Lately, I haven’t truly deserved the title “viajero” unless you count the simple fact of being outside of the United States. The rest of the world would not accept this criterion, and neither do I. In fact, I was getting a bit of “the itch” come summer time, and there were certainly days during which it felt as if my next adventure couldn’t come soon enough.
This adventure did in fact come, and it came in the form of pure, unmitigated tourism. Now, this is something I haven’t done in a while. I am always working, visiting someone, translating, or playing tour guide, but in this instance, it was sight-seeing plain and simple.
Last May, a very good friend of mine Ms. Laura Broyles, graduated from the University of North Texas, and as is customary in the Broyles household, she was offered a trip to Europe. After several attempts to plan said trip, she finally decided to redeem her free trip in another location. She had studied pre-Colombian art in college, and thought it would be nice to go see some of the Incan and pre-Incan sights in Peru. I could not have agreed more. So, around the end of June, I once again packed my bags and headed for Lima, to meet up with a friend I had not seen in some time.
As the Spanish-speaker, it was my job to organize the trip and make the bookings, etc. Not to spoil the ending or anything, but planning for a trip in a third-world country is sort of like planning to win the lottery…in every state…simultaneously.
Note- if you would like to follow along with pictures, they can be found here: http://flickr.com/photos/7139276@N03/
Just go to the last page, and work backwards.
We arrived in Lima, where we spent the night in a really bizarre hotel with tons of dark, religious iconography. Our first day, we visited the ruins of Pachacamac, waded into the Pacific ocean (a big deal for both of us), and explored the catacombs of one of Lima’s oldest churches. The next day, we boarded a rickety old bus on its way to Huaraz.
It was only a 9 hour bus ride, but by the time we had arrived, I had a fever, and my wallet was gone. Not the best start to the trip, but in the morning, I felt back to my old self, and things with the wallet were more or less worked out. We took a scenic trip past snow-capped mountains and 4,000-meter-high lakes to Chavin de Huantar, one of the oldest ruins on the continent. Here, the priests built an elaborate system of underground mazes for disorienting any visitors. These labyrinthine passageways, combined with the darkness, smoke, and hallucinogenic substances that the residents were forced to take before entering, would conjure a sense of otherworldly mystery surrounding the cult activities. Laura and I refrained from the drugs, but the temple was pretty impressive, nonetheless.
Then, it was on to Trujillo, a quaint little colonial town near the coast. There, we hit up the Huacas de La Luna y Sol, which belonged to the extremely violent Moche people. Archeologists worked all around us as we admired the elaborate murals (usually depicting horrific acts). We also visited Chan Chan, the largest adobe structure in the World. The only had about a 10th of it open to the public, but even that was enough to occupy us for several hours.
We proceeded even farther north, ever more off the beaten path, to the town of Chachapoyas, famous for very little other than the massive ruins of Kuelap nearby. We left at 5 the next morning in a tiny van headed to Kuelap with a handful of other tourists, winding up and around countless mountains, admiring Peru’s beautiful landscape. The ruins were built on the summit of a mountain, with a steep cliff face on one side, and a tall, hallway-like opening, only wide enough for one or two people to enter the city at a time. The sheer size alone was impressive, and the view only added to the breathtaking-ness of it all.
The next day, we were packed and ready to leave, when our hotel clerk informed us that the highway was closed from 6am until 6pm. This is precisely where our master-plan delineated, and consequently, never recovered. We decided to make the best of the free day, by trekking to the third tallest waterfall in the world, Gocta. As a note to all you fellow travelers out there, when travelling from sea-level to 12,000 feet, allow time to acclimate before making a 7-hour trek through the mountains. We survived, but not happily.
We took a 22-hour bus to Lima, and crashed in a hotel. Taking it easy seemed like a good idea, and it was the Fourth of July, so we celebrated by venturing into the super-touristy parts of town, eating something other than Peruvian food (Chinese) and catching a movie.
The next morning, we began our second half of the trip, into the southern parts of Peru. Our first stop was Huacachina; literally, a desert oasis. We rode a dune buggy into the surrounding dunes, and attempted to board down the massive slopes of shifting sand. It’s a lot like snowboarding, for those of you who are curious, but the sand does not melt in your mouth. In fact, it does somewhat the opposite. For anyone interested in traveling to Peru, this is a must. I cannot remember having that much fun. Ever.
We took a quick bus to Nazca, where we had scheduled a flight over the famous Nazca lines (Google it). Through some pretty shady dealings, we fell victim to a classic tourist trap, and ended up paying way more than we ought to have, but we counted it as a once-in-a-lifetime kind of thing, and went ahead with the flight anyway. Plus, we wanted to get back on the road and make up for some lost time, so waiting until the next day was out of the question.
Next stop, Arequipa. Thinking that this would only be a one-day stop, we visited the important museums, the famous city monastery, and the town square. We ate a traditional Peruvian meal of fried guinea pig and alpaca (llama) steaks, and planned for the next day’s travels. These plans, however, would not come to fruition.
Unbeknownst to me, the following two days were slated as ‘paro’ or ‘strike’ days in the calendars of everyone in the entire country. Now, I have seen Colombian demonstrations, and as powerful and sometimes frightening as they are, they are nothing compared to what was about to take place. The whole country shut down. Massive boulders and fire-walls blocked every road and highway. People took to the streets in droves, carrying signs, rocks and sticks. Any business that dared to open its doors was promptly ransacked.
We were stuck. There were no buses to anywhere, and flights out filled up within seconds. Fortunately for us however, some outdoor sporting companies were able to continue as normal, so we spent the next two days mountain biking and white-water rafting. All in all, it was quite fun, but we were way off schedule, and a sacrifice needed to be made. We had reservations to visit Machu Picchu that needed to be confirmed in person on the 10th, and there seemed to be no feasible way to get there by that time. We checked at the bus terminal one last time, just to be sure, and miraculously, there was a bus leaving for Cuzco that night. We immediately bought the tickets and ran back to grab our things.
We had to bypass Puno and Lake Titicaca, which is regrettable, but we had no choice.
Arriving in Cuzco, we took a taxi to nearby Ollantaytambo (say that one three times fast) and settled down. We had made it, and everything was going to be fine. Our celebratory mood, however, dampened a bit when Laura fell ill. We visited a small Inca site, and rested for the remainder of the evening.
We saved the very best for last. The following morning, we entered into the granddaddy of all pre-historic sites on the American Continents; Machu Picchu. This will sound obvious to many of you, but it was absolutely enormous. It took us 5 hours to explore, and I am certain we did not see everything there was to see. Words cannot describe the majesty of that place. I was in absolute awe.
We concluded our trip by gallivanting about Cuzco, buying a few last minute gifts, and flying on to Lima, and then Bogota (Quick fact: We spent a grand total of 89 hours on buses, and no, that was no a typo). Laura spent a week in Colombia with me, seeing the sights and familiarizing herself with my life here in South America.
All in all, I had a great time. I think my wanderlust has been satiated for another little while, so I’ve been able to focus more on my work here in Bogota, but we’ll discuss more of that next time.
Hasta la proxima,
Tyler
