Friday, October 30, 2009

Inka Trail Trek

Yes, I made it through the trek. I will be posting all the info and photos when I get back.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Peru and Machu Picchu Day 3

This will be the last post for a few days. Sorry, there's no internet in the jungle...

Today I had to take it sort of easy so I opted not to try any tours or anything. I got up and had a quick breakfast then headed to the main square, Plaza del Armos. They were having a large festival which I wasn't certain if it was common for Sundays or something special was going on. They had a parade and a ceremonial raising of the flags and a lot of military show during the course of the morning until about noon. They entire plaza was packed solid with people. I walked around that a few times and watched some of the spectacle at times too. I also walked both up and down hill a bit and got to see some more of the city. Overall it is an attractive city though some of the third world nature does show the further away from the main square you get. I wandered for some time then opted to have a beer and lunch at Norton Rats Pub right on the square. I had a cheeseburger and a pint of Abbot Ale. Being there gave me a chance to look at a bit of the show from their balcony.

After lunch I came back to the hotel and checked football scores to see the Patriots won, which was nice to find out and then relaxed in the room for a bit. I took one more small walk around town to decide on a place for dinner then headed back to the room to relax until it was time for the pre-trek meeting.

At 6pm I met my guide an other trekmates. The guide is named Justino and he spoke English well enough and seemed to have a sense of humor. My trekmates are all together and 2 from San Fran and one from Phoenix. Brian, Bill and Cindy (I made a mental note that is the BBC). The orientation was fairly quick and informative. This hike does sound like it is going to be difficult at times but I am sure I will make it.

After the meeting I walked down to the square and had dinner at Paititi, which is a Quechua name for a lost Incan city in the jungle. I had Lomo Soldato which was a beef dish with tomato and onion and peas served with a side of french fries and rice. It was good. I coupled that with glass of red wine and they gave me a free pisco sour. Pisco is like their version of tequila. I finished off with fruit and ice cream for dessert. While there I met a nice Peruvian woman from Lima who apparently works for their version of the IRS and travels their country giving anti-corruption training courses to the local officials. She was very nice. She went to University in Austin she said and her English was very good. She told me the festival was for the "Black Christ" who protects the region from earthquakes. I guess it is a yearly festival, so what I saw in the morning was not common.

After dinner I came back to write this and get packed and crash early because the initial bus ride to the trek starts at 5:45am.

See you all when the trek is over.

Peru and Machu Picchu Day 2

I decided that I should try the Sacred Valley tour that SAS offered this morning. I got up early, got cleaned up and had a quick breakfast at the hotel coffee bar which was basically a continental breakfast except they would cook you eggs. Since I don't eat breakfast I mainly had a couple rolls and a lot of fruit plus some coffee and juice.

After breakfast I tried to go to the SAS office but they didn't open until 8am and it was still just 7:30. I did a couple wandering laps around town until it was sufficiently 8am and then headed back to the office where I purchased the tour for $15USD. I then waited a few minutes to be brought to the bus because the tour started at 8:30. The tour was an all day bus tour so I figured it would be a good way to get through a day.

The first stop was a small village that basically was a tourist stop to try to make people buy stuff at a small flea market. The stop was short and fairly unmemorable. I believe the name of the village was Ccorao. From there we traveled to the town of Pisac and saw the Inka ruins there. They don't know what the Inka name for Pisac was but the ruins were very impressive, sporting a farming terrace and a temple to the sun amongst other things. There was quite a bit of climbing and I found myself huffing in the thin air at any of the climbs. These ruins were very cool, but the rain storm that came in just about the time we got to the temple was kind of rough. There was a small thatched roof shelter that we all hid under for the 15 to 20 minutes it took to pass then continued the tour. The rain threatened again by the time we were heading back to the bus but it didn't start up until we were already riding again.

The next stop was the town of Urubamba where we had lunch. Apparently the different ways that people booked the tour got them different restaurants. Those that booked like I did pretty much got dropped off at the Inka House which had a buffet for 38 soles but it didn't look like what I wanted so I ordered off the menu. It was interesting trying to get this across with the tiniest amount of Spanish I know. I seem to always want to revert to my minimal French when trying to speak to someone in Spanish. It is an odd phenomenon. Anyway I had Pollo Champione which was a breast of chicken with a cream sauce that had ham and mushrooms. It was decent but maybe not 30 soles decent (that's about $10). They picked everyone up and we headed to the next stop.

Ollataytambo was a very impressive Inka ruins. There was probably more climbing than in Pisac but it was definitely worth it. The stay here had a small bit of drizzle and a lot of wind but I was very impressed with what I saw. The main purpose of this ruin may have been astronomical on the upper levels and the lower level was a tambo which is a storage point for provisions for travelers. The mountains across the valley had grain silos. The upper sections of the ruins appeared to have walls built for military protection. The guide told us the story of the giant rocks that were cut and moved from a mountain 7km away down ramp. They had to cross the Urubamba river and to do that they diverted the river with a canal, moved the rocks past where the river was and then rediverted the canal back to the river. Apparently because Ollataytambo was never finished the river still is diverted into their artificial canal. There are more stones that were in transit found along the way. This all is testament to what people can do without heavy machinery. As a note, the Spanish destroyed a lot of the carving in Ollataytambo because they were trying to convert the Inkas to Catholicism.

From Ollataytambo we again got on the bus and rode to our highest point in the tour. The village of Chinchero which was about 12000 feet altitude. This was a small village again mainly meant for tourist shops but they did show us a demonstration of how Inka textiles were made. It was interesting but the star of the show may have been the small child strapped to the woman's back as she ran the presentation. I am sure the children lovers out there would have loved it. After the presentation we had a small amount of free time and I visited the church which was impressively gaudy. I had to pay a sole for them to let me out though. From there we rode back for quite some time in the dark to Cusco. On the tour I met Hank, Orlando and Paul along with 2 Scots and the son's Dutch fiance. It was fun talking to all of them.

When we got back Orlando, Paul and I decided to get dinner together. They wanted to go to the Inka Grill which I had already gone to but said sure. We all decided to get cleaned up then meet at about 8:15 (the tour got back at 7). I was finished early so walked to the square where a sort of festival was going on. I watched them set off these crazy firework contraptions they had built, wondering how many people would go home injured. After about 15 minutes of that I met Paul and Orlando and we ate at the Inka grill. Orlando is Peruvian and married to Paul's sister. They picked some Peruvian style appetizers. Trout in a spicy citrus sauce. Beef heart skewers and a concoction of shrimp, avocado and mashed potatoes and we all tried those. I had the Aji de Gallina which is shredded chicken in cream sauce with leeks and rice on the side. It was good and I ate it but I totally forgot to take pictures of all the food. I tried a Cusqenia beer too. Was very Budweiser. From there we all headed our own ways and I basically crashed for the night.

To point I should mention a couple things I haven't. The plumbing in Peru is not so good so they tell you not to put paper in it. Instead you have to put it in a bin. Definitely different. So far I have had to buy all my water. I typically drink from hotel tap but it is better not to here. It means I have been drinking less water than I normally would. So far however I have not experienced anything like altitude sickness. I have a fairly good sunburn from the first two days here.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Peru Day 1 Part 2

I went back to the room and relaxed for a while and watched a couple soccer matches. Neither were South American. One was European premier league and one was MLS. Anyway, that killed enough time that I was ready to search out dinner. I walked back downtown (which isn't far) and did a loop of the main square. On the first pass I saw a place called the Inka Grill which had a couple people in it. I did the second loop around to there and decided that was where I would eat. I ordered the alpaca medallions with quinoa as a side. By the time I started eating some more folks came in and the couple next to me who were a brother and sister pair who were native Peruvians from Lima that grew up in England and now the sister lives in Montreal and the brother in NYC asked me what I was eating and I told them it was alpaca. She decided to order it too. Due to their makeup it was impossible to tell their accents. Sitting just beyond them was a pair of women probably in their 50s from Montreal. So for the rest of the evening we all talked about various things. All four of them were very nice people and it was fun to talk hockey in Peru out of nowhere.

To the food. The alpaca was very tender. It had a slightly gamey taste but not overpowering. They didn't ask me how I wished it cooked but I got it basically almost medium rare leaning a tad bit more to the medium side. I really liked the taste. The quinoa was interesting. It was sort of like a fibrous couscous. I suspect it was cooked in a broth. I went against suggestions and had one solitary glass of merlot. I ended up having their dulce delice for dessert as well and it was very good. Not too sweet with sauces of strawberry and pineapple on the side. Paired with a decent coffee it was altogether a very meal.

From the restaurant I got back to the roo at about 8pm and watched boxing for about a half an hour before I decided I was passing out and went to bed.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention this. One of the stations on TV is NHK which is Japan's national television station. I thought it was funny.

Friday, October 23, 2009

Peru and Machu Picchu Day 1

Today was the first day I have been in Florida in over 20 years. Definitely more. I have also never been to Miami before. Of course I had to cross the entire airport to get to my connecting flight. The airport was nothing special and entirely in Spanish it seems. The flight to Miami was uneventful with only a little turbulence. The flight to Lima was a bit over 5 hours. I watched the second Transformers movie sort of and passed out towards the middle. I did manage to get a bit of sleep on the flight which surprised me. In Lima I had to go through customs and rescreen for security for a 3rd time. Things went ok though. I had more than 2 hours to get to the connecting flight to Cusco. The wait for the last flight was longer than the flight itself.

I arrived in Cusco. There was supposed to be someone from the tour company to pick me up but he was late and I ended up taking a taxi to the hotel. When I got there they told me he was waiting for me. I did give him 20 minutes. Oh well. The Hotel Marqueses is an old mansion converted into a hotel. The room is bigger than a European room but of unusual layout. They have computer with internet connection and a half dead Spanish keyboard that I am typing this on. I decided to sleep until noon because I was exhausted and chasing a cold then I got up and cleaned up and walked around the main square. Perfect timing. It started to downpour. I ended up getting lunch at a tourist trap Italian restaurant that had only non-Peruvians in it. I had spaghetti al pesto. It wasn't bad but the pesto was more pasty than I was expecting. No alcohol they say it is no good starting out in the altitude with it. I did have a coffee. Oh, and the hotel gave me my first coca tea as soon as I got here.

Everyone around the town tries to sell you something. Pictures, ponchos, massages, you name it. It is sort of tiring saying no thank you so much but I suppose they have to attack all tourists or they will never make any money. I wandered around a bit and talked to one of the locals trying to sell me small paintings for a few minutes and then took a bunch of pictures of the area.

After that I visited SAS Travel and settled up for my tour. Every trip this week is a full 16 people but for some odd reason the tour I am on is actually only going to be 4. I am sort of psyched about that. I may even end up having a tent all to myself. Anyway, I am doing the extra night in Aguas Callientes and have opted for a single room for the hostal there. After settling I wandered some more then headed back to the room where I tried to quickly type this. I will relax a bit then try to get some dinner maybe. I should be able to post each day until Monday when I am on the hike, but this keyboard is going to really test my patience.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

Airport Bars

Why is it that no airport bar has a clock?

Leaving for Peru Today

My plane departs today at 7pm. My hair has been shorn into a buzz cut type thing. I am not happy with it but I am sure it will be much easier to deal with on the trails. I am really at the hyper point of wanting to get on my way but I still have a couple of hours of work to go. I will make it though.

I will try to get whatever posts I can while I am there but they will be brief if at all. I won't be posting pictures until I return for certain. I am going to try to carry my pack the whole way though I've been told to get a porter by two different parties who have already made the hike. I am stubborn though and it is a challenge to me.

Hopefully the Bruins will find some consistent winning ways and the Patriots will take the game in the UK while I am gone. I suspect I won't be seeing any American sports for the duration.

As a side note, due to a sudden and unexpected price drop the airline ticket for Japan in spring has been purchased today as well...

Friday, October 16, 2009

Less than 1 Week to Peru

Technically by this time next week I will be in the town of Cusco, Peru. I should land at about 7:30 and I don't think it's that long from the airport to the hotel. The hotel/tour company is supposed to be sending someone to pick me up, so I don't even have to worry about that aspect of the trip. The flights will be overnight flights and in the dark the whole way which may give me a chance to get some sleep though historically I have not been able to sleep on planes. I at least won't have that person that opens the window to the sunshine every 10 minutes.

I am basically packed for the trip at this point. I have to borrow a couple more items from my brother which I will be getting tomorrow and I have to do some laundry to get a couple more clothing items ready but overall the majority of what I need is already in the bag.

I have never packed into a hiking backpack before. Every trip I've taken I have brought a backpack, but one that is meant to hold a laptop. This backpack is a tad bit bigger than my laptop bag but I am hoping they won't give me a hard time with its size. I think with it being under packed I should be ok though. I hope so anyway. The remainder of my gear is going into a suitcase which will make the trip in the belly of the plane.

I've managed to do a lot of walking/running/hiking over the past few weeks even in the bad weather and I have worked out almost every day except a couple where I went out with friends after work and think I'll be in proper shape for the hike. I have dropped almost 10 lbs since the trip to Denmark in which I gained 3 due to the excessive eating. I think it will be better for me to have less of me to carry through the mountains.