Peru II

Peru Part II

March:
4 - Huacachina (dune buggy)
5 - Nazca
6 - Abancay
7 - Cuzco
11 - Santa Teresa
13 - Cuzco
14 - Puno (Lake Titicaca)



In the last post we were on our way back to the Panamericana, from our "little" detour.

Here we continue on, and as we come down from the mountain, the temperature rises rapidly, and the vegetation disappears....
Except of course for the cactus's...or is it cactea..cactie...anyways, the point is there were several of these things piled up on each other to make up a very tall column.

I don't think this picture needs any words...Caroline says "qui si frotte si pique" :-)

On the way back to dry land we decide to wash off the kilos of mud accumulated in the last days. I hope I won't be chastised for the apparent child labour.

Our plan for the next day was to try this little oasis in the middle of nowhere, Huacachina, originally created for the Peruvian elite to spend the weekend. When that went sour and the prices tumbled, the backpacker crowd took over and now it's a prime location to try out the HUGE sand dunes, some of the biggest in the world. And you do that in a dune buggy, which is basically an old car chassis reinforced with some roll-over bars and fitted with an engine, anything from a corolla to a big ford V8. We chose the smallest as they are the most maneuverable, and they can slide sideways on a hill without tipping....theoretically.

And here's a shaky video (stabalized in post-processing) of this crazy ride. It must be tried at least once in a lifetime.

No, she didn't get to drive it, but makes for a nice bragging photo.
Many of them don't have starters because the sand gets inside and damages them. So they always park on a hill.

You have to sit on top of one of these to really appreciate the sheer size of these dunes. This area is considered "static" as the dunes change a bit but don't "walk". The black dot in the picture is a buggy, not a bug.

Walking on these takes all the energy you have. Climbing was out of the question for us.

But descending is another story, and we had some sandboards, Caroline demonstrates on one of the longest runs (but not the longest!)


And an artsy shot

The little green oasis. The water was green as well. And the hostel's pool was the greenest!

That evening the bartender (a French-Swiss chick that was living in the hostal with her 5 year-old daughter that almost drowned a few months before in the amazon...!) cooked for all of us, and we had a really good time. There were Canadians, Americans, and Argentinians and we all understood each other.

Many beers later

Caroline, as usual, entertains the local cat.

Next morning they let the resident parrots out of their respective cages and they all started to roam the backyard, it was great teasing them!

He was gorgeous! (I never thought I could ever use this sentence)

Luckily he was slow, otherwise he would have stapled my fingers. No taming of the beast today...

And a video of these funny birds


On the road agaaaain (like Donkey from Shrek would sing) Funny, it looks like the same as yesterday and the day before. I'm ready for a change.

Not far after, we reach the town of Nazca, with its world-famous Inka lines, only visible from a great distance above. So we took a plane tour to do just that.

It all started well, with great views of these amazing drawings.

The Bird

The geography look great as well, and it reminded me a little of the view around and above Reno.

Here's a good picture of the actual size of one of the drawings, relative to the size of the white bus. They are huge.

But the 45 minute flight turned quickly into a nightmare as I became very sick, with the plane falling and rising in pockets of air. I stopped looking at the lines within 20 minutes, and spend all my energy trying not the puke! Almost an hour later I declared success, but I didn't get any better for the rest of the evening.

It was almost not worth it. Next time I get on such a small plane with such strong winds, I'll make sure I'm stuffed with Gravol.

Slept the night in not-so-pretty Nazca, and left again for the mountains, direction Cusco and Macchu Picchu. The road started very bad, full of holes in the pavement (which are the worst because they have sharp edges and if you're not careful you hit the rims). Things improved vastly after Puquio.

As we crossed the top of the pass, we stopped to put some warm clothes on and I saw a cow buried to the neck. No, wait , it's just a decapitated head... So I had some fun with it!
You can see the background through its mouth!!

One of the highest passes we crossed in this trip. It was freezing cold and walking was a chore.

The road was beautiful, with perfect twisties, and we even saw (for the first time) a double rainbow.

Another dramatic action shot

We didn't make it to Cusco that night, so we slept in hectic Abancay, 2 hours before our intended destination. This place (like many others) had one particular obsession. This time, it was photo development stores. I think we counted 15, in a random walk that evening. We didn't deem necessary to take photos...


Once in Cusco, we went to a recommended hostal, "La Posada del Viajero", right smack in the centre, and they were nice enough to let us park one bike in the hallway.

We had some local meal, and for the first time I also had some coca tea. It was good, but I didn't feel absolutely anything in terms of energy boosting. Coffee is a whole lot more potent.

The centre is filled with indigenous people a dressed up for the occasion (the tourists are the occasion), complete with a Llama in tow. But you gotta be careful when taking pictures of them, cause it's very good business, and they all jump on you to ask for money. And if you made the mistake to take a picture of a group, then your breakfast budget just evaporated.
Notice the sly method I use, I'm so smart..!

Right in the main plaza, there is a bar called Norton's which for the non-bikers among you is a classic motorcycle icon of the 60's, and it's what Che Guevara rode in his Latin American expedition - See The Motorcycle Diaries movie
We stopped to have some good English beer and put our names in the biker's travel log.

Probably the best burger on the planet.

The pub had a balcony with views of the main plaza, so I took the opportunity to snap some pictures of the professional posers. They immediately saw me (they're not professional for nothing), posed and then ran under the balcony to ask for the bounty...crap!

Walking around I gave in and paid for a few shots of these cute kids. You have to give a pesos to each person in the pic. Can you believe they included the dog in the count?!?Sometimes I feel like they think we're stupid.

Walking up and down the hills is cool as it's a very pretty area, but you spit your lungs out after a while.

Panoramic views of Cusco

Main plaza in the middle.

Caring for the people....from it's distant hilltop stage.

We went to visit a nearby ruin site on the largest hill, Saqsaywaman. No, I couldn't remember that name, had to look it up again. It's a really large site, the entire hill is part of the compound and only a bit of it was restored.

Baby Llama all puuuuurty :-)

But mommy ain't too happy! That thing looked pissed off...!

There was no way we were going to pay their ridiculous entry fee, so I settled for some good old monkeying around outside the ruin compound. Notice how large and perfectly cut those stones were!

On the way down I had corn and cheese, I will miss this a lot when I go back home (where corn is too sweet for my taste)

Caroline took a few shots of the resident animals.

The Cat

The Dog

And the inevitable fight. Guess who won? That cat will survive the tough Peruvian life!

This is what you would do if you climbed quickly that hill...

Some places use barbwire, others use broken glass. Here it's the eco-choice in the form of little cactuses on top of the stone fences, to deter thieves.

The beautiful main plaza

Again....

Beautiful cobblestone streets. I love this town!

And again...

My first Alpaca steak. See the excitement in my eyes! I was not disappointed, it's tender and tastes great.

Next step on our checklist was famous Machu Picchu. We quickly found out the price of popularity, you need to call your bank for a small loan to get there. The road doesn't go all the way, and that is not going to change anytime soon. The only "standard" way to go there is to take a train, which is probably one of the most expensive routes in South America, so the profits are fat and that (like anywhere else in the world) dictates politics. No roads shall be built as long as 5000 people pay the $150 return train ticket EVERY day. You can thank the Canadian company Orient Express who is part of the consortium that operates the service.

So being the cheap bastard that I am (in addition to a bit of anarchism) I decided we should do the "alternate" route. This involves riding around the mountains to get to the back side of Machu Picchu. This turned out to be a 3 day adventure, and in the middle, the longest walk of my life!

Day 1: Ride from Cusco to Santa Maria on a beautiful, scenic, recently-paved twisting road. Then confront the most idiotic truck drivers we have seen in this trip so far, going 60kph, on gravel , cutting corners, and with the general purpose of flattening us. Then take a fantastic 1-lane dirt mountain road that replaced the main road, buried under a landslide for almost half a year, to Santa Teresa, where the road ends and improvisation begins.


Caroline gulps down a beer to recoup from the day's emotions and annihilate any anxiety about tomorrow's uncertainty.

Shortly after another couple showed up, they were Argentinians, they had just finished exactly what were about to start and they were bikers!! We chatted until midnight and unbeknown to us it was the beginning of a string of semi-random re-encounters that would see us become very close friends. Fer & Sol, cheers amigos!

Day 2: Wake up at 4:30....Why? Because we have to walk 15kms along train tracks to get to Machu Picchu. And we wanted to get there early so we could climb Wayna Picchu where you can see the entire ruin compound from above. There are restrictions on the number of people that can climb that mountain, and the list is usually filled early in the morning.

The day started by taking a cab to the Hidroelectrica on a baaad road, and the walk started. We were strangely full of energy and hope for a good day.

Bananas attached to my holster, I felt invincible.

Wait, what's that, there's a train??? It must come back, too! So I supposed you could take the train instead....

We had originally contemplated to take the bikes on the train tracks, early in the morning before the train workers woke up, but we soon discovered that it would have been a complete disaster. There are countless river crossings and the distance between the wood spacers is sometimes larger than a wheel. You would have to bring a wooden ramp, at least a meter long....

With Machu Picchu mountain in front of us, we still walked another hour to get to the other side of it, where the trail starts.

3 hours later we were at the start of the trail. Now it's another hour for the steep climb to the top. Time for the third banana!

This walk took the life out of us. Here, Caroline pretends to be OK, she collapsed shortly after... (just kidding..)

Success was short-lived when the ticket lady informed us that the Wayna Picchu list had been filled an hour before. Crap!

The site is huge, and the map confusing (and I needed a break) so I conveniently stared at the map for a little while...

They combined existing rocks with cut stones, integrating everything in a beautiful demonstration of architectural ability. Again, stones cut to perfection.

The size and location makes this an absolute wonder. I am sometimes disappointed by over-hyped touristic locations, perhaps I work my self up too much.
Not this time, Machu Picchu delivered!

The classic touristic shot (from the classic location)

That was the real green, no postprocessing oversaturation required. Noticed the collapsed Llama.

Very steep hills, but the Incas devised these balconies for their agricultural needs.

Not sure how well the pictures illustrates it, but that wall was nearly vertical. No safety cordon to go down the stairs, then or now.

Llama chillin'
I felt like doing the same so we had a picknick against the written rules. We're shit-disturbing bikers, yeah!

Another fantastic piece of integration.

Where's the plasma? No, really, never thought rocks can be shaped to be comfortable.

So seeing that we missed the opportunity to climb Wayna Picchu, we asked the employees what else can be done about it, and they said that an even better view can be had from the actual Cerro Machu Picchu, which is significantly higher (and significantly longer to walk).
So we took on the challenge!!

The view got better and better, while the batteries ran lower and lower...

Complete with cliff-hanging trail...

Made it to the top, with batteries exhausted. But look at that view!!
Not many people, and the hour we spent there a grand total of 5 people showed up.

While a picture may be worth 1000 words, being there was worth a billion.

That's Machu Picchu down in the "valley", and next to it is Wayna Picchu, to give an idea on how much higher this peak is.

One of the guys that showed up was a crazy Canadian who decided to do something the he said no one else did before.

Moon Machu Picchu!

We delayed the inevitable as much as we could, then endured the knee-destroying descent to the ruins, took a wallet-abusing bus ride back to Aguas Caliente (where the standard train trip ends) and started the return trip back to Santa Teresa along the train tracks. Met lots of backpackers along the way who were all surprised to hear they still had hours of walking ahead of them. Half-way through, night fell and we continued in complete eerie darkness until the Hidroelectrica where a cab was waiting for us. All in all, 30 kms of muscle churning walk on unstable rocks, plus a 3 hour ascent to the top of Cerro Machu Picchu, made for the longest walk of my life, unlikely to be repeated ever again. We got back to the Hotel exhausted but satisfied.

We even found enough energy to go to some thermal baths 15 minutes outside of town. Almost fell asleep in there, it was so relaxing!Breakfast and begger included...

Some old rusty bridge on the way and we were soon back on the nightmare piece of road (only 20kms) where I almost lost it (mentally) and eventually stopped the bike sideways in a slide and blocked the flow of doorknobs called drivers until I calmed down. And the worst thing is? They were just laughing.....

My spirits and humor went right back up in a gas station where this unhappy pooch was being de-stinked.

There was some torrential rain overnight, and the result was this huge landslide, the entire length of the mountain where the road was climbing. At the bottom of the hill the mud was as tall as the bike!

You may be able to se the road workers up the hill.

Half-way up the mountain.

It was a really nice drive, and neither of us regretted the extended trip, what an experience!

Remember Fer and Sol, the two Argentinians we met days before in Santa Teresa? As we pulled into Cusco for the second time, to spend the night, guess who runs in the middle of the road? I thought I was being attacked by some savage :-) Then I recognized his jovial face!
We went out drinking that night, shared more stories and idealistic dreams and waved goodbye for the second time, promising each others to meet again one day.

One bike comfortably parked inside where it's warm. Guess whose it is, mine or hers?

As we were lazily leaving Cusco the next day (in the afternoon), we met an American, Andy, on his vintage-ish BMW, in front of a convenience store. We talked a bit and decided to ride together a little. That little turned out to be 2 weeks and we all had a fantastic time, who knew Americans can be so kewl? :-)
We only split later in Bolivia, after my crash, and he had to make it to Buenos Aires. But I'm getting ahead of myself here, that's for the next post.

A little fuzzy, but I love this shot.
On the way to Puno, the city by the Lake Titicaca, the worlds highest navigable lake at 3800m

Our bikes are carburated (welcome to the 21 century, Mr kawasaki), so at high altitudes like these the air/gas mixture is wrong (less air) so the bike runs like a dog (a three-legged Bulldog is faster). Here I slip-stream in order to maintain 90kph. Pathetic...

Our first rickshaw ride, where Caroline left her miniwalet with her drivers license, never to be seen again.

This is a reconditioning effort of a classic steamship, the Yavari, which was build in England in 1862, shipped to the western shores of Peru and carried as a kit by mules over 6 years to the lake, and reassembled here. Unbelievable!

We took a boat cruise to see the main attraction of the lake, the floating reed islands of the Uros indians. Yes, they are manufactured, and I couldn't help thinking that Jules Vernes got the inspiration for his book, the Propeler Island.

It quickly became evident that tourism had completely changed these people, as their life seemed to revolve solely around gringos with cameras and dinero for their souvenirs.

What an eerie feeling to walk on this soft material that floats, and needs to be continuously refreshed from the top, as the bottom rots and falls at the bottom of the ocean.

Got a free crash course on their history and technicalities of living on such a unconventional surface. Quite professional I might say.

Oven right on the floor, still don't know why the island was not on fire.

Granny making flour. She was 180 years old...

They are very good at making beautifully decorated boats. This one was outright pimping..

I thought I was dreaming but they even had electricity, solar-powered.

On a last note, as we were getting ready to leave, one of the indians came to us and offered us to stay in their "hotel" (a reed cabin, really) suggesting we can have "fun" and and nobody will bother us. A bit confused by his offer we refused and then he moved on to Andy, to propose him nothing less than an unforgettable night with a girl of his choice...! Our jaws dropped, and this remained a subject of many jokes around the technicalities of such an encounter. Fun aside, it's incredibly sad that such a thing is happening, and unfortunately I'm sure sometimes the offer is taken.

Finally, we left Puno, and not long after that we reached the border with Bolivia. We were excited but in the same time a little jittery, as Peru had been a mixed experience, and we knew our next hosting country would raise the bar...