#maybe I’ll bypass the randomizer wheel just this once

[roosterbox]

@my-citrus-pocket

Another one! This makes four recommendations for that album! Wow!

Every one makes me more interested to check it out!

[evadventure]

While in Cusco...

We spend two nights in Cusco (both marked by not-so-nice altitude adjustment), leave for Machu Picchu, return, spend two more nights and leave for good. From all the places in Peru we stay here the longest. 

But -- we just arrived and it’s time to figure out what to do next, because the only thing we know now is that on 9th of June we will be granted entrance to the most impressive Inca site. 

And we need to figure out how to get there, and we need to not try any craft beer here, and I have to not get a tattoo.

All in its time. 

First, the craft beer story: 

Somehow we find out that Peru is experiencing a craft beer boom. That’s intriguing, because a. I hate lager (and lager is everywhere) and b. I love random beers with funky flavours and such. On the first day, in tiny streets above the main square we actually pass a random CB bar that is so HYGGE that I slip on a freaking carpet and land in a less-than-dignified-pose in front of the tap. 

Needless to say, besides a corn beer that I might be tempted to try, the local hipster is out of IPA, and we leave without trying. 

So I mark the most praised CB bar in Cusco on the map. And -- surprise -- we never make it there. Through out the trip, we stick to getting up around 5am because most of the tours and hikes and such begin around that time. 

So when Apo tries to force us to beer pong, she manages one round -- more on that later -- and then we disappear, Spanish/French/Enhlish style (depends on the country of your origin, the idiom changes) to fall asleep in very godly hours. 

The tattoo story: Ahem. So Apo has a llama with an adorable knitted hat done by a guy from Cusco, and me, being all aware of the transformative nature of this journey, ahem, I am all up to get a random tattoo from a random, yet skilled guy. After hunting him down for hours, we finally meet, he shows me the design, I do like it, but when I finally come down for The Thing, it doesn’t look good anywhere on me. (Needless to say it’s a very precise colibri in Inca art and I am tempted, but, I don’t feel particularly close to Inca culture or to birds.) Maybe some other time. 

(This is already from the trip to MP)

When we were getting ready for Peru, I reached out to the local game dev scene (we ended up shooting a podcast that I’ll link as soon as the edits are done). I had a lot of talks with the guys about Lima and Cusco way before we arrived, but also regarding Sacred Valley (the valley around the Urubamba river that ends in the Amazon, and that holds all the major archeological Inca sites) we got a guide contact to set up a tour. 

Now, Peru isn’t particularly expensive nor touristy but: The offer we got felt way too high for us girls from behind the Iron curtain, and I kinda want to break it down just to see:

So it stood at 430 USD per person for a trip to Sacred valley, Machu Picchu, including the entrance fee, Rainbow mountain and all the transport. Regarding MP we paid 60 USD (entrance including a fun story, stay tuned) and 130 (train -- there’s also a story coming up), by far the most expensive part. A full day trip round the valley that we didn’t end up taking was round 45 dollars for both. The Rainbow mountain was 40 per person. The extra travel around was about 6 bucks. So if I’m counting correctly, 260 for each of us would cover it. And this is how it goes -- and without looking into numbers, it may feel like saving and it may save the hassle but. For me it’s a great reminder of not giving into the travel stress: I can easily get into the anxious planner mode from distance and this is a good reminder for Never Doing That. 

And yeah, the train. The train is the only means to get from Ollantaytambo (I learned to spell it once I engraved in my brain that Ollan sounds like a Norwegian male name, which it most likely doesn’t sound like) and it’s the one monetised part of the road that cannot be bypassed. Talk about pay-to-visit. But anyway, not there yet, but here’s the story about the ticket purchase: We almost bought it online when I noticed that in the fine print (who notices the fine print?) it states that all the luggage should be smaller hand luggage size and up to 5 kg. So, in sorta panic, we went to the local office, conveniently placed 3 blocks from our hostel, where we came in, pressed a button for a queue number, a guy jumped up, and we formulated our doubts. Because, apparently, you can send an email do PeruRail, regarding your luggage, and you can take more on board than I just described, but only then. And it would be nice if he would enlighten us on the next actions.

As usual with us and among these circumstances, I’m taking the lead and the game design attitude of Figuring Out The Problem And Finding Solution. So... our luggage might be a bit bigger? No problem. But it’s definitely over 5 kg, I argue. And shall we send the email or is it ok if he knows. And so on. And so on. 

The guy laughs and says But no one has a scale there and we don’t really care. 

So much about the “official information”. 

We play beer pong (I win against Jasmin and Apo, Jasmin needs to spin the loser wheel, Jasmin needs to give someone a lap dance, guess who gets the lap dance) and we sneak out from the bar area to atone to our it’s-10pm-time-to-sleep-needs.