Machu Picchu

Our day started out with a bit of stress. We had requested a cab for 8am to take us to the train station for a 9:15 train to the base of Machu Picchu.  It hadn't shown up by 8:07 so we asked our host about it.  He had to use a back-up cab company. That cab didn't show up until 8:37 and it's usually a 40 minute ride to the station.  Our cab driver rose to the occasion.  He whipped through little streets like this at 50 mph, beeping at anything that dared to move. On open stretches he hit close to 80! Even I was white-knuckled.  We went through little towns weaving around tuk-tuks and passing cars with little or no margin of safety.

We arrived at the station at 9:10, somewhat white faced. The official hesitated to let us pass for a moment but somehow sensed the desperation in our faces. We were the last people on the train.

The train ride was an unexpected pleasure.  It follows the Urubamba river for and hour and a half with spectacular mountain and river views. There is no road to Machu Picchu, only the train. And then it only takes you to the base of the mountain at Aguas Caliente. 

Here we at the town posing for a cheesy shot with a statue of the Inca king who legend says built Machu Picchu.

 Next we boarded a bus to zig-zag up the mountain to the actual entrance of Machu Picchu. That's where the steps start. Our exercise monitors said we climbed the equivalent of a 15 story building. Not bad considering the altitude and my lingering bronchitis.

And finally you go around a corner and your tour a Machu Picchu begins. We chose to use the same tour guide, Hernan, during our entire stay in the Inca Sacred Valley. He's been doing this tour for almost 20 years. You may see pictures of him in various blog posts. The following shots are picked from the 100 or so pictures we took up there..

The sun came out just long enough to get this shot	The obligatory shot of us overlooking Machu Picchui
The many stone terraces built by the Incas to make this fortress self-sustaining	Looking through one of Machu Picchu's many doors
This is the amazing engineering of the Incas. See how these heavy granite blocks fit	This is the Inca King's tomb
This is called the Condor. Can you see the wings on the wall behind it?	Llamas everywhere

We were so lucky to come when we did. We had some sun and no rain until we got back down to the town and boarded the train. This is the off season and our guide said the people at the site were about 10% of what we'd expect in peak season.

We got to spend about 6 hours in Machu Picchu itself.

The Inca Valley - Day one

This was our introduction to the Inca Valley. There's so much more to the Inca Valley than Machu Picchu. And our excellent guide, Hernan, more than proved that today.   Besides learning about Inca history, the scenery was stellar. I was shocked that Patrice said this was the prettiest place she's ever been.  It starts with our backyard. Here's Patrice and our host, Bryan.

Here's another picture from our backyard:

 

 The valley is chock full of Inca installations. This unassuming monument in Urubamba still has the original logs in the stucco. As we viewed this shrine, we were the only ones there.

 

The next site, at town of Moras (elevation 12400ft) looks like an amphitheater but it's actually an Inca seed test site. Over 600 years ago they were creating hybrid seeds and using this site to see which elevations were best for planting them.

 

We were off to some Cultural Textile  centers to discover the other specialty of the Incas.  Here we saw Alpaca wool being spun and dyed.

And we got to watch them weave a table runner. These take a month to make.

The elevation here was over 13000 feet and we all went downhill from here; both literally and physically!

After this we went to Salinas to see the Pre-Inca salt mines.   On the way,  Patrice found these girls with their Alpacas.

 

The Sacred Valley of the Incas

We left Lima for the 11,300 foot elevation of Cusco. We are concerned about Altitude Sickness. We actually drove higher until we got to the pass into the Sacred Valley 

 

Then the Valley magically opened up

 

 

This is the view out of our back windows. Right now we are feeling the altitude but we're hopeful that with a good night's rest we'll be ready to explore in the morning.

Montevideo to Lima

As we left Montevideo I realized I owe her a bit of an apology. On the way to the airport, in dawn's early light we saw a side of the city we'd never seen before. And one that our guide had never encouraged us to see. We saw miles of gleaming ocean-front condos and neat rows of houses with manicured plantings and NO graffiti. So if run-down turn-of-the-century buildings covered with graffiti is the heart and soul of the city and these beautiful neighborhoods aren't worth a look then I am just in a different universe. 

Lima is a very different story.  We rolled out of the airport in a hot cab with the windows down into a cacophony of car horns. While not on a scale with New Delhi, you knew you were in a different country. Patrice was pretty zen about the crazy driving and the near misses. But this taxi was driving for survival, not her comfort.  

All-in-all Lima didn't have that rundown neglected look.  As we got near the heart of the city, the temperature suddenly dropped 10 degrees and we felt the cool breezes off the Pacific.

 

 

 Suddenly, we broke out on to a highway that followed the Pacific shore and traffic settled down to a dull roar.  All along the road there's a steep cliff so there are very few exits.

We went another few miles and found an exit that took us to our hotel.  It was just a Marriot Courtyard but after Montevideo we thought we'd died and gone to Heaven.  This hotel is in the Miraflores neighbor of Lima and is only 8 blocks from the water. The front desk suggested we might want to walk down to the water to see the Mall there and the views of the Pacific. We needed to get our train tickets for Machu Picchu and their office was in the mall. We walked down to the water and saw this pretty view of the Pacific:

 Do you see a mall here? We knew we had to be close because Google Maps said we were standing right beside it.  So we walked a few blocks along the water figuring that some of the high-rises might of blocked our view of it.

So by this time we were running out of patience and asked somebody.  They pointed to an opening in overlook you see to your left.

 

We had been standing on TOP of the mall the whole time. There were no signs for a mall and even the stairways down to it rom street level we not in plain site.  Look how it's built into the side of the bluffs.  It's actually goes 3 levels down the bluff and each level has it's share of eateries and store galleries with breathtaking views of the ocean. The road below is the same one we took from the airport, but the mall is so high that you can't see it from the road.

 

 This might be the prettiest mall we have ever seen.

So that's it for Lima. That's all the time we have for her.  We're still recuperating and need to get plenty of rest for tomorrow's flight to Cusco.

Bouza Winery - Montevideo

 This winery is about 8 miles north of Montevideo in rolling countryside.

This winery was originally built in the 40's and was restored and enlarged in 2001 by the Bouza family. 

Interestingly enough, the original family had to flee the country in the early 80's.

Our agenda here today was a winery tour, a wine tasting and a great meal. So let's start with the tour shall we?

 

It's summer here; the equivalent of our July. As you can see the grapes are beginning to ripen. This is a dry vineyard which means they don't irrigate their vines. They've added granite chips to keep the low hanging vines clean and to hold in the moisture.

According to our tour guide these grapes are about 3 weeks from having the proper sugar content for harvest.

As a matter of fact, you'll see a glass of Tannant wine wound up on our table. That wine came from these same vines a couple years ago.

Here's the cellar and our tour guide explaining how they fill the kegs from the stainless tanks above. And here's a close up of one or their oak kegs

 

Last, but not least is the wine tasting and lunch. Unbeknownst to us, they combine those two activities into one. I really enjoyed it. This might have been my favorite part of Montevideo!!

 

OK now... Off to bed because the driver is picking us up at 4am to fly to Lima!!

 P.S. Here's a four leaf clover Patrice found while few were waiting for our ride home.  I think our luck is going yo change

 

 

Montevideo's Port Market

It's only a 15 minute walk through the old city to the port area.   And they have conveniently converted two streets to pedestrian walk-ways which makes the jaunt much more fun. As you might have noticed, I'm not a huge fan of where we're staying but I have to admit it is centrally located among some cool sites.  For example, here is the interior of a church that's located just down the block and at the top of one of the pedestrian walk-ways.

I was joking with Patrice that there is so much graffiti and so many of the buildings look dirty and run-down that they must sell more paint in spray cans that they do in large 3 or 4 liter cans. (There's no such thing as a gallon here)

But our destination today is the Mercado del Puerte, the Port Market. 

 It was built, like so many other things around here, at the turn of the century.

 It's famous architecturally for its open spaces and ornamental iron-work.

It's hard to get picture of the Mercado itself because it's surrounded by so many other buildings.

 

But here's a shot at one side of it.

  The building in back is totally unrelated.

 It houses the Customs authority for the port.

 

But here's what looks like inside:

 

Somebody described this place as Disneyland for carnivores. And that somes it up pretty well.  Instead of lots of individual stalls selling various wares the entire building is separated into about a dozen different restaurants.

 Each restaurant has a grill like this.  In Argentina and Uruguay these are called parillas. 

The wood fire roaring in the back (on the right) does not cook the meat. Its' only job is to create hot embers. As the embers drop, they are somehow raked under the grill on the left. That's where they put the steaks and other meats. Before they put the steaks on the grill, they use their own special formula salt rub. But they don't just apply or gently dab the rub on the steaks, they massage it into the meat. And by the way, any meat done past medium-rare is ruined in their book.

I had a lomo de Brochette which is beef tenderloin on a skewer with onions and red peppers. Each piece was the size of half a petite filet back home.  Needless to say I could not eat the whole thing.

As you can probably tell, my cold is  getting better every day. My primary mission now is to make sure Patrice doesn't get as sick as I did.

On the Mend

After spending the morning at the British Hospital I found that I did not have strep and plan to just get over this virus and it's associated sinus infection. We brought some Cipro anti-biotic with us and I will take that if I don't make any progress on the sinus infection and cough by tomorrow.  I am determined to be in good shape for the high elevations in Peru.
 

Yesterday I rallied long enough to do a little sightseeing. Here are some pictures of the Teatro Solis which is just a few blocks from here. Unlike most buildings, it is not covered with graffiti. 

Here are a couple shots from the inside:

Inside the theatre	Inside the hall of Presidents

 This is the gate from the old section of Montevideo to the "new" section.  That's kind of ironic because it all looks pretty old to me.

 

On the way to pick up our laundry we saw this interesting store. Patrice would not let me go inside to see what they actually sell!

Good night all.