Monday, March 31, 2008

MACHU PICCHU

Our last excursion in Peru began Easter Monday, when we'd arranged for a private guide and driver to take us back up the Sacred Valley to Ollantaytambo, where we were to catch the train the next day to Machu Picchu Pueblo. There was a delay as Roberto, Maria's partner, sent the driver to get us at our old hotel, and Jim had to remind him to give us our train tickets...we only got the "go" portion; had to wait until the day of our return to get the other half! We'd given them the money the week before but they seemed to have trouble coming up with the tickets and our M P entrance passes. Our names on the tickets were Harold (Lynne) and Jason (Jim) Howdeen. Whatever, they had our correct passport numbers. Orientours may look after you like a baby, but efficiency was not their strong suit. They write out your "itinerary" by hand and make arrangements by phone. You have to have faith that everything will work out or get high blood pressure worrying about it.

A couple of stops en route were at Moray, an agricultural experimentation lab started by the Incas and continuing today, and Maras, salt evaporation ponds, both quite interesting visually. The ruins at Ollantaytambo, where the Incas defeated the Spaniards in 1537, part of an unsuccessful rebellion, are the best-preserved in Peru and we spent several hours wandering through them and up the mountain across the way.

Perurail's Vistadome to Machu Picchu Pueblo (Aguas Calientes) traversed a deep, narrow gorge affording very spectacular scenery and offered excellent service including a boxed lunch. The Pueblo is like a bad border town, just there to service M P tourists. We caught an early bus up to M P, arriving at 7:30 a.m., before the masses of tourists. It was like walking onto the set of a movie...just like you see it in postcards, ads, etc. I don't know why I expected it to look different! It did not disappoint. Okay, the sky could have been bluer for photos. There is something calming and other-worldly that comes over you when you first see it and the feeling lingers with you until you leave. Our return train tickets did materialize at the 11th hour, carried by a tourist from another agency who joined our guide later in the day. We knew there were no tickets available that day. Since the tickets only took us as far as Ollantaytambo, Maria (bless her heart) sent a driver for the two-hour ride back to Cusco, saving us at least an hour over the bus ride. She came through once again! We were back in time to catch our 5 flights, 28 hours of travel, home on Thursday/Friday.

Sunday, March 30, 2008

EASTER WEEKEND ON LAKE TITICACA, PERU

Maria, our travel agent in Cusco, booked us on a torturous overnight bus ride to Puno, which was freezing cold, uncomfortable and had a bathroom I was discouraged from investigating. Better to hold on, Jim said. Actually, I had maybe the only heater under my seat; Peruvians dressed in parkas were hammering on the driver's compartment, yelling, "Frio, frio!" I kept my good fortune to myself, inviting Jim to move his feet closer to the heater. At 5:15, we settled in for an hour's wait at the Puno station until the local travel agent met us, taking us to his office where we stashed our bags; we could only carry a few things on our two-day visit to the islands. While we were at the port, purchasing a few small food gifts for our host family, the skies opened up, drenching us with ice pellets, as we made a run for the small launch, cursing the agent who advised us to leave our rain ponchos behind, since the rainy season was almost over. I quickly put on the extra tights I'd brought, but still shivered on the half-hour's ride to the floating reed Uros Islands.

Two thousand Aymara-speaking natives live on the 48 reed islands, probably coming here 500 years ago to escape persecution from the Spanish conquistadors. They sustain themselves with fishing and tourism, selling their crafts to the boatloads of curious tourists. After a demo of reed-boat building techniques each couple/family were invited into one of the huts, where the "mama" opened her bag of goodies, enticing us to buy. Miraculously, the sun came out and warmed things up just as our group of 20 piled into one of the reed totora rafts that look like Viking boats for a serenaded ride to another island, where our boat picked us up for the three-hour ride to Amantani and our overnight stay.


We were greeted on the island by an array of brightly-costumed "mamas", who led us up the rocky paths to their simple adobe-bricked homes. Our mama was Jenny (Yenni), a 26-year-old, who lived with her elderly parents who spoke little or no Spanish. Jenny welcomed us with tea made from muna, a type of mint, that she picked on our way up the hill, and prepared the basic meal of quinoa soup, followed by a plate of boiled potatoes, rice and fried cheese. The islanders are vegetarians, not raising any animals to eat, we were forewarned. Later, in the courtyard, Jenny's father crushed dried wheat stalks with his feet after which her mother ground them with a mortar stone. As well as wheat, the locals grow maize, quinoa, potatoes and barley, trading them for other goods on the mainland. The host families are paid about $20US per person for the homestay.


In the evening, Jenny dressed us in the local costume; women wear puffy red skirts, embroidered peasant blouses, cinched tightly around the waist by a chumpi, and black shawl (chuco) over the head; men are dressed in ponchos and traditional knitted alpaca toques with earflaps. We wore these over our long pants and hiking boots, and must have been quite a sight. Under the full moon, armed with flashlights, we made our way to the local hall to take part in dancing to a local band. It's hard enough to breathe at 4000 m without being tightly bound while dancing!


Both Amantani and Taquile, where we went the next day, have no electricity or running water as oil for generators became too expensive to transport from the mainland about 5 years ago. A few families have solar power; otherwise, it's candles for light and wood for cooking. On Taquile, the big craft is knitting, which is done by men and boys, who learn to knit the chullo, a hat which indicates marital or public status . Women weave the sturdy belts, centuros, that hold up to 50 kgs. and the chuspa (coca leaf bags) carried by men who ceremonially exchange a few leaves on meeting. Seventy per cent of the islanders are Catholic while the remainder are Seventh Day Adventists. Everything must be hauled up the 549 steps from the harbour so you see people of all ages carrying heavy loads on their backs in the colorful woven blankets. We have nothing but admiration for these resilient islanders; while we can rough it for a night, we were more than happy to get back to warm, soft beds and showers.


We were glad we'd insisted on spending the night in Puno so we could travel back to Cusco during the day on Easter Sunday, and see the somewhat stark but nevertheless interesting altiplano, rolling grasslands 4-5,000 m high with grazing herds of llamas and alpaca. Near villages, locals bathed or washed clothes in the river and spread them out to dry in the sun. Back in Cusco, Maria had waited two hours for our overdue bus to take us to our hotel.

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

PERU: THE SACRED VALLEY AND CUSCO

Hola again, this time from Cusco. We survived our overnight journey from Quito with the 6 hours at Lima airport, but were we bushed when we landed. We made good use of your blanket and pillow, Wendy.
We were picked up by a taxi driver sent by the hotel and got our first experience with the loco driving here. They drive so agressively and the streets are very narrow and twisty, you´re taking your life in your hands. The upside is they´re incredibly cheap. Taxi rides anywhere in Cusco are a flat rate of 3 soles ($1) so there´s no reason to climb the very steep hills. Our hotel is in the San Blas district, way up there. Coming down you run the gauntlet of hawkers. They´re way more persistent than in Quito, and with so many selling for so little, you wonder how they survive. We were welcomed at the hotel by Cristina, who gave us a cup of coca tea, supposed to relieve the effects of altitude sickness. She armed us with a map and some ideas of places to visit.
After an all-too-short rest, we headed into town (the narrowly cobbled streets are used as sidewalks too so you have to be very alert and jump out of the way quickly) and spent well over an hour trying to locate the travel agent she recommended. The map was a photocopy of a photocopy, on and on, and not very clear and the one we picked up from the Information Centre wasn´t detailed enough. The streets seem to change names every block or two so that doesn´t help. We stopped for lunch and revived enough for another attempt and finally found it on a street we´d been up several times. Then we spent the whole afternoon arranging our time with tours. We attended a folkloric dance performance last night but Jim was having great difficulty staying awake after one hour´s sleep, so we left at half time and taxied to the hotel.
Today we took an all-day tour of the Sacred Valley, visiting ancient Incan sites at Pisac and Ollantaytamba, a market and several craft stalls (they have the sweetest children posing with llamas, how can you resist giving them money?), and lunch along the way. We had a alpaca dyeing and weaving demo at another stop. Of course as our guide said, you can use one hand to wave thanks, and the other to dig in your pocket for money to buy some of the crafts! Our group took him to heart. Great value at $20 pp. The craft market we stopped at is funded by the Korean government. Korean NGOs also help the farmers. Eucalyptus trees, imported originally from Australia, are a big crop in the area, used in housing and utensils. So tomorrow night we´re taking the bus to Puno, arriving at 4:00 am for two days on Lake Titicaca (even higher elevation). Thank goodness the Diamox is working. We return to Cusco on Easter Sunday, then we´re off to Machu Picchu.
PS A follow-up to the Palm Sunday procession. I´ve since learned it´s called Domingo de Ramos in Ecuador, roughly translated as ¨Bouquet Sunday¨, in reference to the scattered rose petals, I assume. The reason they carried corn husks instead of palm fronds is there are endangered birds nesting in the palm trees so the ecologists asked the worshipers to substitute corn this year. Also, on reviewing my photos, I see the man representing Jesus was riding the burro off and on; it just got too rambunctious so he got off for awhile. And the ¨float¨carrying the effigy of Jesus was a platform carried only by women, Jim informs me. Thanks Diana and Carell for your input on Palm Sunday

Saturday, March 15, 2008

GALAPAGOS: SWIMMING WITH THE SHARKS

We're back from our Galapagos Hiking Adventure, which seemed worlds away from Quito. Yes, we did get what we asked for--heat! It hit us, along with the humidity, as we crossed the tarmack on San Cristobal, where we were met by our guide, Alfredo, an adventure sports specialist. The first full day we thought he'd mixed our group up with the Multi-sport tour, which he's guiding next week.

Besides Judy, Mike and ourselves, our group included two muy simpatico women {Gayle from Alaska and Heather from Minnesota} After a half day hike and swim Sunday to break us in, we set out Monday morning in a loncha to snorkel the coastal waters off S. Cristobal. Off Isla Lobos we swam up close to the frolicking sealion pups and marine iguana in the shallow, warm water. On Kicker Rock we spotted all three types of Boobies, Blue and Red Footed and Masked, as well as the red pouched frigatebirds, pelicans and herons. Even more thrills waited below in the deep waters. As well as the colorful tropical fish, we swam over four large, graceful Eagle Rays who glided back and forth in formation. Then, suddenly, Alfredo yelled, "Over here, Hammerheads!" There was a school of at least 15. I think if we'd been on our own, we'd have been out of there PDQ but somehow, with him there, if was okay to swim over them. He says they're not seen there that often. That was definitely the highlight.

But that wasn't the end of the adventure for the day. After a late lunch back in S. C., it felt like siesta time, but no, ocean kayaking was the activity for the afternoon. This was a new experience for us, but Heather and Gayle are experienced kayakers so took single boats, while Jim and I had a double. The first launch site was quickly abandoned due to crashing surf, lava rocks and rebar, not a good combination. Instead, we carried the kayaks over to the dock where, after a quick orientation we put in safely and paddled for over an hour in moderate chop over to Darwin Bay, arriving just as I thought my arms would fall off. A quick look, then we turned around as sunset was less than an hour away. We were feeling quite pleased we'd made it back without overturning, but just as we pulled in to the first lava/surf/rebar site Alf chose as a landing spot, a large wave crashed and flipped us. Jim had a scraped hand as he was in the rear and got the worst of it {I just got some water up my nose} but it could have been worse, so we were lucky.

The three islands we visited were all very different and held a variety of endemic species, which we got to see on our hikes exploring lowlands and highlands. There was a real downpour on the highland hike on Santa Cruz, so we brought out the raincapes we've been lugging for years and never used. On that hike we saw the Giant Tortoises and Land Iguana in their natural habitat. Puerto Ayora, the largest town in the Galapagos, only has a population of 18,000. We had local guides everywhere, a make work for locals kind of think. Most were knowledgeable and several spoke good English. The third island, Isabela, is almost all lava and looks like your picture postcard tropical island. There, we hiked up 1000 m to a huge caldera, 5 miles x 6 mi. which erupted just last year. As we left this morning in an 8 passenger Cessna for the Baltra Airport, and our flight to the mainland, the views of the deep blue waters, black rocks, and white sand were awesome. I brought back a few mementos from the Islands: 101 jellyfish bites on one arm alone and myriad horsefly and mosquito bites on my legs, neck and arms. There is a price to pay for paradise!

Felicidades to Anna, John and Forest!

Tomorrow, exploring Old Town Quito and the start of Semana Santa then off to Peru Monday.

Saturday, March 8, 2008

Bellavista Cloud Forest

Here we are back in Quito where we landed a mere 4 days ago. Seems like we've been gone much longer than that though. We know time will speed up as the travel progresses. Our flight down was uneventful other than being put in a holding pattern outside of Atlanta, due to "weather", causing us to arrive 15 minutes after our Quito flight was scheduled to take off. Fortunately many planes were caught up in this and they waited.

The weather is cool in Quito, around 15 C during the day, and similar at the lodge. Somehow we expected it to be warmer sitting on the Equator, but gather that has to do not only with the elevation but the humidity. Well, what do you expect in a cloud forest but humidity? Rain tends to fall heavily but for short intervals. Yesterday was the only bad storm, thunder and very close lightning that caused a power outage for the rest of the day/night. So no showers, which tended to be cold anyway. We saw an AMAZING number of birds, and most numerous were the many varieties of hummingbirds that came to the feeders at the lodge. Daily we went on several nature/bird seeking walks, all well guided by knowledgable staff. Food was excellent too. In short, we had a wonderful experience. We are looking forward to getting a little warmer tomorrow but maybe we'd better watch what we ask for.

Ecuadorians seem very polite, friendly but slightly reserved, so far. Will fill you in more when we get a chance next.

Happy Birthday, Lyse. Happy spring everyone else.

Adios for now.