Photo Friday #46

This past weekend was amazing. If you live under a rock (or actually read this blog and are not a member of my family), my brother got married. It was such a beautiful, fun and enjoyable wedding. Here is a picture from the start of our trip. My mom, Joe and I found a cute cafe in the Italian district of Providence, RI. We had some coffee and delicious pastries. Give me some time this weekend to collect all the pictures from the weekend and I'll post next week.

Peru Trip: Miscellaneous Bits

This post is all about the random stuff from our trip. Some photos that didn't fit in with any of the other posts and some fun facts or items we found worth to share. Some items we've already touched on, but now we can go into detail.

Soccer: While in Aguas Calientes we stumbled upon a soccer game. Well, I should clarify... we were actually lost trying to find the train station and the game looked to be over. The crowd of people outside the field made us curious. Then when we got closer it looked to be an interesting stadium with lots of security. Who knows what level of soccer (excuse me, Fútbol) but it was still neat to see. Of course soccer is very popular in South America, it was all over the TV.

Currency: the Peruvian sol was the native currency. Joe was able to exchange cash before we left the United States. He briefed me on the exchange rate so we could easily do the math and know about how much items would cost in US Dollars. The estimate we stuck to was 10 Peruvian Soles = 4 US Dollars. It made things seem pretty expensive until I reminded myself that it was quoted in Soles, not Dollars. Then you do the math and everything turned out to be very reasonable!

Sara Restaurant: this place was very close to our hotel and we walked past it all the time. Not only did the restaurant have the same name as me, they actually spelled it right! We intended to eat here during the trip, but failed. Oh well, we still ate lots of very good food... guinea pig anyone?

Water: bottom line is, you cannot drink the tap water in Peru. We did our homework and knew this ahead of time and just planned on buying bottled water for the whole trip. That got old quickly. The stores around Cusco and Aguas Calientes sold 2.5 liter bottles and I think we ended up buying six or seven of them during our trip. Plus a few bottles we were given on our day tours. I was so ready to get back to the states and enjoy some water from the sink. Something I normally take for granted!

Starbuck's: our home away from home. Is it crazy that an American company like this really made our day? We only went there twice, but they were lazy days and a great way to kill some time. I look a bit too excited for my coffee and muffin in this picture. Thank you Starbuck's for providing a hot beverage other than the coca tea. That was getting old.

On a side note, you'd think the name Sara was common... even in South America. Obviously common enough to name a restaurant after it! Apparently I didn't enunciate correctly when the barista asked for my name. I've definitely gotten Sarah before, but never seen Sira on my latte... Oh and notice the winter cups with the stars and scarf. It was the start of winter for the Southern hemisphere.

Dessert: we walked by this pastry store early in the week and ever since that time Joe was craving something sweet. When we had more free time later in the week we ventured out onto the Avenue of the Sun. Choices of sweets galore... we had a hard time deciding what we wanted. We ended up with some pastry with chocolate and dulce de leche in the middle and a brownie truffle. I mentioned this before, but I have to say it again... the sweet level wasn't what I was used to. I would have preferred more sugar!

Armas Plaza: this was "the square" in the heart of Cusco. Our hotel was just a couple blocks away and this was the main area for food and entertainment. I swear there was something big going on everyday day here in the square. Most of the time we couldn't figure out what exactly what going on or what exactly was being celebrated, but each time we were impressed.

Check out this awesome panorama taken by Joe and his iPhone! That is the Cathedral on the right.

One day there was some sort of a parade with actual floats. We caught them right before hitting the parade route (which I'm assuming was just a big circle around the square... wait, does that make sense?) Who know what the floats represent, but you can see a tropical theme here with the parrot and the girl in a swimsuit.

Strange Ceremony: On another day we stumbled across one of the many churches in Cusco, but this one was holding a ceremony outside. We were attracted to it by the sound of fire crackers. Then we noticed lots of bright colors and people huddling around so we got closer. Apparently they're carrying some important relic.

And they were dressed in costumes... that had horns. They walked a little ways and then set off some more fire crackers. Well we didn't see those coming and we were a bit too close. I actually got hit by one in the neck and it scared the living day lights out of me! I left Joe in front to take some pictures and I got the heck out of there. I was just fine, no injury, but it scared me!

Police: with all the festivals, ceremonies and other things going on around Cusco it wasn't uncommon to see a Police force like this. Ever the rebel, Joe always had to snap a picture.

Language: Of course the official language of Peru is Spanish. Luckily most people we interacted with also spoke English so we were able to get by just fine. I will say my little bit of Spanish knowledge did help us along the way. Every once in a while we need to pull out a few words to help us find out way. I will say I was certainly impressed by Joe! He had less Spanish education than I did, but he full immersed himself in the culture and tested out his memory quite often. Although that also meant he failed... a few times. It just made for some good laughs.

Random Donkey with Soccer Ball: don't have much to say about this one, other than we had to snap a picture. I think this was outside a school?

The Market: I swear we didn't stumble across everything during our trip, but some days we just left the hotel with the intent of walking and exploring. This market was one of those gold mines. We could see lots of people around outside and the building was quite large so we decided to peek inside. Wow, this place was huge and full of basically anything a Peruvian would need to buy. I'm talking bread, cheese, meats, shampoo, toothpaste, rugs, clothes and so much more. It was neat how the different types of items being sold were categorized and arranged together. There was one section for just cheeses, one section for just toiletries and one section for just meat. Oh and that was a different story. The meat section included whole pigs laying on the counter and other slabs of meat hanging from hooks. This was actually our entrance to the market so it was a rude awakening.  Well I suppose that wasn't even the worse part. One section was just for "innards" and by that I mean all of the insides of an animal they could sell. Examples: cow tongues, hearts, livers, just use your imagination. That section had a nasty smell so I walked quickly to avoid it as much as possible. Oh and there were a bunch of small restaurant booths in the back. We chose not to eat here, for obvious reasons.

Also included in the market were some souvenir stores. We bought some small ceramic bulls from this lady. She was so eager to win our business (it's cut throat with these vendors because there was one across the aisle selling the exact same items). We ended up coming home with some pretty neat souvenirs. Let's see if I can name them all... a key chain that was painted and read Cusco, both got t-shirts in Aguas Calientes (mine says Peru and Joe's says Cusqueña), two ceramic bulls, one ceramic cup painted and of course the Cusqueña glass. I think that's everything and on all that we spent less than 20 US Dollars.

Weather: I've mentioned this before, but we had pretty perfect weather the entire time we were in Peru. We were crossing our fingers we wouldn't see much rain. April is right in between the country's rainy season and the peak tourism season. We strategically chose that Month partly because of that and just hoped for great weather. Cusco would get cool in the evenings, but we just always dressed in layers.

I don't even know how to classify this picture. We were walking down the Avenue Del Sol one day and Joe spotted the Central Reserve Bank of Peru. Being the finance guy he is he wanted to stop and snap a picture. He took it quickly and we moved on. I think we were on our way to the pastry shop actually. When we sat down he looked closer at the picture and noticed that the guy was waving his finger in the "don't you take that picture!" kind of way. We got a good chuckle out of it!

And off we go to the airport.

Security: That is more of a question... security?? This was at the Cusco airport. We're pretty sure the metal detector wasn't even turned on and there was on person sitting there who probably hardly looked at our luggage passing through the conveyor. Oh well, it made going through security a breeze!

Home Sweet Home: our trip back to Charlotte took a total of 19 hours. It was brutal and once we got to Miami (so close!) we were really ready to get home and relax. What made the trip so long was our seven hour layover in Lima. We both tried to sleep but that wasn't happening. We got home in the afternoon and I'm pretty sure we went to bed that night around 8:00. We had some major sleep to catch up on!

By now I feel like this trip was months ago. Thank you for sticking with me so I could recap the entire thing. Don't you feel like you were there with us after all of those pictures?

Peru Trip: JW Marriott Cusco

This might seem really odd, but this entire post is all about our hotel in Cusco, Peru. Let me assure you, it's completely worth it. My job might have it's challenges, but it sure has its perks too. As a Marriott associate I received discounted room rates when available. Meaning, the discount isn't always available to book online, but you just have to check and keep checking. The fact that the discount was available in April was one of the reasons we actually chose the week we did for this trip.

We stayed at the JW Marriott in Cusco. It is one of the two Marriott properties in the entire country (the other one is in Lima, the capital city. Plus Marriott just announced the construction of a Courtyard in Lima, to open in 2014). Neither Joe or I had ever stayed in a JW Marriott before, this was going to be a treat. For a little history, Bill Marriott Jr. created this brand in remembrance for his father (who started the Marriott company). It is a luxury brand and something we're not accustomed to.

The entrance was pretty neat. What am I saying, this entire hotel was pretty neat. This large archway was never closed while we were here. I was wondering if the doors could actually close, they're huge! Because the weather was so great the entire week and we never seemed to notice many bugs, the hotel was just open air.

Oh and at night the lobby was so cool. We took a tour of the property since it was built on top of some very old Inca ruins. Actually it was converted from a convent to a bakery. Anyways, there was lots of history in this place. The lobby area with the very tall brick ceilings was where the old bakery was located.

Oh and the courtyard. Gorgeous! It was perfect for the few days we had free time. We would sit out in the sun until we got too warm, and then we retreated to the couches in the shade. We saw a few people eating lunch out here too, it was just so calm and relaxing.

The hotel had a pool and spa in the basement. We ventured down there on the first night in the city and returned a few nights later to actually jump in the water. This was also very calm and relaxing.

Like I already mentioned, we took a tour of the hotel one evening. The hotel staff offered the tour each evening at 6:00 PM. Luckily we saw a sign that said this so we could join in because we were curious to know more about the land. Our tour guide was Paulo... go ahead and say it out loud. It's a fun name to say!

The original plan gave a three year timeline to complete the construction of this hotel. After groundbreaking took place the construction crew realized there was historic Inca walls and streets they were careful. Construction ended up taking about six years in total. In the basement there was this little historic area behind plexiglas.

We spent a good amount of time in the hotel lobby/bar area. We could get free wifi here so it was great to be able to connect to Facebook or our Photostream. Speaking of which, we were really happy the Photostream worked during our trip. We weren't sure if it would, but we set up a Photostream with our families on our iPhones. Then all we needed to do was use the internet to upload a few pictures each day. That gave us the opportunity to not only show them that we made it to Peru safely, but to send a few updates about our adventure. I know my mom was happy we were able to do this!

Another very cool area of the hotel was the restaurant. The entire decor was very tastefully done. I wish the designer would just stop by my house and spruce it up a bit.

We had a nice dinner in this restaurant one evening.

This was my attempt to remember the restaurant name... it was written on the menu but you can't read it at all in the picture. Bummer.

We both enjoyed a glass of wine with dinner. We had the restaurant to ourselves that night.

We asked our server to take a picture of us... and we ended up asking again for more. This was the best we came up with even though it's grainy and not the best picture.

Joe had the trout pasta with capers. It was delicious, nothing was left on the plate. I might have helped him a bit too...

And I had the sweet potato ravioli with shrimp. I'm sure there was some fancy sauce or something too. both dishes were truly delicious!!

We were actually asked by our server, Edwin, to take a picture. It seemed a bit odd but he was such a nice guy. He was surprised when I said I was also a Marriott associate (and presented my card to get a discount on dinner). We sent this picture to him over email also.

And because this hotel was just so cool I snapped pictures of our room. Very classy and cozy.

The bathroom was great too. The shower (not shown) was a rain shower where the water came from the ceiling.

We had to take advantage of the hotel amenities... bath robes. Yes please!

Plus we enjoyed turned down service. One night we had little tea bags and another we had tiny lavender bath perfumes. The directions say to use after a bath or shower. The housekeeper would place a little card on the bed with the gift and the TV would be turned on to a music station.

We were also spoiled by the hotel staff with this. This amenity with a half bottle of red wine, cheese and crackers were so amazing. Thank you JW Marriott staff!!

I already shared these pictures, but I had to show the coca tea once more. The coca tea was available in the lobby and we helped ourselves a couple times. Oh and they had this large dispenser with M&Ms, I helped myself to that a couple times too.

You can probably tell how amazing our hotel stay was. It was a treat for us to stay in a luxury hotel like this one, but I would definitely recommend it for anyone looking for a great getaway.