From Cape to cape. Expeditions by land and sea.

[craven morehead]

I did work for 4 weeks and had 6 nights at home between trips.

Holy moly that is awesome !

 

[drron]

We woke a little after 1800 and went to the restaurant for dinner.It wasn't too bad.Mrsdrron had a glass of a Chilean SB whilst I started with a decent pisco sour and then a glass of carminere-very nice.The waiter obviously thought we were OK as every time a bottle of our wines had only a couple of fingers left he came and refilled our glasses.Nothing extra on the bill.He got his tip.For food mrsdrron had the lamb cutlets on a pumpkin risotto and I a sirloin on sweet potato.Didn't look good but the meat was excellent-

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After we finished we noticed another Sunshine Coast physician and his wife in the restaurant.They had flown in on the LAN flight which had been delayed.They were following the redoubtable AFFers to Patagonia.
We awoke early the next morning.I had selected the 0900 LAN flight to LIM because it had a J cabin and was a 787 which we had not flown before.Checkin opens 2 hours before departure.We arrived at the "preferente"checkin at 0650 and had no problems checking in.As a priority pax you get your own Immigration booth and security lines.So straight through.A perfunctory wanding for me and you come out at the door of the LAN lounge.At the desk you could go right or left into the lounge.the agent sent us to the right and there was only one other person on that side.not much really in the way of food.A view of the lounge and it's views-

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We left a little early and looked through the duty free.I found a bust of Malcolm Fraser-

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Priority boarding on LAN works well though on each flight so far there have been a lot of pre-boarders.But the preferente line always goes next-

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Soon onboard.Here is their J cabin on the 787-

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The flight next.

 

[drron]

LA600. SCL-LIM. ETD-0910. Push back-0912. take off-0919. B787. Seats 2A,C
ETA1055. Landed-1035. At gate-1039
Awaiting take off-

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Breakfast but with no champagne on board-

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Very ordinary omelette.Now the coast of Peru-

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The FA brought us the only English language magazine on board-The Economist.So as not to disappoint her I read it but nodded off to sleep.Awoke as we came into land.Quickly through Immigration but a wait for the bags.LAN's priority tags work just like QF-our bags nearly last.
Now although International and domestic are in the same terminal they wont let you walk with your bags to the domestic checkin.You must go outside and enter through the domestic doors.Crazy.

Needed mrsdrron's WP card for priority checkin for our flight to CUZ.Next 5 flights are all in Y.No lounge domestically so we headed to the Starbucks lounge and had a cappuccino.Then through security.Had a real urger behind me huffing and puffing as I took my belt and shoes off.Stopped when he learnt at LIM everyone has to take belts,shoes and watches off-everyone reduced to my level.Then a 90 minute wait at the gate.LAN at least do priority boarding well but there are usually a lot of pre boarders.Some of the "disabled" were younger and more mobile than I.But then those with "preferente"BPs go next-J or OWE,OWS.

LA 2035. LIM-CUZ. ETD-1335. Push back-1334. Take off-1347. A322. Seats 4B,C
ETA-1345. Landed 1344. At gate-1346.
My downsized office-

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Young child in 3A yelled and shouted the whole flight.Fellow next to me coughing and spluttering.A soft drink and small packet veggie chips as snack.Will we survive all this Y?
Scenes coming into CUZ-

 

[JohnM]

IME, periodically transiting through LIM over the last decade or so, the security has been amongst the most neurotic I've experienced anywhere.

 

[love_the_life]

Cusco looks like it is still a hairy airport to fly into. I think I may have had my eyes shut when we landed :shock:

 

[Boca68]

Oh Drron!

Welcome to the world of Latam. Its quite something else. As a regular flier to LIM, AQP, CUZ and IQT, Latams' Y offer is dreadful, its Y+ is only marginally above dreadful and its J (on the 787 only) is passable at best. and they charge a kings ransom for it, especially if you purchase from O/S. My partner (she is peruvian) purchase them for me at about 20% reduced rate. Lounges are awful, whilst the Latam VIP at SCL is beautiful in design, there is nothing but snacks available. Can't even get butter sometimes for your bread as I've experienced. Although last time , 2 weeks ago, was happy to see butter!! Didn't even have to ask.

The 'preferente' boarding is usually quite good. Other than Latams below par offerings, I know you will love Peru.

And the approach to CUZ is one of the most stunning anywhere! I think anyway.

 

[drron]

Oh Drron!

Welcome to the world of Latam. Its quite something else. As a regular flier to LIM, AQP, CUZ and IQT, Latams' Y offer is dreadful, its Y+ is only marginally above dreadful and its J (on the 787 only) is passable at best. and they charge a kings ransom for it, especially if you purchase from O/S. My partner (she is peruvian) purchase them for me at about 20% reduced rate. Lounges are awful, whilst the Latam VIP at SCL is beautiful in design, there is nothing but snacks available. Can't even get butter sometimes for your bread as I've experienced. Although last time , 2 weeks ago, was happy to see butter!! Didn't even have to ask.

The 'preferente' boarding is usually quite good. Other than Latams below par offerings, I know you will love Peru.

And the approach to CUZ is one of the most stunning anywhere! I think anyway.

Pretty much agree.The boarding procedure is the standout in their offerings.Though if in the general line there were lots of people pushing in or just walking to the front of the line.
Yesterday's flight LIM-IGU had the worst cabin crew we have ever experience.Pot luck if the FA deigned to serve you lunch-soggy sandwich-or coffee and tea-we missed out on the coffee run.Worse than JQ with the FAs retreating behind the curtain and telling off people if they dared enter their space to wait for the toilet.
On landing no rubbish had been collected,tray tables down,seats reclined and one fellow over the aisle without seat belt fastened.fortunately he awoke and did it up a minute before touch down.
First time ever I have frowned at FA on leaving the plane.Maybe even scowled.

PS-flickr started going haywire last night but I think I have come up with a work around.

 

[love_the_life]

Do they still do the manual search/rifle through of your luggage at Cusco before you check it in?

 

[mrs.dr.ron]

Do they still do the manual search/rifle through of your luggage at Cusco before you check it in?

NO it didnt happen to us. But we did have luggage dramas at Lima !

 

[love_the_life]

NO it didnt happen to us. But we did have luggage dramas at Lima !

That sounds ominous.
When we left Cusco, you had to line up at a row of tables, lift your luggage onto the tables, open it and watch them feel through everything. Then you could lock the cases and continue to the check in counter. At that time there was no x ray apparently.
Easy to see how people could be set up with contraband in luggage or valuables stolen if you didn't keep an eagle eye.

 

[RooFlyer]

Sounds like the SCL lounge has come off a bit. I visited it twice within 6 months of it opening and whilst there were no meals, there was the making of a basic lunch - pre made sandwiches, hot empanada type things. And an excellent wine selection.

Going back through in a few days, so will compare.

I love Preferente boarding ... most times I was the only one in that line, with a scrum for the others

LAN also used to have great seat selection for OneWorld Emeralds, but my TA did seating this time, so not sure if that still works.

 

[drron]

On arrival into CUZ everyone was up and getting their bags before the seat belt sign was off.A mad rush to baggage collection.We strolled and as it turned out another LAN priority bag fail.Most tagged priority came out last.The agent and driver for Tambo del Inka were there to meet us so soon after our bags appeared we were in our car.As soon as we were seated the rain began.We knew we were coming in rainy season and the forecast for the next 3 days over the last fortnight was for rain.not looking good.
So scenes from the car as you drive out of Cusco.As mrsdrron does get altitude sickness it was a no brainer to spend our time in the Sacred Valley-1000 metres lower in altitude than Cusco.

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Yes that last shot is the butchers.Meat out in the open with some covering due to the rain.

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Finally over the mountain and into the next valley.very fertile and scenic-

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As we get closer to the sacred valley the sun appears-

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[drron]

More scenes from the car.Magnificent countryside.A lot of the crops are potatoes.At least 50 varieties grown in this are and a couple of hundred in Peru.

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Now down into the Sacred Valley-

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That is Urubamba where our office-Tambo del Inka is located.It is an SPG Luxury Collection Resort.We had booked a basic room and upgraded to a 2 Queen bed Junior suite-

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There was also a walk in wardrobe.Our room faced the river.

 

[drron]

Dinner was at the hotel restaurant.Quite unique.Tried to be fine dining but some dishes quite plain.Certainly used local produce and recipes a lot.They had an extensive garden for veggies and herbs.One thing I didn't enjoy was the use of quinoa in everything-even desserts.
The first night as usual the wine was a Sav. blanc from the Patagonia region of Argentina.A very forgettable wine-

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I started wit a Pacific bass cerviche-delicious.Then the beef stripes as it was on the menu.Nice but hardly inspiring.Mrsdrron had their salmon dish-overcooked.

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The desserts were unusual.Mrsdrron had the lime pie,I the passionfruit semifreddo.The lime pie was unusual,the semifreddo quite nice-

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Breakfast we took as the platinum amenity.On a 4 day stay a no brainer.Nice fruit and some unusual offering.Peruvian ham looks and tastes like chicken.You ordered your cooked eggs,waffles or pancakes.

The first day was planned as a rest day for mrsdrron to acclimatise.She was feeling tired,short of breath,headaches and nose bleeds.She wouldn't take Diamox,hated coca tea but a mint like tea-muna tea-tasted good and supposedly also helped with altitude sickness.It seemed to have some effect.
The only activity for her was wandering around the hotel grounds.Orchids,fuschias and eucalypts predominated.

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[amaroo]

Been waiting....looking good!

That tea does the business.

 

[drron]

Amaroo I learnt a lot from your TR.We were in a slightly different position as mrsdrron definitely does suffer from altitude sickness.The other difference is that we were going in wet season.Watching the weather reports for the 2 weeks before suggested rain for the 3 days we were there.For mrsdrron it was going to be a day of rest before Machu Picchu on the second day.I went to the higher altitude attractions-Chinchero,Moras and Moray.Mrsdrron was basically not going to be able to do those.
So on the first night it rained heavily all night.I left on my excursion at 0930 and it didn't look good as we crossed the Urubamba river-

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The rain had eased when we reached Chinchero.The plan was to see some of the handicrafts of Chinchero but I was favoured with divine intervention.It was carnival day in Chinchero and on the way to our first stop the road was impassible-

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So I said to my guide Carlos on the left in the above pic-"these look like my sort of people let's walk with them."

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As you can see I was right.However they were moving fast and obviously the altitude was making me a little short of breath.Carlos knew a short cut via the town markets and a laneway of houses built on Inca foundations-

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And he was right because here they come again-

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It was going to be uphill to the Plaza de Armas-

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And here they come again-

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[drron]

My new friends were leading the parade-

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They moved to the church where some speeches and prayers were said-

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But nobody could stop the music-

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When they moved on I went inside the church-

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The last are statues of Christ on the cross that are carried through the town at Easter.It was at this point I was told no more photos.So I moved down to the area where everyone had congregated.It was near the grain storage area and terraces of the Incas-

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[drron]

More of the terraces-

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Everyone was now gathered below the plaza-

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It was the men who were the main dancers.The fellows in the mainly dark red capes are mayors and officials from the town and nearby.
This fellow who posed for me previously put his all into the dancing.At the end he came off absolutely exhausted.I gave him a good ovation with a few well dones.He came over,shook my hand with a few gracias and then we had a good bear hug.Typical of the ordinary folk I met.Wonderful,friendly and beautiful people.

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After the dancing more speeches and a ceremony in front of the flags then they all rushed off down the hill and towards the farms where I was told they will celebrate Inca gods.

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Plus a little sadness-

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A sign of a recent death.
But my time at Chinchero had come to an end.What an amazing experience it was.so I left with a last look over the town-

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[drron]

The beauty of a private tour.We could leave before the busses doing the same places and also take a short cut the bussescouldn't use.Also changed the second visit to Moray rather than Moras so as to again miss the masses.It worked.So this is Moray-

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Now there is no certainty as to what this place represents but locals,which included my guide Oscar,are in no doubt that this was an Incan Agricultural Research station.One thing the is not in doubt the temperature from the lowest pit to the top of the mountain where I am taking these pictures varies by 10-15C depending on the time of year.So the locals believed this place was used to force adaptation to different temperatures and to speed up hybridisation.They feel this was especially with potatoes.There are meant to be ~ 3800 varieties of potato in Peru but only 180 wild types that are not for eating.Much of the crop around here is different varieties of potato.
Now for something different-a wildflower.Plus what is happening here-

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Well according to Oscar this is the last bit to be restored but in fact in the wet season of 2010-11 there was unusually high rainfall and a lot of this subsided because there are underground channels-and Oscar was right in saying these channels are what makes Moray unique and why this area is not a lagoon.If you look carefully some areas of wall lean out ~ 4 degrees hence drain water whilst in other areas the wall leans in hence retaining water.On top of all this there are a variety of soils in the different terraces some of which must have been brought in.
There was a temple here which as usual the Spaniards destroyed.It is said they didn't destroy the complex as it was a perfect Plaza del Toros.Hmmm.The terraces continue up the nearby mountain-

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There are another 2 smaller depressions here-

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[drron]

If you want to learn more about Peruvian potatoes here is an article.The website does give handy hints for peru-
The 3800 Different Types of Peruvian Potatoes - LimaEasy