Off the Sidewalk

It’s always good to come home to familiar things, but my thoughts are still in Peru. I won’t miss having to use bottled water to brush my teeth and make sure not to get water in my mouth in the shower. I won’t miss having to throw used toilet paper in the trash rather than in the toilet. But I will carry the images of colorful Peru and its warm, inquisitive people with me for a long time. It’s good to step outside your comfort zone once in a while. A bit of a challenge, but usually rewarding and surprising. I learned things about myself on this trip. Good things. I guess that’s the whole point of travelling the world, to see what’s out there and what we can learn.

This trip was arranged through a small tour company called Adventure Life, based in Missoula, Montana. Lots of people avoid tours, thinking it means being crammed in a huge bus and missing out on the intimate parts of their destination. But this tour was much the opposite. We had eight people on our trip, including the two of us.

Our plane was met in Cusco by Yuri, a friendly guy eager to see that we got to our hotel promptly and to answer our questions about the days ahead. We arrived early in Cusco so that we could have a few days to acclimate before the tour started. This turned out to be a great thing. It gave us time to settle in and wander on our own with no agenda, exploring as we wished.

Our tour group consisted of two other couples about our age; one couple had their two kids along, ages 11 and 14. It was obvious right from the start that those kids had done their share of travelling. They never once complained. They sat quietly while we waited or when conversation didn’t include them. They ate from the regular menu and seemed to enjoy all kinds of food, familiar or not. They were a pleasure to travel with. The adults on the trip were interesting and well-travelled and we thoroughly enjoyed our time with them.

The hotels arranged for us were great. With the exception of the hotel in Lima (which was fine, but not great), all hotels were first rate, and appropriate to the locations we visited. In Cusco, Hotel Del Prado is just steps from the main square. The staff went out of their way for us, bringing coca tea when we arrived, suggesting nearby sights to see or restaurants to try. In Ollantaytambo, Hotel El Sauce was small, charming and clean, in a fantastic location in the middle of town. In Aguas Calientes, we stayed at the Machu Picchu Inn; simple and close to the trains arriving from Ollantaytambo and the busses leaving for Machu Picchu.

Our guide, Marco Palomino, couldn’t have been better. He loves his country and was eager to share his knowledge of its history, culture and customs with us.

When one couple in our group told him their daughter had brought some toys and clothing to give to a Peruvian girl, he took us down a long bumpy road barely wide enough for our van. We stopped at a small house and he introduced us to the shy young boy living there with his family, who were away working in nearby fields at the time. We peeked inside the tiny home. Dirt floors and a table were pretty much all we saw. Chickens, dogs and people co-habitating. I wish the girls had been home to receive the gifts, but I am sure they were thrilled to see the package later.

I would highly recommend Adventure Life and wouldn’t hesitate to tour with them again.

Instead of enjoying the heat, humidity and insects of the Amazon right now, due to our aborted trip we´re waiting eleven hours in the Lima airport for our midnight flight to the U.S. Despite the Baghdad-ness of Lima, this is a very clean, well-organized airport. But eleven hours is a bit too long to spend here. The only flight we could get from Cusco arrived Lima at 1:00 this afternoon, so here we are.

The only exciting things to report are a suspicious package in the check-in area which required evacuation of a large section of the terminal while 4 bomb-sniffing dogs and men wearing helmets and padded vests slowly opened the suspect duffel bag. As the all-clear was given, and Bob and I were waiting for the Continental check-in desk to open, we noticed a funky odor and assumed it was coming from one of us. We both were quite uncomfortable and were trying to determine which of us was the source of the problem and if the first-class lounge had a shower. Turns out it was the man who had taken his shoes off and was busy cleaning out his toe jam while sitting near us in a major thoroughfare of the airport. Lovely. But sort of a relief to us anyway.

Yesterday we took our first Malaria pills in preparation for our trip today to the Amazon. The prescription calls for one pill the day before you go into a malaria-risk area, then one pill a day while you are there, and continuing for 7 days after you leave the area. OK, so I took the first pill. Last night I had such difficulty breathing that the hotel brought an oxygen tank to our room with instructions to use it for 15 minutes. It didn´t help.

It must be what having a severe asthma attack is like, but I don´t have asthma. This morning I read the drug details (that I had carefully brought with us in case of a problem), and, lo and behold, it lists difficulty breathing as a possible allergic reaction. I´m not interested in taking any more of those pills, and since they are quite necessary to use in the Amazon, we decided to cancel the Amazon portion of the trip. Our destination was too remote (accessed only by boat) to be taking any health risks. So, remainder of trip aborted. We´re taking the next flight home (midnight tonight) three days early. Of course we are disappointed but there really was no other choice.  

After spending two nights away from Cusco, we returned today for one night to unpack and repack our suitcases for a very different part of Peru. Tomorrow we fly to Puerto Maldonado, and continue by boat to EcoAmazonia Lodge in the rainforest, where we will stay for three nights before returning to the U.S.  The lodge has no electricity so further posts may have to wait until we return home.

The journey from Ollantaytambo to Machu Picchu is about an hour and a half by train. The narrow guage train passes by sections of the Inca Trail and along the Urubamba River.

Arriving in Aguas Calientes, disembarking passengers are immediately deposited into a marketplace very similar to ones we saw in other towns. Colorful blankets, rugs, backpacks and other woven goods are hanging everywhere. Jewelry, t-shirts, and postcards cover every wall. Seems like the only purpose of the town is to sell stuff to Machu Picchu-bound tourists.

Busses leave about every 30 minutes for Machu Picchu, a 25 minute ride up a steep switchback road. We enjoyed the views as we climbed up the mountain, except when we met another bus coming in the opposite direction. One bus (usually the downward-travelling one) backs up to the very edge of the road, allowing the upward moving bus space to pass but giving passengers a scary view straight down to the valley below.

Here is the steep, winding road up to Machu Picchu.

Machu Picchu is hard to adequately describe. Overwhelming, breathtaking, stunning…these words don´t come close to doing the job. It´s impossible to take a bad photo. And impossible to comprehend how (and why) the place was built in such a remote and inaccessible spot. At the top of jagged Andean peaks, the stone terraces and buildings give few clues about their original purpose but draw you in to explore every stone path, building and stairway. I will never forget the experience of just sitting on a stone bench and gazing across the acres of this marvelous Incan gem.

The llamas seem to enjoy the view too.

You don’t stroll through Machu Picchu. Everything is a hike. My legs were killing me after exploring for two days.

Arriving in the town of Ollantaytambo is like stepping back in time. Cobbled streets, few cars, people carrying heavy loads of sticks or produce in colorful blankets on their backs. The town is a maze of narrow alleys with rustic rock walls. The townspeople were friendly and greeted us with smiles and buenas tardes. At the end of the main street is the giant terraced Incan fortress, just begging you to climb it and enjoy the view.

Our group climbs to the top to check out the scenery.

 Our room at the Hotel El Sauce had a nice view of the terraces. 

Hotel El Sauce has eight rooms and is nestled in the middle of town.

The lobby and dining room area of El Sauce is bright and cheery, with a fun collection of handknit hats, each design indicating the village and status of the wearer (male, female, married, unmarried).

In Ollantaytambo, many people are selling walking sticks to use for the Inca trail.

A typical shop on a typical street.

We stopped for a few minutes at a local crafts market. By the roadside a man stood next to a huge pig partially wrapped in a blanket. The pig was docile enough, considering his legs were tightly constricted. They both seemed to be waiting for something. A few minutes later, a public bus pulled up, and two men jumped out to help the pig owner load his cargo into the bus. The pig wasn´t too happy with this idea and decided to say so. I can´t imagine what it must have been like for the passengers on that bus to continue on their journey with an unhappy pig in the back. Poor people. And poor piggy. I´m sure his destination wasn´t a nice mudhole.

Our guide Marco took us by a place where they make and sell chicha (corn beer). The woman described how she makes chicha, fermenting and cooking corn for several days. We sampled some and strolled through her property.

In the back of her building, we found hundreds of guinea pigs living in a room with a dirt floor strewn with straw. Unfortunately these little guys are not pets but dinner. Roasted guinea pig is a local delicacy known as cuy.

Today we drove through the Sacred Valley on the way to Ollantaytambo, our stop for the night.

Our guide, Marco Palomino, a native Peruvian with passion and pride for his country, led us on a challenging hike through the hills above Pisac. More Incan ruins there, and the stunning views were distracting us from paying attention to the sometimes narrow paths along sides of steep cliffs. I managed to take some pictures as we trudged along. It was a strenuous climb but well worth it.

The Incans built catacombs in the hillsides for mummies (those little holes are where they put the mummies).

We visited these ruins.

A view of the Sacred Valley from our hike.

At the end of our hike, women were selling fresh juice.

We drove down to Pisac to visit the market, which happens on Thursday and Sunday. We were there on Thursday, Sunday’s market is larger.

Just outside of Cusco, in the Saqsaywaman area, we visited a small factory selling alpaca sweaters, hats, blankets and just about anything else. I bought a bag of baby alpaca yarn to knit something myself.

Our group was waiting for me in the van, so I didn’t get a chance to look through the piles of sweaters. Probably a good thing; we had no room in our luggage for anything more.