Wednesday, April 4, 2012

This morning the skies are overcast but not threatening. Once again the restaurant is on the top floor and there are views overlooking Puno and Lake Titicaca. We are at 13,000 feet and comfortable as we get acclimatized to the altitude. We drink the Coca Tea and enjoy our breakfast. We are just finishing up and the hotel brings us word that our ride is here. We step outside and our driver already has our bags loaded in the taxi. We take a double take as we realize our taxi is a bicycle powered open cart! This is going to be fun!!!

Our driver speaks almost no English, but he knows where we are going. It is probably not really difficult for our driver as it is all downhill to the Lake. He probably has to use most of his energy on the brakes! He takes us to a market near the lake edge as we need to buy some supplies for our next destination. So we buy 10 pounds of Sugar and 10 pounds of rice. You’ll see why soon!

It turns out we have to carry our possessions across 3 boats and onto a 4th boat where we find our ride is a shuttle boat with seating for 30-50 people. We are the first ones on so we take the front seats. Before we know it, our guide and the driver cast off and the boat is underway. Hey, what? We are the only ones on the boat! It turns out this boat is all for us and we marvel at the attention showed to us. We go by an island with what appears to be a large hotel in the middle of it. We never do get any info about it. But in about an hour, we arrive in Uros, a section of the lake that is filled with reeds growing and dozens of man made floating islands made from these reeds. Our destination is “Santa Maria Island” where we disembark and the boat leaves.

Our cameras are busily clicking away at the sights of reed boats with creative animal faces designed into them and floating isles. The wife of the couple that lives here takes Elee into her hut and dresses her in native attire for fun and a camera moment. We meet the family that lives here and they take us into their hut and show us how they weave the reeds into useful things. They also show us how they chew on the reeds to keep their teeth healthy. These people have the whitest teeth we have ever seen! The father brings out a bowl and shows us the fish he caught this morning for their dinner. He has to fish every day as there is no electricity for refrigeration. A group photo is taken for us and the wife brings out a needlepoint tapestry she has made and our wallets are about 100 US Dollars poorer after we buy the tapestry and a model reed boat for souvenirs! But you can see that tapestry in our hallway framed any time you visit us!

We all go back outside and they now demonstrate how they build and maintain their island. Walking on the island feels very spongy and comfortable to walk on. It is quite the intriguing process as they have to add reeds to the top of the island as the bottom slowly rots and disintegrates into the lake! There is a small tower that they let me climb and I take a shot of all of them below us and then Elee and I get onto a reed boat and the husband paddles us across to another island that has actual wooden buildings on it.

The paddle across is uneventful yet quite a fun ride!

We get off the reed boat onto the larger island and it turns out this is where their schools are. They have a fish farm for food and we walk around letting our cameras lead the way to colorful and interesting shots! This island has electricity and even a pay phone! We see a sign spelling out “Tupirmarka” and it takes a minute to figure out it says “Supermarket”, where you can buy food and clothing! Our large 50 person boat is here and we re-board it for the next ride.

The boat now takes us through the reeds and past more floating islands as it weaves its way out onto Lake Titicaca, sometimes spelled “Titikaka”. Another hour or two and we arrive on a peninsula into the lake where our next host meets us at the stone dock. We have to wonder if the people here are dressing for the tourists (our first guess) or if they just get up and always dress in costume. We’ve seen some that appear to always dress this way.

Before we ever leave the dock, my camera begs me to shoot some sunken boats and the thought hits me that these people are so poor, so why did they let them sink and not patch them up? I never get an answer. We strap our luggage onto our back for the hike up the hill (we have luggage that converts to backpacks just for this trip!) and our new host leads the way along with our guide that is with us for two days here. We get there and drop our bags in a windowless room that is shown to us. When I say ‘windowless’, I mean there are openings in the walls with reed mats to cover them, but no formal windows!

We are told the children here are still in school and they have to walk an hour in the morning to get to the school bus and then walk an hour home in the afternoon! Their school day with the walking goes from 6 AM to 5 PM. So we take a walk around the area and see what we can see. From a small herd of sheep to the backside of the complex we’re staying in to signs identifying the area we’re in!

We give the sugar and rice that we purchased this morning to our host as we were requested to do something like this. Because it is almost Easter, we have also brought some things for the children. We knew before we started this trip that we would be staying with this family and that they have 3 children. So just for fun, we have brought plastic Easter Eggs filled with candy and before the children got home, we hid them around their yard. Now it must be pointed out here that the concept of the Easter Bunny and Easter eggs doesn’t hold any meaning in South America because they represent Spring and the beginning of life. In South America, it is Fall and they don’t have such pagan rituals. This family doesn’t speak English, they speak Quechuan. An Indian language. Lucky for us, our guide speaks Quechuan. So we explain the ritual and game to our guide and he translates for us. As soon as these children understand how the game is played, you’d never know it was new to them. They took to the game like any children do!

Then we sit down to a vegetarian dinner with the family and the kids are happy and curious. They ask questions which our guide translates and stories are shared. The meal is delicious and we bring out more goodies for the kids in the fashion of Coloring Books, Crayons, Writing Notebooks, Pens and Pencils. They start going at the coloring books and the little one falls asleep at the table.

Mom and Dad have the new goodies put away and the kids go off to bed. We chat with our guide for a few more minutes and then say goodnight ourselves and turn in. Before we do, the mom brings us two hot rocks wrapped in towels and instructs us to put them at the foot of our beds. We do and our feet stay toasty warm all night!

See you tomorrow!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

We awaken early for this morning’s excursion. We walk to the town center to await our ride for the day, a 15 seat bus. While in the town center, a group of children dressed in native garb comes out and music starts playing and they dance for us. Quite the fun sight and as you can guess, a tip jar is passed around the groups of spectators! We drop some coins in and our day has begun!

Another bus picks us up today. We head out around 6 AM for a ride up to Condor Pass and we make a 10 minute stop in Maca for some locals that hope we’ll spend a few dollars. We get some fun photos with a little girl and her Alpaca and a lady that has a trained Condor!

We make it to the top of Condor Pass at 7 AM, the time the condors start soaring to warm themselves for the day! Absolutely amazing! Literally hundreds of Condors fly in and out of the canyon! This the deepest canyon on earth at a depth of 4160 meters or 13,640 feet deep! We are standing at about 11,000 feet but the mountains across the canyon are several thousand feet above us. For the next two hours, the magnificent Condors fly and our cameras are singing! Colorful vendors sell their wares to the crowd of spectators as this is one of Peru’s highlights for tourists. Elee buys a hat which gives us permission to photograph them. For any of you that would like to hear some Peruvian Pipe Music, here is a link to “El Condor Pasa”, a Peruvian tune supposedly written for this place, and with a little research, it turns out that Simon and Garfunkel did a version of this in 1970! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M_gSydN_BYM The Simon and Garfunkel version here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pey29CLID3I

Standing here at 11,000 feet, watching the largest flying birds on earth soar gracefully back and forth is a sight I wish all of you could witness! Even baby Condors learning to fly are here. The canyon is ablaze with Wild Lupin larger than any I’ve ever seen. Some blossoms are more than a foot tall! Our bus group gathers for a group photo before traveling on as the Condors have settled down after warming themselves.

We travel back down to a place called “Chivay” and stop for some refreshment, to use the restrooms and a lunch stop.

The bus travels on for several hours, climbing through the Peruvian Highlands and a brief stop at “Mirador de Los Andes”, back at 16,000 feet and this time we don’t over exert ourselves. Supposedly, several volcanos can be seen from here but we only get a glimpse of part of one, “Volcan Hualca Hualca” (pronounced ‘walka, walka) because a rain storm has taken over the area. Back on the bus and another hour or so and we descend down to 13,000 feet and arrive in “Puno” on the shores of Lake Titicaca (yes, a real place!), the highest ‘navigable’ lake on earth! It is dark now, so photos will be few until morning.

My stomach is feeling a bit queasy, probably from something I ate and I recognize the signs early as possible food poisoning. So Elee orders normal food for dinner but I order dry toast and 2 bananas. The waitress brings me a banana milkshake and I cringe for the absolute last thing I want is a non pasteurized milk product. We finally get her to understand that all I want is the bananas and she brings them.

We have an early day scheduled for tomorrow and my stomach is on edge so we turn in for some sleep. See you all tomorrow!

Monday, April 2, 2012

Today we awaken to a beautiful morning. We enjoy breakfast on the top floor of our hotel like most hotels in Peru. We don’t forget to drink the Coca Tea! Arequipa is only at 7660 feet above sea level but we are told we will go much higher today! Then we board the same small bus we were on yesterday to travel on our way to Colca. The same set of volcanos appear throughout the morning! The volcano in the first photo is “Volcan Misti”!

Some interesting buildings appear along the way along with the local Police as they survey traffic. In the distance we see what we are told is a concrete factory.

The scenery is ever changing as our bus climbs into the Andes Mountains! A small farming village appears and we wonder at how they live here close to 10,000 feet! A roadside memorial marks the place where loved ones perished.

The bus stops at a roadside stand where vendors display their wares. I end up buying an Alpaca Sweater from a lady who knitted it herself and it turns out to be the warmest sweater I have ever owned! It turns out there are four related animals that each have different fur from which clothing is made here. Llamas, Alpacas, Vicunas and Guanacos all reside here. Guanacos are the most difficult to recognize and we’re not sure if we ever see them. Vicuna have the finest hair and a well made Vicuna Sweater can fetch upwards to $2000 US Dollars!

We are told we are now up around 12,000 feet above sea level and we can tell as we have to take deeper breaths. The scenery is still stunning and the bus stops where a woman is tending a herd of Alpacas and our cameras are entertained once again! There are also Llamas here and possibly some Guanaco.

We travel on and soon our bus stops again and our guide tells us we are at the highest point that we will get to. We are invited to go outside and make an “Apachita” for luck! An Apachita is a stack of rocks on top of each other. While looking around we see a boulder on the roadside that has numbers painted on it. 4910 Meters above sea level it indicates. I do the math and that is 15,997 feet. So I see a small knoll on the other side of the road and suggest to Elee that we build our Apachitas above 16,000 feet. We climb laboriously up the small knoll (a feat that would be simple at sea level) and we each build our own Apachita. We hear a couple of shouts and look over and our guide is summoning everyone back to the bus so we quickly head down to the bus, a big mistake because the air is so thin. I feel like I may pass out as we get to the bus and I turn and look at Elee and the color has totally drained from her face and she literally looks blue. We get seated on the bus and she is coached to breathe deep and slow. The guide get’s out a tank of oxygen that is standard on tourist vehicles here and offers it to her. She declines and slowly recovers. I now know what the expression, “Blue in the Face” looks like and for a short while I am worried for her. But she recovers and the bus travels on.

The bus travels on and we begin to descend in altitude much to our delight. We stop at an overlook where colorful vendors are displaying their goods and we look over Colca Valley. The overlook is at about 13,000 feet and breathing is much easier here. We make a small purchase of some trinket and the vendor smiles sweetly and poses for my camera.

Our bus then descends into the valley below and takes us into Colca and it’s time for lunch. We go to Urinsaya Restaurant where we get our first taste of Guinea Pig, a popular dish in Peru. It is quite tasty yet it is very bony and you have to just nibble at it to avoid the bones. Outside the restaurant, a young boy sits dressed in Peruvian garb with his pet Alpaca and poses for tourist photos for tips. We also see an wall of stone that was intrinsically assembled so precisely as to have no gaps between the stones!

Driving on, we are taken to the town of Yanque (pronounced “Yankee) where we will spend the night. The bus drops Elee and I at the “Killawasi Lodge” where we check in and say goodbye to our new bus friends. It is a very clean and neat place with an open air restaurant that has windows for stormy weather. Our room is plain yet very comfortable.

The lady who checks us in to the Lodge is very personable and offers to take us on a tour of the town and we take her up on it. We walk about and see how people live in this part of the world and it is eye opening to say the least. Many houses have actual grass roofs and are very impoverished. In the center of town, there is a church and other important buildings. Our guide points out a side road and tells us it is very scenic. We bid her goodbye and thank her for the tour and head out along the road she indicated. Sure enough, it is a pretty walk. We pass by a building that looks like it will collapse any minute with bulging windows that appear to be ready to burst and we see a sign on it indicating it is a local restaurant. We don’t choose to dine there!

Walking further on, we come across a river with wildflowers along it and my camera smiles. Then some people approach us and it is a family with workers returning from the fields, their mules laden with the days bounty. It is such a sight and I point my camera and take a photo of the older lady dressed in native Peruvian garb and she scowls at me. We have been warned this whole trip that if you take a photo of a person, you must offer them a “Tip”. So I reach in my pocket and pull out a coin and hand it to the lady. She is not satisfied and approaches me with her hand out, saying, “Uno Mas, Uno Mas!” (One More, One More!). She looks upset but I see her as charming. So I pull out another coin and hand it to her and she is pleased. Laughing as I walk away, knowing I have a very fun shot of her!

“Uno Mas, Uno Mas!”

We head back and eat dinner at the restaurant at Killawasi Lodge and retire for the night, knowing we are getting up very early tomorrow!

Sunday, April 1, 2012

Waking up in an old mansion has its perks. The restaurant is on the top floor as we are getting used to in this strange country. The benefits are the views from the restaurants. Simply amazing! We even can see an active volcano (Volcan Misti) from our table! We are at altitude and we are shown something called, “Coca Leaves”, which are a narcotic and probably a controlled substance in our home country. But Altitude Sickness is a real thing and we need to adjust to it. Arequipa is at 7660 feet which is not much more than our local Big Bear in SoCal. But breathing has become a bit labored. So it is suggested that we chew Coca Leaves. This is rather disgusting. But it is also suggested that we drink, “Coca Tea”, which is much more pleasing. So I start a regimen of two cups of Coca Tea each morning from here on. It seems to work nicely!

We are picked up by a taxi driver who sends word to the hotel and the restaurant gets the message and we go down and meet the driver/guide for the day! She takes us to some scenic overlooks and a small market where we abstain from spending money. But we pose with a fun statue and have fun. Our cameras are entertained also!

She takes us to a city center, the name of which eludes me after 9 years. But there is a church to check out and a plaza to photograph. And here I find a subject that those of you who know me, know I always look for. A pair of Lovers. I find them here and they happily pose for me! We see another ice cream vendor that looks so intriguing but we refrain due to the nature of unpasteurized milk here. We find Easter Flower Vendors preparing for the upcoming holiday and another “Inri”, or a “Crucifix” designed for workers that denote the tools they use for different locations. You have already seen several “Inri’s” on previous posts and will see more as we move forward!

So I get only a few shots inside the church before I’m chastised and told to put the camera away. I was apparently too obvious and a church worker follows me for the rest of the tour. LOL. So we finish up and I get more shots outside of another ice cream vendor and other sights outside!

Now our guide takes us to a local monastery that is still an active monastery and has nuns and priests living there. The place is quite the camera eye candy and my cameras are having a ball! Our private guide takes us through and shows us the place, complete with old kitchens and laundry area which is quite intriguing to see! A system of cut bowls that go downhill and the laundry goes from one vessel to another to get clean!

Next we go to a local restaurant for a fun local meal of Alpaca, Vicuna and Beef! We find out that Alpaca is healthier than Beef AND is delicious! “Alpandina Gastronomia” Restaurant is quite the interesting place as it overlooks the local square!

Later in the evening, I am tempted and do some more night photos, which I love to do!

Good night and see you tomorrow!

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Where has the morning gone? Oh yeah, the Nazca Lines, those wondrous artifacts that make you wonder! But that morning flight is over, time to move on! So our ride takes us to the Ica bus station. We board a luxury double decker bus and luck out by being early enough to board first! So we scamper up top and grab the front seat on the top deck! Our tour guide introduces himself and all is good.

My cameras get a workout (which they love!) and capture the local sights along the way inclusive of a roadside memorial for someone who passed away! New buildings of homes is simple here where it never rains and the building appears to be made of bamboo but I don’t know where that comes from!

An interesting addition to this bus is it has a kitchen on the bottom level in the back and they actually prepare hot meals and deliver them to your seat! We pass through the villages of Chavina, Puente Angosto and Concar, where we see trucks transporting strange loads that seem to include animal hides. What’s up with that? We never get an explanation. But the sun sets on us as we climb up into the mountains.

We have lost daylight and our cameras are totally bummed out, but the story goes on. we zig zag up this steep mountain road that has one lane in each direction. Our driver below us is a brave and bold soul that will let nothing slow him down. He must be able to see the road better than us (even though we are in the top of the bus and I swear can see everything available) and he starts passing slow commercial trucks even on the hairpin turns! We cringe and wonder if we should have chosen this view! But the ride goes on for hours up these steep mountain roads and we survive it!

Finally we arrive in Arequipa, Peru and the bus pulls up to our latest hotel and Elee and I are the only ones to debark. We are standing in front of an old mansion that has been turned into a hotel. We have to press a button and get admitted and we are shown to our room along with our luggage. We are treated like royalty and we are amazed! The room is spacious and it is another luxury space. The bathroom and toilet have the same restrictions as all of Peru though and we get accustomed to Peru!

Good Night everybody and we’ll see you in the morning! Wait, it is already morning!