Tim & Denise Tiner Travels: 2021 October - Day 05 - Peru

We have been having a great trip so far. Traveling with the Hayden’s and Smith’s has been so much fun!

Today, we woke up early enough to take an 8 minute walk to church. It started at 9 AM, But i have to say last night was brutal getting to sleep. For whatever reason, we had people in our alley way, talking horribly loud. At one point some guys fired up a guitar and sang together for quite along time. They must have been just under our window as the words and music were so clear. We went to bed at 11 PM. So you can imagine how late that was. It was Saturday night. And the downtown area was alive. I don’t know what time it all settled down but it seemed to go on for hours. Marc and Heidi, whose window is on on the alley way was also serenaded. Scott and Michelle were more inside and did not hear it. Lucky them.

Church was amazing. It is always a highlight to go to church in different countries and see the faith and testimonies of the people in these lands. Today was Fast and Testimony meeting. We witnessed the confirmations of two young people by a red-headed missionary who had two Peruvian companions. Well, I think they were Peruvian. But who knows. The cool things was that the first hymn was sung without a person at the piano. Knowing that Marc plays well, we told Marc to do it. So he whispered to the missionaries who asked the Bishop when they went up front to do the confirmations. The Bishop said ok. So the Sacrament hymn and the closing hymn Marc played the piano. The funny thing was that Marc had never heard of the closing hymn. So when he walked up to play, he asked the Chorister if he could change it to the one on the opposite page. It caught here a bit off guard. But she agreed and Marc did amazing. The testimonies were amazing and the people so sweet. We had a very senior sister come up to us a couple of times to welcome us and tell us her thankfulness for being a member for over 40 years. She was sweet.

After church, we returned to our BNB to change and head out to get a quick lunch. Hugo, our taxi driver, was going to pick us up at noon. So around 11 we headed out to find some food. But unfortunately the places we wanted to go were closed. The town partied all night and I think they were all home in bed hung over. Very little movement on the streets. Anyway, we found that our favorite ice cream shop was open and they had empanadas. So we bought Ice Cream cones to eat while they figured out how to fill our 3 empanada each order and collect our money. This is a bit of long story…but their processes are a bit confusing at times. The empanadas were great. We still have one for breakfast tomorrow.

Hugo picked us up at noon and returned us to our BNB around 6 PM. He took us all over the place. We wanted to see a couple of archaeological sites. But he agreed the cost was too high; So he took us to points where we could get great pictures. We visitied:

Saqsaywaman. (We laugh and say he is saying ‘sexy woman’. This has a large area of ancient Inca ruins. We were able to drive up above it and get some goo pictures of it.

An Alpaca, Vincua, and Llama farm where we fed, took pictures of them and so on. They then led us into their store where instead of paying to get in…they want you to buy something. I think most everyone bought something.

Pisac…this took us about 1.5 hours to drive there via a VERY windy, narrow road. We passed all kinds of little pueblos where you see how the rural Peruvians live and work. I’m always amazed to see the conditions of the lives of many people. But they are happy. Pisac lies in a gorgeous valley where a river runs through it. There are some agriculture ruins there on the side of the mountain that you could pay to walk up the side of the mountain to seek, One note….you cannot buy a single entrance ticket. You have to buy a ticket that gets you into 16 plus sites where you’d never see all of them in the time we had. So we opted not to do that. And honestly it was fine. Anyway, after Pisac, we drove 1.5 hours back to Cusco and watched as rain clouds started to gather.

We dropped our things and went to a little eatery just 50 yards from our BNB. It was a pizza and pasta shop. For 30 bucks, the six of us got 3 plates, large plates, of pasta, and 3 different good sized personal pizzas. We also had sodas and bottled water with garlic bread pieces! Food is so cheap here.

After eating, Marc and I set out to find a place to buy Face Shields. Turns out the train\bus system provider requires masks AND face shields. You can get on a packed plane without such, but not on their train. The inconsistencies of this Covid practices is mind boggling. I meant to mention that when we were going down the jetway, they were adamant that we kept our 6’ distance. Yet, you get on the plane and you are piled on top of each other! No logic consistency at all!

Well, tomorrow we leave Cusco for a bit and head to Aguas Calientes. This is a little town at the base of Machu Pichu. We will take a ‘vista’ train for 4 hours to get there. Going to be fun! Until then….

Pictures:

We stopped to look at one of the sites and met Jorge, the young man. He became our photographer for a bit. The other man is Hugo, our driver.

Ashley, I want my next haircut to be like this! I think someone shaved this dogs body but left him a Mohawk. Kind of ugly he was!

This is called the Cristo Blanco (White Christ). He sits on a hill over looking Cusco and is lighted at night.

Scott and Michelle feeding Vincua’s which are a wild animal that is growing extinct that lives in high elevations in Peru. I very small rug made of their skin….$1000.

They call this area Sacred Valley. It encompasses a large area. It is extremely green and beautiful. We stopped as we winded down to Pisac.

Our driver captured this shot. We liked the sun rays that he caught when taking it.

Marc and Heidi with Cusco back always in the background.

Same background only with Michelle and Scott.

This little guys name was Samuel. He was the first vendor we met when walking into the Artisan Market in Pisac. We asked him if he spoke English and he quickly said ‘YES’. Funny.

They said this was a monument to fertility. How many children between us do we have? Honestly, I feel like I’m back in Greece as you see these ‘statues’ all over the place.

The group at Cristo Blanco….

One of our Alpaca friends. I have to say, they have pretty cute faces. Especially the small ones that don’t have as much wool on them.

These ladies would ask to have a picture taken with them and then they would want payment for it. But you can see the small Alpaca…I believe it is an Alpaca.

Someone told us to buy the street doughnuts here. So we’ve been looking for them. Scott and Michelle got behind us at lunch time and arrived back to our BNB saying they had found the doughnuts on the street. But Scott said it was odd that they put potatoes in with them. It turns out that they were stuffed, fried, peppers. Almost like a Chile Relleno. We laughed and laughed over that.

Another shot at the Cristo Blanco….

This is our Llama friend who enjoyed the grass we gave him very much….

The group eating Italian food in Peru. Really good…really cheap!

The guy at the Alpaca farm showed us how they made the dye that is used to dye Llama and Alpaca wool. They squish bugs, they can add lemon juice and so on to get the colors they need. Pretty bizarre.