Peru!

What follows is a long winded account of my trip to Peru, cribbed from emails I sent while there. I went to a meeting for two days in Lima, and then flew to the Inca capital city of Cusco.

Always with the goddamned panflutes!
The last day in Lima was fine but overall I´d say Lima is a s@&t hole. Not to be too harsh, but it is a really, really big city (7 million) in a desert and apparently it is foggy all the time. Some cool parks though, including one that had an exhibit of political cartoons from all over the world about global warming, water shortage, etc. I´ll have a half a day there on the way back and will go to an older part of the city I think.

The meeting was fine and I made contact with a few of biologists. I must have impressed them with my crappy Spanish because I think I will be invited to be on an advisory panel for the group so there could be more trips in the future. We´ll see.

So Cusco. Much bigger than expected, 500,000 people. I got here around 9 am and now at 4 pm I am completely overwhelmed. Just walked around looking, bought a toothbrush and sunscreen. The sun is really strong my face was red after a short walk around. It is like an old colonial European city inhabited entirely by tiny Inca people, with giant white folks wandering around looking at everything. Lots of huge churches, and everything is made of stone. Actually not that many tourist all things considered and we seem to have an unwritten rule to avoid eye contact so we can pretend to be the only ones here. Just now in the main plaza there was a big dancing show, with several groups of dancers and hundreds of people watching and almost all of them were locals. Flute music of course, and girls dancing in traditional and non-traditional costumes. Seemed to be very local, maybe a high school thing as all the girls were standing around taking pictures with their families.

I got a hotel room, splurged s/45 (15 bucks) for my own bathroom and paid the extra $1.50 for a room with a window and breakfast. Took a nap immediately, and still feel dizzy from the altitude. One block from the plaza de Armas, where they seem to have a PA system playing pan flute music all the time (actually mostly tube flutes with holes like a recorder). I also made arrangements for the homestay tomorrow, in Chinchero, a village near here. I´m thinking to avoid Maccu Pichu altogether, but I´ll see how things go.

Found the tourists
I´ve had a headache since I got here, and the coca leaves I bought from a woman in the street (along with a chunk of dried mud and ash to chew with them) don´t seem to be helping as much as I hoped. Haven´t slept well either. I´m a little worried too because the village Chinchero is another 600 m up. Hopefully it gets better.

Last night I wandered around near the main square for a while looking around and saying ¨no, no quiero weed¨, ¨no quiero cocaine¨, ¨no quiero un masaje¨. I thought it was just because I am guy traveling alone, but then I went into a pub and started talking with a group of Australians (I just wanted to speak a little English). One couple was traveling all around the world, and the woman said she got offered the masajes here also, so I guess maybe they are legitimate spa treatments and not the kind with a happy finish. I chose not to find out.

This morning I did the hike to the ruins near Cusco, which was pretty steep but OK. At the ruins I found the tourists. Quite a few hiked up with me, and then bus loads were at the site, which is kind of like an Andean Stonehenge. On the hike down I took some side streets and ended up in a district called San Blas, which is the "artists quarter". Lots of people selling handicrafts, and lots and lots of tourists. If I haven´t bought enough crap, er, presents, I´ll come back here on the last day.

Chinchero y mas.
Not even sure where to start, so a random list of thoughts follows:

-took a bus to Chinchero where i had arranged to stay with a family. Arrived and found the head of the family, Pasqual, and went to their house. Another American guy was also staying there, which meant we could speak English but also meant that I didn´t speak as much Spanish since his was already better than mine.

-the kids here are ridiculously cute. There were four at the house, part of a huge extended family that I never fully figured out. The kids took us on a tour of the nearby Inca ruins, with the little 2 year old on my shoulders. Tons of fun and lots of screaming about la luna y el sol, which I later gathered are the main sacred things for the Incas (I think, but also rain, mountains, animals, etc.)
-we stayed at the family's house on Saturday night, and Sunday was the confirmation for the 15-year-old daughter. The whole family went down to Cuzco in the morning for church, and then came back for a huge feast in the afternoon. Armen and I wandered around Chinchero all morning, got a great tour of the ruins from a real guide (all in Spanish), and hung around the market. Market is a complete mix of a real farmers market and a tourist market. I´m not very good at shopping, but have managed to buy plenty of things.

-still feeling the altitude, soroche, and drinking lots of coca tea. At 3 in the afternoon we started the feast with cake. Then soup, apparently very traditional for weddings, etc, with different kinds of potatoes, carrots, onions, and arteries. Then the main course, three baby pigs and some weird potatoes. All this in a big room at a long table, but eating with our hands, and the family in their Sunday best including three piece suits. Since we already had cake, desert was alcohol. First wine, but with only three wine glasses and about 15 people we took turns. Next was some kind of clear alcohol from a 2.5L Coca Cola bottle, again with the three glasses. After that was ´chicha´, a kind of homebrew made from corn that was pink and frothy. Different glasses now, but still taking turns. Finally they broke into the beers, for which we had plenty of glasses for everyone, but there were toasts for each round, long-winded speeches about the family and the daughter, etc.

-I needed to drop some elevation, so now I am about 1000m down in the river valley in Ollantaytanbo. Going to walk around and try to find a bar to ask around about the puticusi hike, but this town is actually amazing too so I might just spend the day here. It is original Inca, with stone paths through town and inca walls, etc. Also a major fortress ruins nearby. I need to be back in Cusco tomorrow night. Not enough time, should have stayed longer.

Gotta go, internet time running out and gonna cost me another sole.

La camineta

Back in Cusco. Last night in Ollantaytanbo I waffeled about trying to decide if I should go do the putucuci hike. The problem is that you can´t get to Aguas Calientes without riding the train, which is really expensive-- almost $100 round trip. And it started to seem stupid to go through all the hassel and then not go to Machu Pichu. And I didn´t really have time. So, I wandered into a bar where I heard some English being spoken, and found a Scottish woman who owns the bar. It turned out I was the only paying customer since the other three people were her parents and a friend who were visiting. Anyway, she told me about a hike from Ollantaytanbo to some other ruins, called Pumamarco, so today I first visited the actual Ollantaytanbo ruins, which were pretty impressive, and then went off on this hike. Long way up the valley on a dirt road, not sure where I was going but asked directions and kept going and eventually found the old ruins. No tourists around at all and a spectacular valley. Huffed and puffed a bit, but it is a lot lower down there so not too bad. Took a great trail back, not the road, way up high on the side of the mountain.

Got back to the town and ate great menu lunch for s/6 and then hit the road back to Cusco. Getting around is funny, all prices are variable. There are taxis, buses, and ´colectivos´, which are basically minivans that hold 10+ people. But for example, on the way there, I went from Cusco to Chinchero on a bus for s/2.50, and then from there to Ollantaytanbo by taxi, for which the driver first asked s/80, but eventually settled for s/30! That was still way too high though, and on the way back I took a shared taxi and then a colectivo, for a total of s/11 all the way to Cusco. You clearly get what you know you can pay.

Cusco to Santa Cruz in 34 hours
Short: taxi, plane, taxi, taxi, taxi, plane, plane, train, train, train, train, bus, bus, feet.
Long:
9am, Cusco. Taxi to airport (s/7), plane to Lima.
Noon. Leave big backpack in storage at Lima airport, taxi to Museo de la Nacion (s/40).
Museo de la Nacion sucks, but does have an interesting photo documentary exhibit on the violence and political problems with the sendero luminoso and MRTA from 1983-2000.
Taxi to my original hotel in San Isidro. Ask taxi to wait while I get my suit and bag, but the people in the hotel have no idea about my bag. crap. My terrible explanation in Spanish doesn't help. Let taxi go and pay him s/15. Eventually hotel people find my bag, and all is good.
3pm. Get another taxi. Think of trying another museum and then hanging out in Plaza Bolivar, named after Simon Bolivar, 'El Libertador', revered in most northern South American countries for his role in their independence from Spain. Unfortunately, the hotel woman recommends Plaza San Miguel, which also sounds good but turns out to be not a cool old plaza, but a f#*ing mall. In fairness, the hotel woman did refer to it as a 'centro comercial', but I just though that meant there would be some restaurants, etc. At that point I gave up and did the only sensible thing-- started drinking and eating empenadas in the cheesy mall cafe. Then I went to a movie, and yes, it was the worst movie I have ever seen. Black Sheep. Horror/comedy involving insane carnivorous genetically modified sheep in NZ. After movie, wander around for over an hour, looking at the crazy scene on street. The mall, casinos, Chili's, McDonalds, Starbucks, etc. All flashing lights, and the constant din of a thousand car horns all at once.
8pm. Taxi to airport. Driver asks for s/20. I am tired, so when I try to offer s/15, I say "cinquenta", or 50. Driver looks confused, I get in car, we go. Confused driver tries to ask if I meant than I only have a 50 sole bill and need change. To avoid discussing it I say yes, then give him a s/20 when we get the airport.
At airport, treat self to big dinner and two more beers, for s/52 total. This is more than I paid for a night in any of the hotels.
10pm. Find out plane is delayed 4 hours. After standing in line for 2 hours, get transfered to another flight, via Atlanta.
Lima-Atlanta. Mostly sleep, but also talk to a BYU law prof returning from a churchy humanitarian vacation. Turns out to be an interesting guy, we talk about my experiences at BYU, and politics. Amazingly he is pro Obama, so we have a good talk about that.
Atlanta-SFO. Boring, but at least I am not the guy I am sitting next to. This is his thirst ATL-SFO this week, carrying 'important documents' back and forth. A human FexEx. He usually flys first class, so is bummed to be next to me.
In SFO, get bag then finish with AirTrain, two Barts, CalTrain, Hwy17express, and bus to Bay/Nobel. Walk final 0.7 miles to house. Eat dinner, iChat with Louise and Fiona, sleep.