BZ Travel Diary - My Trip to Machu Picchu & Peru

Having completed one of my New Year resolutions this year - Tour the 50 States of U.S, I quickly moved on to set new targets. My new goal of travel is to go to seven continents and visited the new seven wonder of the world. In addition, I want to do a deep dive of each of those amazing places.

I have been to the Great Wall of China and the Roman Colosseum when I was younger. It is time to chose lucky #3. I quickly set my eyes on Machu Picchu and started planning. It is a long way to go there and let me break it down for you slowly.

Firstly, we took a flight to Lima, Peru. For the two days, we wanted more historical exploration so we stayed in the downtown area. We checked out the Main Square, University of Lima, China town, and most importantly. El Museo Convento de San Francisco y catacombs. We did a private tour of the church and its underground. There are 25,000 books and 25,000 bones lying at this place. You may think it is weird but personally I think the placement of all those bones is so beautiful. The chore room, dressing room and the library are equally stunning and I wish my house is set up like this.

The next day, we took a flight from Lima to Cusco, where it is 3,000 feet above. It takes us some time to acclimate and get used to the thin air. It is better to take some medicine with you to help you through the process. In addition, a local tea (Coca leaf tea) could help you a lot as well. However remind not to drink it before bed since it contains a fair amount of caffeine,

It was Halloween in Cusco, you can see a lot of adult and kids gathering around the main square with full makeup doing trick or treats. All the shops and restaurants are opening late to cater to all those incoming tourists. We stayed at the Tocuyeros Boutique Hotel, which is amazing. The staff there helped us make a reservation at Chicha on a Halloween night. I got to try to the guinea pig, alpaca, and ceviche. All the food are amazing except for the guinea pig, which is a little dry but it is a local dish, it worth a try.

Here comes the main course of this trip - Machu Picchu. After a full night of good rest and acclamation, I am so ready to check out this new world wonder. But I have to hold my horse and contain my excitement because that the way there is not an easy uber ride.

Here is the transportation breakdown with costs info for your reference.

Train: Peru Rail $95 X 2 = $190 (Remember to print the tickets single-sided since they need to tear it apart to take half of it each way. ) Be prepared for the 4 hours train ride. You will feel the time passes by quickly on the way to Machu Picchu since you are excited. It will be a different story on the way back after a day of hiking. Luckily, you can order some pisco sours and enjoy the fashion show they put on on the return trip. Bring enough water and snacks. They do offer some complimentary tea/drinks and snacks but if I were you, I will prepare my picnic meal as well.

Bus: Consettur Machupicchu S.A C. $24 (no need to pay $12 more to get advanced tickets, the bus line is not that crazy and everyone lines up in order) Make sure you get to the bus stop (which is right by the train station) 30 mins before your scheduled tour time. They won’t let you up if you are too early either.

We hired a personal tour guide, which I highly recommend. They know the history behind all those ruins and they understand the best way to tour this place. Do you know that Machu Picchu was the education, administration and vacation home for the Incas? Do you know the placement of each rock and the structure of all buildings are their meaning with nature? Do you know how this place got discovered? Book a tour and you can learn a ton. They also took the most amazing photos. Here is a couple of those, nobody else crowded my photo;)

Another way to tour Machu Picchu is to do the 4 days and 3 nights Inca trail. I am not ready yet, but for that hardcore hiker and campers, do check it out and add or cross off your bucket list. We met a couple who did that during the flight back to Lima, they appreciate the experience so it is doable.

We spent another day in Cusco after Machu Picchu to take this beautiful city all in. I did a morning hike to the top of the mountain to check out the city view and the status of Chris. It is less than 1 mile from the hotel but the altitude slows me down in a hard way. I have to stop 5 times to catch my breath even I feel like I am acclimated. But it is totally worth it for the view. (well you can take a taxi up as well, not expensive at all). After the morning hike, it is the shopping time. We went to the local market and start to buy all kinds of things. I like teas a lot so I decided to buy a bunch. But because they may be defined as drugs in your country, DO YOUR RESEARCH.

Afterwards, we flew back to Lima but this time, we stayed near the “beach” in the Miraforest area. The Parque de Amor and Lancomar mall are nearby so it was pretty convenient. I went for a morning run along the coast. The ocean breeze is really refreshing. Later that day, we went to the Indian market and Inca market to put our bargaining skills in practice. I think I am pretty good at this skillset and the result is that I got two handfuls of shoes, cups, and souvenirs back which is less than $100.

The next day, I booked a food and art walking tour in the Barrancos. We visited the local fishermen, tried all kinds of fruits and seafood. It was also my first time to try the amazon piranha and I got super excited about it. Another interesting dish is stirred pork and banana. It sounds wrong but tastes right, that is all I can say and you have to try it yourself. We ended our tour with a trip to the art walls in Barranco, getting to know the inspiration and the creating process of those local and international artists. remember to cross the wishing bridge with one breathe and make a wish for your first time there. Let’s see if it will come true.

All in all, the Machu Picchu and Peru tour is one of the best trips I had in 2019. Here are some key takeaways:

1. Carefully plan your trip but leave enough time for yourself to enjoy being there. There is no need to fill the day with all those to-dos. This trip, we only do one or two things per day mainly and I felt amazing and created a lot of great memories.

2. Make reservations to good restaurants 1 month or even 2 months before if they are super popular.

3. A language is a great tool (need to pick up my Spanish again) but without it, google translate will be very useful. But don’t worry, I went out to hang out with local people who do not speak much English and had a great time.

4. The purpose of travelling is to create new experience and memories. Understand the purpose and goal, you will feel more in control and less worried about many things.

Here are some recommendations I personally like a lot.

Hotel Recommendation:

Tocuyeros Boutique Hotel in Cusco

JW Marriot in Lima

The view is breath-taking and the staff are really helpful and they can take care of a lot of your needs. For people who like high ceiling rooms, it is a good choice.