Peru: Machu Picchu, Iquitos and the Amazon River. Unusual choices for a honeymoon?

Some may think honeymooning at Machu Picchu in Peru an odd choice but not if you like your romance with a touch of adventure. Photo: Shannon Kircher for TravelBoldly.com 

Peru: Machu Picchu, Iquitos and the Amazon River. Unusual choices for a honeymoon?

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru. 

 
Guest Post by Shannon Kircher

A llama grazes peacefully among the
stone ruins of Machu Picchu, Peru. 

After experiencing Lima and Cusco as newlyweds, we were headed off for the adventure portion of our honeymoon: heading into Machu Picchu, the Sacred Valley and then jetting off to a jungle town to depart on a three-day river cruise down the Amazon. Traditional honeymoon? Not so much. An adventure of a lifetime? Definitely.

Read part one of Shannon's honeymoon adventure in Peru.

Machu Picchu + the Sacred Valley

With limited time in Peru, we took the Hiram Bingham train from Cusco to Machu Picchu which helped with altitude sickness (Machu Picchu is actually at a lower elevation than Cusco). Machu Picchu is one of the world’s most iconic sites, filled with mystery and dramatic beauty. In all honesty, part of me was a bit fearful that we’d arrive and it would be a bit anticlimactic; so built up and just like every picture I’d seen. It wasn’t. It was magical. The journey from the base town of Aguas Calientes up to Machu Picchu is breathtakingly beautiful and the park itself is an incredible experience. We had a tour guide take us through and point out the sites. While I’m not typically a tour guide person, I don’t think there’s any other way to see this place properly. There’s too much history and mysticism around Machu Picchu to see it without someone explaining the history and sacred-qualities of some of the sites. Incredible.

A burro walks along alone in the Urubamba  River valley, also
known as the Sacred Valley.  Peru

After our time in Machu Picchu, we headed to the Sacred Valley of the Incas, where we spent two nights in Urubamba. Perhaps the biggest surprise of our trip (we had no expectations or pre-conceived notions about the area), the Sacred Valley left us mesmerized. Where we questioned the authenticity of people in Cusco from time to time, there was no questioning anything here. While there were other tourists, they were few and far between. We spent one of our most memorable days exploring a local market in Urubamba, buying nothing but taking everything in. Our desire to experience a more authentic side of Peru was accomplished more than ever during our day in the Sacred Valley.

Iquitos and the Amazon River

Shopping in the market in Urubamba is necessity for this
Quechua woman but a colorful photo opportunity for visitors

The Amazon River was the final piece of our honeymoon puzzle. We had experienced city life, Incan culture and Machu Picchu and were excited to experience the river. We started with a full day in Iquitos, the river town from which we were to depart on our three-day river cruise. The city was a totally different experience, home to an incredibly impoverished community.

The author Shannon looks out across the waters of the
Amazon River during her Peruvian Honeymoon.

The majority of visitors to the town were there to explore the Amazon or to participate in an ayahuasca retreat. We were part of the former group and boarded our Aqua Expeditions ship to begin exploring the region with 19 other passengers, ages 12 - 80. Our cruise gave us the perfect taste of the Amazon.

We spent days going out on excursions in the morning and evening, taking off on skiffs with small groups to explore deeper into the river. We swam in the Amazon (I know, sounds suspect, but it’s totally okay), went piranha fishing, trekked in the jungle with local guides and did a late-night excursion to spot caimans. We bonded with the small group of other passengers on the boat, and sipped on red wine, exchanging stories with other guests while floating down the river. The cruise was bittersweet. It was an exciting new adventure that also marked the last days of our time in Peru.

Sure, we could have spent much more time in Peru but we left feeling fulfilled after our disparate adventures.  In two short weeks, we had explored a region that was unlike any other place we had visited together. And no, Peru may not be the sexiest honeymoon destination, but those memories and those experiences are hard to beat. Watching the sunrise in Machu Picchu together? Well, that doesn’t get much better.

~~~

Shannon Kircher is the founder and editor of The Wanderlust Effect. After previous stints in London and San Francisco, she now lives in the British West Indies on the island of Anguilla. You can contact her via Facebook and Twitter.

Read part one of Shannon's honeymoon adventure in Peru.

More post on Peru here on Travel Boldly

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Machu Picchu, Peru

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru


The Hidden City of the Inca high in the Andes Mountains is one of the great travel destinations on the planet.  After rafting for 3 days on the Urubamba River we began hiking to Machu Picchu. In 4 days of trekking we arrived to see this mysterious mountain enclave that the Inca managed to keep hidden from the Spanish. Rediscovered by Hiram Bingham in 1911, it is one of the most mystical places on earth.

Machu Picchu is on just about everyone's travel bucket list. I had the good fortune to see it early in my travel career while working on a film for Sobeck/Mountain Travel that eventually became an episode in the Discovery Channel series, Sir Edmund Hillary's World of Adventure.

My first glimpse of the iconic terraces that sit 7,970 feet (2,430 meters) above sea level on the eastern slope of the Andes came from high above in the late afternoon, after a day of trekking.  We arrived late enough that most of the tourists had departed on the last buses back to Aguas Calientes on the valley floor. Only a few a people that were fortunate enough to have rooms at the hotel just outside Machu Picchu's grounds were still wandering among the stone walls. Most of the hotel guests had already headed for the bar and were sipping cocktails and telling traveler's tales.

I'll always treasure those haunting moments as we made our way among the stone houses that housed perhaps as few as 750 people.  Now each day brings 2000+ tourists to these verdant terraces and more would come if restrictions weren't in place.  By the time the we entered the Machu Picchu it was eerily --- wonderfully empty.

These images are copyrighted and may not be used, re-posted or reproduced without direct written permission.

More post on Peru here on Travel Boldly

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru

After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel. 

The King of the Incas. Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru

Peru: Machu Picchu, Iquitos and the Amazon River. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Peru: Lima, Cusco and Machu Picchu. Unusual choices for a honeymoon? 

Inca Princess - Cusco, Peru  

Trekking Andes Mountains - Urubamba River Valley, Peru 

Me and My Llama - Peru 

Happy Guy - Wedding Guest in Urubamaba, Peru  

Trekking to Machu Picchu - Peru 

Inti Raymi Fireworks Celebration - Urabamba, Peru 

Contact me at @JeromeShaw  or  Facebook 


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Subject : The Lost City of the Incas - Machu Picchu - Peru

Origianlly Posted to MySpace 

Post Date: : Oct 25, 2006 10:16 AM 

Inti Raymi Fireworks Celebration - Urabamba, Peru

Celebrating the winter solstice during the Incan festival of Inti Raymi in the village of Urubamba, Peru.
Photograph by Jerome Shaw

Fireworks Urabamba, Peru

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru

This was one of the wildest scenes I have ever encountered in all my travels. I was in this small village along the Urabamba River in Peru and as part of the Inti Raymi celebration (Winter Solstice/Return of the Sun) the town had a fireworks display. There was a log tower built in the center of the square,  Attached to the tower were all types of fireworks.

The crowd gathered as dusk fell. I found my position on a rock wall, well back from the display but high enough to get a good view. I had hired a minder to keep an eye on things for me while I concentrated on setting up the photo. He was none to happy to have me up on the wall with several other locals as he was certain my equipment would begin to disappear into the crowd and there would be very little we could do about it.

Though, the real danger was to come from another source. Prior to the lighting of the tower of fireworks you see in these photos there were numerous smaller displays. One of the highlights was men dressed in papier mache horse heads and fore flanks that danced around in the square. The hooves of the horses fired roman candle shells out at random intervals as they ran and pranced in the center of the square.

What a wild scene it was in the village of Urubamba, Peru. We were celebrating the winter solstice during the Incan festival of Inti Raymi. You'd never get insurance for a fireworks display like this in the United States.   Photograph by Jerome Shaw

As I photographed,  the horse men continues to strut around the square. Then a shell fired out in my general direction. The fiery missile hit a man in the chest several yards down the wall from me, knocking him off the wall down to the ground. His friends jumped down patted out the fire on his chest, dusted him off and hoisted him back up on the wall, all the while laughing. His friends joked and gave him many congratulatory pats on the back. He had become a celebrity and even though his shirt still smoldered from the roman candle strike that knocked him from his perch, he seemed to be enjoying his new found celebrity.

All the while I watch I was thinking you'll never see this kind of fireworks display in the United States. You'd never get insured.

These images are copyrighted and may not be used, re-posted or reproduced without direct written permission. For usage information please contact jeromeshaw17@msn.com

More post on Peru here on Travel Boldly

New Rules for visiting Machu Picchu Peru

After Slow Travel in Tanzania - We Went Poco y Poco in Peru. You are never too old to travel. 

The King of the Incas. Inti Raymi / The Festival of the Sun at Sacsayhuamán in Cusco, Peru

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