I'm starting a new little series on our 3 week holiday we took this fall. We took Canadoca to, well, a lot of places, and it was awesome. At the beginning of our trip she was 4 months old and had visited as many countries as she was months, by the time we were a week in she'd visited 2 of the 7 wonders of the world. Methinks we are setting the bar a bit high for the future kids we may have...
I should begin the post about Peru by saying that we were a bit hesitant in taking Canadoca there, because of the amount of conflicting info out there about altitude poisoning. After doing a ton of research and speaking with our pediatrician we felt confident that everything would be okay. We also made sure we were staying in places where medical needs could be accomodated if necessary.
We arrived in Peru bright and early on a Saturday morning.
My first impressions - the airport is sooo modern and clean in Lima. But considering that it's the gateway to Machu Picchu, the most popular tourist destination in all of South America, I guess it should not have been so surprising. Oh, and when we had to pay the airport fee twice since we departed that airport twice, we also understood why it's so nice ;)
Although hitting Lima is unavoidable, in order to see Peru's other destinations, we consider it to be highly "missable" - it's not exactly beautiful, and besides the museums not a lot piqued our interest.
Luckily we stayed at a great place - The Casa Andina Private Collection in Miraflores - and enjoyed some downtime, and thank goodness for its wonderful culinary delights - we had been reading about them in anticipation of our trip, and were not disappointed. Many consider Peruvian cuisine to be second only to the French these days... nice.
When we arrived at our hotel in Lima we were tickled to see that they had personalized our room with a series of sculptures that eerily resemble our little family:
Normally I don't post photos with us in them but you know, there are exceptions ;)
And there's more where that came from... the Inkas were certainly known for their um, creative, lifelike... pottery... pretty interesting and the designs quite... intricate. There will be a post on that soon... but here is one photo to preview what I'm talking about:
We enjoyed walking around LIma and took in a couple of museums as well, including one with a well-renowned restaurant, Cafe del Museo , in the Larco Museum. Can't say enough good about this place, we had a FANTASTIC meal there. Go!
These giant corn nuts were a Peru staple... loved them!
Traditional Ceviche:
A fantastic platter of peruvian delights...
While in Lima we also enjoyed dinner one night at Panchita, which I highly recommend. (Av Dos de Mayo, 298, Miraflores). There, we enjoyed a fantastic meal with unique sides, and a tried a Peruvian soda - it was purple, made of corn, and quite good - this from someone who doesn't drink pop. Inka Cola is actually pretty good too.
From Lima, we headed to Cuzco, where we were met by a driver who promptly whisked us off to the Sacred Valley. The elevation of Cuzco is 3,310 m above sea level, the Sacred Valley is 600m lower, and surrounded by the beautiful high Andes. We were a bit concerned about the elevation with Canadoca and all, and actually changed our travel plans at the last minute to go to the Sacred Valley immediately upon flying into Cusco. Am I ever glad we did, because I was hit pretty hard with altitude sickness for about 24 hours and it was far from fun. (Dizzy, nauseous, headachey, SLEEPY... For almost 24 hours I completely lost my appetite. That was the key clue that something was amiss!) DON'T WORRY, Canadoca WAS FINE - I realize this is everyone's main concern!
We learned that once they are older than 3 months and their lungs have developed, in most cases babies are much more resilient than adults to altitude changes.Obviously we kept a much closer eye on her than usual as well, being that she cannot communicate any "symptoms" to us. But she was just fine! Slept more than usual, and was more... how should I put this... "efficient" than usual (her "system" was). Other than that, she was just fine!
Luckily we were staying in a fantastic place, Kuychi Rumi, providing a homey environment to recover in with a motherly innkeeper who fixed me up. Never underestimate the power of GRAVOL, I will never travel without it again. (Nor will I travel every again without bug spray, but that is another story...) We were in a beautiful 2 bedroom clay traditional Andean house - the accomodations were absolutely fantastic and the grounds just beautiful, Mr. DRL took some photos, below:
I can't explain in words how peaceful this place was.
Our little house:
I wish I'd been well enough to enjoy more of our time there at Kuychi Rumi. I highly highly recommend staying there if you are in Urubamba in the Sacred Valley.
- The grocery stores are WONDERFUL for S. America - very clean and modern.
- Drivers are quite polite - not a lot of honking or craziness - which is impressive given the number of uncontrolled intersections.
- The poverty is overwhelming. Living in Rio for a year and a half does not begin to prepare a person.
- English is frequently spoken - almost everywhere we've been - and things seem to run in quite an orderly fashion.
- We felt quite safe, apart from when we were mistaken for Americans in a town square last Sunday and some creepy old man starting ranting at us about something or another... (we definitely stand out here much more than in Rio!)
- Like Brazil, people LOVED children. In Peru, they were much more touchy with her, though, and people would try to pick her up when she is sitting on one of our laps or without exception grab her hands to say hello when she is in the Bjorn. I took to holding both her hands myself when in crowds in the Bjorn to try and discourage too much of this... we're not exactly germophobes, but it gets to be a bit much!
- I don't think we were served a meal without CORN - and it's crazy big huge jumbo corn... and we loved all of the quinoa we were served.
- Although Lima is quite modern, when travelling between Cusco & Machu Picchu, it almost felt as though we'd been zapped back 200 years as we watch fields being plowed by oxen, and women carrying loads on their backs in traditional clothing.
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Next post will obviously cover Machu Picchu, Waynu Picchu and our journey there - all of which was incredible. Yes, even when you take a four month old to Machu Picchu. It can be done, and very easily I may add! I hope to reassure people of this as there was not a lot available for me to read about taking a baby to Machu Picchu on the internet.
WOW, really so amazing and impressive you did this trip with a 4 month old! I am so delighted that you had a good experience. Sounds dreamy! xo
Posted by: Stephanie | December 02, 2009 at 06:23 PM