I had hoped to complete our Asian adventures without mishaps and got a bare few hours from succeeding. I sent 80% of all my clothes to be laundered in Manila but forgot to pick them up before closing and our flight was for 5am the following morning. After numerous attempts to have the shop opened, I had to accept the fact that I was down to one pair of underwear, one pair of shorts, one socks, one pants and a shirt. With our next stop being the most expensive country in the world, Japan, I was not going to replenish my wardrobe until South America. Thus I was one funky Canadian after a few days in Japan and 36 hours of air transit.

Our goal was to end up in the ancient Incan capital of Cuzco, Peru, and our route was Manila to Tokyo to Houston to Lima with an 8 hour airport layover before catching the first flight to Cuzco. The landing into the mountain valley that Cuzco lies in is called the tea cup as the plane has to dive into the short valley; it was hair raising to say the least.

Cuzco lies at 3400 m above sea level so altitude acclimatization is required. We spent the first two days sleeping, eating, drinking coca tea and shopping for socks and underwear. It is a great town to cool your heels with cobbled, narrow streets, historic Spanish cathedrals and restored Incan ruins. Much of the old buildings in town are built from carved blocks stolen from Incan ruins making the other stone structures look crude. The Inca were master stone masons, industrious agriculturists and fierce warriors that created a large empire starting in Cuzco that stretched from Southern Columbia to Central Chile. Incredibly, this expansion only lasted 100 years before civil war and the Spanish Conquistadors destroyed it.

Cuzco is the jumping off point to the Sacred Valley with its plethora of restored Incan cities and of course the most famous ¨lost city¨, Machu Picchu. We rode a comfortable train that snaked its way beside the riotous Rio Urubamba, clinging to walls of the soaring Andes Mountains. The colour contrasts of the chocolate milk river, jungle covered mountains, marshmallow clouds and snow capped peaks was amazing, making the four hour journey wiz by. We stayed overnight in the town of Aguas Calientes, translation ¨hot water¨, named for its hot springs, before catching the 5:30 am bus that wound its way up 1 km in elevation to the mountain citadel of Machu Picchu, which is only one of the scores the Inca built. The city was ¨discovered¨ by an American in the early 1900´s and the Peruvian government restored it and made it the must see destination for any South American visit. Staying the night in Aguas and catching the first bus guaranteed us some tranquil time to explore before the hordes of gringos, as much as 3,000 per day in high season, polluted the site.

We tumbled off the bus in the dawn light and made our way up a path that gave us a spectacular view of the stone city that sits on the saddle between the mounts (picchus) of Machu and Huayna. The grey stone temples, common buildings, houses and laneways sat on a carpet of emerald grass. Its beauty gave me goose bumps. It’s not so much the quality of the stone work compared to the likes of India or Cambodia as it is the lonesome, isolated mountain top location. We wandered around the ruins for a few hours, bumping into very few other awed gringos greeting in hushed tones that the place seemed to demand before we hiked up the sheer walled Huayna Picchu that perches over the ruins. The view over the lost city was incredible and we sat watching dense pockets of clouds race up the mountain walls, engulfing Machu Picchu before falling off into the adjacent gorge. While I thought the accent up the front side of Huayna was an adventurous rush, the decent down the back side was almost madness. They say five people died last year on this trek and after the experience, I’m surprised it was only five! When we got back to the ruins the hordes had arrived and it did not seem as irreverent as the morning but it was fun watching the horny llamas mow down a few tourists in the tight alley ways.

Big ¨hi¨ to Desiree and Ryan, a couple from Calgary that we shared good food, beer and laughs with in Cuzco and Aguas Calientes. Sorry we missed you at M.P!

Next stop was the Sacred Valley town of Ollantaytambo, which has been continuously inhabited by the Inca since the 13th century. The town’s buildings and alleys are made from precise massive stone blocks laid 800 years ago and it is dominated by an Incan fortress on one mountain side and an ancient prison and temples on the other. Again, it was peaceful to wander here right up to the late afternoon arrival of the tour package hordes, some 20 bus loads. We had some special moments when we introduced a young girl to binoculars and we learned some more Spanish from a couple of local boys.

The next day saw us bussing to Pisac and another Incan citadel. This one required a gasping two hour hike up a mountain side terraced for agriculture as most of the 150km long Sacred Valley is. The quantity and quality of the Inca terraces is unrivalled by any I have ever seen, including the Philippines.

Our next caper was to get to Puno located at 3,800 m on Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world and home to the Uros people who craft and live on floating islands made of reeds. We invested in a two day tour of this lake. The boat held twenty gringos and set out in a cold morning downpour that turned into a brilliant thin atmosphere sunny day. Unfortunately our visit to a reed island community was in the downpour part of the day, but was still amazing to see how these people craft everything, including their boats, from reeds. The island was about the size of a football field and centuries old, they just keep replenishing the reeds.

For the most part, villages still cling to their traditional ways of life and to the traditional costume. The garb has many meanings such as status, family, marital status and tribe. All plainly displayed for locals, for us it is just another Peruvian treat. The food is a delicious mix of fresh vegetables, meat or fish and spices or sauces. I have been able to partake in two cute and cuddly animals: one, the adorable roast alpaca and the other the fuzzy fried guinea pig. And yes, it still had its fur on.

We then made our way to Isla Amantani where we were billeted with a family for the night, staying in a two storey mud brick home. The island is completely terraced and there is hardly a square meter not farmed. The tour group reconvened for a hike to the highest peak to watch the sun set. We befriended two Dutch guys, Jesse and Dennis and we enjoyed the fabulous views from the 4,100m peak where the lake gave us a spectacular gift of isolated rain bursts that created vertical rainbows in the sunset. The vivid colour columns set against the deep blue lake and far off snow capped peaks set everyone’s mouth agape.

After a typical rice dinner with our host family, we were adorned in the island’s typical costume and escorted to the town hall. Brandy’s outfit consisted of two layers of skirts, cumber bund, shirt and shawl, all intricately stitched in colourful patterns. I had to wear a poncho. We both had to wear alpaca hats knitted by our host mother so our family could pick us out from the other gringos. Needless to say, it was cumbersome for us both. The town hall or ¨disco¨ had a broken lock so the window had to be smashed and after one local casualty from the glass we were in and got down to some serious folk dancing. It was a cross between line and square dancing to three duelling bands. It really was a blast though somewhat sweaty as the songs were 10 to 15 minutes long. To catch relief from dancing we stepped outside to be awed by a clear night sky. The lack of light pollution and thin atmosphere brought us closer to the heavens than ever before and showed stars we had never even imagined. It was too much, really.

After a few hours of this we bedded down in our five foot high room and five foot long bed to a night so quiet you could hear a fish burp half a mile away. We got to use a night pot and really preferred it to the outhouse.

The next day had us hike Isla Taquile where we had a fresh lake trout feed and then a long sunny boat ride back to Puno. We sent Dennis and Jesse off to Arequipa after a few beers and we made our way to Bolivia and even higher elevations and adventures.

Adios until next posting,

KLH

Photos:
Cuzco Plaza
Ryan and Desiree and Dinner
Brandy and Llamas at Machu Picchu
Us at Machu Picchu
Machu Picchu
Girl with Binoculars
Traditional Woman and Child
Andean Valley
Kevin and his Guinea Pig
Floating Islands of Uros
Dressed up for the Dance
Our Host Mother and House
Dennis, Brandy and Jesse

FFP:
Fashion Plate at Machu Picchu