Life Eaters

Culinary food tours seem to be our thing when we travel to a new city, so we did our research and scheduled one for this day. We we’re picked up early by our guide, David, and driver, and shuttled around town for a number if stops to learn some history about Quito’s Old Town, and sample some of their food.

Things started off a little weird when we first got into the mini-van, and David pulled out a microphone to speak through. There were only the six of us mind you, and we felt a bit like we were on a day tour for returnees, or that maybe he would start singing karaoke. We did get him to eventually break a little bit out of his tour-guide character, but he was a little bit stiff mist of the time.

One of our first stops was to the local market. It was a little cleaner than I expected and pretty we’ll organizes. There are, apparently, other markets around that are a little more rough around the edges, but this one was pretty interesting none-the-less. With the jungle so nearby, fresh fruits and vegetables were the stars of the market, with colorful piles of produce lining all of the walls. One local specialty was roast pig. There were dozens of stalls. Each with 2-4 whole roast pigs on display, which they would serve with llapingachos (fried potato balls with cheese ). Alyssa and Eric devoured a plate of this, claiming it to be some of the most amazing pork ever.

We toured some parts of old town, and finished the tour with what was meant to be a cooking class. It was held in the restaurant of the most expensive hotel in town, so it was a bit fancy, but it was kindof weird. It ended up being more of a presentation, where the chef of the restaurant made us ecuadorian ceviche while we watched, and David translated. They then served us a separate meal along with the ceviche that they prepared.

There was one amazing highlight of this meal though. For the dessert course. All of the lights were suddenly turned down, a recording of a church bell hinging was played, and a server dressed in a traditional robe and hood ( think klu klux klan, but brown) came out and served os ice cream billowing with dry ice. It was a bit surreal, and more than a little hilarious. Even our guide David was surprised by it.

After out tour, we went back to the hotel for a bit. And mark, Eric, Sarah and I ventured out for dinner. Our first stop was the theatre bar in d town which had a lot of promise, but we were the only ones there so it was a bit awkward. A would of caution for anybody going to quito, do not stay in Old Town if you’re expecting to find food or drinks after dark. From there, we took a cab to the top of the hill overlooking town and went to cafe Mosaico. This was much better. Congruent with all the reviews we read, the food was mediocre, but the view, music and atmosphere was perfect.

Peru/Galapagos

We met up with Mark in Quito and spent two days exploring the city. We managed to pack in quite a few unexpected surprises and adventures into these two days

We stayed at Hostal Quito Cultural, which was a really cute hotel in the middle of old town. It has a beautiful central courtyard, lots of original artwork, and was run by a very sweet and friendly ecuadorian lady who did not speak any English. Most importantly, the showers were hot and the beds were warm.

After breakfast and amazing Italian lunch, we took a cab to the teleférico, which was a cable car that took us up to the top of. Nearby mountain, at 13,200 feet, where we got an amazing view of Quito. At around 2.5 million people, Quito is quite huge, and I believe it is the second highest city in the world for altitude.

In the evening we did some internet searching and found a place that looked pretty decent, named Octava de Corpus. We headed there and ended up with quite a surprise for our evening. When we arrived, the proprietress, Jaime, was waiting for us at the front door (we had called ahead). The entire place was decked out floor to ceiling with paintings and doublets and 19th century decor. We were the only guests in the entire place and we felt as though we were in his home. The place seemed like a cross between a southern mansion and king Henry VIII’s dining hall.

Jaime turned out to be an absolutely amazing, happy and energetic little ecuadorian host. Rather than choose wine from a menu, he took us to his basement to browse his 450 bottles and pick a couple out. We talked to him throught most of our dinner and We had a blast!

After dinner, we went out for one more drink on a rooftop of a place called Vista Hermosa, which was also amazing. The nighttime view was breathtaking and a three piece band was playing local ecuadorian music.

Peru/Galapagos

We spent most of this day wrapping things up and getting ready to head to the airport for phase 2 of our vacation. Our last morning in Cusco was mostly uneventful, but one thing worth mentioning is that we had lunch at a restaurant named Patcha Papa (father earth in Catchuan language), and ordered the local specialty from their wood hired clay oven, ‘Cuy’, or as we would call it, gineua pig.

Our flight went smoothly, with the only catch being that a ticket agent that looked just like Peruvian Fred Armisted told us that we had to make it through security and customs in only 20 minutes to catch our flight. After about 20 minutes of frantically throwing our stuff through the security belt and sprinting through the airport we arrived at our gate, only to find that we were actually an hour and a half early.

It was 12:30am when we finally landed in Quito, where we successfully met up with Mark and caught out ride to our new hotel, Hostel Quito Cultural, and made it to our rooms by 2am.

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Machu Pichu was really hot and sunny and we were getting really hungry, so we didn’t stay particularly long and headed to our final destination, where we would stay the night In a warm bed with a hot shower in the town of Aguas Calientes. If you do a Google search and look up this town you will come across a lot of really bad reviews. Apparently, due to the great boom on tourism to Machu Pichu in the last 10 years, this town has grown a bit faster than it can handle, and the result is a lot of really bad hotels and overpriced restaurants. On the contrary, we all really liked this town. Every other building seemed to be in some state of half-construction, but it was really cute. The train tracks, which are pretty busy, run right through the center of town, are a unique feature, and really no more annoying that the busy traffic that most towns have. (Actually, besides busses, there were hardly any vehicles in this town). Our hotel was adequate (also under construction), and the staff was very friendly.

In the morning we walked up to the hot springs, the towns namesake, for some soaking of our tired muscles. The hot springs are nothing to write home about. It’s just several pools fed by hot spring water, (again, also under construction) only one of which was actually very hot, but it was exactly what we needed. The bottom of the pool was sand and gravel, which felt great on our sore feet.

The town also has a pretty large artisan market which we spent some time walking through. Most stalls had pretty much the same things, sweaters, socks, scarves and other colorful wool things, jewelry and trinkets. The atmosphere in the market though was really nice and we liked walking around and bargaining for souvineers.

Another thing this town does pretty we’ll is, surprisingly, pizza. Many places have a clay, wood-fire pizza oven and serve up a pretty tasty pie. A taste of home after a week of Peruvian food was quite welcome.

This is also a ton of dogs. Really cute, friendly, and apparently stray(?) dogs. I liked it.

We spent one night, and in the evening of the second day, we caught our train back towards Cusco. At the half way mark where we were supposed to get off the train and catch a bus the rest of the way to Cusco, our trains came to a stop just before the station for an agonizing hour. By the time it pulled into the station and let us off the busses had stopped running, but we were able to quickly grab a taxi for the hour and a half drive for only fourth bucks, which turned out to be much better than the original plan of the bus.

Peru/Galapagos

We woke up at 3am. The goal on this morning was to quickly eat a simple breakfast and pack up as quickly as possible to get in line be 4:30 at the checkpoint on the trail leading to Machu Pichu. The checkpoint didn’t open until 5:30, but good placement in line was important because the trail got much busier here, and we wanted to reach the sungate in time for sunrise to see the first rays of morning sun on Machu Pichu. An hour wait in line went quickly and we were on our way.

My favorite portion of this final part of the trail is a section Darwin referred to a “monkey stairs”. It was 50 stone steps, steep enough that you had to use your hands to help get yourself up.

We reached the sungate in plenty of time. The sungate is a point in the mountain overlooking Machu Pichu where the sun rises behind us, lighting up the ruins below. The rest if the morning Darwin showed us around and gave us a tour. Machu Pichu city really is incredible, and the things that the Incans and Incan culture was able to bud and achieve is mind blowing. More than I would be able to describe here, you’ll have to watch a national geographic special about it. Honestly though, this trek wasn’t about the final destination at all. The part I will remember most about this trek isn’t the arrival or tour of Machu Piccu, but the four days preceding. The challenges we overcame, the adventure we had, the incredible views from the mountains and comradarie with our fellow hikers. I don’t know that I’ll ever experience anything like it again.

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Our guide Darwin said that day three was his favorite day of the hike because of the beautiful views and Incan sites that we would pass. This was the longest day, we would hike 8-9 miles. He also said, “Day two is the hardest day, but day three maybe is harder day.” He was right.

That day we woke up around 4:30am, and we were to hike for 10 hours. We started with another steep climb, not quite as steep as the last day, but still very difficult. There were a lot of ups and downs all day, ending with a long, steep downhill of mostly stairs for thee hours often referred to as “Gringo Killer”. There were three really cool archeological Incan sites that we stopped at, and Darwin took time at each one to give us a short tour and explain the history.

This really was the most beautiful portion of the trail so far, with stone paths that wound along the edges if steep mountainsides, cool walks through cloud forest dotted with flowers and orchids, summits with 360 degree views and winding, moss covered staircases. This day really, really took its toll on us though, and we lagged far behind the others, one or two of us having a particularly difficult time. Near the end, on the long downhill portion, Darwin stuck with us, encouraging us on and making sure we didn’t get caught on a mountainside after dark. About an hour before camp, there was a fork in the trail. To the right was a shortcut directly to camp. To the left was a slightly longer route which went past some more archeological Incan ruins. Darwin urged us, that even though some of us felt like death, and it was getting late, that we MUST take the longer path past the ruins, that it was beautiful and we would not regret it, and that if we did not like it, he would carry us the rest if the was. So we obliged, and took the path to the left. After about 25 minutes we came to a steep portion of the mountainside that had been cleared away to create large Incan terraces, each about 10 feet high and 20 feet deep. We emerged into this area at the top terrace. It was just about dusk and the view across the valley was so beautiful it nearly brought me to tears. The last rays of sunlight we’re hitting the snow capped peak of Mt. Veronica in the distance, and the Urubumba river wound through the valley below.

It was getting dark fast, and we quickly hit the trail for the final 20 minutes to camp. Darwin led the way, and as we broke out our headlamps to see the ground in front of us a couple of our porters met us on the trail, having come up from camp to help us get there. It was completely dark by the time we arrived but we finally made it safe and sound. Dinner, as usual was great, and now that we were at a lower altitude it was much warmer and I slept like a rock.

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Day two is known by anybody who has done the trail as “The hardest day”. This day would involve a steep and steady climb uphill for about 5 hours to “dead woman pass” at over 13,000 feet. The name comes from the profile of the mountains, which look like a reclining woman. I have also heard that the porters joke that it is named that because the white women who make it to the top look like death. After the summit is a 2 hour descent down the other side, about half if which is stairs.

We woke up early to a beautiful, clear and sunny day. We could see perfectly the snow covered peaks stretching across the horizon. The first half of the uphill portion was through cloud forest. It was mostly cool and shady, and our legs were fresh from our night of sleep so I didn’t think it was so bad. After lunch, things definitely changed. The forest opened up as we hiked above the tree line, and the incline got steeper as we slowly trudged uphill in the beating sun. It was slow and grueling, and with the altitude we would be gasping for breath if we took more than five steps in a row faster than a snail. Even the porters were sweating and moving slowly (although still faster than us).

Reaching the top was sweet, sweet victory though. The view from the top was unbelievable in both directions, and we all slung off our packs and hugged each other feeling as though we had conquered an obstacle bigger than us.

The walk down was a completely different environment. It was a field of tall, yellow grass with our stone trail winding down the middle. I loved that my forward view was now of a stretching valley swathed in sunlight instead of the rocky incline from the way up. After about an hour though I wasn’t loving the downhill hike so much, as all of out legs were aching and shaking like jello with every step down, and our toes sore from being jammed into the tips of our shoes. Slow and steady though, we made it to the bottom where our campsite and fellow trekkers awaited.

This night was the highest altitude campsite that we would stay at, and it got cold, really cold. We found out later that the temp dropped to just below freezing. Thank God Peru Treks provided us with some pretty good quality sleeping bags, and that we packed a lot of cold weather gear. It didn’t necessarily keep us warm, but it kept us from freezing!

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We woke up at around 4am for our pickup to head off to start our trek at km82. On the bus we met the guy who would be our guide on the trail for the next four days, Darwin, and his assistant guide, Angel. After a rushed breakfast in Ollyantaytambo and each if us getting a couple retractable trekking poles, we arrived at the trailhead, got out passports stamped, and began walking.

Our group consisted of 14 people. The five of us, Rod and Jacki, an Australian couple on month 2 of a 9 month honeymoon, three other Aussies, Noel, Nick & Mark (father, son and son-in-law), Robin & Ann, a mother-daughter pair from Florida, and Peter & Anka, a German man and woman who were good friends traveling together.

In addition were 20 porters who loaded themselves up with huge backpacks, two or three sizes of any of ours. They carried all of the tents, food, cooking equipment and other gear for each night. The porters would pack all of their stuff up and run ahead of us in order to set up for lunch or dinner by the time we arrived at each spot. Some if them only in sandals!

The first day we hiked about 6-7 miles. The hike was relatively easy, with a handful of moderate climbs or descents. The biggest obstacle was probably dodging the horse and donkey poop on the trail.

On this first day we saw some beautiful Incan ruins at the convergence of three valleys.

For our meals the porters set up a big, communal tent where all 14 of us could sit together and eat. The meals, by camping standards, was amazing! The cook made three course meals for each meal. While far from five star, the meals a wonder that they were cooked on a kitchen that was so recently on somebody’s back.

For the most part the trail was not too crowded at all. Generally we were only hiking with our own group, and were a bit spread out amongst ourselves. We would usually mingle with one or tho other groups of hikers at rest stops. Only 400 people per day are allowed on the trail, which includes porters and people who only join in on the last day, so the trail was a lot less crowded than I thought it would be. The porters usually left after us and then passed us on the trail, so when somebody would see them coming up from behind they would yell “Porter!”, and we would all step aside as they jogged on ahead of us. These guys mostly spend the year as farmers, doing back-breaking manual labor, so they are all pretty strong dudes.

At our campsite we were delighted to discover that out porters had obtained (or carried) some beers for us. Exactly what we needed! One of our group, the mother from Florida, was not doing well with the altitude and with the hike, (and attitude!) and decided that she couldn’t go on, so she left the group and would take the train and meet us at the end. After dinner we all went to bed around 8:00, tired from a long day.

Peru/Galapagos

Quick summary because we’re hitting the hay early tonight because we’ll be up at 4:30am to head out to the trail head.

Slow morning. We all woke up on our own time and met up for coffee in our hotel restaurant. After a little research for breakfast (we learned our lesson from the last bad breakfast), we ended up walking to San Blas neighborhood and eating at a restaurant named Granja Heidi, run by a really sweet German man named Carlos.

Walked around a bit and shopped. Alyssa and I bought a really great piece of new art at one of the shops. Hopefully it ships home safely without being destroyed by the postal service.

ordered a lemonade at Pachapappa restaurant outdoor patio. they had a big wood-fire pizza oven where we saw guinea pig being ccooked. We walked around San Blas neighborhood a bit more and did some more shopping, this time foe some warm hiking jackets for the girls.

Back home to pack our bags in preparation for our hike.

Dinner at our hotel. Met a really nice Canadian who had just finished the hike and got us pretty excited about it.

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This day we will spend the entire day out of Cusco, visiting a number of important sites in the Sacred valley, a a long, narrow valley home to several towns that was important to the incas because of it’s rich agriculture and access to the Urumbamba river.

Due to lack of blogging time, I won’t be able to go into detail for a week or more, but in the meantime, here is a brief outline and some photos.

7am wake up to meet our driver, Jesus, and our English speaking guide for the day, Diane.

Stop to see and feed different varieties of alpaca and llamas. Learn a little bit about traditional Incan weaving.

Meet a silversmith at his artisan studio and learn about how they craft silver jewelry

Tour of the archeological ruins in Pisac. This was an incredible tour, which led us through cloud covered mountain sides, ancient Incan terraces and ruins. I’ve heard that this location doesn’t hold a candle to what we’ll be seeing when we get to Machu Pichu, which is hard to believe, because this stop was breathtaking.

Tour of the Pisac market. Sarah got to hold a baby llama here, which I think nearly made her explode with joy.

Lunch. Buffet style. Mostly typical Peruvian fare. Eric got a dirty look from the server at the dessert counter when he went up for thirds.

Another archeological site at Ollantaytambo. Again, more beautiful Incan terraces, ruins, and amazing mountain views. I think the most amazing fact I learned about here was that when the incans ran out of places to gather giant stones for their construction, ther made a new quarry, on another mountainside 7 kilometers away. They would move stones from this quarry weighing multiple tons, by hand, using only ropes, logs, and manpower.

Visit at the salt pools at Maras (http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maras,_Peru). There are over 3000, man made pools on this hillside, all fed by a single hot spring that has a super high salt content. The pools evaporate leaving the salt that can then be harvested. These pools were built before Incan times, over a thousand years ago, and still in use today.

Dropped off back at our hotel. We went out to dinner at a restaurant called Uchu, then back to bed, exhausted.

Peru/Galapagos