Arequipa, Peru

Our last stop in Peru was a flight from Cuzco to the southern city of Arequipa, Peru's 2nd largest city.  Arequipa is at 7,000ft, much lower than Cuzco, but it lies practically within the shadow of two massive mountains; El Misti, pictured above at 19,101ft and Chachani at 19,872ft.  We had made arrangements to hike to the summit of El Misti, and just the sight of the massive dome made me nervous.

Arequipa is known as "The White City" as its beautiful Spanish colonial buildings are made from white sillar stone.

 

Unfortunately Arequipa has one fatal flaw; taxi horns.  This sign is universally ignored.  Unlike lovely Cuzco, which enforces regulations prohibiting car horns, Arequipa is a hellscape of blaring horns at every intersection, at all hours of the day.  The otherwise attractive, modern and clean historical center has no stop signs, no stoplights, and every intersection is a battle where the loudest and boldest gets through first.  It makes for a miserable place to walk.

To top off the misery of the taxi noise, on our first night in Arequipa, I managed to get food poisoning form an undercooked Alpaca steak.  We had a two day tour of Colca Canyon scheduled for the next day, but I woke up with stomach churning and losing fluid rapidly.  I made an attempt to catch the bus for the tour, Lindsey and I raced across town in a taxi and caught it as it had already pulled away.  But after just moments onboard, I had to get off and collapse to hands and knees in the street puking my guts out.  End of tour.  Day 2 spent in bed.

On Day 3 I felt well enough that we walked around a bit and explored the wonderful Santa Catalina Monastery.  It is a colorful, peaceful escape from the city.

On Day 4 we attempted to climb 19,000ft El Misti.  Only my intestinal problems had returned!  Note to self; if you swallow antibiotics, and then puke your guts out 30 minutes later, you probably didn't get a chance to absorb much of the medicine.  Feeling awful again, we met with our guide, and loaded up a backpack with warm clothing, 5 liters of water, a tent, sleeping bag, 2 days of food, crampons, and a freakin ice ax!
We drove through the worst slums of Arequipa, past the stretch of road they use as a dump, and over a rutted dirt path for several miles until we reached the trailhead at 11,000ft.  I hauled my 50 pound backpack onto my shoulders and felt so weak I could barely stand.  And now I was going to walk uphill for two days??!!  I really, really, really, hate to be a quitter.  But a half hour into the hike, I did just that.  We turned back and and hailed our ride to come get us.  Ahh the agony of defeat.

Ollantaytambo, Peru

After Macchu Piccu we got off the train at Ollantaytambo station and spent two nights here in this magical Inca town.  We stayed at the comfortable Apu Lodge with views of inca ruins on both side of our room.

Ollantaytambo is the most well preserved Inca town in existence.  The cobblestone streets run through a grid of Inca walls built in the 1400s and still inhabited today!  This was our favorite stop in Peru.  Walking through these walls is like stepping back in time.  The countryside around Ollanata is breathtaking, partly because of the 9,000+ft elevation, but also for the forests and waterfalls and mountain views.

Most of the villagers here wear the bright red traditional Inca clothing.  This couple was waiting for the bus in the central square.

The local drink is Chicha, a fermented corn beer with a low alcohol content of about 2-3%.  It is sold out of private homes, who hang a red plastic bag out front to let people know they have a batch ready for sale.  I convinced Lindsey to go in and get a drink.  For 75cents I got a big glass of chicha ladled out of a barrel, and we hung out in this ladies inner courtyard.  We were soon joined by two locals and a couple more tourists.  The colorful guy in the corner spoke only Quechua, his buddy next to me spoke Quechua and Spanish, and the guy in the leather jacket spoke Spanish and English, so we had a convoluted train of translation going.

After two great days exploring in Ollanta, we hired a driver for a one day tour of the Sacred Valley, and a drop off back in Cuzco.  The sacred valley is stunningly beautiful.

We visited the interesting Salt pans of Maras

We passed through mountain viewpoints on back road shortcuts, and saw local folks walking and farming.

Concentric circles of stone terracing made impressive agricultural micro-climates created by the Incas to find the best climate for each of their crops.

The fortress at Pisac is one of the biggest Inca cities, but we had seen soooooooo much Inca stuff by this time that we were thinking "Uh huh.  Terracing.  Inca walls.  Ok, let's move on."

Finally we reached the Pisac Sunday Market which was outstanding!  The best native craft market I've been to.  We only had an hour here, but could have enjoyed 4 hours.  So many interesting things to buy for such cheap prices.  We could have don all our Christmas shopping here.

Inca Trail to Macchu Piccu, Peru

Cuzco, Peru

Cuzco takes your breath away, literally.  11,000ft elevation gave me a very slight headache, and leaden legs when climbing stairs.

You'll see many Inca walls in a trip to Peru, but none more perfectly sculpted than those in the ancient capitol of Cuzco.  Today banks and houses are built on top of the original fifteenth century walls.

Everywhere in Peru we see four foot tall old ladies carrying massive loads slung on their backs.  We never saw a single Peruvian man carrying anything.

This family brought a llama and an alpaca to the edge of town so tourists could pet them, take pictures and give a "propina" or tip.

These bizarre ski masks are sold all over and I had to have one.

The giant doors of the Cathedral on the Cuzco Plaza de Armas

These ladies had a baby llama for picture-taking followed by a propina, which, no matter how much you gave them was not enough.

Peruvians consider "Cuy" or guinea pigs a delicacy.

Lima, Peru

 

Peru is country #62.  We arrived in Lima late at night, exhausted from 24 hours of travel, and finding Lindsey's bag did not make the journey with us, nor did our pre-arranged driver show.  On arrival at our hotel the lovely Hostal El Patio in Miraflores, we were pleasantly surprised.

In the morning we took a cab to the Plaza Armas.  Nice place, decent for walking around.  I had heard nothing good about the huge eight million person city of Lima, but we enjoyed this part of town as well as Miraflores.

The national drink of Peru is the Pisco Sour, so why not try one at the origin of the drink, the Hotel Bolivar?  I thought it was tart and awful, but Lindsey liked em.  I stuck with Cuzquena beer the rest of the trip, particularly the malty Cuzquena Negra whenever available.

We sampled the nightlife of the Miraflores area near Parque Kennedy, and had a great time. We became friends with these folks in a hole-in-the-wall bar near our hotel.