Machu Picchu

We left our 3 day tour in the town of Ollantaytambo And checked into a hostel near the train station.  This will be our base for three days, one day of rest, our full day at Machu Picchu and then an early morning return to Cusco.  The hostel tuned out to be basic again but was clean, no bugs and Internet acces's. That evening we treated ourselves to a great dinner, at the train station which was rated the best restaurant in the town.  We had a 5 star dinner complete with beverages and desert for $38.

We woke up early the next day for rest and preparing for the big Machu Picchu trip, the site is really picky about documents, you need paper pickets and your passport to enter.  Going through all the documents I prepared before we left I discovered I had 4 copies of Frank's ticket and no Janet ticket  Over the next few hours I went through several layers of panic and at one point dispair when I thought a actually had no ticket, Frank actually offered me his ticket (what a nice guy)  After some breakfast and rational thought we found a way to access the system and reprint the tickets.  After a quick walk to town to the local Internet cafe we had tickets.  So much for our day of rest.  

 

We woke at 4:00 and we were at the train station by 4:30 for the 5:00 train. This train is really more of a ride than a means of transportation  it reminded us of Disney where getting to the ride is part of the fun.  

The train takes you as far as the town of Aguas Calientes, here we needed to exit the train and take a bus, we found this confusing and by the time we purchased the tickets ($52 for A 20 minute ride) the line was down the street, not so much like Disney organization.

The line to get on the bus

The line to get on the bus

when  you purchase your tickets on-line you have several choices, one of these is a duel ticket for the traditional site and "Wayna Picchu" Only 400 tickets are issued each day for Wayna Picchu.  The guild book describes this site as "it takes 40 to 90 minutes to scramble up the hill... For a spectacular view.  Sounded good to us so we purchased the dual ticket.

Over the last several weeks we have encountered many other travelers that have already been to Machu Picchu, some of them also talked about the extremely hard climb they did to the top of the mountain. One group of 5 (younger than us) told us how is was so hard only one of them made it to the top. Frank and I were perplexed, could this be the dual ticket we bought to scramble up?  That morning we both discussed it and made the decision to give it a try.  So after getting to the site we found our way to the next entrance to the mountain.  The ticket was date stamped to had to start the climb by 8:00 am. We made it at 7:56, signed in and started the climb. In the beginning it was OK about the same as our other climbs, then we got to the actual mountain and the trail became large steps at a 130 degree angle. It was hard, really hard, at one point we started meeting people on their way down and one guy told me that he was "near death " before reaching the summit. Well we were not near death but it took us 2 hours and lots of stops to catch our breath and it was spectacular 

the gallery below shows our way up, Frank's Spartan pride, how we signed  in and out of the mountain and the view from the top.

 

Now I will turn it over to Frank to talk about touring the traditional site.

This is actually the second time I am writing this portion of the blog. It was all done but our Mac Pro computer locked up, so we are trying to retrieve our thoughts if not in fact the original text to keep our friends happy. We are also having some problem with the photos. After scaling Wayna Picchu in about 2 hours and then coming down in about 1 hour we sought food and drink, and sought out a guide. Most photos show Wayna Picchu in the background hovering over theMachu Picchu site-we are very proud of the first photo of this section--we are at the peak of the mountain. We were so spiritually invigorated and uplifted by our successful trek. Janet teared up at the peak. Frank took photos of his father and sons. We hiked up 2700 meters altitude.  We could not find a group to join so we hired a solo guide to see the temple site. Her name was Gracelia, and she had graduated from the University of Cuzco. She was of Inca ancestors and made our tour fantastic. One question we had was about the origin of the Inca. We knew that the Inca reign was relatively short; 500 years with 150 years in control of Peru, Ecaudor, Chile, and Columbia; whereas the Chimu, Moche, Nazcans of the coastal region survived for thousand of years. We had been told by other guides that the Inca was a merger of "scientific tribes" and warrior tribes, but they did not explain further and gave no details. We also knew of the folktales about the Inca brothers that Janet will describe elsewhere. When the question was directed to Gracelia, she brought out her map and pen and gave us a history lesson. She advised, or at least we understood, that the " Ticahaunaco" tribe of the Amazonian jungle portion of Peru, were the scientists/ engineers, who formed a treaty with the warrior tribe, the "Wari",  (Hauri) of the Andean region.     As these 2 tribes quietly grew and prospered together, the coastal residing Chimu, Moche, and Nizcans, thrived for thousands of year. Eventually the Inca gained a leader, the ninth leader--Pachacutec--who rallied the Inca army against an aggressive highland tribe, the Chankas, who were on the doorstep of Cuzco. This was 1438, and the victory buoyed the Inca expansion to come. Many Inca citadels were built, including Machu Picchu. But the Spanish have no chronical on Machu Picchu. Apart from the local tribe known as Quechuas, no one knew of MP until American historian Hiram Bingham came upon the thickly overgrown ruins in 1911. This gives rise as to what the purpose of this site was to be. The guide's  position was that MP was a scientific site bringing together the brightest minds of the empire. The Inca assimilated rather than destroy the tribes they conquered. The quality of stonework and ornamentation also indicate that MP was an important ceremonial center; the circular stone turret comprising the Temple of the Sun, displays a large stone sun dial, and sits above the royal tomb. There are many other temples on site as well as residential sectors. The  guide advised that MP was purposefully barricaded and hidden from the Spanish and left dormant until the 20th century. The site itself displays clever engineering and scientific projects and processes. The Inca protected the site by creating stepped up walls to stabilize the mountain slopes, to fight erosion, and to direct irrigation. MP like Moyà had experimental agricultural terraces. MP was recognized by an international engineering group for exceptional  civil engineering. We hope these photos give you some insight as to the wonders and complexity of the site.

After visiting the costal and Andean regions of Peru we are now off to the Amazonian jungle.

Site view from train

3 Days in Cusco Peru

 OMG! The worse bus trip ever. 14 hours with switchback mountains right and left traveling at between 70 km/h down to 30 km/h and back up. Did the driver really have to make up the 2 hours delay on our leg of the trip, or more accurately—at our stomachs expense? We were seated on the second level in semi-cami for sleeping which is usually ok, but in this case the many rapid turns had the whole bus swaying which is exaggerated on the top. At one point Frank (me) was trying to use the bathroom, like in an airplane, which had a urinal too—ok that’s cool—but thank god there were two handles on either side, because the entire bus was swaying so hard I thought I would crash against the lousy door and break out into the aisle with (should I say it) my Johnson in hand or semi commando. Held on tight-that’s a sigh of relief you hear. At 3:00 am Janet fumbled around for some prescription anti-motion meds. The pills were all crushed for some reason, but she ordered: “Don’t worry about that—"lick your fingers take a scoop".

A view from the bus coming into Cusco

In any event, we had some experience with this bus motion, but not on a trip of this much time. It was like being seasick after a while. We ended up both nauseous and developed headaches. As well, we were gaining altitude, 3300 meter, which contributed to the headaches. Frank really had a hard time sleeping. We felt like we had hangovers. When we got to town and our hostel we had to take a long nap. Our host had hot water and tea available, ie., coca leaf tea, which Frank drank for the altitude; which calms you right down.  We finally got up for dinner and went to “Jack’s Cafe”, an American take on Peruvian cuisine. We ordered bland comfort food, ie., chicken noodle soup and salad, due to remaining stomach issues, which stayed with Frank for several days. FYI- Frank has had tummy issues twice, this time and then back in Ecuador for 2 days. Grin and bear it.  After a short walk around the square or Plaza de Armes we relaxed with a show "Homeland" again and went to bed early, really early (6:00 pm)

 

The bus view of city

Cuzco was the capital of the Inca world and empire. It was like Washington DC, being the major area of government policy.  It was originally mapped out in the form of a PUMA, representing their God on earth. The major god was the God of the Sun. It is also the major launching point for the mountain citadel, Machu Picchu, one of the biggest tourist attractions in the world. Surrounding the City there are ten (10) separate temples in close proximity. We will discuss these more, but I want to discuss a phenomenon that we have experienced here that has not seemed so prevalent in other portions of Peru that we have visited. This is not an opinion based on exhaustive research, but it seems reasonably accurate from our interaction with our guides who by occupation extol the virtues of the Inca Empire. The Cuzco guides, as opposed to the Lima guides or others, are passionately against their Spanish conquerors. They openly talk about the genocide of the Inca people and the eradication of Inca culture by the General Pizarro and Spanish soldiers and particularly the Spanish missionaries, which in this country were Dominican Order. The guides complain that the Inca language has been lost and most of the temples we have been seeing were defaced to eliminate Inca religious symbols and also robbed of gold and silver by the Spanish. FYI—Gold and silver had no value to the Inca; they used the substances for decoration, but they did not value it monetarily. We can observe that most Inca Temples within Cuzco have been destroyed in part and a Catholic church placed in its stead. This was the strategy of the missionaries to eradicate the Inca religion and lead them to Christianity; for the military it was simply to conquer and to steal wealth starting in the year 1532. One Guide spoke proudly of the resistance movement, and the capture, torture and fight against death of their final Inca leader, Tupaq Amaru. The “Regional Historico Museum” has a video about his torture. The center plaza location of the torture, ie., drawn and quarter, etc., was originally called the Plaza of Weapons, but now has been renamed “Plaza of Tears” for the crying masses that witnessed the demise.

The Lima guide’s philosophy was that the Spanish conquest was part of the history of the country, is why Peru is as it is, and should be embraced. Of course, after Cuzco was captured the capital of Peru was moved to Lima in the year 1535.

We started our day with another “free walking tour” Our tour guide was a very spunky woman of Inca heritage.  This tour was very focused on a few sites, several with “opportunities” to buy goods at the BEST places according to the guide.  Our preference is to see the full city layout on the walking tour, then we can plan our remaining days by the sites of interest to us.  Our guide did review the Inca building expertise with examples of city walls where the Spanish builders overlap the Inca, see the photo below.  She also provided an excellent cooking demonstration focusing on ceviches.  After the demo we opted to eat at the restaurant.

In the afternoon we visited the Convento de Santo Domingo.  This is a very nice church but the site is actually the most important temple of the Inca empire called the Coricancha.  We hired a local guide, these can be found outside all of the important sites.  His English was good and this turned out to be a great visit.  Per our guide this site would be the equivalent to the Vatican and dedicated to the Sun God.  The walls were originally covered in Gold.  When the Spanish conquered, they required the Inca to surrender the gold as ransom for their lives.  Then the Spanish built the church on top of the temple. Thankfully the Spanish incorporated the Inca stonework into the structure.  After several major earthquakes, the Spanish church required rebuilding but the Inca stonework, far superior in design survived 

After the church we did not have a plan on how to visit the massive area, so we took a chance and went into one of the dozens of tourist offices and ended up negotiated a three-day tour.  By doing a tour we were able to see many temples and ruins surrounding Cusco which was the center of Inca empire. However, their empire stretched to Ecuador, where we also saw ruins, and also into Bolivia, Chile and Argentina.

In Cuzco city the Inca’s built massive walls lining the steep cobblestone streets and plazas. In addition to purchasing the tour we also needed to purchase a “Boleto Turistico” a/k/a BTC—or tourist ticket allowing entrance into 17 sites.  The sites we visited are:

  • Saqsayhuaman (a/k/a sexywoman):
  • Qengo:
  • Puka Pukara:
  • Moray:
  • Saltadas:
  • Tambomachay:
  • Pisac
  • Ollantaytambo 

We will not bore you with the details of all of these sites, our favorates were Ollantaytambo, Moray and Saltadas.  See the large gallery below of our highlights. 

After day one of our tour we visited the local food market and stocked up on two days of food for $8 and gave our tummies a rest with some home cooking at our hostel.

We negotiated a drop off with our tour guide at Ollantaytombo after the ruin site visit.  This will be our hostel location for the next three nights.  One day of rest and then our Machu Picchu trip, then back to Cusco. 

The Nazca Lines

View from bus ride to Nazca

The Nazca lines are a series of straight lines and figures carved into the desert.  They are large, some up to 1,200 ft.  You can only see all the lines by air, in small planes.  Going to Nazca has been on Janet’s must do list for many years as was the Macho Picchu trip. 

It  is a short bus ride from Paracas of 4 hours. In the rural area, at street level traveling at 89km/h you can see cut outs in the flat, flat valley plain with mountains far off. You can’t make out shapes, just the cuts evidence a process; deep gauges (2—3 ft.)in the plain. Occasionally you can see round or curving cuts that appear manmade, not natural. We passed an observation platform 2-3 stories high; Costs S/1.00 we found out. 

 

City square - Nazca

We arrived at our hostel,  Nazca House B&B in a city that was larger than expected with 22,000 pop, about the size as the beach town Haunchaco. But here there is no beach, in fact no water—just desert in every direction with distant grey mountains. The city square was very large with polished tile and fountains bordered by 2 churches and a school. Described in books as:

“Bone dry and baking hot, Nazca was a desert scorched dead town until 1939 when American scientist Paul Kosok did a flyover and revealed the Nazca Lines.” This is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Later, German scientist Maria Reiche opined the figures were an astronomical calendar. Who knows—could be Aliens!  Especially when you see the kooky, so-called “Astronaut” figure. It looks like a spacesuit—or could be a walking squid. Take your pick.

We were picked up at 7:15 by our transport Alex. He drove us to a small air field lined with propeller planes, most that were six passenger plus pilots. Our plane was a shiny, two passenger Cessna with pilot and co-pilot from Air Santos. Cost: $155 pp @ S/580 pp. for a one hour flight over 17 figures. We paid our Airport tax of S/25 pp., went through a metal detector and showed passports. It is a perfect day; the wind socks are limp. Our plane was ready and we were called-- “Frank & Janet”—so we pressed by a group of Dutch who awaited a larger plane. This was going to be “mucho/muy distracion”= “very fun”. However, we did forego breakfast and we both did take ½ pill of Dramamine just in case. In fact, our Hostel mothers insisted we not eat, but would have food ready when we returned. They were sisters who came through for us when Movil Air emailed a cancellation.  We picked Movil Air by recommendations as the safest company to fly, but when our plans fell through we just needed a plane and with the help of our hotel attendant (the sisters speak no English) in Lima we called our Nazca host and ask if they could help and they got it for us, the hell with what the safety record is, find us a plane!!

The Flight:

The co-pilot reminded me “ladies first”, so Janet stepped into the backseat first, stowed her backpack behind our seat, and then I stepped in and sat in a comfortable, but small space next to her. We greeted the pilot and co-pilot again. We were given maps of the site and flight plan.

We were to see the Nazca “prehistoric” lines and the Nazca classical lines, about 17 figures. When I say lines this include figures and geometric shapes miles in size and diameter. The pilot winds the engine of our little plane and we taxied.  We are looking over his shoulder at the instrumentation. At the launch point he increases the throttle to a roar—vibrating the plane. Then he throttles back, gets on line and increases power—down the runway (will we rise?). When we took off, it was as smooth as a pillow. We gained altitude gradually, observing the town fall away and the surrounding mountains rise up. It is really beautiful flying over the desertat a higher altitude.

You cannot overstate the magnificence of the Nazca lines and figures:

  •  The chiseled stripes of rock and the clear geometric shapes extending miles look like runways to me.
  • The mathematical precision is amazing, emphasized by the many quadrangle shapes. Imagining Ancients creating these figures in this desert land is hard, but then again we do have the Egyptian pyramids and Greek Acropolis.   
  • On the side of a smoky grey hill is a figure that appears to be waving or saying hello. But to who? The figure is the so-called  “Astronaut”. It looks like a road side welcome sign.
  •  Some configurations on top of flattened mountain ranges, look like a heliport.
  •  The many other giant figures sit between the mountains on flat plans. In fact, there is a striking network of 800 +lines, 300 geometric figures and 70 animal and plant biomorphs. Some of these are described as classical forms which are simpler, more like drawings then the mathematical figures.
  •  The most famous figures we saw, and we saw them all, are named: Lizard, frog, tree, monkey, spider, condor, flamingo, parrot, whale, dog, snake and others! We did our best to provide some photos and video, but it was difficult with the angles, lighting and flight path. 

 

Our view from the plane

The vastness of it all. We flew from one end and back in our one hour trip—very inspirational.

So inspirational in fact that after our breakfast we walked to the city museum, “Museo Didactic Antonini” to learn more. This museum focused on the results archeological teams from Europe that investigated this area.  The Nazca lines are given relatively brief mention. The current Nazca’s believe the Lines were formed by ancestors as a way to track the seasons and the path of the sun for both religious and farming purposes. The earlier figures this tribe drew were less sophisticated than the “Lines”, and possibly they just got bigger and better at it. The tribe had some unusual customs of note: They re-shaped and elongated the form of the skulls of royalty infants with wrapping, and the strangest—they cut a small circular hole in the forehead of the infant and inserted the ends of several one foot strands of rope/twine into the hole which are secured by the healing skull bone and flesh.(Is this a caricature of an astronaut space helmet with O2 hose?)  The Nazca’s were a very early tribe of Peru, 500 BC to 500 AD and were accomplished in mathematics, textiles, and war.

The day was ending and we hung out in the sister’s hostel most of the afternoon to rest, make notes, and do some blogging until 5:00 pm. It would not be F&J around the planet if one weird thing didn’t happen that day. We wanted to pay for the flight by credit card, but our driver and apparent expediter, Alex, who did in fact step behind the counter with the sales rep at Santos Air says: “Our visa machine is broken, can you pay in cash?” We didn’t bring that much cash, i.e. S/ 1160.00. Alex says: “You can pay me after the flight--FOR ME--later”. I do look around and see all these other airline desks with VISA signs, but see crowded lines everywhere and I know we got closed out with the other airline for lack of space.  Janet and I huddle together; we don’t care if its cash or charge as long as the price is the same as quoted by the Sisters; If the plane seems old or beat up we will bail on this deal before we pay anything.  So as we said before, the plane looked shiny new, we jumped the line, and we had a great flight. Alex drove us back to town and straight to an ATM as requested. As I paid him I said: “You’re going to pay the pilots—right!”. “Oh yeh”! Alex says, then he drives us back to the hostel for breakfast. Mission accomplished for all of us, I guess.

 We settled our bill and left to walk to the bus station. On the way, we passed the open central church and stopped in for the 6:00 pm Mass and communion. We reached the rather shabby bus station at 7:15 pm (especially for Cruz Del Sur standards), but our bus was over 2 hours late so we didn’t get on board until 10:30pm for a 14 hour night trip. The only thing that made the wait less than miserable was meeting up with Janet’s friend, Marie from Quebec, Canada, who was going in a different direction but had to sit around too. She did get motion sickness on her flight and was given smelling salts. She was in a six passenger plane and the pilot rolls the plane so people on each side can see the Lines. We had other laughs and stories, showing photos of our families before we parted.     

 

The Saturday local market across from our hostel

Last note on the Nazca lines.  We could not capture high quality photos to share.  If you want to read more about the lines or see some great pictures we suggest:

http://www.crystalinks.com/nazca.html as a good resource

 

2 days in Paracas Peru

Paracas—meaning “Sand Rain” I’m told, is a waterfront fishing town 4 hours south of Lima. The bus ride was smooth; the scenery unusual. Coastal Peru is relatively flat and dry, and the seemingly new tolled express highway we drove follows near the coastline.

On the costal side you can see large irrigated plots growing what appears to be grape vines, avocados, and corn. To the opposite side you can see petro or gas refineries in the distance, with small homes and some shanty towns closer to the highway. Periodically, as we drive the road winds closer to the coast and you can easily observe the sea. We are surprised when on the coastal side there starts to be advertisements and billboards for housing developments. Later we actually see very large gated residential communities painted blazing white. I mention the color because most places in Peru are concrete grey or unfinished at least in part. Who would live there--Expats or Peruvians?  As the drive continued we were so hungry we actually ate Teriyaki flavored beef jerky. Thanks--you know who. We arrived at the Cruz Del Sur bus terminal in Paracas. The station was brand new, with a little construction going on. We could

actually order our excursions at the station—very quick and easy and unexpected. You come to Paracas for 2 reasons: (1) visit the Iles of Ballentas, and (2) visit the National Preserve of Paracas. 

Ballentas Iles:

Our quirky hotel in Paracas

We awake at the Grand Palma hostel, new but a quirky lay out with twin beds. We have breakfast on the 4th floor deck overlooking the harbor. The fresh mango/papaya mixed fruit drink was the best. It is picturesque with fishing boats tied up or moving out to sea and the promenade and docks becoming busy. FYI-busy or not, the air is always pierced with honking car horns, not just taxis, but show offs too. In any event, transport picks us up at 7:15 and we gather at a city park by the shore. This is going to be a mixed group--mostly Spanish speakers. Other transports arrive and our guide appears-a very tall and handsome young man with a great smile. He gives us a short history lesson by the question and answer method. If you guess right you get a candy treat and he showed he had lots of treats. It is a hoot; all laughed; broke the ice. He does a really good job of talking in sentences and phrases of Spanish and English; easily understood. One particularly funny thing was the roll call where one of the quests was Japanese. Her first name was Keiko. “We have the famous Keiko here”, he said—“You didn’t know you would be so famous in my country.” The shy Japanese women smiled and shook her head-- yes. The thing is KEIKO Fujimori, is running for president of Peru in the 2016 election, and her first name is painted all over the country; as is the name of ATUNA, the other candidate.  Keiko’s father, Alberto Fujimori (son of Japanese immigrants) was the former president of Peru until he lost the public trust AND was charged with bribery. But Keiko was elected to congress anyway and appears to have a good chance to win now—if winning the political sign wars means anything.

 

We walk the shoreline sidewalk passed 5-6 summer mansions that are just being refreshed by workers for the return of the owner. Summer starts in December here. We stop, and enter at one of many large docks where the 39 person capacity boat awaits. We 30 enter orderly, filling the back seats first for proper hydroplaning. Just as we are on our way, the guide goes on and on praising the magnificent, fantastic Captain. The Captain finally turns, like on cue, and flashes his pearly whites. Again another good comedy bit. He was a really good captain actually—moving us in very close to the rock formations that were being splashed by surf and waves. The isles appear to be partly formed of iron oxide as the islands are mostly metallic red. As we approached and passed the side of an adjoining peninsula we observed a giant sculpture that was carved through the sand and into the rock. This figure has been assigned a variety of names; “Devil’s Trident” or “Candelabra”—you can guess its shape; for political types, it has been offered that revolutionary “free Masons” drew the symbol to identify the beachhead landing place for the victorious Argentinian General San Martin, to land his troops to begin his fight to rid Peru of the Spaniards. I don’t know if that is true or not, but the image is impressive--an added treat. Gen. Martin did win and designed the first Peru flag with Flamingos and Palm Trees.

 

We approach these reddish isles with their amazing deep cut caves from wave action, some that could be passed through, and are greeted by tens of thousands of birds and tens of thousands of pounds of Guano staining the cliffs and everything else.  The birds are squawking away, flapping their wings, and cover the entire islands. Be cautious about the over flight of the birds—do you have a hat? The guide starts pointing to the Penguins, first at the cliffs and then on the near shoreline, saying these are the same as on Galapagos. Many shoreline penguins wait for the wave to hit the rock and then slide into the surf. It is an impressive site. Then, even more exciting is seeing the sea lions sunbathing on spires of rock; each crowding or cuddling on top of the other, except for a few that are solo and crane their necks to see us as the captain moves the boat close to the spires of rock through crashing waves. One particularly large male sea lion was named “Frank” by the guide. As we circumvent the islands, the scene repeats, and we also see an elevated docking system for large ships. Apparently the guano is harvested and used as a component of commercial fertilizer. The show is over so we head back to shore and boy is sure has become it windy and cold. We return to tour transport and are driven to our next pickup point—to the national preserve.

National Preserve of Paracas: This preserve was an unexpectedly spectacular. Desert mountains surrounding a mammoth valley that runs to the sea in parts, composed of salt crystals and oxide iron particles.

 

When a hand full of soil is thrown up in the desert wind the particles blow apart like heavy rains, i.e. “Sand rain" or Paracas. The winds are high here. The colors are fantastic. The multi shaded sands run up and over rolling hills and then down to the blue sea, with fishing boats in a close harbor. “It never rains here, this is the driest place on the planet”, the guide says. She draws a diagram in the sand as she explains the ocean current effects on this unusual coastal area composed of salt flats, multi colored hills and terrain, and in one area the “Red Beach”. This too, is an amazing place.

Frank with  Ceviche and INCA GOLD

A side note: (1) Janet was conversing with the female guide and asked where she was from? The guide responded “Chanca Alta, 2 hours north.” She then volunteered: “My ancestors were brought from Africa to be slaves by the Spanish. They worked very hard”. (Actually earlier, I thought she looked Mayan; pretty, slightly darker skin but thin nosed). FYI-currently, there are 3% African/ Peruvians in the population. (2) I finally drank “INCA GOLD”, the soft drink of the gods. It looks like Mountain Dew soda in the bottle, BUT taste like Faygo Rock and Rye. (3) Ate Peruvian Scallop Ceviche at a restaurant at the desert harbor—tasted great--spicy with lime of course. 

Day done until the next day bus trip.  Off to Nazca

 

2 Days in Lima Peru

I awoke at 6:30 am on the outskirts of Lima, the capital city of Peru, a/k/a City of Kings, with a population of 8 million. With the morning traffic and city sprawl it took an additional 2 hours to get to the second bus station near our destination: “Miraflores” district, by the shore line.

We grabbed our luggage, got a cab, and arrived at the Antigua Hotel. The area was great and so was the hotel —polished Spanish traditional—with very friendly staff, personal touches, a nice restaurant, parlor sitting areas and big cups of coffee.  In this area, Sheratons and Hiltons are available, but the Antigua Hotel is the place for me and I am sure for Janet, too.

 

We walked the neighborhood until our official check in at 11:00 am; Stopped at a wonderful pastry shop for some breakfast or in my case, a sweet éclair. We later freshened up. In the afternoon we plan to take a tour of Lima’s historic city center. We wanted to avoid the We were transported by van and our guide was “Juan”. We started at “Lover’s Park” on the waterfront; a place named for the giant sculpture of a couple in an embrace (fully clothed). The park was surrounded by a wall that reflected the artist’s friendship with the famous Spanish artist and architect Goudy, who designed a park in Barcelona with the same images. We were lucky to have seen the original.

At this park we were surrounded by many customary bus tour groups.  A lot of Tauck Tours, etc., etc. I think the energy level is at a different place. This exposure made me thankful and more satisfied that I went on this trip now, and did not wait. We then went to the Lima central square which is elaborate and surrounded by the St. Francis Cathedral and historic Government buildings. We traveled inside and what made the area most interesting to me was the Moorish influence in the architecture and finishes. Peru was influenced by Spain and the Moors of northern Africa had invaded Spain and set the tone. The finishes were very similar to the Alcázar of Seville, Spain (this is the land of Dorn in Game of Thrones). The buildings had elaborate 2nd,3rd and 4 storied wood balconies/bay windows affixed to stone and mason buildings. Again, the Moorish influence at the time of construction. Ladies of the Royal Court would not disclose their faces in public, so they would view the activity in the street through the cut outs in the Balconies. Apparently, if in public they would mask their faces. We were able to visit the ornate rectory and the Christian catacombs under St. Francis. There were real bones and skulls resting in certain alcoves. ( no photos allowed). One interesting point was that many of these alcoves were circular, wide, and deep for the purpose of acting as shock absorbers in case of earth quakes. We also observed Huac Puciliana, a 400AD site of an adobe pyramid built by the Lima Tribe; one of the 87 cultures.

Even with our small group the movement around the city of Lima is slow and cumbersome. This is a sprawling metropolis which uses buses for mass transit–separate express bus lanes—but still a bazillion cars weaving in and out of traffic with a constant honking. We got caught in the afternoon rush hour which begins at 4:00 and goes to 8:00 pm. We called it quits; not having enough energy for bargaining at the grand market—what fun is that. 

After a little nap (many of you may have saw a photo of me sprawled out faced down—but remember I spent the entire night in a bus), we walked the close part of Miraflores neighborhood. The streets were hoping; the traffic was crazy. Our short term goal was to find this novel quick casual eatery known as “Sr. Saltado”. It is kind of like a cross between Pei Wei and Noodles & Company in the States, with a Spanish spice and flavor profile. It was a piping hot mixture of noodles, vegetables, spices and selected meats. Very good! As we walked home to the Antigua Hotel, we again stopped at the Chocolate Café to get carry-out pastries and coffee—con leche for Janet, the usual for me.   This gave us time to watch CNN and the debates. 

Our first "fast food" in Peru

A newspaper with the US debate coverage

Next day the front page of the newspapers covered the debate. We noticed the news stand because we decided to take the taxi (S/20) to the Cruz Del Sur autobus estacion and get tickets for our next three (3) legs locked down—Paracas, Nasca, and Cuzco; avoiding the hassle which had us using the Via bus line. We had the dates and destinations written out and the Cruz representative was a manager who was using our order as a teaching opportunity for a new employee. It was a good dialogue. FYI-Cruz Del Sur is a great Peru bus company—they also book tours—Linea is ok too.

We continued our last day in Lima; taking a taxi from Cruz to the Museum Larco, a/k/a Museo Larco. Here, our guide “Michael Angelo”-he said- walked and talked us through the art, ceramic pottery, and displays of many of the total 87 Peruvian cultures. He was quick to point out that the Incas, who spanned the period from the 1100’s to the 1400’s, had only a relatively short reigning empire of 150 years. The so-called pre-Columbian tribes existed for centuries from 1000 BC to 300 BC; where settlements and evidence of the domestication of animals has been found. Between AD 100 and 700 metal work, pottery and textiles were advanced by the Moche, a civilization that built inverted pyramids, we saw, nearly 1500 years ago near Trujillio. At this time the Nazcas sculptured their famous lines in the desert. In the next four hundred years the Chinu thrived and built the city of Chan Chan, that we visited.   

This museum has a separate section displaying a collection of pre-Columbian erotic pottery. Keep the school kids at bay. This pottery is remarkably explicit. The sexual practices of Peruvian men, women, animals, and skeletons in all combinations is pretty  kinky. The sexuality deals mostly with the concept of renewing the fluids that create life both in persons and in crops—at least that is what I was told. But some of those activities and positions really challenge the concept.

We left “Michael Angelo” and walked off to “Roky’s”, a broasted chicken joint with great fries and avocado salad ( I have not had a bad avocado salad yet), on our way to the second museum, Museum of the Nation. We declined a taxi and walked the 10 or so blocks.

This Museo de la Nacion also presents Peru’s many pre-historic civilizations, including the Nazca, Minoche, Chinu, and Inca that Janet and I will come across on our travels. It really is amazing what the various tribes and cultures of Peru were able to accomplish. We taxied home for another S/20, and thought we might stay in and work on the blog. This time we ate dinner at the Antigua—very nice—updated our notes and packed for our move to Paracas.

 

Off to Paracas

Huanchaco Peru

Frank at the beach, these are boats made from reeds

When you travel to Trujillo, you do so for the archeological history. We awoke from our all night bus trip at 5:30 am and arrived at 6:15 am. The best bus sleep I’ve ever had. Out of the bus-catch a cab. We chose to decompress and actually stay at the nearby beach town of Huanchaco. I used my Spanish “Dime la coste Hauna Chauncs? Response S/20. “OK”, I said. (S/20 = $7). We were booked at Casa La Amelia, a small place right on the beach, near the portion of the waterfront favored by less experienced surfer dudes and chicas from around the world. The waves really do crash into shore. The ocean water is cold. The weather is funny—overcast until noon in this month-no sunshine until late afternoon.  But when the sun is out, it is like paradise. And that is what I liked about the place. I could sit on the second story deck in front of my bungalow and watch/hear the waves crash and write notes. At dusk, the sun set directly over the double gates of the property.  Our bungalow was very bohemian, rustic and basic, which Janet did not care for. We had a separate private bath, which had polished cement walls.  The place would have been better suited for guys only, like deer camp. I think our proprietor was concerned about our outlook at the level of amenities for this surfer hang out.   We left early, but the town was inviting, the restaurants were good, the view spectacular, and the tour groups friendly. I think if we had moved a little to the north side of town and upgraded, we all would have been satisfied. 

Huanchaco Peru from above

Point-Counter Point from Janet

I (Janet) selected Casa Amelia for the location, on the beach.  The reviews in Booking.com were very good and it was cheap, $20 per night.  The reality is this location is for and reviewed by young broke surfers.  Frank is being kind in his review, waking up on our first morning, cold due to no heat and only 2 blankets supplied, I suggested we cut our trip to Huanchaco by one day and use some of our points for a nice hotel in Lima, Frank jumped at this idea.  See photos below

Our lunch show

Our HuanchacoTour company was great. We made arrangement for site visits the next morning. We could leave our suit cases in storage with them while on the trip. Big relief, so we checked out of Casa La Amelia and had an early breakfast at “Surf Burger”. Great omelets, with entertaining graffiti and prose drawn by would be authors all over the walls. The owner was a charmer from Oklahoma, USA. We talked about the town and got tips for our future travel.  The van arrived and we made an instant friendship with a charming Spanish lady from Barcelona. We knew she would be fun when she could not hold back a wide smile when I, Frank, struck my head while entering the van. I chuckled and made a joke, and she picked up on it. We all later shared a table at lunch. She had discovered a fixed price 3 course meal for us at the “Sombraros Restaurant”. It had a stage with Spanish style tap/flamingo dancers. Great fun! 

In the morning we went to the Moche ruins. In the afternoon we went to the Chinu ruins.

Here is a brief, unofficial, history lesson: The renowned Incas of Spanish Conquistador fame, were only an important Peruvian culture for 150 years. The Chinu and Moche pre-date the Incas and thrived for 800 years. The Moche were at the point of collapse and absorbed contemporaneously with the rise of the Inca military conquests. There were actually 87 distinct tribal cultures in Peru, separated by time and the size of the land mass of Peru which is geographically separated into 3 areas: coastal, mountain and jungle.   Some of these tribes lived and survived hundreds of years before Jesus (BC) walked the earth. Janet and I are going to study these tribes more as time permits. The Museum Larco and the National Museum of Anthropology in Lima will do nicely.

Right now, we are simply awe struck by the Moche temple and city site. The walls are painted or frescoed in bright red colors with the face of its god repeated with varying expressions—anger, sadness, happiness, and reverence. Like most of these tribes believe, the world is broken into 3 levels: The sky as represented by prominent birds; the earth as represented by animals, mostly felines; and the underworld represented by snakes, lizards, and dragons. Many of the paintings and artifacts depict men and women interacting with the creatures of these 3 levels, some sexually, some reverently, some merged in form. The weather (i.e., winter solstice) and ocean currents are recognized and charted. When El Nino strikes and crops are destroyed, the gods must be appeased, so sacrifices are made. The Moche chose to honor the gods by combat between their greatest warriors. The winner must knock the head dress off of his opponent and secure him. The vanquished is sedated by the priest (coca plant) and then partially decapitated so the blood gushes. 

The Chinu temples are not as ornate, but the site of the city is far larger housing the Temple of the Sun and then the Temple of the Moon. The Chinu generally sacrifice young women, because their gender represents the re-birth of the earth. At the temple of the moon, the bodies are cascaded down into the large reflecting pool. The Chinu site also sports an intricate weaving pattern that represents the fisherman of the coast. The day is full of information and we were lucky to have our English speaking guide, Rafael, (see picture) and his friend Greta, from Switzerland. We paid for an English speaking guide. But surprise, we were the only ones really with him, like a private tour for 7 hours (10-5), while the rest of the large Spanish group (30) had a separate guide.

The tour was to travel to Huanchaco to give others a chance to see the beach town. Rafael agreed to take our luggage from storage back to the office in Trujillo, only 5 blocks from our Via bus station. He saved us S/20 and a bunch of extra time. We parted ways with several big hugs and handshakes—nice young man.  Note: we booked our bus later then we should have for Sunday travel. Thus, the best carriers were filled and we then chose Via, which still offered a semi-cami or 160-degree chair/bed. The bus was sufficient. We checked in at 10:30 pm and we fell asleep quickly.

Next stop Lima Peru.

A great meal with the sunset

The bus ride from Ecuador to Peru

The van to Loja, good thing we had Mary protecting us

We left Cuenca early Wednesday September 17.  We expected the full trip to our first stop in Peru to be over 24 hours so the plan was an over-night stop in the town of Loja, Ecuador.  At our hosts suggestion we opted for a private van transport to Loja, this avoided the dirty Ecuador buses that stop every few minutes for passengers and food vendors trying to sell us something.  The ride was better, but the driver also went at top speed up and down the mountains, so fast that is was necessary to hold on or you would slam against the side of the van.  Frank managed to sleep, I tried hard to focus on my book on tape since all other forms of entertainment were out of the question. 

As we traveled south the landscape got dry and the towns and houses changed to very rural and very poor.  Most homes had no windows, only dirt, garbage and stray dogs in the yards, always small children running around. 

We arrived in Loja in the early afternoon and after some challenges our taxi found the hostel we selected by the bus station, so we could be close for our early morning departure. This was not a great hostel, next time we stay in the town, not by the bus station. 

We left Loja at 7 am traveling again on the Ecuadorian style bus, bumpy, dirty and now we were in the first row seats, no leg room, no air conditioning, a really miserable ride.  After 4 hours we stopped just outside of the border for lunch.  Frank and I opted to eat our peanut butter ( manta) and jelly sandwiches I prepared and did not venture out into the town. 

At the border we were instructed to get off the bus and stand in a line at one window to a small house to complete our Ecuadorian paperwork.  Once this was completed we then had to walk across the border, a road with a very small river, or stream by American standards to another window to complete the Peru paperwork.  It was hot, very dry and the total process took around 2 hours to process around 20 people; not a cattle call.  Needless to say it was an exasperating experience. True to our traveler voyage we were with 2 other backpackers, from Germany and Denmark, nice guys and we passed the time sitting on the side of the dirt road, chatting about long-term travel, Frank always the jokester, asked the guy from Germany if he could tell the border guard in Spanish : "if he does not let us into the country, we cannot spend money"-- very funny, the guy declined, but they both laughed. "Well, I got you to smile, me too", said Frank.

Back on hot bus for another 4 hours the town of Piura Peru, the plan was to have 2 more stops, each ride 4 hours.  Piura was large, hot and had several large sections with hundreds of steel corrugated shacks surrounded by a wall with the name of the area.  We were reminded of "Soweto" in Johannesburg South Africa. 

Frank with his beer at the Chinese restaurant

The bus stations in Peru are small depots servicing single bus companies, like car rentals in the States.  Once we arrived we needed to go to several bus companies and check the times for the onward journey.  We had no Peru money yet. The city was large and we had our heavy bags, uneven streets and sidewalks and people everywhere, so we opted to pay a tuk tuk, which was a motorcycle with a seat behind it to take us to what we thought was the best company.  Our Danish friend helped our negotiation to get the guy to take $1 coin from Ecuador. No luck at the depot-- the bus for the next town was hours away without a guarantee that we could get to our final destination.  So back on anther tuk tuk, this time with the help of 2 female police officers, to another bus station where they had a direct 8 hour bus.  We had missed the bus on our plan and the next bus did not leave for 6 hours and traveled all night, but they told us they were running a “special” only 50 sols per ticket, a bargain.  We made a quick decision and purchased the ticket with visa. We still needed cash money.  Our luck continued, a bank was next store, and air conditioned!! We were able to get our Peruvian Sol’s. Next , we needed food. Our agent at the bus station recommended an Asian restaurant ( Chifka) across the street, it turned out to be good food and Frank was able to get a very cold beer, perfect after the long hot day on the bus.  After a few hours hanging out at the Chinese restaurant watching Peruvian game shows in Spanish we opted to go back to the bus station and watched “Rat Race” on the IPOD.  What a hilarious movie.  I am sure we were the sight, wearing our headphones and  laughing and laughing at the bus station.

Our all night bus

The bus was a different world from the buses in Ecuador.  Large leather seats that recline to almost flat, bottled water, a meal, a movie in English.  (Did we mention that on all the buses in Ecuador they play bad shoot 'em up movies in Spanish, very loud.  Claude van Damme and the like).  We slept all the way to Trujillo, Peru.

 

Total travel time from Cuenca Ecuador to Trujillo Peru – 48 hours

Time on buses – 22 hours

4 peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, 6 bottles of water, and the best beer ever in a Chinese restaurant.