Lake Titicaca and the last of Peru

I have officially left Peru, for the first time this trip (I´ll be returning to fly out of Lima).  I spent my last few days in Puno, a small town on the shores of Lake Titicaca.  I have officially recovered from my Inca Trail trek, as I willingly climbed 645 steps (I counted them) to the Mirador Cóndor for a beautiful panoramic view of the city and lake.

The next day I headed out on a two day Island tour in Lake Titicaca.  It was really interesting...  The first day we took a boat out to the Uros, which are floating islands made of stands of reeds that are literally strapped together and anchored in place.  About 6-10 indiginous families live on such islands, and there are about 10 of them.  They are constantly building more of these because they only last for 30-45 years before they decompose.  Our next stop was a small natural island where we were going to stay the night with one of the indidinous families that lived there.  We were segregated into groups based on which house we would be staying at.  My group consisted of two Spanish women, two Brazilian women, and an Argentinian couple.  Everyone spoke spanish...except me.  It was a good opportunity to work on my listening skills, and the Spanish women were quite patient and beared with me as I stumbled through conversation.

The island village was a sleepy (sleepy sleepy, sleepy sleepy) little town that probably had a higher population of sheep than people.  The bathroom was little more than a hole in the ground in a shed at the rear of the property.  The accomodations were...rustic.  Candle lighting at night and wood fire cooking added to the feeling that I had just traveled 500 years back in time.  The locals threw a small fiesta for us turistas that night with traditional dress and dancing.  The next morning we set off for the largest of the natural islands on the Peruvian side, Tequíle.  A 45 minute hike brought us to the main square, which was swarming with little girls in traditional dress selling friendship bracelets for 1 sol (about 30 cents) and giving doleful stares and whining when you refused.  The return to Puno in the afternoon was spent tanning on the roof of the boat (very carefully, the sun is deceivingly strong at 3800m elevation) for the 3 hour boat ride back.  All in all it was a very interesting way to experience the indiginous culture on the world´s highest navigable lake.  I arrived in La Paz, Bolivia today around 5pm.  From what I´ve seen of the city, I´m pretty excited to spend the next few days wandering the neverending open air markets and hilly streets.

Rapids, Revolts, and Going Solo

Spent the last few days in Arequipa, Peru, a city that gets over 300 days of sun a year. The weather has been compliant with the trend, it has been absolutely beautiful every day. The first day here we went white water rafting in the Río Chili, which is a flow of melted ice cap from the city´s guardian Volcano Misti which sits just a few miles outside of town. The second day we headed out to the outskirts of town, where there is a nice outlook over Arequipa and Misti. The plan after that was to head to a small neighboring village that had built several public pools that were fed by the river water. However, the taxi driver refused to take us due to a large amount of demostrations and protests that were going on. We had already been caught in a couple such demostrations in the main plaza in Arequipa. (I don´t know how a group of people that filled the street for an entire block snuck up on us, but they came out of nowhere and we were suddenly surrounded.) In compromise, we ended up at a public ¨olympic pool¨ which was half filled with water. I happened to get a Peruvian admirer while at the pool... a ten year old Peruano boy who chatted me up in Spanish and checked to see that I was watching every time he did a running dive into the pool. Eventually he took my picture and settled for watching me from afar.

Arequipa is at an elevation of 7800 feet, and at a latitude of about 15 degrees. My brief time spent outside in the sun has gotten me looking a bit like the peruvian flag myself, awkward tan (read: burn) lines abound.

Today is Sterling´s last day with me. At 6 tonight we are both heading off by bus, but he will be returning to Lima (and then home to Iowa, where wind chills have been reaching -50F, ouch). I will be heading to Puno, Peru which is a shore town of Lake Titicaca. From there, I will cross into Bolivia, where the 10 day weather forcast calls for highs of 50F and rain nearly every day (except the day that it might snow). La Paz is at an elevation of 3,640 m. Oh, altitude...always ruining my summer fun.

Comfort Food

After a frustrating 9.5 hour bus ride from Cuzco to Arequipa, Peru, nothing hit the spot like a large deluxe Dominos pizza. So good.

Machu Picchu and the Inca Trail

I just got back from the Inca Trail trek. It was four days, three nights, covered 45km (28 miles), and was one of the most physically (mentally, emotionally, and spiritually) taxing undertakings of my life. The group consisted of a young Irish couple, and three 66 year old english men. The whole group, aside from me and Sterling, opted to hire a porter to carry their luggage. Our packs didnt seem too heavy when we left the hostel, but when the water, sleeping pad and sleeping bag were added they were about 25 lbs. This wasnt even an issue until about halfway through day one.

Day one
Wake up at 330 am, pack the bags, head out to the lobby where the bus is waiting to pick us up. An hour and a half on the bus, winding through tiny towns in the Andes. Arrive at the trailhead. Start hiking. Word of the day: Peruvian Flat. You hike up, you hike down, and yet gain no elevation. Kind of frustrating to trudge up a climb, and when you make it to the top, have to walk right back down. But, it wasnt too hard, and we made it to the lunch site relatively quickly. The food on the trek was awesome. Those guys could cook meals in the wilderness over a propane fire that rivaled my cooking in a kitchen. After lunch, the fun began. It was three and a half hours of straight up. Up. And up. And up. A never ending staircase from hell, it went on and on. The packs got heavier as the day went on. Eventually it got to the point where we would look about 15 steps ahead and make a goal to get there. Rest at that big rock. Okay. Break when we get to that tree. Okay. Eventually, we made it at around 430. I passed out in my tent until dinner, woke up, at a bit, and passed right back out. Thankfully, that helped me get over the last of the altitude sickness. We were now at about 3700m. We had covered over 1000m elevation gain that afternoon. Ouch.

Day Two
Woke up around 6, feeling much better than the day before. That mornings task was to reach the trail summit at 4200m, about a 500m elevation gain. Starting fresh and in good spirits, we rocketed to the top (well not exactly, but in comparison to the day before...). It was all downhill from here. Sort of. Turns out going downhill hurts. Bad. The climbing muscle group now forgotten, attention was turned to calves and quads. Both of which burned with the heat of a thousand suns. The rest of the morning was spent descending in rainforest splendor, lush vegation and waterfalls all around. Lunch was spent in a pleasant valley, and it was pretty and sunny out. The afternoon hike involved a 1.5 hour hike up, then a 2 hour descent. The rain began on the climb. It didnt stop for 24 hours. Hiking in the rain sucks.

Day Three
Short hike today, started at 7am, reached camp at 11am. Mostly Peruvian Flat, not too bad, but it was rainy and miserable. Spirits are falling. The rain finally stopped around 3pm, and it cleared and got beautiful. We could finally see the beautiful andes mountains and neighboring valley that had previously been shrouded in mist. This was the most developed campsite (by far) and had a bar and hot showers. Well, warm showers. I had an interesting time trying to get dressed in the shower stall between the dripping showerhead (which left me 12" between the stream of water and the curtain) and the boys that were waiting in the room for the showers. (Maybe I was using the boys room? Who knows...) The rest of the day was spent hanging out in the bar area (warm and dry!!) and talking to the rest of my group.

Day Four: Race to the Sun Gate
Awake at 3:50am. Hiking by 4:20. There was a short hike to a control point, where all the groups line up for access to the final stretch of the Inca trail, the 6km to the Sun Gate. There were maybe 20 people ahead of us, and we hung out there on the trail until 5:30 when the control point opened. And we were off. I dont know where the sense of urgency came from, but it was a dog eat dog single file race. A couple girls from the group ahead of us stopped to take a picture. Pass them. Someone stopped to rest. Weakness. Pass them. The hike took about an hour, and after one particularly vicious climb, we reached it. The Sun Gate. Machu Picchu is visible in the distance (still about 3km away), and all the groups crowd on the small landing and fight for space to pose for a picture. Then we hiked the last little bit (packs are so much lighter when you can see your destination) and spent the rest of the day exploring. The aftermath? I´m dirty. Very dirty. Havent had a real hot shower in over 5 days. My calves still feel like they are being stabbed by 13 knives. I have yet to shake the chill from being wet and cold for so long, and 9 kilos of clothes are at the laundromat getting cleaned. Maybe some cuy (guinea pig, local delicacy) and a drink at the local irish pub tonight with the Irish couple from the trek will make me feel better.

In summary: Hard. Very Hard. Worth it? Definitely. Advice? Hire the porter.

The Peruvian Weight Loss Plan

Acai is a thing of the past. The Peruvians have come up with the ultimate weight loss plan for gringos. It is commonly known as altitude sickness. The symptoms: Headache, mild diarrhea, nausea, and stomach cramps. So, through a combination of anorexia (the thought of food makes my stomach turn) and bulimia (I wont fill in the details on that one), it is a surefire way to drop a few pounds.

It all started on the 22 hour bus ride up to Cusco (3200 m) from Lima (0 m). Things were going okay for the first 12 hours or so, and then around 6am both Sterling and I started to feel a bit weird. Things rapidly went downhill, and when we finally got in Cusco at 4pm we both thought we were close to death. Well, maybe not that bad, but it was bad. We surrendered to one of the taxi drivers touting his hostel at the bus station (I never do that) and let him take us to town. After a cup of Coca Tea (coca leaves are the base of cocaine, local remedy for altitude sickness, or just about anything, really), we were feeling a bit better. Never the less, we passed out at around 5:30pm and slept until 7am. We have both been having symptoms ever since the bus ride. Climbing a short set of stairs makes me pant. I get nervous whenever a bathroom is more than 50 m away. Hopefully things clear up a bit before we start the Machu picchu trek tomorrow at 4am. The first day of the hike we gain over 1000 m to an elevation of 4200 m. The way I see it, things can only go up from here. :-)

As a side note, it only took three days for my pedometer to fall off. It is now somewhere in the streets of Cusco. A little sad, but I think the reading was already all sorts of messed up from the bumping on the bus ride, so it would be cheating to claim all those 'steps'.

Lima, Peru

Safe and sound in Lima.
Odometer: 22552 steps (I wonder if the turbulence affected the reading...)

My flight from Austin to Lima (Austin to Dallas, Dallas to Fort Lauderdale, Fort Lauderdale to Lima, travel time: 17 hours) took off at 6:45am. I was on my way, and looking the part. My bag ended up weighing 28 lbs, not too bad. The plan was to meet my friend Sterling (who was coming to travel in Peru with me) at baggage claim since his flight landed 10 minutes before mine. It ended up being an hour late. When he finally got in, we went to claim his bag, and it was a no show. Apparently it was still in Newark, New Jersey. By the time we finally got all of that mess handled, it was about 1:30 at night. Finally got a taxi back to the hostel and knocked out. Today we spent wandering around Lima, exploring the Miraflores district and trying to track down Sterling´s bag. We are on a 5:30pm bus tomorrow to Cusco (17 hours) for the Machu Picchu trek. Hopefully he gets ahold of it before then. He might get a bit unpleasant smelling on a four day hike with one Tshirt and no toiletries.

Before I left I had a few friends tell me that Mariel is a very common Latin American name...for men. Apparently for hotels, too.

The Pedometer Project and Projected Route

Among the somewhat embarrassing amount of gear I have researched and purchased the past few weeks for this trip (and let me tell you, it's a lot) is a pedometer. It counts up to 1,000,000 steps and is supposedly one of the most accurate pedometers on the market. The plan is to wear it the whole time I'm on my trip, just to satisfy my curiosity as to how many steps I will take in seven months of wandering. A mile is 5,280 feet. My stride is approximately 2.5 feet long, so there are about 2112 steps per mile. My goal is to roll the pedometer over at least once (which would be 473.5 miles). At the top of each following post, I will state my current "odometer reading".

As for my route...I have only loosely come up with a plan. Originally I was going to spend a few months living in Chile, but I have abandoned that idea for the lofty goal of making a complete overland

circuit of the continent. Starting in Lima, Peru, crossing into Bolivia and traveling down the spine of the Andean Mountains into Argentina. Crossing into Chile to see Santiago before heading down the coast and into the Chilean side of Patagonia (the southern tip of the continent, some of the most extreme weather in the world). Working my way east into the Argentinian side of patagonia, and then making a B-line for Buenos Aires. From there, a quick ferry over to Uruguay, then back to Argentina for a border crossing into Brazil. Up the Brazilian coast to Rio de Janiero and a few other cities before heading into the heart of the Amazon for some rain forest adventures. From there, a short 27 hour bus ride brings you to Caracas, Venezuela. Along the northern Caribbean coast and crossing into Columbia, then Ecuador, and finally back to Lima, Peru where I will catch my return flight to the states on July 31st. I'm going to hit all but four countries (Paraguay, Guyana, French Giana, anad Suriname).

That being said, given the nature of the trip, my plans mean nothing. So we'll just have to wait and see.