Vancouver - Homeward Bound!

Finally - this is the end of our trip. After almost three weeks of being in Peru, I am ready to go home. It has been a wonderful, adventurous and insightful trip. It was not one of those that you lounge at the beach and enjoy the sun type of vacation. Rather, this trip has challenged us in so many ways. First of all, communication. As a result of our tight schedule before leaving, we had no time to learn Spanish. This was also a country with least English speaking people. We experienced being "mute" when we were at Lake Titikaka. The older  couple we stayed with had no English and we had no Spanish. Even when we used signs, facial expressions and the not too accurate translator from an app, we only managed to communicate a bit of info.  That was unfortunate as we had so many questions to ask.

The diverse climates in Peru were also challenging. From the high altitudes adjustment to the cool mornings and evenings to blazing hot sun in the afternoon, as well as challenging terrains, our body had been stretched and pushed to the limits. We had not walked as long and climbed as high in the past. It made us once again to appreciate the blessing of being able to travel when we are still relative young, healthy and mobile. 

The culture is a lot more diverse than we first thought and the Inka culture was also different than what most people learned. Peruvian should have good reasons to be proud of their heritages as the Inka influences had extended much earlier than just the few hundreds years that they were most well known for.  It was also interesting to see some of the blending of the influence by the Spaniards, be it religion, arts, agricultural, to architectural, the emotions the guides spoke of the periods were still quite strong. 

I am not sure if we had sampled the true Peruvian cuisine during this trip as a result of being tourists. Although we had tried to go away from the tourists trap areas but still find it challenging to be able to eat the local food. Consequently, we can only judge Peruvian food based on our own limited experiences and I am sad to say that it was not as good as we had expected. By the end of the trip, we were too tired of having potatoes in our meals. However, we absolutely loved Ceviche and Pisco Sour and Quinoa soup. 

Some of the highlights of our trip:

Machu Picchu

Nazca Lines

Lake Titikaka

Bellastes Island and reserve at Paracas 

Colca Canyon - Condors

St. Catalina Monastery in Arequipa 

Ruins, Temples and Cathedrals

Museums

New friends during this trip

It had been a wonderful trip. I am so thankful and grateful for all the incredible research Richard has put into this trip. Everything turned out just as he planned and expected. As a result of his detailed research, we were able to immerse ourselves immediate into the daily routines in Peru, including taking the Metropolitan buses to various places in Lima, explored various local markets and hidden treasures in each city. Consequently, I was able to sample the local lives in each place that we visited. Although at times, I was overwhelmed with our schedules and places and distances to cover each day, but Richard has done his very best in giving us the max exposure of the country. I think we got out quite a bit from this trip. As usual, commander Wu has outdone himself on our Peru trip!!

Thank you for following my travel blog. Please excuse some of the typos as I was always in a tight schedule to type up comments and try to capture the next pic. Hope you had enjoyed the samples of our trip as much as I had enjoyed uploading them. 

Until the next adventure ... Take care!!

Shopping in Lima

Lots of winter clothes on sale this time of the year in Lima but unfortunately, their winter outfit is quite insufficient for our Canadian climates.

Shopping Mall

You would not have known this is Lima. The shopping mall is located in the up scale of mid town. It blends in well with any major shopping malls in NA. After we have been to so many ruins and temples, it is a shock to our system to be back into modern times with loud music ringing in our ears and flashing signs trying to catch our attention as well as greasy deep fried KFC, Pizza Hut and Burger King flooded our senses. 

Lima City

National Library is next to the National Museum. There was an exhibition on the brutal history of the Shining Path from 1980 to 2000 at the museum with graphic pictures of its bloody and tragic past of Peru. Very depressing. 

National Museum

We started our last day in Lima by visiting the National Museum. We thought it would be a good wrap up to put all the things we have seen and learned in Peru into perspective. 

It was inspiring to see the magnificent construction of temples, and the people's worldview on wars, deities, rites and offerings. Spaniards have influenced the Andean culture, created cultural syncretism, affecting all areas of society, from religion, social organization to economic activity, esp the oil paintings but they never gave up their own style  but blending the new style from Spaniards into their own culture.  The end of this period is called Tawantinsuyu and the start of European domination is known as the Transitional Stage. Fascinating history. 

Grid Lock in Lima

Both highway and secondary roads are jam packed on the streets of Lima. Very busy, noisy and polluted.  We managed to cross some VERY busy streets today. Scary!!  Cars never stopped for pedestrians here. 

Mobile Irrigation

Water truck to water vegetation in the city. It is a good thing that most of the vegetations are tropical such as cacti that require little water. Otherwise, there would be more of this type of water trucks running in the city. 

Chicken Market

Honeymoon Suite?

The room was not ready when we checked in so we left the luggage went out to explore Lima.  When we retuned, this was what we found in our room. Sweet!

Electric Cars

It used to have electrical cars operating in the Barranco area but when we were there, we could not find any in operation other than this model and the museum that devoted to the history of electrical cars. 

Bulls

Peruvians use bulls as a symbol of protection and they would tie two bulls along with a cross on top of the roof to protect the household. This is an example of the blending of the Inka culture, beliefs and Christianity.  Another example of such blending of religious faith was demonstrated in the last super painting where the center of the dish was a Cuy - guinea pig. 

Trees

It is not often to see big trees in Peru and there was a boulevard that is lined with huge trees on both sides of the street in the Bareanco area. Quite nice. Makes me home sick.  

Barranco Neighbouthood

Bohemian Neighbouthood. It is supposed to be the most charming area in Peru.  It is too bad that the area has seen its glorious days as many buildings required major renovation. 

Chicken and Chops

The fried rice that accompanied the chicken was the best we have had so far in Peru.  Peruvians tend to eat lunch late and with a good portion and the dinner will also be late but on a lighter portion. Given the heavy late lunch today, we may skip dinner and opt for something light.  We also ordered Pisco Sour for lunch but we found the drink at this restaurant heavy on the sweet side and very light on the sour and alcohol. 

Lazy Afternoon at the Beach

Playa Barranco. Surfers' paradise in Peru.  We walked to the beach after lunch and were able to enjoy the waves for a while. Surfers love the waves and there were quite a few of them trying to catch the big waves in the ocean, despite the cool water at this time of the year. 

Bridge over highway

We have not seen the overpass in Peru except here in Lima. This overpass connects the Barranco neigjhbourhood and the beach. Lots of construction along the beach and I am sure the whole region will be transformed soon. 

Selfie at Beach

Beach

It has been a while since we laid eyes on the ocean. It is nice to be back to the coast. This beach is not too far from the Barranco area. It is very popular in the summer but it is relatively quiet in the winter. Even with winter, the temp was around 20 degrees. 

Exotic Fruits

We got some exotic fruit from the supermarket to sample tonight. Chirimoya is the dark green one on the left that tasted like the Mango Steen - quite sweet.  Maracuya looks like the lemon on upper right that smelled very nice but was extremely sour.  Passion fruits ( granadilla) in the lower right were fragrant and tasted sweet with lots of seeds.  Aguaymantox - berries that covered in a lantern like skin that have little seeds inside and was a bit of sour and sweet tasting. 

Bridge of Sighs

This bridge used to be the meeting point for the Neighbouthood. It is still the focal point in the area. We also saw quite a few security guarding the area. Lots of old and grandeur houses now have converted to  nice restaurants and bars. 

Ceviche in Lima

Our hotel room was not ready so we dropped our luggage and immediately took the express bus to the Barranco area to explore. Richard had been wanting to sample the ceviche again and this restaurant offered it as a set menu with a main dish for s/12. We also ordered Pisco Sour happy hour for s/25 for two. 

On Board of the Bus

All the seats were full on the airplane and it was just enough capacity to take everyone back on one bus. Quite efficient. I am impressed. 

Domestic Arrival

Waiting to be picked up by the driver from the hotel. We only left Lima for two weeks and I have already forgotten how foggy it is. What a striking contrast to the incredible blue sky and sunny weather in the other cities we have visited in Peru. 

Getting Off Safely

Smaller planes have to get off on the ground and then transported back to the airport. It reminded us of the HK airport. 

StarPeru Airline

Getting ready to take off to Lima. It would take one hour and 20 minutes to get there by plane but would take 22 hours by bus. Even though the distance may not seem long on the map but Peru's infrastructure and the mountainous roads can make it challenging to spend 22 hours on the bus to get to the capital city from Cusco. So glad for the modern technology.  

Cusco Airport

We took a taxi to the airport from our hotel. The airport is located right in the middle of the residential area of the city. The drive to the airport should not take too long but because it was right at the rush hours in the morning and there were  many detours as a result of construction.  The driver was not patient for all the traffic jam and tried a number of smaller routes. The way he drove was not for the fainted heart. As a matter of fact, everyone drove like a maniac here. I am surprise to see the cars were in relative good shapes and not all dented or broken. So far we have only witnessed one car accident on the road of the three weeks we were here.  To someone outside of Peru, the drive may be chaotic. But to the locals, it was organized chaos on the road. As long as your intention is known to the other drivers, they will make allowance for you on the road, regardless how small the space is. Fascinating to see them expertly maneuver the cars.

The Cusco airport is quite small and basic but at least it was more orderly than I had expected. 

Yummy Breakfast at Cusco

We had a wonderful breakfast before leaving Cusco to the airport to Lima. It has been fantastic in seeing so many ruins and wondrous sites in Cusco. We will fly back to Lima and then Homeward bound. 

Last Dinner at Cusco

After visited the salt mine and the Moray, we were dropped off at the city plaza. We decided to check out some of the artisans shop in the city. After a while, it gets boring as every shop seems to offer similar things. Worse still, they charge you the hand-made price but in fact, most of them were made by machine, imported from China.

This is the second time we visited the restaurant since we have been to Cusco as it is very close to our hotel and the food was quite good. We order grilled trout and pork chop with rice and veggies. Great portion and tasted really good as well. Finished the meal with Muna tea. Yummy. 

Climbing Back Up at the Moray

The complex was huge and we had to use the stone steps to get down and back up to the surface. The stone steps were uneven and narrow. Again, it would be challenging to do that on raining season. I am so glad that weather has been great so far during our trip. Even though it still takes a bit of time to adjust to the cool mornings and nights but blazing hot in the afternoon. 

Implied 

Moray

This incredible archeological complex was 150 m down from the road and has 12 terraces in a concentric shape. There were quite a few microclimate conditions in each level.  It is believed that this complex was used as "green house" or biological laboratory to cultivate various species of plants during Inka times. We had a chance to go down to few levels and the whole complex was bigger and deeper than meets the eyes. 

Salt Mine

We had to walk on a very narrow path to get closer to the pans. I can't imagine how tourists would do that during raining season as it could be very slippery.  

Salt Mine

There were 5000 salt pans in this place. This place was in existence since preInka times. 300 hundred families own all these pans. Each pan can produce 300 kg of salt each month.  Good source of income as the water came an under ground spring and there is no investment needed to produce the salt other than filling each pan and let the sun dry them before harvesting the salt.  During the rain season, all the pans are brown and they have to wait till the dry seasons between June , July and Agust to harvest the salt. Red hue came from the mud of the area and some comes with yellow hue. They would use the top layer for cooking, those red and yellow hues would be sold to tile business to make ceramic tiles. They also have transformed the salt into beauty products.  Very versatile.  

Textiles

We were shown how the fur from alpaca could be cleaned using a root from the area that has cleaning properties like shampoo. She also showed us how to dye using ingredients from nature,  including bugs from the cacti and mixing with lime or other minerals, could produce 25 different shades of red. Amazing. 

Weavers

Women sitting on the court yard and weave all day. We were told that it would take a month to weave a table runner. I am not sure if this is accurate as other places said about a week or two depending on the design. 

Feeding Alpaca

We were taken to a textile place to show us how weavers weave the various products. As we entered the place, we were give grass to feed the alpaca. The owner wanted to show us that the fur was the really thing and not fake. 

Friendship

Have a wonderful stay at Cusco, Maiko and Koichi.  It was great meeting you. Come visit us with your baby next time you travel to British Columbia. 

New Friends met on Vistadom

Congratulations on being new parents soon, Koichi and Maiko.   It was wonderful chatting with you on board of Vistadom. 

Entertainment on train

Not only did they feed us on this train, they also provided entertainment to the tourists. Attendants also served as models to showcase the Alpaca products in order to sell to the passengers on the train. 

Snack at the Vistadom

Pizza is very prevalent in Peru and we have finally tasted. A slice of ham and cheese. It was a bit too salty for my taste. I found Peruvians tend to cook their food very salty. May be that is the reason they drink a ton of Chicha. 

Vistadom - Peru Rail

The Vistadom has 4 seats per section - two people facing each other, separated by the dining table. This was different from the Expedition where each row was two seats only. 

Peru Rail

The waiting area is a bit chaotic but at least it was on time. It would take 3 hours and 30 min to get to Poroy, a suburb of Cucso and we will be picked up by the hotel and drive another 30 min back to Cusco. 

Tight turning on narrow street.

The streets tend to be very narrow in Peru and it takes enormous skills to navigate the big bus. It backed off just before the edge of the river. 

Rail Road Tracks

Tracks were built right at the front street as cars were not allowed in this town. So instead of roads for cars, they have tracks on the Main Street where most of the hotels are located. 

Bus heading back to the train station

After spending almost 8 hours at MP and hiked up and down the site and trails, we were exhausted and so relieved to be able to sit down!

Bus routes

As we hike the Inka Trail from MP to the Sun Gate, it offered a great view of the site as well as the bus routes along the mountains. There are steps for people to go down directly back to the base without having to endure the twisted and turns of the bus.