SF Street Food Festival

So there has been an explosion of street food carts in San Francisco recently which I have not had a chance to try yet, only because they sell out by the time I decide to go!  The only advertising they do is on Twitter as to location, day and time.   So far, I have been following @cremebruleecart, @magiccurrykart,@AmuseBoucheSF and @tamalelady. and they are very amusing!

I think its great that we get a chance to eat food in a non-restaurant type of environment, a lot like they do in Asia.  The guy handing you a bag of satay chicken covered in sauce and with pineapple in a plastic bag in Thailand does not provide table and chairs.   People usually just crowd round the cart, eat and run.  I’m sure its not like that in SF, people are friendly and like to say Hello!  I will have to try it out and will blog about the experience.

So we are heading to the SF Street Food Festival today to try some tasty treats.  I’m sure its going to be a lot of fun! I’m hoping to get some good pictures too, just hope its not too crowded.

All good things must come to an end.

So we’ve been back home for 4 weeks now and I’ve had plenty of time to reflect on this journey.

What did this trip mean to me? This to me was a trip of a lifetime, made more special because I was traveling with my husband and sister. It was nice to have someone to share it with.  We would often get back to our hotel rooms, exhausted from a day of walking up and down hills, on cobblestones, but we would always have a smile on our face and gab on and on about wheat we had seen and experienced. This trip was the realization of a dream I’ve had for years, and when I entered Machu Picchu, I thought I was still dreaming!  I will never forget that moment.

What would I have done differently? I would have loved to have spent more than 3 weeks traveling to this part of the world, as it was quite rushed, and we had more early starts than we care to remember.  I would have also loved to spend some time in a school learning Spanish. That is definitely on my list of things to do in South America.

Favorite places? I loved every place we visited, but the special places were certainly the Galapagos Islands with the amazing wildlife, Lima – so cosmopolitan and not what I was expecting at all, Arequipa – beautiful colonial architecture, food and a wonderful main square.  I also liked the beer!

I would love to go back to South America.  There is still so much to see and while we are living in N.America, its just too close and too good an opportunity to miss.  A wise person once said “While the dream may be the silver, the journey is the gold”.  I truly believe that and can’t wait to embark on our next adventure!

Ollantaytambo & Pisac

So I spent my birthday at Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley. Ollantaytambo (pronounced Oyan-tay-tambo) has a huge inca fortress above it, and is a very cute village. The train stopped here on our way back from Machu Picchu and so we had planned to check out this Inca city, as well as the ruins at Pisac. We had arranged a guide and transport for the day to travel from Ollantaytambo, to Pisac and back to Cusco.

We stayed at the lovely El Albergue Bed and Breakfast which you can enter from the train platform. I didn’t think it would be very comfortable, not to mention noisy from the trains but it was a wonderful place, it had a beautiful garden and cabins rather than a building full of rooms. We had a very comfortable cabin with a lovely bathroom, and hot water!! We ate a tastey meal in their little restaurant where they make their own fettuccine and after seeing it drying, we all had pasta for dinner!

Ollantaytambo is an incan village that has been continuously inhabited since the 13th century. It has cobblestone roads, divided into blocks (kinda like mini suburbs) and each block has one entrance which leds into a courtyard. The ruins are spectacular, huge terraces that lead up to a fortress. It is one of the few places where the Spanish conquistador, Hernando Pizarro lost a major battle. They were trying to capture Manco Inca but were met with a barrage of arrows and boulders from the top of the terracing. However, the victory was shortlived, the Spanish returned with a larger force and and Manco fled to the jungle fortress of Vilcabamba.

What is beautiful about Ollantaytambo ruins is that they are very well preserved. The temple complex at the top of terracing has wonderful stonework, there is a wall of stones that were brought from a quarry 6 kms away, and they are enormous! From the top of the ruins you can see that the old walls of the houses are still standing and water sill runs through chanells through the complex to the many fountains that surround it. The fountains we learned were used for bathing, toilets and some were sacred. Our guide showed us how with a flick of the wrist it was possible to change the angle of the flow of water.

We learned a bit about the importance of the location of Ollantaytambo, the mountain opposite has some features that were important to the Inca’s, such as you can see the profile of a man’s face it. Also the crops were sewed depending on the stars that were visible in the sky, they depending a lot on astrology.

We then went to Pisac, after a lovely meal in the town and had to take a back way due to the getting stuck behind the Virgin del Carmen procession. The first thing you notice as you approach the ruins at Pisac is the steep terracing and dramatic architecture. Pisac was also a fortress, but there are many features that make it recognisable as a residential city. There are many ritual baths and areas that separated the nobles from he common people. This was obvious in the stonework, you can really see the difference between the noble quarters and the servant quarters! But the terracing is amazing, and when you climb to the top (no easy task!) we were rewarded with spectacular views of the Urubamba valley, to the west is the Rio Kitamayo gorge and the east is the Rio Chongo valley. The terracing is so beautiful, it wraps around and hugs the mountain and is so graceful! We could tell that Pisac was an agricultural center, in that it grew crops to feed the city because the terraces were so wide. They were a lot narrower at Ollantaytambo so they were probably used as protection, rather than agriculture. As you look across the Kitamayo gorge, you can see hundreds of holes in the mountain face, looking similar to honeycomb. These were inca tombs that were plundered by grave robbers who found a lot of gold and thinks to use in the afterlife. Pisac was very beautiful, and as we were there in the late afternoon, we were practically the only tourists! It was wonderful!

The sacred valley is certainly an area that I want to go back to. There are so many other places to visit, like Sacsayhuaman, Moray and Chincero. But of course, that will be the subject of another trip!

Machu Picchu

Another early morning! But breakfast was waiting for us and there were a few early risers, making their Machu Picchu plans. Coffee, fruit, cereal, croissants, toast, ham, cheese, what more could you want!

We arrived at the train station after about a 30min drive. There were a lot of people and we got in line as they had closed off the platform until they were ready for boarding. We had Vistadome class (because the Backpacker’s train was sold out). They finally started boarding at 6.30am and the Peru Rail trains were painted a beautiful blue and had little steps to board. How cute! Our carriage was the last one on the train and most of the seats were in groups of 4 facing each other, with a table in between. Roz and Mark were on one side of the isle and I was on the other, with an American family. Roz and Mark didn’t have anyone opposite them.

The train was freezing cold and we all had our own fleece blanket. We all had our fleeces and beenies and scarves on. I got chatting to the American family, who were from Indiana. They were very nice, the Mum started talking about all the mission trips she had done to S.America, and her last trip to Israel to see where the Lord came from etc. Okayyyyyyyyy. Then they asked me where I was from, and amazingly, they had heard of Perth, Western Australia! And the Husband said ‘Hey you come from the most remote city in the world!’. Great. I’m glad they knew that!

So after about 15mins, I changed my seat and sat opposite Mark and Roz.

We ended up being served a small snack on the train which was really nice as we were not expecting anything, and the hotel had packed us some biscuits, sandwiches, fruit and water. The scenery was beautiful. We ended up winding our way past beautiful farmland, we could see lot of cows and pigs, and there were many children who were waving to the train! After an hour we started climbing and went through a few switchbacks. We could see the tops of mountains and some even had snow. Suddenly we were passing through a valley with mountains on either side and the vegetation started looking more tropical. In another hour we had reached Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu.

There was a porter waiting for us and he grabbed our bags and headed to our hotel, the Inti Punku, which was a 5 min walk from the train station. We tried to check in but our room wasn’t going to be ready till 11am, so we had to wait for 30mins. We had walked through a huge market on our way to our hotel so we went back there for a look around. Well it was a lot more expensive than Cusco, Arequipa and Lima! If you are ever in Aguas Calientes, don’t shop here!!

We finally checked in and made our way to the bus stop. We bought our bus tickets and unfortunately I had given the lady our $10 note without a serial number. Even though the Peruvian currency is the Sole, they take the US $ for everything, and are really anal about the notes. So after I had boarded the bus, she came running after me and insisted I give her another $10 because she was going to get into trouble for submitting that $10 note. I really didn’t have another one and a heated discussion took place, until Roz turned up and luckily had $10 on her. I was wondering if the ticket lady was going to throw me off the bus, even though I had already submitted my ticket.

We were finally on our way on our ‘Eco Friendly’ bus. Each bus took around 25 people up the mountain through a series of switch backs, on a dirt road that was only wide enough for one bus. So what happened when we met another bus head on, coming in the other direction?? Face off!! No, not really, one of the buses reversed into a crevice or pulled over so the other one could pass. It was a pretty hairy yet absolutely beautiful ride up the mountain. It was around 1pm when we arrived at Machu Picchu, and we walked towards the ticket gate, expecting to have our backpacks checked for food and water, as apparently you couldn’t take anything into the area. Well nobody searched our bags, and we didn’t take any food or water with us. We submitted our tickets and were finally on a path, walking upwards. We came to a junction, that either went up towards the Guardhouse or you could take the path straight around the front, and we decided to go up! There were many, many, many stone steps but as we climbed higher, we could suddenly see the postcard view, It was breathtaking, and I had a tiny lump in my throat, I couldn’t believe we were here!!

So we took the obligatory photo in front of Machu Picchu and thought we should visit the Sun Gate, the gate that people doing the trek walk through at sunrise. Although we had a map, we didn’t take the right path and ended up climbing up and up and up for at least 45 minutes. I was getting really worried because we did not meet anyone on this trail. Mark said he was going ahead for 5 minutes and if he didn’t find anything he would come back down. So Roz and I waited and Mark finally emerged and we walked back down! down! down! and realised we were on the trail to Machupicchu mountain! Some signs would have been very helpful!!

We were very very thirsty and tired by the time we came back down as it was hot, and were kicking ourselves that we didn’t bring any water with us. So we then walked back towards the main area to see if there were any water fountains, and found the path for the Sun Gate but decided to forgo it in case we died of cardiac arrest. We spent the next few hours just wandering around and enjoying the views. A lot of people had left and so we basically had the place to ourselves, well us and the llama’s! I got some great pictures when the sun was low and there was a lovely golden glow on the rocks. The terraces were so beautiful, at some places we thought we were at a cliff edge, but then when we looked down there were beautiful terraces everywhere.

We ended up hiking all over Machu Picchu over two days. The second day was an eye opener, it was overrun by tourists, but at least we had water and snacks the second day. There were so many tour groups, each with their own guide, even Peruvians speaking Japanese. There were a lot of elderly tourists with walking sticks, which really surprised me, as they were the ones talking the path up! up! up! I felt really sorry for them as we passed a lot of them going up, and then a lot of them going down. It was obvious that some of them were having problems with the altitude and the hiking.

My favourite part of Machu Picchu was the sitting by the gate to Huayna Picchu. There was a lovely view where we sat and just took it all in. I also loved the fountains, and the stone work at the temple zone, and of course, the Astronomical observatory. Also, I could gaze at the terraces for hours. There was a very funny incident when we were checking out the fountains, a group of llamas just pushed themselves onto the path and decided they were going to graze on the terraces. Mark, Roz and I were scrambling to find a crevice to stand in in case we were knocked over, man they are huge! I was busy trying not to look them in the eye in case I got a face full of llama spit.

We stayed overnight in Aguas Calientes, the town at the foot of Machu Picchu. Besides the huge market, there is not much to this place, and its actually a very ugly town, with construction everywhere you look. The best part was seeing the locals celebrating the Virgen Del Carmen festival. The men were dressed like how the Spanish used to dress, with white shirts, black pants, big hats and sashes, and masks to hide their faces as it was the only time they would mix with the locals and they didn’t want to be recognised. Also the women wore beautiful white shirts with full brightly coloured skirts and danced beautifully.

After two days in Machu Picchu we were happy to get back on the train and head to Ollantaytambo and the Sacred Valley.

Cusco – Finally!!

We managed to make our flight to Cusco. We arrived in Cusco at 8.30am and when we arrived at our hotel, it was only 9am! We were staying at the Torre Dorada, a small family run hotel which is about a 10min cab ride from the city center and was in a residential part of the city. We were greeted by the lovely Mariella who sat us down, gave us a map of the city and recommended places to visit, like the Cathedral, Inka Museuam and Koricancha. She also explained that we had a free shuttle service to and from the main square, they had 2 drivers at their disposal. Otherwise it was a 3 soles cab ride (about $1). We had booked a triple room but she said that they were not very busy, so Ros could have her own room if we wanted. That was fine with us, even if it was for only one night! Our rooms were not ready so she let us have (another) breakfast with the BEST.COFFEE.EVER!

Our rooms were beautiful, it was obviously a new place and everthing was spotless. Each floor had 4 rooms distributed around a central common room with cozy sofas and a TV, books, snacks, coffee and coca tea. Lovely!!

We unpacked, showered, and jumped in the car. First stop, the Plaza de Armes. As we drove down the Ave El Sol I got goosebumps and suddenly we rounded a corner and we were at the square! It was beautiful, flanked by 2 cathedrals, it is the most beautiful colonial plaza we had seen. We took a few photos and had to sit down in the plaza to take it all in! The gardens were beautiful and there were 2 flags flying here, the Peruvian flag and the rainbow coloured flag of Tahuantinsuyo, representing the 4 quarters of the Incan empire. It kinda looks like the Gay Pride banner. There were a lot of people around, but not as many as we expected. We had to first organise our entrance tickets to Machu Picchu and also our Boletico Touristco for the Sacred Valley. We purchased our Boletico Touristco but when we went to get our tickets for Machu Picchu, it was lunch time and they said to come back at 1pm. So we decided to get something to eat.

We decided we needed a snack after all that so walked down the side of the square and found a great patisserie, that did sandwiches, yummy cakes, and pies. There were a lot of foreigners in this shop, and I really wanted to try the empanadas being sold on the steps of the Cathedral and around the square, but the trays were FULL of empanadas, and we didn’t see anyone buy them, so we thought it might be a bit risky, as we couldn’t know how long they had be lying there. Of course we indulged in the patisserie and then headed back out.

We made our way back to the Machu Picchu ticket office. We didn’t have to wait long, but the line was HUGE about 2 minutes after we arrived. We finally got our tickets in our hot little hands, so exciting!! We walked back to the square and decided to visit La Cathedral first.

La Cathedral is easily identified by the flight of stairs leading up to it. It is flanked by the churches of Jesus Maria and El Triunfo. It was started in 1559 and took almost 100 years to build. It is build on the site of the Viracocha Inca’s palace using blocks stolen from Saqsaywaman. This seems to be a recurring theme, of the Spanish, tearing down the Inca palaces or temples and building churches in their place. La Catedral also has 3 green crosses outside.

La Catedral houses amazing works of art. It displays colonial art, especially from the Cusco school of painting, known for its combination of European devotional art mixed with the symbols of indigenous Andean artists. We had to remember that these artists didn’t even know who Jesus Christ was, they just painted figures that were described to them by the spanish, or copied figures from existing works of art transported to Peru from Spain. My favourite was the picture of The Last Supper, which shows Jesus and his disciples breaking bread, drinking wine, and about to tuck into a roasted guinea pig!!

There were many glitzy side chapels in the cathedral and a magnificently carved wood choir. The main altar was covered in gold leaf. We walked from one church into the other, as they are all connected and tried to take it all in, unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos. There were many beautiful statues and paintings, and an altar dedicated to Christo de los Tremblores, Lord of the Earthquakes. Apparently during the earthquake in 1650 the citizens of Cusco paraded around the square with this crucifix praying for the earthquake to stop, and it did! The Crucifix is huge, and has turned black from the thousands of candle that have been lit below it.

We finally emerged out of the darkness of the cathedral and were inundated by request of photos of local women, with children in tow, and lambs. What was with the live lambs? We did see a lot of tourists taking photos with them. By this time Mark was tired. Roz and I had bought postcards, and wanted to look around the artisan market. So Mark got into a taxi and we headed to one of the many cafes that surround the square. We walked up a flight of stairs so we were on the 2nd floor overlooking the square, and had cake, coffee and icecream, and wrote some postcards. We got a taxi to the Artisan Market (which was on the way back to our hotel) and I bought a large woven bag (it had llama’s on it – so cute), and some souvenirs and presents for family and friends. The markets were nice, but not as nice or as cheap as Arequipa. We finally got a taxi back to the hotel. We packed our bags, and then went back into the square to a new restaurant called Greens. Lovely organic food, great salads, yukka, soups. While we were eating, the German family that we saw in Puno walked in and were seated for cocktails. Mint.

I think we got back to the hotel rather late, and we were exhausted, having been up since 4.30am, and yet we were excited about getting up early the next day – yet again – because we were visiting Machu Picchu!!

Puno to Juliaca

We woke up way too early the next day, 4.30am, in order to get to Juliaca, in order to make our 7.45am flight to Cusco, which was full! Of course, i was feeling really sick from being up so early, so poor Ros had to fish around for some maxalon. The hotel did pack us a two boxes containing fruit, water, yogurt etc. for breakfast, but when we got downstairs, the dining room was open and they were getting ready for breakfast. We were invited in and so decided to take advantage of hot coffee, papaya, pineapple, fresh rolls, ham and cheese. The usually fare. BTW, the coffee on this trip had been wonderful!!

Our car arrived at 5.30am, and to my dismay, it was a station wagon instead of a mini van. We piled in and then started our drive through Puno, back towards the large hill. We were driving around say 20km an hour which was really annoying me because I had become used to driving at breakneck speeds in Ecuador. I fumbled around for my phrase book and said ‘rapido’ to the driver, who said something back to me in Spanish, lord only knows what.

As we climbed the hill, and rounded a corner, we encountered the Police, who pulled our cab over. There was some problem with the driver’s paperwork, so we had to sit in the car for 15 mins while he was running around to several policemen, gesticulating wildly. I was getting a bit scared that we would miss our plane because he had already started driving REALLY SLOWLY and then the delay caused by the cops. Anyway, we were finally on our way and I started to doze.

Suddenly I woke up as we hit the ‘rough patch’ where they were fixing the road. Well it was bright outside now so we could see the state of the highway quite clearly. It was a mess, torn up mud everywhere. We were driving through it hitting god knows what rocks underneath the car and making big scraping noises, all the while hanging on for dear life as the cars don’t have seatbelts in the back. Suddenly we stopped as the windows had fogged up and the driver couldn’t see through it. He decided to put on the windshield wipers, which didn’t have enough water it them, so the little that got sprayed on the windshield froze to the glass instantly. What do do now? The driver got out of the cab and started to try and wipe the ice away with a rag but it wasn’t moving. This was occurring while huge semi trailers and other earth moving equipment whizzed around us, not to mention traffic trying to overtake us and also cars coming in the other direction. Mark was sitting in front and was about to blow his top, but what was the use, the guy wouldn’t be able to understand us anyway!!

So he made signs with his hands and told the guy to start the wipers, and Mark sacrificed his bottle of water to melt the ice and clean the windshield. We were finally on our way!! But were we? As soon as the driver started the car we were bogged! So Mark gets out again and tries to push the car, but the driver decides to put it in reverse and nearly runs over Mark. Peachy. I was kind hysterical at this point and I really thought that we were about to miss our plane and also that Mark was going to kill the driver.

After a few deep breaths, we started again, although we did stop one more time as something had come loose on the car and Mark and the driver had to push it back in. So next time you are travelling from Puno to Juliaca, insist on a minivan!!

Lake Titicaca

We ended up booking a half day tour around Arequipa which took us around the countryside. We went to a lot of lookouts with beautiful views of the city, and a few town squares with the obligatory colonial church. One interesting fact that we learned, was that in order to convert the Inca’s, the Spanish erected a green cross outside the churches and adorned them with the sun and the moon that the Inca’s worshiped. It was outside the church because the ‘savages’ were not allowed inside.

We also visited a place that had great tamales! Mark got a great corn salad made with the local cheese. Oh we also saw a cage of guinea pigs destined for the bbq

After cake and coffee back in the main square of Arequipa we got on a plane to Juliaca.

Juliaca is a town about 1hr from Puno. Unfortunately the airport is located here so we had no choice! It is 3826m above sea level and Mark was certainly feeling it. We got out of the plane (onto the tarmac) and headed into the airport. There were barbie dolls dressed up in all kinds of national dress stuck around the baggage claim belt. VERY wierd. Mark got an OLD trolley and once our bags were loaded, he promptly pushed it into the life size Ken doll (caucasian dressed up in the traditional dress) and knocked it off its stand. So there were a tonne of locals pointing and laughing as we exited the building!

We got into the mini van organised through the hotel, and drove through the center of town. We were surprised to see a whole lot of auto-rickshaws, asian style! We finally got on the highway and although it was only two lanes, we thought we were in for a smooth ride. Somewhere, about a quarter of the way to Puno, we ended up going through the worst road I have ever been on. Well close to the worst road, if you count Costa Rica! They are widening the road between Juliaca and Puno, and forgot to build a temporary road, so there are trucks and cars all trying to get through the same stretch of ploughed mud, in between the road building machinery that didn’t stop at night time! We went through a couple of stretches of road this bad, I was glad it was night so I didn’t have to see it.

We finally started climbing around a mountain and then descended into Puno. We were staying at the ‘Colon Inn’ which the Lonely Planet said was rather good as it used to be a Best Western. We put on our pyjamas, socks, beanies and fleeces and went to bed!

Next morning we were glad to find that breakfast was being served early! There was a large German family in the dining room – 10 people travelling together. We thought we might all be on the same day tour on Lake Titicaca but our tour guide picked us up first. We were shoved into a van that was full and then we headed to the wharf where there were hundreds of boats lined up. We ended up having to walk through other boats to get onto our tin can boat. Our guide was ‘Walter’ who started talking to us in Spanish, until he blank stares confirmed that he should be speaking english. He told us a bit about Lake Titicaca, which means Rock Puma as there were a lot of Puma’s around when the Inca’s arrived there. The lake itself looks like a puma chasing a rabbit.

The lake around Puno is very polluted and apparently smells very bad in the summer months. After about 30 mins we arrive at the floating islands of the Uros people. There is nothing like these communities anywhere else in the world! These are floating islands made of totora reeds, where the Uros people (who have now intermarried with the Aymara speaking people) live. The Aymara’s were a tribe that began living on their islands centuries ago in an effort to isolate themselves from the Inca’s. These people are short and stout and the women wear two braids with huge pom-poms at the end of them. We landed on one of the islands and were greeted by the women saying ‘Kamiseragay’ which means ‘Welcome’ in Aymara.

We were then invited to sit on long reed logs placed in a semicircle and were introduced to Tito, who was the leader on the island. About 25 people (a whole family) lived on the island from the Grandmother to the newest baby. Tito gave us a demonstration on how the islands are built, and we were asked to guess how deep the water was where their island was ‘moored’. I guessed 18 meters. Tito then dropped a rock tied with rope to the bottom of the lake and then measured it. I was correct, 18 meters! Tito presented me with a reed boat and a pendant – how cool was that! We learned that they farm fish and have to buy all their food from the mainland as they don’t grow anything on the islands. They now have solar power which is used to power their TV’s. We had some free time to check out their houses made of reeds and raised off the ground due to the cold – apparently a lot of the Uros people suffer from rheumatism. After this, they pulled out the souvenirs where we bought some beautiful embroidered pieces. I didn’t bother bargaining with these people as they have so little. And then, the women lined up and started singing, first a song in Aymara, then something in french, and then ‘Row Row Row your boat’. It was totally cringe worthy and reeked of exploitation as the tour guide was telling them what to do.

These people are amazing with reeds. They build large boats with them, and we were offered a ride in ‘catamaran’ or a canoe. Mark went into the catamaran that was ‘powered’ by the women, of course, they were rowing it!

We then got back on our boat and spent nearly 2 hours motoring to Taquile Island. This is a small island which has been inhabited for thousands of years by Quechua speaking islanders. They are distinctly different from the Aymara speaking communities which surround them. We landed at a small wharf and then started climbing up up up for about 40 mins to the main plaza. Roz and I were breathless and had to stop a bit due to the elevation. But it was a beautiful day and we stopped to take in the wonderful views! We finally got to the main plaza and had about 20 mins free time to check out the square and the amazing handicrafts.

We got a traditional lunch about 10mins walk from the square in a lovely restaurant. We had fried trout with potatoes and the local quinoa soup which was delicious. Walter then told us a bit about their culture. The men wear caps that they knit themselves, and coloured depending if they are married or single. The women wear mantles, like the Spanish in olden times, and they have pom poms on the end, the size of which denote if they are married or single! They fall in love early, around 17/18 and then the woman will move to the man’s family house. When they have a baby they then get married when the child is one or two years old. If they have lived together for 6 years and they have not produced any children they they usually separate.

We were then led to a steep stairway of over 500 stairs that we walked down to our boat. The local people were overtaking us and running down these stairs, it was pretty amazing! We got on our boat and settled down for a nap during the 3.5hr ride back to Puno. It was beautiful as the sun was setting, the mountains on the Bolivian side were turning golden. It had been a very interesting day!

Arequipa

Beautiful Arequipa!

We got in yesterday evening and took a shuttle to our hotel, Casa Andina on Jerusalen.  We were welcomed with cups of coca tea for the altitude as Arequipa is 2350m above sea level.  There are beautiful snow covered mountains that can be seen from the city and of course volcanoes.  We got settled and then walked down to the Plaza de Armas.  There was a lot going on in the main square, and along San Francisco St, and then we remembered that it was Saturday night!  I guess we have kinda lost track!

We took in the beautiful sight of the plaza that was lit at night time. The Cathedral is the only one in Peru that spans the whole length of the plaza.  The whole plaza is made out of sillar, a white sparkly volcanic rock. There are colonnaded balconies that overlook the plaza and they were full of people eating dinner.

We wondered down San Francisco St and decided to eat at a Moroccan restaurant. Mark got a nice hearty vege soup and Ros and I shared the lamb targine with carrots, zuchinnis and potatoes.  It was wonderful with warm pita bread. We of course shared Inca Kola   Most of the local restaurants were serving Alpaca, Ostrich and of course Cuy (Guinea Pig)!!

We slept well last night and woke to a sunny day.  After a buffet breakfast (where I tried Alpaca in the form of cold cuts and promptly spit it right out into my napkin) we headed out and walked down to the Plaza. Roz and I went to mass at the Cathedral Basilica.  It is a beautiful Cathedral, very simple, and has been rebuilt several times following earthquakes and fires.  It is a peach colour inside, with grey and white accents, and beautiful wood benches. It has a beautifully carved altar and pulpit and a huge pipe organ, where you can clearly see that the pipes are dented. Apparently it was a gift from Belgium and the pipes were damaged on the voyage to Peru! Roz thought the music was definitely out of tune!  This Cathedral is only one of 12 in the world that is allowed to display the Vatican Flag on the altar.

Our next stop was the Museo Santury. This museum displays Juanita, the ice princess, the frozen body of an inca maiden sacrificed to Ampato (the highest volcano) over 500 years ago.  Her body was discovered in 1995 by anthropoligist Dr. Johan Reinhard.  Sabancayo Volcano errupted in 1995, spewing ash everywhere, that melted the top of Ampato, which is next to it in the Colca Canyon.  So Dr Reinhard decided to climb Ampato on an anthropological expedition.  In the crater of the volcano, he discovered Juanita, who had been dislodged from her grave (maybe by the Sabancayo erruption or an earthquake) and was lying exposed to the elements.

The story of Juanita is an interesting one.  When the Inca Empire was strong, powerful, and ruled many millions of people, they believed that the mountains were their gods.  When they errupted, or the Incas had a bad harvest, or a drought, they believed that they must sacrifice in order to appease the gods.

The priests in Cuzco selected a child sacrifice, unblemished and pure, and thus began the final journey for the child. The child was known as ‘Capa Koche’, the chosen one, and the Inca’s believed that the sacrifice was going to live with the gods and thus become a god themselves.  Once chosen, the child (in the company of priests and a large court) travelled to Arequipa on foot and ascended the mountain which is 6288m tall.

By the time Juanita arrived at the summit, she would have been cold, exhausted and suffering from altitude sickness, and nervous about her death. She was given an intoxicating drink made of corn and then a priest administered a blow to her head above her right eyebrow which fractured her skull and killed her.  She was put in a grave, 1.2m deep, in a fetal position and facing East, as the Inca’s believed that she would be reborn as a God.  In the grave, they found other offerings, bags with corn, coca leaves, small gold, silver and copper llamas that represented the llamas that were sacrificed in her honor. There was also a small gold figure representing Juanita, dressed exactly like her.

In the Museum, we were taken through rooms that displayed the things that Juanita was buried with.  We saw the outer tunic made of the finest alpaca wool.  It is red with a middle white panel, which is what the Peruvian flag looks like, coincidently!  However, the two red panels represent strength and fertility and the middle white panel represents purity and innocence.  We saw the beautiful silver pins which held her cloak in place, and the offerings that she was buried with.

We saw her woven sandals that she used to climb the mountain, made from rope.  She was also buried with a part of her umbilical cord. The inca’s kept the cord from the belly button and when the child became sick, a part of the cord was added to water and given to them to drink.  How’s that for the earliest known use of stem cells!

Juanita is a perfectly perserved frozen corpse. She is not a mummy as all her organs are intact.  She is kept in a 15f freezer, practically in the dark, to prevent further decomposition. You can see her face, her teeth, the skin of her left shoulder and leg and her hand with finger nails. Her hair is long and brown and pulled into a pony tail. She was incredible to see and we enjoyed the museum very much. We had to do a tour with a guide as you are not allowed to wander around on your own, but it was worth it.

We then decided to visit the Moasterio se Santa Catelina. This is a 20,000 sqm convent behind imposing walls that started in 1580 by Dona Maria de Guzman. She took in only women from the finest spanish families that paid substantial doweries.  You would think that nuns lived in chaste poverty, well not in this convent!  These privileged nuns had 4 to 6 servants each (usually black) and the nuns would invite musicians to play in the convent and basically live it up in the manner they were accustomed to.

Anyway, when the Pope heard of this, he dispatched a strict Dominican nun to the convent in 1871, who set about freeing the slaves and made sure the nuns were cloistered and didn’t venture out of the convent.  The convent remained shut until 1970 when the Mayor of Arequipa forced it to open to tourism.  There are about 3 dozen nuns who still live in one corner of the convent that we could not visit.

The convent has many beautiful courtyards, painted in bright colours such as red, yellow and blue, with frescos on the walls of religious stories.  We visited the Novices Cloister, the Great Cloister, Orange Tree Cloister and saw many pieces of religious art in the Art Gallery.  We saw their special laundry, which was a half clay pipe of running water that ran into half clay jars, the great kitchen with a well and clay ovens.  Their cells were larger than I thought they would be, with a bed, a closet, an altar and a desk. The rooms had high ceilings and were very airy.  The archicture is very spanish, with beautiful domes, and arches everywhere.  It was a photographers paradise.  There was even a beautiful cafe in a lovely garden where we stopped for lunch of sandwiches and coffee.

We went back to the Plaza de Armas, climbed one of the staircases and had coffee, apple pie and icecream on a balcony overlooking the beautiful cathedral and square in the afternoon sun. Roz and I then did a bit of shopping for alpaca wares and beautiful embroidered goods that the native people of the Colca Valley are known for.

Tomorrow we are touring the countryside of Arequipa and then catch a plane in the evening to Puno! Chao!

Lima

Lima! I’ve been dying to come here for many years!

After arriving at 8.30pm, we slept in this morning, and then after changing some money, we went downtown.

Lima is huge. It is also very cosmopolitan compared to Quito and there is a very large presense of international companies here. We are staying in Miraflores, which is in the south part of the city and close to the ocean.

After a really nice breakfast of fruit, rolls, coffee, meats, cheese, cereal, we decided to confirm our overnight bus tickets from Ica to Arequipa which we are doing tomorrow. We called the agency only to find out that the road from Lima to Ica is closed due to landslides.  So there was no point getting Ica to Arequipa tickets. The whole point of going to Ica was to see the Nasca lines via a flight in a turbo prop.  These are lines in the desert that create about 70 animals and plants  that are best seen from the sky.  Some of them are enormous, there is a condor with a 130m wingspan!  Anyway, looks like we can’t see them this trip, so we decided to go to Arequipa early and spend 2 nights there instead of one.

We decided to head to the Central district first.  We got a taxi from Miraflores to the Plaza de Armas.  This is a huge square, which has the Cathedral of Lima, the Archbishops Palace and the Palacio de Gobierno which is the President’s Palace. Were were just in time for the changing of the guard, which was really wonderful. We could only view it from the other side of the street as the policy blocked off the road in front of the Palace but we could listen to the band and could see the marching. There was even a General (or something) shouting orders from the steps of the Palace.

We visited the Cathedral which is now a Museum.  It was one of the nicest we have seen so far, except for maybe La Compania in Quito.  It contains the remains of Francisco Pizarro, the Spanish Conquistador.  The Cathedral had many chapels which were very beautiful. It also has a lot of art. We also visited the Monasterio de San Francisco (which was covered in pigeons which was freaking me out, I hate those birds) and the Iglesia de Santo Domingo. We just walked around most of the afternoon and had a really good chinese lunch in the financial district.  Lima has a huge concentration of Chinese people (they came out in the 1800′s to build the railway) and there are Chifa restaurants everywhere.

So now we are back at the hotel, and are going out in search of Lomo Saltado! We have the name of the restaurant to try in Miraflores.

Tomorrow we are off to Arequipa!

Banos – Cotopaxi – Quito – Lima

So after a disappointing day in Banos, we woke up excited to go to Cotopaxi National Park, where we would see a volcano close up.  We had hired a guide who picked us up in Banos, took us through Cotopaxi and then straight to the airport in Quito where we caught our flight to Lima.

Our guide was Carlos and he was fantastic. After a disappointing breakfast at the hotel (the staff were slow and surley, and breakfast was late!) we were on our way to Cotopaxi. Carlos was telling us that he was in Banos when the volcano erupted with 2 tourists from the Netherlands. He made the decision at 10pm to drive to Riobamba and by they time they got there at midnight, the road from Banos was no longer negotiable by car, it was covered in ash and had parts had disappeared. They are still re-routing it at some parts and there we saw houses buried up to the roof.

Anyway, were back on windy roads, but at least we descending. We went through Ambato and were on the Pan American highway, continuing through the Avenue of the Volcanoes. So far we had seen Pichincha near Quito, Chimborazo near Riobamba, Tungurahu near Banos and were headed to Cotopaxi.

Cotopaxi is second only to the Galapagos in the numberof visitors annually in Ecuador.   We entered the national park on roads that were very rough and unpaved.   There are two volcanos in this park, Cotopaxi and Ruminahui which is extinct.  We were driving through the valley between the two and could see wild horses in the distance, and not much else. There were mainly rocks and small shrubs. We were suddenly overtaken by about 50 police on dirt bikes making their way to the carpark just below the Refuge center.  It wasn’t clear at all while we were driving up, it was very cold and misty.  By the time we got to the car park at 4500 meters, we couldn’t see a thing. Roz did see snow for the first time though! I was feeling REALLY nauseous, either from the altitiude or the windy roads up.   There were a few people driving up with mountain bikes as it seems to be the thing to ride downhill, really fast!  Also, a lot of people trek to the top of the volcano, starting at midnight, and it takes 6 – 7hrs.  Not us though! We drove down, and to a lagoon that has some nice birds, but it started to rain and we weren’t prepared for the cold, so we decided to head to the small museum.  By the time we got to the museum the sun was out again so did a small nature walk and Carlos told us a lot about the flora and fauna in the area.

After buying some postcards, we got back into the car, and drove for 3 hrs to Quito. Carlos dropped us off at the airport after stopping at a lookout over the city and we were on our way to Lima, and the second part of our journey!