Last Saturday we were anxious to leave the noise and chaos of Cusco to explore the Andes mountains and Sacred Valley (Valle Sagrado) 15 miles outside of the city. The Urubamba River runs through the fertile Sacred Valley which made it an ideal agricultural area for the Incas. While it is a major tourist area because it is filled with Incan ruins, Spanish colonial villages, fertile farmland, and colorful local markets it is not filled with tourists. While in Peru…
After 2 weeks in Lima, we headed to Cusco, the fourth largest city in Peru. This city of 500,000 is perched in the Andes mountains at an altitude of 11,200 ft. The Cusco name comes from the indigenous Quechua language meaning “navel” or “center.” Cusco was the capital of the Inca Empire from the 13th century until the Spanish conquest in 1533. More than 2 million people come to Cusco annually and stay a few days before hiking the Inca Trail…
Lima is one of the top gastronomic capitals of the world and in 2019 has two restaurants ranked in the top ten of the world’s best restaurants; Central (#6) and Maido (#10). The cuisine offers a variety of traditional dishes as well as Peruvian influence on Indigenous, Chinese, Hispanic, and African dishes. When we were choosing the next South American country to visit, a big factor was the fact that Peru is said to have the best food in South…
After three months in Ecuador (and nine months of travel), we have arrived in Peru. All flights in and out of Peru go through the capital city of Lima which is a top destination for fine dining and exceptional food. In fact, Lima has two restaurants out of the top ten in the world; so, we decided to stay for two weeks to take advantage of the dining, museums, and archeological sites. Lima, with a population of 9.5 million, borders…
During the last three months, we spent two weeks in the capital city of Quito, Ecuador (population of 2 million) and ten weeks in Cuenca (population of 500,000), Ecuador’s third largest city. We really enjoyed our time and the people we met in Ecuador and have a few cheers and jeers to share. After our time in Colombia, we decided to change our travel plans a bit while in Ecuador. We wanted to interact more regularly with English speaking travelers…
Once a month, Trebol Rose farm near Cuenca gives tours and on our last full day in Ecuador, we toured this beautiful rose hacienda. The farm is an hour from Cuenca and off the beaten path. After exiting the highway, the bus snaked through narrow muddy roads in the Andes mountains until we arrived at Hacienda El Cortijo (The Farmhouse Estate). Since 1997 the Trebol Rose farm has grown roses on 30 acres at an altitude of over 9,500 feet….
In the 1860s, Ecuador began building a railway line to connect the coastal city of Guayaquil with the capital city of Quito. The line would cover 280 miles and reduce travel time from the coast to the capital from two weeks to 12 hours. The railway would pass through the rugged Andes mountains and it was nicknamed “The Most Difficult Railway in the World”. Building this railroad was difficult due to frequent earthquakes, heavy rainfall, jaguars, poisonous snakes, malaria, dysentery,…
This is a special blog post which includes our conversation with Lindsey Heiserman who is a personal trainer and life coach. Lindsey has more than 10 years of experience and we became a client of Lindsey several years ago. She was our personal trainer at Relative Strength in Golden Valley, Minnesota. Lindsey led a group of us in workouts to increase our body strength and cardio fitness. In addition to running, these workouts were great cross-training. She is a very…
On a recent Saturday morning, we headed west with a guide and some friends from our Spanish school to Cajas National Park. Less than an hour from Cuenca, this park covers over 110 square miles of land characterized by large outcrops of bedrock. For those who are interested in the technical description, this is called knob and kettle geomorphology and results in a beautiful landscape of rocks and boulders alternating with lakes. The lakes and rivers are famous for their…
In the past two weeks, we have visited the Ecuadorian countryside and several unique and picturesque towns near Cuenca. San Bartolome San Bartolome is about 25 miles southeast of Cuenca and like most Latin American towns, it has a colonial square in the center of town anchored by a church. A guitar sculpture in the square gives visitors notice of the famous hand-made guitars made by some 30 local craftsmen. We visited the “Uyaguari Guitar Workshop” and met Jose Uyaguari,…