Friday, September 9, 2016

Arriving at the Sacred Valley

Travelling to the Sacred Valley is pretty much an all day adventure.  We're up at 7:00 to set our backpacks outside our door so that they can be picked up and loaded onto the river boat.  This is our last breakfast together and we spend the time asking about family and extending invitations to come and visit and to say goodbye to Luis who has a new group to guide and won't be coming with us back to the city.  We also settle payment for purchases made at the gift shop and for our kayaking. 

The six people in our group make the final trek to the river boat.  We are whisked away upstream to Puerto Moldonado to the Rainforest Expedition Headquarters to get our suitcases and repack to prepare for the flight out.  Rainforest Expeditions operates three lodges and ours is the only one that is a joint venture with the local tribe.  


We're all headed for different destinations.  Rowie hands Judith and I a little souvenir koala bear left over from her time at the Olympics.  Over the 4 days with her, I have concluded that she is a great representative for her country.  We board the bus to the airport.  

The airport at Puerto Mondonado has two departure gates.  It reminded me of Victoria Airport a few decades ago when we had the same number.  I get surveyed by a couple of students who are collecting data for tourism in the area.  They're very cute and giggled when they couldn't come up with an English translation for specific words.  And they seemed so happy when I was able to tell them I had post graduate education.  They let me take their picture. 


The departure notice board and the announcements didn't correlate with what was happening on the ground.  If Judith hadn't made the connection that the lineup of people at gate 2 was our flight I wouldn't have made it.  My boarding ticket and departure screen both said Gate 1.  I guess the good news is that you only have a 50% chance of getting the wrong gate number.  Thank goodness for Judith's radar.

We land at Cuzco and I spot a basket of cocoa leaves.  I know this is what you need to help prevent altitude sickness.  I grab the maximum 3 leaves, fold them up into a small wad and place it in my mouth.  I think this is what you do with chewing tobacco--not that I've ever done any, but it seems that it would be a similar thing.

Our guides are there to meet us as we come out of the airport.  It's great to be hand held throughout our travels in Peru.  The same thing happened in India.  This is the way to go--it's nice to be able to be whisked away without having to negotiate transportation where you have no idea whether the outfit or driver are trustworthy.  We're greeted by the driver, the tour guide and the area tour manager.  It's almost like you're important, except you know you've only paid a lot to make this all happen.  They load all our bags and us into the van. 


Cuzco's altitude is 10,800 feet.  It's higher than any other place I've been including Haleakala crater on Maui (10,023 ft). We get into the car and the agent is telling Judith and I important information about luggage logistics as we are only permitted to take a maximum of 18kg for the 4 days while we're in the Macchu Pichu area.  There are baggage porters that will carry your bag for you on the trek into the area and take them to your hotel while you go onto Macchu Picchu, but there is a maximum weight limit permitted to keep the porters safe.  These baggage rules are similar for the Lodge in the Amazon we were just at.  And we head off over a mountain pass to get to the Sacred Valley.  Summit elevation is over 13,000 ft.  


We're in the Sacred Valley for two nights.  Our driver sets off, with our guide and we head towards the Sacred Valley, about a a two hour drive from the airport.  There is water and two nicely packed boxed lunches for us; I can say it was one of the nicest lunches I've had.  Judith picks at her lunch--I'm surprised she's not as hungry as I am since its been 7 hours since we last ate.  Part way there, we stop to check out a market.  We see a corn vendor so I buy some corn to eat.  It's a very different variety from anything we get in Canada.  These kernels are huge and are white in colour.  It's served with cheese and the husk is used to hold onto the cob.  I find it rather tasteless.  

The guide takes us to a pen holding a lot of Guinea pigs.  They are indigenous here and are generally used for food.  I was ready to throw my corn in the garbage, but the guide suggested I give it to the Guinea pigs. They liked it far better than the alfalfa.  


Our guide then gives us a lesson about authentic vs knock off Peruvian products.  It's very informative, except I can't help think that the guide gets a kickback for anything you purchase at the store.  When we're back in the car and underway, Judith apogises for not being too talkative and self diagnoses the problem as altitude sickness.  I look over at her a couple of times on that last leg and can attest to how green she looked.  Sometime before 6:00 we arrived at the hotel.  Judith had to excuse herself while the paperwork was being processed.  Wow, she was quite sick.  When she came back we quickly finished the paperwork and we loaded into a golf cart to get to our room.  It's the same hotel chain we stayed at in Lima, Casa Andina Private Collection.  It's swank.  But Judith is in bed within 5 minutes of tipping the bell hop.  


I get the call from Jose around 7:30pm about tomorrow's horse riding activities (yeah! I get to sleep in until 7:00 am).  And then go to the lobby to use the free (but slow) WIFI.  That's when I discover I lost the blog from two days ago and start re-writing a new one.   

Around 9:30, Judith pops into the lobby and we go have a bite in the restaurant.  A veggie pizza, because she's still not sure how her stomach will react.  But it seems good.  We finish up dinner and I stay back in the lobby to publish the blog.  I walk back to our room and can't believe how winded I am going up about a single storey.  I begin to think that hiking to Macchu Pichu is a bad idea.  






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