Travel --- 12/26/2008 - 1/17/2009 --- Peru

Winter break in Peru.

Jefe y Tres Esposas Ir a Peru

12/26  Take the very expensive short line bus to NYC. Coincidentally, Brett has a shoulder injury. We compare slings.

12/27  Emily arrives early in the morning.  Along with Brett, we take a long walk through Central Park, stopping for a while at Belvedere castle, and finishing at a very crowded 5th Avenue.  Then we head to the International Center of Photography to see the exhibits.  The main exhibit is of Cornell Capa, who did quite impressive work though he was far overshadowed as a photographer by his brother, Robert (I can relate).  There are also exhibits of Eugene Smith's work and tintype photos.

12/28  Emily and I leave at 4:30am to catch our flight.  We meet a very amusing drunk in the subway.  He is distressed that the woman he just met sent him home instead of letting him spend the night.  More than anything, he wants us to agree with his view that she did the wrong thing.  We are noncommittal on the subject.  We fly to Atlanta where we meet Jen and Beth.  The four of us fly to Lima.

12/29  Arriving in Lima early in the morning we do our best to get cheap plane tickets to Cusco.  Ideally we would like to go to Cusco immediately, but those tickets are $400 round trip.  We find tickets for $175 at the end of our time in Peru.  That will do.

At this point we are all exhausted, but we have more traveling to do.  At 5am we take a taxi to one of the bus stations.  Max, our driver, is a pretty cool character.  My first chance at having a Spanish conversation.  We talk about Peru, religion, politics and traveling.  I'm happy with my Spanglish and my ability to communicate.  We reach the first bus station and find nothing going to Huaraz until 11pm.  It is low season and many bus companies run a limited schedule.  So Max drives us to Movil Tours where we get the last four seats on an 8am bus to Huaraz.  We sit in the nasty, rat infested (literally) bus terminal until 9am when our bus finally leaves.  The S/45 (S/3 = $1) seats are comfortable and we all sleep soundly for the entire 8 hour bus ride.

In Huaraz, we wander lost because our map shows the wrong location for the Movil Tours terminal.  Finally, we find hostel Tany where we get a room for S/50 and crash for the night.

12/30  We spend a few hours wandering around Huaraz to get our bearings.  We locate La Casa de Zarela, which is highly recommended in our guide book, and we decide to upgrade from Tany.  Our room is S/80 per night and we have access to a nice kitchen and 24x7 hot water.  The hostel also has free internet, which is convenient.  Internet access is as cheap as S/1 per hour a block down the street.  I think it was S/15 per hour in the Lima airport and S/3 per hour in Aguas Calientes -- basically varying between cheap and really cheap.  Other than two facebook status updates and an attempt at buying train tickets online, I never use the internet while in Peru.  But it is an easy way to stay in touch... much cheaper and easier than trying to use the phone.

We research activities for tomorrow.  Beth reads about a nearby archeological site and tells us that, "They built these really cool ruins underground."  I question the logic of building ruins.  We eat dinner at Patrick's Creperie, my favorite restaurant in Peru.  Local food is basically chicken and rice, which isn't exactly vegetarian friendly.  And we have to be careful to eat only at restaurants with a reputation for thoroughly cooking food and rinsing salads in purified water.  According to Krystoff -- a fellow guest at Zarela who was formerly a chef in Huaraz -- restaurants owned by foreigners are our best bet for food safety.  So we aren't getting much Peruvian food, but at least we eat plenty of quinoa!

12/31  We visit the ruins at Willkawain which date from 1100BCE to 700BCE. We get a nice tour from Alex.  Then we hike to Monterrey and walk the road back to Huaraz.  About 15km for the day, our first acclimatization hike.

1/1  Happy New Year! Folks in Huaraz really like to shoot fireworks.  This isn't just at midnight.  It goes on for at least an hour.

We spend the day preparing for our hike and making reservations to ride horses.  Backpacking meals are pretty easy to put together, especially because we brought clif bars and some dehydrated veggies from the states.  But even just using the local market it would have been no problem.  More difficult is finding a map.  There is no good Peruvian topo.  Only the very expensive (S/80) Austrian Alpine Club map is available.  I pay the money because a good map is worth having.  Also worth having is white gas to power my stove.  This turns into another opportunity to use my Spanish.  I go to every hardware store (ferreteria) in Huaraz looking for white gas (bencina).  Nobody has it, but everybody thinks the hardware store across the street will sell it.  Finally I find a liter only to discover that I have no money... argh!  Ok, after much effort, I purchase white gas.  Emily and I filter it through a coffee filter because I'm worried about the quality.  Even so, during our hike we have to replace the Dragonfly's fuel filter every two meals.  Ironically, it turns out that the map and white gas are for sale back at Zarela.

We go to the big market and see everything for sale, including guinea pigs (skinned and ready to cook).  Heading back to Zarela, we play cards and pigs.  We play cards almost every day in Peru, but this is the only night we play pigs.  Not sure why... I really like pigs.

1/2  Horseback riding!  In the evening we pack for our five day hike.  Everything non-essential we leave in Zarela's locked storage room.

1/3  Awake early to take the collectivo to Caraz and from there a taxi to Cashapampa.  This is the start of the Santa Cruz trail.  We pay S/10 each for what we mistakenly think are park passes.  It turns out that this is just a small extortion at the start of the trail and will be greatly exceeded by the large extortion at the end of the trail.

Because of all the traveling, we don't start hiking until 9am.  As a result, it is raining heavily (like it does every single afternoon) by the time we reach Llamacorral, our first campsite.  My shoulder holds up fairly well.  I'm able to carry my backpack and even carry my share of the group gear.  It is sore each evening, but nothing a bit of anti-inflammatory meds can't solve.

1/4  Awake at 5am so we can hike before the afternoon rains start.  We hike to Quishuar, at the turn off to the Alpamayo trail.  During the day, I put on my sunglasses and put my regular glasses in the sunglasses case.  This turns out to be a tragic mistake.  The case has a gap at the top which isn't large enough for the sunglasses to slip out, but apparently is large enough for my regular glasses to slip out.  I spend the rest of the trip wearing my prescription sunglasses.  This isn't a problem during the day, but at night I've got the choice of being blinded by sunglasses or blinded by my terrible vision.

1/5  We start the day with a quick hike to Alpamayo.  It is supposed to be one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.  We mostly see clouds.  Still a nice hike.

We pack camp and split into two groups.  Beth and Emily will go over Punta Union pass today.  Jen and I will camp just shy of the pass.  We make camp by 11:30am and I have the whole day to take pictures of Taulliraju, which is also one of the most beautiful mountains in the world.  For me this is the highlight of three weeks in Peru.

Camping at 15,100' it is fairly chilly, though I survive in my 40F bag (which is good down to about 28F if I wear a layer or two).  It is also tricky to cook dinner since water boils around 188F.  But I'm not complaining, it is one of the most spectacular campsites of my life.

1/6  Jen and I hike over Punta Union (where I reach my lifetime high point of 15,617') and down to Paria camp where we meet Beth and Emily.  Like every other square foot of the Santa Cruz trail, Paria is covered in donkey, cow and horse poop.  At the start of the hike conversations would go like this:
     "Don't step in the cow poop!"
     <detours around cow poop> "EEEEWWW!!!"

By the end of the hike, conversations would go like this:
     "Ummm... your spoon is in cow poop again."
    <licks spoon> "Actually, I think that is donkey poop."

And on top of all that, the poo can be misleading.

1/7  Beth spends the morning collecting the remnants of her food bag.  A cow broke into her vestibule and took everything.  Hikers should bring cow canisters.

We hike out to Vaqueria and pay the very expensive park fee.  S/65 per person!  That's real money.  And they charge when you exit the park, which means you had better bring plenty of cash for the entire hike.  After much arguing, Beth turns on the tears and gets us out of buying one ticket.  So we still paid the equivalent of $75 in total park fees for five days of hiking.  In the park's defense, the fees are clearly listed in our guidebook and I like to think that the money is used to support the park (though I suspect that isn't the case).

We wait for a few hours to catch the collectivo to Yungay.  This is an amazing ride in an overloaded minivan on twisty dirt roads which climb and drop over thousands of feet of elevation and hundreds of switchbacks.  At one switchback we see a collection of crosses, presumably where a collectivo didn't negotiate the turn.  Luckily we survive the trip and reach the main entrance to the park.  Here officials check our park tickets.  Jen and I manage to pass one ticket between us, so the four of us get by with only three tickets.  This slight of hand greatly amuses our fellow passengers.  We have made friends during the 2.5 hour ride down the mountains and they are on our side, especially when they hear how much the tickets cost.  Of course, only the four of us are checked for tickets.  The other 18 people on the collectivo appear to be Peruvian and officials let them pass without a second glance.

From Yungay we grab a collectivo back to Huaraz.  We return to Zarela and take much needed showers.  Then off to Patrick's Creperie to gorge on ridiculous amounts of food topped by a chocolate fondue dessert.  Since it is raining, we decide to pay S/3 for a taxi back to Zarela.  After one block our taxi is pulled over by the police and the driver detained for questioning.  We never really know what is going on, but we get out of the taxi and walk back to our hostel -- the rain no longer seems like such a big deal.

1/8  Rest day in Huaraz.  Most interesting story of the trip:  Beth, Emily and I go to the market in the afternoon.  Jen stays behind to read.  When we get back, she tells us that someone came into our room's entryway and closed the door behind him.  This person waited a moment, then walked into the room.  Here he saw Jen, said something about being in the wrong room and made a quick exit.  To me it is clearly obvious that he is a thief.  We have started to get careless with our belongings and this is a good reminder to take sensible precautions.  And it turns out he is a thief.  He has stolen copies of all the room keys from the main office and gone room to room taking valuables.  The police come to the hostel and Jen is shown pictures to identify the person she saw.  I feel bad for David, the manager at Zarela.  He is a really nice guy and the hostel is great.  David has the locks changed the next morning.  Even with the theft, I really like Zarela and wouldn't hesitate to return.

1/9  Our second long travel day of the trip.  We take a bus back to Lima.  S/55 for seats that recline most of the way to horizontal.  And they feed us a bit, which saves time because the bus doesn't have to stop for people to eat.  Back in Lima, we take a taxi to the airport arriving around midnight.

1/10  We hang out in the airport until our 6am flight to Cusco.  Once in Cusco, we head to the train office to buy tickets for the Ollantaytambo to Aguas Calientes train.  We had tried to buy them online, but the credit card verification process failed.  Interestingly, it fails again when we are in the ticket office and we have to pay with cash ($75 per person, round trip).  We are rarely able to use credit cards at any time in Peru.  Luckily ATMs are everywhere.

Next we are off to the Instituto Nacional de Cultura to buy Machu Picchu tickets.  The girls are able to get student tickets (S/62) even though their Cornell ids do not have expiration dates (it takes some arguing).  Nobody is believing  that I'm a student, I pay full price (S/124).  Finally, we get a taxi to Ollantaytambo.  I spend the 1.5 hour drive talking to Eric, our driver.  He even teaches me some Quechua.  Like about 8% of the population, Eric's mother speaks only Quechua.  He is fluent in Quechua and Spanish, and speaks some English.  Considering my very limited Spanish, I'm happy with how well I am able to converse with people.  I'm always able to communicate the essentials, and occasionally able to have a social conversation.

In Ollantaytambo we quickly find a quirky hostel (S/75 per night) and crash.

1/11  The earliest train tickets we could get are for the 12th, so we have a day to kill in Ollantaytambo.  The local ruins are very expensive (S/70 per person) so we opt out.  Our hostel has a leaky roof, stinkier than usual bathrooms and no hot water (which turns out to be due to a power failure in the whole town).  So we move to a different hostel (S/80 per night), which at least doesn't have a leaky roof.  We discover Hearts Cafe on the main square.  The food is quite good and all the profits support indigenous charities.  Every hostel and restaurant in Ollantaytambo seems to support some cause.  Given that the town is 100% devoted to tourism, getting tourists to support decent charities is a good thing.

1/12  Early morning start for the 5:30am train to Aguas Calientes.  From there we take busses ($14 per person, round trip) up the mountain to Machu Picchu.  It is a pretty impressive place.  I definitely would have been disappointed if I had come to Peru and not seen Machu Picchu.  However, it is very expensive -- both in terms of time and money -- to reach the site.  Hard to justify $300 and four days of travel for any ruins, even the most spectacular of ruins.

Like every other day in Peru, we never really get good light at sunrise or sunset.  Clouds are too thick. Still, I take what pictures I can.  I spend a lot of time following guided groups with English speaking guides.  I learn many facts (some contradictory) about Machu Picchu.  The city housed about 1000 people.  It was most likely a retreat for the Inca rulers.  A city like Cusco was built by 50,000 workers (and the old Inca walls are still visible today) but Machu Picchu couldn't support that many inhabitants.  So the 1000 workers were given coco leaves to help them work harder and deal with the altitude.  The city was never finished.  Most likely, it was abandoned when the Spaniards arrived to keep them from discovering and destroying the temples.  Spaniards were kind enough to spread Christianity -- which is self evidently the only correct collection of mythology and superstition -- and were helpfully destroying Inca temples and culture.  Machu Picchu today is an unfinished city, about 60% original and 40% restored by archeologists.

Around noon the daily rain starts.  We have seen the whole city, so we retreat to a very overpriced restaurant in Aguas Calientes.  Hanging out in the town for the rest of the day, we finally board our train back to Ollantaytambo.  On this train ride the crew performs an interesting dance and fashion show.

1/13  Taxi back to Cusco.  We try to get into Loki, the huge backpacker hostel, but it is full.  We end up just down the street at hostel Andrea paying only S/60 for one night.  And there is even a tiny kitchen.  We walk around Cusco a bit, then buy food for dinner and our next long travel day.

1/14  Morning flight to Lima.  We plan to tour the city... check out the Skull Cathedral and Miraflores beach.  But Emily is really sick and not able to do anything.  So we spend our final day in the airport we have come to know far too well.  Funny story: a woman takes pictures of her kids with Emily and me.  Maybe she thought I was Bono.  Finally, we get our boarding passes and happily learn that the $30.25 airport departure fee is included in our ticket.

1/15  We fly back to the states and go our separate ways.  I take the subway to Brett and Sherri's place where I apparently fall asleep in the middle of a conversation.

1/16  The three of us go back to the ICP which has a new exhibit for the new year.  Unique fashion photos are the highlight, and I'm surprised to discover that I really like some fashion photography (especially Steven Klein's work).  Also on display is the work of Edward Steichen and Martin Munkacsi.

1/17  Short line bus back to Ithaca.  A very cold walk from Collegetown to my house (carrying a too heavy backpack).  I get home and immediately go to the car where I retrieve my emergency backup glasses.  Clear vision...  yes!

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