Peru and Brazil – Machu Picchu and NYE in Rio
Detailed Itinerary/Sights
DAY 2: CUSCO
We arrived in Cusco around 9:30 AM after an overnight flight and a 2 hour layover in Lima. The Cusco airport was fairly small and easy to navigate, which was good given our night of relatively little sleep. After picking up our bags, we grabbed a taxi in front of the airport. It was a 15 minute $10 ride to our hotel, which was close to the center of town. We checked in, freshened up and then headed out to explore Cusco.
Note: Make sure to drink lots of water while in Cusco to help minimize the effects of high altitude.
Exploring Old Town
We kicked off the afternoon with a delicious lunch at Cicciolina, an adorable restaurant in old town by Plaza de Armas. We tried alpaca carpaccio and had delicious drinks with Pisco, the national liquor. Following a satisfying lunch, we set out to explore the town. Very quickly, we discovered that Cusco is a hilly city, to say the least. From the restaurant, we headed uphill to Iglesia de San Cristobal, a church that overlooks the city and surrounding mountains. There were a few llamas hanging out in the square, so naturally we took a lot of pictures posing with them. However, it was cut short when a local lady wanted to charge us.
View of Cusco from Iglesia de San Cristobal
We then turned our attention to the spectacular views. After soaking up the panorama for a while, we walked 10 minutes to Plaza Regocijo to go to the Choco Museum. The museum had exhibits that explained the history of chocolate and the chocolate making process. It also had free samples, which was a huge plus!
At 4:30 PM we went back at the hotel to meet with someone from the tour company that we booked our Machu Picchu day trip with (CuscoPeru.com). The representative explained the process for getting to Machu Picchu and gave us all of our tickets.
Cusco Planetarium
At 5:40 we returned to Plaza Regocijo to meet our guide for a tour of the Cusco Planetarium. They drove us to the planetarium, which was a few minutes out of town. It was family-run business and had a homemade planetarium. When we arrived, they first gave us an overview of astronomy and the Incans before bringing us into the planetarium for a show. It was a cloudy night, but after the show we were able to look through their telescope and see a few stars. It was amazing to see how different the night sky was in the southern hemisphere.
Following the planetarium tour, we went to Plaza Major for our 8:45 dinner reservation at Inka Grill. We had some time to kill beforehand so we went shopping, which resulted in me walking away with a beautiful alpaca poncho. Following dinner we headed back to the hotel for an early night, since we had to be up at 4 AM the next morning for a day trip to Machu Picchu.
Alpaca Steak at Inka Grill
DAY 3: MACHU PICCHU
Adventure would be a good word to describe our day trip to Machu Picchu. We booked the excursion 8 months in advance through CuscoPeru.com. They arranged all of our transportation and a tour guide for Machu Picchu. When we booked the day trip, they asked if we wanted to include Huayna Picchu for a little extra. At the time we agreed but did not really know what we signed up for. More about that later.
Note: In order to go to Machu Picchu you are required to have a permit. If you book your trip through a tour company, they will most likely acquire the permit for you. However, it is recommended to book tickets in advance as a limited number of people can visit the site each day.
Tour of Machu Picchu
The journey from Cusco to Machu Picchu was a bit of a hike. In order to get to the site we had to take a 1.5 hour car ride to Ollantaytambo, a 1.5 hour train ride from there to Aguas Calientes and then a 30 minute bus ride from there to Machu Picchu. It was a doable day trip but took the entire day (from around 4 AM until 8/9 PM).
At 4 AM our driver came and picked us up from the hotel. He was supposed to drive us to all the way to Ollantaytambo. However, 10 minutes into the ride, he stopped and told us that we were actually going to drive with someone else. He made us get out of the official looking van and get in a different not-official looking car.
Given that our new driver didn’t speak any English, we were a little concerned, especially when he started driving on dirt roads. However, after a stressful 1.5 hour drive we made it safely to Ollantaytambo. We even had a few minutes to spare before the 6:40 train. There were a few trains companies, so we almost got on the wrong one. It was then a 1.5 hour ride to Aguas Calientes. Once we arrived we took the bus up to Machu Picchu.
At the entrance to the site we met our guide, Juan Carlos, along with the two other people on our tour. He gave us a 2 hour tour of the site and explained the history of the Incans. Machu Picchu is somewhere I have dreamed about going since I was 12. Despite the crazy and stressful journey to get there, it was definitely worth it! The size and surroundings of Machu Picchu were awe inspiring to say the least.
Machu Picchu
Note: Normally December is the middle of rainy season in Peru. However, we were extremely lucky and had beautiful weather and sun all day (although not so great later that day when I had a bad sunburn).
Hiking Huayna Picchu
After our tour of Machu Picchu, our guide dropped us off at the bottom of Huayna Picchu (which is the mountain is in the background of most Machu Picchu pictures). Only 400 people are allowed to hike it each day. It was a 3-4 hour roundtrip hike, essentially straight up the mountain (yes there were A LOT of stairs). It was a hard hike but the views made it 100% worth it. After huffing and puffing our way to the top, we were rewarded with spectacular views of Machu Picchu and the surrounding mountains. There were several photo spots and we were able walk around the top of the mountain.
View of Machu Picchu from Huayna Picchu
Following the hike, we stopped briefly at the Machu Picchu Guardhouse to get the iconic picture of the Machu Picchu. By the time we were ready to leave it was early afternoon and there was already a long line for the bus back to Aguas Calientes. After a 30-40 minute wait, we finally made it on a bus. We had some time before our 4:12 PM train from there back to Ollantaytambo, so we walked around the markets in town.
Note: There is also take a hiking trail from Machu Picchu back down to Aguas Calientes.
We made it back to Cusco around 9 PM. We had dinner at the hotel and then went to bed for a few hours before our flight early the next morning.
DAY 4: NYE IN RIO
Flight Cusco to Rio (via Lima and São Paulo)
We had a long day of travel, starting with waking up at 3 AM to head to the airport. We had two layovers; one in Lima and one in São Paulo before finally making it to Rio around 8:30 PM.
Since we booked our tickets through Expedia, we had some legs of the trip through TAM Airlines and some through LAN Airlines. Even though the two companies merged a few years ago, they were still on different operating systems. As a result during each layover we had to leave security, go back to the ticket lines and get our tickets printed. Both airlines also had a weight limit for carryons that was very low, so we had to check our bags despite bringing only carryons.
In São Paulo, we picked up champagne at Duty Free to bring with us to the beach for NYE since we knew we’d have a tight timeline once arriving in Rio. Once we arrived in Rio it was a 30 minute cab ride to our hotel.
New Year’s Eve on the Copacabana Beach
We checked into the hotel and then got ready to go out for New Year’s Eve. It is customary to wear white, so we made sure to include a white outfit on our packing list. Luckily our hotel was right across the street from the Copacabana Beach, where there is a huge New Year’s Eve celebration. Apparently much farther down the beach (away from Ipanema) there was a stage, but we didn’t walk down that far.
We headed to the beach around 10:30 PM and stayed in the portion close to our hotel. It was crowded but we were still able to find space to stand. There were street vendors selling alcohol but a lot of people also brought their own. At midnight there was a beautiful 15 minute fireworks show in the harbor, so we had a perfect view! We toasted the new year with our champagne and then walked around before getting some much needed sleep.
NYE at the Copacabana Beach in Rio
DAY 5: BEACH DAY IN RIO
Since a lot was closed on New Year’s Day, we decided to have a beach day. We woke up at 10 AM and ate breakfast at the hotel. We then walked along the Copacabana Beach.
Copacabana Beach
Ipanema Beach
We had heard that Ipanema Beach (which is right next to Copacabana) has cleaner water and is a nicer beach, so we then headed there. By the time we meandered our way over (a 20 minute walk from Copacabana) it was lunchtime. We didn’t see many food options near the beach, so we headed to Garota de Ipanema. It is a well known restaurant where the famous song was written. We had a wait about 30 minutes for a table, which wasn’t too bad.
Following lunch we set up shop at the beach and enjoyed an afternoon of sunshine, warm weather and caipirinhas and acai bowls on the beach. We stayed at the beach until 7 PM. We then returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner.
Ipanema Beach
Note: People tend to eat dinner later in Brazil.
Dinner and Drinks in Rio
We headed to Leblon, a neighborhood not too far away for dinner. We ate at Sawasdee Bistro, a Thai restaurant that had good reviews. Following dinner we decided to experience Brazilian nightlife. Our cab driver recommended a bar called Belmonte. It is a chain of bars that have several locations in Rio.
They had a lot of tables on the sidewalk, so people were drinking and hanging out almost in the street. They used a card system for drinks, so everyone got a paper card to tally up the drinks they got and then paid at the end.
DAY 6: RIO
Today we had a full day of exploring the “highlights” of Rio. A few months before our trip we booked the Corcovado Mountain, Christ Redeemer and Sugar Loaf Mountain Day Tour through Viator. The bus picked us up from our hotel at 8:30 AM. There were around 20 other people on our tour, mostly people who were in Rio for a few days before going on a cruise. The tour was a little too touristy, but it was a convenient way to see some of the main attractions in Rio.
Sugarloaf Mountain
The first stop on the tour was to the top of Sugarloaf Mountain. We took two cable cars to get to the top. Normally the top has beautiful views of Rio. However, it was cloudy the day we went (the mountain top was literally in the clouds), so we didn’t see anything except white.
Sugarloaf Mountain
Following Sugarloaf Mountain, we went to a traditional Brazilian restaurant for lunch. It was a buffet with a variety of Brazilian food. They also brought around meat on a stick.
Corcovado and Christ the Redeemer
Once lunch was over, we headed to Corcovado to take the train up to Christ the Redeemer. It was still cloudy/rainy so we didn’t have the best views. However, on the clear day the train ride up would be beautiful. When we got to the top, we could only just make out the outline of the Christ the Redeemer statue due to the weather. Sadly, we missed the beautiful panoramic views of Rio from the top. However, it just gave us another excuse to come back.
Christ the Redeemer
The tour ended in the late afternoon. We relaxed a little before heading to El Born, a tapas restaurant near our hotel for dinner at 7:30. It had delicious food and fun acai drinks. Following dinner we checked out an Irish pub near Copacabana and then went to a Belmonte location nearby.
DAY 7: RIO
Our original plan for today was to go hang gliding in Rio. However, the weather was still cloudy and rainy so unfortunately the company had to cancel. Instead we decided to explore more of Rio. We got a taxi through the hotel that offered to take us several places for $25 and then drive us back.
Escadaria Selarón
The taxi driver started by taking us to Escadaria Selarón, which are colorful tiled steps bordering the Santa Theresa and Lapa neighborhoods. We spent 15-20 minutes walking up the steps and admiring the tiles from around the world.
Escadaria Selarón
Carioca Aqueduct (Lapa Arches)
We then headed back to the taxi and asked him to stop at the famous Carioca Aqueduct, commonly known as the Lapa Arches, before returning to the hotel. We grabbed lunch near the hotel and then walked around the area near where we were staying. We got delicious acai at Bibi and then relaxed before heading to an early dinner.
Aprazível
Since one friend had an evening flight out of Rio, we made an early dinner reservation at Aprazível. It was an 30 minute cab ride from our hotel. The restaurant was very cute and had a rustic yet modern feel. It had beautiful views of Rio and amazing food!
Our one friend left for the airport straight from dinner and the rest of us headed back to Lapa for a final Caipirinha.
Views from Aprazível
DAY 8: FLIGHT RIO TO PUNTA ARENAS
Today we had a full day of travel to get from Rio down to Punta Arenas at the tip of Chile. We arrived there at 7 PM after 3 flights with a layover in Santiago and a stopover in Puerto Montt.
