Incan Express

     Tonight we are in Puno, on the Peruvian side of Lake Titicaca. A wild city, with streets filled with women in native dress selling their wares or attending weddings in outrageously fancy dresses plus bowler hats, three wheeled motor rickshaws, bicycle rickshaws and, of course, cars, buses, trucks, dogs, cats, pedestrians, and peddlers of all types. When we arrived, we drove through a parade of women doing traditional dances and men marching with their traditional instruments (literally through, the bus just cut across just before the women), down a street lined with furniture on the sidewalk -- couches and dining room sets and a parrot on one side, stacks of colorful mattresses on the other -- then through the Saturday mercado which went on for many long narrow blocks, and on to the lake where the bus station is located. The city is not nearly as beautiful as Cusco, with its tiled roofs and Incan paths. We plan only to overnight here before heading on to Bolivia tomorrow on the 7.30 bus.

     This morning we woke up early again (the latest I've slept in by a couple hours in the last two weeks was 7), and boarded the bus to Puno.  We made 5 stops on the way, the first one at the "Andean Sistine Chapel".  We spent about 45 minutes there, and it was incredibly inricate and beautiful.  Originally all the walls were painted with murals and some were still visible, but as the church got more funds they began to cover these up with paintings and gold leaf.  Like almost all of the Spanish churches, this was built on top of an old Incan shrine in the 17th centure.  Unfortunately, we weren't allowed to take any pictures and there is no website with multiple pictures that I could find.

     After another couple of hours in the bus we stopped in a town to look at the only surviving two-story Incan structure and some store-houses and houses for nobles.

     We stopped for a buffet lunch around 11.30, and were excited to see fresh lettuce.  Salads are one thing that I really miss here.  While we ate there was some traditional Andean music playing, and it is beautiful but I will shed no tears if I never hear another Andean pipe in my life.  

     At the highest point the bus stopped for pictures, but it was not particularly impressive so we stayed in the car.  Then, maybe 2 hours before we reached Puno, we stopped at a small town to visit a musem.  They had a few small rooms with pottery or weavings or mummies in them, as well as a few domesticated vicunas.  This is a gap in my narrative: allow me to take a brief interlude and explain the camelids of Peru.  First there is the llama, which is used for weaving but does not have particularly fine fur.   You can shave a llama once a year.  Llamas can carry no more than ten kilos.  They are distinguished from the alpacas because they do not have hair on their faces.  Alpacas can be shaved every year, but their fur grows coarser each time so the owner has to decide how often to do it.  They cannot carry much weight at all.  Then there are the vicunas some other animal, neither of which are domesticated.  The vicunas have very very fine fur, but it is quite expensive because they have to be caught before they are shaved, and they only grow fur on their stomachs and that can only be shaved once every three years.  I do not know anything about the fourth type of camelid.

     So anyways, we saw the vicunas.  They have really beautiful eyes, and enjoy eating carrots.

     We arrived in Puno a little after five, and took a taxi to our rather dismal hotel.  Almost immediately we walked back to the bus station to get our tickets to Copacabana for the morning, and took a motor-rickshaw to our hotel, then went out for dinner (pizza).

     It seems hard to believe that we've been in Peru for a month and a day, but we are saying goodbye to it tomorrow.  Tonight I am to tired to add another installment of our Lares trek, but will continue tomorrow.

   

      

Lares Trek Day 1

      So, last night, we returned to Cusco from the rainforest and, before that, hiking in the Andes and visiting Machu Picchu.  This means that I have a couple hundred pictures to post, and will probably take several posts to talk about everything.
      Starting on November 19:  we woke up around 4.15 in the morning and packed our bags to go on the Lares trek--20.5 miles long, but feels like longer because you hike up and down and up and down and up and down, and the altitude makes it hard to breathe.  The car had a little trouble finding where we were staying, but at aroung 5.15 we were on our way.  Then it was three hours in the car in the mountains to a small field near a village called where we started our hiking.  (I apologize for any typos that remain after my proofreading--I am speed-typing this while being dictated to).

Day 1--Cusco to Quishuarani to Cuncani

     The first part of the drive was on a paved road to Calca, where we stopped at a market with chicken feet and freshly killed animal parts on display, and went upstairs to a counter to breakfast.  There was coffee with milk, tall glasses of boiled milk with small pitchers of coffee concentrate on the side.  I suppose that if you like coffee this would be very delicious, but...
      After Calca the road was rough dirt and rocks, and steeply harepinned for a while.  It's a little crazy to see flowering cactus, bougainvillea, and flowers that look kind of like trumpets at this altitude, but we did; even saw a huge palm tree.  We briefly had pavement, and I saw in the distance, clinging to the side of the mountain, what looked like a walking path.  Pretty soon we were driving on it as it curled its way the high point--4480 meters.  There was snow there, and a bunch of alpacas, and we stopped to take a couple of pictures.  The road was wide enough for our car anyways, and we only passed one car going in the opposite direction: some piece of equipment probably headed out to clear the rockslides.  Many many rockslides and forded rivers later, one where the waterfall hit the road only a few inches from where we crossed, the smooth dirt road changed to a rocky one.  We reached our destination soon afterwards.   It was a small field, near a village called Quishuarani where we geared up.  A woman from the village came up to sell us hats and scarves, and though it was freezing we figured that we would warm up once we began hiking.    

     So, we started to hike and after the first few feet we couldn't believe how difficult it was.  We were all gasping for air.  In the beginning we had to stop every five minutes or so to catch our breath.  Our guide, Hudson, told us that at least part of it was because we had driven up from Cusco and hadn't stopped to acclimate.  That made sense, because the walking got easier on the way.

    Most of the moring was a climb, first to a lake and then to our first pass.  After hiking just a little way from the village, we were enveloped on a cloud and couldn't see much more then a few shadowy llamas on every side.  It was a six hundred meter elevation gain to the pass (3500 where we started and 4100 at the pass).  We stopped at a large lake a couple hundred meters below the pass to wait for the horses carrying our stuff, and got coca leaves to chew on to try and prevent some of the lightheadedness we were feeling.  They must have helped, but still it was pretty tough getting up the pass.   

     Once on the other side, a string of lakes lay before us down in the valley and we only had to walk another two hours or so downhill to reach the tent where we had lunch.  The food was very good, and we were near a small waterfall and river so the setting was very beautiful.  We had intermittent rain that day, as well as the residual dampness of standing in clouds.  On the way down we saw seven wild chinchillas and two of the andean turkeys,  plus several of the andean flickers and a few caracaras. 

     After lunch a downhill walk to the night's camp.  We saw an andean eagle on that leg, and  yet more llamas and alpacas and sheep (for the entirety of our trek they were our near-constant companions).  We can now tell the difference between them (llamas do not have hair on their faces or necks).   

      The small village where we camped, called Cuncani, consisted of a few farms scattered near a river.   Our tents where on a hill next to a house, surrounded by a heckuva lot of sheep.  We had dinner inside a little stone house, and there was an hole-in-the-ground bathroom next to where we camped.  My mother and I slept in one small tent and my father slept in a second.  He was even colder than we were.  

  

Looking down on lakes from our first pass.  We ate lunch just past the last one

A picture from the highest point in our car-ride--4480 meters

A view of the place where we ate lunch, as seen descending towards it

A view of the Sacred Valley from a place we stopped during the ride

Another picture from the highest point in our car-ride--4480 meters

A new-born alpaca and its mother

Sitting in the sun after lunch

One of the wild chinchillas we saw

The sheep invading our camp

Some snowy peaks

A view of the market where we ate lunch

Thunderstorm!

     We went for a very long walk this morning in downtown Cusco. We were all pretty tired out by the end, but we were glad that we had gotten out. This morning we also got our passport photos taken care of, so now we can get into Bolivia.
     Tomorrow at 5 in the morning we are going to go begin the Lares trail to Machu Picchu. We will be hiking about two and a half days, and then will take a train the rest of the way up. I will be unable to blog at least until the evening of the 22nd, but if I can't do it then it will be another week before I can because we are leaving the day after we get back to trek into the rainforest.
     This evening we went out again, and got caught in a huge thunderstorm. Rain was bucketing down, and there were rivers in the streets. There are drains that the water can come our of in nearly every street, and white-water on the rivers. The rain coming off the roofs hit the ground so hard it sent up a splash of at least five feet, and there were brilliant and frequent flashes of lightning.
     Naturally, as soon as we got back home the rain let up.

Market and Saqsaywaman

     Yesterday we took a taxi up to Saqsaywaman after our spanish classes. It is a huge Incan complex overlooking Cusco. We forgot the camera, though, so only had the video camera and can't upload from that.  There were a couple, I guess you call them herds, of llamas grazing, with people and dogs watching them.  There was also a really big stone slide that had been polished to be very smooth.
     This morning my parents went to and early mass. Apparently it was pretty short--only one reading and no sermon, but it was pretty packed. They had a mass at 6, 7, and 8 in spanish and a 5 o'clock mass in Quechuan.
     We also skyped with my grandparents this afternoon,  and are going to have a pretty low-key weekend.
     Yesterday we also went to the San Pedro market. They sell lots of food and crafts, and it is very bustling and vivacious. We stocked up on fruit while we were there, and also got a root-vegetable called an olluco which we will eat this afternoon. Olluco are about as big as 1 to 2 thumbs, and yellow.  There were aisles that sold fish and caviar, and seaweed, many varieties of fruit, and a place to buy hot food.  We didn't eat any food there despite the fact that it looked very good, because even our spanish teacher (who has lived in Cusco her whole life) avoids food at the markets.
     Here are some pictures of the streets and squares of Cusco, as well as of one of the cathedrals and the market.

I feel obliged to put a title on this post, but nothing really comes to mind: hence this

     We are having network issues in Cusco, so I'm not sure how regularly I am going tol be able to post but I will try.
     Yesterday we had yet another spanish class, and are a little ready for a break but are most of the way done with the week.  The weather is being really unpredictable here--sunny then cloudy then thunderstormy.  Last night we say a few flashes of lightning, and it was raining pretty hard but this morning it looks sunny, if a little grey.
     Last night we also went to the Cusco Planetarium, which is something that a family does out of their house.  They talked about how the Incans viewed the sky, and also about the southern-hemisphere constellations (VERY different from the sky as we are used to it).  It was a little touristy, but it was interesting.  The highlight of the evening was probably their big white dog, Gandalf.  He seemed really calm and well-behaved around strangers for being only a year and a half old.  I can't imagine Lillie being that way, and she is five.
     Then this morning our spanish class started a half an hour later than usual, so we would hev been theoretically able to sleep in if not for the multitude of barking dogs.  Speaking of which, I am exercising an enormous amount of willpower not to go pet them all, but we haven't had our rabies vaccines.  On our street there are a couple of dogs that go onto the roofs of their houses and bark at people passing by.  It is always a little disconserting to have to look up to see the (small!) dog that is barking at you ferociously.
     After spanish my mother and I walked to a vegetarian restaurant to meet my dad.  The restaurant was called Giovanda's, and there I had the worst smoothie of my life and a distinctly odd potato-like-concoction.  It did not match the glowing description we heard about it.
      This afternoon we went to the Incan museum.  This was interesting, and there was some very beautiful modern weaving as well as some amazing few-thousand-year-old weavings and pottery, but we were all very tired and didn't stay to see all of it.  We came home and are spending the evening
in--making potato salad, practicing, and skyping with a friend.
    I will try to post a couple of the pictures from yesterday, but if you do not see them that is because I couldn't get them to load and if you also happen to see this message that is because the wi-fi is too awful to come back and edit it.

Almost Two Weeks Out

     Today marked our second day of spanish classes.
      After class we met up at a vegetarian restaurant near the Plaza de Armas, and it ended up being very good.  It is really hard to find vegetarian food here, and even harder to find good vegetarian food.  Even in the grocery store there is a limited selection of food.  There are few varieties of cheese, no fresh lettuce, no unsweetened yogurt, no tortillas or tortilla chips, no decent vegetables in the supermarket (you need to go to the regular market), but a whole double-aisle of cookie.  
     This evening we went to the Qorikancha Musem in the basement of the Qorikancha temple.  IT was a musem of Incan and pre-Incan artifacts.  There were a couple of textiles preserved for hundreds of years, but the Incan pottery was in general more beat-up than the Mochican pottery, which predates it by several hundred years.
     There was also a room that spoke about the brain-surgery techinques of the time (65% rate), and a few skulls where you could see the places that had holes drilled in them.
     There were also skulls of important Incans that had been deformed by tying cloth bandages and boards around the head of a child from an early age, and a couple of mummies.  
     Incan mummies are preserved in a seated position, with the knees tucked into the chest.  This is so they could be stored and carried in urns.  On important festivals, people would take out the mummies and serve them food and drink, and also seat them near other mummies so that they could visit.
      After visiting the museum we went to a folk-dancing an music performance.  This was very interesting, but it seemed that there were a lot of colonial influences in it.  We only stayed for about half,because we had the time wrong and arrived early and so had been sitting for a long time.  I have some pictures, but they will have to wait until tomorrow.

In School Again

     Today was the first day of our spanish lessons.  My mother and I went the house of a woman named Luz for four hours this morning, while my father went to a school called Proyecto Peru for three hours.   We did a lot of review today, and hopefully tomorrow will learn something new.  We left around eight and it was about a fifteen-minute walk to Avenita El Sol, where we met our teacher. From there it was another ten blocks to her house, and we took a taxi home.
     On our way back we met my dad walking from his class, and it was very fortunate that we did because we had given the driver the wrong directions and were heading away from home.
     We had pasta for lunch, but the pasta shells were not like any pasta shells we have ever eaten.  They were more than a little nasty.
      Because we have a kitchen here we have been eating at home a lot.  However, that does mean that we eat a lot of cheap and easy-to-prepare food, such as a lot of potatoes, beans, eggs, and ramen.  This is really exciting, because of the complete lack of any nutritional value I never get to eat ramen at home and am enjoying the experience a LOT.
      The downside of being settled in one place is that instead of being able to do the five-minute-a-day practices that my violin teacher came up with to make sure that I don't lose all the skills I have been working on  I have to do a little over half my regular practice, alternating which half I do every day.  That doesn't sound too bad, but it takes me about 45 minutes to do it and requires a lot of concentration.  Also, I am using an electric violin because if it gets damaged or broken on the trip it's not a big deal, but it weighs a ton and sounds awful.