Peru

November 12 - Cusco

Still no president!!!!!! Unbelievable! Loren arrived this morning and is now taking a nap to help acclimatize and also catch up on her lack of sleep from her night flight from New York. So excited to have a friend from home here!! Have done tons of travelling in the past week and a half…

Pisco - a city that is famous for Pisco, a white grape brandy which is used to make Pisco Sours, the national drink of South America. It contains Pisco, lemons, egg whites and sugar and is absolutely delicious. The other national drink is Inca Kola which is a sickly sweet yellow soda that everyone here drinks. I do not like it at all. One guy asked us why we drink so much water and did not realize, (education) that soda is not healthy and water is!

Nazca - Took a small plane (three people and very turbulent) to see the Nazca line which are still a big mystery. Some people think they are made by extraterrestiaIs; some people think they are a pre?incan chart of the constellations; some people think they point to water sources. I thought they were amazing…huge shapes, some three kilometres long carved into the desert plain. All the shapes are made with one line. Very interesting and not too expensive - only 25 dollars for a half hour flight.

Lima - Only stayed one night on route to Nazca and stayed in a very chic suburb of called Miraflores. It was the chicest place I have been but I have heard that the rest of Lima is atrocious. The bus station was grotty enough for me.

Arequipa - beautiful city in the south of Peru which is near the Colca Canyon. We went to the canyon for three days to do some hiking and see the condors. I made two very brilliant decisions. One, I decided to wear my Tevas instead of hiking boots; two, I bought a 6' by 9' woolen blanket the first day. Neither of those decisions were wise considering the amount of hiking we did.

The first morning we awoke at 5 am to take a bus to the edge of canyon to look for condors with about 30 other tourists. The Andean condor is very rare, and the largest bird in South America with a wingspan of over 15 feet. The condors came from below and were quite close. They rose on the thermal winds and were absolutely magnificent - I had chills. We saw about 8 others that day but none as close. We then hiked 7km to a very small town on the edge of the canyon. The canyon is a deep gorge not like the Grand Canyon but it is deeper and very beautiful. The surrounding mountains have Inca terracing that the farmers still use today.

From the town, we decided it was stupid to come all this way and not hike INTO the canyon. So, we got our tired legs together and figured it was downhill and there was supposed to be a beautiful, sub-tropical oasis 3,000 feet down at the bottom of the canyon. Unfortunately, the path was strewn with rocks and boulders of various sizes which were covered in sand and it was sooooo slippery. I fell at least five times and my feet were miserable in their Tevas. I had to carry my blanket and soon realized that the only way to carry it and not lose my balance was to carry it on my head. It was tough and steep but the swimming pool at the bottom beckoned like a mirage. Two and a half hours later we arrived to find very rustic bamboo, huts, no bathroom or shower, and three friendly Peruvian brothers.

November 24 - Day after Thanksgiving

I am actually in La Paz, Bolivia but have to finish updating about Peru and the Inca Trail…No, I didn not have turkey when I was lounging in a hammock on the shores of Lake Titicaca in the brilliant sunshine wearing only shorts and a tank top. But I would have loved to have a dessert like a cannoli.

Two things I keep forgetting to write about: the weather and the showers, and they are related. First of all, the weather here is weird and sometimes you can experience all four seasons in one day. Thhe days are usuall very hot and when you are in the sun it is like a hot summer day. In the shade it is a bit coller, more like spring. At night, it is freezing!!! Sometimes I have on gloves and a scarf and all my layers of clothes in my backpack. Very strange and It means I need lots of different types of clothing but the altitude and the mountains make for an extreme climate. Now, how is that related to the showers you say? Well, it is not a given that you will have a hot shower when you book in to a hostel. I always have to ask and even then it is not a definite. When you meet other travellers and ask about hostels in different places, the showers almost always come into the conversation. This is related to the weather because it is feeezing at night and in the morning so taking a cold shower is out of the question. Having a hot shower that is also clean and does not give you an electric shock is a bonus. An electric shock??? It cannot be that someone would use an electric heater in the shower…but yes it is true and if you want to put your hands near the water or the spout, you get a huge shock…lovely…and not very safe. Many times the wires around the shower head are wrapped in tape and are hanging loose. So, just the simple act of taking a shower takes on a whole new perspective in South America.

Ok, on to the Inca Trail…

It was four days of climbing in the Andes and it was, as usual here when hiking, very difficult. We had a group of sixteen people who were very cool and fun to be with. Our tour guide was informative but very grumpy and seemed to take my New York sarcasam way too personally. Loren was having a tough time with the altitude. We hiked the first day in the blazing sun and had to carry our packs…which for her is a quarter of her body weight. She was exhausted and felt ill but managed to tough it out and finish the trail. The second day we hiked over a 12,000 foot pass called, of all things, Dead Woman's Pass. Luckily, we all made it alive but had to still go over another pass to make the campsite - 10 hours of hiking! When we looked back on how far we had come in one day, over two mountain passes, we were full of a sense of accomplishment. Then, Pato, the tour guide, informed us that the porters have a race one year and complete the entire four day, 42km hike in about three and a half hours!!!! Unbelievable, but you have to see these guys to believe it. They carry all the camping equipment on their backs, which can weigh up to 90 pounds, wearing only sandals. We were struggling in our high tech hiking boots and carrying only our clothing, cameras, and water. It really is unreal. They are the donkeys and make a whopping 20 dollars for four days. Of course, we gave them a tip too.