Peru Day Four- May 1, 2019 – After breakfast we checked out of our hotel, boarded a bus and heeded to the airport to fly to Cusco, which was scheduled to be an one hour flight. Again, traffic is a mess and it took and hour to go about seven miles.
The Airport in Lima and an EXTREMELY busy place and is undersized for the number of people using it. After checking our bags we waited along with hundreds of others in the security line. Never have we seen anything like this.
Our flight was delayed but we finally took a bus to our aircraft where we boarded and then waited for over 45 minutes before the engines started. Surprisingly, despite the airport being jammed with people out flight was less than half full. Once started we still had to wait in line to take off. Aircraft was and airbus 319.
Lima is at sea level and Cusco is at 10,800 feet. The airport is in the middle of the very small city and the pilots who land there earn their pay as they come in between the Andes mountains with the shifting winds. We came in hot with a quick stop to probably because the air is thin and the runway short.
We boarded a small bus at the airport at 10,800 feet and worked our way up and out of Cusco over the mountain roads at one point reaching 12,200 feet.
May 1st is a National Holiday in Peru, it is their Labor Day. Schools and offices are closed and families relax and celebrate together. We found many families enjoying the day on the grounds of Sacsayhuaman.
We saw a group of teenagers trying to make a huatia (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈwatja]) which is a traditional Peruvian earthen oven which dates back to the days of the Inca Empire. This type of oven is commonly associated with the peasants in the Cuzco region in the Andes. In the oven they cook potatoes, meat and corn. A little girl making her own huatia.
Families work together on their huatia. A dad, Nico, explained to us the process and told us that once the embers were ready, they place the potatoes into the earthen oven with other meats and veggies wrapped in foil, and cook for about 30 minutes.
We passed Ruins from the Inca culture outside of Cusco
Along the road we were fortunate to see a very rare vicuna mother and crias (baby). Incas worshipped vicuña, the miniature cinnamon-hued cousins of the llama. The doe-eyed creatures, which inhabit the chilly Andean plateaus, produce a fleece so fine that it was considered to be cloth of gold. Only Inca royalty was permitted to wear it. Today it is considered the finest fiber in the world.
Colorful quinoa grows on the hillsides outside of Cusco.
We stopped and saw our first view of the Sacred Valley with the Urubamba River in the base of the valley. In the center, far back you can see snow from a glacier
From the road we could see Inca terraces at center with irrigation line running down the center. A second set of terraces below and to the left as well.
It is autumn here and it is harvest time. We saw many people harvesting corn by hand. It is then laid out on the ground to dry.
Along the way there are several road-side food places many of which sell roasted cuy (guinea pig) to passers by.
Lodging was at the very nice Beautiful courtyard at our hotel just outside the town of Urubamba.