AWOL! Em and Chris in South America

For pictures of Lake Titicaca: click here

You can visit the lake on both the Peruvian and Bolivian sides. We didn’t have time to go to both, so we needed to pick one. We asked a couple people, but the advice seemed about equal, so we decided to go to Puno in Peru because the bus schedule worked out better for us. A great way to plan your travels, huh. It actually turned out really well for us because you can only visit the floating reed islands from Peru and it was one of the most interesting places we have been so far.

Lake Titicaca is the highest commercially navigable lake in the world. It lies at 12,507 feet (3,812 m) above sea level between the border of Peru and Bolivia. It is huge. The Incas believed this lake and one of the islands on the Bolivian side are where the world was created. People live on some of the islands in the middle of the lake, so we took a boat out there to visit their islands.

The first place the boat stops is called Uros. It is a group of about 40 islands made out of reeds and they are floating on the lake. The people have lived there on and off for hundreds of years. They put their huts on boats made from reeds and left the mainland originally to escape conquerors who wanted to enslave them. They cut the reeds from the lake and pile them on top of each other until they are about 5 meters thick. They then anchor their island to the bottom of the lake so it doesn’t float away. It makes sense, but I was surprised at how squishy the ground was and how hard it was to walk around on the island. The only thing I can compare it to is as if you were walking around on a trampoline. Everything on the islands are made out of reeds, their boats, houses etc. Right now people still live on the islands. They have an elementary school on an island, but no high school, so the lucky ones get to go to the mainland for school. The economy of Peru is improving, so many of the inhabitants are moving there anyways. Our guide guessed that in about 10 years the culture will probably disappear because more and more of them are moving back to the shore. Then the islands will probably only exist as a tourist attraction. I felt very lucky to be able to visit it before it is gone. Although, I can’t believe that people can live in that kind of environment.

Depending on the size of the island, there are 2 to 10 families living together. It is very close quarters, so we asked what happens if there is a problem with someone not getting along or doing what they are supposed to do. I don’t know if he was joking or not, but the island president took out a saw and said then they just cut the reeds around their house and let them float away. I guess that’s a literal version of cutting someone off. It is difficult to describe this place. It is just so different from anything or anyplace I have ever been before. Take a look at the pictures for some idea, but it was so much about being there and seeing water 20 feet in any direction.

We went on a reed boat from that island to a different one while some of the island boys sang Andean folk music to us at first. Then they wanted to show off the songs they knew in other languages. They knew a song in French, Japanese (very impressive) and “Twinkle, Twinkle, Twinkle Star” in English 🙂
From there we took the regular boat to a natural island, Taquile, that had a different group of people living on it.

We went on a beautiful walk on a trail created by the Incas hundreds of years ago before we reached the little town. In the pictures you might see the boys wearing what look like sleeping caps. They were introduced by the Spanish conquerors and they still wear them. This group of people is famous for their goods made out of wool. I was a little hungry after our walk and so I went up to a little stand selling various snacks. The girl had all kinds of cookies. Some of them were British or American and I recognized them. Others, were South American and unfamiliar to me. I decided to be a little adventurous and try something new, so I asked her what was the best cookie in Peru. Her answer- Oreos!

After Machu Picchu and the train back to Ollantaytambo we took the local route back to Cusco in what was going to be a very long day of traveling. There seemed to be something…off…with each segment of the journey. The first little combi we took from Ollantaytambo had a man riding with us who seemed to be in a very bad way. Every movement he made seemed to come with a great deal of pain. The next bus we took was standing room only, when we realized that there were no seats we tried to get off, but a whole wave of people surged onto the bus and we were stuck standing all the way back to Cusco in a very stuffy bus, people packed around us. Amazingly we arrived in Cusco with everything still in our pockets and bags. Once in Cusco, we arranged to take an overnight bus to Arequipa….and what a trip that was. Oi. At any given moment there were three to five people snoring around us. And I mean SNORING. One guy (his wife chimed in with gusto on occasion too) ripped out earth shaking snorts the whole trip, non-stop. Emily had ear plugs and headphones with the volume all the way up and she could still hear the guy. I had nothing and have never felt so claustrophobic in my life. I managed to nod off here and there, but much of the trip was spent in audio hell.

So…we arrived at Arequipa refreshed and ready to tackle a brand new day. Actually, Em fell sick again  with food poisoning. Both times it has been after we’ve eaten at a ‘nicer’ restaurant. Go figure. I firmly believe that this second time she had a weakened immune system due to sustained auditory torture.

Once Em had recovered, we hit the town to explore a little. We went to the main site in the city, Catalina Convent which is this huge complex built over the past 500 years. By the time we got through the convent our feet were pretty tired. They have it set up so that you pretty much have to walk through the entire convent (every room practically). It was impressive, and I have never seen so many kitchens in my life. Every nun had her own living area and kitchen (or two) with a brick oven and grinding stone etc.  There was this huge building that was itself a gigantic kitchen with a well right inside.  I thought that was pretty clever. We didn’t have a guide to explain so…I guess the life of these nuns was cooking and God. Anyway, after the convent we booked a tour to Colca Canyon for the next day and ate dinner in the main plaza. Arequipa has one of the most beautiful plazas that we have seen in South America. Cusco had a great plaza as far as architecture and layout are concerned, but it felt more like a tourist center than a place to relax and enjoy the city. In Arequipa the plaza is very beautiful and is also the center of the city life. People eat in various restaurants that have balconies overlooking the plaza. As the day turns towards evening more and more people start showing up, to hang out in the plaza itself or meet up before heading off to the bars and dance clubs. The city becomes vibrant and very active at night. A couple days later we were hanging out during the evening with some people we met during our tour —Tom (Spanish) and Tsusushi (Japanese). Em and I had an early bus to catch so we had to head back to our hostel around 10:30. The streets were filled with people. We were turning in, but the rest of the city was just getting started.

As for the tour itself, I’ll summarize as much as I can. Emily, myself and Tom sat in the back of the tour bus which was quite uncomfortable because the seats do not recline at all and the tour is basically a lot of driving. It was not kind to our backs. The tour is a two day event, involving a drive through a national reserve were you can see Vequnyas (wild Llamas), Alpacas and Llamas, and Visqatchis, a close relative to Chinchillas (bigger, but just as cute). At one point, you pass through a very high pass which is a really cool looking place. First it’s a great panoramic view of various volcanoes, but what I loved is that everywhere there are these piles of stones that stretch on seemingly forever. Basically the tradition is to come to this point, build a pile of stones as an offering, and make a wish. We stayed in the village (Chivay), went to a hot springs (water was nice but the air was freezing!), watched a good performance of music and dances of the various indigenous groups. They would pull people fom the audience up to dance with them on occasion.  They made Emily get up and dance with them for a bit.  It was difficult enough doing the dance she didn’t know with the guy who knew what he was doing, but then they passed her on to another tourist and went to go get someone else from the audience.  So, the two of them made quite a pair.  Niether of them knew what they were doing and the guy (who is supposed to be the leader) had very little rhythm.  Our whole group cheered her on. never the less.  The next morning we headed out to Colca Canyon, the main focus of the tour.

The canyon is deeper at one point than the Grand Canyon. However, the part that we saw wasn’t nearly as impressive as the breadth, variety, color and majesty of the Grand Canyon. The comparisons they made to the Grand Canyon had me expecting something more, but no matter.  From the vista point on the canyon where we were, you could also see the origin of the Amazon, a mountain called Mismi. Which was pretty cool. The main point of going to Colca Canyon is to see condor birds. There is a point called Cruz del Condor where the condors are almost guaranteed to pass by. You arrive early, around 7:30 in the morning, and basically you wait as the day heats up and creates stronger drafts for the condors to fly on. They start low in the canyon and start to rise higher and higher as it gets warmer until they are at the rim of the canyon. At this point everyone gets excited, takes lots of pictures and then the show is over as the condors soar on past us and far up into the sky. The whole process took about two and a half hours for us. Our guide told as that the condors are both curious about the tourists but also have something more sinister in mind, they swoop by (they do this to cattle too) in the hopes that their presence will spook their target into getting distracted and falling down the cliff. There were a couple nutjob tourists that were standing on a precarious point overlooking the canyon. If one of the condors had really took a swing at them, the condors could have gotten a good meal out of the deal.

(Emily) Sometimes the most enjoyable parts of a trip are the little things that you can never plan.  We stopped off for a bathroom and coca tea break at a little rest stop in the middle of nowhere.  But somehow wherever the tourists are, there the local vendors are also.  There was a group of them selling the usual sweaters, scarves, etc. and of course the little kids dressed up in their traditional outfits in order to have their pictures taken by the tourists (they recieve a tip for the service).  There was one little girl of about 4 who didn’t look very interested in doing her job.  She was playing by herself with an orange balloon.  I went up to her and asked how to say balloon in Spanish.  She mumbled something that I didn’t understand, but I guess she decided I would make a good balloon tossing friend even if I didn’t know such obvious things, so she through the balloon at me.  It surprised me because it had a rock inside of it.  The blown up balloon didn’t last long.  I think the rock probably poked a hole in it and it soon deflated, but that didn’t stop this little girl.  She was so excited to toss this balloon/rock back and forth with me.  If she made a good catch I would clap and say “bueno”.  Then she would jump up and down and turn in circles.  Her mom would make occasional attmepts to get her to put the balloon down and get back to “work”, but she kept right on throwing the balloon/rock to me.  Chris finally called me to get back on the bus to leave.  She seemed very dissapointed that I had to go.  I really wished I had a whole packet of balloons to leave with her, but we had a great time while it lasted. 

that was pretty much it. We headed back, stayed the evening in Arequipa and took off the next morning to Puno and lake Titicaca.

Click here for pictures of Mt Mismi, condors, etc.

Cusco

Pictures of Cusco etc

A fascinating 600 year old city with a mixture of Inca and Spanish architecture and culture.  But, we stayed for 1 day, and that was enough for us.  Cusco is the height of tourism in South America. As the gateway to Machu Pichu, thousands of tourists flood through every day.  While I don’t have anything against tourists in general, our presence in such vast quantities has had a very tangible impact on the city.  It seems like there are as many touts and hawkers standing on the sidewalks as there are tourists.  They tried to get us to buy any number of things from curios to shoe shines to taking a trip with their company or eating in their restaurant.  We couldn’t walk 2 feet without being practically assaulted by a new person.  If we showed even a glimmer of interest, they followed us down the street persisting in their sales attempts.  I love going to the markets, but this made it very unpleasant to just stroll around the plaza and take in the beauty of the city. 

There was one 10 year old boy who made me laugh though.  He tried to get me to buy some of the finger puppets he was selling.  They were very cute, but I told him no thanks.  He followed us and asked me why I didn’t want to buy any puppets.  I told him that I didn’t have any children, so I didn’t need any finger puppets.  He told me that I should buy them anyways.  So, I asked him why I should buy them.  His answer, I need to buy 5 – one for each finger.  They will be my gloves to keep my hands warm against the cold Cusco nights.  It cracked me up.  He is obviously very clever and his intelligence almost made me change my mind, but I resisted.  I try not to buy anything from the children because it causes them to stay in the streets and sell things instead of going to school. 

(finger puppets – purchased elsewhere)

Tourism keeps the economy of this city flowing pretty steadily, but I think it is a bit of a love hate relationship.  There was a lot of false sincerity.  Many children were dressed up in traditional clothes, but it wasn’t just because that’s what they wear.  It is so the tourists will take pictures of them and then they can ask them for a tip of 50 cents.  The feeling we got by being in the city was really driven home during a bus ride we took in the afternoon.  We drove by a boy selling fruits on the street corner.  He waved as we went by.  Chris saw him, waved and then turned back to face the front of the bus.  As soon as Chris had turned his head the boy’s hand changed shape from a wave to flipping him off.    It really disturbed me that he would do it, but it hit home to the attitude of the city.  The tourists are like ATM machines, they like the money we bring to the city, but we are an annoyance.  I think it would be very difficult to get to know someone here to find out a little more about them and their culture. So, despite its beauty and many interesting attractions we decided to head out to the Sacred Valley first thing the next morning.
Sacred Valley

We decided to escape the tourist life by taking a….um…guided tour. There is no escaping being a full blown tourist in the Cusco/Sacred Valley/Machu Picchu area. We briefly toyed with the idea of renting a car and going through Sacred Valley ourselves but it was cheaper to take the the tour. And actually it was well paced, very informative and quite enjoyable as much as I hate to admit. The most memorable parts of the tour were the market in Pisac and the ruins in Olantaytambo. The market rivaled the Otavalo market in Ecuador. It seemed that everything we ran into we liked. But we were there on the biggest day with all these tour buses rolling in, so a lot of the the vendors jack up their prices to ridiculous levels. So we resisted buying anything. It was interesting, actually, we returned to Pisac a couple days later after all the buses had been gone for a bit and the vendors tended to be a lot more straightforward with their prices. You could still bargain some, of course, but things tended to be more on the up-and-up. The change was disturbing…but if tourists actually pay the prices they ask, I guess they don’t have any reason to do otherwise.

After Pisac, we continued on the tour through a few other villages and ultimately arrived at Olantaytambo. The town is overshadowed by an Inca fortress that was constructed in the mountain behind the town. I wish I could detail all the fascinating things we learned about Inca culture, religion and science. I’m really glad we took the tour because there is so much we would not have learned. To the Incas science, nature and religion were one. Their most sacred places are also sites of incredible astrological precision and natural beauty. They built the fortress with rocks (some weighing up to 200 tons) that were quarried from a mountain top that was across a river and several kilometers away. The walls are constructed to withstand seismic activity. Also, each stone is carved uniquely to fit with the stones that surround it. Yet despite the asymmetry of the individual stones, the fit is so tight and the walls are so symmetrical it’s incredible. There is a picture of Em standing in front of one of the walls, and you can see how intricate the construction is. It really is no wonder that Peru, and specifically Cusco and its environs draw so many people. There were many ruins that we saw in passing, and some that we visited specifically, but everywhere there is such a rich cultural history and beautiful artistry woven throughout everything you see.

At Olantaytambo we stayed the night and took the train the next morning to visit the one thing that draws tourists from around the world (especially the French, they were everywhere!!)….

The gem of Inca history and Peru, Machu Picchu.

For more pictures of Machu Picchu: Click Here (there are a lot)

It is quite expensive to visit the ruins. We had to take a train up to Aguas Calientes, a tourist town at the foot of the national park. The train costs an arm and a leg., On top of that is the entrance fee, which is currently $40 per person. But I guess that’s the price you have to pay to see one of the wonders of the world. And it was worth it. Any description or photograph or anything except visiting the place itself falls far short of how beautiful it is. Despite the futility, I took a ton of pictures of the place. I couldn’t help it. It’s a photographers dreamland….fascinating architecture set in one of the most beautiful natural settings I’ve ever seen. And here I was stuck with my little 2.0 mega pixel, auto-focusing, overexposing, ever-beloved, camera. The whole time we were wandering through the ruins, we were amazed by how much work they dedicated to carving this temple at the top of a mountain. And there were people EVERYWHERE. Gobs of them. We didn’t come with a tour guide this time, so we tagged along with a couple tours here and there to try and snatch a few facts. But we didn’t really feel the need for a full tour, it was enough to just sit and absorb the place. If we wanted to know something about a certain area, we would hang out in the area until a tour group came through with an English speaking guide. We stayed longer than most of the organized groups, so towards the end of the day the people had thinned out a bit. In the morning the tour groups arrive, in the afternoon, the school groups arrive. There were a lot of kids in various uniforms running around. The picture included was part of an amusing chain of events. We ran into a group of these kids, we said hello and started talking with a couple of them. One of the girls brought a shy little boy over and told us he would like to have his picture taken. Well…..once he had his picture taken, everyone had to have their picture taken. We ended up with practically the whole school getting their picture taken, and taking pictures of us…it was a lot of fun. Shortly after that, it started pouring down rain. Sadly, it was time to go.