7/8 - Salty Selfies and Jumping Jack Flash

Still staying in Yucay.  Places visited:  Salt Mines, Matas, Moray and Ollantaytambo (again)

We were in Yucay for a few days so decided to take a couple of excursions to ruins and interesting places in the area.  The morning started with an early 7:30am breakfast with quinoa soup (it tasted like soupy rice!).  The breakfast was pretty and we ate heartily prepping for the day ahead.  We decided to hit the salt mines today and a few surrounding cities.

The driver picked us up at 9:30am.  We hired a car for the day to trek us around.  We thought it would be much easier than trying to hail taxis wherever we went.  The views were beautiful.

He took us to the salt mines first.  He was a local, grew up in Urumba not far from Yucay and knew that the tour buses start their tours in Moray and work their way down so we pretty much had the salt mines to ourselves.  Suweet!  It was gorgeous and thus began our salty selfy day.  I have to admit by the end of the day we were queens at single double and even triple people selfies.  I forgot my selfie stick!!!  Cat didn't let me forget for the rest of the trip.  Go Aldona and her long arms!

Aldona was teaching us how to rock a selfie.  It's all about twisting the body sideways to look as skinny as possible and pushing the boobs out.

Oh and duck faces, gotta make the duck face.

We had so many questions.  Where did all this salt come from?  How do they gather it off the top?  More importantly...how is it decontaminated before they sell it?!!!  We'd hate to end up poisoning our people back home.  That would suck.  We purchased about 10 kilos of salt between the three of us and a few other knickknacks.  Cat went into bargaining mode (yay Cat!) and we got the 10 kilos of premium salt for 50 soles which was about $16.

Walked along the edges of the salt pools.  Just as we started back, we saw that your buses were starting to file in and the narrow walkways were going to get interesting to navigate.  We saw this old couple that were coming down the stairs with two walking sticks each and pondered at their ability to navigate the very narrow and precarious salt pool edges.  Go old people!  We hiked back up to the entrance.  This was the first of many hikes to come.

Next stop Maras.  It was a tiny city next to the salt mines.  We took some quick photos, used the bano and found some cute friendship bracelets.

In Moray, the Incas made circles into the valleys between the mountains which basically served as it's own micro climate for farming.  The same potato, depending on which level it was planted, will vary in color and taste,  In effect, it's a completely different potato.

We happened to come across a tour group where the guide was giving everyone coco leaves to honor the gods so we joined in making a wish and asking for blessings with the Oregon group.  We blew on the leaves in each direction NSEW and then blew all the leaves in one chosen direction.

We tried climbing the steps that led up to each level.  Even a few feet off the ground I struggle.  I can't imagine how much effort it would have taken for them to carry all the crops back after the harvest.  Bikram yoga's got nuthin' on them.

It was also here that we decided we will take jumping photos everywhere we went.  Burst option on the iPhone FTW!

Selfies gone wrong

It's around 2pm and we decided we still had some time to have lunch then attempt Ollantaytambo again.  We asked the driver for restaurant suggestions.  He took us to his home town of Urumba.  We offered to buy our driver lunch for being so accommodating.  The menu was completely in Spanish and as we tried to decipher the dishes, a lady in the next table helped us translate some things into English.  It turned out she was Peruvian and moved to Los Angeles when she was 16 and now lives in Inglewood Cliffs, New Jersey!  What a small world.  She had a dish of fried pork with potatoes that looked amazing, she even insisted on giving us a taste.  Oh my god, I don't even like pork but this was incredible and it wasn't on the menu.

We invited her over to our table and had a fantastic leisurely meal of great food and conversation.  Food always tastes better with friends, new and old.  Her name was Hilda and offered to take us to the market to find some good deals on alpaca blankets and silver when we get back to Cusco.

We headed back to Ollantaytambo and got to actually climb the ruins.  But it was 3:30pm and unfortunately, it was the time that all the tour buses also congregated here.  We decided to be rebels and headed up the exit side to avoid the traffic.  Vertigo was really getting to me and I hugged the wall along each ledge.

I'm glad we came back and climbed the ruin but I can't wait for Machu Picchu.  We head there tomorrow.  We say goodbye to the baby alpaca hanging out here.

We came back from our very full day very tired.  The hotel lobby was having happy hour with half price pisco sours.  These are quite delicious especially after a hot day of hiking.

It's been a real fart a thon the last few days, I think we left a little bit of gas everywhere we went.  Cuy, the gift that keeps on giving.  Peru will never forget us.

7/7 - Oh Little Cuy

Cusco to Sacred Valley, Yucay via Pisac

Before the trip, we had read that Cuy was a delicacy in Peru and one of the strange food items that Cat and I have been looking forward to exposing to our taste buds.  Aldona, not so much.  At the very least, we could add it to the list of "The grossest things you've ever eaten".  We take pride in that list.   Have you ever wondered what cuy (guinea pig) tasted like?  Chicken...honest to goodness chicken just a little fattier, no lie.  Ok, minus the chewy leathery skin and if you can get over the little T-Rex claws and the tiny teeth in an eternal grimace that looks like it died in a horrific fire accident.  Did I mention the big skewer protruding from it's mouth?  If you can overlook all that, it's not too bad.  Tender in fact if done right, and you're really really REALLY hungry.

I am Cuy!  Hear me RAWR!!!

It's morning and I'm freaking tired, like the honest to goodness my head aches and don't talk to me or I'll rip your face off tired.  Aldona is a morning person, a real chipper one to boot.  I could barely focus much less think.  She started running through the plan for the day, I stopped her.  Please don't make me think right now.  I literally said that.  She took one look at my face and was like ooookay.

The hotel in Lima was decent.  The best thing about it was that it was across literally across the street from the airport.  In fact it had a walking bridge right into the terminal.  Suweet.  Great idea Cat!  We had a power breakfast and it was off to the airport to check in for our 9:30am flight from Lima to Cusco.  The flight was short and uneventful.  We land in Cusco and the travel guide was at the airport to pick us up in a private car.  Another bonus.  This is how we roll folks!  Aldona asked them to take us to Cusco via the scenic route which let us visit the Pisac market.  After some discussion, the guide and driver agreed.  We went to the market and stopped off at a silver shop (saw a beautiful peruvian torquois ring and almost bought it, didn't and spent the rest of the trip looking for an equivalent and not finding it) and some alpaca artifacts.  But we were still tired and none of us were ready to buy anything having just arrived and not knowing how much things cost.  We met up with the guide 15 minutes later and mentioned we wanted to try cuy.  He looked at us.  "Are you sure?"  A resounding "YES!!!" from me and Cat.  I think he smirked but I'm not sure.  The driver took us to a little town that was known for cuy.  It's literally all they served.  Aldona asked if they had chicken.  Ummmm....no.  The entrance was even welcomed by a statue of a guinea pig.  It tasted like chicken!  Aldona was very suspect but gave it a try, you go girl.  The cuy was stuffed with what we discovered was a local herb called huacatay.  It tasted like mint, dill and a few other herbs rolled into one.  It was a bit over powering and we couldn't eat anything that contained huacatay after trying the cuy for the rest of the trip.  Everywhere we went, we told the waiters and waitresses...NO HUACATAY!!!

Guinea pig on a stick, we were starving!  Pictures are worth a thousand words.  I think Aldona looks a little green here but she's putting up a brave face.

Poor cuy, it didn't stand a chance.  Where's the sriracha?!!!

We stopped to buy about six liters of water on the way since the water there was not something you want to try.  We finally get to our beautiful hotel.  It was like a resort and just beautiful.  We even had our own alpacas!

Our rooms weren't ready so we went to lunch at Anaina, a little place that Aldona had found on tripadvisor.  It was amazing.  We had beef tenderloin, trout ceviche (this area was known for its fresh trout), a veggie dish and chocolate souffle.

 And of course a nice bottle of wine.

We get back to the hotel, our room was ready and we settled in.  The hotel is a beautiful old converted monastery.  It felt peaceful and serene.

We still had a half a day left but we just all laid on our beds, too tired to move.  No...we must push on!  Too much to see.  There was a bowl of coca leaves on the table to help with altitude sickness.  Aldona and I were both definitely feeling it.  We all chewed on a leaf and it was time to get moving.

We decided to get the Ollantaytambo ruins this afternoon before it closed since it wasn't too far.  The receptionist said it closed at 6 so we called a taxi and headed up.  It turned out they stopped letting people up around 5:30 but the guards let us in to walk around and take some photos.

Photo...check.  Ok let's go.  We had climbed up a little and decided we didn't need to come back tomorrow.  We walked around the souvenir stalls right outside the entrance but didn't find anything noteworthy.  Just very touristy kitschy stuff.  The plan is to visit the agriculture circles and the salt mines the next day.  The driver that dropped us off offered to give us a ride back so we had asked him to come back at 7 before we found out the ruins were closed.  Grrrr...  We looked at some souvenirs and hung out at the Coffee Tree.  This place had amazing hot chocolate, ginger honey lemon tea and passion fruit juice.

Requisite duck faces

We were all exhausted from the late night flight in from DFW to Lima the previous day, the early flight this morning from Lima to Cusco and the trek from Cusco to our hotel in Sacred Valley, Yucay.  We decided to call it a night.  Aldona had purchased some snacks and decided to surround herself in her goodies.

7/6 - Oxygen and illegal peanuts

Dallas to Atlanta to Lima, Peru

Living in lower altitudes is overrated.  Oxygen is too plentiful and it was time to make a change.

Machu Picchu.  How long have I thought about making this trip?  I would say probably a good ten years it's been on my mind.  In 2014, I'm not sure it came up but it was probably either around the dinner table or just hanging out, Cat and I got on the topic and it went something like this...

1/3 - Hoi An to Ho Chi Minh - Team Angkor Wat and Cell Block 9

I don't need to wonder what a Vietnamese prison is like.  In fact, it might have been preferable to our accommodations on our lovely 18 hour train ride from Da Nang to HCM.  At least prison cells are slightly more roomy and have their own toilets.

12/30 - Hue Day 2 - Skinny Minny and Potty Breaks

"Your face looks thinner!"  Cat stares at me enviously as I'm stuffing my face with Hue noodles, french toast, eggs and pork buns during breakfast.

HCM's revenge is still ravaging my body.  I have no problem keeping things down, it's keeping things in that's the problem.

"What problem?!!!  It's perfect, you can eat whatever you want and you just poop it out!  Where's the downside?!!!"

12/28 - Hanoi Day 3 - Ho Chi Minh's (DF) Revenge and Street Food

I woke this morning around 8am with another crazy dream, something to do with people that turned into snakes and dogs.  Those malaria pills are doing a number on my brain.

Museum and shopping day were the orders of the day.  We will be heading up to the Ho Chi Minh museum first to see the embalmed "dead fucker" (aka DF) as George so eloquently put it,

12/27 - Hanoi - Got Dirt?

I blink and open my eyes blearily.  The last vestiges of my dream swirl around in my addled brain.

I dreamt I was Liam Nieson.  No shit.  And I had a wife.  I was telling Cat about my dream and she said "you dreamt you were a lesbian?!!".  Noooo, I was Liem Nieson!  I was an assassin, or a reformed one like he was in the movie Taken.  There were people after me.  I think they were at my house so I called the home phone to see if it rings because you see, if it rang that means they hadn't destroyed my house in a bomb blast or something.  The phone rang and the answering machine picked up.  I hung up before 30 seconds was up so they can't trace the call.  I'm smart like that, because I'm Liem Nieson.  The dream shifts.  I'm at my aunt's house but the house used to belong to my friend Shannon Butler.  Shannon shows up and lets herself in.  I yell at her.  You can't do that!  It's not your house anymore!  The dream continued but I don't remember now.

WTF?!!!

12/25 - Siem Reap, Cambodia Day 2 was a pain in the crotch

Today was a pain in the crotch, literally.  I think I broke it.

In one of my posts in Italy, I wrote about the fact that some plans "seemed like a good idea at the time".  The best laid plans...well let's just say I wish my bed at the hotel was just a bit softer to cushion my tender under and back side.

Happy Merry Christmas!!!

12/24 - Siem Reap, Cambodia Day 1 and Asians that can't sing

Christmas eve found us getting ready to head to Cambodia via air.  Bye bye HCM City, we'll be back!

Janice had the foresight to check us all in the night before and print out our boarding passes.  Cat and I didn't have luggage to check so we waited with our printed boarding passes for the others to finish checking in.  George mentioned that they changed his seat so Cat and I decided to double check our confirmed seating.  We headed over to the Vietnam Air ticket desk (different than the boarding counter) to have a chat with the ladies there.  They pointed us to the boarding counter where our compadres had just finished and a long line has since formed, indicating that we need to turn in our paper passes for actual boarding passes.  UUUUGGHHHH!!!

12/22 - Ho Chi Minh City Days 1 and our 5.5 million duong Cyclo Ride

CONGEE!!!  Nom, nom, nom...

Cat and I decided to try and head up to the restricted floors to get Janice and the rest of the gang.  The only catch, the elevator requires swiping your keycard to get to your floor and ours is only good for the peon floors and wouldn't work for the executive floors.  We decided to hitch a ride to the 18th floor and crossed our fingers.  It stopped....on the 17th floor.  Grrrr... We hopped off, pressed the elevator call button and waited with baited breath.  The elevator came but it was empty.  Shoot.  We called and waited again.  Still no go.

6/26 - Florence to Rome

I forgot it was my birthday today and we almost missed the hotel shuttle to the train station.

It's funny how a day that started out kinda iffy can turn into one that goes down in memory lane as one of the most perfect days.

The hotel shuttle was leaving at 8:30am. Girard was still checking out so I ran to the shuttle to "hold it" and it almost took off with just me.

6/25 - Florence Day 3

It sounded like a good plan at the time...

The plan, the infamous plan.  How many empires have fallen because "it sounded like a good plan at the time?"

6/24 - Florence Day 2

Pisa!!!  Yes it's touristy, but how can I not see the leaning tower and take the requisite "holding up the tower" photo?!!!  

The alarm went off at 6am, ugh.  We wanted to catch an early train to Pisa so that we still had time to get in a few museums before they closed. We caught the 8:30 hotel shuttle to the train station. The Eurail pass was definitely coming in handy as there are no tickets to buy, no reservations to make (except for long ones like Venice to Florence or Florence to Rome), you just jump on the train and go.  We found the next train to Pisa which happened to be in 20 min and hopped on.

6/23 - Florence Day 1

Museum day.

The goal was to hit as many museums as possible, we ended up with three. Hey, it's still good to have goals!

Breakfast kicked off at 7:30 and we took a cab that dropped us off right at Ponte Vecchio. Ahhhh the streets of Florence were so familiar and I couldn't help the grin that lit my face.  I gave Girard a mini tour of the bridge and I revisited the jewelry store where I had purchased my rings in February.

6/22 - Venice to Florence

The last breakfast.

I find myself filled with an excitement and eagerness to explore Florence again as I finish packing this morning. I contemplate the coming day while sipping on my coffee, taking in my last view of the canal the cool breeze a welcome change from the humidity of the previous days. A huge cruise ship taller than the hotel carefully navigates the narrow water ways with the aid of two tug boats. The passing of the ship seemed to signal it was time to go.  I take some pics of my room to remember the luxury that was mine for such a short time.

Yes, I even had my very own bidet.

Everet had used his points for the stay so the bill should have been pretty lean. I notice internet charges on the bill so made sure they took them off since they were supposed to be included. As he was about to settle the bill, Girard turned around and said “$103 Euro for breakfast...each day!” What?!!! Are you kidding me?!!! You mean to tell me it was almost $70 per person for BREAKFAST?!!! I remembered during check-in that they had given us the option of benefits and we selected breakfast so there should be no charge much less that amount. The receptionist double checked the account and to our relief, confirmed that it was indeed supposed to be included and took $315 Euro off the bill. Oh...my...god. I had no idea it was so expensive.  What if I had elected for a bottle of wine or something?!!! Wow...just wow. I'm still in shock. For that amount of money, I expect breakfast to give me directions and provide concierge service, maybe even give a hot stone massage while I'm eating.

We head out to the water boat loading area for the ride to the train station only to find that not all the boats were running. That's right! There was a public transportation strike going on today! We were told that yesterday while reserving the train to Florence but didn't realize it affected all the water boats too. Hmmm...how are we supposed to catch our train? The boat workers mentioned we could catch another boat over at the Rialto stop but that would mean dragging our luggage about a mile all the while fighting tourists and canal bridges. I suggested we take a water taxi which ran about $60 Euro. Even the water taxis were scarce as many people leaving were opting for the same. We lucked out and were able to flag down a water taxi in about 5 min. It was around 10am and our train was scheduled to depart at 11:32. I was silently patting myself on the back for suggesting we give ourselves a good two hours to get to the train station in anticipation of delays from the strike.

The water taxi was fun and wound through the canals that we had not been through since the public water boats were too big to get through. 

 We zip to St. Lucia in no time and I had plenty of time to top and sip on a cafe latte in the train station cafe. It's amazing, even crappy train and bus station cafe's have mouth watering coffee.  We jump on the Eurostar and settle in for the ride.  It was a clean comfy train, so very different than the one we road in on. We had a/c yay!!! It'd been ridiculously hot and humid until today. I dozed for most of the ride and in a few short hours, I heard “Firenze!”

Our cell phones lost reception at the train station in Florence so after many unsuccessful tries and finally cajoling a restaurant worker to help us, we used the public telephone to call the hotel. It was around 3pm and the hotel shuttle wouldn't be here until 5:30pm so we decided to grab a cab. The cab wound through the VERY narrow streets of downtown Florence and I excitedly pointed out the sites I recognized from my last trip. There's Ponte Veccio! There's the Duomo with 400+ steps I climbed with the girls! Ooooh, I remember driving on this street! Everything was so familiar, it felt like I was coming home.

We get to the Sheraton in about 20 minutes and walk in...to a blast of heat. It seemed the a/c at he hotel went on the fritz recently so only one out of the four a/c units were working. The rooms were a little better as there was some cool air but the lobby was stifling. We were down there getting some food since all the restaurants in the area are closed between 3-7pm and it was now around 4'ish. We chat with the bartender, planning out the next few days. The Sheraton was about 10 miles from city center.  The thought of taking a shuttle or taxi into downtown Florence after a long day was unappealing so decided to chill until dinner.

The hotel receptionist recommended a restaurant by the name of Osterio Di'Giogo, a quick ½ mile walk from the hotel. It seems “Osterio” referred to a family style restaurant and are known for their authenticate dishes. We headed down and sat in the outdoor covered patio surrounded by cute decor and .

The restaurant staff spoke little to no English which was a good sign. I had a cheese ravioli while Girard had his staple Spaghetti Bolognese. As I tasted cafe latte's across Italy, he tasted spaghetti bolognese.  The food was amazing and they were very understanding of my mosquito issues and lit some anti mosquito candles as well as brought some bug spray for me to use.  Even so, I had 4 'squito bites by the time dinner was over.

Full bellied and happy as clams, we shuffled back to the hotel which was still sans air conditioning. The rooms had some a/c but were still pretty warm. Hopefully they'll get this fixed tomorrow.  I took some pics of the room though it'd be tough to beat what we had in Venice.

6/21 - Venice Day 3

Today is my last day in Venice as tomorrow morning, we will be on a train to Florence. The three short days I've spent here have been incredible. I viewed Venice from the top of a bell tower, strolled through beautiful old alleyways full of history, met incredibly friendly Venetians who confirmed just how short Sylvester Stallone was, tasted the most amazing cuisines and saw art that I'd only read about in my art history classes. It's difficult to express the depth of impression this beautiful city has left on me.

6/20 - Venice Day 2

I will name today backtrack day.

Since my idea of sliding a piece of paper under the adjoining door didn't work, I asked Girard to call me when he woke up, but not before 7am.  I get a knock on the door at 7am ready to leave.  O.O  I shake off the weird dream that I couldn't remember and jump in the shower, ready to head out in about 30 minutes.

6/19 - Venice Day 1

13 hours of sleep later, I felt MUCH better. It's almost 8am.  Next stop, breakfast and coffee. The restaurant was on top of the hotel and had a breathtaking view of the grand canal.

6/18 - Milan to Venice

Three and a half movies, two fabulous meals and about 8 hours later, we arrived in Milan. Milan! I'm in Milan!! I take some photos by the :Welcome to Milan" sign as any decent tourist would do and I got to embarrass my travel partner in the process. Bonus!  I even got an eyeroll, heh!

6/17 - DFW - Milan via JFK

One of the few times I'll never complain about waking up early.

As I predicted, my excitement kept me up until around 3am.  The alarm buzzes at 6am, some quick last minute packing later, I shuttled off the airport.  Hmm...seems like Sunday morning is a very popular time to travel.

I got to experience my new Bose noise canceling headsets while chilling in first class.  That thing is pretty amazing.  It's ironic how quickly we get attached to gadgets that now "can't live without" that we never thought we wanted.