Ollantaytambo, Peru

After Macchu Piccu we got off the train at Ollantaytambo station and spent two nights here in this magical Inca town.  We stayed at the comfortable Apu Lodge with views of inca ruins on both side of our room.

Ollantaytambo is the most well preserved Inca town in existence.  The cobblestone streets run through a grid of Inca walls built in the 1400s and still inhabited today!  This was our favorite stop in Peru.  Walking through these walls is like stepping back in time.  The countryside around Ollanata is breathtaking, partly because of the 9,000+ft elevation, but also for the forests and waterfalls and mountain views.

Most of the villagers here wear the bright red traditional Inca clothing.  This couple was waiting for the bus in the central square.

The local drink is Chicha, a fermented corn beer with a low alcohol content of about 2-3%.  It is sold out of private homes, who hang a red plastic bag out front to let people know they have a batch ready for sale.  I convinced Lindsey to go in and get a drink.  For 75cents I got a big glass of chicha ladled out of a barrel, and we hung out in this ladies inner courtyard.  We were soon joined by two locals and a couple more tourists.  The colorful guy in the corner spoke only Quechua, his buddy next to me spoke Quechua and Spanish, and the guy in the leather jacket spoke Spanish and English, so we had a convoluted train of translation going.

After two great days exploring in Ollanta, we hired a driver for a one day tour of the Sacred Valley, and a drop off back in Cuzco.  The sacred valley is stunningly beautiful.

We visited the interesting Salt pans of Maras

We passed through mountain viewpoints on back road shortcuts, and saw local folks walking and farming.

Concentric circles of stone terracing made impressive agricultural micro-climates created by the Incas to find the best climate for each of their crops.

The fortress at Pisac is one of the biggest Inca cities, but we had seen soooooooo much Inca stuff by this time that we were thinking "Uh huh.  Terracing.  Inca walls.  Ok, let's move on."

Finally we reached the Pisac Sunday Market which was outstanding!  The best native craft market I've been to.  We only had an hour here, but could have enjoyed 4 hours.  So many interesting things to buy for such cheap prices.  We could have don all our Christmas shopping here.

Inca Trail to Macchu Piccu, Peru

Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco takes your breath away, literally.  11,000ft elevation gave me a very slight headache, and leaden legs when climbing stairs.

You'll see many Inca walls in a trip to Peru, but none more perfectly sculpted than those in the ancient capitol of Cuzco.  Today banks and houses are built on top of the original fifteenth century walls.

Everywhere in Peru we see four foot tall old ladies carrying massive loads slung on their backs.  We never saw a single Peruvian man carrying anything.

This family brought a llama and an alpaca to the edge of town so tourists could pet them, take pictures and give a "propina" or tip.

These bizarre ski masks are sold all over and I had to have one.

The giant doors of the Cathedral on the Cuzco Plaza de Armas

These ladies had a baby llama for picture-taking followed by a propina, which, no matter how much you gave them was not enough.

Peruvians consider "Cuy" or guinea pigs a delicacy.

Lima, Peru

 

Peru is country #62.  We arrived in Lima late at night, exhausted from 24 hours of travel, and finding Lindsey's bag did not make the journey with us, nor did our pre-arranged driver show.  On arrival at our hotel the lovely Hostal El Patio in Miraflores, we were pleasantly surprised.

In the morning we took a cab to the Plaza Armas.  Nice place, decent for walking around.  I had heard nothing good about the huge eight million person city of Lima, but we enjoyed this part of town as well as Miraflores.

The national drink of Peru is the Pisco Sour, so why not try one at the origin of the drink, the Hotel Bolivar?  I thought it was tart and awful, but Lindsey liked em.  I stuck with Cuzquena beer the rest of the trip, particularly the malty Cuzquena Negra whenever available.

We sampled the nightlife of the Miraflores area near Parque Kennedy, and had a great time. We became friends with these folks in a hole-in-the-wall bar near our hotel.

Munich, Germany

The king of Oktoberfest. This giant from Westchester, NY stood up and chugged 7 mugs of beer over the course of a few hours in the Hofbrauhaus tent. That's 19.6 12oz. beers in American measuring. Unreal. (See the video at the bottom of the post)
The security at Oktoberfest was pretty tight. I saw no fights. No one wanted to mess with this dude. The security guys were pretty calm though; they threw out "The King" after he chugged his seventh liter, but they guided him gently toward the door, and allowed him to stop for applause, autographs and pictures on the way out.
That's AM on the watch. First beer of the day, 9:43am. The tent was full by 9:25am and they closed the doors. Go early, or go home.
The Hofbrauhaus tent holds up to 6,896 drunk people at any given moment.
Aaron's friends Dave, Rob, and Jake have unusual travel habits. The actually took a taxi from Prague to meet us in Munich. The fare was only $500. This caused them to miss day 1. This picture is from Day 2. They showed up late, after door-closing time on the morning of day 3, so they missed that day too. Rob snuck in somehow, despite being abandoned at an ATM, and left penniless by Dave and Jake.
Hofbrau is the "foreigners tent" It's also the rowdiest tent, and the tent where English is the common language.
Dirndls and lederhosen
For day 2, Aaron and I bought these traditional Bavarian checkered shirts. A majority of people at Oktoberfest wear lederhosen and dirndls, and we felt a bit left out, so for 20 euro we at least had the right shirts.
Our hotel was very close by the Weisn, only a fifteen minute walk away. It was located in a predominantly Muslim neighborhood. So every night we saw the strange mixture of hundreds of hammered people walking down our street past hundreds of disapproving Muslim men. Great place to get a kabob at midnight. The guy on the left did NOT want to be in our picture, but he couldn't back away quick enough.


This is the king, standing up on a table to chug his 4th and 5th liters of beer of the day.