Day 9: Another Kind or Bump in the Road

I believe in my last post I indicated that our travel experience was put to the test with the boat predicament - well that statement now holds no substance. Today was simply put - a challenge...

What was originally expected to be a relatively quiet day of just lounging around and meandering our way to Arequipa quickly turned awry. We did lounge around and take it very casually in the morning, simply walking around Puno and exploring the city. I guess before delving into the chaos that soon ensued I should preface it with an illustration of Puno.  

Puno honestly doesn't have terribly much to offer. The one thing Emma and I will most likely take away is their over abundance of photo-copy stores, there literally were more than we could count on our way from the hostel to the main square - Plaza Del Armas. Aside from this oddity, they didn't have much to offer unless you really are in desperate need to photocopy something, I'd recommend nixing Puno. 

The architecture and just overall appearance of the city accurately depicts the economic despair the citizens are in. There are so many, and I mean at times nearly every brick building, that is still only a quarter built with bricks, or walls crumpling down. There's one Main street which we walked down and actually had a great lunch of quinoa soup, sandwiches, lattes and a frozen lemonade in a very quaint courtyard. Aside from that street and the plaza del Armas that had relatively photo taking worthy pictures, I'd say skip out on the dilapidated streets of Puno and take your camera elsewhere. In fact, we were both surprised that Lake a Titicaca is the second most traveled place in Peru, as having seen all of Peru while midst writing this, we would have most likely altered our travel arrangements and focused on seeing places like the Colca Canyon (the deepest canyon in the world with delightful condors); the Nazca lines (some shapes mysteriously drawn into stones that you can only be seen from the air); Ica (an oasis in the dessert where you can go sand boarding or dune bugging); or lastly the Inca Trail (one of the worlds most popular trekking trails; a four day challenging hike to Machu Picchu taking the same road the Incans took). Alas, setting that aside we are still very glad we did travel to the Lake. It certainly was an experience and it was very beautiful and an excellent insight into the culture and daily lives of these locals, not to mention most who visit the lake don't exactly explore Puno at all. We were more or less just surprised how raved about it was, but if time allows for it, it's certainly worth a stop. 

Ok - now where the chaos comes into play. We were all set to leave the hostal, packs packed, and set off for the bus station. I also was still feeling ill from stomach pains from who knows what Incan spell was put on me, so a nice 6hr bus ride on the luxurious Cruz del Sur bus was highly anticipated. Unfortunately, there was no such bus....

There happened to be a strike in the nearby city of Juliaca from the coal miners, thus shutting down the roads all around. These strikes can be entirely unpredictable as at any moment they can turn quite violent, road blocks, cars burning, etc, well I'm sure you've all heard your fair share of strike stories in other countries. We had actually been forewarned of these strikes by the professor from the jungle, but he only warned us about the amazon area, so we were unaware that these strikes stretch as far as the Juliaca area. 

This caused quite the predicament for us as they said to come back again the next day at the same time to see if the strike was lifted, but that wouldn't get us in until 8pm on Saturday to Arequipa and we had a Sunday morning flight to catch to get back to Lima and then back to the States that evening. If the strike continued we would have been stranded and the only places we could fly out was Arequipa, or well Juliaca which was clearly out of the question; everywhere else you had to travel through Juliaca as Puno is in the very far southeast corner of the country, half of Lake Titicaca is actually in Bolivia. 

^Emma reflecting and analyzing the situation while eating a 26cent questionable icecream/gelatin thing...

We talked with a number of other travelers and Peruvians who were in similar predicaments as us, having to also get back to Lima by Sunday, but they were just as lost as us. One very nice couple in their mid-20s, Natives of Lima, were quite helpful and told us that we could take a cambido, a 10person van, that would take an alternative route to avoid the strike. We followed them to the place where the van picked passengers up, a random street corner outside the terminal, no pickup signs, the couple said that the vans come sporadically and not sure when the next one would come, and the passengers were solely locals. 

Don't worry mother, we quickly evaluated our surroundings and decided this wasn't the best idea for a couple of easily targeted gringos. I had noticed other bus companies that traveled to Arequipa and decided we should check with them and as a last resort try our luck for the following day with Cruz del Sur. Well we found out that the Julsa bus company was still traveling to Arequipa and we could get seats and still get in later that night. 

We weighed our options for over an hour as even though they were taking an alternative route, we'd avoid the strikers but we would be taking side roads and would be traveling the last leg of the journey come dusk/night. We talked with the attendants for the company for a while and they assured us that they have radar trackers on all their buses, showing us their monitors, that the side roads would just be at the very beginning to avoid the strike and we'd be back on the main roads by night, and all their other buses that were running on the hour were making it with ease. Additional reassurance was the sight of some other gringo/traveling tourists on our bus. 

We did our little travel jig, ate some Oreos, and were off. The bus ride was actually quite smooth, not as many speed bumps as before, and the only odd experience was the bus driver pulling to the side of the road, hopping out, and meandering over to a roadside stand where he grabbed some coffee and some food. He didn't just grab the food and drink but actually proceeded to sit down at the stand and eat for over ten minutes as we all sat on the bus watching him nom away. These Peruvians sure like to take their time. Earlier when we were waiting for our bus, we watched the driver of another bus that was about to depart brush his teeth aggressively for over eleven minutes, the eleven minutes was only when we had started timing, no idea when he actually started. 

Anyways, we flawlessly made it to Arequipa just a little past midnight, caught a cab to our hostal, and ran into another little hiccup. Emma, being the goofball that she is, had accidentally made our reservation for earlier that week at this hostal. Fortunately they did have beds available, but only in the dorms, which wasn't an issue, but Emma did get some serious eye glares from me being almost one in the morning. 

Day 8: Lake Titicaca - How Many Speed Bumps to Puno

Having to wake up at 4:30am is never the most ideal situation....Having to wake up while not going to sleep until 11pm is even less ideal...Having to do both while sleeping on a bus that for whatever reason decides to take the road with speed bumps every two miles and breaks like you're about to hit a moose is just plain chaos. Whelp, we did just such. The bus, Cruz Del Sur is actually a remarkably nice and luxurious bus with seats that recline into a bed, free blankets and pillow, and a very smooth ride, except when you hit a speed bump every 20minutes. 

Fortunately the bus was 40min late for arrival which worked well for us considering the earliest ferry to Lake Titikaka doesn't start operating until 630am. We safely got to the port, at around 5:45am, maybe closer to 6, which wasn't terrible but we immediately got swarmed by local merchants who tried getting us to purchase boat tickets. Even though we told them we were going to do such and even though there was only one boat operator, they kept coming back. Aside from being ridiculously tired, it just became even more ridiculous when a local set up his shoe shine shop literally on the seat of the bench right next to us and even more local merchants came to get their shoes shined. 

The morning was a little chaotic, as stated we were extremely tired which didn't help the case, but our plan was to stay on the island of Taquile at a homestay. When purchasing the boat tickets we found out that the earliest return from that island wouldn't get us back until 6pm and we had a 3pm bus to catch to Arequipa. The Lonely Planet Peru book was quite lacking in information for this leg of the trip as it failed to mention that, or really what to expect when hopping on one of these boats or even purchasing the tickets. 

We decided that our first option was to try and stay at one of the reed huts on the first island of Uros, only 30min boatride with frequent trips back, and the second option just to get a place in Puno for the night. Well after all the chaos of trying to buy a ticket and communicate when the return boats would be with a guy who struggled with understanding our broken Spanish and didn't speak a word of English, we finally were able to get on board and departed the port at 7:45am. Luckily for us, our boat tour guide, and our entire boat spoke Spanish, clearly we were the only clueless gringos on board. 

We stopped off at Uros, the island made out of solely floating reeds, which was fascinating, and we could actually understand most of what the tour guide was saying as he spoke quite slow which was a bonus. Oh, it was also a bonus that we even had a tour guide as the book conveyed that we would just take a boat an get dropped off at these islands. The third perk, and the best of them all is we found out there was another English speaker on board! This Italian woman named Elena who is currently a PHD candidate in the literature department of Harvard - she was truly our godsend for the day. 

^that is not Elena - just a local chef

Having gotten to the reed island, we couldn't exactly figure out where on earth we were supposed to find a place to stay and not really speaking any Spanish, well we decided that wasn't going to be an option. The island was something unlike anything we've ever seen before. It's exactly what it sounds like, a bunch of reed huts atop a bunch of floating reeds. You have to step very carefully or you could find yourself sinking through a couple layers, surely still far from the water though due to the unfamiliar feeling it seemed like the lake was right there. Unfortunately we only spent about 15min on the island and then departed for what we all thought was an hour boat ride to Isla Taquiles but ended up being about 3hrs. 

This was slightly excellent as it did allow us to catch up on a bit of sleep, but being on a boat that long when expecting only an hour isn't the most enjoyable. Taquiles was extraordinary and certainly worth the trek. The layout and look of the island itself reminded me a bit of Capri in Italy, as it basically was a giant hill. We were expecting to climb over 500 steps which we had been forewarned about but what we didn't realize was that Lake Titikaka is actually a higher elevation than Machu Picchu and Cusco! It sits just over 4,000 meters above sea level while Cusco is about 3,300. Thankfully we came from the slope side instead of the cliff side so while still tiring, it was nothing close to what we could have experienced. Upon reaching the top we were greeted with 360 panoramic views of the lake, which looks just like an ocean as you can barely see any land. It's actually a remarkable sight as its so high up the at times it looks like the clouds are almost touching the clear blue water. 

Taquile is about 7km long, only natives reside here and live an incredibly tranquil life. They don't allow any cars, buses, or even bikes here as that causes too much commotion. They don't have a police force even though they are broken into 6 different provinces. Remarkably enough they don't even allow dogs as dogs are commonly used as watch dogs to sound an alarm. A very utopian type lifestyle but sadly it is clear they are quite economically disheveled and rely heavily on tourism. We walked around the main square which was quite downtroddened but was brought to a nearby restaurant where we were served especially local dishes of quinoa soup and fresh caught trout. Emma smartly and cautiously opted for the alternative option of an omelet - I of course dabbled with the trout. 

During lunch we got a quick lecture in Spanish about the traditions on the island, of which there are many. The most notable tradition is the use of these elf-shaped hats knitted with mostly red but also other brightly colored yarn. These hats are worn by men only, and signify whether they are single, married, or widowed. The single men's hat is half in the red pattern, and half white. The married men's hat is all in the red pattern, and widowed half in the red pattern and half brown. All of the hats have brightly colored, rainbow-like, puffballs on the end. Also, the way they wear these hats signifies something about them, as young boys wear them with the flap to the back, and the older single boys wear them to the side. At first when we saw these outfits we figured it was solely for the sake of the tourists but after hearing more we realized that these traditions are still very much alive. 

After lunch we walked around for a little, saw the local market, and departed for the boat by walking about 20min across the island and down the absurdly steep and uneven steps we had read about, which were even worse than Wayanapichu at times. One of the woman in our group actually ended up stumbling and twisting her ankle, but fortunately didn't appear to break anything. The real fright was that she had been carrying her 2.5-3yr old on her back, but fortunately the child was fine, just merely jostled. We finally made it back to our boat, and jaunted off back to Puno. 

The majority of the boat ride was uneventful for the most part, we got, or well I got a wicked bad sunburn even having applied sunscreen on (being 4000meters closer to the sun really is no bueno), and I caught up on writing this blog. Emma occupied herself with either sleeping or watching the 3yr old gallop around the boat and him interact with a couple native children. But the real excitement, or well fright came when we were still over half an hour out from the dock and it started thundering and lightning. Basic number one rule of thumb with boating is never get caught in a lightning storm, and well yup, that's exactly what happened. The locals oddly enough didn't appear to really assess the danger as much as the rest of us tourists did, even though the lighting was basically giving us this 180 panoramic showcase. An incredible sight, but not so much when you're on a metal structure in the middle of a body of water. Not to mention the boat itself didn't appear the most reliable having stalled a couple times when docking at Taquile, and not to mention it had mufflers attached to it with a sketchy engine - I don't recall ever seeing a boat with a muffler before let alone two. 

Alas, we made it safely to the shore right as the intense rain just began. Hopped in a cab and made our way to the hostal we had chosen from our guide book. Everything ultimately fell perfectly into place (knock on wood for our last three days) - it was best we didn't stay at the homestay as we would have really struggled with our broken Spanish and their zero English, not to mention we have no idea what it would have been like with this storm; we were able to see both Uros and Taquile and spend the entire day on the lake opposed to us anticipating getting back to Puno at around 1pm an having no idea what to do; the fact that the hostal had available rooms; and lastly the ability to catch up on sleep finally and not be rushed tomorrow morning. I'd say both Emma and I are relatively experienced travelers, but continuously we have been overly impressed by how well our scheduling, our contingency plans, and just our luck has had it. Although we've packed so much into such a short time frame, not one single place have we felt we missed out on or wished we focused more time on. 

Well once we retreated the storm, which had apparently turned into a hail storm once we sought refuge, we snagged a quick dinner at a nearby restaurant, nothing to rave about as I got a very very well done steak and Emma actually got fettuccine Alfredo which wasn't that bad tasting. After the grub we called it a night and hit the much needed hay.

Day 7: Cusco - land of gringos & plastic cheese

Finally, the most relaxing day of the entire trip - exploring the same city where we are staying! Every day prior we've either had to wake up early and travel to a new place or be under the iron fist of Silverio and have to wake at 4am. This was incredibly refreshing as we were able to sleep in, take our time with eating breakfast and then just spend the whole day without any agenda on hand other than explore Cusco, and perhaps buy some alpaca articles of clothing. 

Our entire day literally was composed of bouncing from market to market. There are two major markets, one that specializes in alpaca and tourists which was too far to visit, and the other was the San Pedro market relatively close to the center of town, near the Plaza de Armas. This one was pretty smashing as it was essentially a local hangout for the locals with cafeteria type seating and dozens of food stands that us gringos probably would trouble stomaching, but these Andean warriors had no issue. After taking a quick tour of that section we zigzagged through rows upon rows of clothing, crafts, and other various nic-nacs. We didn't exactly purchase anything here as this was towards the end of the day. Although this had been planned as our first stop, there were countless, and I mean countless tiny side alleyways that opened up into vast underground market worlds. I was content with the first one we stopped at right by our hostel and got all my alpaca goods there, but Emma really wanted to not discriminate and truly assist the local small businesses by purchasing only one item from each of the markets we visited. It was very kind of her, and we really got an excellent insight into the local commerce scene. 

Aside from the markets, we did take some time to the main cathedral located in the plaza del Armas - rightfully called, La Cathedral. Its an incredibly ornate and beautiful structure akin to any European cathedral, but really illustrates how big of jerks the Spaniards and catholic missionaries were back then. The ornateness solely comes from the conquistadors tearing down all the Incan relics to craft their own bloodart. 

After a full day of shopping and walking around, Cusco has an incredibly wicked charm to it. With such a heavy European influence, absurdly high volumes of touristy traffic that brings in a stream of money, this city would fit unnoticed in any European country. From the other places we've visited in Peru, Cusco is certainly the hub of commerce. The streets are constantly bustling, you feel safe anywhere you are, and your concerns over the food, plumbing, etc are momentarily forgotten.  

To conclude this day, we opted to take a quick breather from typical Peruvian cuisine and treat ourselves first to some local Starbucks lattes and then to some fine fine crepes at the local creperia conveniently across from our hostel. The Starbucks adventure was just to relax and kill some time as we didn't really have enough time to do anything else before dinner, but turned out to be an adventure in its own. Located in the plaza del Armas, their main plaza, this Starbucks was by far the nicest I've seen. Fantastic 2nd story views of the plaza with extremely expansive seating and their own door man/security guard, this was a sight. For those who recall, when traveling through Europe with my friend Courtney, she was obsessed with Starbucks Chai lattes and since Italy doesn't allow Starbucks, each city we visited we had to get one. Interestingly enough, each chai from each country tasted a bit different (if you're curious, the best chai we had was in Geneva, and then Amsterdam), and the same was the case with Peru. It actually reminded me slightly of their cheese and the typical smell of Peru which is difficult to describe, so not the most enjoyable but assumed its been catered to the Peruvian palate.  

Back to the creperia; run by a girl who was born an raised in France but spent time traveling South America and fell in love with Cusco, she whipped up some dashingly good crepes with fresh ingredients typical of France. I say this only because the sight of Parmesan cheese was glorious as the typical Peruvian cheese they they slap onto most dishes is well, not very appetizing. It tastes just incredibly bland with a texture of warm plastic. We smashed away a savory ham/cheese/avocado/mushroom/onion/andmorecheese crepe and concluded it with a sweet banana/strawberry and Nutella one. 

The next leg of our adventure was perhaps the most challenging as of yet, having to endure and overnight bus ride from Cusco to Puno, d:10:00pm and a:4:30am so we could tour Lake Titicaca....

Day 6: Alpacas, Guinea Pigs, oh my!

Upon arriving in Cusco, exhaustion had taken over and we waltzed our way over to our hostal and chose the closest restaurant the staff recommended. Pacha Papa, located in Plaza San Blas, offered a very traditional approach to Peruvian cuisine while still providing that touristic sanitary sanctuary we've been looking for in meals. Also fortunately for us, they offered their house speciality dish: Pacha Papa, which consisted of grilled Alpaca meat sautéed in such a phenomenal tastebud popping sauce that reminded me slightly of lamb. It was skewed onto a bone skewer and had such a tender touch to it. Emma got a salad.... Also, unbeknowingst to Emma, the side of a stuffed pepper wasn't stuffed with "beef" as she observed after taking a bite, but ground up alpaca - I found this to be highly amusing after she refused to take a bite of my alpaca - she on the other hand didn't....

The next morning we had signed up for a guided tour of the Sacred Valley as we were getting a tad burnt from planning every step ourselves and taking public transportation while relying on our broken Spanish. Come to find out, the places we went were actually only accessible by tour groups so that would have been quite interesting had we attempted using public transit. 

After a slightly confusing bus pickup where a van picked us up where everyone inside only spoke Spanish, much to our relief they merely transported us to a larger bus which was swamped with Americans (even had a couple from Middletown and Mystic Connecticut). Although it was refreshing to be amongst English speakers again and have the comfort of being bused around, that all quickly faded as we realized this was taking away from the thrill of entirely immersing ourselves into the local culture, sans the fact we stuck out like a bunch of bloody Yankees with massive backpacks. 

The day was enjoyable, the Sacred Valley is most certainly worth seeing, but it's essentially just a number of Incan ruins and having just seen Machu Picchu and having traveled extensively through Europe and the Roman Empire, well each stone just starts looking like just another stone. We first saw the Pisaq ruins which were perched a top a hill right outside Cusco and still fairly in tact. Then we saw the Ollantaytambo ruins (the town where you take the train to Machu Picchu), which just consisted of a ton of stairs that led to more stones that resemble houses. Both of which had stunning views of the surrounding hills, and it was interesting to hear about the Incan symbolism that was encompassed each ruin: their love for the East, the summer and winter solstices, the Milky Way, and the symbolic nature of the puma, the condor, and the snake. Lastly was the town of Chincero, a town where you were literally amongst the clouds and was still quite in tact but mostly from the Spaniards reconstructing it with their Christian influence. 

The more enjoyable part of the day was being taken to two different Peruvian markets. First the Sachsawayan market which just had a ton of tourist goods but allowed us to get some quality photo ops with some lovely Alpacas and guinea pigs (foreshadowing). The latter was a much more traditional and local market, the Pisaq Market, that was composed primarily of food but had some either quality or well crafted tourist goods. As was the case with all the ruins, we only really had 15-20min to stop at each place which isn't even enough time to begin to haggle. Thus, I'd say 90% of our day was sitting on a bus. 

The real excitement of the day was our dinner for the evening. Again, incredibly impressive what the Incans and also Romans accomplished without the use of modern machinery, but after one ruin they start blending together. That and hours upon hours on a bus, it was only fair to treat ourselves, well myself, to a proper Peruvian feast: Roasted Guinea Pig! 

For those weak stomached, vegetarian, or ever had a guinea pig as a pet growing up, perhaps would be best to scroll past the last paragraph on this page.....

.....We opted to go back to Pacha Papa that night as if one is to indulge on something such as a guinea pig, it would be preferred to do such at an establishment you trust. I will admit that after a while of eating/dissecting the little critter and having held one earlier that day, it was a tad gross. But it does taste quite delicious once getting past the part that they plate it for you entirely whole, crispy ears, eye holes, snout and all. Fortunately this restaurant does then take it into the back and quickly filets it for you. It really doesn't matter at that point considering you still have the scalp and skin that is brilliantly flavored with Andean spices and pancha chili, but is kinda tough to tear off. Oh forgot to mention, its tough to tear off as you have to eat it with your hands. When you're picking it a part there are a lot of tiny bones you have to eat around and spit out. Also, one must remember that they don't clean the thing out for you, coming terribly close to eating it's tiny heart, which some might enjoy but meh, that was really pushing it. Once you get past the legs, the majority of the meat comes from the underside which interestingly enough is composed of layers on layers of paper thin like meat. Taking already over an hour to cook, I wasn't terribly interested in picking every single piece of meat out of it, so fortunately for me, Emma for whatever reason wasn't in the mood to finish her chicken dish....

Well now I feel that I've crossed over that border where there is no type of dish that is off limits or too repulsive. Perhaps one day I will achieve my dream of becoming Anthony Bourdain's successor. 

Day 5: Machu Picchu

Upon landing in Cusco, instantly the feared altitude sickness struck, and it struck hard. The incredibly difficult breathing, the lightheadness, and just the woozy feeling set in before we even got off the plane. Needless to say, the anticipated hike up Wayanapichu the following day became a reasonable concern. Emma's frequent reminders of breathe, pause, breathe slowly through your nose and exhale slowly prevailed and helped us at least get off the plane but the light headness continued for the entire day. We were spending the night in Aguas Calientes, the town that sits right below Machu Pichu and that you take the train from Cusco to get to Machu Pichu. Unfortunately the train doesn't run from Cusco but you have to pick it up from Ollantaytambo, a town about an hour an a half from Cusco. So we hopped in a local cambido, basically a shuttle van, and enjoyed a very scenic and mountainous two hour drive to Ollantaytambo where we hopped the train. 

The train ride only added to this refreshing and relieving feeling of being alive as well it was the most picturesque train ride we've ever taken. In fact I'm currently writing this in the midst of the return train ride. It's unfortunate Peru gets a bad rep for being underdeveloped, unsafe, and not worthy of a visit, considering every single mode of transportation has been nothing short of impressive, at times even more so than the American transport we're used to. Not only are the trains and planes a fraction of the cost, basically a joke how inexpensive they are, but we have ample leg room, nice wooden tables on the train, some excellent tasting free food and snacks, and the service is absolutely amazing, far superior to the Americans. Although a significant portion of the population are impoverished, which is quite noticeable from traveling around, being a foreigner you are treated exceptionally well, far better than when I was studying in Italy or traveling through Europe. I've started noticing how the Peruvians just always have such a fascinatingly positive attitude and are always more than willing to help you out even if they don't speak English and can't understand a word of our broken Spanish. 

Moving forward from my newfound love of the Peruvian nation and onto the real good stuff. We arrived at our hostel and holy cow was it exceptionally nice. We had a massive king size bed, which being 6'3 and growing up in a twin sized bed that I still have to sleep in every time I visit my parents home, well this was certainly eye opening. But the greatest part was that we had an exceptional view of the downtown center of Aguas Calientes, and right below us we could see and better yet hear the roaring of the natural springs river flowing downhill. After marveling at this for some time, we walked around the town and made our way to the Natural Hot Springs that the hostal recommended. It ended up looking more like the local Peruvian swimming pool, luke warm/questionable looking water jammed packed with Peruvian families and one sole American, that being myself as Emma didn't bring any swim trunks. After a few minutes of standing there trying to get the good vibes of the springs, I felt my pores had opened and cleansed enough and we went off to the restaurant the hostel recommended. 

We didn't care where we ate at this point as this was such a small town with limited options and extremely honky tonk eateries and we were just trying to eat and then sleep, but the place they recommended had a ridiculous childlike cartoon of a Pirate as their logo so we actually almost just grabbed a pizza but decided when else would we be able to eat at a Peruvian pirate eatery. They really should consider altering their sign to fit more of their offerings as this meal was absolutely smashing. I got an entire salmon with such a great Peruvian wine spice sauce and Emma got pineapple chicken on top of an entire half cut pineapple, served with an array of free appetizers and Emma's liter of fresh Limeade concoction, rimmed with sugar. 

That essentially concluded the night and we went to sleep only to wake again wicked early at 5:00am. This was to catch the bus up the mountain so we could get there for the 7:00 entrance to the Wayanapicchu mountain hike. Fortunately we had pretty much acclimated at that point to the altitude and were stocked up on coca tea and coca leaves. The hike was kind of absurd. No idea how the Incans constantly climbed these steps, but oye! The steps were the most narrow, steep, and not to mention wet from the pleasant frequent drizzle of rain, we've ever come across. At times there was a rope to hold onto as a means of not dropping off edge of the cliff to our deaths, but the altitude and physical exertion made it quite difficult. Once we got the jig in our step, well it was certainly worth every ridiculously steep and slippery Incan step climbed and highly recommended as it was the perfect way to be introduced and greet Sir Machu Picchu. We sat at the top for a bit to wait for the fog to clear and when it started breaking through you had such an epic and breathtaking site of Machu. An hour up and an hour down we eventually landed ourselves in this sacred site. 

Our hostal had booked us a guide so we had an hour to kill to eat, hydrate, desoke out sweated clothes, and enjoy a lovely cup of icecream. The guide ended up being questionable as we couldn't find Richard our supposed guide, but Eduardo claimed that he was taking Richard's place. For only 20soles a person, equivalent to about $6, and the fact we were entering an extremely guarded site, we decided to go with Eduardo, the unfortunately broken English gold teethed Peruvian. The tour ended up being just fine and we could make out some of what he was saying, but it didn't really matter considering how unbelievable this city was and how it was so perfectly encased between 360degrees of lush green mountains rising thousands of feet above with rivers rushing beneath us. It is unbelievable how any civilization could craft such an architecturally sound and beautiful city in such a Shangri-La location.

After numerous, and I mean numerous photo opts with Sir Machu Pichu, we made our way back down the mountain, picked up our belongings from the hostal and jumped a train back to Cusco. This time taking the train to the nearby town of Poray and the train company bus back to the Cusco bus station.

Day 3/4 - Monkeys vs. Birds

After stumbling to breakfast the following morning, we hopped on the river boat and traveled up river for half an hour, trekked through the forest for another half an hour, and finally made it to the lake where a catamaran awaited us. Oh, also almost forgot to mention that the walk entailed running across a tarantula nest and Silverio had the chutzpah to take a stick and literally pull the darn thing out of its hole (actually appeared the tarantula actually enjoyed it and played along).

The catamaran was pretty nifty as it was operated by a local native who used a long oar to waft the boat silently down the lake. We were on the quest to find the giant river otters, caymens, piranhas, various birds, and hopefully an anaconda! and jaguars! Oh my! We managed to luck out and actually see a family of otters that were in the midst of feeding. This was really excellent but we could only get so close without interfering, but the real treat came when Silverio whipped out a raw chicken bone. This was then followed by some old sticks with lures that we used to go fishing for pirañas! The little buggers are wicked difficult to catch as their teeth are so sharp they just rip off the chicken, but we were fortunate that one of the others hauled in two fine beauties. Alas, no anacondas or jaguars were to be found, but waking up at 4:00 I guess was worth the visit to the lake. 

Upon returning back to the lodge, we had high hopes for some snooze time. Those hopes were quickly trounced as Silverio had other plans in mind for us. One thing about Silverio is that he has a ridiculous passion, or well obsession, for birds. I will say though that it was quite admirable how in love with the wildlife and nature he was. When we told him about the macaw fiesta we witnessed the other day, his eyes lit up and couldn't stop smiling and asking us questions. The guides, the lodge, and the community all really take it to heart and have such a huge commitment and passion to keeping the amazon as sustainable as can be. Sans nap, we tossed back on our Wellies and ventured back off into the forest to the same clay lick from the other day to see if we could get up close to the macaws. Unfortunately they were not feeling social this particular day but on our return trek we ran across some red howler monkeys frolicking around in the canopy. I also soon came to find out that, well in fact quite similar to Silverios love affair with birds, Emma shares a similar feeling towards monkeys. We finally found a few macaws perched up in adjacent trees to the monkeys, and it was like a sibling tug of war between which animal the telescope would be focused on, Silverio's birds or Emma's monkeys.....Emma's monkeys ultimately won. After an hour of watching monkeys eat - we finally got our two hour siesta. A much needed siesta indeed as along with a sudden bout of stomach pains from whatever Incan revenge was inflicted on me, an allergic reaction to the bug spray we had led me to pop a couple Benadryl pills that Kristina, the nurse from Chicago, had supplied me, informed me that this Benadryl was the drowsy kind right as I popped them into my mouth...

After our siesta and lunch, we hopped back onto the river boat and traveled downstream for just a few minutes to the local Shaman lodge. Having watched the Anthony Bourdain's No Reservations: Peru where he stayed with a Shaman and "watched" the psychedelic mind altering Ayuaschsa ceremony, we weren't terribly sure what to expect. Don't worry, no Ayuaschsa was ingested during this trip, but a tour around the gardens was quite interesting as we saw the Ayuaschsa plant along with a number of other plants that supposedly cured certain diseases. These ranged from kidney cures, treating cancer, woman's pains, a Viagra type root, and a pheromone type love potion - all of which were boiled down in water and generally added to alcohol. Whether or not these potions actually worked was heavily debated, but it just seemed to be an excuse to drink. They ended up passing around several of the potions to sample and two days later still haven't experienced anything as promised. Emma's highlights included getting a purple tattoo of an arrow drawn on her arm by the guide, supposedly similar to henna, but immediately washed off and just looked like a hideous bruise. The more pleasant experience in my mind was that she got to play around with a wild parrot for quite some time that jollied around her shoulders. 

Having woken up wicked early, one would expect to have the luxury of passing out right after dinner; but alas, Silverio mushed us back out into the jungle for a lovely night walk. When walking through the jungle during the day, of course you can tell its the amazon but you start feeling after a while it's just any ole wooden area, well when your walking at night in the pitch black with only a couple headlights that Silverio frequently tells you to turn off and you're unable to even see your hand if its touching your nose, you never forget you're in the amazon. We also soon learned Silverio either has no fears, isn't totally there in the head, or a death wish. We caught a flicker of eyes not far away in a shallow area of water which Silverio informed us belonged to a baby cayman. Quickly informing us to stand still, he charged forth with only his two hands and his Wellies, while we stood gasping and realizing well if there is a baby cayman, the mama cayman shouldn't be too far away. We also had no clue what to do if Silverio was tag teamed by a few cayman, concluding it would probably be best not to try and assist. Fortunately the cayman were nowhere to be found and Silverio came back to us unscazed. The night walk did yield a couple nocturnal monkeys for Emma, that were quite visible in the trees. Emma clearly won this round, as we heard a screech owl and Silverio proceeded to pull out his iPod and speakers to play some owl calling noises for over 40min, sans flashlights, in the pitch black woods, thus making it feel like over 2hrs of waiting for an owl that never came. Finally Silverio admitted defeat and we trekked on back and then to bed. 

Finally a morning to sorta sleep in until 7:00 when we grabbed breakfast with the group and then hopped on the river boat one last time back to the headquarters and then to the airport. We bid our warm hearted farewells to our group, shared some tears with Silverio, and boarded the plane off to Cusco where we were to finally make it to the long awaited Machu Pichu. 

Day 2: Amazonia; infested with wetness

Well ma' ....we survived the amazon and all the ferocious beasts that accompany it. 

Emma and I decided to spend a 3day/2night excursion into the amazon jungle at the Posada Amazonia lodge. When we first booked this, we literally had no idea what to expect. Perhaps it was going in with zero expectations and expecting to encounter at least one tarantula in our bedroom, but it was such an amazing experience. The staff and especially our guide for the weekend, Silverio, were perhaps the best I've ever had. The bedrooms and lodge were in such amazing condition, the food was incredible, and the activities were perfect. We honestly had no complaints. 

Our fortune began with the flight over from Lima and luck would have it that Emma an I sat right next to a professor from the university of Maryland who brought along his class of 21 students from the masters program of public policy. He has been doing this trip to the same lodge for years now and was very welcoming in answering all the questions we initially had. We decided to be their caboose for the trip with hopes of catching some lectures and other tidbits about their purpose and studies. 

Upon landing in Puerto Maldonado, the company picked us up and took us to their headquarters where we were greeted openly with fresh squeezed papaya juice, tea, and coffee. From there we took a half hour bus ride through the various villages of Puerto Maldonado which were composed of: small huts made of various scrap materials/dirt floors, papaya farms, and various haciendas. Although we were merely passing on a bus, it was quite interesting getting a glimpse into the different lifestyle of these citizens of the jungle and how community oriented they appeared. 

We then made our way to a canoe shaped power boat where we ventured off onto the Tambota river for a 45min boat ride to the lodge. The Maryland folksmen quickly acclimated and accepted us as one of their own, directing their conversations more towards us than their own kin. That, the marvelous lunch, which consisted of a mixture of rice and chicken wrapped in a banana leaf, and well of course the boat ride down the frickin' amazon river made it quite the jolly introduction. But what really brought this full swing was passing by a tree that was filled by about 50 macaws! Apparently this had never occurred before for the guides as they usually are more hidden in the jungle but with a recent flood that eroded their usual tree, they've been couch surfing around and were testing this one out by the clay lick. We spent about 10min wearing down our cameras when they essentially put on a show for us and all erupted from the tree and started flocking around in various dance formations - it was quite the site. 

Going from Lima, which is in the desert, the the jungle lodge, which is well in the jungle, made for quite the change as we soon found out we'd have a persistent sweat and have a coat of water on our skins for the three days. Thus upon making it to the lodge, being greeted with more fresh and cold papaya juice and a cold damp laundered wash cloth just blew our minds. This was then followed by being shown to our rooms which were essentially the ritz-carolton of the jungle by at least my standards. The room only had 3 walls and the supposed 4th was wide open to the jungle. We never had any issue with any wildlife entering, only seeing a red tailed deer once right outside, but no tarantulas which we were expecting as one of the reviews on TripAdvisor had warned they had one in their bathroom. The room's hammock, bed with an awesome canopy bug net, woodpecker door knocker, and the wood work made our dirt ridden jungle bodies feel as comfortable as could be. 

With the Maryland group being so big, they had their own guide and so we just lounged around until our guide, Silverio brought the rest of our group from the airport as they were on a later flight. We honestly lucked out once again as our group consisted of two Australian girls, and a couple from Chicago, all being around 26yrs old, which really helped make this trip. They were overly friendly, could talk to them about any topic, and were just the kindest of folk. I ended up getting a tad sick the second day with a stomach bug and the couple from Chicago being both in the medical field, just unloaded their medical supplies and care onto me, even leaving me with a doggy pill bag upon leaving today. After making our introductions and also selecting our Wellies from the ridiculously massive Wellington boot rack, we stomped forth into the real depths of the jungle to the canopy tower they had built. The tower was absurdly huge, 37meters, or 120ft for you yankees, and confirmed that I don't have a fear for heights, but that I seriously question foreign man made structures that probably don't have the same kind of govt regulations as the US has, or well any at all for that matter. Aside from the increased shaking the higher up the tower we went, the view was unimaginably breathtaking. A full 360 view with the river right below us and  densely packed trees that continued with the curvature of the earth, it felt like I was Mufasa showing Simba the lay of the land. 

We then returned to the lodge where we dabbled upon some more Pisco sours and some other drinks the staff had invented from the natural resources of the jungle. Dinner commenced a phenomenal day as we didn't have to worry about where to eat and the food was all local forest food and tasted phenomenal. We quickly hit the hay as we soon discovered we had to

Wake up at 4:00am to start the day ....

Day 1 - Sleep, La Mar, and John F. Kennedy

Hola familia y amigos,

Emma and I arrived safely to Peru yesterday afternoon. Everything went without a hitch, no delays, and we somehow managed to snag enough sleep to get us through the day after having trekked down to NYC from Poughkeepsie to catch a 2am flight out of JFK. 

I should preface these posts by pointing out that there will most definitely be a lot of unnecessary information, intricate attention to detail, unneccesary adjectives, and the bulk of it consisting of reviews of food. Be forewarned that the attempts at wit may not be for all. 

Having had only minimal/sporadic sleep throughout or plane ride, I was quite impressed by how much we managed to see of Lima and how consistently high our spirits were all day. Also, amongst all the warnings, well wishes for safety, and countless stories, we never once felt unsafe, lost, a presence of a language barrier, or sick from the food (knock on wood for the latter as most of our food did consist of raw fish). 

The initial impression of Lima was a little skewed as the area around the airport (as with most airports) was quite underdeveloped, and the taxi we requested from the hostal didn't show up. The one thing we were a tad concerned about was the safety of the taxis as we've heard numerous warnings about imposter taxis that either well do bad things to you or drop you off at a completely different hotel that said hotel comps them for. That being said, Caeser la Cabbie was a gem. He did take us on a shortcut that in the moment was incredibly questionable going down narrow back alleys, but we then popped out right alongside the Pacific Ocean. 

A mere 30min ride to the Miraflores neighborhood of Lima where we would spend the night, Caeser and us bid our farewells. The hostal we stayed in was nice, above average, not as awesome/bumping as some of the hostals I've stayed in throughout Europe, but the staff was incredibly helpful and friendly, had our own bedroom, and free wifi. Quickly dropping our belongings off, we followed the recommendations of the staff and walked a few blocks to the local cevicheria titled - La Red. 

It was quite apparent right off the bat that this was a local establishment away from the tourist eyes. First the hostal and area of miraflores we were in was quite residential, and also upon walking in there were only incredibly tan people with two parties being sung happy birthday to. Interestingly enough, they began singing happy birthday in English before switching to felice cumpleanos. The food was spot on: amongst constant wide-eye, precarious eye looks and eyebrow raises from Emma, I took the plunge and ordered the cebiche while she took the modest approach of ordering an avacado salad, although the half avacodo that accompanied said salad was literally the size of a softball. The cebiche was excellent, from the incredibly fresh raw fish topped with sweet red onions, placed upon what we believe was a sweet potato and some foreim

gn yellow corn item, right down to the lemon ceviche sauce used to "cook" the fish. The waiter was incredibly friendly and helpful - ensuring a worrisome Emma that the lemonade we ordered was in fact purified, to making fun of me for not being able to manage the hot tomato/pepper appetizer sauce. 

I

 

Ok - I will now attempt to speed things up, although typing this on the plane to the Amazon while drinking our first Coca tea has been quite enjoyable. 

We departed lunch and just decided to wander around the city as it was already about 3 and we only had that day to see Lima. The hostal staff provided us a map of miraflores and highlighted the streets to focus on, but he essentially highlighted the majority of the streets so we did what any snow ridden couple would do - vamos a la mar! With quite picturesque infinity cliffs that plummeted into the ocean, miraflores definitely has some fiiiine real estate in their hands. We spent a few hours just walking around the edges of the cliff, stumbled on a cool Bmx race course, skatepark, and ultimately this really clique romantic cafe that jutted a but out on the edge of the cliff, had swaying trees around it, and of course overlooked the ocean. Surprisingly it wasn't touristy at all, well by all means it could have been touristy and they were just doing a much better job at blending in than us goons. After swigging a couple lattes, we attempted for a while to try and find some way to navigate our way down the precarious cliff to the stony beach at the base of it. Upon finding the path that led down we also found a very cool array of tiny parks lining the path down, titled Parque de Amore (the park of love) with all these fairly massive hearts with initials assembled with fairly massive rocks. The real treat, aside from the perfect sunny weather and endless ocean, was the abundance of surfers catching wave after wave. Never having seen legit surfing before, since well Old Saybrook, CT isn't exactly known for it - this was pretty wicked. After watching them for a while and then two Americans who rented surfboards, for what appeared to be the first time, spend over half an hour just trying to paddle out to the other surfers but kept on being brought in by the waves, we meandered around the rest of Miraflores. 

I included so much detail previously as well, I tend to do such with my initial writing until realizing how much I just wrote, that being the highlight of our day, and well the rest was incredibly enjoyable, but perhaps just difficult to convey the enjoyment as it was mostly just the feel of the contrasting cultures. 

The remainder of the day was spent walking along the main drag, Av. Jose Pardo, which was quite cheesily honky tonky, bustling with people, and general mayhem. After quickly slipping into a Starbucks to just take a picture of the menu, we decided this street wasn't for us and found John F. Kennedy park to hang out in for a bit and proceed to do what Emma proclaims as my favorite thing to do, debate dinner. The recommendation the waiter gave us was questionable as it was on that main drag, quite massive, and Disney world fine dining as Emma said. So of course we had to take this debate to the nearest bar where we dabbled upon out first Pisco Sour, the popular drink of Peru that well not entirely sure what is in it (tequila?) but it was hella smooth, sweet and just so refreshing. We never actually settled on a restaurant as we literally couldn't find any around as they were either way too touristy, expensive or just questionable, until we retreated back to out hostel and stumbled on Sophie Bistro, which was somehow literally right across the roundabout from our hostal. 

Sophie seemed to be owned by just two fairly young brothers not much older than myself who were some of the most friendly and polite staff I've ever experienced. It was quite a traditional looking Peruvian restaurant with a very trendy modern bistro feel to it. With the menu in Spanish and most of the food not being familiar to us, we relied on the waiters recommendations, which curiously enough were some of the most expensive items on the menu but they ultimately prevailed to be delicious. Tapas themed, we ordered first raw razor clams with a ceviche type sauce to them, topped with a yellow pepper foam (this was quite smashing); then some type pulled chicken/pepper on top of a potato with a Parmesan cookie (meh, only so so, sorta bland); and lastly a ridiculous  and heavenly and savory and one of the most intensely flavorful dishes I've had which was some type of baked loaf of pancetta, atop sweet potatoes and red pepper medley, it was something. 

Whelp that essentially concludes the first day of our trip. We hit the hay early, woke up at 6am and just caught a flight to Puerto Maldonado where we'll hop a boat to the lodge we're staying at in the Amazon Jungle. We certainly seem to have lucked out though as we sat next to a professor from the University of Maryland who brought along a class of 20 grad students as part of a public policy masters program. We'll most certainly attempt to catch some of his lectures, or well just be their caboose, and befriend them with some Pisco Sours. 

Ciao until next time.

-Andrew and Emma 

So the Journey Begins.....

Hey y'all,

Welcome friends, family, and primarily my worried mother - to the adventures of Emma and Andrew as we set off into the wonderful lands of Peru.

I can't promise I will be able to update this blog daily depending on time and if our hostal/amazon lodge has solid internet, but figured this would be the easiest way to give quick updates on our travels and to assure y'all we are still chipper and in fine feather.

We begin our trek in only a few hours with a jaunt down to NYC from Poughkeepsie to fly out of JFK wicked early at 2:00am. From there we have a quick layover in Panama City and arrive in Lima around 1:00pm on Thursday, the 13th. The full itinerary of where we'll be hopping around to can be found below.

With two incredibly touristy looking packs, my trusty bulky camera by my side; Emma's whimsical psyche/intense drive for adventure (of course the more level-headed of the two); and my traveling toy alpaca (thanks Seto!); we are well equipped for whatever insects, anaconda, disgruntled alpacas, and questionable ceviche comes our way.

Well ciao! mates; enjoy the oncoming blizzard, and stay in touch!


Love you all,
Andrew and Emma

ITINERARY

Day	Place
Thursday         -	Lima
Friday              -	Amazon Jungle
Saturday          -	Amazon Jungle
Sunday            -	Ollantaytambo
Monday           -	Machu Picchu
Tuesday           -	Sacred Valley
Wednesday      -	Cusco
Thursday         -	Lake Titicaca
Friday             -	Lake Titicaca
Saturday         -	Arequipa
Sunday         -	Lima/Home