Peru: Some Closing Thoughts

Now that our trip to Peru is winding down, here are some thoughts about our two weeks here, in the order in which they come to my head.

• Traveling on a trip like this, in a country without an easy-to-navigate tourism infrastructure, S and I both felt that we needed a travel agent to handle the details of our trip. We found Roberto at Peru Inside Out, and he and his support was exceptional! When we landed in Lima, the driver handed us a cellphone that we used on occasion to check in with him, but usually, things ran smoothly. Drivers met us at the hotels, airports, and train stations. We had knowledgeable guides on our trips (Nancy in Lima, Roberto himself in Arequipa, Omar in Colca/Chivay, Janet in Cusco/Sacred Valley, Augustine in Machu Picchu, Dino in the jungle), and the details of the trips (hotel reservations, train and plane tickets, etc.) were all taken care of. We definitely splurged on this trip, but if you want to go to Peru, check out Peru Inside Out (and I hear they're expanding into Ecuador too!).
• I'm very glad that most of our tours were private. The one time we spent stuck on a large bus (for Inti Raymi) was awful.
• Speaking of Inti Raymi, don't buy the ticket to the big show. It's not worth it. Just wander the town and go to the two free events in Cusco proper.
• Cities we liked: Lima, Arequipa, Cusco.
• Cities we didn't like: Puno
• Hotels we loved: Casa Andina in Arequipa, Colca Lodge, Tambo de Inka in Urubamba, Inkaterra in Machu Picchu Pueblo, Hacienda Concepcion near Puerto Maldonado.
• Hotels we didn't like: Tierra Viva in Puno (but the staff was great)
• The star-rating of hotels seem to be relative to what the city has to offer. Tierra Viva was a four-star, but it was by far the worst property we stayed at.  Colca Lodge was a four-star, but it was on par with the five-stars in the Sacred Valley. Do your research!
• In general, all of the staff at the hotels, airlines, etc., were all excellent. Most spoke English, and if not, they indulged my pigeon Spanish.
• We spent way too many days traveling. There was one time we spent three nights in one place. The rest of the time, we were in the same hotel for one or two nights. That was a mistake.
• Also, we planned too many things. We actually had very little time where we were able to laze about. The few times we did, it was often because we were on a train for 10 hours, or something like that.
• Do not discount the altitude issues when traveling in Peru. It's there, and it's real.
• S found some clothing made by Ex Officio that was specifically treated to ward off bugs. We both bought some, and I treated some of my other clothing with a spray to do the same thing. It worked fantastically. We both came back from the Amazon jungle with nary a bug bite.

If we were going to come to Peru again, I think this might be a smarter itinerary:

• Three nights in Lima
• Three or four nights in Cusco
• Four or five nights in the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu
• Three nights in the jungle

Peru: Day 5: Colca Canyon, Chivay, and on to Puno

A terrible night's sleep. S got maybe two hours. I got four or five.

Today was a pretty awful day.

We got up at 5:00 am to shower, grab breakfast, and meet O and R for an early morning drive through the Colca Valley and into Colca Canyon. The last part of the drive was 70 minutes on an unkept gravelly road with switchbacks, ruts, steeps, and big potholes. We were both queasy when we reached the top of the canyon.

The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world, about three times deeper than the Grand Canyon. The road up is lined with small towns, merchants selling wares, old mining camps, tunnels, and shepherds with their flocks. At the top is a lookout where most mornings the gigantic Andean Condor flies. It's huge - over three meters in wingspan, and it glides around on thermal drafts. S didn't last long in the cold windy mountain air. She saw a condor and then went to the van to take a nap. I took some photos.

We retraced our drive down the canyon wall (doing down was no easier than going up, and we all cheered when we finally reached paved road). Once back down, we headed into Chivay, the small dusty town where we had lunch yesterday. O took us on a tour through the market, which is open daily and has all sorts of produce, domestic products, and clothing. O told us that the two main communities in the Colca Valley distinguish themselves by the style of hat they wear, which in turn is modeled by the way the tribes used to modify the shapes of their babies' heads in the pre-Columbian days.

We also stopped for a photo with O.

Lunch was another buffet like yesterday, with slightly different cuisine. Still tasty, and a great variety. O showed us photos of his daughter Maya (Maja?), who is two and has huge eyes.

Incidentally, there's a tune that Paul Simon made famous in the states called 'El Condor Pasa.' The lyrics Americans may know start out 'I'd rather be a hammer than a nail...). Well, not only is that a real Peruvian tune, but it's super-popular here. We've heard it five times today already, and as I write this, the day is only half over. Wait, make that six. I asked O, and he says it's not just a song for tourists. It's a real song that Peruvians identify with.

We left Chivay and headed back up onto the high plains. S and I almost immediately fell into a light sleep. Again, we passed the highest point in our journey, but this time we stopped for photos. This is Fozzie Bear's favorite volcano.

O took his leave from us at a rest area where three roads converge, so we said our goodbyes and continued east to Puno with just R at the wheel. He doesn't speak much English, so S and I were able to have a nap. Thankfully.

Puno is dirty and poor. Our hotel is freezing, and the heater only turns on when the temp gets below 64 F. S ran the hot water to warm up the room, and I read, wrote, and watched Italy beat England. Then, I went out to find some pizza to bring back to the room. Bad pizza. Then we watched Ivory Coast beat Japan and snuggled.

Today is one that we don't need to ever repeat. The condors were nice, but they weren't worth the two days of driving at altitude, sometimes along nasty dirt roads to see. Puno is definitely not a destination we'd return to. O was a great guide, but other than that (and the nice lodge we stayed in last night), this leg of the trip was not worth it. Peru has some beautiful things to see, but their infrastructure needs a lot of work.

 

Peru: Day 4: Arequipa & Colca valley

Neither of us slept particularly well last night, so it was hard to get up and cleaned in time it make our 8am van out of Arequipa. Roberto swung by at 7.45 to say farewell, and by 8.10, we were on the road in a private van with our guide Omar and driver Rolan. As we drive out of town, O told us about the history of Arequipa, from its early pre-Inca days through the present. He talked about the main industries of Peru (mining and tourism) as we passed shantytowns of squatters who worked in the mines.

Arequipa sits on the edge of a mountain range. To the west is a plateau that leads to the ocean 80 km away. To the east are a series of major volcanos, none of which have erupted recently, but all of which could blow at any time.

The city faded away as we headed uphill into the high desert. Hills, mountains, clouds, and volcanic plumes dotted the landscape. We headed uphill via a series of switchbacks, and R proved his driving mastery again and again.

Shortly after getting back in R's van, we passed a couple in wedding garb, having their photos taken against the backdrop of the mountains. We waved and honked the horn.We reached a plateau and the road straightened out. This is cameloid territory, and the first ones we saw were vicuñas, the smallest and most consistent-looking of the cameloid group. Vicuñas all have cinnamon coats with white bellies, and their wool is said to be some of the most expensive around (I saw a vicuña sweater yesterday that cost $1000!). We stopped for photos.

 

A few miles later, we turned off the main road and stopped at a rest area, where alpacas and sheep were mingling.

Back in the car for the next leg of the journey. Now that we were at some serious altitude, O told us about the Coca leaf. Peruvians roll a small handful of leaves up, sometimes with a catalyst like Sodium Bicarbonate, and chew on it. The immediate (within 5 or 10 minutes) is a slight numbing of the face, lips, and throat. It also serves as a stimulant, helping your body adjust to the altitude more strongly. O also maintains that scientific study shows that chewing Coca leaves increases the amount of red blood cells, prevents osteoporosis, staves hunger, and cleans your teeth. If you're thinking 'hey, isn't the Coca leaf used to make cocaine?', you'd be right, but cocaine is an hyper-processed chemical extraction of only one of the chemicals from the Coca leaf. Kind of like comparing cold pills to meth.

We passed the bride and groom again. Guess they whizzed past us when we were at the rest area.

Another short while on the high Sierra before we started climbing again. We passed through the highest point on our journey, 16,000 feet, which was marked by a sign, a flag, and a woman selling trinkets. We didn't stop. Maybe tomorrow.

Then, a switchback descent into Chivay, a dusty town surrounded by terraces that serves as the capital of this region of Peru. They have a small soccer stadium, a small amphitheater, and a buffet where we had lunch. The buffet was full of a lot of things I hadn't gotten to try, and I was eager to try a bite of each of them. My favorites were alpaca sausage stuffed with spinach and a carrot fritter. The conversation with O was about the World Cup and food economics (with regards to quinoa).

Back in the van, we passed the wedding couple as they drove into town.

We left dusty Chivay and drove straight through Yanque, a dustier smaller town that has seen a significant amount of youth flight as they get an education and want more. R circumscribed the dilapidated central plaza, and we kept going. Shortly after leaving Yanque, we crossed the Colca river, turned onto a side road and started making our way down to the Colca Lodge, our home for the night.

After a short siesta, we walked the grounds. There's a small path past some hot springs, over a footbridge, to a small corral or llamas and alpacas. We walked there and back, stopping to check out the fancy spa, once again seeing the bride and groom (I think they're shooting fashion shots for a magazine), before having a snack at the hotel bar and watching the World Cup for a bit.

I'm going to stop now, before dinner, as the network is slow and takes a long time to upload images. More tomorrow!

 

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