Perfect Peru


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South America
September 13th 2012
Published: September 14th 2012
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So I last left you in New York where I was tidying up a few bits and pieces before heading off to Miami for a couple of days.

On Saturdays in August in New York, Park Avenue is closed off to traffic so the people can take back the streets and walk, cycle, rollerblade, whatever they choose to do, down Park Avenue and a few other city streets which are closed off between 9am-1pm. A lovely initiative unless the hotel you are staying in is on Park Avenue. This wonderful initiative caught me out all three Saturdays I was in New York as they were the days I was heading in or out of the city, limiting my ability to get a cab without walking a few blocks with my increasingly heavy pack and sundry bags. I found a cab on Madison, with a kindly-looking elderly Chinese man at the wheel who I thought might drive at a more leisurely pace than the maniac who drove me in from the airport. Alas, I hopped in and his foot hit the floor. His aggression was made worse by the fact he couldn't get across Park Ave so we had to go several blocks further north than was ideal. When we turned onto 1st Ave we screeched around the corner like we were in a car chase narrowly missing a parked car on the side of the road. I really don't remember New York cabbies being so crazy. I closed my eyes for the rest of the journey and was expecting my newly dyed hair (just that morning) to be grey by the time I reached La Guardia!

Arriving in Miami and driving across the causeway to Miami Beach felt like I was in an episode of CSI or Miami Vice. It is very picturesque with the glistening water, swaying palm trees and fancy villas everywhere. I treated myself to a nice hotel as I had assumed (correctly) that things would be a lot tougher throughout South America in terms of no heating and scratchy blankets, so I was enjoying some luxury while I could.

I thought a city tour would be a good way to see as much as possible in the limited time I had but the one I chose was a bit of a disaster. Our guide was Austrian (!) and all we really did was drive around Coral Gables and Coconut Grove looking at big houses, including Sly Stallone and Madonna's villas, which wasn't really what I had expected. We stopped in Little Havana where the little old Cubans were sitting and playing dominos and talking politics - the most interesting part of the tour. In the afternoon we took a cruise around Biscayne Bay...when we got to the port there was a pirate ship awaiting us. We cruised around the islands in the Bay in our pirate ship and again the guide was just pointing out celebrity houses...what a waste of time. I couldn't wait to get back to South Beach to explore on my own.

South Beach is hard to describe. In places it is very beautiful and others it seems a bit forgotten and shabby. The Art Deco district is interesting and contributes to the feeling that you have stepped back in time, again with some beautifully restored buildings and others looking a bit sad and tired. Everything here seems to be done to excess. As I walked past the bars and restaurants with people spilling out onto the sidewalks, I saw some enormous drinks and plates of food. Some cocktails glasses were as big as footballs.

I walked the length of Lincoln Avenue, past all of its shops, cafes, bars and restaurants, and some beautiful old art deco buildings, together with the palm trees adding to the beachy scene. I then headed back to the sunset bar at my hotel to have a cocktail and watch the sunset over the Bay.

The next day I had an early morning as I had decided to go down to Key West for the day. It was a long drive through the Keys, over 43 bridges, including the seven mile bridge. Key West is not at all what I imagined. It is full of kitch tourist tat which is a shame as I could see how lovely it would have been before it became such a tourist destination. The things I enjoyed most were visiting Hemingway's Home and wandering the quaint little leafy streets away from the touristy centre and Duval Street.

Back in Miami, I enjoyed my last night in a comfy bed, a hot shower with good pressure where it didn't matter if I drank a bit of water by accident, sat on the balcony and ate my breakfast watching the sunrise over the beach, then set off for the airport - finally heading for South America and the joys and challenges that go with travelling through this wonderful vast continent.

My flight ticket rules meant I needed to take at least one internal flight within South America which due to my careful planning I didn't actually need to do so I thought I'd get it out of the way first by flying to Quito and then onto Lima the next day. This plan would have worked perfectly except that I arrived in Quito and my bag didn't. Normally I wouldn't have been concerned knowing they would deliver it to me when it arrived, supposedly on the next flight which was getting in at 11pm. The problem was there was no one in the office after 10.30pm and I was leaving on another flight early the next morning, before the office was due to open. I went to the hotel without my bag and waited for the call saying my bag was on its way...the call that never came. At 1am I was getting a bit panicky thinking I would be heading off to Lima at 6am without my bag and that it would be following me around South America, missing me by a day or two, for the next 10 weeks. I spent some time at reception with two hotel staff with very limited English and tried in my very limited Spanish to explain that I really needed my bag tonight as I was leaving very early in the morning. They tried several times to call the airport to no avail. Thankfully the shuttle driver came in around 1.30am, took a copy of my passport, and drove back to the airport to talk to someone in person. He delivered my bag to my door at 2am. PHEW.

The next day I flew into Lima with my bag in tow. I bought a Lonely Planet Peru in 2005 so was very excited to be finally landing in Peru (only 7 years later!). Unfortunately Lima is not the most exciting place in the world. I tried and tried to find a redeeming feature about Lima and all I could come up with was that it was the jumping off point for some absolutely incredible places in the rest of Peru. Lima is covered in a grey misty haze for six months of the year which made it feel sort of damp and depressing mostly. The city is built on desert which drops away as dusty cliffs to the ocean. In Lima I had one day on my own exploring then met my Intrepid group the next day - another bunch of terrific people. Thankfully there was only one more night in Lima and after a brief orientation tour of the city in the morning, we boarded a bus for Pisco.

Pisco is a very small town with not a lot happening in its little centre (apart from a lot of pavement construction!). We enjoyed a few Pisco Sours the evening we arrived then the next morning we set off to a Bodega to have a tour and do some Pisco tasting. I am a big fan of the Pisco Sour and was also a bit partial to the pisco mixed with red wine, called Perfecto Amor :-). Our next stop was Huacachina Oasis where we had lunch and some of the group went four wheel driving and sand boarding around the enormous sand dunes, while the rest of us wandered around the lagoon and relaxed by the pool.

After lunch we piled in the van and set off for Nazca. We drove through some beautiful desert scenery, stopping at one point beside a whole field of cactus plants and Alan showed us the white parasite, cochineal, on the cactus leaves. He squashed a bit in his hand to show us the dark red liquid inside. This natural dye is used for many things including dying textiles and also lipstick.

The landscape kept changing as we drove on toward Nazca. It was flat then hilly, then flat then hilly...green valleys and brown sandy hills. Beautiful scenery. We drove on until just outside of Nazca we reached a little metal tower, literally by the side of the Panamerican highway. We climbed up the tower where we could make out a few of the mysterious Nazca Lines, the huge geometric designs which include monkeys, fish, spiders, trees and the like. The sun was setting over the desert as we hopped back in the van and headed into Nazca town. Bigger than Pisco but still fairly small with limited activities. Most of us had a quiet evening after our busy day.

The next morning we headed back into the desert to the Cemetery of Chauchilla. There were 12 little huts, each an open grave with well preserved Nazca mummies inside, some still with skin on the knees and lots with hair and teeth. All very interesting and all set against an incredibly breathtaking backdrop of mountains and desert.

After some lunch we boarded our bus for the 10 hour ride to Arequipa. The scenery was lovely for the first hour or so. We were driving through the desert with hills on one side and ocean on the other, however, as we headed inland the roads became hairpin bends which we had to endure for several hours. A late arrival into Arequipa with a few queasy stomachs so straight to bed!

Arequipa is a beautiful city, the second largest after Lima. The morning dawned bright and sunny, and warmer than where we had been previously. We stayed right on the main square which is gorgeous with its cathedral spires and snow-covered El Misti as a backdrop. We wandered around town, through the local markets and also took in a museum that houses Mummy Juanita, the frozen body of a 12-14 year old girl who was sacrificed as an offering to the Inca gods over 500 years ago, together with all of the trinkets and clothes she was buried with. She was found by an archaeologist after an earthquake disturbed her resting place and moved her further down the mountain side. Fascinating stuff.

The next day we set off for a two-day excursion up to Chivay and the Colca Canyon. This excursion, besides seeing some more incredible scenery and condors, was to help us get acclimatised to the high altitude we would later be facing on the Inca Trail. A very well planned itinerary saw us stopping several times on our way to Chivay (which sits at 3600m), first to see vicunas, llamas and alpacas in the national park, then higher up we stopped for our first dose of coca tea which apparently helps with altitude sickness. We reached our highest pass of the day, Pata Pampa Pass at 4900m where we pottered around enjoying the scenery for half an hour to see how everyone was coping with the altitude. After these stops we headed down into Chivay for lunch and to put our feet up for an hour or so. Later in the afternoon we went for our first little practice walk, again to see how we were coping with the altitude and helping us to acclimatise. We walked up to the La Calera Hot Springs, where we soaked for a while before heading back to town for dinner and a local dance show.

Chivay was freezing cold. We all bundled up in warm gear the next morning and headed off along a dirt track to the Colca Canyon to see the magnificent condors in flight. The Colca Valley is stunning with all of its colourful terraces and the river flowing through the middle. The Canyon too is incredible, made more so by the sight of many majestic condors soaring up and down through the canyon with their 3m wing span. A beautiful sight. We hiked along the edge of the canyon for an hour as another little practice walk then hopped back in the van and headed back to Arequipa for the night.

Cusco-bound. The trek from Arequipa to Cusco was long. Our first bus was five hours to Juliaca, then we switched to private transport and set off for another six hour ride into Cusco. The trip was all going along smoothly, the scenery was changing slowly. This landscape was quite different to what we had seen previously - the desert had given way to more grassy and hilly terrain, a sort of yellowy green. There were dogs everywhere, including some sitting in the middle of the road which made for a few hairy occasions where we swerved suddenly or had to screech on the brakes to avoid hitting them.

The countryside continued to change as we got higher and into the wider Cusco region. There were many more farms. We saw many locals, all in their local dress wandering on the sides of the road, sometimes with a child in a sling, or with a donkey carrying a heavy load, or just an alpaca walking beside them. The women all wear their thick skirts, jumpers and fedora hats with their long plaits tied at the back with black pompoms. A beautiful sight.

The adobe farmhouses and their walls are often brightly painted with the names of their preferred political candidates, still there, but a little more faded, from the Peruvian elections last year.

The sun setting over the green hills and craggy snow-capped mountains, together with the perfect blue blue sky made for a stunning picture. It was a very relaxing, calming, scenic journey for several hours until all of a sudden our van stopped being able to go uphill. We were literally going about 5km an hour (or less if that is possible). We struggled on for an hour or so before stopping in a town for dinner and having another van dispatched from Cusco to rescue us. It was ironic that the van that picked us up was a G adventures van, one of Intrepid's main competitors. Its nice to know they look after each other in a crisis :-)

Cusco is beautiful. Each place we visit gets better than the last. We walked around town all morning with Alan, our leader and native Cusqueno, taking us up and down all the little Inca laneways, up the hill into San Blas where we browsed the artisan markets. We visited the Coca museum where we heard about all the positive and negative uses of the coca leaf. We strolled back down through Plaza de Armas and over the other side of the square to the local market. Alan split us up into groups of three, gave us a slip of paper with an item on it that we had to buy and sent us off on a mission. Sam, Benson and I had to find ojotas. Thankfully the three of us have a little Spanish so we found out by asking locals basic questions that it was a shoe of some sort and that we had to go out of the market and down an alley to find them. We found our item, a rubber sandal, bought a pair and headed back inside the market where Alan told us the items we had all bought would be given to a family in a local community we were to visit in the Sacred Valley the next day.

Following our market visit we continued our walk around the town. After a quick coca leaf chewing lesson from Alan we headed off to lunch. With fuel in our bellies we were ready to explore the local artisan market as I wanted to buy some warm things for the trek - woollen hat and woollen socks mostly, but I ended up with a bit more than that ;-) ...my bag is getting heavier by the day. Later that afternoon we had our briefing about the Inca Trail then headed off, duffel bags in hand, to pack only 6kg which the porters would carry for us.

The next morning we weighed our duffel bags. Flung them on top of a van and set off for Ollantaytambo via the Sacred Valley and a local community visit. We stopped off at a little community where we had a weaving, wool spinning and dying demonstration from some of the local women. Following this visit we got back in the van, drove to the lagoon where a couple of the women performed a traditional ceremony providing offerings to Mother Earth, which we were invited to join, offering our coca leaves to Pachamama.

After the ceremony we drove back to the weaving cooperative and headed out the back where the family served us lunch, including a dish we had all been wanting to try - Cuy, or Guinea Pig. Fortunately there was just one so we only had one bite each which was enough. I had been told it tasted like chicken but it wasn't like chicken at all. It was bony and what little meat there was was chewy and had quite a strong flavour. I'm not sure I would try it again...

Following lunch we said goodbye to the family and travelled our final leg into Ollantaytambo, the jumping off point for the Inca Trail.

For all of us the Inca Trail has been a dream for some time so when we got up the next morning it was quite surreal that we would actually be starting the trek in a few hours. There was a lot of nervous anticipation in the air. Our guide, Guido, arrived, bundled us in the van and we set off to kilometre 82 for the start of our trek. We passed through a checkpoint. Got our passports stamped with an Inca Trail stamp, crossed a small suspension bridge and set off on our four day adventure.

Guido was a wonderful guide, and even better for me, he turned out to be a great language coach as well. I spent some time over the next four days having Spanish lessons, to a point where I was able to give the thank you speech to the cooks and porters on behalf of our group in Spanish :-)

The morning of Day 1 was an easy, flat walk alongside the river. We climbed a little way before our first break and climbed a bit more just before lunch but it was all relatively easy. After lunch the climb got a bit steeper so by 5pm when we entered camp to the applause of the porters we were all utterly exhausted. It was freezing too so we donned every bit of clothing we had. "Tea" and "Dinner" were served in the dining tent and we were all back in our tents ready to sleep by 8pm.

Day 2 dawned. This is the toughest day for Intrepid groups hiking the Inca Trail as it involves two passes, including the highest pass on the Inca Trail, Dead Woman's Pass at 4215m above sea level. This morning we were to hike for three hours pretty much going up steps the whole way. Uneven, rocky, ridiculously deep steps. I am a huge convert to walking poles. We hiked for 90 minutes then stopped for a break for 15 minutes, then set off for the final 90 minute charge up to Dead Woman's Pass. I was cruising along in the middle of the pack at my own speed but gradually found myself at the front of our group, at this point I set myself a challenge to be first up to the pass. I plugged away slowly, every breath getting harder the higher we got in the thin mountain air and made it up in one hour...first past the post. Before the trek I wasn't even sure if I would make it so was very pleased with my achievement.

What goes up, must come down. After reaching the highest pass we had 90 minutes of deep steps going straight down. This is much harder on the body and takes a lot more concentration than going up. As I had already felt I had achieved something that morning I sat at the back of the pack and cruised down slowly with Guido whilst having another productive Spanish lesson and taking in the amazing scenery around us.

We stopped for lunch, then had another challenging pass to reach in the afternoon. Again by 5pm when we reached camp (and this time were greeted by several llamas and swarms of tiny little mosquitos), we were ready to eat and go straight to bed (which we did).

Day 3 for Intrepid groups is pretty cruisy (its all relative!). We hiked for four hours, stopping at several Inca sites for a rest and some more Inca history from Guido. We reached camp around 11am. Rested for a bit then had lunch and went off to explore Winaywayna (Forever Young), one of the most impressive Inca sites, in the afternoon. After dinner we thanked and said goodbye to all of our wonderful porters. They carry 25kg everyday and run along the trail in order to get our lunch and dinner campsites set up and ready for our arrival. The ages of our porters ranged from about 22 to close to 60. Truly amazing people. They are usually local farmers and our group of 19 porters was made up from two communities. The food during the trek was sensational, not to mention plentiful!

Day 4. Got up at 3.30am in order to help the porters pack up and catch their 5.30am train back to town. At 4.30am we set off down to the checkpoint and waited for the rangers to open the gate at 5.30am. We trekked for about an hour along a fairly easy path, past some landslides from a couple of years ago (which look pretty terrifying). Finally we came to a set of stairs that were the steepest yet, almost vertical. Most of us had to climb up using our hands. At the top of these stairs was the Sun Gate. Through the Sun Gate is the first glimpse trekkers get of Machu Picchu. Wow! We were so lucky with weather. It was cloudy when we set off but the clouds had lifted and we had a clear view of the site and surrounding mountains. Absolutely breathtaking and what a sense of achievement making it all this way, all 42kms of mountainous terrain.

We headed down the stone path to the Inca city. We spent 15 minutes having a photo session at "the classic photo spot", then headed outside the grounds to use some proper facilities for the first time in four days, and get some food as breakfast was very early. Once we felt semi-human again we headed back inside for a tour of Machu Picchu. We had left our hiking poles with Alan and our jelly legs were not coping well with all the steps inside the city. While resting weary legs we heard more about Inca history, the Spanish, lazy stones (stones that were abandoned where they were when the Incas found out the Spanish were coming), the Condor Temple and more. The drops off the sides are sheer and the valleys so deep it is unbelieveable how they built this city. I can't find the adjectives to describe it so all I can say is, if you haven't already been, put it on your list.

After our city visit we headed back down into Aguas Calientes. Lunched, then caught the train, a very scenic journey, for a couple of hours alongside the river, deep in the valley, back into Ollantaytambo. That night we drove back to Cusco. A very long day but oh so worth it. The next day we spent in Cusco relaxing tired muscles and seeing a bit more of the town.

Next stop Puno and Lake Titicaca. It was another long travelling day but at least this time we had some big, plush leather seats on the bus. We arrived in Puno mid-afternoon and had a wander around the town, which is pretty small. Jenn and I wandered through some local markets where we saw some interesting sights, including llama fetuses, which are apparently used as offerings. As we were all still tired from the trek and our long travel day we had an early dinner and an early night.

The next morning we grabbed our day packs and jumped into our bicycle taxis and raced down to the port in a little convoy. We boarded our boat (the slowest boat in the world) for the three hour trip over to Isla Taquile. This island is famous for its men knitters. We hiked up a stone path and along side the cliff face for a while to reach the main square. We visited the cooperative market where the weaving and knitting was displayed for sale. After a bit of free time exploring we set off to the other side of the island to the restaurant for lunch. The community leader chooses the restaurant that each group goes to for lunch so that every restaurant gets a fair share of the profits. We were very lucky with our restaurant as it had magnificent views over the lake. Lunch was locally grown quinoa soup followed by trout from the lake which was delicious.

After lunch we headed back down 500 steep steps to the port, boarded the boat and headed back to the mainland and the community of Llachon for our homestay. We were greeted at the port by the local community leader and we headed up the hill to his house, all the while lugging the groceries we had bought for the families back on the mainland...climbing hills with bags full of 1kg bags of rice, pasta, sugar and 3 litres of water is not easy on post-Inca Trail legs (but worthwhile of course!).

We were split up into twos or threes and assigned a "Mama" at whose house we would stay. Jenn and I were assigned our Mama, Florencia, a lovely old grandmother. We followed her over mud paths and rocks up to her home where she immediately sat down and started knitting. I tried to ask her a few questions in Spanish but her Spanish was limited and my Aymara is non-existent. She eventually got up and motioned for us to follow her into the field where she demonstrated breaking up big clods of earth, handed us some hoe-like implements and set us to work in the field for 45 minutes. We weren't sure if we were helping or hindering. Thankfully our 45 minutes was over pretty quickly as we had to head off to the "Meeting Place". The community leader had set a meeting time for all of our group and our families to gather at a "meeting place", which ended up being a concrete basketball court in the middle of the community. A volleyball net was erected and several games of volleyball were played, followed by a tough game of soccer. It was almost impossible to breath due to the high altitude but it was so much fun. The young local girls blew us away with their sporting prowess, playing in their colourful skirts and long hats. This afternoon playing games with the local community was one of the highlights of the entire trip.

As the light started to fade we followed our Mama back to the house and were set to work in the kitchen peeling potatoes and carrots with blunt knives. The kitchen had no table or chairs to work or sit on. There were logs to sit on and to prepare the food, a small gas stove and the fire. The room was thick with smoke but we battled on in our task. Once we had peeled the potatoes and carrots, mama demonstrated that we were to dice them very small. This was quite a challenge as we had no table and no chopping boards so it took us a good hour. We are so spoiled at home! Mama's son came in at one point, probably wondering why dinner was taking so long. We finally finished our duties and mama sent us to our room, which seemed to be the only place with a table and chairs. She brought us our dinner in our room.

We headed straight to the kitchen in the morning to assist with breakfast but once again were shooed back to our room where Mama came and served us breakfast in our room. Afterwards she was waiting outside our door with a bag full of local outfits for us to put on. We looked utterly ridiculous. Following our dress-up session we headed back down to the port, jumped in the boat and headed off to the Uros Islands, the floating reed islands.

These islands are like nothing you have ever seen. Everything is made from reeds - their boats, the ground, door steps, houses, everything, they even eat the reeds (we had a taste test...very bland!). The ground is very spongey to walk on and you have to be careful not to put your foot through a rotton section of ground. During the dry season the ground gets new top layers quite regularly as the top layers dry out and the bottom layers rot. We sat through an interesting demonstration by the local women of how the islands are built and maintained. Following the demonstration we took a reed boat over to another island where we boarded our motor boat and headed back to Puno for our last night in Peru.

Peru, I will miss you...the incredible beauty of the country and the people will never cease to amaze me. I will be back!

The next day we crossed the border into Bolivia, but that is a story for another day...

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15th September 2012

So envious!
Great to read the highlights of your trip. Sounds amazing :) Not sure about the guinea pig eating though- my boys will be offended! x
15th September 2012

So envious!
Great to read the highlights of your trip. Sounds amazing :) Not sure about the guinea pig eating though- my boys will be offended! x

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