Machu Picchu

I am not a morning person, but I did my best faking it today!  :)  Our alarm went off at 4:45am, and I dragged Gavin out of bed so we could go catch an early bus to see the sunrise at Machu Picchu.  Gringo Bills is evidently used to people getting up for the early bus, as they start their breakfast at 5am.  We started nibbling at the continental breakfast sitting on the counter, but then someone brought us fresh fruit and juice and offered to make us scrambled eggs!  At FIVE AM!  Best hotel breakfast ever, or at least it felt like it this morning.  :)

When we got to the bus station, we saw we were not the only ones who had the idea to get on the early bus...  The line was about TWO BLOCKS long!  Luckily, the bus service had a plan for this, as there were several buses leaving at the same time; we got on one pretty quickly.

After about a 20 minute bus ride on the narrow, zig zagging road up to Machu Picchu, we arrived!  Tons of guides competed for our business.  I had actually intended to hire a private guide, but we unfortunately didn't have enough sols, and we definitely didn't want to get herded around with a group.  So, armed with Lonely Planet, we explored on our own.  We decided to start with Cerro Machu Picchu, a climb of Machu Picchu mountain to overlook the ruins, but we had bought the wrong kind of ticket, and they wouldn't allow us to go up!  I was really disappointed, as I had been looking forward to that climb.  Instead, we walked to the Sun Gate, which is the entrance to Machu Picchu from the Inca Trail; we got to see several people arriving after having just completed the 5-day Inca Trail trek.

Gavin and I at Machu Picchu!

 I can see why it is called the Sun Gate; as we admired the lovely view of the Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate, a ray of the sun that had just risen over the mountaintops shown down on Machu Picchu!  The ruins, surrounded on all sides by mountains, was an incredible sight! That view alone made the early rising worth it.  :)  After that, we headed back down to the ruins to try to find more picture opportunities.  We found some llamas munching the grass on the Inca terraces, so we got pictures of them; I swear they were posing for us.  :)  We also headed toward the Inca Bridge to get a view of the back of Machu Picchu, then we joined the herds of tourists and tour groups that were now arriving in walking through the ruins.  Lonely Planet and what we could sneak hearing from other tour guides told us most of what we wanted to know.

The view of Machu Picchu from the Sun Gate.

A llama poses for us.  :)

Obligatory yoga-in-a-beautiful-place photo.  This is the back side of Machu Picchu.  Notice how my Peruvian Hammer Pants (t.m.) allow for full freedom of movement.  :)

A closer view of the front of Machu Picchu.

Gavin and I at Machu Picchu.  :)

 The most well-preserved buildings were the temples, which were also the most well built; blocks fit together completely tight without mortar, though not on the grand scale of Sacsayhuaman.  Other buildings, like the residential area, were not as well put together, and there was brand new modern mortar holding them together.

Mortarless Inca brick work.

 After wandering around a bit more, we decided to head back to Aguas Calientes.  It was still rather early, around 11am, so we had plenty of time to do some other activity until we had to catch our train at 5pm.  We wanted to go to Santa Teresa to try out the really nice hot springs in the area, but the only way to get there is by train, and there is only ONE train from Aguas Calientes to Santa Teresa, and the return trip wouldn't get us back in time to catch our train back to Cusco.  So we had lunch in another uninspiring tourist restaurant while we decided what to do.

Putucusi, TAKE TWO.  :)

Since I already described the many ways we could die on the Putucusi hike in my last post, I won't write about them again here.  We got up to the point we had stopped yesterday without event, and then continued our climb.  The climb from that point was all TALL stairs, most of them just below knee height and very narrow, only about 1.5 feet across.  And most of these stairs, if you happen to miss a step, you could possibly have a long tumble to the bottom of the mountain...  There was no forest or tress up this high, mostly just grass and other soft plants that will not support weight if one happens to fall.  :)  The lack of trees also meant this part of the climb was BEASTLY hot in the afternoon sun.  This part was pretty mentally challenging as well; we kept thinking we were almost to the top, but then we would get over a rise and see there was more to go...

But WE MADE IT!  And what an incredible view!  We could see the front side of Machu Picchu, plus the snow-capped mountains behind it!  I yelled and whooped and made Gavin take a picture of me by the rainbow flag at the top.  :)  We rested and enjoyed the view for about fifteen minutes, then headed back down.

The view of Machu Picchu, the Andes Mountains and the zig zag road to get up to Machu Picchu, as viewed from the top of the Putucusi trail.

Triumphant finish.  :)  The rainbow flag when flown in Peru is a symbol of the Inca empire.

We look a touch exhausted, no?  :)

Back in Aguas Calientes, we stopped by Gringo Bills to pick up our luggage, and the front desk worker kindly let us take a shower in the shared showers.  We still had a bit of time before catching the train, so we sat at a cafe near the train station and had some more fresh juice (mine was banana pineapple - YUM!).  Then we hopped onto our Vistadome train back to Cuzco.

The train ride back was dark, so no lovely scenery to admire, but the crew had a bit of entertainment for us.  Suddenly a guy dressed up in a colorful bird costume came out and started dancing around the cabin. Afterwards the "crew" put on a looong fashion show, strutting down the aisle like models.  But of course, they were modeling expensive stuff that they wanted everyone to buy later; the stuff they were wearing even still had the tags on it!  :)

Our taxi driver was waiting for us when we arrived at the Poroy station, so we hopped in the taxi and began the 20 minute drive back to Cuzco.  We got ALL the way back to Renacimiento, then Gavin realized he had left is iPad on the train!  We stopped at Renacimiento to use the internet to look up the phone number for the train station, then drove all the way back to the Poroy station!  While I had been checking the internet, Gavin had been looking around the taxi and in his bag with a flashlight, and he realized he had lost his WEDDING RING too!!  (I was more upset about the wedding ring than the iPad!)  So as Gavin tried to call the train station, I looked around in his bag with a flashlight to try to find his ring.  Luckily, I found it within a couple minutes!  We got back to the train station and saw it was closed, but there were still a few workers waiting for their shared van to Cuzco, and a couple guys working at a stall outside the station. One of the people waiting happened to be the guy who had danced around in the bird costume in our train car, and he came right up to us and told us he had found the iPad and filed a report - all we had to do was show our tickets and passports and take him as a witness to the two guys at the outdoor stall, and we got Gavin's iPad back!  What a big sigh of relief!!!

By this time it was around 10:30 at night, and we were both desperately tired and hungry, so we wandered over to the Plaza de Armas to find some food.  We found a place called La Meson on the second floor above the plaza; it was one of the few restaurants still open this late, so we had dinner there.  I ordered Lomo Saltado, a tasty Peruvian dish of pieces of steak spiced and cooked with onions and tomatoes. I was feeling protein starved, so any meat would have probably tasted amazing.  :) Gavin had a nice filet mignon.  Feeling replenished in food but still desperately tired, we dragged ourselves back to Renacimiento and crashed into bed.

What a whirlwind trip of Peru!  Tomorrow take our 30+ hour transit back to the US.

"I'd rather have you mad than dead!"

This morning we caught a taxi to Poroy, where we would catch our train to Machu Picchu.  We took a Vistadome train, which has nice, large windows plus extra windows in the ceiling.

Riding the Vistadome.

The Vistadome crept along at about jogging pace for around three and a half hours, but what a BEAUTIFUL ride!  The train tracks meander along a river at the bottom of the snow-capped, clound ringed Andes mountains.  Despite the snow on the top, down in the valley it seems to be pretty warm.

Vistadome runs through the snow-capped Andes Mountains.

Following the river.

Another beautiful view from the Vistadome.

Suddenly, during the trip, the train stopped and then started to move backwards.  One cheeky member of the crew told us all that because of the rain, the train track was closed and we all have to go back to Poroy.  He fooled several of us gullible tourists.  :)  Here's what was really happening:

The train had a really interesting method of getting down several meters in the space of very few meters across: the "zig zag" method.  The train went forward on the tracks until it passed a "Y" in the tracks, then went backwards down the Y to another Y, then went forward again and continued on the track that was much deeper in the valley.  The zig zag method was first used by the Incas to get up and down the mountains, though obviously not for trains.  :)

When we arrived in Aguas Calientes, the first thing one has to walk through is a huge souvenir market; they make you walk through it as soon as you get off the train, just like Disney World... :)  We wound our way through the maze of shops selling more of the same goods we have seen everywhere in Peru, walked through the tiny town to the main plaza and arrived at Gringo Bills, our hotel for our one night in Aguas Calientes.  It is a cute little maze of a place, rooms seem stacked haphazardly all over the place around the central area with a tiny pool (now empty, evidently not heated) and lots of lovely plants.  We dropped our stuff off in our room, the headed out to the main plaza to grab some lunch.

Awww, cute little towel swans awaited us at Gringo Bill's.

There are a bazillion bars and restaurants in Aguas Calientes, and every one has someone standing outside trying to drive tourists into their restaurant; it gets a little exhausting.  And all of them have menus catering to tourists - lots of pizza, Mexican food, Italian, etc.  To get a more interesting menu, we tried to go to the Lonely Planet recommended "Tree House," but they were closed for construction until evening.  We went back to the main plaza and picked a place on the 2nd floor above the plaza to have pizza.  The pizza was unimpressive, but the fresh pineapple/apple juice was delicious.

After lunch we ran a few errands; we bought bus tickets for the bus to Machu Picchu tomorrow and I also bought a pair of what I dubbed Peruvian Hammer Pants; they are REALLY baggy colorful cotton pants that tie at the ankles.  I bought them specifically for climbing around in Machu Picchu, since all I had in my suitcase were tight jeans.  J  Then we decided, on Gavin's suggestion, to do the Putucusi hike mentioned in Lonely Planet for a preview of Machu Picchu.  The hike starts only about 200 meters out of town and is said to take about three hours total.  Lonely Planet mentioned it is a bunch of stairs and a few ladders.  I changed into my Peruvian Hammer Pants and we headed out.

Putucusi - yeah, we decided to climb that.

We started climbing the stairs, and seemed to ascend pretty quickly.  We got to the first "ladder;" and it appeared to be in a bit of disrepair; a couple rungs were missing, a small tree had fallen across it, and the handrail hung uselessly.

One of the many busted ladders we had to climb on Putucusi.

That ladder was the BEST of the things we had to climb.

After ascending that particular ladder and climbing a few more stairs, we saw our next obstacle: an almost straight up rock face with ski lift-like cable to drag yourself up by.  The ladder at the bottom was completely thrown to the side and useless, and there was no ladder until almost all the way up!  It was about 80 feet we had to climb using only the cable and the rock face!  We got up with surprisingly little difficulty, though I was quite nervous about how I would get DOWN later...

Looks fun, doesn't it?  :)

 

I realize this looks like a video of my behind, but that's because Gavin was filming... :)  This was the "most fun" part of Putucusi.

We continued the hike, having to climb even more ladders, some with multiple rungs missing (yoga flexibility came in handy here!), some with so much mud caked around them you couldn't hold on with your hands, some with bare nails sticking out, some where you had to use those bare nails for HAND HOLDS since there was nothing else to grab!

Putucusi is not for the faint of heart.  :)

After 5 or 6 ladders, it was back to ascending stairs again.  It was getting to be a little past 3:00pm, and Gavin got nervous that we would have to climb down all those crazy ladders in the dark if we continued.  He started suggesting that we go back down, but we agreed to keep going until 3:30.  About that time we ran into somebody that told us it was another half hour climb to the top, but then Gavin insisted that we go back down.  ("I'd rather have you mad at me than dead!"  :)  )  So dejectedly, I agreed to go back down.

Getting down those ladders is quite a bit trickier than getting up them; we had to test EVERY rung with our feet before putting weight on it, had to keep an eye on when there was one or some rungs missing, etc.  The rock face definitely wasn't fun on the way down.  I made sure to look only where I put my feet, not ANY farther down than that...  :)

We made it back to town in one piece, and Gavin was jealous of the freedom of movement I had in my Peruvian Hammer Pants, so he bought some for himself, and I bought another pair since mine were completely soiled from Putucusi.  (not soiled meaning I wet my pants due to fear, soiled meaning I got them dirty crawling around on all the rocks and muddy ladders!  :)  )  After that, we decided to go to the aguas calientes (hot springs) for which the town Aguas Calientes is named.  Since I had stupidly left my swimsuit in the left luggage in Lima, I had to buy a cheap one in a shop outside the hot springs.  (Gavin suggested I RENT one for 3 soles - GROSS!!!)  Then we walked up to the springs.

The aguas calientes of Aguas Calientes.

When I saw the hot springs, I vowed not to get in the water.  The  springs were five or six pools, only a couple of which were full of water, and one was full of people...  and BROWN water!  Gavin tried to convince me it was the minerals in the spring water, but to me it looked like the very definition of "stewing in your own filth..."

The hot springs at night: People-Scum Soup.

I did finally get in, I just tried really hard not to look at the water...  It was really nice and warm, the perfect temperature.  And you could order drinks poolside; we waved to a guy two stories up and he came to take our order, then brought our drinks to the pool.  I had a surprisingly delicious mojito.  We ended up talking to a girl who was in the Peace Corps in Peru, originally from Chicago, currently using her built up Peace Corps vacation days to see Machu Picchu with her parents.

After a bit, we noticed the pool was getting even MORE crowded and the water even MORE brown, so we decided it was time to go.  We went back through town, where I bought a cheap woven backpack - I had climbed Putucusi with a PURSE, of all things, and that definitely got in the way while trying to find hand and foot holds.  I thought we would also be doing some climbing at Machu Picchu and I would want my stuff out of my way.

Aguas Calientes at night.

For dinner we went back to the Tree House; its all wood interior really does make it feel like a tree house.  Gavin had a really good steak, and I had passable tabouli salad made with quinoa instead of bulgar wheat.  I also tried a pisco sour again - another nasty one.  In my meager experience, it seems that Peru's national drink is either really good or really bad.  :)

After dinner, we headed back to Gringo Bills for an early night; we decided to get up to catch a 5:30am bus to Machu Picchu tomorrow...

Walking ATMs

Today we caught an early flight from the Juliaca airport to Cuzco.  Our taxi driver picked us up early to drive us the hour to the airport.

Sunrise over Puno and Lake Titicaca on our way to the airport.

Alipio has been our taxi driver throughout our time in the Puno area.  He picked us up at the airport on the first day, and his wife and 1 year old were in the front seat.  He told us he is Quechua and grew up on Isla Amantani, where his mother still lives.  She runs her house as a home stay, where tourists can come and live for one night like the locals, similar to what we did on Isla Quantati.  Alipio came to Puno to find work, and that is where he met his wife.  He gets to go back to Isla Amantani once a month to visit his family.  He also told us that growing up, people in the Lake Titicaca area speak only Quechua, but as soon as they go to school, the teachers teach in only Spanish, so that is how everyone ends up bilingual.  It is a good thing that Gavin and I have a decent knowledge of Spanish, as most people around here do not speak English at all.  Alipio also told us that he doesn't drive his taxi at night because people get into taxis, kill the drivers and go sell their cars in Bolivia, where no legal papers are necessary to sell cars.  This happened to a friend of his recently.

After we went through security at the airport, we noticed a few guys in traditional dress coming through the security line putting various musical instruments through the x-ray scanner.  As we sat waiting for our flight, the instrumentalist set up a little band and played traditional Peruvian music for us!  How fun!

Once we arrived in Cuzco, our taxi driver took us to our apartment called Renacimiento.  It is in a completely unmarked building about 5 blocks from the center of Cuzco, Plaza de Armas.  The place is BEAUTIFUL!  The apartments all open out into an outdoor courtyard; it used to be a colonial mansion.  Our apartment is full of natural light from skylights in every room, and has a lot of charmingly shabby furniture and decor.  The disadvantage?  NO HEAT...  Once again we will be covered in several alpaca wool blankets when we sleep...   :)

Our beautiful, sunny apartment in Cuzco.

After settling in at Renacimiento, we headed toward Plaza de Armas.  On the way, we stopped at Plaza Recocijo, since there were a few nice looking cafes with outdoor seating.  After very little breakfast, we decided to split a sandwich as a snack at a place overlooking the little Plaza.  No sooner had we sat down, than people kept wandering by asking us to buy stuff: carved gourds, paintings, jewelry, woven dolls, shoe shines and more.  Once our sandwich came, we could barely take a bite without having to say "No, gracias" repeatedly to particularly persistent sales people.  We found this to be common throughout the day; every time we paused a bit to look at a map, every time we stopped to rest at a park bench somebody wanted to sell us something.  Gavin quipped that we must look like "walking ATMs."  :)

After our snack, we decided to follow Lonely Planet's walking tour of Cusco, which started at Plaza de Armas and ended at Sacsayhuaman (otherwise nicknamed "Sexy Woman"), the best ruins of Cusco.  This tour took us past ole colonial buildings like huge cathedrals, mansions, etc, but architecture is not my favorite part of the walking tours; just experiencing the culture of the area is.  (okay, okay, I'll admit to liking shopping, too...  :)  )

Plaza de Armas in Cuzco.

As we walked, one of my favorite parts of the walk was when a school bus (well, large van) full of little boys drove by us, and one little 5 year old yelled "Chica bonita!!" (Pretty girl!) at me as they passed.  Bless you, kid.  Nobody has called me pretty or a "girl" for a long time. (excluding my loving husband, of course.  :)  )  I'm at the stage where "ma'am" is becoming the norm and fewer and fewer people check my ID at bars anymore.  :)

Our walk took us by the Mercado Artesanal, a sleepy little market of people selling supposedly handmade goods (though there were some Columbia backpacks...  :)  ) to tourists.  Or course, Gavin and I can never walk by a market...  We ended up with a nice ceramic painted vase, one of the carved gourds like people had been harassing us to buy in the Plaze (but much better and more detailed!) and another hand knit alpaca scarf.  Gavin also insisted on buying bookends that were stone carvings of Pachamama and Pachapapa - Pachamama a busty carving holding onto her own breasts, and Pachapapa rather "excited," if you catch my drift....  Nice, Gavin.  :)  While we were negotiating prices, it started POURING rain outside!  Luckily, the market was covered and we stayed dry.  The keeper of the stall told us the rain comes and goes very fast, and sure enough it stopped in about 5 minutes.

We continued our walk, which took us back to Plaza Recocijo just in time... Right as we reached the covered area where we had eaten lunch, it started to HAIL - heavy, pea-sized hail!  One whapped me while I was trying to take a video, and it definitely stung!  :)  The hail also only lasted about 5 minutes.

We continued on to the Mercado Central, a HUGE covered market of stalls selling everything from produce, to seafood, to traditional Peruvian garb, to kitchen supplies and more!  I bought a cheap reusable grocery bag to carry our souvenirs as a carry on on the way back to the US.  We also stopped at one of the many juice stalls to have some fresh juice; Gavin and I shared one of pineapple, apple and watermelon - YUM!!!  As we wandered through the produce section, the smell of garlic permeated the air; keepers of the stalls were peeling raw garlic to sell!

The bustling and colorful Mercado Central.

The many juice stands of Mercado Central.

At the opposite end of the market were the food stalls, where dozens of locals hunched over lunch counters eating fish, chicken, beef...  I can never resist food stalls; in any country we visit, they tend to be my favorite meals.  :)  I sat at a counter and ordered a mixed ceviche.  (yes, I ate raw fish in Peru, one of the no-nos in Lonely Planet, but I tend to be a bit liberal with my food choices.  :D  )  It was the best ceviche ever!  Soft, fresh fish, the perfect hint of lime juice and just a touch of spiciness.  I was definitely the only tourist seated at ANY of the food stalls, though many walked by.  They're missing out!  :)

After Mercado Central, we continued on the walking tour.  We happened upon a bank where we could pay for our Machu Picchu tickets.  Lonely Planet had recommended we buy the tickets online before arriving at Machu Picchu to avoid crazy long lines.  "Buying online" we a bit of a misnomer.  Yesterday we had tried to make reservations online, and the website informed us that we have go to a bank to pay for the tickets.  We wandered into this particular bank (Banco de la Nacion) in Cuzco and walked up to the teller to pay for the tickets.  The teller informed us that the confirmation code had expired - after reserving the tickets online, they have to be paid for in six hours!

So now we had to detour back to Renacimiento to use the internet and reserve tickets AGAIN, then head back to the same bank to pay for them.  Once we arrived, they told us we couldn't pay for the tickets with a credit card; luckily we had enough cash with us...  After that, we had to find an internet cafe to PRINT the tickets!  What a pain!  I hope it is worth it!

We headed back to Plaza de Armas to continue the walking tour.  It was time to start the climb up to Sacsayhuaman. We climbed up the lovely Spanish-style cobblestone streets through Cuzco, ambled across a higher point in Cusco on the street Tanda Pata, then started climbing stairs.  :)  We huffed and puffed our way up in the high altitude, and when we got to the top, we were rewarded with our first few of the incredible Inca mortarless mason work; huge stones put together so tightly that one can't even slide a credit card between them!  We continued to climb to get in to see rest of the ruins, and the guard at the top informed us that we have to buy tickets for about $50 apiece, even though the site was closing in a half hour!  We decided it wasn't worth it, and instead climbed the hill opposite the ruins to get a view of Cusco and see some of Sacsayhuaman from afar.  At the top of this particular hill was a Christ Redeemer statue similar to the one in Rio de Janiero, but not even close to as grand a scale.  But this hill provided an incredible view of all of Cusco and the mountains surrounding it as the sun started to set...  An instrumentalist in traditional costume sat playing a ukelele-like instrument and singing happily.

Inca mortarless mason work; each stone weighs around 100-200 tons!

Cuzco in the evening.

The view of Cuzco from this high is definitely something to sing about!  :)

Once the sun set over the mountains, we were able to get a few pictures of Sacsayhuaman from the side.  Then we tried to descend quickly, as we didn't want to be left without light in a somewhat deserted area of Cuzco.  On the way down, we happened to wander in to a little area selling paintings; the woman inside informed us they were all from Cuzco's art school.  We immediately fell in love with some paintings of Ollantaytambo, beautiful red colors accented with thickly textures white mountains...  The woman informed us that she was the one who had painted them.  (we are never sure when people tell us this if it is true or not, I think people know that tourists LOVE to buy stuff from "the original artist" and sometimes BS about being the artist, but I think she was telling the truth in this case.  :)  )  We ended up with a pretty large two-panel painting, which the woman informed us she had mixed bits of wood into the paint to get the thick textures that attracted us to this particular painting.

Sacsayhuaman after sunset.

After the climb, we were really hungry, so we tried to stop by Lonely Planet's highest recommended restaurant Ciccolina.  The restaurant was packed and had an hour wait, so they recommended we go to their newest restaurant owned by the same people called Baco; it was only a few blocks away and we got seated right away.

I was super excited to see really nice salads on the menu (another no no - raw veggies washed in Peruvian water... but I was feeling so veggie-deprived I didn't care!).  We ordered caramelized pork ribs for an appetizer, and I tried another pisco sour; this one was MUCH better than the one in Puno!  My salad had BBQ calamari and shrimp in an AMAZING ginger dressing.  Gavin had some delicious steak (I guess Argentina wasn't enough steak for him.  :)  ).  For dessert, we tried some bread pudding, which also would have been really good, except for too many raisins.  :)  As we sat, I suddenly lost all my momentum and energy, so we walked back to Renacimiento to huddle under alpaca blankets and sleep.  :)

Pisco Sour in Puno

I was kept awake a lot of the night by a massive headache, but at least I didn't vomit!  :)  In the morning I felt incredibly weak, probably from not eating and drinking enough the past couple days.  We went downstairs for continental breakfast and I forced down some toast and orange juice, then we immediately went back to the room where Gavin read and I slept the whole morning.  :)

I woke up actually feeling hungry, so we left the hotel to get some lunch.  I picked a cute looking little place, and I ordered strawberry juice and tomato soup.  The strawberry juice was really good, the tomato soup, not so much...  Gavin had a sad excuse for a hamburger, too.  I guess that's what we get for stopping at a restaurant that was specifically labeled "tourist restaurant."  :)

After lunch we went shopping on the main pedestrian strip - I wanted to get an alpaca wool hat and scarf; they are sold in every other shop here in Puno, and they look REALLY warm!  We also bought another bottle of water, since we can't drink the tap water here.  After that, Gavin decided HE needed a nap, so we went back to the hotel and reversed roles - he napped while I read.  :)  This has definitely been a lazy couple of days for us; I blame the altitude.  :)

After nap time, we went out into the town again, this time getting off the tourist drag to head over to the Mercado Bellavista.  It is so interesting how the whole feel of a city can change once you get away from where the tourists go.  The streets and sidewalks were packed with natives, a few in traditional dress like Cristina had us wear, but most in normal clothing.  The roads were crowded with taxis, vans doubling as busses, bicycles with benches for carrying passengers, and little three wheeled taxis that looked like the love child of a three wheeler and a golf cart.  The bustle and type of vehicles reminded us a lot of India, surprisingly.

The Mercado Bellavista was not all that interesting, just a maze of stalls selling everything from underwear to tea pots; it was not a market for crafts or traditional goods.  But outside the market, street foods abound.  We stopped and bought some meat being fried on skewers that smelled SO good!  I made sure it was cow and not guinea pig, which is a popular dish around here.  :)  The meat was REALLY tasty, nicely spiced and salted, though Gavin said his portion was so full of gristle that he could barely swallow it.

We walked back to Casa Andina and I was dying to try some of the clay oven pizza, so we had dinner there again, my first regular meal in two days.  I ordered the "house" pizza, which was an interesting take on Hawaiian pizza: ham, pineapple and peaches!

After dinner, we wandered down the pedestrian street Jiron Lima in search of dessert.  :)  We ended up at Sweet Cafe again, and this time we split the Peruvian equivalent of an apple pie.  The apples were good, but the pie was also filled with a half quiche half cream filler that was pretty nasty.  I also finalyl decided to try Peru's national drink, the Pisco Sour.  Pisco Sour tasted like a REALLY strong margarita, but not as sweet.  Pisco liquor is a grape brandy originally distilled by the first Spaniards in the area.  A pisco sour is pisco, lime juice and sugar, topped with beaten egg white foam.  It definitely packed a punch - I only drank half of it to be a little careful of my stomach, and it also made me instantly sleepy, so we headed back to Casa Andina for our last night at 3,825 meters.  :)

Pisco sour and apple pie at Sweet Cafe.

The Worst Night of My Life

All night last night I was vomited every half hour, and top it off with a migraine-style headache. I couldn't even keep water down. Luckily Cristina had provided a ton of vomit bags so I didn't have to leave the cabana to go out in the cold to the outhouse to vomit, but I went through all the bags by halfway through the night and had to keep reusing the last one... Luckily by that point there was nothing left in my stomach.

Today we were supposed to head to another island to spend the night, but I felt so rotten that we went back to Puno and got a room in Casa Alpinas, which is actually a really nice hotel. I spent the entire day in bed, headachy and barfing. Lovely way to spend a vacation day. The hotel staff even brought me oxygen, which is supposed to help, but it only helped while I was actually using it, not once I took off the mask

Later in the evening I felt a touch better, and Gavin convinced me to have dinner with him in the wood-fired pizza restaurant in the hotel. I dragged my way down stairs and ordered a Sprite and chicken noodle soup, while Gavin had what looked like an AMAZING wood fired pizza, cooked in the wood oven 6 feet away from us. A trio of British ladies sitting at the table next to us noticed how awful I looked and suggested I go to a pharmacy and get some altitude sickness medicine that is prescription in the US but is over the counter here. So after dinner Gavin and I took a walk to a pharmacy a few blocks away and bought some. After buying the medicine and me swallowing a pill dry, we took a walk down the pedestrian-only shopping street in Puno. We stopped at a little cafe called Sweet Cafe, and as the medicine kicked in I was feeling good enough to order a bit of dessert - a fruit crepe that ended up being HUGE and too sweet, so I didn't finish it. Gavin had some pretty tasty tres leches cake, though. After that, we walked back to the hotel to go to sleep. Here's hoping tonight will be a better night than last night...

The edge of Isla Quantati (a.k.a. Vomit Central) and some cute boats made of tortora reeds.

The Floating Islands of Lake Titicaca

The name "Lake Titicaca" has had Gavin snickering for days... :)

Today we flew from Lima to Juliaca, where our driver picked us up and drove us about an hour to Puno, the ferry port town to Lake Titicaca. The altitude here is around 12,000 feet, the highest I have ever been, but I counted on my yoga training to make me okay, since I rarely get altitude sickness anymore. From Puno, we got picked up by a private little motorboat for our stay on Isla Quantati Uros.

Lake Titicaca

Our boat ride from Puno to Isla Uros.  This shallow part of the lake is full of tortora reeds.

Isla Uros are the man-made floating islands that are in the shallow part of Lake Titicaca. The depth is only about 1 meter, and these shallows are filled with tortora reeds from which these floating islands are constructed. Our host family on gave us a demonstration on how they are made; first they cut blocks of the roots of the tortora reeds about 2 feet deep and 4 feet square, then they lash several of them together using stakes in each block and rope wrapped around the stakes, then all this is covered in a deep layer of tortora reeds, and houses, etc are constructed on top! The islands have to be anchored into the bottom of the lake to keep them stationary, otherwise the wind would blow them around.

A view of Uros Quantati from its mirador.

Each of the many floating islands houses about 5-6 families, and our host family was headed by Cristina Suaña. Her island is Quantati Uros, and EVERYTHING on the island is constructed from the tortora reeds: the dining room where we all ate, the little cabanas where we slept, decorative archways, a row boat, a swing set and the mirador (lookout tower) where we could get a good look at other islands. Though the mirador was a nice view, its original purpose was visual communication between the islands before the days of cell phones. Cristina spoke only Spanish and the native language Aymara, and she told us that the tortora reeds used as walls and roofs of the cabanas has to be replaced every THREE MONTHS!!

Cristina (our host on Isla Quantati) and some of her family.

Uros Quantati - I have no idea what that thing in front is, but it is just one of the many things constructed from tortora reeds on the island... The back building with windows is the dining room.

Cristina had all kinds of activities planned for the tourists who stay with her. After feeding us a delicious lunch of trout and quinoa with vegetables, complete with traditional coca tea, she brought out traditional outfits for us to wear and took a bunch of pictures of us with the cabanas. I think she had as much fun with it as we did. :) She also took a picture of us in the boat, and then her husband rowed us out into the tortora reeds to set a fishing net. This fishing net was 100 meters long! He tied one end to some tortora reeds, then kept stringing it out along the outskirts of some reeds. The net would be left overnight and picked up early in the morning. Her husband also demonstrated how to cut the tortora reeds for replenishing the island.

Gavin and I in traditional garb in front of our cabana.

Gavin and I in traditional garb, preparing to go fishing in a boat made of tortora reeds.

Cristina's husband shows us how to fish in Lake Titicaca.

After fishing, Cristina's husband gave us a demonstration on how the islands are constructed, completely with props. It was really interesting (my description above came from his "lecture."). Then Cristina brought out the "mercado de Cristina," where she sold goods that she had made herself. She had some amazing woven tapestries, definitely not our decorative style, but we bought one anyway to make her happy, since she was such a wonderful host! She told us it wook her two and a half months to weave it! Since we bought a larger one, she gave me a bracelet as a gift.

We had a bit of time before dinner was served, so we sat outside wrapped up in blankets - it was getting COLD! Despite my down coat and wool scarf, I still wrapped myself up until only my eyes were showing. :) I had started to feel a little headachy during the fishing trip, and while we were sitting I suddenly had to go vomit - I guess altitude sickness had caught up with me... Then we were served dinner, delicious chicken, potatoes and vegetables. As soon as the plate was set in front of me, I had to run around Cristina to go vomit again! Despite this, I ate the meal I was served since I was hungry. I figured after eating and drinking I would feel better.

Freezing my a$$ off on Uros Quantati. :)

After dinner, Cristina, her daughter and 2 year old granddaughter sang traditional songs for us, and then asked us to sing songs in our own language. After vomiting, it was pretty much impossible for me to sing and Gavin has very little sense of pitch, but we did our best tuneless rendition of My Country Tis of Thee. :) The French couple also staying with Cristina sang Frerre Jaques after my encouragement. :) Cristina and her cohorts also sang some songs in both French and English that tourists had taught them (Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, Allouhuette, and even La Bamba!) and encouraged us to sing along. Unfortunately, I had to interrupt the singing to let some of Cristina's chicken back out the wrong way...

After dinner, we sat outside and watched the stars - the most amazing starry sky I have ever seen! High altitute, clear night, no city lights... I have never seen so many stars! Since we were cold, we retired to our cabana rather early to bundle under the covers. The cabana was not heated at all; the only electricity was a single light. But Cristina had put wrapped hot water bottle under our covers, and the covers themselves were so thick and heavy it felt like lying under five layers of carpet. It was so cold that we opted to skip showering and go to sleep wearing all our clothes, including hats!

Cotton candy, leather whips, graffiti

Today was our last day in Buenos Aires. After packing all our stuff in preparation for our flight this evening, we met up with a couple of Gavin's friends to head over to the San Telmo market (another feria that we have never seen). Instead of being full of arts and crafts, this feria was full of stalls selling every kind of antique, from clothing, to jewelry to telephones to leather whips! I gnabbed some fresh cotton candy, as I can never walk by a cotton candy stand, and we wandered through the stalls of "junk." :) (we are not big on antiques) The square was full of people, and there were also live musicians playing tango music and tango dancers dancing for tips. We bought some empanadas (cold, unfortunately) from a teenage boy selling them from a box. On our way to a lunch placed picked from Lonely Planet, we stopped and bought another watercolor painting of Buenos Aires. We had lunch at a little cafe that actually served health food - I saw TOFU, of all things, listed on the menu! I happily ate my only vegetarian meal of the whole trip; a lentils-based veggie burger and salad.

I enjoy some fresh cotton candy in the Plaza de San Telmo.

A girl sells empanadas at the Feria de San Telmo.

The graffiti in Buenos Aires in general is really beautiful and interesting, but one of my favorites is in San Telmo.

Graffiti of San Telmo.

When we arrived back at our house, we had an hour and a few pesos to get rid of before leaving for the airport. We walked to one of the nearby ferias on Armenia, and since we didn't find anything interesting there, we continued one more block to spend the last of our pesos to eat Perssico helado one last time. :) We walked back to the house while eating the ice cream, and I happened to walk over one of the ubiquitous Buenos Aires dog poop piles that had almost the exact same size, texture and color as the dulce de leche ice cream in my cup. Almost made me lose my appetite for it, but not quite. :)

Tonight we say adios to Buenos Aires, and hola to Lima, Peru!

Fun at the Feria

Saturday is a day of ferias in Buenos Aires. Ferias are lovely open-air markets where hundreds of local artists sell all kinds of beautiful arts and crafts. Our favorite is the Feria Artesanal in Plaza Francia right outside the Recoleta Cemetary. At this feria, in addition to the crafts stands there are also rolling carts of empanadas, living statues, singers and parillas. The scents of barbeque, carmelized nuts, homemade incense, cigar smoke and leather compete for attention. A living statue dressed as a robot plays loud techno music and dances for a few pesos, while just across a small garden and older gentleman in a well-worn suit plays guitar and sings tango music while smoking a huge Cuban cigar.

The ferias are one of my favorite places to shop in the world. Not only can you get amazing and unique stuff here, but it is a very laid back shopping experience. All the artists patiently wait in their stands, perhaps working on a project to sell later, listening to music or even playing guitar. Not one of them harasses you to come look at their goods, they wait for you to come look and then offer helpful and no-pressure background on their art. There is also no haggling, which I also appreciate. This trip we ended up with a watercolor painting of Caminito, a hand knit sweater, a handmade pea coat for me, some hand made stampted leather clogs and a stamped leather purse.

We decided to have "street food" for lunch. I was craving empanadas, and Gavin was tantilized by the smell of chorizo on a little parilla. We decided to get three empanadas and a chorizo sandwich, but after I ordered the empanadas I discovered they were "not" exactly empanadas; they were huge! The size of hoagie buns! We sat on a park bench listening to the competing sounds of the techno dancing robot and the tango music singer, while trying to work our way around what we had intednded as a "light" lunch. Gavin couldn't finish his empanada/hoagie, and right about that moment a beggar wandered up to us. Gavin gave her the other half of his empanada and the rest of his Fanta.

Gavin enjoys his chorizo sandwich at the Feria Artesanal.

After a bit more wandering around the feria, we headed back to the house to prepare for dinner. We had decided to hire a chef recommended by the house caretaker to cook us a traditional Argentine meal on the outdoor parilla at the house. Gavin invited people he knew from the conference, and it ended up being a big party. Augustina, the chef, arrived at 6pm with two other cohorts to prepare our meal, and for the next couple hours the house was flooded with parilla smoke and the smells of delicious meat cooking over the coals of wood... They tided us over with a deli meat tray, delicious bread and cheese, and eventually little bites of freshly grilled chorizo. When the main meal finally ame out, it easily rivaled any restaurant we had eaten in Buenos Aires. It was a huge spread of two different kinds of steak, grilled chicken, plus something similar to scalloped potates but much tastier!

The parilla at our house, all fired up!

Our chefs prepare our deicious meal.

MEEAAAT! People couldn't keep their forks out of it long enough to let me take a picture. :)

Just when we thought it couldn't get better, dessert was served. I had chosed the dessert from a list provided by the chef; I ordered a traditional Argentine chocolate dessert. IT WAS SO YUMMY! The bottom layer was flourless chocolate cake, followed by a layer of dulce de leche and topped with homemade silky-soft merengue. Drizzles of intense citrus decorated the plate and were perfect for dipping.

It suddenly struck me that I write quite a lot about food. :)

After dinner, Gavin and I and a few others finished off the last of the eleven bottles of wine that we had bought for the party, then crashed into bed.

Gavin and Adam finish off the last of the wine.

From Ranch to Table

Today the weather was pretty nasty and rainy, so we stayed inside and hung out at the house most of the day. Becky and JD made lunch, and I ran over to the corner empanaderia to grab some empanadas, which were some of the best we have had this entire trip! I realized for the first time that each flavor of empanadas tends to have a certain kind of fold for the dough to designate its flavor, and these folds seem to be pretty consistant throughout different restaurants. Beef ones are folded a bit like a turnover, ham and cheese are rounded, etc. I can't believe it has taken me three years to notice this. :)

Tonight we went to another perennial favorite restaurant: Cabanas las Lilas. It has as lovely heated and covered outdoor terrace overlooking the canal, as well as probably the best steak in the city, perhaps in the world. :) The owner of the restaurant not only owns the restaurant itself, but also the ranch where the cows are raised. The restaurant seats 400 people, and I have never seen it not packed. Before steak, they serve these little cheesy roll/biscuit things, delicious foccacia-ish pretzels and little mini appetizers like marinated eggplant, roasted red peppers and cheese. It is tempting to fill up on such things, but one must keep in mind the feast to come... I ordered my favorite cut, medallon de lomo (tenderloin medallion), and it definitely did not disappoint. It was so tender that it only took two slices of a knife to cut through it; I could have practically cut through it with my fork. It was perfectly and delicately seasoned, little tiny crunches of sea salt in each bite. After steak were two huge platters of complimentary dessert - little bites of truffles, brownies, little bars...

Medallon de lomo.

Our happy table prepares to feast!

Gavin and I at Cabanas las Lilas.

The impressive parilla at Cabanas las Lilas.

After steak we headed back to Palermo to get some helado at Perssico, because as Gavin likes to say, "You're never too full for ice cream; it just fills in the leftover spaces between the food." :) Gavin had Crema Perssico, which is macadamia nuts and amaretto, and I had my usual dulce de leche; we're getting down to the wire as far as this stuff is concerned since we're leaving in a couple days. We may have to have helado every day for the last couple days of our trip...