Lima to Arequipa – Day 12

Arriving back in Lima yesterday had been a rude awakening after 7 days in the great outdoors: cloudy, smelly, noisy.  Therefore, we were happy   to be escaping to Arequipa for the end of our journey.  Arequipa is the second biggest city in Peru, but still under 1 million.  The lady next to me on the plane keptcrowding into my personal space to look out the window which was super annoying, but luckily the flight was only an hour (and there was a good snack box because we were on LAN.  We only got peanuts on Aero Condor).

We love Arequipa – landing here it was clear skies and sunny, warm, yet surrounded by 4 big volcanic peaks.  Just a much better vibe than Lima.  Kelli had arranged car service with the hotel, so our drivers were waiting and took us straight to Casa de Melgar, our super cute hotel in the middle of town.  It{s an old stone building that used to be a bishops house, decorated fabulously with a nice garden.  This is going to be a great way to end our journey.

We ate a late lunch nearby in the sun on a rooftop deck, then wandered around the main square fopr the rest of the afternoon.  Erin, Jason, Anjie & I then enjoyed the sunset from an even higher rooftop deck overlooking the city.  It was a really nice welcome to the city and it{s so nice to have a couple days without being on a schedule.

We enjoyed a late dinner at a nearby restaurant where a local band was playing: pan flutes, guitars, a drum, a ukulele – they were great. Our food took forever to come out though, so we tired pretty quickly and came home to crash as soon as we were done eating. I{m sure only getting 4 hours sleep tehnight before didn{t help either…

Jungle to Lima – Day 11

This keyboard sucks, so please forgive any weird punctuation.  This was a big travel day and then end of our official tour.  We slept {til 7:00, and after breakfast boarded the big motorized canoe for a two hour journey upstream to Puerto Maldonado.  It was a beautiful morning so the ride was nice, even though it was long and the life preservers smelled of mold.

From there we picked our big luggage back up and hit the airport for Aero Condor flights 3 & 4, flying to Lima via Cusco.  Maritza was with us on the first leg, but then we had to say goodbye from the plane as she left us in Cusco. She was such a fantastic guide – I don{t know what we{ll do on our own in Arequipa, fending for ourselves.  We haven{t had to think about anything for days, just followed Maritza aimlessly.

Maricel met us in Lima and got us back to the Hotel Buena Vista where it was muscial rooms – Jason & Anjie were in our previous room, Kelli & Kevin were in Jason & Anjie{s old room, Paschal & Sarah were in K & K{s old room and Erin & I got bumped up to teh master suite – our room was huge.

We all needed a snack so we headed to a cafe on Avenue Larco where I got hot chocolate and churros – mmmm, good especially when dipping the churros in the chocolate.  Then we wandered and did some shopping,  the most interesting spot being Vivanda, apparently the Whole Foods of Lima. It was super fancy.  At the check out, Erin{s PLA status (Peruvian Looking American) was reconfirmed as the cashier asked her for her grocery card.

Back at the hotel we dressed for dinner and enjoyed happy hour on the little landing outside our rooms before our big night out.  All the hot spots are at LarcoMar, a hillside mall down the road from us.  It was weird to be going out in a mall but when in Lima….

We had dinner at a sushi restaurant then hit a nearby club called bartini.  It was a fun night – lots of drinks, lots of dancing, good times

Amazon Jungle – Day 10

Back to the early morning wake up calls, as Victor came knocking at 5:00am.  Breakfast at 5:30 and into the canoes at 6:00am.  We went downstream about 10 minutes and then spent about six hours in the jungle.  We hiked in a kilometer, then got into a smaller canoe that we paddled up a small river for about an hour, hiked a bit more, canoed to the lost lagoon and floated about, then hiked 5km back to the shore where we began.  Throughout the day we saw lots of different birds, turtles, ants, caymens, tarantulas and a small green snake.  oh, one of the birds was a vulture.  The whole hike was filled with apprehension – for example we saw jaguar tracks.  cool!  but then you realize that there{s a jaguar nearby.  We looked everywhere for anacondas, but did we really want one to swim up alongside our boat?  I{m not so sure I did.

It was really hot and humid as you would expect, so we were all exhausted through the last couple kms we had to hike even though it was flat.  On the boat ride back to the lodge we saw more turtles out sunbathing on the shoreline which was neat.  Even though it was hot, we lucked out with the weather since we avoided rain.  We had actually worn rubber boots from the lodge for the hike because the trail was pretty muddy from earlier rains that week.  Of course arriving back at the lodge we had to wash off all the mud which was kind of annoying, but it was better than having mucked up my own hiking boots.

We had 30 minutes before lunch during which I rinsed off in the super cold shower.  At lunch the fried yucca was especially tasty, but I was still so hot I didn{t eat much.  For the afternoon we had a couple free hours during which most of us napped.  I had big intentions of catching up in my journal, but once I hit that hammock and turned on the Michael Buble I was totally out.  It was pretty decadent though, just laying there with my tunes cranked in the middle of the amazon. 

It was tough to leave the hammock and my swim attire to cover back-up for the afternoon jaunt through the botanical garden, but I really wanted to go.  Erin & Anjie stayed behind.  Our guide, Victor, is adorable.  His English is sometimes kind of halting, but he knows his stuff and loves his job.  For example, going through the garden, he knows the local name, English name and latin name for every plant.  Same was true for all the animals we saw in the jungle – pretty amazing.  The botanical garden is mostly random trees planted behind the main buildings of the lodge but its interesting to hear about all of their uses – my question though, is how do they figure out what to use for each ailment?  There were plants for kidneys, ulcers, prostates, diarrhea, scars, and even impotency and a love potion.And then there{s Ayahuasca, which is like peyote. You can pay big bucks to do an Ayahuasca ceremony at the lodge – a shaman comes and mixes it all up.  You have to meditate first and eat a special diet.  If it works for you though, you will see your past, present & future.  Maritza did it once and just vomited the whole time.

The tour lasted an hour and then we had a couple more hours to kill before dinner.  Kevin & I had each brought a bottle of wine with us though, so we met up in the bar for happy hour, before the last supper with our whole group.  

ooo, side note:  the previous night in the bar Kelli & I crushed Anjie & Kevin at foosball.  They may try to tell you it was because they had a couple broken players on their side but I{m pretty sure it was our sheer skill.

Anyway, no games tonight – just drinks and chatting.  Dinner was plated and served, no buffet: spinach mashed potatoes, veggies, chicken.  I still wasn{t starving, but the potatoes were good.  And I really like the rolls here, sweet like hawaiian bread.  and soup of course.  After dinner we went back into the bar with high hopes of partying until the lights went out at 10:00pm, but we were all wiped out by 9:00pm – pathetic.

Amazon Jungle – Day 9

Maritza met us at 8:30am for our flight into the jungle, the jumping off point being a town called Puerto Maldonado.  The flight was only 30 minutes from Cusco, so I thought it might be a small plane, but it was in fact a 737 (and I have now survived my second Aero Condor flight, despite the advice of my security team to stick with LAN.  But I didn’t book these flights so it was out of my control). 

Arriving in the jungle was hot, sticky and wet as you might imagine.  We gathered up our luggage and boarded a big, open air bus to the local office of our lodge, the Eco Amazonia Lodge (http://www.ecoamazonia.com.pe/english/eco_amazonia_lodge.htm).  We stored most of our luggage there, and then Victor took us on a short tour of the local market where I bought some yummy sugar-coated brazil nuts.  (Brazil is only 4 hours away by bus from here).  It was a huge market and amazing to see all the stuff for sale like tons of flip flops and two whole rows of electronics.  Nearby was also a giant mattress store.

After our tour and purchasing opportunities, we re-boarded our bus and drove down to the docks to board our big wooden canoe with a motor off the back-end.  The ride to the lodge took about 90 minutes since we were heading downstream.  We were not on the Amazon river, but one that feeds into it – equally impressive though.  I mean seriously, we were in a big wooden canoe skimming along through the Amazon Jungle!  Holy cow!

The Eco Amazonia Lodge is very similar to the place Sara & I stayed on Magnetic Island: 2 man netted cabins/huts that are open air but save you from bugs, a pool, a bar, a dining hall.  It’s pretty cool and the staff is very gracious and helpful.  Upon arrival we were immediately served lunch and then shortly thereafter headed downstream a bit more to Monkey Island.  We saw five different types of monkeys as we hiked around and even a few babies.  Many of these are monkeys the resort owners have rescued so they are fairly domesticated, but still fun to see.

We canoed back to the lodge and had some time to kill before dinner, so we decided to hit the pool.  It was freezing (like being at Mar’s pool), but felt good since we were so hot & sticky.  The first plunge was hard, but then it was refreshing, especially before dinner.

After dinner we took a nighttime canoe ride to look for caymens (baby crocodiles).  We spotted a few along the shoreline, but the most amazing thing was actually the stars.  It’s pitch black out here in the middle of the Amazon, so you can see every star imaginable, including the southern cross and milky way.  It was so cool to be sitting in a big wooden boat surrounded by nothing but the stars and the sounds of the jungle from the nearby shorelines.  We drifted downstream in silence for about ten minutes just taking it all in.  Then, as we neared teh lodge, our captain revved the motor back up and took us into shore to crash for the night (5:00am wake-up call teh next day!).

Cusco – Day 8

After coming off the trail we had a free day in Cusco and even got to sleep in.  Maritza came over for an 8:30am on the jungle, and then we were on our own.  We had two goals for the day:  visit the ruins of Sexy Woman (not it’s actual spelling but that’s how it sounds) and shopping at the artisans market.  We decided to tackle the ruins first – they sit high atop Cusco and you can hike there in about 45 minutes.  We however were lazy, and split into two cabs to ride up.  These ruins were good, but after having just finished the Inca Trail it’s hard to compare.  We wandered for awhile, then popped over to the next hill to see the giant Blanco Christo statue.  From the tops of the hills we could see rain moving our direction, so instead of walking back down as planned, we grabbed taxis again and headed to lunch.

Refreshed with food, we strolled down the main drag, Avenue El Sol to the Artisans Handicraft market recommended by Maritza and spent a good two hours shopping (yay presents! and stuff for me!).  Loaded down with loot, we did a quick drive-by at a museum before it closed, then collapsed back home for awhile.For dinner we finally made it to a tapas bar we had tried to go to twice previously, al Cicciolina.  It was good – I had french onion soup, and some local trout with fried sweet potato gnocchi.  Then we met up with some other trail buddies at a nearby Irish pub before stumbling home exhausted.

Machu Picchu – Day 7, part 2

Back in Lima, time to catch up.  Being back in the city is quite the rude awakening after a week in the great outdoors – noisy, smoggy, cloudy, smelly.  The hot water and flushing toilets are good though.

Anyway, our story continues:  Descending into Machu Picchu was amazing.  You are standing on a mountain top, at a giant city built of big rocks.  It’s totally nutty.  Lucky for us as the morning progressed the clouds slowly burned off and the sun emerged.  It was actually cool to get both the cloudy and sunny versions, even though we missed the view from the sun gate.  The rain sucked, but it also added to the whole experience.  Being at Machu Picchu is totally surreal – there is no way to comprehend how they built this city and how it still survives today.  Maritza gave us a guided tour of the hot spots, and then we had time to wander on our own as well.  The pictures won’t do it all justice, but they will serve as better descriptor than anything I write here so you just have to wait for those when I return next week

Eventually we made our way to the nearby town of Agua Calientes, via a scary switchback bus ride.  We grabbed a quick lunch, and then the train back to Ollantaytambo.  There we hopped off onto another a bus to get to Cusco.  Arriving back in Cusco we all enjoyed super hot showers to wash away 4 days of hiking filth.  This however is where I discovered my twelve bug bites – my legs are not pretty.

We enjoyed dinner out with our hiking buddies Carrie & Nathan at InCanto.  After 4 days of Peruvian food, it was a nice switch to Italian (even though the trail food was awesome.)  Then it was home to bed since it had been a LONNNGGG day.

 

Machu Picchu – Day 7, part 1

In the middle of the night it started raining.  The tent was hot that night, but the sound of rain was ominous as we had a 4:00am wake-up call to hike to Machu Picchu.  When the porters woke us, it was dark and rainy despite my prayers to Pachamama to make it stop.  We rushed to get dressed and packed up, and the rain stopped briefly as we finished breakfast (pancakes with caramel!) and began our trek to the final checkpoint, just 5 minutes away.  I´ve never hiked in the dark, but luckily Sallie & Fede had loaned Kelli & I their headlamps.  At the checkpoint we were the second group in line and had to wait about 30 minutes for thestaff to arrive, as other groups lined up behind us.  At 5:30am, tickets were checked and we were on our way to Machu Picchu, about 90 minutes away, past the Sun Gate.

As usual, I was much slower than the rest of my group, especially in the cold, dark rain.  I had also decided to trek in my glasses since bringing contacts seemed like it would be a hassle.  Given the lovely weather we had had for three days, it was fine.  But on this super humid morning my glasses kept fogging up which only added to my slowness.  A huge downpour also came our way so it was finally time to put on the sexy rain ponchos we had been packing around just in case.

Eventually I made it up to the Sun Gate with the rest of my group, but the clouds kept us from seeing anything but a layer of fluffy white.  We had another 45 minutes to go, mostly downhill on now slippery steep steps – good times.  The rain and clouds persisted for the final leg of our trek, so as we arrived at Machu Picchu it was still shrouded in clouds.

Off to the jungle – more when we return!

Inca Trail – Days 4-6

We have survived and arrived back in Cusco this evening after spending theday at Machu Piccu.  A couple of blog posts will never be able to truly capture what happened tha last four days, but I´ll start with a general one about the trail and then a separate one for Machu Piccu.  So for now, my alphabetized summary of life on the Inca Trail:

Altitude:  WHAM!  Killed me.  I didn´t get sick, but Day 2 of hiking was one of the toughest days of my life.  So much for doing a triathlon a month ago.  We hiked for about 8 hours that day, over two mountain passes and it was slow going for me.  Flats were fine, but if there was any kind of incline I was done for.  In the morning we gained about 3,500 feet of elevation in 4 hours, ending at Dead Woman´s Pass (13,500 feet).  Then we went down the other side, and hiked up and over a second pass, spending the night at 12,000 feet.  I trailed far behind the rest of my gang as I broke the day into 25 feet increments most of the time.  But I made it.  I was tired and lethargic, but never got sick which was good – just a slight headache but advil took care of that.  I´m pretty sure Dead Woman´s Pass will be the pinnacle of my hiking career.

Food:  I had no idea what to expect and was alittle worried but the food was amazing.  We had a cook and assistant cook who whipped up amazing meals for us three times a day, plus tea time.  Keep in mind that they carried all the food with them on the trail, along with a stove ad an oven.  Soups, trout, pasta, garlic bread, mashed spinach potatoes, chicken stirfry, yucca, poached pears, toast, pancakes, pork, potatoes in many forms, zucchini, beef, flan, mulled wine, omlettes, plantains, polenta and even a cake.  A real cake with frosting and fruit, popcorn, fried wontons.  Amazing.

Llamas:  Sara, llamas!

May 18: OK Math geeks – what are the odds that three out of eight people hiking in the same group on the Inca Trail would share the same birthday?

Pachamama:  Mother Earth.  If you are eating soup or drinking booze, Pachamama likes you to give her a little taste too, spilling a little on the ground.  As it started to rain last night, Anjie & I began to pray to Pachamama to make it stop but she was apparently mad at us for forgetting her soup yesterday.

Porters: Only 500 people are allowed on the Inca Trail each day.  About 180 of those are tourists an the rest are porters carrying all of our crap.  Our group of 7 plus our guide had 12 porters plus our 2 cooks.  Yeah, we felt like crazy indulgent Americans – it was nice to but weird to roll into camp and have all these people waiting on you.  These guys are incredible – They each carry about 25 kilos of stuff along the trail, many times running ahead of us to beat us to the next spot and have everything set up.  For their hard work they make about 200 soles per trip, about $70 USD.  They were so nice and so shy.  On our last night we asked to serve them tea instead of having them serve us and they were so appreciative.  We were apparently teh first group to offer such a thing but tehy totally deserve it.  I could barely make it up the hills carrying my camelback – I would have been screwed if I had been packing all my own stuff and had to set up a tent.

Ruins:  lots of them along the way top Machu Piccu.  You just have to wait for the photos.

Soups:  I know I already mentioned the amazing food, but the soups deserve their own recognition.  Each lunch and dinner began with a different soup and it was always the most welcome part of the meal – smooth and warm after lots of hiking.  Varieties included Asparagus, squash, semolina, quinoa, corn.  Mmmmm….

Squat Toilets:  the norm along the trail, except with a twist – they flushed.  This fact however did not make them any more sanitary as people still have bad aim.  It should really be one or the other – squat over a hole in the ground or a full flushing toilet.

Spanish: a language I studied for four semesters in college but have all but forgotten since moving home to Seattle.  I howvere, was only one in the group with any Spanish knowledge and was therefore in charge of the thank you speech to the porters.  It felt like high school all over again trying to recite some ill-written speech in front of the class…

Stinky: Me after four days without a shower.

Twelve:  the number of bug bites I found after my hot shower back in Cusco tonight.

Urubamba & Ollantaytambo – Day 3

This was a very fun day. First, we got to sleep in a bit, notleaving the hotel until 8:30am.  Once we did, we walked across town to a big taxi stop and split into three cabs to drive an hour away to Urubamba, the capital of the Sacred Valley.  Me, Erin, Jason, & Anjie were in one car and it was a great way to get out of the city and see more of Peru.  The ride was fast and a little scary at times as our driver zigged and zagged, passing cars along the way.  The most incredible thing is how cheap taxis are here:  this one hour ride for four people was only going to cost us 24 soles, about $9 USD, and any rides in town are only about $1.  I don´t know how the drivers make any money when gas is so expensive.  Along the way it was striking how similar some things were to what I had seen in Ghana.  I still can´t believe I´ve been fortunate enough to hit both spots 8 weeks apart so that everything is still fresh in my mind.  Anjie is going to Tanzania in 8 weeks so I´m excited for her to experience what I have and then compare notes when she´s back.  It´s pretty crazy to hit both these continents in such a short span of time.

Anyway, once we got to Urubamba and re-grouped, we split into pairs to take moto-taxis into a nearby village.  Another scary ride, as a moto taxi is essentially a motorbike with a big seat on the back.  In the village we got to meet three families and learn how they support themselves.  First we visited with a ceramic artist:  we saw how they break down the clay all the way through the glazing of a final product.  I bought a small salsa holder for 12 soles, about $5 USD.  Next we walked up the road where we met Monica.  Monica grew up in the jungle growing coffee, but met & married a boy from this village so she lives here now.  To support her family, she imports coffee form the jungle to sell in her new neighborhood.  I tried some – it seemed good.  Anjie& Kevin gave it a thumbs up.  

From there we wandered further up the road towards the beekeepers house, but we got side-tracked briefly to stop and try the chicha.  Chicha is a local home¡brewed corn beer, with about 5% alcohol.  It definitely has a corny taste – we tried both the regular and strawberry flavors (strawberry was way better).  Maritza would only let us have a few sips as she thought we would get diarrhea if we drank too much…

At the beekeepers place we got to eat honey straight from the honeycomb, fresh from the bee box (is that what its called?)  It was so GOOD – we all chipped in for a big tub to share on the trail.  Finally it was time for lunch and we went back to Monica´s house for a feast that only cost us 10 soles each, about $4 USD.  I was a little concerned about what we might get, but it was all good:  a bowl of soup with chicken, veggies and cracked wheat; and then rice witha skilleted mixture of chicken, onions & potatoes.  They also gave us some of teh purple corn juice we had drunk the day before at lunch (tastes like grape juice).  It was all cooked really well and amazingly enough no one got sick.

Our home visits done, it was now time to catch moto-taxis back to Urubamba, this time to the bus station.  From there we squeezed into a van along with some locals for a 30 minute ride to Ollantaytambo, our home for the night.  It was cool to travel like a local though my foot did fall asleep where it was squished into a pretty tight spot the whole ride.

After dropping our stuff off at the hotel, we immediately strode over to the nearby ruins.  The first 50 stairs really hit me – my heart was racing and it was difiicul to catch my breath.  Luckily everyone else seemed to be the same.  Once we leveled off I was fine.  Maritza is a great guide who gave us all sorts of info about the ruins, the town, how they are connected, etc. 

After our history lesson, we crashed at the hotel for awhile then enjoyed a group meal at a restaurant on the main square.  The Hearts Cafe donates a portion of their profits to local NGOs, so we ate for a cause.  I ordered the local trout but they were out, so chicken instead.  Then it was off to bed after a quick stop at the market for booze, cookies, candy and a rain poncho….

Cusco – Day 2

I slept pretty hard for my short 3 hours, so it actually wasn´t too bad when teh alarm went off at 3:10.  OK, it still sucked, but I still felt better than I thought I would.  I scrambled to get all my stuff packed back up and we boarded our bus to the airport just after 3:30am.  I slept a bit more on the plane and luckily woke up in time for the descent into Cusco.  Since Cusco sits at about 11,000 feet, it´s a short descent  and the views were spectatuclar as our 737 skimmed across the mountaintops.  Clouds formed a field of “snow” across the sky with the highest red peaks popping up, and then as we continued to drop the clouds cleared and green mountains sprung up along both sides of the plane.  Looking out you could see roads to high mountain villages and small towns perched on cliffs.   It was amazing.

It was chilly arriving that early in the morning, but we eventually found our new guide, Maritza, and Kevin´s bag finally made it to us, arriving on a separate flight from Lima.  I took a quick nap when we arrived at the hotel, and then we re-grouped at 9:30 for a big day of fun.  (Seriously, we haven´t been here a full day and it feels like several)

Maritza is a local girl and full of information, so it was great to have her showing us around the city and sharing all sorts of information.  From our hotel we walked into the main part of town, visiting the market where we got fresh squeezed juice.  There were also handicrafts, fruits, breads, meats, food counters – everything, and Maritza took us to all her local vendors so we could try and learn about many items.  I could done with going down the meat aisle where they are literally stripping out every last organ, but I guess thats part of the experience right?

We also walked through the Plaza de Armas, which is the main square in town, and over to the San Blas neighborhood, where we visited the Coca Tea shop.  Yes, that kind of coca, but it´s supposed to help you adjust to the altitude.  So far so good in that realm BTW.  The coca tea was very yummy, and there were also coca chocolates, of which I later bought a box to bring with me on the trek. 

After tea we went to a nearby restaurant for lunch, traditional Peruvian food.  I had chicken in a yellow chili sauce over rice – really good.  Anjie & Kevin got Alpaca on a skewer and seemed to enjoy it.  After lunch we returned to the Coca shop to try their ice-cream, but it was banana based so I passed.  It got mixed reviews so thats cool.  From there we returned back to the hotel for a bit, before Kelli, Kevin, Jason & I hit the streets once again. 

Kevin wanted to do some shopping with his travel insurance money due to the lost bag fiasco, so we wound our way through the streets stopping at every outdoor type store.  Eventually Jason & I then broke off to wander on our own and this was when the altitude finally first hit me.  The sun was shining bright all day day and the light in the late afternoon was beautiful on the city, so we wanted to get up higher to see the city from above.  We spotted a church up the hill and meandered our way up, finding a staircase to it.  It was probably only 60 stairs but I started to get winded after about 15 (Luckily so did Jason so I didn´t feel like a total wimp.)  My heart was racing and I felt pathetic.  I tackled the rest ten stairs at a time and began to wonder what was really in store for us once we hit the trail.  The views were great, a sea of red tile roofs laid out below us, and green mountains ahead.  We stood up there for a while, then wandered back down through random streets, just exploring.  We stumbled upon a tiny chocolate shop where I enjoyed a dulce de leche filled chocolate, and Jason spotted a ten-pound bar of Trader Joe´s chocolate on sale for $85 USD.  crazy!  As the sun began to set the temperature definitely began to drop as we walked back home.

At 6:00 we had briefing on the Inca Trail with Maritza – what to expect, what to pack, etc.  I´m totally excited and totally nervous.

After the briefing our six-pack headed back to the Plaza de Armas in search of dinner, ending up at a Mediterranean style place called Baco.  We needed a break from Peruvian food, expecially since we will have 5 straight days of it starting tomorrow.  It´s all good, just need some variety.

And now we are back home, packing up for the trail and organizing ourselves for tomorrow when we get to head into the valley and interact with local families which should be great.  We´ll get to see guinea pig farmers, crafters, beekeepers, etc.  We also don´t leave tomorrow until 8:45am, so I am looking forward to a good night´s sleep.  Because of that, this entry is much shorter than it could have been as today was full and rich.  Cucso is great and we learned so much from Maritza.  After the hike we have a full free day here again and I can´t wait to return.  You also probably won´t hear from me again until we return, so wish us luck on the hike and look for another post in a few days.