Home at Last

It's been quite the journey, but I'm finally home and well-rested after an 8 day trip to the South American country of Peru. I'm going to quickly summarize the events of the last two days for you here.

You can also look at some of the pictures taken on the trip at https://picasaweb.google.com/GuitarGodAdamp. As of September 3, all of the photos that I plan on uploading should be there.

Jiron de la Union

On Saturday morning, I woke up, after sleeping in, to my last morning in Peru. While we were taking care of all of our bags and getting ready to check out and prepare the rest of the day, my father had the idea of signing up for text alerts for the status of our flight to Miami. Since there was a hurricane churning off the coast of Florida, we thought it would be a good idea to know of any changes to our flight.

Our plan for the rest of the day was to explore the El Centro district in the center of the city, so we took a taxi to the Plaza San Martin, in the heart of the district. This huge square is surrounded by European-styled buildings on all sides and shows the influence that the Spanish had on the architecture of the city. We next walked down the street, "Jiron de la Union", which seemed to be a very commercial area, targeting the middle class, something not too prevalent in Peru. As we walked down this pedestrian-only street (something also rare in Peru), I admired the interesting architecture and also tried my first churro, a delicious donut-like pastry.

Our walk down Jurion de la Union led us to Peru's main square, Plaza de Armas de Lima. Here, an entire city block was transformed into large park with a fountain in the center, surrounded by various European-styled buildings, including a catholic cathedral and the Palace of the Government. Our arrival at the plaza was excellently timed because the changing of the guard at the main governmental palace was just beginning (it was about noon when we got there). This 15 minute celebratory military show was quite the sight. Guards in front of the palace juggled their rifles as military bands played majestic pieces and armored vehicles drove around the building. Although an interesting show, I knew it really just was a display of power by the Peruvian government. There is currently an active guerrilla terrorist group in Peru (The Shining Path), so if the government doesn't show its power, then general citizens will fear not only the group itself, but also that the group will feel like the government can't punish its actions.

We continued walking down Jiron de la Union, passing the Rimac river. The bridge over the river was not the prettiest sight. For the first half of the way over the bridge, there seemed to simply be a dirt ditch with some people working on some underground construction project. The next half was split into two sections. The first was a pretty small channel of brown-looking water flowing through heaps of trash. This, I learned later is actually the Rimac river (Lima's main one) that flows to the Pacific Ocean. The next, larger section was a two-way freeway that certainly doesn't help the city's pollution problem. Across the river, the atmosphere changed dramatically. We were no longer in the nice, middle-class district of El Centro. We were now in an area where Peru's status as a third-world country really showed itself. The buildings looked abandoned even though they were occupied by incredibly cheap food vendors and markets, dog feces littered the streets, and police motorcycles seemed to be patrolling the street. We didn't stay in the area for very long, but the visit to the area really highlighted Peru's income inequality problem. If the country really wants to emerge from the the third world, it needs not to build the ultra-modern, upper-class targeting districts like Miraflores, it needs to solve the underlying problems that are allowing these poor districts right across the river to become depressing slums.

Back across the river, we explored a fascinating open buffet on the streets that served all sorts of authentic Peruvian dishes, an indoor marketplace of Peruvian souvenirs, and a small museum about the history of Peruvian food. We also decided to go for a tour of the Covenant of Santo Domingo, a Dominican priory in the heart of the city center. Like most of the religious establishments we've visited on the trip, this large complex was full of church hypocrisy. The living area was practically a vacation home for the Dominican friars who once lived there. Courtyards were decorated with exotic plant-filled gardens, the walls were decorated with tiles built by Inca slave labor, and the altars and church areas were filled with gold-covered decorations. The paintings on the walls also seemed to show an alternate version of Gospel history, where Dominican friars were present at events like the birth, baptism, and crucifixion of Jesus. Overall, it was an interesting perspective on how Christianity developed in Peru.

For our late lunch, we dined at a somewhat fancy establishment near the Plaza de Armes. While my parents had some more Ceviche (raw fish), I had a dish full of these fried, breaded chicken slices, marinated in yellow chili. The food was quite delicious, but I think it's meant to be more of a fatty, filling snack than a diverse meal, because it filled me up very quickly and I was starting to get sick of the same taste for the whole meal. Almost immediately after we paid for the food, I got a text on my phone: "AA0918 25Aug 10:30P LIM to MIA is CANCELLED". Our flight home was cancelled because Tropical Storm Isaac was threatening the area around Miami. Immediately, we took a taxi back to our hotel where we got on the phone with an American Airlines representative for almost 90 minutes. Although the airline tried to put us on all sorts of ridiculous return trips, one through Los Angeles on Monday afternoon (two days later), we persisted continuously and were eventually granted four of the last few seats on a Delta flight to Atlanta that evening. We were incredibly lucky to get this deal because we later found out that all of the flights going to the US from Lima that night and the next night were completely full by the time we got to the airport. If it weren't for the text alerts that we signed up for in the morning, we may have been stuck in Peru for several days.

To spend the rest of the evening after we prevented a potentially nightmarish situation, we walked one last time through the posh Miraflores district of the city. From our hotel, we walked all the way to the heart of the district where we noticed a protest going on in front of a church in the middle of mass. Although the group of protesters was small (the onlookers outnumbered the ~30 protesters), the sight was something quite interesting and probably unlikely to be seen at all in the US. The crowd of protesters were bunched together at one end of the street, opposite the church, while a wall of riot-shield-holding police officers prevented them from getting any closer to the church. Although nothing interesting happened while we were looking at it from afar, when we tried to get a closer look, something must have happened and we could hear yelling, see police officers rushing to the area, and see a man getting arrested.

The pork cutlet meal at Panchita

For dinner, we ate at another very famous meat-serving restaurant, Panchita. The moment I entered, I could feel how nice and fancy the atmosphere of the restaurant was. A large brick oven could be seen in the middle of the dining area, where various cooks and chefs prepared the meals being ordered. The restaurant wasn't too crowded, as we were dining quite early for Peruvian standards, but we could tell why this restaurant was so well-known. After ordering our food, we got a plate of absolutely delicious bread that enhanced my opinion of the restaurant even more. For my main course, I ordered a meal of two pork cutlets, served with some buttery mashed potatoes and a baked apple. Surprisingly, the baked apple complemented the scrumptiously juicy pork cutlets very well. Though the pork that I had was among some of the most delicious I've ever had, I didn't enjoy the meal as much as I should have. I must have caught a milder version of the bug that affected mother earlier in the week, because I felt full almost all day and simply had trouble stuffing myself with more of the delicious food.

The rest of the trip went quite smoothly. We got to the airport, checked in without a problem (we did see chaos at the American Airlines check-in booth where hundreds of people were dealing with the discovery of their flight being cancelled). At around 12:30AM, our flight departed and we were in Atlanta by 7AM. After clearing US customs and immigration and waiting two and half hours for the connection to Boston, we departed on our final flight to Boston. In Boston, all of our bags seemed to have made it (something that almost never happens when we check in our bags), and we thought our adventures were finished at last. The only problem that we encountered on our trip from Boston to our Rhode Island home was the fact that the battery for our car died because a light on the inside was never turned off. Luckily, the parking lot deals with this problem regularly, so they had a jump start tool that allowed to start our car without too much of a struggle. By 3:30PM, my family was home at last, ready to relax after a full week of exploration and adventure!

7,000 Years of Peruvian History

After a day of relative laziness, the level of activity in this trip to Peru is back to normal. What I covered today in the Peruvian megacity of Lima tired me almost as much as what we did in Machu Picchu..

Huaca Pucllana Archaeological Site

This morning, I slept in unusually long, but it's probably the only reason I wasn't completely exhausted by the end of the day. After taking care of morning business and getting breakfast at the hotel, it was about 10AM. Our first destination was Huaca Pucllana, an archaeological site in the Miraflores district of Lima. The site, which was built in pre-Columbian times by a uniquely Limean civilization in 500BC, covered the size of several city blocks and could be easily recognized from afar by its large mud pyramid in the center.

The very good English guide who toured us through the site explained to us the culture and history of the civilization who built the ancient city district we were exploring. Something I found very interesting is that unlike many other Peruvian civilizations at the time, this Lima civilization did not worship the sun (Lima almost always has overcast skies), but rather worshipped the ocean, their source of food. By the end of the tour, which brought us through main squares, personal rooms, and royal tombs, I got a much better sense of how advanced civilizations were on the American Continent, 2000 years before any Europeans arrived. Something particularly interesting is how Huaca Pucllana is still an active archelogical site. There is still a huge area covered in dirt and we could see archeologists and construction workers digging through the site and restoring the newly revealed areas.

Our next destination, which we reached after an interesting 20 minute walk through a realtively nice part of Lima close to the Pacific shore, was the La Mar seafood restaurant. This very famous seafood lunch bar serves one of Peru's most famous dishes, Ceviche. Ceviche, which is somewhat similar to Sushi, is raw fish and other seafood served in a cocktail of lime juice, onions, and spices. Although I did not try the Ceviche (I am not a big fan of seafood), my parents tried it and thouroughly enjoyed it. What I had instead was an absolutely delicious meal of very tender steak bits served with onions, fried potatoes, and rice in some delicious, soy-sauce based sauce. Overall, the food seemed to be very nice and the service was spectacular. The advantage of travelling in Peru is that you can eat at a very fancy restaurant, like La Mar, but at a price comparable to what you'd see at a regular sit-down restaurant in the United States.

After a 20 minute taxi ride in a car that seemed to be missing any form of suspension, we ended up at the Museo Larco, established by archaeologist Rafael Larco Hererra. This private collection of mostly pre-Columbian art from the Peru region showed the incredibly interesting history of Peru. As one of the few cradles of civilization (with Egypt, Babylonia, India, China, and Mexico), Peru was the home of about a dozen unique civilizations from 5000BC to around AD1530. Among all of the textiles, pottery, and metalwork displayed in the museum, the most interesting thing I learned was the true nature of the Inca civilization. Most people don't know that the Inca civilization was really just a short-lived empire that existed from 1400 to about 1530 when the Spanish defeated them. This civilization, which was essentially a fusion of the dozens of cultures that lived before it, only became the most famous civilization of the region because it was the one discovered when Europeans first began to colonize the area. There is much more to pre-Columbian history in Peru than just Incans. The Larco Museum is an excellent way to learn the details behind this fascinating fact.

Before our next destination, we stopped at our hotel after a nice taxi ride to get some rest after all of the walking and history-absorbing. At around 5PM, we left our hotel and walked toward the center of the Barranco district our hotel is located in to visit a handicraft shop recommended by some guidebooks. Although the goods and souvenirs sold in the store were very stylish and lovable, the prices were absolutely outrageous and we did not end up buying anything. A little robot toy made of cardboard was S/130 ($50), and an authentic leather pool chair was S/8.000 ($3,000).

We wanted to go to a very famous meat restaurant for dinner after the handicraft store, but it was quite early and there wasn't any reason to rush. To pass some time, we walked again to the Pacific-Ocean-facing  shopping center of Larco Mar, but along Lima's coastal cliff for the whole time, a route we never took before. It was on this route that I first witnessed a car accident in Peru. One car was trying to pass a car at a curve by speeding up, but the passing car re-entered the lane too early and we could hear the other car bump the passing car. With the absolute craziness of Peruvian drivers (blinker use is unheard of, actual speed of cars is often 2-3X speed limit, lanes in the road are simply suggestions, etc.), I figured it was only a matter of time before I'd see something happen. Luckily, no one was hurt and the cars didn't even seem to be damaged. After a little quarrel between the drivers that lasted no more than 15 seconds, both cars were already back on the road.

Larco Mar was surprisingly uncrowded for a Friday night, but we figured it was too early (6PM) to make that judgment. From the shopping center, we found a taxi across the street that took us (through very bad traffic) to La Tanquera, a restaurant renowned for its wide selection of and excellent preparation of meats. I thought Cusco was going to be my last opportunity to eat guinea pig, but we actually had some at this place. Unlike the waiters in the restaurant in Cusco, who served half of a guinea pig in a few breaded balls, the waiters in La Tanquera gave us a full, freshly grilled guinea pig with some grilled potatoes, all on a little charcoal grill brought to the table to preserve the heat of the food until we started eating it. Although the guinea pig meat was very tender and tasty, the Peruvian delicacy is not something I think I would order again. The meat is very difficult to get to and the taste is not, in my opinion, worth it. Nonetheless, the food was delicious and fresh and the service was absolutely exceptional. Like La Mar, this was an especially fancy restaurant that ended up costing as much as an average American restaurant.

For our walk back to the hotel, we decided for two reasons to walk. First of all, we wanted to avoid the Friday night traffic in Miraflores (a very high end, consumerist, and casino-filled district) that we suffered on the taxi ride to the restaurant, and we wanted to burn all of the calories we just consumed from eating an entire animal. On the way, we stoppd by a small park in Miraflores where a public talent show was in progress. For about 15 minutes, we watched a few acts from some local talented people. One singer, who the crowd really loved and cheered on, was so good that I was surprised she wasn't already famous. This kind of weekly gathering, where people celebrate with music and dance, really reflects on Lima's community-focused culture. 

After it was time to leave Miraflores (our hotel is in the Barranco district), the nightlife and traffic quickly died down. Although we were slightly confused and unsure about the direction in which were going at some points, we arrived at our hotel after about an hour of walking at 10PM.

Tomorrow, we'll spend our last day in Lima exploring the historical center of the city (El Centro) before hopefully flying out of Lima's Jorge Chavez International Airport at around 10:30PM. I say hopefully, because there is a chance that Tropical Storm Isaac, which may soon become a hurricane, will prevent us from flying into Miami, our layover airport to Boston. I've never travelled through the Miami airport without some sort of problem, so this is nothing new, but I hope that everything will go smoothly and we'll find some way to get home safely and on time. Whenever I finally get home, I'll post the final entry of the trip and begin posting pictures.

The Return to Lima

What I thought was going to be a lazy, laid-back day turned out to be slightly more eventful than predicted. Although I didn't have any time to get pictures uploaded, I've done a variety of things I'll write about here.

For the second day this trip, I got to sleep in until about 8:30. After taking the time to take a good shower, brush teeth, and pack our bags, my family had some breakfast in our Cusco hotel. By about 10AM, we were ready to go out into the city of Cusco for the last time. Since our taxi to the airport would arrive at the hotel at around 11:30, we only really had an hour in the city. To spend this time nicely, we decided to explore an area of Cusco that we haven't yet been to.

After walking onto one of the roads we never followed from the main plaza, we ended up in what seemed to be Cusco's contemporary financial district. Although it doesn't match the kind of financial district you'd see in a large city, you could still tell that the buildings were newer and were built with a lot of money. By the time we walked back to the main square from this area, it was already time to walk back to the hotel to catch the airport taxi.

The 20 minute taxi ride brought us to Cusco's airport, probably the least advanced I've ever flown through. You could see the airport baggage crew taking your bags after checking them in, the boarding passes were printed on receipt paper, and the PA system at gates was a guitar amplifier. At 1PM, our flight began to board, and by 1:40 we were in the air.

I'm not usually afraid of flying, but the flight from Cusco back to the Peruvian capital of Lima definitely made me nervous at a few points. Because Cusco is situated in a flat, low area surrounded by several mountains, the climb from the airport has to be really steep and requires the plane to make sharp banks while rising so it doesn't crash into a mountain. There was very little room for error, so every little bump of turbulence made me slightly nervous. Fortunately, after about 20 minutes, the frightening ascent was over and the flight continued normally. By 4PM, we were back in our Lima hotel where we spent about an hour catching up with work/email and planning the rest of our day.

Our first destination in Lima, which has been very cloudy for the last few days, was the Chala restaurant in the shoreside Barranco district. As we descended Lima's coastline cliff on Bajada de Banos, a cobblestone street reminiscent of the Monciak in Sopot, Poland, we failed to find the famous Chala in a sea of restaurants. We did, however, get a beautiful view of of the Pacific Ocean and Lima's cliff at the bottom of the street. We could even see the Larco Mar shopping center in the distance. On our way back up the street, we watched more carefully to find Chala, and actually did find it. The only problem was, the restaurant wouldn't open until 8PM, which was almost 3 hours away.

The backup restaurant that we decided to go to instead was Canta Rana, deeper in Barranco. This characteristically Peruvian restaurant, with its walls covered in memorabilia from famous visitors (including Paul McCartney), and its large open doorway to the outside street had a very authentic feel. While my father had a delicious meal of goat meat, I got a "barbeque" chicken meal that was mediocre at best. Despite the okay (and overpriced) food, the atmosphere made up for our complaints. If I were to eat there again, I would definitely order something more Peruvian (such as goat meat) so that I wouldn't be stuck with a generic, non-exotic, bland meal.

After stocking up on some water and snacks for the next few days at a supermarket next to the restaurant, we hailed a taxi to take us to the large park in the newly developed area of the city by the National Stadium. There, a landfill was transformed into a beautiful park with 15 unique fountains, each with their own little water movements, lights, and music.

Our plan at this park was to watch the special light/laser show at 8PM, which we assumed would occur at the largest fountain, but we were wrong. After we scouted out the entire park for a perfect view of the massive central fountain, we waited for the show to start. Before we knew it, 8PM had passed and nothing happened. We started to think that there was actually possibly no show at all and that the fountains themselves were the "show," but we were determined to see something.

Sure enough, a light show started at 8:15, but at the slightly smaller fountain adjacent to the one we were sitting near. We quickly ran to this other fountain, where there was a much larger crowd as well as a large set of loudspeakers in front. Fortunately, the crowds weren't so bad and we got a pretty decent view of the 20 minute laser/light show. For these 20 minutes, we gazed at these fountains as the water jets sprayed vertical blasts synchronized with the playing music, a huge movie projector projected videos of Peruvian dancers in the mist produced by the fountain, and lasers created interesting shapes and patterns in the same mist. I was quite surprised at how high-tech this show was, and definitely think that it was worth the 4 soles ($1.50) entrance fee. It's attractions like these that are built with the intent of cleaning up dirty or undesirable areas that will help bring more tourists to the country of Peru.

Immediately after this show ended, we took a taxi back to our hotel where my whole family laid back and tried to relax after the long, not-so-lazy day. Tomorrow, after hopefully sleeping in again, we'll visit one of Lima's top history museums, and then possibly the ruins of mud pyramid that predates the Incans in Peru. Now that we've finished our sidetrip to Cusco and Machu Picchu, the rest of the trip should be relatively easygoing as we approach our return trip to the US on Saturday evening.

A Day in Inca Country

For the first time in what feels like weeks, I got to sleep in. Even though we woke up in our Ollanta (short for Ollantaytambo) hotel at 8AM, it was still better than the 5AM we've been doing for the last three days. After taking our time to brush our teeth, take showers, and pack our bags, we ate the free albeit mediocre breakfast provided by the hotel.

Ruins at Ollantaytambo

When we first walked outside of the hotel in the morning, we were absolutely amazed at the beautiful mountains, valleys, and ruins all around us. When we were walking to the hotel from the train station last night, it felt like we were in a pretty remote village in the middle of the forest in some relatively flat area. Our entire perspective on the city of Ollanta was radically changed when we saw these mountainous ruins, the town square, and a market directly outside of our hotel's front entrance.

When walking through the marketplace and after we took care of all of our business at the hotel, I realized how much Spanish I learned from being in the country for only four days. I only knew a very limited set of words from Spanish before coming here (I'm learning French in school), but now I feel like I could survive in one of these rural villages where very few people speak English. It really shows how quickly you can learn a language if you're immersed in it. Though we didn't end up buying anything in Ollanta's marketplace of Incan souvenirs, we managed to haggle with the vendors for some decent deals.

The only real attraction we wanted to see in Ollanta was the city's Incan's ruins. Ollanta is a significant city because it is one of the few large settlements of almost entirely Incan people and buildings. Most of the buildings in the city, including our hotel, were built by the Incans almost 500 years ago and are still used by the descendants of the Incans today. Supposedly, 80% of people in Ollanta today speak Quechua, the language of the Incans.

In the marketplace next to our hotel, there is also a door to the Incan ruins that dominate the hillside above the city. After we paid the entrance fee, we were greeted by a few people offering tours of the ruins. We eventually decided to take one who offered a comprehensive tour at a reasonable price (and seemed to speak English pretty well).

As we started to make the climb through the terraces toward the ruins above, our guide explained to us how Ollanta was split into three main sections during Incan times: the commonpeople area (which is still inhabited by 4.000 people today), the agricultural area (where there are still fields growing a variety of foods today), and the sacred Incan religious area we were climbing up to. On the hillside that led up to the temple of the sun below, there were terraces, similar to the ones at Machu Picchu, but they were only used to decorate the path to the temple with flowers and other pretty vegetation. Although the terraces are no longer irrigated since the Spanish destroyed the water channels several hundred years ago, it was easy to imagine how beautiful the temple area must have looked in the past.

Something interesting our guide pointed out to us that our guide at Machu Picchu failed to clearly describe was how the Incans mastered the art of earthquake-safe construction techniques. Almost all Incan buildings and doorways were built in a trapezoidal shape (larger area at the bottom than the top), so when earthquakes hit, the structure could support itself. In this sense, the Incans really were ahead of their time, especially since geologists from Japan were actually surveying the ruins to perhaps research better ways to protect buildings from earthquakes. Ollanta has been around for 500 years and has suffered dozens of earthquakes, but almost no buildings have been destroyed.

At the top of the hill one area where the trapezoidal design was very apparent was at the temple of the sun. There, the doorways and the altar wall of the main building (the rest were looted by the Spanish) all had a clearly trapezoidal shape. For the Inca people, the sun was the most important religious symbol as it really was and still is the reason that life can continue to exist. Although most commonpeople could never actually visit this sacred temple, it was still a very important place, visible to the whole town below, where animal sacrifices would be made on solstice days to please the god of the Sun.

The Sacred Valley, looking toward Cusco

From the sun temple, we could also see some absolutely beautiful views of the three valleys that intersect at Ollanta. To the north, toward Machu Picchu, we could see one direction of the Sacred Valley of the Incas, as well as a distant snow-capped mountain. To the south, toward Cusco, we could see the other direction of the Sacred Valley and the Urubamba River. Lastly, to the southeast, we could see what is known as the Jungle valley, which is smaller valley but has its own little microclimate that allows for a beautiful, lush jungle to thrive.

The next significant part of the ruins was the guardtower and storagehouse. To get to this pair of buildings (which was the first we saw from the view in our hotel courtyard in the morning), we had to walk across a very narrow (3 to 5 feet wide) ledge where the mountain rose vertically on one side, and the mountain dropped nearly vertically about 100ft on the other. My father, who has a fear of heights, was very nervous along the way but successfully made it across. The storagehouse, which was the only building in the ruins with two floors, was used to store things like potatoes, grains, and other provisions in case there was a drought of some sort. Its strategic position in a non-easily accessible place next to a guardtower ensured the safety of the goods inside.

The last section of the ruins, which we reached after descending the hill with the religious ruins, was a "resting place" or "hotel" for people visiting the Incan city. This area contained several famous fountains that were used by the people of the city as their main source of running water.

The trek through these ruins was much easier than the one at Machu Picchu, and the tour guides were very informative and helpful, so I think that visiting Ollanta before or after the ruins at Machu Picchu is necessary in any trip to Peru. The city is located in such a beautiful part of our Earth that it's simply too good to be missed. While Machu Picchu showed the full extent of beautiful Incan territory and architecture, it was at Ollanta where I really learned about the culture and history of the Incan people. Before hiring a taxi driver off the street who would take us to Cusco, we had a large lunch at the Mayupata restaurant. There, I tried some famous Cuscean pizza with a huge mix of interesting meats and peppers.

For our drive to Cusco, we planned for one one-hour stop at the still-existent Incan village of Pisac. The first leg of the drive to Pisac followed a paved road that follows the Urubamba River. Similar to the train ride, the drive gave us wonderful views of the Sacred valley of the Incans, the Urubamba River, and the towns and villages along it. Something quite cool that I found out on this ride is that the Urubamba is actually one of the first of many tributaries of the Amazon River.

The Market in Pisac

In Pisac, we did not have time to visit its Incan ruins, but we did get to explore the main square area to buy a plethora of souvenirs for our trip. I got a set of pan pipes (a traditional Incan instrument), my brother got a medallion of the sun god, my mother got a miniature hand-woven dress that can be framed, and my father got a letter opener with some traditional Incan art.

The latter leg of the drive to Cusco was a lot more intense than the first, since we were ascending the mountains on zigzagging roads for almost 30 minutes. Although very slightly nerve-wracking, the views the ride provided of the nearby valleys, a wildfire in the mountains, and eventually the city of Cusco, were quite incredible and certainly worth it. Throughout the ride, even though the driver didn't speak English and we don't speak much Spanish, we were able to communicate with what we learned and found out that our driver makes the Cusco - Ollanta drive 2-3 times every day, so we knew we were in good hands.

Once we arrived at our hotel in Cusco at around 4:30, we had pretty much completed a full day, but we were not yet done. For about an hour and half, we explored Cusco for the last time, and actually climbed to a higher part of the town which provided us with a beautiful panorama of the city. At 6:30, we were ready to eat dinner, where we wanted our first taste of guinea pig, an almost exclusively Andean dish.

Unfortunately, all restaurants require a reservation one day in advance if you want a full guinea pig, but we found one quite fancy restaurant with an authentic Incan wall and open kitchen (Restaurant Incanto) that served a half of one. In addition to the absolutely delicious cooked Guinea pig, I had some pretty tasty chicken strips with some Andean chili. Everyone in the family got to try and see how scrumptious this unique Peruvian meal is, including my usually picky brother. It was pretty sad to realize that I probably won't have any more guinea pig meat for a long time, but I guess it will be a nice treat if I ever come back to Peru in the future.

After dinner, we almost immediately walked back to the hotel after getting one last souvenir for my brother (a hat that says "Fries with your guinea pig?"), and were quite exhausted on arrival. What we covered in a 12 hour period felt like two or three days of intense travel. This trip to Peru is probably the most physically intense one I've been on.

Tomorrow, we'll have our first "lazy" day of rest where we don't do too much, but it will be a break well deserved. After sleeping in until about 9AM, we'll eat breakfast at the hotel and then catch up on emails and other work until we have to leave at 11:30 to catch our flight back to Lima. By around 4PM, we should be back in our hotel in Lima. From there, we have no definite plans, so I'll leave it at that. Maybe since we finally have some time tomorrow, I can start posting some of our pictures from the trip for all of you to see.

The Journey to Machu Picchu

As I'm writing this now, I've only been awake for about 16 hours, but my family and I are more tired then we've ever been. Our journey to Machu Picchu, while very enjoyable, really pushed our bodies (my mother's especially) to the limit.

For the third day in a row, we woke up in our hotel at 5AM and after a short breakfast, got a taxi ride to the Poroy train station. Poroy is a small village about 15 minutes outside of Cusco and serves as Cusco's rail link to the rest of Peru. On the taxi ride to the station, we got our first beautiful views of the Peruvian countryside, as well as a nice vista of a snow-capped mountain surrounded by clouds in the distance that created a scene almost identical to the Paramount Pictures logo.

The first thing I noticed when arriving at the train station was how differently trains are operated here from the US or Europe. Right away, you could see how the unelectrified tracks ran right through the village, with donkeys roaming around, needing to be escorted by their owners to safety. On the platform, which was closed when we first arrived, we could see workers with ladders on top of the train cleaning the windows and performing maintenance. You could also see some of the train stewards/stewardesses preparing the interior of the train for the meal service they would eventually provide. It was quite a sight, especially since I've never seen such a large crowd of people working to get a train ready (there were at least a dozen cleaners, three stewards for each of the eight passenger cars, and two engineers at the front).

Once we boarded this "Vistadome train", I was immediately surprised at the size, comfort, and amenities of the train. I've ridden in the cramped MBTA double-decker trains a great deal in the last few weeks, so I was very pleased to sit in this train with its spacious cabin, reclining seats, and even ceiling windows (that would later help in providing great views of the surrounding landscape.

The three hour train ride that brought us to the village of Aguas Calientes was definitely the most fascinating one I've been on in my life. For the first hour and a half of the ride, we rode right through a very rural region of Peru. In addition to farms, large hills, and small villages, we saw many people working near the tracks on farms, road infrastructure, and even the railroad we were riding on. Because the tracks are not protected by a fence guardrail, the engineer had to use the horn almost at least once a minute. At one point, the tracks went literally right through the streets of a small village bustling with morning commotion, so we could see people running away from the tracks, and plugging their ears from the loud sound of the train's horn.

After we passed through the small city of Ollanta (which we are staying at tonight), the scenery was dramatically transformed. Instead of rural fields and villages, we were now riding through the middle of a valley between two large mountains, on the high banks of the very rough Urabamba river. The scenery that we saw, which included lush evergreen forests, rocky hills, riverside villages, whitewater rapids, snow-capped mountains, and even small stretches of jungle, was the most beautiful I've ever witnessed. I took dozens of pictures, but they don't come close to producing the pure awe that we experienced in looking out the windows of our train. If you ever get a chance to visit Peru, travelling to Machu Picchu on the Vistadome train is an absolute must.

As we started to descend to a lower altitude, we also witnessed a very fascinating and unique aspect of Peruvian rail. To descend 400 meters in one area, we had to move in a zigzag motion for 5 kilometers. For example, after the train stopped at a zigzag start, the engineer would jump out of the front, make a track direction switch, and then send the train backwards for the next stretch of track, until another zigzag vertex was reached. This process would be repeated until we reached the bottom of the mountainous area we were descending.

In addition to the beautiful scenery, we were given a very formal breakfast service. The three stewards on our car carefully prepared our tables with a small tablecloth, silverware, and finally plates with the meal. Although the food (a small ham sandwich, two fruits, some small pancakes, and some rice popped like popcorn) was mediocre, the service was exceptional and it made the whole journey feel more luxurious.

After about three and half hours, we arrived at the train station in Aguas Calientes, a riverside resort village at the base of the mountain Machu Picchu. Before we made the ascent to the Incan ruins at Machu Picchu, we spent about a half hour in the village buying some water, sunscreen, and tickets for the ascent bus.

To ascend to the ruins, we had to ride on a bus through some very fear-inducing dirt roads. As with any mountainous ascent by road, we were making zigzags after every few hundred meters, but the fact that there were almost no guardrails on the road as it went higher made us all very nervous. At the edge of the very narrow road (where two buses would sometimes pass next to each other), there was almost constantly a drop of about 50 ft to the next narrow road below. After about 15 minutes of this seemingly high speed, back-and-forth driving, we were safely at the settlement before the entrance to the ruins. At this point, my mother was starting to feel slightly ill from the rough ascent and altitude of the ruins, but we couldn't stop the trip at this point. To allow my mother to rest, we had a small lunch at the overpriced restaurant in front of the ruins while she sat down in some shade.

By noon, we were ready to finally enter the ruins, the pinnacle of our trip to Peru. We decided to hire a tour guide at the entrance who offered us a two hour tour of the basics for a reasonable price. Our first actual view of the beautiful ruins came a few minutes after passing through the main entrance. The ancient city on Machu Picchu (the actual name of the historic Incan city is not known) was built on a mountain, so the Incans who built it had to carve dozens of terraces in the mountains to provide an area for agriculture, as well as sites to build homes and communal buildings. From a distance, the farm teraces look almost like rice fields.

The tour guide took us through some of the homes, Incan religious temples, community centers, and also showed us some views of the nearby mountains. The most famous mountain, that can be seen in almost any overview picture of the ruins is known as Huayna Picchu (double check this) and can actually be hiked in two hours. The next mountain to the right, whose name I forget, sits at the center of Aguas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu below. The last mountain, Machu Picchu, is the one that we were on (exploring the ruins), but the actual peak could be seen in the distance if you looked away from the ruins. I never realized until now that Machu Picchu is the name of the mountain while the ruins themselves really have no known official name.

The ruins and their narrow cobblestone streets, primitive doorways and windows, and steep/uneven staircases felt somewhat like the ancient Celtic ruins of Glendalough in Ireland except supersized and 8,000 ft higher. Unfortunately, climbing up and down the steep stairs of the ruins was too much for my mother so quickly, so she had to sit out for the latter half of the tour. Once we were actually finished with this tour of the basics we still had three hours to explore the ruins on our own.

Our first destination, after retrieving my mother (who was feeling better) from her shaded resting area, was the guardhouse at the top of the farm terraces. This building and the surrounding flat areas provided us with the famous postcard views of the Machu Picchu ruins, but it was quite a chore to get to it. We had to a little bit exploration and getting lost in the city (which wasn't too bad, since every little corner and nook had an interesting sight), as well as climb about 150 ft of stairs. This left my parents exhausted and made me start to feel a bit tired. While my parents got some rest. I decided to explore the rest of the area to see where we could go next. What I found was a path toward the famous Inca bridge, located on the other side of the Machu Picchu peak, but supposedly only 25 minutes away by walking. As we regrouped and started walking this trail (which required us to sign in at the front in case we got lost), we noticed that it looked very dangerous. We could see in the distance that there were certain narrow dirt paths with a 50 ft drop cliff on one side (with no guardrail). We decided that this was too unsafe for my nine year old brother, so we unfortunately had to turn back.

I was starting to get slightly tired at this point, but my parents were exhausted to the point that we could walk no more than 100ft without having to take a break. The Incans who lived here 500 years ago must have had two very important physical traits: a lack of the fear of heights, and a stamina that could handle a great deal of vertical travel at these low-oxygen altitudes. For the last hour we had at the ruins, we decided to (very slowly) revisit through some of the highlights of the tour that my mother missed while she was resting.

By the time we reached the exit, even I was starting to feel slightly exhausted. We took a huge amount of pictures and immersed ourselves in this Incan architecture, but at a huge toll to our bodies. I must say, however, that it was most definitely worth it. I now understand that the Incan society that lived at Macchu Pichu was quite smart and had a very engineering/architecture focused culture, but simply could not keep up with the far more technologically advanced Spaniards that were invading the land. Luckily, the Spanish never found the ruins at Macchu Pichu, so the ruins were preserved almost completely until explorer Hiram Bingham found them and announced his discovery to the world in the middle of the 20th century.

The descent from the ruins was not as nerve-wracking as the ascent, since we were driving much more slowly, but it still took a half-hour to get back to Aguas Calientes. There, we decided to stroll down the main area for about thirty minutes to get a glimpse at all of the hotels and restaurants in the riverside village. By 5:45, we were back at the train station, after passing through a confusing maze of traditional marketplace vendors selling all sorts of souvenirs and traditional Incan products.

At exactly 6:45, our train to Ollanta departed and we had a nice two hours to relax after the incredibly tiring day. Because it was so dark and there was nothing to see outside, I wrote most of this entry on the bumpy two hour ride. In Ollanto, we had to weave through a huge sea of people at the train station, and then take a ten minute walk to the downtown area of the small village. From there, we found our hotel in a remote area of the town after asking several people for directions

Tomorrow, we'll spend most of our day exploring the interesting but largely unappreciated city of Ollanta, but then we'll get some form of transporation, most likely a taxi, back to our hotel in Cusco so we can catch our Wednesday afternoon flight back to Lima

Luckilly I was able to get internet access today (although very slow) to post this entry, so I hope you enjoyed it. Hopefully, the rest of our trip will go smoothly and we'll see plenty of more fascinating things. As I've said again and again, I don't have the time or internet connection to post my own pictures until after we return to the US, but I'll keep my blog entries as detailed and in depth as possible!

Reporting in from 12,000 ft

Cusco, Peru

It's been another exciting day in Peru and I can't wait to share what I've done. Once again, the internet is not reliable enough to upload a lot of our own pictures, so those will have to wait until after we return to the US. For now, I'll just try to be as comprehensive and descriptive as possible. At around 5:30AM, we all got out of bed and got into a taxi, half-asleep. By 6:30 AM, we were finished passing through security at Lima's International Airport with the intent of going to Cusco. Cusco, once the grand capital of the Incan empire, located in the middle of the Andes mountains, 3,400 meters above sea level. In addition to being known for its very hilly streets, Cusco is a city where altitude sickness is known to plague many tourists.

The one hour flight provided some of the most beautiful views I've ever seen from an airplane. Below us we could see the hills and mountains that poked through the layer of clouds, and in the distance we could see the snow-capped peaks of the incredibly tall Andes Mountains. To land in Cusco, we only needed to descend a few thousand feet from our cruising altitude. Once we landed, we were immediately greeted with the clear blue sky, in contrast to cloudy Lima. The temperature was also much colder than in Lima, but it was a nice break from the scalding heat that we've been having in New England for the past few weeks. From the airport, the hotel's chauffeur took us through the tightly packed streets of Cusco and gave us a little bit of Incan and Peruvian history as he took us to our hotel, the Incarri Hostal.

Our hotel, which looks like an unwelcoming gate on the narrow street outside, is actually very nice. It spans two buildings and has two Italian styled courtyards, one with a stone plaza area and another with a garden. Although we didn't yet get our room at this point, we had a chance to relax for a few minutes in the courtyard. By 10:30, we were out and ready to explore the city. After walking for about 20 minutes on some narrow cobblestone streets, we found ourselves in Cusco's grand square. Although the square is only three or four blocks away from our hotel, the combination of being at a high altitude, being bombarded with direct equatorial sunlight, and walking up and down the hilly streets got us quite tired. In the main square, we enjoyed the nice and interesting views of the very historic city as dozens of street merchants, shoe shiners, and wannabe tourist photographers bombarded us in attempt to sell us their services. From the square, which is situated at a high altitude relative to the rest of the city, we could see the surrounding hills, forests, and villages. These beautiful views of rural Peru reminded me a lot of our travels in Sicily, where villages like Caccamo are very similar to Cusco.

With some further exploration of the streets surrounding the square, we found a nice restaurant where I had an absolutely delicious chicken sandwich. The wonderful quality of the food and the cleanliness of the dining area made us decide to return to the same place again for dinner. Before we continued our exploration of the city, we stopped at a McDonald's located conveniently in the main square so my brother could have some food without complaining about its alien-ness.

Santo Domingo Cathedral

The major attraction of the day had to be the massive Cathedral of Santo Domingo that towers over the city's central square. When we got inside, an English-speaking tour guide started to give us our own personal tour. Although her English wasn't the best, we learned a great deal of history and information about the cathedral and appreciated her efforts. Very quickly, we learned that the building is actually a collection of three churches, the main cathedral, the Iglesia de la Sagrada Familia, and the Iglesia del Triunfo. Our tour guide claimed that the Iglesia del Triunfo, ordered built by legendary Spanish explorer Francisco Pizzaro, was the very first Catholic cathedral built in the Americas. After some research, we determined it was actually only the first church built in the conquered city of Cusco. I guess that this shows how people like to embellish the facts about their local tourist attractions to make them seem more interesting. Nonetheless, the entire complex was fascinating.

The religious establishment, similarly to the Franciscan monastery in Lima, really highlighted some ironies in the church. The ornate church itself was built by the Incans that the invading Spaniards enslaved, the altars are made of a very rare type of wood that is now extinct, the frames of the paintings throughout the church are coated in 18 karat gold (stolen from the Incans), and there is a full, sedan-sized automobile for the bishop made out of pure silver. At this point it feels like the churches of the past were built only to give the clergy a luxurious life while they let the poor Incans starve in the streets. 

At the conclusion of the tour, we were so tired that we promptly returned to our hotel for a ninety minute break. Even though we had only walked a few kilometers, the altitude made us feel like we had just finished climbing Mt. Everest. The hotel staff were incredibly nice and helped us arrange for transportation for tomorrow morning's trip to the train station, and for the return trip in three days. They even tried to hire us a cheap driver who could give a comprehensive tour of the city, but we had to refuse because the driver wanted to bring his young son along in the already tiny car. The child would also be the sixth in a five-passenger car, making it potentially dangerous to drive around. Instead of getting a tour of the overall city, we decided to explore the neighborhood around the main square in a bit more depth. 

By the time we even got to the main square, we were slightly tired and hungry, so we decided to have dinner at that place we had the small lunch. We were the only ones in the restaurant (it was only 4PM), but we got excellent service and scrumptious food. The dish I ordered was Pollo Supremo (Supreme Chicken). With this relatively cheap dish, I got a large, juicy, bread crumbed chicken cutlet, some hot-dog bits, a cooked banana, rice, and fries. The meal, which was very good (Except for the fries), helped us rejuvenate and prepare for the extended walking that lay ahead. For the next two hours, we just wandered around the area with no destination in mind. The sun was setting at this hour, but because the mountains cast very large shadows, some areas were much more lit than others, making for some interesting views (and some beautiful pictures). 

Some of the most fascinating places we wandered off into were these marketplaces that started off in the streets as tiny entranceways, but connect to massive courtyards in the middle of buildings that have dozens of vendors. We only ended up buying a wall rug, but we saw a variety of other goods that we could buy in the future if we got better deals. I tried to play some traditional Incan musical instruments, I tried some authentic-looking Incan winter wear (August is the coldest month of the year in Peru), and I browsed through some of the hand-crafted wood souvenirs carved and painted by the locals. In addition to these marketplaces, we also saw a few different church plazas, we saw the children of Peru rush onto streets as they were dismissed from schools (at 6PM), and we got to take a peek at the luxurious Monasterio hotel close to the main square. 

(Wide) Streets of Cusco

I have to say, the neighborhood around Cusco's main square was a lot like the downtown area of Bratislava, Slovakia. In both Bratislava and Cusco, a central square is surrounding by narrow, cobblestone streets filled with restaurants, souvenir shops, and tourist information centers. 

By 6:30PM it got very dark and we decided to walk back to the hotel for the last time. Once we arrived at around 6:45, we were all absolutely exhausted. We only walked a distance of 10km (6 miles) throughout the day, but it felt like we finished a long 20 mile hike through the woods. I'm now lying down here in the hotel room, hoping to catch up on some sleep. Tomorrow, we'll once again be waking up at 5AM, but this time to get to a train station where the Vistadome train, operated by PERU Rail, will take us to the magnificent Incan ruin of Macchu Pichu. After spending about 7 hours at the ruins, we'll take a train partially back to the village of Ollantaytambo, where we'll spend the night and following day. 

So far, the trip has been wonderful, and I feel like I'm enjoying myself a lot more than I would have in the past. Our trip to the UAE earlier this year really made me appreciate the idea that travel is about the journey and not the destination. On almost every stretch of this trip so far, I've found everything, from the grand cathedral in Cusco to the new freeways in Peru, incredibly fascinating. Once you can appreciate the idea that vacation doesn't necessarily mean luxurious paradise (but rather inquisitive exploration), travel can be a much more reliably enjoyable experience. 

I can't guarantee I'll post again tomorrow as we may not have internet in  Ollantaytambo, but I'll try my best to keep you all updated. I'll have several hours on the train rides to write an entry, but it's not going to be posted until I get access. Until then, I'm off to explore the ruins of an ancient empire!

Exploring Lima, Peru

Hello everyone, it's been what feels like days since I last posted, but I've been in Lima, Peru for only about 18 hours.  After two very turbulent American Airlines flights (one to Miami and the other to Lima), we found ourselves at the relatively new international airport in Lima at 5AM. Since we've had unpleasant experiences in the past with checked baggage on international flights, we decided not to check any baggage on this trip. Because of this, we were able to pass right through baggage claim after smoothly clearing Peruvian customs. Less than an hour after we landed, we were on the road with the driver hired by our hotel to transport us.

Lima, Peru

Our first drive through the South American metropolis of Lima gave us some views of the city's early morning commotion and its very densely packed residential areas. As South America's second largest city, Lima is home to 1/3 of Peru's population, and a majority of its economic power. The drive, which took us from the airport to the Barranco district (the location of our hotel), took place mostly on the new highway along the Pacific coast. Lima is located on the top of a very large cliff, so the views from the drive (of the shore, cliffs, and distant hills) were quite beautiful, even after a sleepless night on two turbulent plane rides. By 6:30AM, we were  in the lobby of the bed and breakfast we'll be staying in for our first night in Peru.

Because the hotel was going to begin its free breakfast service at 7:30, we decided to stick around for that time to come. While my parents got some coffee, I attempted to catch up on some sleep in some of the chairs in the main lobby. Fortunately, I was able to do so, waking up to a nice ham and cheese sandwich at around 7:45. Until our rooms were ready, we took a short stroll around the very nice neighborhood surrounding the hotel.  The Barranca District is located right next to Lima's cliff, so the views of the highway and Pacific shore below were spectacular. Even more incredible was seeing the surfers in the frigid ocean below, determined to catch the perfect wave on a cloudy Sunday morning. Once our rooms were ready at around 8:45, I got another precious hour of sleep before going out to the city.

Larco Mar

Our first destination, in the Barranca district, was the Larco Mar shopping center. This unique mall, built in the Limean cliffside, is famous not for its selection of stores and restaurants, but for its breathtaking view of the Pacific Ocean. In addition to gazing at the spectacular views with some morning pastries, we picked up our train tickets for the trip from Cusco to Macchu Pichu at the local Peru Rail office. In just this short portion of our travel, I realized that even though this country may look very different and foreign from places in the First World, globalization has made people all around the world, Lima not excepted,  adopt the consumerist ideals and attitudes of the Western World. Larco Mar was filled with teenagers and adults alike, shopping for American and British music, drinking coffee at Dunkin Donuts and Starbucks, and dining at TGI Friday's and KFC.

After a crazy 15 minute taxi ride down Lima's main freeway (home to an interesting rapid transit system comparable to Boston's Silver Line), we arrived in Lima Center, the city's historical center to see a variety of sights, both expected and unexpected. We were first dropped off at the Iglesia de San Francisco where we were given a tour of its Franciscan Monastery. This massive, palace-like building was once the home to the Franciscan friars of Lima, who ran the church. Throughout the monastery, we saw luxuriously sized rooms, ornately designed walls and ceilings, exquisite paintings by Italian artists, and catacombs filled with the remains of the Franciscans who lived there before. Although the renovated monastery was very nice, it brought to my attention a great irony in the Franciscan order. St. Francis of Assisi, who founded the Franciscan order within the Catholic church, devoted his order to promoting the idea of "simple living," whereby people would live without luxury and unnecessary spending. The monastery at the Iglesia de San Francisco seemed to showcase the exact opposite. The walls of the monastery were decorated with tiles imported from Spain, the bars on the gates in the front were coated in gold, and the library was filled with shelves made of exotic cedar from Panama. The money spent in the construction of this Franciscan "monastery" could have probably been used to help feed the thousands who lived in poverty around it. I'm sure St. Francis would've been ashamed.

Our next two hours in the city can be described as aimless wandering throughout Lima's old district. Something quite spectacular that we encountered while exploring the area was the incredible amount of celebration in the streets. There were hundreds of dancers, musicians, drummers, and military horsemen parading through the streets as thousands watched. We assumed that there was a special event occurring in the city, but later research debunked that notion. It seems like every Sunday, religious and civil parades occur throughout the city. This reflects Peru's very social culture quite well.

By about 2PM, we were absolutely exhausted. Because we travel to Europe so much, our bodies probably thought (after our long flights) that we were 5 hours ahead in time, when we were in reality at about the same time zone. Before we returned to our hotel in one of the most nerve wracking taxi rides of my life, we had a pretty large lunch at a small restaurant that served local cuisine. I had a surprisingly delicious set of large beef slices with fries and rice.

Between 4PM and 6PM, we spent some time resting in our hotel. Although I didn't get any sleep, I got some relaxing time to start writing this entry. At around 6:30PM, we decided to revisit the Larco Mar shopping center in the evening. The walk there, through busy roadways under palm trees and large apartment buildings, was quite similar to our trek from Burj Khalifa to the faraway metro station in Dubai on New Year's day. I must say, if the Peruvian government could do something about the pollution that plagues the city, it would be a very nice place to walk. The hills on the sides of the freeway to the shore at the bottom of the cliff are dotted with some paths through lush, green gardens, but the smell of exhaust and gasoline is a huge turnoff.
At Larco Mar, what we saw was in deep contrast with what we saw in the morning. The mall in the morning was a nice, quiet place where people were drinking coffee as they gazed on at the ocean, but at this hour (7:30PM) there were likely hundreds of people shopping, eating fast food, and socializing. It actually reminded me quite a lot of the Corniche in Abu Dhabi (where people of all ages ate and socialized on the Abu Dhabi waterfront), but 100m above the water.

For dinner, we ate at a pseudo-Italian restaurant near our hotel after taking a scenic route on the cliff's edge. The meat lover's pizza that we had wasn't bad, but it wasn't the most interesting thing about this place. Ordering food and dining here made me really realize how easy it really is to communicate with people without a common language. Neither the waiter nor the cook could speak any English, and our Spanish is limited to a basic vocabulary of around 100 words, but we were able to complete our order and communicate an issue with drinks purely through hand gestures, pointing, and some limited vocabulary. Following our dinner, we returned to our hotel, exhausted after a full day of interesting activities in Lima.
Right now, I don't have any pictures uploaded (the ones shown are not ones we've taken), but when we get home and have more reliable internet, I'll post a gallery of pictures for everyone to see.

Tomorrow, we'll be getting up at 5AM to make a flight to Cusco, from where we will take a train to Macchu Pichu on Tuesday. We're still uncertain as to what we'll be doing tomorrow in the ancient capital, but you'll be the first to know what we've done. Until that time comes, Adios!