SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Posted (1 year 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 7427 times:
RTW Pt 3: Wonders of Peru! TA LIM-CUZ-LIM
Introduction
Welcome dear readers to my 3rd report in the around-the-world series! This report will cover my trip to the Peruvian Andes mountains, along with pictures from Machu Picchu, Ollantaytambo and Cuzco. These flights were booked, so finally we were safe to get on the flight! Hopefully you don’t mind the pictures from the Andes in between the flight reports, if you don’t want to see them just skip over and keep on with the later flight. If you missed earlier parts, they’re at the end of the report. Background
After years of planning, me and my dad finally decided to go around the world on ID/Standby tickets.
We decided to go to Machu Picchu, Peru in South American and then some Asian Cities.
This was the proposed flight schedule (B means booked):
Icelandair 631 KEF – JFK 30/3/2012 Boeing 757-300
United 1116 EWR – IAH 31/3/2012 Boeing 737-500
United 854 IAH – LIM 31/3/2012 Boeing 767-300ER
TACA Peru 7 LIM – CUZ 1/4/2012 Airbus 320-200 (B)
TACA Peru 101 CUZ – LIM 2/4/2012 Airbus 319-100 (B)
United 855 LIM – IAH – SFO 2/4/2012 +1 Boeing 767-300ER
United 837 SFO – NRT 4/4/2012 +1 Boeing 747-400
Cathay Pacific 503 HND – HKG 8/4/2012 Boeing 747-400
Cathay Pacific 701 HKG – SIN 10/4/2012 Airbus 330-300
Thai 873 SIN – BKK 12/4/2012 Boeing 777-300
Cathay Pacific 771 BKK – DEL 14/4/2012 Airbus 330-300
Air India 102 DEL – BOM 16/4/2012 Boeing 777-300ER (B)
Oman Air 691 BOM – MCT 19/4/2012 Boeing 737-800
Oman Air 102 MCT – DXB 19/4/2012 Boeing 737-800
Emirates 3 DXB – LHR 21/4/2012 Airbus 380-800
Icelandair 455 LHR – KEF 21/4/2012 Boeing 757-200
But as many of you know, you never know on ID tickets and the actual route has been way different then the planned one so far. Luckily I always made plan B and even C. But that will come in later reports.
I was really looking forward and this was shaping up to be a trip of a lifetime!
The report
I keep going where I left off last time. After a 4 hour sleep that felt like 5 minutes, it was time to go to the airport. We loaded our bags into the hotel Audi taxi and drove away to the airport.
Our room at the hotel. The signature Westin bed, those are amazingly comfortable!
View out of my window
Some arty stuff...
Inka Cola advertising. I tried this drink later on, and it was disgusting!
As we had checked in the night before, we walked straight thru security. Security was very well organized and amazingly smooth, much better than most US and European airports. There were still around 20 arrivals at 6-7 am, so just amazing work to do it, securely and well, but smoothly and quick, at a place like this. Well done LIM!
We went to the PeruRail ticket office at LIM airport and asked the agent about our reservation from Cuzco to Aguas Caliantis via Ollantaytambo on a bus+train. To our surprise, he didn´t find it in his computer. That meant we had to try get them in Cuzco, and it wasn‘t even safe that we would get a seat! >:I
It‘s really hard to see planes from the boarding area in LIM. I found out in Cuzco the reg was N478TA. When checking in online the night before I saw that my flight would not be operated by my scheduled 320 but had been downgraded to a 319. Totally ok as I only have 2 flights on the 319 (BA 1x, 4U 1x) while I have 18 on the bigger 320 (B6 16x, U2 1x, VY 1x).
As I said, it’s hard to see planes from the boarding area.
Flight information
Date: 1. April 2012
Airline: TACA Peru (T0/TPU)
Aircraft: Airbus 319-100
Registration: N478TA
Flight number: TA 007
From: Lima – Callao Jorge Chavez International Airport, Peru (LIM/)
To: Cuzco (Machu Picchu) International Airport, Peru (CUZ/)
Runway at origin: 15
Runway at destination: 28
Sched/Act departure: 5:40/6:02
Sched/Act arrival: 7:10/7:25
Blocked time: 1 hour 30 minutes
Flight time gate to gate: 1 hour 23 minutes (6:02 – 7:25)
Flight time RWY to RWY: 1 hour 8 minutes (6:16 – 7:24)
Seat & Class: 18A, Economy Class (Y)
Personal information My 216th flight overall, 8th in 2012
My 1st flight on TA, 1st on TA 32S, 1st on TA 319
My 21st flight on 32S, 3rd on 319, 1st on N478TA
My 23rd airline
My 41st airport
A look at the plane from the jetway
Yup, the 319
A LA 319 bound for CUZ too, CC-CPJ
CC-CPJ pushing backk
Fleet page, as I said, I‘m not an expert in finding typos like PH so can’t help on this one either
Our nice wing
CC-CQL, another 319, coming to the neighbour gate – it was going to CUZ too! 5 flights every half an hour it seems... (both Peruvian and Star were going around 6am)
LAN has a nice livery! Definitely not euro white...
Ok legroom
It‘s getting brighter
Pushing back
N491TA, a fellow TA 319
Some locals – many exotic registrations I catched this day!
N984TA, a TACA E90
N520TA, another fellow TACA 319
Nice local lineup - 2 P9 (Peruvian) 733s, OB-1960-P and OB-1961-P, and 2 2I (Star) BAes/ARJs, OB-1943-P and OB-1885-P
OB-1961-P in a special Peru scheme (Adam/Checo77 flew in a 732 in the same livery earlier)
CC-CPO, another LA 319, taxiing past
OB-1877-P, a Star BAe 146 (or Avro?)
Commanding taxi
Taxiing past some locals (I2 + P9)
We waited for a Star Peru BAe/Avro and a LAN 319 to takeoff and then it was our turn
Climbing out into the beautiful clear skies above the polluted city air
This city is huge!
Beautiful light
Some football stadium in Lima, not sure of name (Adam, can you help me on this one?)
Haze over the city
Unfortunately for pictures the window was scratchy, but the views were beautiful!
Zoomed in pictures were clearer
Snowy peak
*Snowy peaks
Beautiful mountains!
The highlands – I just couldn’t stop shooting! At least as good as flying over the Alps, if not better. The Andes are really beautiful!
We got a breakfast, free of charge. Impressing for an one hour flight! The bread was tasty, not so the cookie though.
Starting our descent
Zoom in on the wingtip
And then another drink service. Impressive!
One peak, many clouds
Holding for CC-CPJ to land (the LAN 319 we saw in Lima)
It‘s likely that many of you know that the approach into Cuzco is one of the most exciting ones in the world. You descend just by the mountains into the Cuzco valley, take a 180° turn tight by the mountains onto short final, and you are often still turning when you land. As we started descending steeply, I was super thrilled and excited!
Stopped at the gate
Here‘s a really interesting bird: OB-1864-P, a DHC-6 Twin Otter owned by Andes Air
Ejecutivo Class looks nice – sorry for the blurriness, taken while disembarking
Reg check: 478 it says on the gear, so N478TA it is.
LAN traffic – they run this place
We got to the PeruRail desk in Cuzco, but their bus to Ollantaytambo, the train station in use for trips to Machu Picchu until April 15th, was full and their train onwards too. We checked the IncaRail desk and yes, they had seats but the tickets to be bought in Ollantaytambo. So we hopped in a taxi and went there! Although it was only 8am here, the early wakeup call and the 5 hour time difference home made me think it was past noon and I was pretty tired after sleeping only 4 hours + 2 hours on the flight.
I had spotted 17 planes, 14 in LIM and 3 in CUZ
Airport exterior – quite different from the almost plastic terminals in the western world
Cuzco landmark
A “classy” LAN office inside the “small” city (900.000 residents, Icelandic population x3!)
Bikes on the car, “normal”
Amigo, as we called our bus driver
Many much, much worse houses than these were here along the way to Ollantaytambo but these are still not good. Nice mountains behind.
Crossing Urubamba river which runs into the Amazon
I wouldn‘t wanna live here at all
Beautiful mountains everywhere!
There is always a donkey at the street in Iceland too... (not)
The modern IncaRail ticket office
A tiny litte river which runs into the Urubamba – runs behind the office
More beautiful mountains
A lovely little homeless dog
Checking in into Hotel Samanapaq, the hotel owner is a great guy! Recommend it rather than staying around Machu Picchu
*Ollantaytambo Te Queiro Limpio, not Ollantaytamba as I said earlier
The train station
Our one and only carriage which was our home the next 2 hours. They played Elton John songs on panflute without pausing the whole time! Quite annoying.
Urubamba
A big (and nice) surprise – leather seats! They were extremley comfortable, didn’t expect such seats aboard a little train company in the Andes! Like having a BBJ on a domestic flight deep in S-America...
Beautiful landscape
This could well be the Amazon if you didn‘t know better
Great view from Machu Picchu!
Machu Picchu! This place is really amazing! Along with it‘s history, it is a real delight architecturally.
Me in front of it
Me and my dad (taken by our guide)
Me and my dad together with an amazing view behind us
M.P.
The Urubamba river runs way down in the valley
I took around 150 pictures of this amazing place, but I‘m just gonna post a “few” here
We stood inside these doors with the peak behind and the outcome was really nice
No Andes without a lama
One of the most amazing views I‘ve ever had – look down into the valley, the forests, river and the mountains with a rainbow over it
Sun litting up the mountains
Look up at the pyramids
One of my favourite pictures from there, this view is really amazing!
After walking down from M.P. I ate the worst pizza I‘ve ever tasted in Aguas Caliantis, the town where the train station is located. They used jelly instead of pizza sauce! And as if that wasn’t enough, they mixed ketchup with the jelly!
The main plaza in A. Caliantis
The pizzeria I hate – I mean, how can you can get a pizza wrong?
Our train back to Ollantaytamba
The nice room at Hotel Samanapaq
After a deserved good nights sleep, I woke up, got breakfast and took a walk around town with my dad. Then we packed our bags and left again for Cuzco.
The church in Cuzco
The other church in Cuzco
Cuzco´s main plaza center (Plaza del Armes)
We ate at a local food restaurant with a view over the plaza. I had beef and it tasted very good.
We took a taxi to the airport, went through security and sat down in the airside area.
Star BAe/Avro
Our plane, N521TA, the scheduled 319, arriving
Another look at it – the A32S has some kind of a “baby face” (don’t know why, it just feels like it)
Flight information
Date: 2. April 2012
Airline: TACA Peru
Aircraft: Airbus 319-100
Registration: N521TA
Flight number: TA 101
From: Cuzco (Machu Picchu) International Airport, Peru (CUZ/)
To: Lima – Callao Jorge Chavez International Airport, Peru (LIM/)
Runway at origin: 10
Runway at destination: 15
Sched/Act departure: 14:45/14:29
Sched/Act arrival: 16:10/15:35
Blocked time: 1 hour 25 minutes
Flight time gate to gate: 1 hour 6 minutes (14:29 – 15:35)
Flight time RWY to RWY: 0 hours 59 minutes (14:32 – 15:31)
Seat & Class: 8A, Economy Class (Y)
Personal information My 217th flight overall, 9th in 2012
My 2nd flight on TA, 2nd on TA 32S, 2nd on TA 319
My 22nd flight on 32S, 4th on 319, 1st on N521TA
Look outside the window of my preselected seat, 8A
The IAE V-2500 engine
Hi again nice little Andes Twin Otter!
Pushback
LAN 319 CC-CPX
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (1 year 2 weeks 15 hours ago) and read 7447 times:
Some more mountains, I’ll never get enough of them!
As on the last flight, there was meal service. The pita bread filled with beef was nice, while the cinnamon roll wasn‘t to my liking. Still, nicely done TA! Again, we also got another drink service later on where I again had OJ. Nice TA!
Enough legroom!
Closeup on the wingtip
Descending over the sea
Coming over the coast with an island in the haze
Speedbrakes
The pilot must‘ve went down to fast on final approach, because suddenly the plane rotated way to quickly, and I got 1-2 Gs on me! Like being in a rollercoaster! Luckily the pilot could handle the situation, took a 360° turn to descend instead and went back on final.
Taxiing to our gate bypassing a LAN 319
Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to Lima
N982TA – the new TACA logo is nice!
The ass of another TA 319
CC-COZ
Bye N521TA! It was nice to meet you.
CC-COU
CC-CPK
Aeropuerto International Jorge Chavez
Hotel Costa de Sol Ramada Lima airport and the bar where we stayed on our long 8 hour layover
I spotted 14 regs that day, 3 in CUZ and 11 in LIM. Of these 14 I saw 13 in this report and 1 the following evening.
Afterthoughts
TACA had nice, well padded seats, great service on short flights and were all in all nice. Machu Picchu and Peru in whole were amazing, gotta get down there and have a longer stay someday! Highly recommend going there!
Quoting lychemsa (Reply 2): Did you feel OK when you arrived at Cuzco.
You got tired very quick if you ran, jumped or something like that but nothing more. If I had been longer in Cuzco itself I probably would've felt bad though.
aeroperu89 From Peru, joined Mar 2012, 21 posts, RR: 0 Reply 4, posted (1 year 2 weeks 14 hours ago) and read 7336 times:
Hello Sveinn
Again, great report! Really cool pics of the peruvian highlands and Machu Picchu too. I'm glad you enjoyed your visit to Cusco. Just a few things I wanted to add:
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Inka Cola advertising. I tried this drink later on, and it was disgusting!
I laughed so hard when I read this, because it's pretty much what foreigners think of Inka Cola. It's actually my favorite drink but everyone say it's an acquired taste.
It's funny because visitors are always surprised of how big Lima is
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Some football stadium in Lima, not sure of name
That is the "Estadio Nacional" (National Stadium) which has been recently renovated. (Local government is really trying to improve the city, but as you got to see... there's a lot of work!)
Knightsofmalta From Malta, joined Nov 2005, 1410 posts, RR: 17 Reply 7, posted (1 year 2 weeks 13 hours ago) and read 7056 times:
Hi Sveinn
Thanks for the interesting report. Machu Pichu really looks like a stunning place to visit. It all looks so green and lush. Quite amazing. You're lucky both you and your dad could take the time off to go on such an epic trip together!
There don't seem to be that many people up top. I would have thought the place would be crawling with tourists. Did you go off season or is it simply because Machu Pichu is not so easy to reach?
MSS658 From Belgium, joined Oct 2010, 2212 posts, RR: 14 Reply 8, posted (1 year 2 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 6769 times:
Hi,
Another nice part of the RTW series of trip reports!
TACA seemed to have pleased you on this flight. Seating looks ok, but a bit cramped on longer flights
Nice pics of the Andes, really breathtaking! Quite surprised by the train company as well.
Quoting Knightsofmalta (Reply 7): You're lucky both you and your dad could take the time off to go on such an epic trip together!
Absolutely! As he works as an indenpendent aircraft leaser/broker now, he can control his vacations more than before.
Quoting Knightsofmalta (Reply 7): There don't seem to be that many people up top. I would have thought the place would be crawling with tourists. Did you go off season or is it simply because Machu Pichu is not so easy to reach?
Combination of three factors:
1. The trip down there takes very long...either you have to take a flight + bus/train + another train + bus/walk up or you have to take a flight and walk for 5 days from Cuzco (or 21 days from Lima... )
2. It had rained all day, so everyone was going down. The skies cleared up about 5 minutes before we came up. Luck!
3. As the train trail from Cuzco to Aguas Caliantis was facing repairs until April 15th, you had to take a bus from Cuzco to Ollantaytambo and a train onwards from there. Many probably just waited until 15/4 or later and went then.
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (1 year 2 weeks 9 hours ago) and read 6745 times:
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): Another nice part of the RTW series of trip reports!
Hi Marc thanks!
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): TACA seemed to have pleased you on this flight. Seating looks ok, but a bit cramped on longer flights
You can't see it on these pictures, but you could stretch your leg out 5-7 extra inches because the seat pocket is on the upper not lower part of the seat. That meant you could really stretch out! Also, it had generous recline.
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): Nice pics of the Andes, really breathtaking!
The Andes were wonderful!
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 8): Quite surprised by the train company as well.
They were great! Didn't expect it at all. Glad the tickets didn't work out at PeruRail, those seats were much better.
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 20, posted (1 year 1 week 6 days 17 hours ago) and read 5946 times:
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 17): I honestly wouldn't know where to start with your more than beautiful report so I will do it from here:
Hi Widebodyroga, thanks!
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 17): Thumps up for the Körfuknattleikssamband Íslands t-shirt!
Hehe thank you! If you're over 6 feet and only 14 years old, you have to play...
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 17): Really? I've had it recently in a Peruvian restaurant in Chicago and I loved it.
Each to his own
Quoting OB1783P (Reply 18): Great TR, and the video was excellent.
Hi OB1783P, thanks!
Quoting OB1783P (Reply 18): When I went, there was live Inka music at the luggage carousel in Cuzco! The sky is so clean in Cuzco, you feel like you have new eyes.
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 22, posted (1 year 1 week 6 days 13 hours ago) and read 5771 times:
Quoting lychemsa (Reply 21): I thought they control how many people can go to Machu Pichu every day so you have to book in advance?
Yes, you have to. (Or that's how I understood it.) We did it some days before, printed it out and showed the printout at the bus station in Aguas Caliantis. There we paid for it and exchanged it for a paper ticket.
gabrielchew From United Kingdom, joined Aug 2005, 2512 posts, RR: 13 Reply 23, posted (1 year 1 week 6 days 10 hours ago) and read 5638 times:
Very nice Sveinn, and great that you made it to Machu Pichu - I'm going to have to go someday!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): OB-1961-P in a special Peru scheme (Adam/Checo77 flew in a 732 in the same livery earlier)
Love that livery!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): A big (and nice) surprise – leather seats! They were extremley comfortable, didn’t expect such seats aboard a little train company in the Andes! Like having a BBJ on a domestic flight deep in S-America...
Looks very comfy
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): The pizzeria I hate – I mean, how can you can get a pizza wrong?
A lesson I've learnt whilst travelling is to avoid non-local food (unless the place has a good reputation) as invariably "western" food is terrible. In Mexico I had a pizza that had enough cheese to cover at least four pizzas (no kidding). Horrible!
Quoting gabrielchew (Reply 23): A lesson I've learnt whilst travelling is to avoid non-local food (unless the place has a good reputation) as invariably "western" food is terrible. In Mexico I had a pizza that had enough cheese to cover at least four pizzas (no kidding). Horrible!
Haha I try to do that most of the time, but unfortunately there are only pizzerias and mexican restaurants in Aguas Caliantis and the train left at 9 pm. Maybe I should've chosen the mexican one...
25 Checo77: Hi Svenn again, very nice report and beautiful pictures of the Cusco region!!! No comment on the report, as its perfect!! I just have a note to this t
26 SRQKEF: Hi Adam, thank you really much! Again, thanks! Means alot to me Haha, it just has some strange taste to it...maybe I would like it if I lived down th
27 The777Man: Hi Sveinn! Thanks for a great report with amazing pictures of Macchu Picchu! It looks amazing and I can't wait to go there. Hopefully in February next
28 signol: Hi Sveinn, nie report of this little side trip to Machu Picchu. It really is beautiful. I visited in 2001 as part of a backpacking overland trip aroun
29 PlaneHunter: Hi Sveinn, great report with many stunning pictures, well done! After coming back from my latest Asia trip, your report was the first one I clicked at
30 Initious: Hi SRQKEF, Thanks for the wonderful report! Landing at CUZ looks amazing! I think I may have heard of the approach somewhere, but I can't remember. Th
31 SRQKEF: Hi Lars, thanks! It was! You should definitely go there, it's truly amazing. They're really good! Unfortunately TA doesn't have a ZED agreement with
32 akhmad: Dear Sveinn, What a great adventure to The Wonders of Peru! Truly marvelous journey! Pillows! Pillows everywhere! What a pity! How do you compare it t
33 OA260: Hi Sveinn Been really enjoying your reports. Keep up the good work and hope to see more of yours in 2013 . Regards Philip
34 SRQKEF: Hi Suryo, thanks for reading and for the kind words! Well, I think the drink itself would be ok if it wasn't for the high chlorine taste in it. Absol
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