Peru & Bolivia Trip, May 2016

sriki

Level 2 Member
WORK IN PROGRESS

We just came back from our Peru & Bolivia trip and wanted to detail my trip details. I have been making posts on my own blog (for family) that I was going to mostly copy paste here (without more personal stuff). Half way through the trip, I got sick and did not keep up with that. So, I will post this report in parts in the next few days. So, bear with me for a while I do that. But, ask any questions you have as PM for now & I will answer them.

Part-1: Peru

Flights:
During the second half of last year, AA opened up availability to South America and we decided that's where we will go next.

IAD-LIM-CUZ (LATAM using AA miles)


We had a long layover in Lima and Priority Pass(PP)/Lounge Club(LC) was very helpful. The lounge in the domestic terminal is extremely small with limited space. But, there is a hot shower (yes, only one and only one at a time :)) and they serve free Pisco Sours (look it up if you don't know what it is). The approach to CUZ airport can be very interesting and worthy of a window seat.


We used our SPG points to stay 5 days(5th night free) at Tambo Del Inka in Urubamba. Urubamba is one of the places some people use as a base for the Machu Picchu/Sacred Valley tour. Some use Cuzco too. The Tambo is an hour long taxi ride from the Cuzco airport and we did take a taxi from there. We did not get any upgrade there but still had a great experience. The staff are excited and even happy thet you are there. It was very nice to be treated like that. I would absolutely recommend this place.

<Photos>

Tambo has its own private train station that you can use to get to the base of Machu Picchu (known as Machu Picchu Pueblo/Aguas Caliente). We did not use this on our way up there (went to Ollyatambo which is a 30 min drive) but did come back here directly on the return.

Places we saw in the sacred Valley:
1. Maras: We did a ATV tour to the salt mines. It was fun for the most part with some hairy situations when the bulls in some villages decided to charge at me in the narrow streets. Apparently, they don't like the sound. Same goes for dogs. There are stray dogs all over but they don't bother you almost all the time.

2. Mooray: we spent a lot more than expected at Maras and ended up at Mooray after it was closed. But, you can still walk up to it and be there.

3. Pisac: The ruins are cool and you may even get to sit near/in them and relax (YMMV). Try to go to Pisac Sunday market. It's decent sized. There is a small animal sanctuary near Pisac that's good too. Right near it is another sanctuary that just has llamas. I almost skipped it and am glad I did not.

4. Machu Picchu: We climbed the MP mountain. In hindsight, I should not have done it based on how badly my body reacted. But, the views are amazing from the top.


MORE TO COME
 
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knick1959

Level 2 Member
Anxious to hear what you thought about Ollantaytambo. We started there 2 nights in April of 2015 and it proved to be an excellent surprise ... to us. The ruins there were exceptional!
 

knick1959

Level 2 Member
I am also staying in Ollantaytambo for 3 days in a small B&B.
You want to see a preview in the form of my trip report? Don't want to take any of @sriki 's thunder, but my trip report was done a year ago :). Don't really want to share a link on a publicly searchable forum, but can PM a link to you (or anyone else) ... if interested.
 

sriki

Level 2 Member
You want to see a preview in the form of my trip report? Don't want to take any of @sriki 's thunder, but my trip report was done a year ago :). Don't really want to share a link on a publicly searchable forum, but can PM a link to you (or anyone else) ... if interested.
Won't be stealing any of my thunder as I did not make it to Ollantaytambo ruins unfortunately. More on that later.
 

knick1959

Level 2 Member
Won't be stealing any of my thunder as I did not make it to Ollantaytambo ruins unfortunately. More on that later.
I PM'd @bayguy ... still not sure I want google to get a hold of my links. I run my own web server on my lowly personal PC via my cable provider and don't need to host tons of visitors :).

What's the best way to share with anyone here but not the rest of the world? If I post on my personal status page, that's still a robot-indexable public link, right?
 

bayguy

Level 2 Member
I was able to open from my iPhone. I would like to read in peace @home(at work now).

Gracias.
 

volker

Level 2 Member
I PM'd @bayguy ... still not sure I want google to get a hold of my links. I run my own web server on my lowly personal PC via my cable provider and don't need to host tons of visitors :).

What's the best way to share with anyone here but not the rest of the world? If I post on my personal status page, that's still a robot-indexable public link, right?
In level2? On your own server make also sure the name doesn't start with index so it can't be found by default guessing or crawling. More something like a234asdfasdf.html or similar.

You can easily find if a page is robot indexable here (that highly depends on the site settings and/or robots.txt, too, and can easily be ignored by a bot) by using a separate browser where you are not logged in or an incognito window.

Update: changed a sentence by adding "On your own server [make also sure...]" to make it more obvious. Therefore bellows quote might not be accurate.
 
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knick1959

Level 2 Member
In level2? Make also sure the name doesn't start with index so it can't be found by default guessing or crawling. More something like a234asdfasdf.html or similar.

You can easily find if a page is robot indexable here (that highly depends on the site settings and/or robots.txt, too, and can easily be ignored by a bot) by using a separate browser where you are not logged in or an incognito window.
Level 2 restricts who sees it, so saying "go to level 2" (and then where?) will just piss some people off. HOWEVER, your idea to see what a non-logged-in user sees was dead-on. Profile posts are NOT available to non-members. Hence, I'll post my trip report link as a profile update. Thanks!

(DONE. My profile page has the link. Thanks again)
 
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Suzie

Level 2 Member
We are in Iquitos and headed to Tambo del Inka tomorrow. SPG points also. Happy to hear you liked it!

I have suggestions for Iquitos if anyone is going and interested. Will be home late next week.
 

volker

Level 2 Member
Level 2 restricts who sees it, so saying "go to level 2" (and then where?) will just piss some people off. HOWEVER, your idea to see what a non-logged-in user sees was dead-on. Profile posts are NOT available to non-members. Hence, I'll post my trip report link as a profile update. Thanks!
Sorry didn't know that this was offensive. That wasn't my purpose. Well, where in Lvl2 is always a problem to me since it does not have a "everything else" folder.
 

bayguy

Level 2 Member
Yes, I went to Iquitos in Peru to cover Amazon/ Jungle and didn't want to deal with yellow fever certificates for our family of 4.
 

sriki

Level 2 Member
Where did you go in Bolivia?
I did not travel much in urban areas. I got to La Paz and then went straight to Uyunni, took a 3-day road trip (with a guide/driver) down south all the way to the Chilean border. The terrain is rough, the weather is unforgiving & facilities are scarce. It's part adventure & part challenge. If sleeping in below freezing conditions with no heater & placing bags of hot water near the armpits and sleep with 3 layers of blankets sounds fun, go for it. It's worth it for me for driving & cycling on salt flats, seeing pink flamingos, active volcano & beautiful sunrises. I heard there are some decent hotels in some areas if you are willing to pay for them. Eventually, we made it back to La Paz and spent 3 days in and around it including day trips to nearby ancient sites.

FYI, if you need dentist in Bolivia, I have a recommendation. (yup, been there).
 

DornierDo28

New Member
I did not travel much in urban areas. I got to La Paz and then went straight to Uyunni, took a 3-day road trip (with a guide/driver) down south all the way to the Chilean border. The terrain is rough, the weather is unforgiving & facilities are scarce. It's part adventure & part challenge. If sleeping in below freezing conditions with no heater & placing bags of hot water near the armpits and sleep with 3 layers of blankets sounds fun, go for it. It's worth it for me for driving & cycling on salt flats, seeing pink flamingos, active volcano & beautiful sunrises. I heard there are some decent hotels in some areas if you are willing to pay for them. Eventually, we made it back to La Paz and spent 3 days in and around it including day trips to nearby ancient sites.

FYI, if you need dentist in Bolivia, I have a recommendation. (yup, been there).
I spent three days in Uyuni too (before crossing over into San Pedro de Atacama) but it definitely can't be described as off the beaten track or remotely challenging! There are flush toilets, electricity and staffed kitchens at even the most basic of places to stay and thousands of tourists (of all ages and abilities) everywhere. It must be one of the most travelled places in all of Bolivia but you see some really breathtaking sights and get some amazing photos that's for sure.

A normal camping trip in Europe or the US is a lot more work let alone trekking in some of the Cordillera Real and Cordillera Blanca...

Hopefully nobody will need the dentist but thanks! :)
 

sriki

Level 2 Member
I spent three days in Uyuni too (before crossing over into San Pedro de Atacama) but it definitely can't be described as off the beaten track or remotely challenging! There are flush toilets, electricity and staffed kitchens at even the most basic of places to stay and thousands of tourists (of all ages and abilities) everywhere. It must be one of the most travelled places in all of Bolivia but you see some really breathtaking sights and get some amazing photos that's for sure.
It's definitely not off the beaten track but you could make it challenging or easy depending on what you select in terms of accommodations and travel operators. I was mostly with backpackers and had a lot of interesting interactions.
 
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