Peru Photos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RkEz3IWPynA

Cusco, Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu

The locals have taught us something very important about travel in Peru --- all travel happens through Lima.  And, all flights are scheduled to “encourage” a stay over in Lima.  So, after our great trip on the Amazon, we flew back to Lima for a night before catching a flight to Cusco early the next morning.  We returned to the Miraflores Park hotel – a hotel considered one of the best in the world – for what we had hoped would be a restful night.  NOT.  It turned out someone was having a party in the hotel and the hotel was literally shaking from the news.  Our first phone call at 10:30PM got a response that they would turn the volume down.  So, we turned out the lights and hoped for the best.  The “earthquake” continued; asleep; then awake again.  At 12:30 we grew tired of this nonsense as we needed to be up at 6:00AM to go to the airport.  Not only could we hear the music, we could feel it in the floor.  You would have thought the Rolling Stones were playing at the Miraflores Park Hotel.  Well, a second call to the front desk and the answer this time was that our only option was to move to a higher floor.  First they offered us the 6^th floor, and then the 7th; and finally the 10^th (the highest floor).  They moved us to a suite that is probably larger than our condo in Seattle.  However, size meant nothing and we could still hear the music and the people cheering.  We didn’t get to sleep until the party ended after 3AM.  Needless to say, we were quite upset (and tired) when we checked out the next morning.  A good review on TripAdvisor will not be forthcoming.

We landed in Cusco – the former Inca capital – now inhabited by about 500K people.  The air is very thin here at over 11,000 feet.  Arn has been fighting a bad cold since our second day in Peru and he wasn’t sure what was what – fever, sore throat, running nose – and now no sleep and a bit of a headache – presumably from the altitude.  He thought the altitude headache strange as he had been as high as 18,500 feet before in the Andes with minimal problems.

So, we headed off to the Sacred Valley.  All through this valley are Inca ruins – terraced hillsides (still farmed in some cases), structures and roads.  We traveled through Pisac and stopped at an amazing hacienda for lunch – hidden high off the main road in the middle of nowhere.  We arrived at our hotel for the night in the town of Urubamba along the river by the same name.  This section of the river is very mellow and it gave no indication of what the river would look like as we traveled downstream (by rail) to Machu Picchu.  But more on that later as we are getting ahead of ourselves.

Our “hotel” for the night turned out to be a house which included a local woman, Roxana, as a cook.  Roxana cooked us dinner and breakfast for the following two days and we both fell in love with her delicious soups and quinoa pancakes.  It was funny how some coffee managed to cure Arn’s altitude sickness – can you say, caffeine withdrawal??

The setting for our villa was spectacular and reminded us both of the setting at the base of the “Remarkable” mountains in Queenstown, New Zealand.  The Andes Mountains never fail to impress us and this was a mere hint of what was to come.  Our hostess was kind enough to loan us two wireless connections for the night.  So, after many days of being disconnected from the world, we sat outside, enjoying the lovely gardens and flowers around the villa, feasting our eyes on the very impressive Andes, and indulging in the internet for the first time in many days.  Once it was dark, Roxana built a fire in the fireplace and we moved inside.  Note – without Roxana’s fire skills, we would not have enjoyed a fire.  We are on an international registry list that forbids us from lighting natural fires indoors (a long story, but let’s just say what they taught us in school was put to good use that night).  So in case it is not clear, we really enjoyed ourselves at the Urubamba Villas.  If you are looking for a place that offers heaven on earth, look no further.

We were teased the next day with Inca ruins in the towns of Chinchero and Ollantantambo.  The engineering of these hillsides and structures was truly amazing.   The amount of labor required to build them must have been immense and the stone masonry was truly spectacular in spots – especially given the tools they had to work with.  At this point, we had been in Peru for over a week and save for an hour or two of rain in the jungle, our rainy season excursion to Peru had landed us the title of “lecheros” – milkmen – but in this case simply an idiomatic way of saying that we were lucky.  Perhaps the milkman “got lucky” down here in Peru at least as often as legend holds in the US.  We were hoping our luck would hold for two more days until we got to Machu Picchu.

On December 23, we boarded the train to Machu Picchu.  This wasn’t really the way we had wanted to go.  We wanted to hike the Inca trail but the weather is so iffy in December that we felt it wasn’t worth the effort to hike in the rain and camp in the rain only to have limited views.  “No vale la pena” as they’d say here.  The town of Aguas Calientes is the end of the line for the train to Machu Picchu.  From there you take a bus to the ruins.  Most people stay at one of the hotels in town and then go to the site the next day after arriving (that was our plan as well).  So, we settled into our hotel and had a wonderful lunch overlooking a much angrier Urubamba river.  Big water class V+.  No thank-you.

Our alarms were set for 4:30 AM so we could eat a quick breakfast at 5AM followed by a bus ride at 5:30 AM to the site.  We were disappointed when we woke up to rainy dreary weather.  Think low cloud, lots of fog, wind and rain.  Well, at least it wasn’t too cold, so with raingear in hand we headed up to the top, hoping for the best.

We had most of the day to explore the ruins.  The beginning of the day was spent on a guided tour of the ruins and even with the weather, it was spectacular.  Seeing this city up close has to be one of the best experiences of our lives.  It is hard to imagine the planning, engineering and execution necessary to build something this grand with the tools the Incas had on hand.  We were mesmerized by the craftsmanship.  It was interesting to see how the Incas dealt with things like moving heavy loads, planning for earthquakes, separating the water drainage from the sewer drainage, attachment “systems” for the roof to the stone structure, interior storage, cooking areas, working areas, farming areas and building stability.  While a sunny day might have been ideal, the rain gave us the opportunity to see how the drainage systems worked (which were, actually, quite fascinating).  The rain also confirmed that packing our rain gear was a good idea.  Just know this, if it rains long enough and hard enough, you still get wet.  We looked and felt like a couple of drown rats.

After our tour, we set off on our own towards the Sun Gate on the Inca Trail.  This road was impressive as well - though our views were pretty limited given all of the fog that blocked our view.  Arriving at the Sun Gate, we found a very friendly park ranger.  He was explaining a bit about the site and offered to take us to the real entrance to the city.  So, down we went to the true entrance to the city, listening to stories from this ranger about the role his grandparents played when work was going on to restore the site.  He was a friendly guy and our time with him was a nice experience for us.  We climbed back to the Sun Gate to find that the fog had lifted and we had the “money shot” of the city.  It meant a great deal to us to see this and was the icing on the cake for the day. 

Still, we were hoping for one more view of the city by climbing up Wayna Picchu, the tall peak on the right and behind the city on the classic photo shots.  So, we quickly headed back to the city and over to the trail up Wayna Picchu.  Think Stairmaster or a steeper version of Stawamus Chief for those that have climbed that trail near Squamish.  It was almost continuous steps to the top and the wet ground made us worried that the downhill would be tough.  But the Inca were incredible engineers and all of the steps canted up such that the descent was easier than we could have imagined.  It made for a good workout and another beautiful view.  After 6 hours of touring, hiking, and experiencing the changing weather at Machu Picchu, it was time to catch the bus back to Aguas Calientes.  We both enjoyed a long hot showered followed by a fantastic lunch.  Deborah thinks the best tomato sauce of her lifetime might have been enjoyed at the Inkaterra Lodge. 

 

Now, it was time to travel to Cusco.  After 1 ½ hours on the train and 2 hours in a car, we arrived at the main plaza in Cusco.  It was complete and total chaos.  The time was 8pm and Christmas Eve festivities were in full swing.  It took nearly an hour to cover just a short distance to reach our hotel.  If we had understood our true proximity, we would have gotten out and walked.  All the time in the car gave us the opportunity to watch the party.  It appeared that everyone in Cusco had joined the party.  It seemed like every street corner featured someone selling fireworks and the children were carrying sparklers with them as they went.  People were drinking wine and buying Christmas Cakes.  It defied anything we had ever seen before and everyone seemed to be truly having a grand time.  We checked into the Hotel Monasterio.  While it definitely looked like a monastery, it was actually once a seminary.  The building was beautiful.  The hotel also offered a feature like none other – for $100 per night, you could have oxygen pumped into your room.  The elevation in Cusco is 11,000ft and the oxygen is meant to help with altitude sickness.  Luckily for us, we were okay without it.  We enjoyed Christmas Eve dinner in the hotel with a young couple from India.  We first met each other while we boarded the train to Machu Picchu.  As we predicted, they were on their honeymoon.  It was a great evening and it was wild to hear about their wedding --- over 2000 guests and it lasted over 10 days!   

We spent Christmas Day (our last full day in Peru) in Cusco, exploring an Inca site close to town– Saqsaywaman (pronounced close to “sexy woman” and thus it gets a nickname) followed by a walking tour around all of the churches and other impressive buildings in this city.  For us, a defining feature of Cusco is the very narrow streets.  The sidewalks are really wide enough for one person.  The roads are wide enough for one car.  Everything appears to be a one-way street.  The roads are cobble-stoned and everywhere you look, you see building foundations built by the Incas with colonial additions. 

And, in Peruvian travel style, we returned for one last night in Lima.  Our Christmas Dinner was enjoyed at a fantastic Italian restaurant and we walked along the water back to our hotel.  We came to Peru with undefined expectations and curiosity.  We enjoyed our time in Peru and were enchanted by the place and the people.  While the jungle was fantastic, it the mountains that will call us back again.

In the jungle, the mighty jungle....

We arrived in Iquitos not knowing exactly what to expect of an Amazon Rainforest river trip. We knew it would be rather warm as we were arriving in the summer – though really in this part of the world, summer and winter are almost the same with respect to temperature. The real difference is dry season versus rainy season. We arrived at the transition from dry to wet and the water levels in the Amazon had risen over 10 feet in the past few weeks. Iquitos is at 3 degrees south latitude and about 350 feet of elevation. There are no roads to/from Iquitos from any other significant city – in fact, Iquitos is the largest city in the world unconnected by roads to the outside world. It is located in the largest state in Peru - Loreto – which comprises over a quarter of the total land area of the country. It is over 2000 miles to the mouth of the Amazon from Iquitos and the Amazon is already enormous here. Everything in Iquitos is flown in or comes in container ships from the ocean. Iquitos boomed in the late 1800s because of the rubber boom – from our perspective, Iquitos has certainly has seen better days – but more on that later.

Our trip on the Amazon was on the M/V Aqua – a new luxury ship that has only operated for 7 months. We played our usual game in the airport – trying to figure out who else might be on our trip. Filter one – eliminate the majority of non-gringos. Filter two – check out the clothing, looking for American labels and passport wallets. Okay, we had our suspects.

Imagine our surprise when we landed in Iquitos and found out that our trip only had 3 passengers – us and a young, single guy from Chicago. All on a boat staffed by 20 Peruvians that normally holds up to 24 passengers. Call it good timing as we were on the last boat before the holiday crush and enjoyed what was virtually a private yacht trip. We drove upriver for an hour to the tiny rainforest town of Nauta and met our boat there. Nauta is the end of the road in this part of the world. We learned from our guides that something like 80% of the people in Iquitos had never left there. You can only reach Lima by an expensive plane flight or a very long boat ride (7 days or so) followed by a 20 hour drive.

We boarded our boat in the dark so didn’t get a feeling for the texture of the place – the only texture we felt was the bugs, the humidity and the heat. You don’t need to know Spanish for the words “muy opresivo” to give meaning to the conditions. The boat was very nice so we settled in for a nice dinner and an early sleep as the wake-up call would be at 6AM the next morning.

The first morning on the skiffs set the stage for what the trip would be like. In the morning and the evening, we’d board the skiffs to explore a “black water” tributary of the Amazon. At first we didn’t know what “black water” meant but it became obvious the moment we left the Amazon and motored up one of these tributaries. The Amazon is a brown, muddy, opaque river. The black water tributaries are literally black – full of tannins and a P/H level of 4 (that’s relatively acidic). The air, trees and water are full of animals. If you were a birder (neither of us are birders) you would literally be in paradise. Our guides knew the name of every bird that we saw – though they could have been blowing smoke up our butts since we wouldn’t know a lesser gooney-bird from a six-toed scarlet breasted parrot. Still it was impressive to see both the numbers and varieties of beautifully colored creatures. In addition to all of the ornately colored fliers, we saw a wide variety of raptors and scavengers. It seemed like every time we’d come around the bend of the river, there would be another hawk or vulture.

But for us, the allure of the jungle was all about the mammals – specifically the monkeys - and we weren’t disappointed. During the course of our skiff rides, we saw literally hundreds of monkeys – squirrel, tamarind, capuchin, and other types. The squirrel monkeys were the most prolific of all of the monkeys and, in places, the trees were full of them. Watching them fly from branch was truly magical and we never grew tired of stopping to look at the monkeys. Sadly, they were mostly too far away to pose for photographs but our eyes (with the help of binoculars) really feasted in the scenery.

The monkeys weren’t the other mammals we encountered in large numbers. At the mouths of these black water rivers, there are typically pods of fresh water dolphin. There are two types of these that we saw – the black type that look a great deal like the dolphins we are used to seeing in the ocean. The other type was a pink dolphin that has adapted to the river environment with a different type of fin that makes travel through flooded forest land easier. Many times we would stop at these river mouths and see 5-10 dolphins playing around the boat. And, as they played, they got pinker and pinker in color. The tops of the trees were home to many three-toed sloths. These 10 pound mammals appear much bigger than they are because their fur is so long and they move so incredibly slowly. Once you spot one, you can have lunch before pulling out your binoculars and they’ll still be in virtually the same place.

We are both surprised that Deborah actually enjoyed seeing another type of mammal – especially at night. Our afternoon trips extended into the twilight and quickly the dark night. While we saw them hanging in trees during the days, the end of twilight quickly brought an army of fishing bats over the water. These fragile creatures were fun to watch (with the help of a spotlight on the boat). But the real allure of these night time excursions was to see caimans – think crocodile hunter and you get the idea. Our guide would stand at the bow of the boat with a spot light (it is worth mentioning that the light is hooked up to a car battery for power) while the boatman drove the boat at full speed down the black water river. The guide would shine the light from side to side hoping to catch a reflection of the eyes of a caiman or other creature active at night. A quick hand signal from the guide and the hunt was on! We’d quickly motor closer to what the guide spotted and then – whammo – the guide would stick a hand in the water and he’d come up with a small caiman. Now we all know what happened to the Crocodile Hunter but we have to say that this was an impressive display – repeated many times over the course of a couple of nights of caiman hunting. We also encountered some beautiful frogs and interesting types of night hunting birds though after the caimans and the bats, the best find was a 4 or 5 foot tree boa. It wasn’t the anaconda we were hoping to spot but was a pretty great consolation prize. We did manage to see a bit of our childhoods in the jungle at night. Once it turned really dark, the lightening bugs created a display better than lit up Christmas trees. This combined with the stars made for a magic experience.

As well as the skiff explorations during the early mornings and evenings, we’d go on a hike late morning to a small village and nearby scenery. Normally, hiking is much more enjoyable for us that being passive participants on a boat tour. But once you left the water and entered the jungle, the mosquitoes were very thick. A 5 second stop was “rewarded” with a swarm of these vermin and even though we were wearing long pants, long shirts, head and neck protection, the little bastards still managed to bite us on our hands and through clothing. They even bit the palms of your hands!

The small villages were both enchanting and depressing because we got a close up view of the living conditions for the people as well as an opportunity to interact with them. The enchanting part will mostly be discussed here – the depressing part later in this post. The people in the Amazon are poor beyond anything we can conceive of in the US though we suspect that view themselves rich in everything that matters to them – the scenery, family, connection to the land, etc. Everywhere that we travelled, we’d pass people paddling dugout canoes and see thatched huts with no sides and raised floors. Their bathroom, shower, washing machine and sink was the black water river. Some of these homes were on terra firma all year. Others were temporary structures in the dry season – knowing they’d be flooded out every December through June. But, the people were both happy and friendly and the children are absolutely enchanting. At our first village of about a dozen or so families, the children followed us all around the village and into the woods. They were shy and immensely enjoyed posing for photos and movies (and watching them on our small screen). Arn talked to a group of the kids and none of them had ever heard of snow. They didn’t know the word and had a hard time imagining a place so cold that water falls from the sky as icy white stuff. If you live in a place without electricity, running water, and your home is made only from the immediately available materials (no nails, no screws) and you have never enjoyed a beverage with ice, then snow is a pretty remote concept. It appears as if the Peruvian government is trying to provide teachers and schools in all of these remote villages to the extent possible. It is a very primitive existence by our standards.

A final highlight of the skiff tours in the jungle was fishing for piranha. Raw chicken was used as bait and the chicken would literally “cook” in the acid of the black water river (think ceviche and you are on the right track). The technique was to disturb the surface of the water with the end of your rod, let the bait sink and very quickly pull up when you got a nibble to set the hook. One of the people from Aqua quickly caught one of the five species of piranha in the river (the most ferocious type, in fact) and we have to say we were impressed by the sharpness of their teeth. Getting bit by one of these guys would have been painful and there are apocryphal tales of cows being devoured in seconds. Before seeing them in person, we would have though the tales were exaggerations but now we aren’t so sure. Arn quickly caught a sardine (really, a good size one actually) but was unsuccessful catching a piranha. Deborah had two out of the water but they got away before getting to the boat. But the guides managed to catch a handful and placed them in a holding pen. Apparently, they could live out of the water for 30 minutes and the guides said they would be eaten later. We thought this meant by us but it turned out, they had a different fate. A small stick attached to a piranha makes the piranha float on the water. Wait to spot a hungry raptor and, well, you can imagine the rest of the show. Like shooting fish in a barrel – so to speak.

We finally arrived in Iquitos and took a tour of the “Venice of Peru” – a neighborhood in Iquitos known as Belen. And, this is the depressing part of the rainforest story. Belen is only like Venice in the sense that when the Amazon floods for six months, all of the houses there float and the streets are now under water and only accessible by boat. It was a shanty town of houses that looked like they would fall over in a heart beat – many like the houses we saw in the back country but picture 100s of them stacked next to each other and multiple families living in them. Many of the people in the bush though that the city held riches only to find themselves destined to a life of extreme poverty and little work at the edge of the city. Instead of a private black water river as your source of life, you shared an incredibly polluted river with 15000 other people. We saw people swimming, cleaning, drinking, motoring and crapping all within yards of each other. This is a kind of poverty unlike the poor but simple life in the rainforest. It is beyond anything we’ve witnessed first-hand anywhere else we’ve traveled and orders of magnitude different than anything we have in the United States. It is difficult to understand what the exit strategy is for the people in Belen and very sad to bear witness to.

It was during this experience in Belen that our guides shared their own personal stories. Victor’s family moved to Iquitos from a village in the Rainforest when he was 11 years old. He is one of four sons and his parents believed their children should continue their education in the city. At the time, children’s education ended at age 11. Victor’s mother found work as a “healer” and his father became a carpenter. Usiel is one of eight children and he is the youngest. When he was five years old, his family built a raft from balsa wood and spent 32 days floating down the Amazon as they left the Rainforest in search of Iquitos. As a child, Usiel followed the gringos in town and learned to speak English. He is self-taught and can speak, read and write fluently. Usiel’s oldest child is a daughter (age 16). She will start university this year to study computers. His goal is provide his children with the opportunities that he didn’t have. Usiel’s enthusiasm for the Amazon, its people, and its creatures was an essential element to our experience. He will be remembered for a line that he said over and over again, “You will like it so much!” He was right. We were moved by all that we saw and experienced.

A photo/movie/slideshow will be posted when we are not sucking the internet through a straw (just imagine us trying to share that straw!)

El primer dia

Okay, if you know Spanish (like Arn does), then you'll know I'm missing the accent on the "a" in "dia". While Arn has told me I'm missing the accent, I'm not going to interrupt the network administrator to set up the icon that allows me to enhance my keyboard to add accents.

We enjoyed a great weekend in Los Angeles. We stayed with our friends, Doug and Marjorie. Despite Doug's Friday afternoon return from Brussels, we enjoyed several great meals together and watched the Christmas Boat Parade in Marina del Rey. Doug & Marjorie introduced us to a tv show called, "Arrested Development" and we loved it. Marjorie spoiled us with homemade borscht soup, brownines, and lots of brittle and toffee. We were also able to catch up with our friends, Mark & Katie, Sheila and Susan. So, it was a fantastic send off. And Marjorie -- thanks for packing the brownies for us. With one exception, they were all devoured before bedtime last night.

Marjorie seemed very impressed that we were traveling as "light" as we are given the duration of our trip and the massive gear load (white water kayaking stuff, mountain biking stuff, hiking stuff, snorkeling stuff). We feel like we are hauling the biggest bags in our traveling history. Once we arrived at LAX airport yesterday, we realized that we are traveling extremely light! In fact, we talked with one family of 5 and they checked 23 bags!! How big? Both of our checked pieces would have fit into one of their duffle bags. Our flight to Lima continued south to Santiago. We met many people on our flight that were headed to Santiago and then to Antarctica. They were traveling with the company that lost their boat in Antarctic last year after they hit ice. As we discussed this with one woman, Arn mentioned a boat that hit ice just recently and had to evacuate people --- this was the same boat that out ran Somalian pirates a few weeks earlier. Now, that is one adventure we would pass up on.

We arrived very late into Lima. We are staying at a stunning hotel called, "Miraflores Park Hotel". Thanks to a bathroom full of everything Kohler, we are enjoying the best shower we have ever known. The closest competitor would be the shower in Sara & Brian's house in Santa Cruz. We are guessing that it is Kohler too. We thought we'd put in a plug for Kohler as Deborah's brother works at Kohler and business is slow. Think killer new shower for Christmas.

We enjoyed a nice Italian lunch today. Knowing how motivated we are by food, we walked around to shop our restaurant choices for dinner. We also checked out the local shopping mall. Arn called it "Gringo Landia". You get the idea. In addition to the usual Burger King, KFC and Pizza Hut in the food court, there is a Hooters. Really, did this need to be exported? The setting in Miraflores is very beautiful. We are perched above the cliffs overlooking the ocean. There are many, many high rise condos around us and a few other hotels. We've noticed that people seem to hire private security guards to watch over their residences. This is in addition to barbed wired and electric fences. We've even noticed "leashes" on the chairs in restaurants. These are for securing your purse while dining. Everyone has been very friendly and Arn's Spanish "es muy bueno".

We are resorting our bags a bit before we head to the jungle and Amazon River tomorrow. We are touring Lima in the morning and heading back to the airport mid-day. We'll be off line until the weekend when we return to Lima.

Siempre Verano

Here it is, but 13 days until we head off to South America! We will be traveling to Peru, Ecuador, Chile and Argentina. Stay tuned for news on our adventures!