Machu PicchuWe've recovered from our much-anticipated return to the international travel scene in April. We made it to Perú! The trip exceeded our expectations! When we started researching our trip (centered mainly on a hike to Machu Picchu along the famed Inca Trail), we discovered just how much Perú has to offer--Machu Picchu of course, Cusco, Amazon rainforest treks, kayaking Lake Titicaca, colonial history in Lima, the ocean, the second largest canyon in the world where you can watch the giant condors glide above you (or on top of you, really), the Sacred Valley, the mysterious Nasca lines in the Peruvian desert, great sand dunes, etc. We couldn't do it all (mainly because Nate and Amelia were at home with Grandma & Grandpa and Granna & Papa). We decided a 12-day trip would be fair to everyone! From the friendly people to the cuisine (it's called the land of one thousand flavors), the scenery to the variety of adventures, and the history, color, culture, etc.--Perú was a delightful destination!
For those who want more prose, here's a quasi-brief chronicle of our travels:
Travel Days
We left San Antonio (after a 1-hour camera scare) for Los Angeles. In LA, we were lucky enough to find the USO for a more-comfortable 5-hour layover. At midnight we traipsed over to Terminal 2 (LAX is one of the worst airports to navigate) to catch the red-eye on Taca Airlines to Lima via San Salvador. Our United miles didn't cash in for the greatest itinerary! We were pleased with Taca, they still provided small "meals" on both legs of the flight. Into Peru we even enjoyed a complimentary glass of a red Peruvian wine and a Cristal beer. Because of our 5-hour layover in San Salvador, we arrived in Lima around 7:00PM. After Customs, we met our guide, Guilermo (who primarily wanted to talk about the Kiss concert he attended in Lima the night prior). He brought us to the Hotel Colonial. There we had enough time to freshen up and grab a bite to eat at the local chicken chain, La Pollo Loco, located on the same city block as KFC, Pizza Hut and Papa Johns! We blindly ordered the pollo brasserio, choclo (giant kernels of maize covered in butter and cheese) and the chicha moredo (purple syrupy juice made from blue corn). Because of our all-nighter, we had no problem falling into our bed early that evening.
Lima's Plaza de Armas
Sunday, 19 April
Lima City Tour
We walked back to our hotel via a grocery store. Jason and I love exploring where the locals shop (and where they eat) when we travel. (And I needed band-aids because my sporty-slips ons weren't being very kind to my heals and I certainly didn't want to start the trip with blisters!) At this store, you bought pasta in open bins, quinoa was everywhere, massive papaya and fat ears of corn were on display, Heinz sold babyfood but no ketchup, and Doritos had the biggest selection of plain tortilla chips. We also stopped by the bustling social center of Miraflores--Central Park and Kennedy Park. We chatted away the rest of the afternoon over a Pisco Sour and Cusquena Negra in a small cafe along the park. For dinner we shopped the upscale grocery store a few blocks from our hotel (very similar to Whole Foods but with more samples!)--a picnic of empanadas and surprise wraps we picked up from the deli section. (We really wish we knew more Spanish.)
Monday, 20 April
The Amazon Rainforest
Today we caught the early flight to Porto Maldonado via Cusco --beautiful flight across Peru with views of the ocean, the Andes mountains, and the jungle. Our native guide, Silverio, has worked worked with Rainforest Expeditions for 15 years. After a hot, sticky bus ride down windy, questionable dirt roads; a 90-minute+ boat ride up the Tambopata River and short hike; we arrived at our remote lodge, Posada Amazonas. The lodge manager met us with refreshingly cold pineapple juice, a cold towel and, after a short introduction, showed us to our rooms. Surprise! We were sure to be one with nature during our stay...our rooms had no doors and no windows! By that, I mean there was a small canvas cloth you pulled across your door for privacy, and the room had no back wall! It was open to the jungle!! There was NO privacy here. You knew the hygiene habits of everybody within two or three huts of you. The walls were just bamboo poles with no ceiling--just one high thatched roof over all the huts! In the mornings the monkeys and tropical birds would wake you up with their loud chatter--like tropical roosters!
Notice the "open air" jungle suites!
Macaws at the clay lick
Our view from the canopy tower (straight down)!.jpg)
Piranha fishing in the oxbow lake!We took our time on the jungle hike back to the river boat. We explored more of the flora and fauna as our guides explained a lot about symbiosis, single-species dependency and conservation--basically a nature hike.
After a lomo saltado lunch and welcomed rest in the hammocks at the lodge, we departed for our medicinal plant tour with a shaman from the native Infierno villiage. The excursion's official name is the "ethnobotanical tour at Centro Ñape." Centro Ñape is a communal organization that produces medicines out of forest plants and administers them to (usually local, native) patients who choose their little clinic. They produced a plant trail which explains the different medicinal (and other) uses of some of the flora. At the end of the tour, we got to try some of the elixirs--Cat's Claw (digestion), Red Bull (energy) and Love Potion (really?) It was dark when we returned to the lodge, so we got to experience a night hike through the jungle, too. We didn't see any big mammals but heard a lot of chirping, croaking, scurrying and even saw a treefrog or two.
We shared our table at dinner with our new friends from Australia, Lisa and Justin. They're on a 5-month tour of South America. We chatted for several hours before we returned to our room before "lights out" time. Dinner was lasagna, cream of pumpkin soup, awesome yellow chickpea dish, and bananas & chocolate for dessert..jpg)
Amazing river sunset (that's our boat)
Wednesday, 22 April
The Amazon Rainforest
After our farewell breakfast at the lodge, we hiked back to the river for our return boatride to Puerto Maldonado. About five minutes after we loaded up the boats we experienced rain in the rainforest. We were safe and dry on the river when the deluge started. It down-poured for a solid hour. Since rain doesn't usually improve the already muddy roads, we took the boat all the way to a new port closer to PM. We made it to the airport with no time to spare (I'm still not sure why), but I still had time to purchase some candied brazil nuts and chewy coconut balls--yummy! On our flight to Cusco we started our coca tea therapy. Cusco is over 11, 000 feet so many people are hit with altitude sickness. One remedy the locals swear by (besides the mini oxygen tanks in many hotels) is coca leaves and coca tea (yes, from the same plant as cocaine, but processed way differently and totally legitimate...and legal)!
An awesome sky at Cusco's Main Square
In Cusco, we met our guide, Jorge, whose first job was to guide us through the mob of protesters blocking the airport gates because of a tourism strike. It was like a scene in a movie, but we made it to the taxi (because our private car was blocked in the airport parking due to the protest) and to Hotel Casa Andina Cathedral right off the Main Square. Our first order of business was laundry--an easy feat since Cusco is usually the first stop after the Inca Trail for many backpackers, hikers and other tourists. We also made phone calls back home to check on the kiddos and let our parents know that the giant insects my dad kept warning us about (tongue-in-cheek) didn't drag us into the Amazon.
Our first glimpses of the incredible Incan stonemasonry
"Is Your Mama a Llama?"(That's the title of one of Nate's favorite books.)
For dinner, we splurged at the MAP Cafe (Museum of Art Pre-Columbian) recommended by a Kansas couple we met in Lima and seconded by Fodor's. The seating area for the restaurant is a glass cube in the middle of a courtyard inside the museum. After being met by a complimentary pisco sour (the National cocktail of Peru), we perused the menu while our mouths watered! For appetizers, we split the alpaca tenderloin strips drizzled in horseradish sauce and the trout causa (a crayfish, trout, fava bean stacked salad). On to the main course where I ordered the crayfish and yellow potato gnocchi with a creamy mild rocoto chili pepper sauce. Jason had a traditional Peruvian dish, aji de gallena--shredded chicken in a creamy sauce with nuts, parmesan cheese and mirasol chili peppers served in, over and around the Andean yellow potato. We shared a bottle of Tacama (Peruvian red). For dessert, Jason dove into the quinoa cannoli with lacuma mousse and Quillabamba chocolate ice cream. I was intrigued by the lightly sautéed strawberries drizzled with purple corn syrup served with fresh corn ice cream. The corn ice cream was "delish!"--like eating a cross between cold crunchy cotton candy and caramel popcorn.
Thursday, 23 April
The Sacred Valley
As the van wound its way through the scenic Sacred Valley, I tried to control my natural urge to take a photo at every turn. I tried to remember that photos rarely do the live panorama of a mountain vista justice. And when in the mountains, the views usually get better the further in you go. The first stop (other than a few cursory stops for photographs along the roadside) was the Pisac Market--a colorful local's market (the more touristy one is Sunday morning with a traditional church service and native costume).
Next on the tourist trail was Ollantaytambo--our first real flit with Incan ruins (or "archeological sites from the Inca Empire" as most tourist guides call them). We arrived mid-afternoon and the site was beautifully lit by the sun. The highlights were: 1) the impressive distance from the quarry to the site (up the mountain across the valley), 2) the maize storehouses on the mountain across the other valley, 3) the terraces of Pumatallis, 4) the "Bath of the Princess" fountains, and 5) the wall of the six monoliths.
The Fortress of Ollantaytambo
At the end of the day, we back-tracked a bit to return to our hotel, the Posada del Inca in Yucay. This was our fancier anniversary stay for the trip--a spa resort tucked in a valley with a 360-degree view of the mountains.
Friday, 24 April
Machu Picchu
Departed Ollanta Station on PeruRail's Vistadome to Machu Picchu City (the official name of Aguas Calientes, but nobody refers to it as MP City)--we fields of workers harvesting corn, snow-capped peaks of the Andes, and many mountain vistas. We met our guide, Betsy, at the train station and immediately boarded the bus to Machu Picchu (MP).Since this was the self-initiated highlight of our tour, we were anxious. I can say our encounter with the ruins was amazingly, mythically, inspiringly, panoramically, intriguingly, mysteriously, impressively, expectedly wonderful. Enough said. (But of course I'll say more!)
Three Windows Temple
Tour of grounds with our guide, Betsy. She was younger than us and shared that when she was a child (so very recently), she used to play around MP with her cousins while her grandpa cleaned up the grounds and farmed in the terraces. See, back then (the mid-80s), there were maybe 10-20 visitors on an average day totaling 3-5000 for an entire year. Today? Just 20 years later the number might be 5000 people in ONE DAY during peak season in July or August. We spent the morning exploring the grounds with Betsy as she explained the probable areas and rooms of the city and life of the Incas. Some of the history of the Incas was passed down first-hand from Incas who lived in exile after the Spanish conquest, other information is supposed from archaeological study.
Betsy's time with us was over at lunch. Jason and I ate at the exclusive Sanctuary Lodge (exclusive because it is literally the only hotel up there. It was built to house some workers and scientists awhile back and somehow managed to stay on as a tourist hotel). Lunch was a delicious buffet sampling of many Peruvian foods--ceviche, soups, pork, fish, corn, potatoes, breads, and desserts. And we tried Inca Kola (the official soft drink of Peru--a bright yellow bubble gum concoction) for the first time, too. We were entertained by live, traditional Andean music during our meal--the pan flute, other woodwinds, guitars and little bongo-style drums.
A beautiful hike to the Sun Gate
After lunch, we hiked up to Sun Gate on the last part of the Inca trail. Our reward at the top was a beautifully lit fluorescent green patch of Machu Picchu far below. Upon our return back to the ruins, we nearly had the place to ourselves. There were probably only 30 other people with us (this was about 4:30-5:00). We used this quiet time to return to some of the areas again for further exploration and to get a few more unobstructed photographs!
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No llamas were harmed in the making of this picture.
After the bus ride back to the village, we roamed around until we found the Hotel Machu Picchu Inn. Dinner was in the hotel with the Aguas Calientes high school band practice providing the background ambiance!
Saturday, 25 April
Machu Picchu
The sunrise over the mountains slowly lighting up Machu Picchu was definitely worth the early wake-up!
We chose to wake-up EARLY today to catch the bus up to Machu Picchu for a coveted sunrise view over the ruins and to get in line to hike up Waynapicchu (the mountain is limited to 400 visitors). There were certainly many early arrivers, but we saw the invigorating sunrise and got a spot on the Waynapicchu trail! It wasn't a very difficult hike, but we were one of the first to arrive at the top. We staked the best view in the house--on top of a big boulder looking down on MP from the other side and cured the world's problems with a man from Seattle for about an hour. Then it was time to hike back down (you're official block of time on the mountain is 3 hours. They have a log book to keep track of each hiker). We stopped for a coffee in the MP cafe (the small eatery right outside the MP entry gate). We were feeling spry, so we continued our hike down the mountain (fore-going the cushy bus ride) back to Aguas Calientes.
Another beautiful hike--this time up Waynapicchu
The reward for covering the entire mountain on foot was a hikers pizza (found at nearly every restaurant along the strip) and a cold Cusquena beer! After lunch we had about two hours to kill before our train left, so we strolled around the market for a few souvenirs, an ice cold Inca Kola & a bag of the giant puffy popcorn.
Here's your sign.
At the appointed time, we entered the train station (you must show your train ticket to gain entry to the waiting room). When our train arrived, they asked the passengers to make their way to the platform (you must show your train ticket and passport to gain access to the platform). Finally, at boarding call, we handed our tickets to the conductor and were allowed onto the train. No sooner had we stowed our suitcase and sat in our seats, when a rep from Peru rail boarded and said, "I'm very sorry, there has been a mistake. You gave us a ticket for yesterdays train! You must get off." When we looked at our ticket, sure enough, in bold print it said, "Vistadome, 24 April 2009." Huh. We made it through three checkpoints with that ticket. It wasn't until somebody handed the conductor a ticket with the same seat numbers that they caught the mistake. Jason tried to plead our case, "our travel agency had purchased the tickets. We've paid the money. We have no contacts here. Our master itinerary says we leave Aguas Calientes today!" To no avail. This train was leaving in 5 minutes and they didn't have time to figure out our case. In their defense, they did not just kick us to the curb, the rep took us to the ticket window, confirmed there were 2 seats on the next (and last) train an hour later. The problem? They do not take credit cards and there's one ATM in town. Jason had to walk through town to get some money to buy new tickets. Our hotel in town wouldn't help us with the phone call to our guide in Cusco because the cell phone was a Lima area code (loooong distance for them, I guess). Somebody directed him to a call center, who directed him to another call center who used what appeared to be his personal cell phone to call Jorge and let him know we wouldn't be on the 7:00 train, but the 9:00 train into Cusco. Jorge had no idea what happened, but apologized and said he'd be there.
After picking up a few sandwiches for dinner, we boarded the Backpacker--a much hotter and bumpier ride than the Vistadome (and without a dinner snack!) Yes, the spoiled travelers in us came out a little here! We ended up sharing a seating area and great conversation with a young couple from Australia who were traipsing all over the world for 7 months. The next stop was the USA for 10 days--New York, Chicago and Washington DC.
Once back in Cusco, our guide met us promptly at the train station (2 hours later than planned), apologized again for the mix-up and refunded our money as soon as we were in the van back to the hotel! We were settled back in the city in time for a late dinner at Greens (conveniently located right next our hotel). It's an organic eatery with a wonderfully eclectic menu. We enjoyed the mushroom caps stuffed with caramalized onions and goat cheese, hummus sandwich and goat-cheese & grilled veggie salad.
Sunday, 26 April
Cusco City Tour
Cusco Cathedral
We had the morning free to explore Cusco. Like I've noted elsewhere in this log, it's a quaint city with a very energetic vibe. While window shopping for a few final souvenirs, we strolled down to San Francisco Square to visit San Pedro's market recommended by our new friends from Australia. Jason and I could spend hours in the local markets when we travel (and frequently do). The stand-outs from this local market were the menudo aisle (more-aptly named "everything-else-leftover-from-the-animal aisle"), the Catholic mass broadcast over the loudspeakers while you shopped (it was Sunday morning after all), the teetering stacks of queso fresca, and the aromatic little eateries crammed into the center of the market--ready to cook your purchases fresh while you waited on the little picnic table in front of their booth.
At the end of our morning meander, we made our way back to the main square for a surprise parade. Apparently every Sunday, the civil servants of Cusco congregate around the main square to show the faces behind the names at city hall, police headquarters, military posts, universities, high schools and public works staff. It appeared that many residents came to view the festivities and celebrate all things Cuscenian. When you stop to think about it, what a great way to foster community pride.
Before our afternoon tour, we had time to stop in for lunch at Jacks--highly recommended by a British couple we met in the lodge at the rain forest (the husband was also a recent med-school graduate named Jason!) . I ordered the puffy banana pancakes. If I were to name them, they'd be called Banana's Foster Fluffy Dessert Cake. They were almost too rich for me (but oh-so-yummy) Jason tried the lassi and hummus, avocado and tomato sandwich on two thick slabs of dark multi-grain bread. A classic combo...what's not to like?
We started our city tour around 1:00 (after battling with the peddlers around the cathedral). Our first visit was the Cathedral--built on top of the sacred Incan Huancaypata at the exact center of the empire. The facade is a Renaissance style and the inside is very ornamental--containing some of the best manifestations of colonial goldsmith, silversmith and wood carving in Peru, as well as a valuable collection of canvases from the Escuela Cusqueña. It rivals many European churches in grandeur and oppulance. Next, we saw the amazing Sun Temple (Qorikancha) & Santo Domingo Convent (another display of the Spain's ability to permanently assimilate the sacred Incan temples into the Catholic religion), Saqsayhuaman (the massive fortress that sits above Cusco. On the ride up to the ruins, afternoon thunderclouds started to form--seriously they came from nowhere. Jason and I even left our raincoats in the hotel on this one day after lugging them all over Peru for the past 10 days. No sooner had we stepped off the bus and had our tourist ticket punched at the gate, then it started to hail!). The storm was just long enough to disrupt our visit to Saqsayhuaman; but continued with the ruins at Tambomacay (Incan Watering Place), Pukapukara ("red fort"), and Q'enqo (temple caves).
Since it was raining during our visit to Saqsayhuaman, our group decided to weather out the storm properly. We stopped into someone's mud brick home in the indigenous community up the mountain from Cusco. The red flag was out; it was time to try some chicha!
Chicha is a homemade fermented drink traditionally prepared from yellow maize (jora) and is usually referred to as chicha de jora. It's a pale straw color, with a thick appearance, and a slightly sour aftertaste. While chicha is most commonly associated with maize, the word is used in the Andes for almost any homemade fermented drink, and many different grains or fruits are used to make "chicha" in different regions. Chicha de jora has been prepared and consumed in communities throughout in the Andes for millennia. The Inca used chicha for ritual purposes and consumed it in vast quantities during religious festivals. Mills in which it was probably made were found at Machu Picchu. There's even a long scene in Moby Dick set in a Lima drinking establishment, involving a group of people sitting at a table telling stories and drinking chicha.
The chicha lady kept laughing at me...maybe it's the headband
One of our most-daring culinary feats to-date came this evening during our dinner at A Mi Manera for cuy chactado. OK, that's a traditional Peruvian dish meaning...fried guinea pig. Many families in the Andes keep a couple of guinea pigs around the house to use for entertaining guests or celebratory feasts. The animal is so entrenched in the culture that one famous painting of the Last Supper in the main cathedral in Cusco shows Christ and the twelve disciples dining on guinea pig. So, we figured if we've tried sushi in Japan, cheese in France, pad thai in Thailand, pasta in Italy, and doner kebabs in Turkey; we should try cuy in Peru. It tasted like rabbit or the dark meat in chicken (I know, how cliché...but it did taste like fried chicken!)
Monday, 27 April
Flight back to Lima
We arrived back at our hotel in Lima in the late morning--early enough to walk to La Mar for lunch--an upscale Cebicheria a few blocks from our hotel. We had their ceviche sampler--classico, nikei, potente (milk of the panther instead of leche de la tigre), miraflorente & elegante. Then we tried the other common cevicheria fare...chicaronnes--one gigantic pile of fried frutas de la mar (seafood of all shapes and varieties). Jason even tried the baby octopus pieces! He's come a long way since we started dating; he didn't eat anything that came from the water.
We continued our stroll through the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima to the tourist haven Larco Mar--a restaurant, shopping and entertainment complex with one of the city's best views of the Pacific Ocean. We stopped in to see if Starbucks would accept our gift card, alas they didn't. That didn't stop us from ordering an over-priced misto grande. On our way home, we stopped by the local Whole Foods-style grocery, Virande, to buy some culinary souvenirs. Finally, back at the ranch, we packed up for our international flight (I still fit our entire load into two carry-ons...even with the new souvenirs. What can I say? It's a gift!) and continued our apparent Americana stint with a sit-down dinner at Papa Johns across the street from our hotel. They're celebrating 5 years in Peru.
Tuesday, April 28
Travel Day
Breakfast in our hotel--I realized I haven't talked about our daily breakfast buffets in most hotels. It's pretty standard fare--sliced fruit (pineapple, papaya, watermelon), edam and queso fresco, an assortment of yummy breads, mini quinoa pancakes, puffed kiwichi granola cereal with yogurt, fresh squeezed pineapple, orange or papaya juices), cafe con leche caliente. The hotel in Cucso had coca leaf jelly and the one in Lima had this wonderful cinnamon-infused orange marmalade. Our fancy spa retreat in the Sacred Valley had made-to-order omelets and fresh pancake and waffle stations as well.
International flight home via San Salvador. We watched "The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor," "The Day the Earth Stood Still," and "The Women" on our flights. Hey, at least it passed the time. Overnight in LA.
Wednesday, April 29
Home!
Home to our kiddos!!! BIG BIG BIG hugs from Nate and coy smile from Amelia! "Mom & Daddy, I missed you! I had so much fun!" He was bubbling over with so much emotion; he didn't know what to say! After the commotion, we handed out our souvenirs. Bill & Jeanie (J's parents) got a bottle of red and a Machu Picchu chocolate bar. Nate got a red & white soccer uniform from the Peruvian National Team, some Inca shaped cookies, fun candy, mini toucan figurines, a rainforest coloring book. Amelia got a cute dress embroidered with llamas and a "Peru" T-shirt.
One of Nate's souvenirs...the Peruvian National Team
