Saturday, May 31, 2014
Dinner with friends met at Cusco
We had a wonderful time with the new friends we met from our tour and we decided to have dinner together. We went to a traditional Peruvian restaurant and ordered Trout Cerviche and beef tenderloin with quinoa. The Cerviche was very good and so was the beef, the quinoa was a bit too salty for my taste.
The woman between us was a professor from South Dakota while the other three young adults came to learn Spanish for five weeks and all of them also from the states.
Puca Pucara = mini Machu Picchu
Red Fortress is what the name means. There were hillside farming terraces and water channels and aqueducts.
Puca Pucara = Red Fortress
It was built on a fortress and surrounded by a wall and hillside terraces for containment.
Selfie at Tambomachay
The name means "Resting place" and locals often use it as a resort after taking the Inca trail. Also know as "the baths of the Princess". It was built around 1500 AD. Religious fountains often are 3 in total while the 4 windows above signify four regions of the inca empire or the 4 directions.
Inca's Astronomy
The Milky Way was interpreted as the fox, Llama, partridge, toad, and snake, as was shown from the pic.
Saqsaywaman
The place is huge and it is difficult to capture the entire structure.
Given the difficulty of pronouncing the name of this place, it has been referred to as Sexy Women.
A colossal structure formed by three tiered defense walls made of stones that fit with razor sharp precision. It was built in 1431-1508 for 77 years. It was dismantled by the Spaniards from 1537 to 1561 and converted into a quarry to build a Cathedral, a number of temples and houses for themselves.
Q'Enqo = Labyrinth
Ceremonial place during Inca times. The stone labyrinth was quite amazing. This was the place to worship for fertility.
Lunch Cafe
We found this clean and quiet cafe next to the busy plaza. I ordered a chicken sandwich and coffee for s/8.5 while Richard ordered a beef tongue sandwich and papaya con leche for s/8.5 . Great food, great deal. Just what we needed to replenish our body before another hectic tour in the afternoon.
The city of Cusco
Can you see the airport from the far end? The airport is right in the middle of the city!
Museum of Regional History
Kids were on a field trip on a sat morning. This was a great museum. It also provided English translation. Learned quite a bit of the regional history.
Festvial
There was a big Celebration at the plaza. Seven different communities or tribes came together to celebrate the conversion of Catholicism from the indigenous faith. Every tribe wears its own distinctive colour and flag.
Narrow Streets in Cusco
We walked around a neighborhood that was famous for its narrow streets. Thank goodness they are one way. As the van drove by, pedestrians have to press their back against the wall in order to allow the van to drive by without fearing of being hit by the rear mirror.
Friday, May 30, 2014
Dinner at Cusco
After 11 hours from Puno, we finally arrived at Cusco. Our hotel is not in the downtown area and more residential than restaurants. It took a bit of walking around to find this more decant restaurant. Everywhere we went, there were fried chickens like KFC here in Cusco. The oily smell really turned us off. This was also a sharp contrast to Puno where they have pizza places everywhere.
The waiter did not speak any English and we did know some on the sauces for the pasta and he did not know how to explain to us. A customer who sat near by had some basic English and tried to explain us the menu. It was kind of an adventure but the pasta turned out OK while the trout was good. The chicken soup was just what I needed after a long ride on the bus.
The St. Peter Apostle
Despite the unassuming look at the outside, we were totally blown away by the inside of this church. Located in Andahuaylillas, about 1/12 hours from Cusco, this church was built by the Jesuit to convert the locals to Christianity, showing them the right ways to live and ensure to heaven or the wrong ways to live to go to the eternal hell. The central alter was made of wood and intricately decorated with all sort of statues and covered with 24 caret gold leaves imported from Bolivia. Unfortunately, no photos were allowed inside.
Temple of Wiraqocha in Raqchi
This temple is almost like a miniature of Machu Picchu. There was a wall built around the perimeter for 7 km long. The compound had 6000 people during the 1400 AD. The temple dimension was 25 m width x 18 m height x 19 m long. The temple was used by the royal palace and commoners were living behind the temple. The foundation of the structure were stone based. The cylindrical bases in front of the temple used to be columns. The whole place was so big and it was impossible to see them all. 
Buffet lunch
No quinoa soup. The alpaca meat was so tough that it was impossible to chew. I focused more on the veggies instead.
Glacier Mountains
The water from the glacier is the source of the Urunamba river that runs through the Sacred Valley and Machu Picchu before flowing to the amazon. There are number of communities live here and herding cows and Alpaca is their main industry. It is also interesting to know that the vegetations become thicker now that the altitude has dropped.
Abra La Raya - 4335 m
Glacier mountains - the summit of today's trip and altitudes will be down to 3800 m when we have lunch at the next stop.
Pukara
Pucara means forest. The town existed during 400 to 100 BC before Inca which was around 1200 to 1532 AC, The bull statues represented protection for houses and can be seen in most of the ancient structures. We saw a mummy at the museum and were told that ancient people used Muna for preservation and mummification.
Vacuna at Alcra Pukara Museum
A close up of the vicuna at the museum. We were told that vicuñas are protected animal and there would be a heavy fine and 25 years of jail time for shooting a vicuña or 8 years jail time if your car hit the animal on the road. Penalty is also given to people who witnessed the crime but did not report to the police. The fake fur of vicuna or Alpaca is every where in Peru as the real fur is extremely expensive. Given the contraband culture here, I would be hesitant to spent a large amount of money for a potential fake product.
Empty front of houses at Juliaca
This airport city is known for contraband products. From name brand clothing, shoes, appliances, cell phones to cars. You can get the fake stuff really cheap here. After they are manufactured, they would ship them to other major cities in Peru. The citizens here do not require to pay taxes and almost all houses do not complete the front as a way to evade paying taxes. There are 250,000 population living here. The roads are a mess as constructions are everywhere but never quite completely done. This reminds me of Egypt. Houses would never be finished completely to avoid taxes in Egypt as well.
Puno
Puno is quite hilly. Houses are built along the mountains. It would be challenging to get groceries home as the walk would be a constant uphill.
Another Long Tour Bus Trip
We are on board of the Inka Express bus to Cusco and it would take 10 hours to get there as we will stop at a number of attractions along the way.
Two days ago when we boarded the boat to Lake Titikaka, we thought someone stole our luggage. We were told to leave our luggage on a spot as soon as we got on board and took our seats. We thought they would take it to the storage area as there was no room in our seats to accommodate it. We had a great time meeting the people from around the world while cruising to the Amantani Island. When we got there, we got off the boat and waited to be assigned to a family to house us for the night. It was then we realized that we still have not claimed our luggage. When asked the tour guide, he asked if we did not have it all these time? Our first thought was "wow, the thieves in Peru are so quick and ruthless. They would steal things from the boat?" There was no valuable in the luggage except chargers and basic necessities such as tooth brush and under wear. We had to wait till everyone had been assigned before the guide could help us to go back to the boat to search for it. After a careful look, we finally found it on a well hidden away spot. Someone must have moved it there without telling us. What a relief!! Our hearts had a good workout that day :)
Muna Sour
We kept bumming into the same couple from Belgium since Arequipa and we have now become friends. They were on the same tour at Lake Titikaka and returned to Puno tonight. As we were walking on the main road, checking out menus in restaurants, they saw us from one of the restaurants and came out to ask us to join them for dinner. We had a wonderful time with them. They just got married two weeks ago and are honeymooning in Peru for three weeks. We share quite a similar itinerary. At the dinner tonight, we tried the kingfish and Muna Sour, both were quite good.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Nature's Dryer
Women washed their clothes first thing at the lake and then leave them on the rocks to dry. Very ecological.
National flower of Peru
In bell shape. Kids hats were knitted in the same shape and only the colours would differential it whether it was knitted for a boy or girl.
Trout for lunch
We had lunch at the Tequile island. The trout was delicious. They even deboned for us and we had a whole trout for the meal. The restaurant also served as an educational stop, showing us how men knit and why. They also showed us plants that have cleaning properties and the locals have been used them to wash wool and it was amazing to see how clean the wool turned out. I told them to market this plant as many people who have allergy reactions to the chemicals in the shampoo and soap would love to get this plant as it is all natural. The locals use them for shampoo, dish washing and cleaning in general.
Arch
The arches are signs to welcome visitors. The leaders who wear hats on the arch statues are actual leaders whose job is to count how many visitors visit the island each day and to ensure they pay the fee to the island. There were many arches along the main road that leads to the plaza. It was a good place to rest a bit to catch your breath before climbing more hills. Arches also separate different communities ( there were 6 on the island).
Plaza at Tequile Island - 3900 m
Look out at the plaza. Houses were built along the hills and terrace can be seen around the houses to plant various crops. There were good views to the lake ever where.
Men knitting
Tequile Island is known for knitting and textiles. Both men and women know how to knit. It was interesting to see that women walking along the uphills would knit while walking. We had trouble climbing uphill, let alone multitasking like them.
Taquile Island
The next morning, we took the boat to visit the second island, Taquile that houses about 2000 population (4000 for Amantani).
Selfie Early Morning at Amantani Island
The morning and night were quite cold. We had to buy the local hats to stay warmed. We each were provided with a single bed and blankets that weighted at least 70 lbs. No hot water was available and since this is their winter, we dared not to use the cold water to wash. Everything was very basic here. It was as if we were back to the 50's. the only tech available was the solar panels that generate electricity and allowed indoor lights. I think one night stay was good and beyond that would be challenging. The people were quite friendly. They have a rotational system to accommodate tourists. The whole island's main industry is tourism. The women work very hard - from cooking, cleaning, knitting and selling their products to gardening for food. The men seem to walk around and not doing much, some receive tourists and guide us to places to places, like our host.
Alpaca meat dinner
We had a tiny bit of Alpaca meat and lots of potatoes, beans, and carrot stew on rice for dinner. It tasted quite good except that it was heavy on carbohydrate.
Traditional outfit
The host family provided us with the outfit to prepare for the community dance.
While walking to the community hall in the dark as there were no street lights, we saw the most amazing stary night sky! We also saw one of the most spectacular shooing stars that lasted almost a minute. Richard was happy as a clam as he finally found the Crux de Sur (Southern Cross constellation) that can only be seen on this side of the hemisphere and had learned so many new constellations. He spent almost two hours out in the night trying to capture the stars and had taken some amazing shots.
Sunset
We climbed over 300 m to get to the top of the mountain (4072 m) to watch the sunset. There was the Pachatata temple where you supposed to walk three times around it and then throw a stone to the east to make a wish and it will come true. As soon as the sun was set, the temp drops fast and it was quite chilly. I had to put on all my winter clothes to survive and even then still felt cold.
Trail Leading to Pachatata Temple and Sunset
After lunch and a bit of rest, we all started to walk uphill to the top of the mountain to see the sunset but the road was in constant uphill and given the high altitude, most of us were huffing and puffing, gasping for more air. Our host gave us a bunch of Muna branches to smell when we are out of breath and it actually worked. The minty smell from the Muna leaves opens our lungs and allow more oxygen to get in. I gave away most to our group members and they all said it helped them breath easier on the uphill road to Pachtata.
Sheep on the road
There were many sheep on the island and some of the were allowed to wander around to find food. I wonder how each family would know which sheep belong to them? There must be some sort of markers on them to identify ownership. Our host family was an older couple in their 60's. They do not speak English and we do not speak Spanish. It was so funny when we tried to communicate with them using the basic dictionary we downloaded. Sometimes the translation was so far off from what we wanted to ask and we all had a good laugh.
MTV
MTV
Local lunch provided by our host family
We sampled all kinds of potatoes. Some of them firm while the other ones were dry. I like the little ones on the left that were crunchy and sweet. The cheese was laid on the bed of potatoes. The cheese was quite tasty.
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