To sum it all up -- from Peru to DC

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Sunrise on the last day in Peru was just as beautiful, and just as cold, as sunset the night before. At least this time we didn't have to hike across the whole island to see it. It was right outside our door. Breakfast was pretty tasty too. No runny eggs this time -- just a tasty crepe-like pancake and a hard-boiled egg (they do love their eggs for breakfast). A camp shower (i.e. not one unless you want to use the tiny sink with water that would be frozen if it weren't moving through a spigot) and we were on our way back to the boat. Our communing with nature was over, and our extremely long day of travel was about to begin. This time, however, the boat was at a different pier and was no 10-minute walk downhill to the water. It was all the way on the other side of the island, which means going up then coming down. It took about 45min to walk there, and by the time we got to the straight-down part, my quads were rebelling and were threatening not to keep going if I kept trying to go down steep stairs. I had to walk the last 5-min by locking my knees after every step. And I thought down was easier. The funny thing is that on our way down, as I was nearing collapse, there were these little old women and men carrying huge heavy-looking sacks on their backs or necks, and charging straight up those stairs. Man, those are some hardy people. In my defense, though, we were at like 12-13,000 ft.

Our boat ride back was just as nice (and slow) as the ride over. I took my book to the outside deck, bundled up in my new baby alpaca sweater, and tried to enjoy the last bit of nature on the famous lake. However, since it was like 9am, I didn't put on any sunblock. That turned out to be a mistake. I came back with this pretty impressive forehead tan. Nothing looks quite so ridiculous as a dark forehead with the rest of the face white. Partway through I did put on sunblock (which after a glance in the mirror many hours later I realized was tinted. oops), and that's when I must have been too sparing on my forehead. I'm lucky that part of it turned out to be windburn so it's not as bad as it looked at first. We made it back to Puno around 11:30, just in time for lunch. And we finally got to eat at the restaurant we tried for the night before -- La Casona. It was pretty good! I was just grateful we weren't having another buffet. I don't think I could have done it. If I never see another Peruvian buffet it'll be too soon. After a fabulous lunch with one last pisco sour, we were back in the bus (our own bus now too!) and on our way to the airport.

We made one last stop for even more ruins (we were both sick of ruins several days ago). This time it was Sillustani -- a burial ground for Incan and pre-Incan civilizations. They built towers and stuck mummies in there with a lot of gold and other stuff. All but one were sacked by the Spanish a long time ago (you really get the feeling that the Peruvians, especially of Quechuan or Ayamaran descent, really hate the Spanish). The one that wasn't, was sacked by the Peruvians. They opened it up and took everything out and stuck it in a museum in Lima, including the mummy. I guess it's better that way so no one else steals the stuff, but somehow it seems almost as bad as stealing everything for the monetary gain. It's still violating someone's sacred grave... Not to mention that most of the tombs we saw were for people who were sacrificed. According to our tour guide, and I have no idea how or why they would think this, the people were honored and happy to be sacrificed. Somehow I had a different image of a young child or virgin being carted off, screaming and crying, to some holy place to be murdered. And yes, they sacrificed children too. And thankfully, that was the last of the Incan ruins. Haha, I didn't realize how tired of seeing ruin after ruin after ruin I'd get. It does get old after a while though. The one cool thing about this stop, though, was that I finally got to see a vicuña. Vicuñas are like alpacas, but much smaller and cuter, and apparently very rare. Their wool is also extremely soft and makes nice clothing, but because they are so protected and there are so few of them, a vicuña scarf costs like $500. If my guide was right, it was the stupidest thing I ever heard of -- they're endangered, but there are only a few select people who are allowed to have them. I'm thinking the government is trying to keep the price high by restricting the number of vicuñas around, if that's true...

Our trip to the airport was completed with a short drive through the city of Jualica to get to the closest airport to Puno (about an hour away at that point). And I thought Puno was bad! When you're in Lima or Ica or even Cusco, you forget that it's a 3rd world country. Then you go to Puno and Jualica and....ick. What a dirty crummy city. In its defense, our tour guide at one point explained how the city is not centered on tourism (the only thing in this whole country that isn't then) but is full of factories and is where they make all kinds of stuff from tires to juice. Everything. You'd think for all the concrete factories, that their roads would be better than they were. Our driver was aweful -- instead of just speeding up to go over the holes in the road (you probably wouldn't even feel them at the right speed) he would slow down to an agonizing 1mph so the whole bus would tip when we went over each one. It probably made the trip twice as long (and a million times as agonizing) as it would have been. But finally we arrived. With an hour to spare. This airport was very similar to the one in Iquitos -- there was one big room for check in, then another big room for the terminal (with 2 gates right next to each other, but both for the same plane). If you can believe it, there were still people there trying to sell us stuff. And the kicker was the freakin crappy Andean music that we were AGAIN tortured with. And there was no where to go! We were already in the terminal when they were subjecting us to it. When they came around asking for tips I wanted to laugh in his face. I was nice though and politely declined. I certainly won't miss that.

The plane actually had a layover too! It's like flying from DC to NYC and laying over in Philadelphia. I was groaning as they announced our landing in Arequipa. But how nicely that would have worked out if we had just a little more time (and weren't sick of being in Peru). I was relieved to hear, though, that we didn't have to get off the plane -- just wait until everyone else got off and on. When we finally landed in Lima, I couldn't believe that our day of traveling was only half over. We picked up our bags from Humberto -- the guy from the travel agency who coordinated all our travel -- and checked in for our last flight home. On checking in, we learned that the flight was an hour delayed, so our layover which would have been 4 hrs, was now 5. Not a big deal, except for our connection in Miami. Normally you'd think 1 1/2 hrs is plenty of time for a layover, but when it's your first port of entry into the US and you have to go through customs, then recheck bags and make it to the other side of the Miami airport for your connection, suddenly 1 1/2 hrs is not quite enough. I was lucky to have a great agent checking me in in Lima -- she put "standby" tags on my bags so they would be last on and first off, helping speed up customs (which was actually a bigger deal than it sounds since there were several hundred people on the plane).

While in the airport at Lima, I think I spent more money and bought more stuff than I had in the last week. I bought a bottle of pisco, chocolates, snacks, food. It was great! Although with a little better planning I could probably have done that a little better than the last minute before the plane.

So we actually left a midnight, a little more than an hour delayed. We landed right on schedule, almost 6 hrs later (plus a time difference of 1hr for daylight savings). What was funny is that even though we left at midnight, they served "dinner" at like 1am. Who eats dinner at 1am?? I was passed out from the time we took off until just before landing. I actually got a pretty good night's sleep too! The lady who gave me the tickets hooked me up with an exit row window seat. Nice deal for a long flight! When we landed, I actually felt like I had a full night's sleep. I must say, though, I felt bad for the guy sitting next to me -- I hadn't had a chance to wash my jeans since Lima (that's a few sweaty days of hiking up mountains) and didn't get to shower that day either. Good thing I brought lots of perfume and baby wipes! haha

When we landed in Miami, it was a mad dash. Every little thing was sucking up time from our precious 1 1/2 hrs (which was down to 1hr 15min because of a late takeoff). We parked too far from the gate, and there's another 5min to adjust. I was in the back of the plane, and there's another 10min to get off. We had to take a train to the other terminal, and there's another 10min. We got to the line at customs and it was about an hour long! Here's where it gets good though: we had our official passports and were on active duty orders. While all the commoners stood in the painfully long lines, we zipped right through the diplomatic lane without any line whatsoever! So nice... The next mad dash was to the luggage claim. Thankfully that lady had put those tags on my bags (but not Edwin's!) because it was one of the first few out. I grabbed my stuff and took off to check it. Edwin got lucky and wasn't far behind me. I got a good portion of the way to the gate when I realized I never put the bottle of pisco I had bought back into my checked suitcase. I'd be forced to throw it out if I tried to take it through security. Sweating and out of breath, I made it back to the checked bags area just as they were about to put my bag out. I dropped the pisco in and took off running for the gate. Who knew how far away it was (we walked for about 20min to catch our connection in Miami on our way to Peru) and the clock was ticking. They had already started boarding the plane, now we were booking it to make it before the doors closed. It was a good distance away (at the exact end of the terminal -- doesn't it figure?) but just made it with a couple of minutes to spare. We settled in to our exit row seats (I got the hookup on seating on this trip!) and eagerly awaited our last leg home.

The rest of the trip was uneventful. We arrived on time at Reagan airport in DC, collected our bags without incident, and parted ways. Now I sit in my living room, recovering, as I write this blog, and reflecting on a long and circuitous journey. In the end, I enjoyed Peru. By the end of the 3 weeks, Edwin was getting pretty fed up with traveling (it was his first trip outside the country and he hadn't been home for the month preceding our trip either). He was also pretty fed up with Peru and Incan ruins. I think it tainted it a little for me. I, too, was happy to be going home, but I don't think I would have felt so uneasy about our last few days if I were alone and just trying to enjoy the rest of the trip. Edwin turned out to be a great travel husband though. Flexible, easy-going, and was willing to try almost anything (except kayaking for some reason...haha). Plus it was nice to have someone else there to laugh at the crappy Andean musicians who seemed to follow us everywhere (did I mention they were at the airport in Lima too?!?!). As I'm sitting here with HBO in the background, caught up on my mail, and enjoying being in America, I have come up with a few notes on my trip to Peru. Kind of sums up the 3 weeks.

In short, Peru is a country with a rich history of many different native peoples, and lots of nature, but those are the highlights. The entire country is so focused on tourism that it takes away (greatly) from the culture. In fact, tourism is such a part of their culture that people have made careers on begging and selling crappy stuff, and there are entire university degrees in tourism (which many of our guides majored in. Talk about limited options after graduation...) Machu Picchu was incredible, but Huayna Picchu was even more amazing. Most of the rest I could have done with or without. I would recommend the trip to Peru for those reasons (and communing with nature) but wouldn't be thrilled to visit most of the cities again. And WAY too many ruins!! (skip the Sacred Valley tour and spend more time in Lake Titicaca going to more secluded islands, or to Arequipa and the Colca canyon -- deeper than the Grand Canyon and with condors flying overhead!)

So here's my lists of deep thoughts for the day. And to everyone who read this blog, sent me emails and messages, and supported my trip, thank you very much! I never felt too homesick on the journey, I think because of everyone's kind messages and words. You all make it fun to travel! I hope I could return the favor.

Things I won't miss about Peru:

• bad pizza
  
• people constantly trying sell me stuff at all hours of the day everywhere we went
  
• begging children everywhere, always with this puppy dog look on their face, with a grimy parent nearby trying to capitalize on their child labor
  
• really bad service in restaurants
  
• aweful roads
  
• being sick
  
• worrying if I'm gonna catch anthrax from the llamas and alpacas we touched (and ate)
  

The little things I'm glad to have back:

• brushing my teeth with tap water
  
• flushing the toilet paper down the toilet
  
• being able to eat whatever I want without wondering if I'll catch some disabling illness from it.
  
• fast internet, especially in my house (and even from my couch or bed if I want to)
  
• sleeping in
  
• ice
  

Things I will miss about Peru:

• seeing the stars whenever I want to by just looking outside
  
• getting a good workout just by going about the daily routine (added bonus for doing it at altitude and getting a little natural blood doping out of it)
  
• no responsibilities except enjoy and have fun
  
• really good pisco sours
  
• having an entire fabulous dinner and an entire night of drinks at a nice place for 2 people under $40, repeatedly, and often cheaper
  
• working on my spanish all day every day without even trying (and for free, as opposed to my lessons here)
  
• carrying my bottles of water, hairspray, and whatever other liquids my heart desired onto the plane
  

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Photos

Sunrise
Sunrise over the island of Taquile

Tea
Muña tea and coca tea. Just add the stuff to hot water. Tastes a bit like dirt, though. Muña tastes like mint.

The family
The father of the family we stayed with on the island

The hike
This gate was at the top of the steep hill we walked down to the boat

O2
There were oxygen tanks everywhere!

Vicuña
Cute little thing.

Last drink
At the airport in Lima -- out with a bang!

Comments

[MEEM]

WELCOME HOME
WELL WE ARE VERY HAPPY TO HAVE YOU BACK IN THE GOOD OL USA!!!!!!!!! I VERY MUCH ENJOY READING YOUR BLOGS AND FEEL AS THOUGH I HAVE BEEN TO PERU MINUS ALL THE BUGS AND CRAP YOU HAD TO DO AND EAT. LOL I LOOK FOWARD TO "OUR" NEXT TRIP. LOL

[Madelyn]

Nice to have you back
Welcome home and although it's nice to have you back home safely I am going to miss your blogs. I can't tell you how much I enjoyed travelling with you, you need to start compiling these things and write a book. Some of your descriptions were hysterical. One thing I do know, I will never camp out in a jungle or eat cuy, llama, alpaca or drink Peruvian milk. Glad you didn't bring anything unwanted home with you. Hope to see you soon to see all the pics.

[Marie]

Welcome Home
Hi Nikki, This was a great trip we went on. I just finished all the blogs, I'm laughing my butt off. This was a great way to travel...You must publish this as a book using these blogs. I'm glad your home safe and sound. Maybe it was a blessing you had that cold for a lot of the trip, no smells YUK.....I can't stand getting off the plane in Florida because of the smell of rotting stuff or something. I can't imagine the smells in a hotter, humid, buggy climate! Well, it's been a great trip. Were are we going next? Love Ya, Marie