Here We Go!

I'd been so busy living in the moment that I kinda forgot the whole reason for my journey to Peru.


OK forgot might be too strong a word but, the realisation that I had to be somewhere that morning was almost as irritating to me as it was exciting. I was having so much fun!


I had my breakfast and watched a news program out of Lima while I ate. There was some big scandal regarding a man and his wife who'd been killed. The husband was the suspect and the coverage was most fascinating. Even in Spanish. Very dramatic and in a sort of expose style. Of course I had no fricking idea what the true story was and I felt bad for the woman-who'd been a famous singer. I vowed I'd find out though!


My interrupted sleep had left me groggy, I was slightly nauseous and my damn nose was leaking like a faucet. I had intended to get up early and skulk around Cusco,taking photos but that plan was culled in favour of making myself presentable, packing up my bag and checking out.


Soon I was walking toward my new destination, the tour company partnered with WWE and our initial meeting point. It was a nice morning, cool with a mix of sun and cloud. I headed down Ave De Sol watching the cars zip by me and the people on their way to work or out and about doing their shopping. It was a down hill walk and it felt good on my legs. A right, another right, a quick walk up and there it was, the rendezvous point.  That was way too easy!


A taxi pulled up along the curb ahead of me and three women got out. Aha, I thought. These must be some of my ladies. What perfect timing! We spotted each other and friendly introductions were made. Terri, May, Margaret and I made a nice foursome and we settled in across the street on a bench to wait for the others. The conversation flowed easy and it felt good to chat with my people, as I'd immediately seen them to be. We were all so different, yet all so the same too. I felt a comfortable report right away.


We chatted, we watched the traffic go by, we enjoyed the dogs roaming around both on the street and in a little park behind us (not noticing a dog was lying under the bench our butts were on until we'd moved across the street into the shade, ha!) and we waited. According to our trip literature if we had arrived early we could drop our bags and return for them later in time for the orientation. Well, we tried that but knocking on the door and ringing the bell brought forth not a soul, so sit and wait is what we did.

Soon more taxis brought us more ladies and lastly Sarah and Disnarda, our guides, arrived and it was time to go into the building. (But not before buying some bottled water so we could make use of a wash room in a near by restaurant. My first use of a squat toilet! The floor was super slippery and it was most awkward to use but I got the job done and didn't pee all down my leg as feared,ha!) According to a soft spoken sleepy looking older gentleman of European descent who opened the door after Disnarda rang him on the telephone, he'd been there all along but had either just not heard us or had been having a nap, he never said. The situation was all handled with a shrug of the shoulders. Sarah mentioned that is sort of thing is very "Peru".


We moved into the building where we stowed our luggage were given water and introduced ourselves. As a group we were, Moi, Terri, May, Margaret, Gaetanne, Rose, Brenda, Heather, and Debbie. Our WWE guide was Sarah and our adventure guide was Disnarda. We shared a little bit about ourselves, were given some information about our trek and headed out for lunch.

 If you've never  had Peruvian Chinese food, it's called Chifa and it's an interesting, tasty take on the cuisine. The menu was in Spanish and it was kind of fun trying to decipher what was what! We got some help from our guides but our choices were still left entirely to chance because of the language barrier and our expectations. I had ordered chicken with vegetables and rice. So I was expecting to get a pile of plain rice atop which rested some chicken and vegetables. This thing of beauty is what I received instead! Fried rice with sweet and sour chicken on one side and chicken and vegetables on the other.

 Other diners weren't so lucky, Sarah ordered a vegetarian dish and received something with every bit of meat protein a person would ever think of! She gamely ate her way through it, sharing with Heather when her dish just never arrived. Some of us also had soup but found it too gingery for their liking. The whole experience was an adventure to say the least. They were all pretty good natured about the whole thing, a theme that would carry us through in the following days.

The door to nowhere. In a building behind the restaurant.

I enjoyed my first real meal since arriving in Peru and was feeling relaxed and content as we pack our belongings into a large van and hit the road. Our destination? The Sacred Valley.

We drove up, up up out of Cuzco along a twisty road. Houses and shops and people and dogs and garbage lined the road. Dogs IN dumpsters. Like on top of huge piles of garbage in huge commercial size dumpsters! How the hell did they get up there? I finally saw a cat. An orange one, sitting on a stoop in the sun. Kids were waiting for buses at bus stops listening to their music or on their phones, like teens everywhere. There was something to see no matter where you looked. Soon we were driving through the most beautiful landscape.

This place reminds me of small town BC.

This is an arena for bullfights. Our guide told us in Peru they only "tease" the bulls, as opposed to Spain where they are cruel to them.I took her at her word at the time but of course came home and discovered bullfighting in Peru is just as cruel as bullfighting in Spain.

I cannot for the life of me remember what time we arrived at our destination but I do rememeber how in awe of the place I was. Situated beside a river, reached by a long dirt road we came upon a set of tall and impressive gates. They opened to reveal an oasis of flowers and greenery surrounding a circurlar driveway and a rather impressive building. Our home for the next few days, Aranwa Hotel.
Check out their photos because the ones I took upon arriving did not do this place justice.

Obviously we arrived as the sun was setting!

Goodbye Sol, see you manana!

I was like a yokel in this place, mouth agape staring about in wonder! It was gorgeous throughout! Ordinarily, I'd never ever be staying in such a place so this was a real treat for me.We were assigned rooms and the thrills just kept coming.

WOW! I was bunking with Heather and our room featured these things of beauty and a most magnificent bathroom with warming rack for towels and a large soaker tub. Double sinks with lush towels and numerous little bottles and packages of goodies for us. What a way to start off a tour!

We spent some time unwinding in our rooms, packing and repacking our belongings and freshening up for dinner. This is where I wish I'd brought as nice outfit to wear, or a t least another pair of shoes besides the hideous bright orange camp shoes I was clumping along in, ha.

We entered a large dining room and were seated at a round table as a group. There we were taken care of by the attentive staff as we chatted and ordered our meals. I tried alpaca. I'd heard it tasted like beef so I thought "why not?" I'll give it a go!

 It was pretty good! It did taste like beef to me. Some of the ladies tried it and said it tasted like liver to them. I've never had liver on its own so I had nothing to compare it to but it was smooth like pate...I liked it at any rate and would eat it again. For dessert I had a trio of homemade ice cream which was as expected, rich,creamy and full of yum!

We were really starting to gel as a group, laughing and chatting away freely. There was much sharing of food with no hesitation in both the asking and the sharing. We felt like a bunch of old school friends, to me. Some of the ladies went and got massages in the spa, their raving reviews inspired me to book my own the next evening. My very first ever. I was looking forward to that! The evening wound itself down and before long we were all settling into our beds, where of course I did not sleep a wink. I wanted to sleep, I tried to sleep. Sleep didn't want to come to me. In the end though I was rested enough to wake up in a function-able state the next morning. We had a big day ahead of us, exploring the Sacred Valley.