Calientes to stay overnight, or go early in the morning for Machu Picchu. We chose to stay overnight in Aguas Calientes.
• Hotels we stayed a:
• We stayed at Casa Andina Aguas Calientes overnight before we hiked Machu Picchu. Casa Andina is a chain of hotels in Peru. We found their rooms to be large, comfortable, and offered a nice shower with hot water! Apparently hot water is not common in some places in Peru (i.e. Cuzco and Sacred Valley), so keep that in mind as you look for hotels. 
• Hostal Iskay in Ollantaytambo. This place was very reasonably priced and offers free breakfast. There was hot water and the beds were fairly comfortable, though keep in mind the rooms were on the smaller side.

Peruvian beer. I really enjoyed this! It's light and refreshing.

I hope you find this post helpful when planning your trip to Peru! If there is any other information that you would find helpful, please let me know in the comments below. :)

This blog is apart of my Peru travel post series. Read my previous posts about the Amazon rainforest, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, Cuzco, and Lima!

Day 7 - Huachachina

We board a bus the next day at 5 am for a day trip to Huachachina. Huachachina is a desert oasis in Peru, about a 4 hour bus ride from Lima. We used Peru Hop for our day trip to go sandboarding.

This is what Huachachina looks like! Credit: Google

What is sandboarding? Literally what it sounds like - boarding on sand!

My lovely friend Venus

Our group of friends

The sand buggy we rode it

The sun is setting behind the sand dunes

My friend Glen boarding down a sand dune

Bye, Huachachina! You have been so good to us.

This blog is apart of my Peru travel post series. Read my previous posts about the Amazon rainforest, Sacred Valley, Machu Picchu, and Cuzco!

Day 6.5 - Lima

Lima is vastly different than anything else we had seen in Peru. It is modernized and clean! We stayed in the most beautiful Airbnb, a luxury apartment if you will. We ate dinner at actual restaurants! We used bathrooms with soap (there was rarely any soap at any of the other places in Peru...)! There were mowed lawns! Restaurants that took credit cards! I had never been so pleased to be in a city. I guess you can say I'm high maintenance and was tired of "roughing it" up until then.

Our first meal in Lima was at Pardos Chicken. We ordered SO MUCH MEAT. It was absolutely delicious. Not only did we devour plates and plates of meat, but alcoholic drinks were buy one get one free - which meant we ordered 2 stiff drinks for $5 USD!

Our dinner in Lima

an entire plate filled with MEAT

After dinner, we went shopping for snacks and lunch to bring with us for our day trip to Huachachina, but came back to Lima for one more day in Lima.

Day 7 - Huachachina (another post)

Ceviche

Fruit stand

Some sort of Peruvian fruit

Amazonian food!

Roasted pork from street vendor

This blog is apart of my Peru travel post series. Read my previous posts about the Amazon rainforest, Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu!

View of Cuzco from our Airbnb

Cuzco's main square

Churros we bought from a street vendor

We visited San Pedro market in Cuzco, which is an extremely large market. A tour guide said that a lot of goods were cheapest here, out of everywhere else in Peru.

We fly out of Cuzco to go to Lima, our next stop.

Read about Lima here!

*We have my friend to thank for these beautiful pictures throughout the next couple of posts. A few of these pictures were taken on my GoPro, but most pictures were taken by my friend, Alex Botao Wong. 

This blog is apart of my Peru travel post series. Read my previous posts about the Amazon rainforest and Sacred Valley!

Day 5 - Aguas Calientes / Machu Picchu

We decided to leave Sacred Valley to take a train to Aguas Calientes for the night. Aguas Calientes is the town right below Machu Picchu, and staying overnight there allowed us to get more sleep before visiting the biggest highlight of our trip: Machu Picchu! And because we stayed overnight, we got to avoid the big crowds coming to Machu Picchu from Sacred Valley or Cuzco by train in the morning.

From Aguas Calientes, we woke up at 4 am to line up for the buses that would drive us 25 minutes to Machu Picchu. I thought there wouldn't be a long line at that early of an hour, but boy, was the line long. However, we only waited about 30-45 minutes to get onto a bus to Machu Picchu.

I also want to note that you need tickets in order to enter the Machu Picchu ruins. They only allow a certain number of visitors per day, so be sure to book your tickets in advance to avoid any disappointment! We booked our tickets months before on Peru's Ministero de Cultura (a government page). You also have the option of hiking up either Machu Picchu or Huaynapicchu mountain, and have to buy the specific ticket for those options as well. Huaynapicchu mountain has a more limited amount of tickets than Machu Picchu mountain, so those run out quicker. (We chose to hike up Huaynapicchu - it offers a different view of the Machu Picchu ruins.)

You also need to purchase your bus tickets to the ruins before boarding the buses. We bought ours the night before, when there was no line, to save time. You also have the option to hike down the mountain, which is roughly an hour.

I was SO EXCITED to finally achieve one of my long-awaited dreams! I was careful about what I ate too, as the last thing I needed was to suffer food poisoning and not be able to visit Machu Picchu.

There was not many people when we arrived at Machu Picchu around 8 am, and thank goodness! I got to revel in the wonderful slight of Machu Picchu. Machu Picchu was every bit as beautiful as I thought it would be. I actually shed tears when I saw it in person. :')

I really could have stayed there for hours, just staring at the mountain. My friends and I took a bunch of pictures before all the other hordes of tourists came. We even saw llamas, and encouraged them to take pictures with us by offering them bananas! It was extremely fun, and we left when the guards came to shoo us away. Thus, we made our way to Huaynapicchu for our hike.

Hi llama friend!

View of Machu Picchu ruins from Huaynapicchu

Read about Cuzco, Peru here!

*We have my friend to thank for these beautiful pictures throughout the next couple of posts. A few of these pictures were taken on my GoPro, but most pictures were taken by my friend, Alex Botao Wong. 

Coca tea

My altitude sickness did go away after a few days. It helped that we adjusted slowly to the altitude. Instead of staying at Cuzco, which I believe is at 11,000+ feet (for reference, Denver is about 5,000 feet), we traveled to Sacred Valley first, which is at 9,514 feet in elevation.

We stayed in Ollantaytambo, a town in Sacred Valley, for the first night we were there. Oh, and we also tried cuy - aka guinea pig!

look how creepy it is! you can see the guinea pig's last moments of excruciating pain by the way it is wincing...ugh. You can even see the teeth.

We rented a van for the next day and drove around looking at popular Sacred Valley spots:

View from the Ollantaytambo ruins

Another view from Ollantaytambo ruins

Pisac ruins

Maras salt flats

Inca ruins of Moray

My friend Glen looking at chess sets

Copyright infringement is not a huge deal in Peru

Pisac market

Overall, it was very interesting to go around and look at Inca ruins. We purchased a boleto turistico for the day, which allowed us to visit the ancient ruin sites.

We also got to eat at a restaurant, El_Huacatay, that turned out to me one of my favorite meals in Peru. By the way, food in Peru is cheap! Especially compared to America, where Pervuvian food is not as good and far more expensive.

Our spread

Lomo saltado..do you get the sense that we really enjoyed our lomo saltado there?

Sacred Valley was a very unique experience indeed. However, I'm sure that the post you've all been waiting for is my adventure to Machu Picchu: read all about it here!

*We have my friend to thank for these beautiful pictures throughout the next couple of posts. A few of these pictures were taken on my GoPro, but most pictures were taken by my friend, Alex Botao Wong.