Length: Ten days
Date of the trip: December 2015
Date of the trip: December 2015
Home base: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Flight itinerary: Rio de Janeiro - Lima - Juliaca - Cusco - Lima - Rio de Janeiro
Highlights
We decided to go to Peru to spend Christmas walking the Inca Trail. Trying to focus only on a couple of places, we chose Lake Titicaca as the second place to visit. Out trip didn't exactly go according to the plan but nevertheless we still had great time in Peru.
December is a low/rainy season and it was indeed rainy. The upside of going to Machu Picchu in low season is lower numbers of tourists. We were relatively lucky with the weather with some rains and some sunny days. There were still plenty of tourists and I can only imagine how crowded it must be during the high season, so on balance we were happy with our choice of timing to visit.
We started with Titicaca with a view of getting used to high altitude as hiking the Inca Trail for a 10 and 7 years old could be quite a task. We arrived at Puno at around mid-day and went on to visit Sillustani pre-Incan burial grounds on the way to our hotel. The site is pretty interesting, it is a peninsular surrounded by a lagoon, so the views are quite nice. On the way from Sillustani to the hotel we stopped for the usual tourist visit of one of the local houses. I usually find this kind of thing quite daunting. This time it was pretty nice. We were met by a small girl and her brother who were doing errands whilst the parents were at the fields. We had some very fresh home made cheese and some potatoes and were shown around.
On the second day we were booked to go kayaking to Taquile island. My older son didn't feel well at all, so we cut the kayaking short and went to the island on the boat after about an hour of kayaking. It was a very good move. It still took us an hour or two to get there, so I have no idea how long it would have taken us to go on the kayaks. The island was nice to visit, at least on a market day.
December is a low/rainy season and it was indeed rainy. The upside of going to Machu Picchu in low season is lower numbers of tourists. We were relatively lucky with the weather with some rains and some sunny days. There were still plenty of tourists and I can only imagine how crowded it must be during the high season, so on balance we were happy with our choice of timing to visit.
We started with Titicaca with a view of getting used to high altitude as hiking the Inca Trail for a 10 and 7 years old could be quite a task. We arrived at Puno at around mid-day and went on to visit Sillustani pre-Incan burial grounds on the way to our hotel. The site is pretty interesting, it is a peninsular surrounded by a lagoon, so the views are quite nice. On the way from Sillustani to the hotel we stopped for the usual tourist visit of one of the local houses. I usually find this kind of thing quite daunting. This time it was pretty nice. We were met by a small girl and her brother who were doing errands whilst the parents were at the fields. We had some very fresh home made cheese and some potatoes and were shown around.
On the second day we were booked to go kayaking to Taquile island. My older son didn't feel well at all, so we cut the kayaking short and went to the island on the boat after about an hour of kayaking. It was a very good move. It still took us an hour or two to get there, so I have no idea how long it would have taken us to go on the kayaks. The island was nice to visit, at least on a market day.
We then returned back to the hotel. The day was nice but I did feel we spent a bit too much time on a boat...
Next day we took the train from Puno to Cusco. This is meant to be one of the best train journeys you can take and indeed it was pretty stunning. It takes 10.5 hours (leaving Puno at 8 and arriving at Cusco at 18:30) which is a bit too long but with the breaks for food, entertainment of local music and other things, it didn't drag too much. The last car of the train is open at the end (and has a bar), so it is pretty special as you can watch the scenery and enjoy fresh air as long as it is not too cold.
Our plan was to stay one day in Cusco during which the kids and I would go horseback riding and my husband mountain biking in the Sacred Valley. We were then to do four days Inca Trail (which means sleeping in a tent for two nights). Our younger son however had to be hospitalised as he had low oxygen and was not well at all. So we had to cancel the hike and once we were released from the clinic we moved to lower altitude to Aguascalientes.
We stayed in Aguascalientes one day and a bit. The village itself is nothing to write home about. But the hotel we stayed had large grounds and many kids activities, so we waited for the 7 years old to recover. After that our travel company managed to get us a permit to do the last part of the Inca Trail hike which meant about 15 minutes train ride to kilometre 104 and then 9km hike to Machu Picchu. The trail passes through Winay Wayna site which is pretty interesting and then gets you to the Sun Gate from where you can see Machu Picchu.
We were pretty lucky with the weather on that day. It drizzled and rained a bit but all in all was pretty OK. Once we got to the Sun Gate, our first view of Machu Picchu was a look at a cover of clouds. But after a couple of minutes, the clouds moved and the we could see the site... which was quite mystical.
Just for reference the altitudes in the places we went to are about as follows: Puno - 3,800m, Taquile island - 4,000m, Cusco - 3,400m, Sacred Valley - 2,800m, Aguascalientes - 2,040, Machu Picchu - 2,340m. The highest point on 4 day Inca Trail is about 4,000m.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Trail_to_Machu_Picchu
Logistics
There are many flights from Cusco to Lima, so plenty of options.
Aguas Calientes - Inkaterra. Pretty nice hotel consisting of individual casitas spread around on a large piece of land at the end of Aquascalientes village. The rooms are nice but a bit cold for me. They do provide a heater and there is a nice fire place in each room. We had two rooms next to the pool. This was pretty painful as people were very loud during the day and in the evening. The food was OK. Pretty good but nothing exceptional. The staff occasionally looked overwhelmed and breakfast on Christmas morning was somewhat shambolic. Given the price tag I would have expected much more both from breakfast itself and service.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Titicaca
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uru_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Picchu
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inca_Trail_to_Machu_Picchu
Logistics
We flew to Lima and then to Juliaca which is the airport near Lake Titicaca on the Peruvian side.
From Puno in Titicaca you can either take a bus, a plane (from Juliaca) or a train to reach Cusco. We took the train and I think it was the right choice. The journey is a bit long (10.5 hours) but pretty enjoyable.
To get from Cusco to Aguascalientes you can either take a train from the station which is quite close to Cusco (I believe about 20 minutes) and the train is about 4 hours or you need to drive to Ollayntaytambo for about an hour and a half and take a train which takes about an hour and a half.
There are many flights from Cusco to Lima, so plenty of options.
Accommodation
Lima airport - Costa Del Sol Wyndham. A very basic airport hotel. Served its purpose as we arrived late from Rio and left early for Juliaca. The room was simple and breakfast was just fine. No thrills, just functional.
Puno - Hotel Libertador. Based in the reviews and information I could find prior to booking this hotel, I thought the hotel will be just about bearable. But it was actually quite nice. The views from the hotel were pretty special. We had a triple room that had a lot of space. The beds were comfortable with high quality bed sheets. Breakfast was the biggest surprise. It was really pretty good. Nice selection, very well presented and of a high quality.
Puno - Hotel Libertador. Based in the reviews and information I could find prior to booking this hotel, I thought the hotel will be just about bearable. But it was actually quite nice. The views from the hotel were pretty special. We had a triple room that had a lot of space. The beds were comfortable with high quality bed sheets. Breakfast was the biggest surprise. It was really pretty good. Nice selection, very well presented and of a high quality.
There are Guinea Pigs running around the hotel which was quite fun for the kids to watch.
It is not a luxury hotel but all in all is really pretty good.
Cusco - Belmond Monasterio. Beautiful hotel located in an old monastery, stunning building with wonderful courtyards and nice pieces of art all around the property. The hotel is located just a couple of minutes walk away from the main square of Cusco. Breakfast was great as well and service is flawless.
The nicest part about this hotel is that they do nice activities such as orchid walk, bird watching walk, visit of their tea plantation which is part of the property, etc. We didn't want to do too much as wanted the recovering child to rest but you can keep yourself pretty busy if you wished to.
http://www.inkaterra.com/inkaterra/inkaterra-machu-picchu-pueblo-hotel/
In deciding which trail to do and other useful information I used this website which seemed pretty helpful.
And hopefully this information doesn't come useful, but if someone does seriously suffer from altitude sickness, the doctors at CIMA clinic seem to know what they are doing and appear to be specialised in dealing with this matter.
http://www.cima-clinic.com/
http://www.inkaterra.com/inkaterra/inkaterra-machu-picchu-pueblo-hotel/
Machu Picchu - Belmond Santuary Lodge. The main advantage of this hotel is that it is located just outside Machu Picchu, so you can be the first one on site as soon as it opens at 6am. We didn't go early as it was pouring but this is certainly an advantage especially during the busy periods. The hotel is nice but... the rooms are very much on a small side and there is no bath. Instead there is a rather small shower and toilet. The food in the hotel was pretty good. We had a rate which included all food and drinks. I would highly recommend it. We only had wine and it was a very decent Malbec.
Lima - Belmond Miraflores Park. Nice hotel in the nice part of Lima. We didn't explore Lima enough as our flight was delayed and we ended up with limited time in Lima. Also we were there on Sunday and most of the nice restaurants were shut. The service in the hotel was great and the rooms are really good size. Breakfast is served on the top floor with nice views. The quality and service were excellent.
Other information
It should be noted that you need to use an agency to go on Inca Trail (understandably the Peruvian Government doesn't want people wondering around not properly supervised). We used Explorandes recommended by a friend of mine and they were just amazing. I am not a fan of travel agencies of any kind but the staff of Explorandes has been a life saver for us on this trip given all the changes we had to make because of the younger one's altitude sickness. Even though we didn't do the proper trail with them, from what we did get to experience with Explorandes, I can only imagine that the walk, camping, food, etc. would have been second to none. In deciding which trail to do and other useful information I used this website which seemed pretty helpful.
http://www.cima-clinic.com/
