May the sun remain a young man,
and the moon a young woman,
May the world not turn over,
Let there be peace.
An Inca Prayer
My first introduction to Peru was in High School when we read Thorton Wilder's Bridge of San Luis Rey. Later on, I became interested in Peruvian art, especially the woven tapestries and paintings. I could not wait to go down there and see in real life, the women with colorful dresses and bowler hats, selling flowers. So finally, on September 23, 1999, with my husband Lu, we embarked on our journey from Los Angeles to Peru. We chose that time period to avoid the rainy season and to celebrate my birthday at Machu Picchu.
This is the story of our trip. I will provide you links to sites where you can visit to find out historical and geographical information and also links to some great sites where you can enjoy stories of other travelers.
LIMA - September 24, 1999
After a 6 hour flight from Los Angeles, we arrived in Lima at 2.00AM in the morning. Since we had only one day to spend in Lima, we decided to skip going downtown to visit the museums and started exploring the Miraflores area, where our hotel was, as early as possible in the morning.
The day started with Lima's coastal fog called "gurua", kind of like "June Gloom" of Southern California. We started out by visiting the nearby art and handicraft galleries in the Miraflores area. One in particular, Artenias Miraflores, had great artifacts, but we figured we would find much better and cheaper stuff in Cuzco. So we controlled ourselves and didn't buy anything. Although we did shop quite a bit in Cuzco, we couldn't find most of the things we liked in this gallery.
We ate lunch at a small restaurant (Rincon Chari) recommended by our hotel's personnel as having good, authentic Peruvian food. We had Aji de Gallina (spicy, creamy chicken dish), Ceviche (marinated fish salad), Lomo Saltado (beef dish mixed with French fries, served over rice).
After lunch, with map in hand, we started to walk towards Barranco. Since my husband is an architect, a Peruvian friend had recommended the Barranco District overlooking the Pacific ocean known for its old colonial and 19th century architecture, an area preferred by artists and writers. After almost suffocating from exhaust fumes, we realized that Barranco was quite a distance away to walk from Miraflores, so we broke down and hailed a taxi, which turned out to be very inexpensive. We found Barranco to be quite and colorful. We were told that it comes alive at nights due to the many nightclubs in the area. Its architecture indeed was interesting, however, most of the buildings were in desperate need for repair. By then, for our luck, the sun came out and I was able to take a picture of the coastline, through the haze.
CUZCO - September 25, 1999
After the big lunch, we decided to skip having dinner to prepare ourselves for Cuzco's high altitude of 11,150 ft. (3,400m). Our one hour flight to CUZCO with AeroContinente was scheduled to leave at 8.30AM the next day. The flights to Cuzco are mostly in the mornings to avoid the high winds that develop in the afternoon. After arriving in Cuzco, we were supposed to rest for a while to get acclimated to the altitude, then we would go on a city tour and visit the surrounding archeological sites. Unfortunately, the plane was delayed for a few hours due to thunderstorms in Cuzco. When we finally arrived in Cuzco, we only had time to check into our hotel before going on the tours.
The altitude didn't seem to bother us at first. Just to make sure, we kept drinking the complimentary coca tea (mate de coca) which tasted kind of like chamomile tea, offered at the hotel's lobby. There are so many tourists in Cuzco, if you don't make your reservations way ahead of time, it is hard to find your choice of hotels. Luckily, our tour organization "Sol International" had made a last minute upgrade and we ended up staying at one of the best hotels in town (Hotel Libertador) for that night in Cuzco.
For the tours, we purchased a multi attraction tourist ticket ($10) which gives you entrance to numerous sites in the city and the surrounding archeological sites. The city tour started at the church of Santa Domingo which is built on the foundation of Cuzco's most sacred temple, Coriancha (Temple of the Sun). Its lower walls of Inca masonry had survived the devastation of the city by Pizarro's troops in 1533, but the gold and silver sheets studded with jewels covering the walls were all melted down. One can only imagine its wealth in Inca times. Our next stop was at the Catedral and La Compania de Jesus.
After the city tour, we headed out by a tour bus to the nearby archeological sites. Our first stop was Sacsayhuaman (sounds like sexy woman) which was an Inca fortress, displaying their ancient construction skills. Made of massive stones, weighing up to 125 tons, this site overlooking Cuzco (city built in the shape of a puma, with Sacsayhuaman as the head), has a double zigzag shape, which is supposed to imitate the teeth of a puma. From top of these stones you can get a great view of the city below. This is also a place where children dressed in their colorful clothes holding baby llamas, puppies, lamb will pose for photos. They do expect a tip. There is so much poverty that you think maybe these children bring home more money than their parents.
As we were boarding our tour bus to continue on to the other ruins, a man came by selling postcards with each tourist's photo taken during our tour in the city. Evidently, they instantly mounted our photos on the postcards, and then followed our bus to Sacsayhuaman. For 5 soles each, it was a nice souvenir.
Leaving Sacsayhuaman, we continued on to Quenko, Puca Pucara and Tambo Machay. By now, after walking and climbing rocks, we started to feel the altitude, which made our heads pound. Some of the people on the tour were actually feeling a lot worse, not even getting out of the bus to look at sites. As soon as we arrived back at the hotel, we hit the complimentary mata tea stand. That tea is definitely the remedy for altitude sickness. For dinner, we went to Plaza de Armas to look for a place to eat. We found a small restaurant on one of the side streets, serving Peruvian style rotisserie chicken that tasted pretty good. The cost was $7 for the two of us which also included beer.
MACHU PICCHU - September 26, 1999
We had a great buffet breakfast at the hotel (all breakfasts on our tour were inclusive), before going to the train station for our trip to Machu Picchu. We would have loved to go on the Inca trail, but due to our limited time, we had to settle for the train. Since it is too steep for the train to handle the curves in the tracks, first part of the journey involved swichbacks, going forward, then backward, in a zigzag fashion up the hillside in order to climb out of Cuzco.
After 4 hours of comfortable train ride, we arrived at Agua Calientes, the last stop for the train to Machu Picchu. It started to rain. All the souvenir vendors were now peddling rain ponchos. They probably made more money selling rain gear than selling souvenirs. Almost all tourists, (including Lu, my coat was water-proof) bought a rain poncho while waiting to board the bus. After a half hour ride on the bus which climbs up a steep zigzag road with 13 hairpin turns, we arrived at the entrance and at Hotel Ruinas, (the only hotel located in Machu Picchu) where we would spend the night. We had decided to spend the night at Machu Picchu, not only to spend my birthday there, but also to be able to photograph the ruins at dawn. It turned out that the hotel was overpriced and we missed the dawn, but at least we were able to walk around without the crowds the next morning.
The rain now was falling very heavy, not only it was hard to take any photos, but also it was hard to listen to the guide. Regardless, we made the tour. We weren't too upset because we had another day which we hoped would turn out to be sunny. That night, we had our first Pisco Sour (few of them). It was still raining but it is supposed to be normal since Machu Picchu is actually in a tropical area.
MACHU PICCHU/CUZCO - September 27, 1999
Next morning the sun came out. Although we started out real early, we still were not able to catch the sunrise over Machu Picchu. But at least it wasn't raining and there were hardly anybody around. It was like we had the whole place to ourselves. Although only 43 miles from Cuzco, Machu Picchu's remote location on the narrow ridge 2,000 ft. above the Urubamba river had concealed it from the conquistadors and had prevented it from being sacked. This actually a small town of 150 houses is a triumph of Inca engineering and architectural achievement and was discovered as recently as 1912.
Since we missed out going on the Inca Trail, after walking and exploring all the sites, we decided to hike up the Huayna Picchu, the famous peak overlooking the ruins. You have to register in a book at the entrance of the trail. It must be to make sure you get back alive. The trail was steep and narrow at some sections, however, there were some wire rails to hold on to. Although at 8,000ft, not as high as Cuzco, it was a strenuous hike especially when you are not in best shape. But it must be the awesome beauty of the place and the fact of actually being there pumps up your adrenalin and gives you strength. Just before we reached the top, it started to pour again. The decline was harder, because the rain made the trail very slippery and watching your step was more difficult. By the time we got down to somewhat even ground, our legs were kind of like jello. By then, the train had arrived and everywhere was full of tourists. Although we were also tourists, maybe this being our second day, we felt like natives and hated to see the crowd ruining the beauty of the place.
Soon after lunch at the self-serve cafeteria, we got on the bus to go to Agua Calientes to do some shopping before boarding the train back to Cuzco. On our way down the winding road, we saw a young boy waving and we waved back. As the bus reached the second bend, there was the boy again. As we started to wonder if it was the same boy, we saw him again. We kept seeing him at every bend waving and shouting HEEELLOOO. Finally when we reached the bottom, to our disappointment he was not there. Then he appeared and the bus stopped to let him in where he collected tips for his efforts. Evidently, he ran down the steep paths cutting the road, and meeting the bus at each bend. Since the buses run all day long, I wonder how many times he makes this trip and if he has any competition.
After browsing the market at Agua Calientes, we boarded our train to Cuzco. Somewhere along the way, the train stopped at a station. We were told that the rest of the trip was going to be on a bus. The reason being part of the train having to go back to Agua Calientes to pick up some people, who we figured must be a muck-a-muck. Unfortunately, we happened to be riding in one of the wagons that had to go back. The bus ride was very uncomfortable, where we were packed like sardines. We arrived at Cuzco around 8PM, about 3 hours later than scheduled arrival time. Since we were leaving for Arequipa the next day, we wanted to spend as much time as possible in Cuzco that evening. Our hotel for the night was changed to Posada Del Inca. It was not as good as Hotel Libertador but luckily, it was situated right in the middle of the shopping area where all the street vendors were. We took a small bag to Machu Picchu and had left rest of our bags at Hotel Libertador's luggage room. After moving our stuff to Posada Del Inca, we spent the rest of the night shopping. Our best buy was an oil painting, so beautifully done that we actually felt bad trying to bargain with the artist. We regretted that we could not spend more time in Cuzco.
AREQUIPA - September 28, 1999
We left Cuzco for Arequipa early in the morning. The weather in Arequipa was sunny and warm as expected. We found it to be a beautiful city, especially in contrast to Lima. The "white city" is named for its buildings made out of light colored volcanic rock that comes from Volcan Misti, one of trio of volcanoes surrounding the city. Our tour guide told us that another reason it is called the white city is for its Spanish population that goes back to colonial times. Although a clean city, the noxious exhaust fumes were ever present. According to our driver, this is due to the import of used Japanese cars during Fujimoro's presidency. Evidently, the emission system of these type of cars are not suitable for high altitude. We were surprised to see that there were no traffic lights at most of the main intersections. Amazingly, we did not see one accident!
After checking into Hotel Libertador, we went for a city tour that included neighborhoods with beautiful colonial architecture and a tour of the Monasterio De Santa Catalina, a convent that housed daughters of aristocrats, starting in the 16th century. The complex is like a small city, where in its heydays, nuns had their own servants and dined with porcelain plates and silver cutlery. The convent was opened to the public in 1970 after 400 years. 20 nuns still live in one section of the convent that once housed up to 500. Great place to take photos; however, we were there late in the afternoon, the worst time to take photos due to the harsh sun.
Our next stop was the Plaza de Armas, beautiful with its palm trees, old gas lamps and a white stone fountain with pigeons everywhere. It is surrounded by the Catedral, and two story arcades. After visiting the Catedral and La Compania, we headed back to the hotel. While we were looking for a place to eat dinner, lo and behold, we see this small restaurant called El Turco. Since we are Turkish-Americans, we immediately stopped to see what it was all about. Here is this young Turkish guy married to a Peruvian, selling Chicken Doner Kebab (chicken gyros) in pita bread along with other Turkish dishes. It was a nice surprise to find an authentic Turkish restaurant, of all the places, in Arequipa.
COLCA CANYON - September 29, 1999
Our tour to Colca Canyon was in a minivan, cramped with 12 people including the two of us, the driver and our great tour guide Blanca. The other people on our tour were all European; couples from Netherlands, England, Spain and 2 guys from Germany. Before starting our journey, we stopped by at a small grocery store on the outskirts of the city to buy refreshments for the road and to use the rest room. Our guide recommended a chewable over the counter medicine that would prevent altitude sickness. As we were going to even higher altitude than Cuzco, most of us on the tour bought the medication, just in case. After four hours of very rough and dusty ride on unpaved roads in a minivan without shocks, we arrived at a small cafe in the middle of nowhere. On the way, we had passed Aguada Blanca National Reserve where we saw wild vicunas and some pink flamingos from a distance. At the cafe, we were offered coca tea with some other kind of herbs to prepare for our ascent to almost 15,000ft. It was also the only stop where we could use the toilet. Well, for those of you who are used to Western plumbing, be prepared. You have to carry your own toilet paper and towelettes and maybe a small flash light to see where you are stepping.
It started to hail as we made our way to the summit where it is over 14,000 above sea level. The land is totally bare except for thousands of piled stones. They are supposed to be offerings to the gods, to make one's travel through the narrow and winding dirt roads safe. This area is also the habitat for long tailed rabbits called Vizcacha. They hide behind the rocks, and I was the only lucky one in the van who spotted one.
Upon descent from the summit, we arrived at Chivay, a small town where we would stay for the night. First we stopped to have lunch. Since our tour was included as a package deal through Sol International, we were taken to a different restaurant then our tour friends. Although ours was a nicer restaurant, we didn't want to be separated from the rest of the people, just when we had started to enjoy the company. We are wanna-be vegetarians, but we both ordered Alpaca steaks, just to say we tried it. At least, it was less adventurous than eating the guinea pig dish (cuy). Although we felt guilty and carnivorous ordering the meat, it turned out to be very lean and tasty. After lunch we were taken to our hostels, where we were once again separated from the rest. Our place for the night Hostel Koening, was at the outskirts of Chivay. After, we freshened up a little bit, we were taken to an outdoor thermal pool (La Calera hot springs). Despite the freezing and hailing weather, people who had brought along their swimming suits went into the pool. Those of us traveling very light and not prepared for any water activities during the trip, just watched the others enjoy the hot thermal pool. The good thing was at least we avoided the chance of catching pneumonia, compared to the bathers who were soaking wet after they got out of the pool in the freezing weather.
Back in the hostel, the room had no heating except for two heavy llama wool blankets on each bed. We immediately went into bed fully dressed with our coats on to keep warm. I wanted to finish reading one of the books I had started to read on the plane. Having read all the reading materials he brought with him, Lu decided to borrow a TV from the hostel keeper. He paid 5 soles for the TV that barely worked after the hostel keeper played with the cables for an hour. It had 2 channels, one showed a soap opera and the other a talk show, of course both in Spanish. For dinner, the hostel keeper prepared us a delicious meal, which included cream of asparagus soup, sautéed chicken breast with fries and dessert.
COLCA CANYON - September 30, 1999
The next morning, our van came to pick us up at 6AM, for our trip to Colca Canyon and to see the condors. Our first stop was at a town called Yanque. Kids buzzed around hoping to be photographed for a small tip. I took a couple of pictures of a little girl about 2 years old, forced by her parents to pose for the camera with a baby llama and a baby alpaca. She spilled her drink on her pretty dress and started crying.
Colca Canyon is world's deepest canyon, (10,607ft.-3182m.) which is formed by an enormous fault in the earth's crust between two huge volcanoes with Colca river running below. At the edge of the canyon, there is a majestic view of agricultural terraces that are being cultivated by Quechua farmers in much the way as their ancestors did centuries ago. The canyon has geological/geothermal history of earthquakes and volcanic eruptions that are evident in fault lines on the road. In fact, according to our English journeyman, who turned out to be a geophysicist specializing in earthquakes, the fault line was the road. He told us that thermal activity in the area is constant, causing tremors every 20 minutes. This information was very assuring when we had to go through a tunnel on the road. Everybody was silent, and the tunnel seemed to be more than a mile long, which we had to go through again on the way back from Cruz Del Condor.
The best time to see the condors are early in the morning, as they leave their nests in the gorges of the canyon to begin their daily flights in search for food. They are the largest flying birds in the Western Hemisphere. The adult Andean condors can have wing spans over 10ft. and can travel 300 miles/day scavenging for dead animals on which to feed. After almost an hour wait, a condor flew out of the gorges. Although everyone was waiting with their cameras in hand, it was so sudden that I doubt if anyone was able to photograph it. 15 minutes later, another flew out, although from a distance, I was able to photograph that one. Regardless, it felt very good to walk around in the extremely fresh but thin air. Almost everyone seemed to be breathless walking around at that altitude.
Along the way and at Condor Pass, women from Arequipa were selling fruit and handicrafts along the ridge. The dresses from this region are light in color and pretty. The style of their hats were also quite different than the other regions. We also stopped to see the hanging tombs on the mountain side where mummies were found dating back to pre-Incan times. On our way back to Chivay, we stopped at Maca, a town that was devastated by the earthquake in 1991, an is constantly sinking due to the major thermal activity in the area. The tourist attraction of this town was an eagle posing on top of the tourist's heads in front of the church ruined by the earthquake. By this time, we needed to use the restroom. I have seen primitive restrooms, however, this one at the back of a small convenience store was the worst. 2 cute little girls fought over the one sol, the cost of using the dark hole. I had to console the younger one and gave her an additional tip. It breaks one's heart to see how indigenous these people are.
We returned to Chivay for lunch. As a result of our complaint, our tour guide Blanca arranged everyone in the tour to have lunch at the nicer restaurant. This time we had fresh grilled trout which was delicious.
When we finally made it back to Arequipa, we decided to go out and explore the city some more before settling for the night. We found wondering around at night to be quite safe in this town. We bought some empanadas from a bakery and a bottle of wine from a liquor store and headed back to the hotel.
AREQUIPA/PUNO - October 1, 1999
Our flight to Juliaca/Puno was later in the afternoon, so we spent the morning shopping for alpaca sweaters and other souvenirs. Maybe because we were running low in cash, items seemed to be expensive, especially in comparison to Cuzco. A tip for everyone: most stores do not accept travel checks, you have to find a bank or an exchange store to exchange your money which ends up being a major hassle.
When we arrived at the Juliaca airport, we were greeted by a Peruvian band and military personnel. When we asked around to find out what this commotion was all about, we were told that a very important person was on the plane. It turned out that this VIP was a famous chef who appears on a Peruvian food channel.
After a half hour drive from Juliaca airport we arrived in Puno. We had tried to stay at Hotel Libertador which overlooks Lake Titicaca, but unfortunately, it was full. Instead we ended up at Hostel Hacienda. It was the worst accommodation we had during the entire trip, however, we were pleased to find out that it was located right in the heart of the town. When we arrived there, it was later in the evening and very cold. I had to buy a wool hat and gloves in order to walk around without freezing. Even Lu bought gloves. This is the land of women with bowler hats. The hats are very funny looking, like they have shrunk from being wet. I resisted the temptation to buy one to wear for Halloween. We had grilled fresh trout again for dinner.
LAKE TITICACA - October 2, 1999
Early in the morning we were taken to the docks to board the boat for our trip to Uros Islands and Taquile Island on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world at 13,000 ft. According to the Incan legend, the creator of universe, Viracocha, emerged from its waters. The weather was sunny but cold, and the color of the sky and the water was the bluest I have seen. Our first stop was at floating islands of Uros people. The Uros are a group of floating islands made from a type of straw called totora reeds. Totora grows in abundance in Lake Titicaca and the islanders use it for everything, even as food. In fact, offered one, I even tasted the stuff, which is tasteless and similar to the coarse part of an asparagus. Walking on these floating islands is like walking on a waterbed; cushy and swishy. Since totora rots after a while, it needs to be repaired constantly to avoid accidents. We were told that the water is so cold, one cannot survive more than 15 minutes in the icy waters of Lake Titicaca.
When we arrived at one of the islands, we were first taken to a nature museum full of stuffed animals living in the area. Then we went on a tour around the island in a boat made out of totora reed. According to our guide, nowadays most of the Uros people live on the mainland, but come to the floating islands for the tourists. I would have liked to spend a little bit more time here, but we had to continue our trip to Taquile island which would take 4 hours.
There are two docks on Taquile island. One side requires to climb up about 500 steps and the other a fairly easy one hour hike to get to the town on top of the hill. We docked on the side that required hiking. Immediately, girls with black shawls over their heads swarmed us, trying to tie woven bracelets on our wrists. Obviously, tourism has arrived to this island which had been isolated from the outside world for many years. By now, we have become used to the altitude, so the hike up the hill was actually invigorating, except for the mid-day sun which was hot and piercing.
We were surprised how primitive this island is when we arrived at the tiny town square, which had only one restaurant. There is a community store where they sold their woven goods which was very pricey. I wonder how long these people will be able to keep their unique identities before modernization takes over.
Everyone on this island is a knitter. Men wear a stocking cap that they have knitted themselves, black pants and white shirts. They also wear a colorful woven sash around their waist. The women wear wide skirts and black shawls over their heads with colored pompoms on the corners to distinguish the married ones from the unmarried.
After a great lunch where we ate grilled trout, our favorite dish on this trip, we started our descend down the docks, this time using the stairway. Its interesting to see men carrying heavy sacks actually running up these steps.
Once back on the boat, everyone was sleepy. Some had motion sickness and tried to sleep it off. Even our tour guide, who had been entertaining us by singing songs in his Aymara language on the way out dozed off. Some on the tour, especially the northern Europeans actually tried to get a suntan, which is deadly for the skin at that altitude. As a Melanoma survivor, I was amazed at these people who try to get a suntan at any cost. I tried to avoid the sun as much as I could, even with multiple coats of sunscreen.
We arrived back in Puno before sunset. I was hoping to see a Lake Titicaca sunset. Unfortunately, we missed sunrises and sunsets all throughout the trip. After dinner, we walked around the town a little bit before going back to the hotel.
PUNO/SILLUSTANI/LIMA - October 3, 1999
This was our last day in Peru. We still had the morning to ourselves, before going on a tour of Sillustani on our way to the airport to fly out to Lima. Since it was Sunday, in addition to Sunday market, there was a parade in which almost all town's people participated. And, the TV chef we saw at the airport was the guest of honor. After watching the parade for a while, we went to the market. We had missed Pisac's Sunday market, so this market where I got to see the women with bowler hats selling flowers, was a treat.
Around noon, our guide came and picked us up for our trip to Sillustani, then to the airport. As soon as we arrived in Sillustani, it started to hail. People who had been attending a festival up the hill, was now coming down in hoards, running for cover from the hail. We were disappointed that we had missed the festival. We decided to go up the hill instead of waiting for the hail to stop.
Sillustani is one of the sites in Puno area that holds mysterious burial towers called chullpas. These burial towers were built by Colla people, before they were conquered by the Incas. They were most likely were used to bury nobles.
Since hail never stopped, it was very hard to walk around, let alone photograph anything. After visiting a small museum on the site, which housed some Incan mummies and other archeological finds, we took off for the airport.
So finally our 10 day trip to Peru came to an end. It was even better than I had imagined it. I hope it will stay as an off the beaten track place to go for many years to come.