South American Adventure

This was really a trip of our lifetime. I booked the tickets 6 months ago and planned this trip for almost a year. After endless insta-stalking and going through million travel forums, we planned the epic South American adventure ~ Argentina, Chile and Bolivia. We had rough plan so we could book the the W trek at Torres Del Paine. W trek needs to be reserved months prior and we booked them as soon as the campsites were open. Though, we had a rough plan we had to fine tune it every now and then and our plans changed even after we reached the destination based on weather. After reading many reviews, we expected that the Patagonian weather was unpredictable but it was nothing like we experienced. We left Marseille to Buenos Aires with a backpack, suit case and baby carrier. Our first glimpse of Buenos Aires was skyscrapper buildings, felt more like landing in Miami. We stayed in Palermo neighborhood in an airbnb and were all excited to explore the vegetarian gastronomy of Buenos Aires. Our first stop was to La fachada, we had some of the yummiest empanadas and explored the graffiti streets and the chic cafes, we called it a night.

We decided to leave early to the boca neighborhood, home to boca juniors, colorful restaurants and tango shows are a must visit. We spent half a day exploring the streets of Boca. We were advised to visit this neighborood during the day as it has some notorious reviews. Miana really loved the colorful walls and music.

If you have a kid, you must visit the museo del nino in Buenos Aires. This is a paradise for children. Children get to be as bank tellers, doctors, nurse, constructor workers, farmers, chef. There is also a small crawl space for the tiny tots. I really wish every city in the world had this! The entrance fee wasn’t expensive either.

Cusco

Cusco is the most popular tourist destination of Peru. This high altitude Andean city is designated as the gateway to the beautiful Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu. From beautiful cobbled streets to colorful markets, this city has so much to offer. We stayed about five days to explore the sacred valley. If you haven’t booked any tours, then Plaza d’Armas is a good stop to explore the various tour agencies or you can easily catch a taxi and bargain to visit the sacred valley destinations. Do visit the san pedro market for some yummy food, fresh fruits and vegetables and souvenirs. We had some of the best mangoes from this market. There are numerous cafes and restaurants giving panoramic views of the city at plaza d’armas. Here are some must visit places in the sacred valley region.

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Salines de Maras ~ There are hundreds of pools dug in the mountainside filled with salt water. The water eventually evaporates and the salt crystallizes. These have been in operation for more than 500 years. Make your way to the salts later in the afternoon to get some good photos of the salts.

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Moray ~ This deep bowl shaped Incan ruins known as Moray have long been a mystery, but it may have been part of a large-scale incan agricultural experiment. It is very close to the Maras salt mines.

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Pisac Ruins ~ This Incan ruins is perfect day trip from Cusco. It is situated on a hilltop and is scattered all over the hill. Pisac town is famous for traditional markets and is a good place to buy some souvenirs. On our way back we decided to stop at Awanakancha for petting alpacas. This was Miana’s favorite.

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Saqsaywaman~ This is just at the footstep of Cusco, you can easily catch a taxi at plaza d’armas and spend easily half a day exploring it.

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Chinchero ~ Chinchero is a small andean town with colonial church with colorful market. If there is a place to taste some peruvian corn, then town is your go to place. We picked up some boiled corn coated with creamy salsa from a local vendor and started exploring this town.

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Ollantaytambo Ruins ~ This ruin is situated in a small town Ollantaytambo. Ollantaytambo ruins is an ancient Incan ruins. This was Miana’s first hike. She was more than excited to explore the ruins and climbed up 200 steps for some panoramic views.

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Humantay Lake ~ This is a day trip from Cusco and most tourist companies leave early in the morning around 3.30 am from Cusco to reach the trailhead. We absolutely wanted to do this hike and waking up at 3 am to be a part of a group tour was definitely a big no when traveling with a 2 year old. I found a taxi driver who was recommended in a travel forum and he was ready to pick us up at 8am and the price was very reasonable. This hike is supposedly the warm up hike for Salkantay multiday hike. The trailhead starts at the starting point of Salkantay hike and takes about 2 hours. The trail is all the way uphill and very slippery. This is a high altitude lake situated at 4200m and we indeed struggled with this hike with Miana in the backpack. After the strenuous hike, we reached the lake. This turquoise lake with snowcapped mountains in the background was worth every bit of the effort. Miana loves lakes and she was happy to enjoy a good snack and played around the lake.

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Rainbow Mountain ~ This is the instagram location and also a day trip from Cusco! The rainbow mountains are situated at 5200 meters and is about 6 hours hike to the summit. This was in our list ever since we started planning the trip but we had our own reservations. As it is a high altitude mountain and a lot of reviews online mentioned about altitude sickness, we hesitated to do this. After Humantay lake hike, we felt confident and decided to go ahead with this hike as we were well acclimatized. We decided to go with the same taxi driver who took us to Humantay lake to avoid the early morning start from Cusco. The taxi drive suggested we take a new route to Rainbow mountain that was recently opened. This route via Cusipata reduces the hike time significantly and easier compared to the classic one offered by the tour agency. The hike was approximately 2 hours and was gradual and not steep. The last 200 meters was steep but was doable. The hike was fairly easy and do take a lot of water, hiking in higher altitudes make you slow and tired easily. The views once you reach the summit of Vinicunca was stunning. The high altitude clearly did not affect Miana. Unfortunately, we didn’t get to spend a lot of time at the summit as it started to snow and we rushed our way back to car. Do plan this hike once you are fully acclimatized to the altitude.

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Green point and Indigo bar were some of our favorite restaurants for vegetarian and vegan friendly options. The pisco sour in Indigo bar was amazing! Museo del cafe is home to taste some yummy coffee. Chocomuseo is perfect place to take part in chocolate making workshop. Miana loved the workshop and decorated the chocolates with some sprinkles and gummy bears.

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Quellomayo

After spending two days in Machu Picchu, we were all set for the hike to hydroelectric. This took us about 3 hours, through tunnels, bridges and the beautiful jungle landscape of the valley, along the train tracks. Once we reached hydroelectrica, there were a few local restaurants and juice bars. We took a break at a juice shop and had some yummy orange juice. There were lot of taxi lined up at the end of the street. After bargaining a bit, we hopped on to a taxi to this jungle town Quellomayo.

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Quellomayo was home to coffee farms and we stayed with a Peruvian family along the river. This homestay with a 2 year old was amazing. They were the best hosts and their house had cocoa plants, pineapple plants and avocados. It was all about eating from farm to plate. We visited a local coffee farm where we got to grind some coffee and also made our own cocoa powder. It was an incredible experience to see how it was made from roasting the cocoa seeds to making hot chocolate . We took a shared taxi back to Cusco.

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P.S: There were so many bugs since it was open jungle and along the river. Get some good DEET spray to protect yourself and full sleeves. We were bit by some bug and we were itchy for the next four days!

Machu Picchu ~ Bucket list check

I guess Machu Picchu doesn’t need any introduction. We were beyond excited to explore this region of sacred valley. We stayed in a quaint little town Ollantaytambo, the night before to catch the train to Machu Picchu.

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Next morning, We took the Vista dome train ride to the Machu picchu town, Aguas Calientes. We pre-reserved our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu and Wayana Picchu. After we checked in to the hotel, we explored the streets of Aguas Calientes and purchased our round trip bus tickets to the Machu Picchu ruins. We had booked two slots ,one afternoon slot and one morning slot for the next day to visit this wonder. Our first glimpse of Machu Picchu was truly magical with Alpacas running and the majestic Wayana Picchu in the background was everything we dreamt off. This was our afternoon slot, we explored the Inca bridge and headed to the sun gate for a quick hike. The sun gate trail closes by 5pm, be sure to do this first if you are going in the afternoon. The trail is fairly easy with gradual incline. Miana was not interested to get that instagram picture at Machu Picchu instead she wanted to snack and look at the mountains instead. After the hike,by the time we returned to the ruins, it was almost the closing hours. It was beautiful to see the ruins empty without tourists and the alpacas running around. We spent bit more time until the guards chased us out. We still couldn’t get enough of this place even though we were coming the next day.

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Next day, we planned to hike the Wayana Picchu. We planned this hike after a lot of deliberation as it is one of the steepest ones and not supposedly a baby or kid friendly hikes. We had an early start and we were surprised to see we were way back in the queue for the bus at 5 a.m! Apparently, people start to queue up at 3.30 a.m to catch the sunrise. Well, we are travelling with a baby and the minute the controllers saw us with a baby hanging in a baby carrier, we were given priority and we bypassed the entire queue and boarded the bus right away!

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We reached the ruins just before the sunrise. The sunrise in Machu Picchu was truly magical, as the clouds moved and the sun rays hit the ruins, it literally made the ruins glitters in a yellow hue! Miana was extremely excited to view this and she was very much in mood for the pictures. After spending couple of hours exploring the ruins, we headed straight to Wayana Picchu hike entrance. This hike is limited to 100 a day and hence, you have to pre- reserve them way before. The hike started fairly flat with mild ups and downs, then the switch backs started and was uphill for the rest of the hike. The trail was slippery, rocky, exposed and steep. There is a section of the trail called the hike of death! As we were hiking up, we saw that we were slowly approaching this section from the queue of people waiting to tackle it. We reached the stairs of death and it was extremely steep and exposed. This hike is definitely not for ones with acrophobia. Though it was tiring, we took the hike slowly and when we reached the summit, the view was spectacular. This was worth of a hike to see the birds eye view of Machu Picchu.

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PS: Do reserve the tickets to Machu Picchu and the train prior to your arrival. Personally, you don’t need to go through with travel agent.

Arequipa ~ the most scenic city!

Our next stop was Arequipa and we had a quick stop at Nazca for 8 hours fro the Nazca lines! We took the flight took and trust me, those lines are small and the flight ride makes you feel obnoxious! Obviously those nazca lines mean nothing to Miana and hence, we had to take turns to babysit Miana for the 30 minute flight ride! My personal favorite were the astronaut , monkey and spider. After the most uncomfortable flight, we spent the afternoon at Cahuachi pyramids and Puquios and took the night bus to Arequipa.

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I personally loved Arequipa, the most scenic city of Peru. Scenic view of Volcano Misti and the lively Plaza d’ Armas filled with cafés and restaurants. We spent two days in Arequipa to acclimatize to the altitude before heading to Colca Canyons. We decided to take a stroll in the most colorful Santa Catalina Monastery with views of volcano Misti for the evening. Next morning we headed to the famous viewpoint Yanahuara Lookout which offers the postcard-perfect view of the city and iconic Misti Volcano rising behind it, framed by sillar arches. For the evening, we headed to Mundo Alpaca for some alpaca petting. This places has about five alpacas and is very quite and not so touristic and you can feed them too! Miana absolutely loved the alpacas, this is an experience she would never forget! Then, we headed to Plaza D’Armas to scout for some Colca Canyon tours.

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P.S: Do try El Buda Profano for their amazing vegan sushi!

Book tours after you arrival, it is much cheaper!

Fly high in the sky ~ Paracas

We had an early start and took our early morning Cruz del Sur bus from Lima. It feels after ages we are doing a trip with lots of early mornings and late nights after moving to France and with a baby!

The first view of Paracas was definitely not what I expected, it was deserted of course it was off season! After our quick check in we were all ready for our  Paracas National Reserve tour. We stopped at places to see fossils and Miana was quite keen on ripping them off the ground. She was absolutely thrilled to view the beach and couldn’t wait to take a dip in the ice cold waters. The views were mesmerizing ~ yellow colored coast and blue beach and red sand beach made us feel we were in the ocean road!

Just, after the tour, our tour guide picked us up for paragliding! The bird’s eye view of this National Reserve is mind blowing. We had an amazing tour group from youngsters to an old couple and they were all intrigued on how we manage to travel with a two year old. The terrible two never appears outdoor! She was a champ. I would have asked the guide a million times if I could buggy Miana with a baby carrier and it was a BIG NO, so we had to take turns. Miana was so excited to see mumma and dada fly like bird and she came running to us when we landed. I have promised her I’ll do another para gliding with her! After an adventure filled day, we decided to explore the deserted town by foot and most of the top cafes on tripadvisor were closed so we explored a few new ones. After a chilled evening with pisco sours we called it a day.

We had to check out our hotels and go on our last tour Isla ballestas before catching the bus to Ica! If you have read my previous blogs, you know that we are never a fan of cruises, boat rides but trust me this is the one I really enjoyed though Miana slept her way. She finally woke up to the sea lions and she was so excited to see them but it was almost towards the end of the tour. This is a must visit and do take the VIP version where you have a roof on the boat. It gets sunny, windy and cold! We rushed to our bus to Ica to head to Huacachina! Once we got off the bus, we took a taxi for 50 soles and headed to Tacama winery for some wine tasting and headed straight for the sunset at the sand dunes. This was Miana’s most fun part! She loved rolling over in the sand dunes and then it was one big mess to clean up!

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P.S: Do have some soles to tip and buy a few souvenirs. There was a ATM in the town.

Head out quicker for the sunset, it gets crowded a bit.

Touch Down ~ Lima

We arrived in Lima late night and took our taxi to Miraflores where all the tourists eventually end up staying. Our day in Lima was a good start, I was quite surprised that all three of us were not jet lagged. We decided to explore Cats of Kennedy Park, Park of Love, Barranco, Circuito Magico del Agua, Lima Basillica and Plaza d’Armas. We took a stroll along the Park of Love along the coast. The views were wonderful. We chose Cats of Kennedy Park next for Miana. She loves cats and this place was heaven! We took a quick stop for lunch in a vegan restaurant and then headed to Barranco. Barranco is definitely the Soho of Lima. Anywhere you turn, there is music, art and beautiful cafes and bars. This is one place where even Starbucks looked very pretty. We walked around the main square, cathedral, Bajada de los Baños and the bridge of spies. We decided to stop for a good peruvian coffee and watch the world go by. The art in Barranco caught up to Miana, She wanted to jump and explore those beautiful streets. We headed straight to Circuito Magicio just to find out it was closed. We decided to explore it on our return leg and headed to Plaza d’Armas and the Cathedral instead. This was such a lively square filled with music and life. We called it a night as we have an early start next day.

Barranco

Magic fountains park

Barranco

Hola Peru!

Well, for every wedding anniversary we decided to go for a vacation. This has been our tradition last 5 years. This year for a change, we moved our anniversary trip to August since we wanted to avoid the crowd at least a little and the tickets were cheaper. This year our destination was PERU. This was a three week vacation so i’ll be chopping it down to pieces. Since we were traveling with Miana, we had to plan out things in advance and make sure we were well acclimatized to altitude changes. We travelled to Peru via Canada and we had a good amount of transit time that gave us time to explore couple of Canadian cities!

Our planned itinerary: Gringo Route.

Canada: Toronto and Montreal.

Lima -> Paracas -> Ica -> Huacachina -> Nazca -> Arequipa -> Colca -> Puno -> Cusco -> Machu Picchu -> Coffee tours -> Cusco -> Lima.

Peru has been such a beautiful country with lots of culture and life. We were astounded by its varied landscape. Our every interaction with the locals were welcoming and warm and not once we felt otherwise. Peruvians are very proud of their culture and their passion is seen on all their arts, crafts and souvenirs. I didn’t expect Peru to be Vegan/Vegetarian friendly. There was amazing food options and we really loved the gastronomical Peru.

Logistics: We travelled using Cruz Del Sur and their buses were very comfortable and cheap! Do carry some soles for the collectivos, taxis and to buy some souvenirs. I will get to the altitude sickness and traveling with baby on high altitudes on another post.

Moroccan Spring

Karthik always has a special place in his heart when it comes to desert. Whereas, I personally don’t prefer hot and sunny places. Thanks to Chennai for giving me enough dose of sun for the rest of my life. Our first look of Fes from the flight was lush green fields. I expected more of an Arizonian landscape but it was such a beautiful sight and a pleasant weather welcomed us. We really enjoyed the hospitality of Morocco from the minute we landed. Every one whom we encountered were kind and friendly.

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Fes~ We wanted to do a quick check in and start our random stroll in the medina but the minute we saw our Riad, all we wanted to do was to sit and admire the lobby! We were welcomed with a hot cup of Moroccan tea and biscuits. After a well relaxed check in, we decided to take a quick walk around the medina with our guide provided by the Riad. From narrow colorful alleys to stinky tanneries (they gave us mint leaves to mask the smell), we felt like we were in a maze. This place had so much life and sound. You could never guess what hidden treasure is behind each of those never ending doors in medina. Fes has the oldest medina in Morocco and I personally loved Fes over Marrakech. You could easily take a walk to the Blue gate and take a short ride to the seven golden gates. I love that there were so many vegetarian and vegan options and they were all yummy. There is so much more than Tajine and cuscous to moroccan vegetarian. Also, I should say Moroccans have a sweet tooth! There were far too many varieties of sweets that we tasted.

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Chefchaouen~ We took the local CTM bus from Fes to Chefchaouen and decided to stay for two days in the famous blue pearl city. I should say, the whole bus was excited and waiting to have a first look of the blue city! We did a quick check in and took a nice walk around the city. The blue colored walls adorned with flowers were a sight to the eyes. I should say the famous alley had a long queue of people waiting to take that insta worthy pic. Honestly any street in this city has so much glam! Miana loved Chefchaouen as she could run around the blue city exploring in her own pace.

Day Two~ After a scrumptious early breakfast, we headed straight to the streets of blue city and much to our relief, we beat the crowd. We had the streets to ourself and we really didn’t want to leave this city! I recommend you to eat at Bab ssour if you are in search of good food. There is a roof top terrace with a awesome view of the city.

 

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Desert ~The real adventure begins! We had chosen the three days/two nights tour of the desert and It was one of the best moments of the trip. We had a quick stop in a small town called Ifrane. Ifrane is a ski destination and it definitely had it’s charm with beautiful cabins and pine trees. Then a long drive through the Atlas mountain awaited us. On the way, we spotted some berber monkeys and fed them peanuts! As hours passed, the greenery started to fade away and we started seeing the desert landscape. We also stopped at the oasis on our way to the desert. After Our first glimpse of the famous Ergchebbi was magical! The golden dunes looked sun kissed under the sun. Miana clearly didn’t enjoy the eight hour ride! Since we were staying in the desert camp, we took a camel ride to the camp and it was one bumpy ride. Miana was quite perplexed about the camel ride and ended up sleeping in the middle of the ride. On reaching our camp, we were welcomed with some hot moroccan tea and biscuits. Miana was really not a fan of climbing up the dunes. Carrying her and walking up the dunes was one hell of a workout! We enjoyed the sunset from the top of the dunes and then decided to slide down the dunes. This was something Miana loved, so we had to go up again and again so she could slide down! After a yummy dinner prepared in the tents, there was moroccan music band that was organized. Well, we had initially planned to do some stargazing but when you travel with baby sometimes you need to skip certain things and anyways we were all too exhausted! Next morning, we were woken up to view the sunrise. We took a morning walk in the dune and returned hungry to a hot breakfast spread that was just perfect. Unfortunately, our experience in the desert had to come to a end and we were back on our camels to get back to another day of long drive. Our first stop of the day was Todgha Gorges. We had a short walk in the gorges and this was Miana’s favorite. She was throwing small pebbles into the water and wanted to splash water around. Water activities are always a hit with a lil one. Then we stopped at a restaurant with the majestic views of the gorge for lunch. Next, we were off to Ait Benhaddou. Ait benhaddou is that game of throne location of Khaleesi. We spent almost half a day exploring this UNESCO site. We stayed at Ouarzazate for the night.

Next morning, we explored the Atlas studios which gained its prominence for hosting sets of movies like Mummy, Gladiator and many more. After the studio we headed for a visit to the argan farm. We were shown the process of extracting the oil from argan nuts. We had our lunch and headed towards Marrakesh with stops to admire the majestic Atlas mountains.

Marrakech ~ The medina is filled with people and sound. I could hear the sound of the snake charmers even before sighting them. This large square Jemaa el-Fnaa is filled with merchants, snake charmers and monkey owners. I am personally not a fan of snake charmers. They run up to you with non venomous snakes to be put around your neck for pictures. If you are scared of snakes like me, don’t look at the snake charmers or take any pictures of the snakes. They are sure to come closer to you with snake in their hands! Stay away and enjoy! The alleys of the medina were almost similar to that of Fes but more touristic and bigger. In the afternoon, we went to the beautiful bahaia palace. With wonderful interiors its worth the visit. The next day we headed to YSL gardens and it was so beautiful. Everyone wanted to take their insta worthy shots and all that Miana wanted to do was run in between them! She was in no mood for pictures at the garden. After a good day’s walk again in the Medina, we went to our hammam and spa. It was such a relaxing way to end our busy vacation. 

 

 

 

 

 

Iceland Encore but for Birthday!

Birthday are those special days which calls for celebration. Karthik and me always prefer gifting each other experience and memories rather than physical gifts. Child’s first birthday is always overwhelming for every parent. We scroll through millions of pages in pintrest for ideas. We as a family have always loved being outdoors and traveling. When it was time to decide Miana’s first birthday plans, We unanimously selected ICELAND! This makes it our third trip to Iceland. We have fallen in love with this country! Iceland as a couple required two months of planning and Iceland with a baby was surprisingly easy since we made one impromptu trip in winter with Miana! This time we decided to explore more of the highlands and the spots that we couldn’t in our first trip. We rented our car and decided straight to drive to Akureyri via F35. This is definitely one scenic drive with glaciers and vast emptiness. Our first stop was the Hveravellier thermal hot spring. We took turns to babysit Miana and we to relax in the thermal hot spring since we were unsure if it was safe for baby’s skin due to high sulphur content.

After an early dinner at Akureyri, we decided to go for the whale tour! We were so lucky to have spotted some humpback whales though it was freezing cold and windy outside. The whales were too quick for Miana’s eyes though she did enjoy the water spouting. She clearly understand that it was by the whales.Next day, we had an early start to Askja. We took a bus trip to Askja in the North central highlands of Iceland. This is one caldera where you can take a dip in it! A good 45 minutes hike in windy conditions were just perfect for lil miss to fall asleep! Obviously, I literally woke her up for some pictures and some snack! The bus ride was very bumpy which means Miana had a more peaceful sleep than ever and we had a nice travel with zero tantrums.

the Vastness

glacial river

Apollo astronauts training grounds for the moon!

Askja

After visiting Godafoss, Namafjall, Dettifoss, we relaxed at Myvtan nature baths and drove down south late that evening. We camped out on our way back to Selfoss. After a quick checkin at the hostel next morning, We headed straight to kirkjufellsfoss and strolled around Reykjavik.

Namafjall

Detifoss

Myvtan nature baths

We visited the famous golden circle and decided to drive to Jokulsarlon glacier lagoon and Vestrahorn. They always say weather in Iceland is unpredictable, and we were stuck in storm! Fortunately it didn’t last long and we were glad that it was a short one. After driving about six hours to Vestrahorn, we didnt get that legendary reflection picture instead it was covered under thick clouds and yet it felt so beautiful.

Our next day was relaxed with puffin watching, waterfalls and turf houses. We kept checking weather multiple times for the D-day and was trying to figure out back up plans in case of bad weather!

 

The D-day, We had picked the birthday cake the previous night and we decided to cut the cake early in the morning at Skogafoss. We were glad to have the waterfalls to ourselves early in the morning and some campers. This was truly a great birthday to remember. After a quick celebration, We decided to go to Þórsmörk. The bus ride to Þórsmörk was very adventures with some the toughest river crossing. We were surprised to see amateurs try crossing and being towed later! We had a day to spend in Þórsmörk and we did a small hike to a view point with incredible views of the famous  Eyjafjallajokull, Mýrdalsjökull and the vast highlands of Iceland.

We hope Miana has tons of memories to look back at! May all her dreams come true..