December 28, 2004
Bus: Arequipa to Chivay
Hotel: Pozo del Cielo, Colca Canyon (Chivay, Peru)
(http://www.pozodelcielo.com.pe/index2eng.htm)
The Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world; over 3000m from the peaks to the valley floor below. Until recently it was thought to be the deepest, but that title now belongs to another nearby canyon. The main town of Chivay was a 5+ hr bus ride from Arequipa over a 14,000 ft pass, only partially paved. We stopped at a store on the edge of Arequipa to buy coca leaves; the locals chew these with lye to help stave off the effects of altitude sickness. We definitely started feeling the effects of altitude here, I ended up with a splitting headache. The coca leaves didn't help at all; in fact I've never tasted anything quite so nasty in my life! Though maybe that's the point; the nastiness distracts you from your other ailments.
The coca tea is much better, especially once you add sugar. Just make sure you don't have to take a drug test anytime soon! Aspirin also worked for me for the headache, but really all you can do is take it easy for a few days. The drive over the pass was stunning, with wide vistas of the treeless altiplano, salt pans, and grazing herds of alpaca and llama. We arrived at Chivay in time for lunch at a local restaurant. After lunch we heard the sound of a brass band coming from down the street, and wandered down to investigate. It turned out to be a wedding! All the locals were out in their colorful finest, and much pisco and chicha (the local corn beer) was being consumed. We were invited to join in the dancing and drinking, but unfortunately we had to get back to the bus. We were dropped off at the hotel, the Pozo del Cielo, overlooking the town of Chivay. The hotel had a great view, but wasn't very convenient for the rest of town. It is possible to walk to the center of town, but the way back is all uphill. We had about 20 minutes to get ready before heading to the local hot springs. My wife was feeling pretty bad because of the altitude, she popped an aspirin and decided to stay at the hotel while I went off to the hot springs. The springs were very nicely done, with a large thermal swimming pool. That evening, we attended a local dinner/dance show. The dancers invited diners out onto the dance floor for the very energetic dances, I gave it a go for a few minutes until I felt dizzy and out of breath. The band was traditional Peruvian music, with several panflutes of varying size (I was already sick of Flight of the Condor, mind you).
December 29, 2004
Bus: Chivay to Arequipa
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Arequipa (Arequipa, Peru) $41
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
An early rise this morning at 5 am for the 2 hr drive to the Cruz del Condor overlook. The scenery was just incredible that morning, the light was perfect on the villages and terraced slopes that we passed by. Along the way, our guide described many of the local plants the Incas used for food and medicine. Traditionally there were two tribes that lived in the Colca area; in pre-colonial times they used to bind their skulls differently so they could be easily identified. One tribe would bind their skulls into a cone shape, the others would shape theirs with a flat top like Frankenstein. The Spanish put a stop to this, so now the tribes have taken to wearing white or black hats! We arrived at the Condor overlook on the lip of the Colca Canyon itself, and walked a mile or so keeping our eyes peeled for condors. We did spot one, but it was so high up as to only be a speck in the sky. We returned to Chivay in time for lunch. There was some kind of political rally going on at the time, there was a huge crowd gathered in the plaza, with a stage and loudspeakers setup. Apparently, it was one of the political parties that noone liked! Then back on the bus for the long ride back to Arequipa. We had met a trio of Swedish girls on our tour bus, they were heading onto Cuzco that very night, a 15 hr bus ride after being on a bus all day. Two nights really would have been better in the canyon, it's a fascinating place, and deserves more time spent there.
December 30, 2004
Flight: Arequipa to Juliaca, LanPeru 131 (320) Economy 22L
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We had all mornining free before our afternoon flight to Puno. We decided to visit the Santa Catalina convent in Arequipa; this was totally closed off to outsiders until the late 1970's! It's a truly magical place, very photogenic with red, white, and blue colored walls, and flowers and citrus trees everywhere. Different parts of the convent are designed to look like regions in Spain. Take lots and lots of film or memory cards with you! Afterwards, we decided to visit the Juanita mummy that was discovered on the top of a nearby mountain a few years ago. She is only on display for parts of the year, and today was the last day that she would be on display. We had a hard time finding the museum, it had moved from the site in our guidebook. The museum was fascinating, describing the Inca funeral arrangements, how the children were sacrificed to the mountain gods. The focal point was the mummy of Juanita herself, which is kept in a climate controlled display. After the museum, we walked back to the Sonesta, grabbed our bags, and headed for the airport. The flight to Juliaca was a quick 45 minutes, but saved another 6 hours on a bus. The airport is about an hour drive from Puno. We were staying at the Sonesta in Puno, on the shore of Lake Titicaca a few kilometers outside of town. The hotel is nice enough, with a pretty good restaurant, but it is isolated with nothing nearby.
December 31, 2004
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
Today was pretty much a down day for us; we had been hitting the sights pretty hard for the past week and needed a day to relax. The altitude was a convenient excuse for not getting up to too much today! We did go into town for a few hours and wandered around the markets, buying a few blankets and other souvenirs. It was NYE and the locals were selling bags of confetti, charcoal, and other festive items. Most Peruvians celebrate NYE with their families, rather than out in the streets. It was a pretty uneventful NYE, we were still feeling a bit under the weather. There was a good fireworks show out over the lake as the clock struck midnight.
January 1, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Lake Titicaca (Puno, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_puno/)
We felt much better this morning, and decided to go for a day trip to Taquile island in the middle of Lake Titicaca. I had been to Puno and Taquile previously in 1998. We had wanted to actually spend the night out on one of the islands, as it is very peaceful once the daytrippers have left, but because of our rest day we only went for the day ourselves. Most of the boats leave the Puno harbor around 7-8:30 AM and return late in the evening. You don't need to book a tour, just show up at the boat dock and someone will find you! The boats will stop at the Uros floating islands along the way. Take plenty of sunscreen and water, the boat trip is 2.5+ hours each way to Taquile! The Uros islands seem to be much more touristy than they were even just 7 years ago, there are several permanent structures now. Most islanders still live in the reed huts on the floating islands, although some now even had satellite TV hookup, this seemed a bit out of place! You can take a ride in a reed boat around the islands for about a dollar. Our next stop was Taquile Island, a high rocky island in the middle of the lake. Luckily the boats came in on the sloped side of the island, which is an easy walk to the top. The other side of the island is a cliff with 500 steps, much easier going down than up! There were signs of the previous nights festivities everywhere, with confetti all over the ground and boats. Most of the natives keep traditional dress, and electricity was only introduced here within the last 10 years. Many of the islanders now earn money from tourism, either operating the boats, or selling locally made clothing. We had a delicious lunch of local fish in one of the restaurants. Back on the boat for the ride back to Puno, on arrival we went to the bus station to book our tickets to Cuzco the next morning. We also found an internet place that could download our memory cards onto CD; my wife was photo happy in Peru and had already filled up our cards!
January 2, 2005
Bus: Puno to Cuzco (http://www.perucuzco.com/imexsotours/transport.htm)
Hotel: Libertador Hotel (Cuzco, Peru) $162
(http://www.libertador.com.pe/hotel/hotel/eng/cusco.htm)
We left the hotel at 7 AM for the 6 hr bus ride to Cuzco. The train had been the preferred transportation on this route before the paved road was completed a few years ago. There are several buses that run the route, we took the non-tourist bus that goes straight through without stopping. The VCR broke halfway through Troy. When we arrived in Cuzco, the Sonesta hotel was not available, so we decided to splurge for one night at the Libertador hotel. The location is right across from the Qoricancha, the former Incan temple of the Sun, a few blocks away from the Plaza del Armas. Very nice hotel inside, the beds were very comfortable, and they had the heat cranked up in the rooms. We partook of the sauna to soothe our bodies after the long ride. For dinner, we ate at the Tunupa restaurant on the Plaza del Armas, they had an impressive buffet dinner spread. Some of the best food we'd had since Lima! It started pouring during dinner, I thought it was just a tropical downpour that would be over in a minute. It was still raining the next morning.
January 3, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $95
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We moved over to the Sonesta hotel this morning, it was right off the square, and right across the street from the hotel where I had stayed in 1998. We were upgraded to the suite, which had a great view out over the rooftops and into the Plaza! We had several errands today, laundry and arranging our tours to Machu Picchu and the Sacred Valley. We visited several of the museums on the Cuzco visitors ticket today. I had missed Qoricancha on my previous trip, what a mistake! It was fabulous inside with the old Inca stone walls. We did a city tour that afternoon, going out to Sacsaywaman (Sexy Woman), Puca Pucara, and other Incan sites.
January 4, 2005
Train: Cuzco to Aguas Calientes (http://www.perurail.com)
Hotel: Aquas Calientes (Machu Picchu, Peru)
A very early start at 5:45AM as we had to get to the train station for Machu Picchu. The train is the only way to get to the ruins now, unless you hike in on the Inca trail. We had the hotel pack us a couple of lunchboxes for the trip. We planned on spending the night in Machu Picchu village, to spend more time in the ruins after all the tourists had left. The train station was complete chaos, with hundreds of tourists milling about, we managed to lose our tour guide who hadn't yet told us which hotel we were staying at! The Vistadome tourist trains are brand new, with panoramic windows on the roof, as most of the trip is spent in the canyon, you can look out above to see the mountain peaks. The ticket price had just gone up to $100 just a few days ago! There is also a cheaper 'backpacker' train, about $60. The trip lasts about 3 hours each way, arriving into Machu Picchu at 10 AM and departing at 3 PM; most of the tourists only come for the day. The weather was gorgeous all the way until we got to MP Village, where it started raining! The train literally stops in the center of town. All the tourists filed out and got onto buses that drove up to the ruins, which are actually several miles away from the village, and up a 800 ft climb. We looked around for our guide but didn't find them... which left us in a pickle, not knowing where we were supposed to stay. We luckily did find another guide who was able to show us where our hotel was located; a very basic place (musty, and with stains on the wall that looked like dried blood), but there's not much choice in the village. The hotel was very close to the hot springs. We waited around a few hours, but the rain kept coming. Finally about 2PM we decided to go up to the ruins anyway, as most of the day trippers would now be leaving. On the way up we passed busload after busload of tourists headed down the mountain. It is getting expensive to visit the ruins, with the $100 train, $20 entrance fee, and $12 bus ride! We had already paid for the bus ticket and entrance fee as part of the tour, but they were only good for one day (tomorrow), so we had to pony up $64 for just a few hours in the ruins! We sloshed about the ruins in the mud until finally the clouds started lifting about 4:30.. the famous vista lay below us! The ruins are quite magical, especially in the afternoon light, and we had the place pretty much to ourselves at that point. We caught one of the last buses down to the village then went up to the hot springs to relax. They have upgraded the springs considerably since I was there in 1998; there are now several different pools of varying temperature.
January 5, 2005
Train: Aguas Calientes to Cuzco
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru) $65
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_cuzco/)
We woke up very early this morning to catch the first bus up to the ruins. It was looking like it was going to be a gorgeous day, with a clear blue sky. When we arrived in the ruins, the first Inca trail hikers were just starting to arrive. We ran into the Swedish girls again that we had met on the Colca trip, one of them was in pretty bad shape from the hike. I had done the hike on my previous trip; it's by far the most strenuous undertaking I've ever done.. the main problem was the altitude. We had breakfast in the Machu Picchu Sanctuary hotel, which is run by the Orient Express group. It's the hotel that's actually located at the ruins, but you pay a high price to stay there, easily over $400 a night. Our guided tour of the ruins started at 11AM, though we had already seen most of the ruins by that point. We left for the train around 2 PM and were back in Cuzco late that evening.
January 6, 2005
Hotel: Sonesta Posada del Inca Cusco (Cuzco, Peru)
(http://www.sonesta.com/peru_arequipa/)
We had booked the tour to the Sacred Valley, Pisac and Ollantaytambo for the day. We had missed the main Pisac market on Saturday, but they still have smaller markets on other days of the week. The Sacred Valley is a very fertile valley along the Urubamba river that was the homeland of the Inca. Over 1000 varieties of maize were at one time grown in the valley. We visited the Pisac ruins, then stopped for a buffet lunch. When we arrived at Ollantaytambo, there was an Epiphany festival going on, with people dressed up as cariactures of the conquistadores. I had already seen the Olla ruins previously, and both my wife and I were feeling ruined out at that point
, so we decided to stay in town and observe the fiesta. The dances were great! Several of the masked characters danced drunkenly about while holding a large bottle and sloshing the contents on each other and on the watchers! Sadly we soon had to leave to rejoin the tour (damn tours, they're always on a schedule), when we headed off to Chinchero, another Inca site. We arrived back into Cusco after dark that evening, after another full day. Tomorrow morning we would be flying to Ecuador.
January 7, 2005
Flight: Cuzco to Lima, TACA 8 (320) Business 2A
Flight: Lima to Quito, TACA 29 (319) Business 2E
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
Awoke at 6 AM to catch our early flight to Lima. We had to pay the domestic departure tax in Cuzco, then the $28 international departure tax in Lima. We were flying on TACA in Business class. The planes seemed quite new, and the breakfast ham and cheese croissant was delicious. We ran into the Swedish girls again on our flight, and M. was still not looking well at all. The pilot called ahead and had an ambulance waiting for her on our arrival in Lima! (Luckily everything turned out OK, she received antibiotics and was better in a few days). We barely made our connecting flight to Quito due to the delay; although the planes were physically next to each other, you have to be bussed to the national terminal, walk to the international terminal, pay the departure tax, go through immigration, then bussed out to the departure plane.. that's pushing it in an hour connection unfortunately. The flight to Quito was uneventful, with stunning views of the Andes from the right side of the plane. Service on TACA was very good, and the food was decent on the 2 hr flight. We liked the look of Quito on arrival, the city seemed very clean and modern, at least the parts near the airport. We were booked into the JW Marriott hotel, the same hotel that Celebrity used for the pre/post cruise hotel. We had booked the 7-night cruise portion only, instead of going for their 10 or 11 night hotel+flight option. We had previously booked our flights to the Galapagos through a local travel agent in Quito, our tickets were waiting for us when we arrived at the hotel. The JW Marriott was a very nice hotel a few miles south of the airport. The money situation in Ecuador is interesting; they use the US$ as their currency, but have their own coins. The Sacagawea dollar coin is popular here.
January 8, 2005
Hotel: JW Marriott (Quito, Ecuador) $89
(http://marriott.com/property/propertypage/UIODT)
We had a free day in Quito today and decided to head up to the weekend market in Otovalo, a few hours north of Quito. Inquiring at the hotel, they wanted $40-$60 apiece for the trip to Otovalo and back. We said no way and decided to take the bus. (The bus costs $2). The bus station in Quito is a few miles south of the center of town, about a 20 minute taxi ride. The bus station looks a bit dodgy, I definitely wouldn't want to be around there at night. There was a bus leaving for Otovalo in the next few minutes, when it departed the bus station there were only three people on it! As soon as we had left the station, however, the bus stopped and a long line of people proceeded to get on. This is the locals way of avoiding paying the $0.20 departure tax at the station! We were stopped by a bad traffic snarl at the tunnels, and we continued picking up passengers along the way. We finally passed the Marriott on the way north, over an hour and half wasted had we known we could just flag down a bus on the roadside! Finally with the bus fully packed we made better time to Otovalo, arriving about 11:30 AM. The market was quite impressive, lots of alpaca goods, blankets, watercolors, and other souvenirs. The styles were similar to those we saw in Peru. The locals dress is different however; the women wear their hair in braids, with white tops, blue skirts and lots of yellow plastic bead necklaces, not quite as colorful as Peruvian traditional clothing. We bought a gorgeous watercolor, then wandered around town a bit more before having lunch and catching the bus back to Quito. We were smart this time and got off the bus level to the hotel, then caught a taxi back the rest of the way. We arrived back just in time to get our laundry before the place closed, that would have been quite a problem if we hadn't made it as we were leaving for the Galapagos in the early morning!