Arequipa - Our Last Stop in Peru!

Our last stop on our Peru trip was to Arequipa, which is the second largest city in Peru. We arrived in the late afternoon and decided to tour around the city on our own. We saw the main square, the Cathedral, the monastery, did some shopping, dinner and back to the hotel. Our tour agency thought we needed a day to relax after our hectic schedule the past two weeks and didn't plan anything for this day. So we slept in and then wandered around the city some more.

My favourite part of Arequipa is their main square, Plaza del Armes, with the Cathedral as the main attraction. It was also pretty cool to see all of the Scotiabank branches, as neither Andrew nor I had ever seen a Scotiabank outside of Canada.

We went to the Casa de la Cultura museum to see Juanita, the Ice Princess. She is a 12-14 year old girl who was sacrificed by the Incan priests as a means to calm the active volcanoes. Her body was discovered in 1995 as a result of volcanic activity, which caused her to roll down the volcano from her icy grave. We actually saw her body, which has been preserved in icy temperatures, as well as several of the artifacts that were buried with her as part of the sacrifice. It was very disturbing to know that she was actually chosen at birth to be a sacrificial child, therefore her life must have been very difficult. When the time came, she had to walk up the volcano at such a young age under those weather conditions and, after drinking a special alcoholic beverage, was hit in the head and killed. There have also been many other bodies of children found on these volcanoes but none have been preserved as well as Juanita.

Before we came to Peru, we had read about a Peruvian delicacy, cuy, which is guinea pig. Some places will actually serve it with the head, teeth, finger nails, etc. still attached. As Andrew has been quite adventurous the past few years, he decided to order it for lunch overlooking the main plaza. This place was pretty sketchy but he didn't want to leave Peru without trying it. Oh, how our jaws dropped when it came to our table. Teeth, whiskers, some hair, fingernails, and the testicles still intact. We were gagging through the whole thing. Andrew did get a bit of meat off it, just to say he tried it, but wow, it was disgusting.

 We later relaxed in our hotel and decided to check out the Peruvian cinemas, so we caught a cheap movie (and a cheap taxi ride to get there). It was nice.

The next day, our last day, we were taken for a city tour. We drove to Carmen Alto for a nice view of the volcanoes and terraces and the Rio Chili River. Then to drove to Yanahuara, which is a colonial neighbourhood with really nice churches and architecture. Here is one of the picturesque streets in Yanahuara.

The last part of our tour was a tour around the monastery. We got to see the old convent, that was still active until recently, when the nuns moved into a newer adjacent part. It was really beautiful and well-kept, but hard to imagine living there.

 

 

At the end of the day, we had lunch at a nice creperie and then had some drinks at this cafe. We Skyped with my parents for my Dad's birthday and then headed off to the airport for the three flights back to Canada. It was kinda neat that we transferred at JFK in New York and I actually saw the Statue of Liberty from the airplace as we were taking off.

Peru was a really great trip, unlike anything else we'd ever done before. Of course, after 16 days, I was very very happy to head back to Canada to spend one more week with my family and to see my babies.

Colca Canyon

We were picked up in Puno by 6:15am, but Andrew was up at 5am to catch the sun rise again. The tourist van drove us the 5 hours to Chivay - there were 6 of us plus the driver and the tour guide.
We drove for about 2.5 hours and came upon a nice lake that was 4500m above sea level. We could see the Andes mountains in the background, it was very nice.

The next stop on our tour was a lagoon that housed Andean geese and Chilean flamingoes, as well as seeing alpacas all along the fields.

 

It was a nice drive, although I have to admit I slept through some of it. We did stop at a lookout point to see the snowpeak mountains, it was at 4910m above sea level, which was the highest we obtained on our Peruvian trip. Apparently it didn't bother the alpacas. They were also stopping to admire all of the rock statues.

 

We arrived to Chivay and found our way to the hotel. It was very picturesque but unfortunately was out of power for several hours. We wandered around the town and then our tour guide took us to the Calera Hot Springs. The temperature of the water coming from the mountains is 80 degrees Celsius, but they cool it down for the tourists to 39 degrees. They actually have separate pools for the tourists and the locals.

After the hot springs, we returned to our hotel to get ready for dinner. Luckily our hotel had power, so that we could shower off all of the salt water. That evening our tour guide took us to a local restaurant El Horno, which features food and a live dancing show. There was a live band and dancers with local costumes. Unfortunately it was one of those shows that invite audience participation and I was dragged on stage.

 

The next morning we had a wake up call at 5am and then they drove us to Condor's Cross, stopping at a few towns along the way. This is a well-known hangout spot for the condors in the Colca Canyon, and were lucky enough to have 7 condors flying over us at one point. We heard that the day before, it was cloudy and tourists only got to see 1 condor if they were lucky. So we were pleased with the clear weather and our luck at seeing these amazing birds.

 

On our way back, we drove through the Colca Valley back to Chivay, where we had a group buffet lunch and then a transfer for 3 hours to Arequipa, which was the last stop on our Peru trip!

Lake Titicaca

We arrived in Juliaca and our driver took us one hour to Puno, which is the Peruvian city on Lake Titicaca. We arrived in the evening and discovered we were staying on the 8th floor of the hotel overlooking the lake!!! Both mornings waking up in this room, we could see a gorgeous sunrise over the lake right from our window!

We were staying right in the touristy area in the old part of the city centre and was very easy to find shopping and restaurants. I had alpaca medallions for dinner and we walked around the streets enjoying the music, parades and dancing that was taking place. It seems Peruvians have a parade almost every day to celebrate something. Such a happy and musical culture!

We were back to high altitude and layers of clothing, but it was refreshing compared to the sticky heat of the jungle! It was nice to have WiFi again and let everybody know we didn't get eaten by snakes.

The next morning we were picked up at 6:45 and taken to the port where our boat tour awaited. We took the boat through Puno Bay, which is now only about 4m deep. Puno is very worried about evaporation because they may lose their "coastline" to Lake Titicaca and their tourist industry could be jeopardized. Boats must drive very slow through this area of the lake.

We went to the Floating Islands of Uros, which we actually saw on Amazing Race once. They are manmade islands on Lake Titicaca where people live permanently. Each island has several families on it and they share these special boats.

The islands are made of several meters of dirt and totora (similar to straw) all strung together to make an island. There are more totora underneath the houses and they also use it for their beds. These little huts are lit with solar panels for their radio, tv, and lights.

After looking inside the huts and seeing how they live, they offer you a ride on their boat. Of course their main source of income now is tourism, and so the children sing for you and they try to sell you things. I bought two little boats for the kids for the bathtub.

Next we took a very long boat ride to Taquile Island. We had to hike up to the main plaza and could see the Bolivian Andes across the water. 40% of Lake Titicaca belongs to Bolivia and 60% belongs to Peru. We had a wonderful lunch of omelette, quinoa soup and mint tea overlooking the lake. The island uses the tourist money to install solar panels to power the water to the top of the island and stream down in pipes. This prevents the residents from having to cart the water up the hills from the lake. Everything sold on the island is pretty expensive because they have to pay the residents to lug everything up the hills. We saw one poor guy who must have been carrying like 40 dozen eggs on his back.

We took a long boat ride back to Puno and decided to walk back to the hotel instead of taking the transfer bus, so that we could explore our last night in Puno. We bought a bag of popcorn for one sol off the side of the street and it tasted pretty good! We enjoyed a nice dinner in a pizzeria with a wood oven and went back to the hotel to pack up our things and get ready for the next adventure. We did get some update emails from back home and I believe it was around this point that I decided I was ready to come home.

Goodbye John and Penny! Hello Jungle!!!

 

The following morning, we said goodbye to John and Penny and continued our adventure in the jungle! We took a short flight to the tiny town of Puerto Maldonado, and wow, it was a shocker! It was like 40 degrees outside and HOT! What a difference from the high altitude and temperatures of Cusco.

They picked us up in a jungle tour bus and drove us through the town to their office to downgrade our luggage and head on the boat that would take us down the Madre de Dios River. There was a group of us on the same flight who were all staying at the Eco Amazonia Lodge and spent all three days together.

Driving through the town, it was remarkable to see the way they live. Construction at a standstill, dogs everywhere (like the rest of the places in Peru) and the motorcycle taxis who were driving all the kids to/from school without helmets.

It was a 1.5 hour boat ride down the river to the lodge. We saw quite a few goldminers along the river's edge panning for gold. Made me quite nervous for them because who knows how many crocodiles and anacondas are in those waters, but the locals didn't seem to mind. I even saw a few children swimming while the mothers were washing their clothes in the river!!

We had lunch with the group and took a boat to Monkey Island, which is an island close to the lodge where rescued monkeys are released back into the wild. We saw white and brown capachin monkeys, spider monkeys and tamarins. The tour guide used his machete to cut us through the jungle and we also had to veer around quick sand! The monkeys were fed bananas and some were brave enough to take them out of our hands or hop on our shoulders. One funny tidbit was that we all had to completely hide our water bottles, as they know how to unscrew the caps. At the end of our tour, we walked along the beach during a gorgeous red sunset!!! We refreshed in their cold indoor pool and enjoyed a nice dinner. All of the food was included in our package so that was easy to partake in new and interesting things.

We then had a caiman night boat tour, where we took a small boat down the river hunting for some crocs. We did find some and they were nice to look at, but the most spectacular part was the stars. UNBELIEVABLE!!! Absolutely no light pollution so the night sky was the most clear and wonderful thing I had ever seen. It was so peaceful listening to the birds in the jungle and look at the stars.

The adventurous thing about our lodge was that they only had electricity from 5:30 to 10pm ONLY. No warm showers. The fan stops working in our jungle bungalow at 10pm and we are left to sweat all hot and sticky for the evening! The howler monkeys wake you up at 5:30am (if you're not up already) and one of the things that came to mind was that Andrew's mother would have hated this place, ha ha. Andrew and I both loved it though, because it was amazing to lay in bed in the bungalows in the middle of the jungle and just listen to the birds and the monkeys. It was very serene.

Our wake up call the next morning was at 5am. And by wake up call, I mean they came around and banged on our doors! We had breakfast and left the lodge by 6am to hike about 15km back and forth to Lost Lake through the jungle! Of course if we didn't leave until 9 or 10am, we'd hit the major heat and would never survive.

We saw many things walking through the jungle. Our guide was quite incredible at showing us different vines and plants and things that the locals use for medicine or clothing or food. There was wild cotton, we drank from the wonderful vine (helps cure a broken heart), saw a tarantula pulled out of its hole, Andrew ate a sui worm, saw howler monkeys, toucans, macaws, herons, wild pigs were hunting us, green leaves that turned purple for makeup if you added water and rubbed them, and a special iron tree that makes you have erotic dreams if you sleep near it.

We finally made it to Lost Lake and took a small rowboat through the lake looking at lots of turtles and birds and caimans. After we got out of the boat at the end, the guide was nice enough to tell us that there are anacondas in that water!!!!! Good thing he told me AFTER and not before!!!!

We climbed up a 45m high lookout tower and then hiked the 8km back to the lodge. We had lunch, swam in the pool and took pictures around the lodge grounds. Everybody else in our group took naps, but Andrew and I thought it was far too hot to nap in our bungalow.

We had a botanical garden tour in the late afternoon where he showed us the penis root tree, lime trees, lemon trees, avocado trees, bananas, lemon grass, ginger root, coriander, onion, trees that help heal menstrual cramps, and one that helps pass parasites out of your body. These are all grown on the grounds of the lodge. There are also birds that walk around the lodge where if you pet his head, he falls asleep for a few seconds, and beaver-type animals that walk around the grounds.

We also toured their viagara tree (takes 3-4 months to actually brew), and their ayahuasca trees, which give you hallucinations when boiled in water. There was a shaman on the grounds learning how to do these hallucination sessions. It all seems kinda bogus to me but apparently it's the new "piote". People come to this lodge specifically for these sessions to help heal you from addictions or renew your mind. Our tour guide told us this amazing story about once he tried it and dreamed about snakes coming at his head and ex girlfriends. Quite bizarre.

After that we had some drinks out by the hammocks along the river and then enjoyed our last dinner with our group. They were a nice bunch. A mother and daughter from Vancouver, a single Australian woman, two guys from Romania, a couple from Belgium, and a couple from BC. It was very fun to hang out with them and do our trips together. We all enjoyed some drinks in the bar after dinner, and then packed up and went to bed.

The following morning we were up at 6 for breakfast and had to catch the boat back to Puerto Maldonado to fly back to Cusco to hitch our flight to Juliaca.

The jungle part of our trip was really fun. It was unlike anything we'd ever done before. It was so hot but it was really neat to walk through the jungle and experience the Amazon life. Mostly I was thankful for the fact that I didn't get eaten by any anacondas :)

Lake Titicaca (and warm showers....) here we come!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Our Day in Machu Picchu!!!!!!!!

Well, we made it to Machu Picchu!!!!!!!!!!! What a glorious remarkable place. No matter how many pictures you see and how prepared you are for it, it's one of those things that takes your breath away. Very similar to the Grand Canyon, the pictures just don't do it justice.

 

You are in the mountains, up in the clouds, almost in jungle terrain, and there is this amazing city on the top of a mountain. It really is one of the Wonders of the World.

 

The only thing that would have made that day better was if I wasn't on day three of my food poisoning. Every stair I took (and there are a few at Machu Picchu....) made me want to vomit. I was really sad that I wasn't feeling 100% because I really wanted to climb to the top and to all different edges of the site to explore Machu Picchu from all angles. Poor Andrew had to climb around the rocks by himself.

 

That aside, it was truly a spectacular experience and I'm glad we got to experience it not only with each other but with Andrew's parents as well.

 

It's remarkable to hear that Machu Picchu wasn't discovered until 1911 by a Yale professor and explorer. Here are pictures of the trip, including the Sun Gate where the Inca Trail hikers first glimpse upon Machu Picchu. I also wanted to share a picture of the rocks, which were carved all by hand and immaculately placed together with perfect precision.

 

Was awesome to be with Andrew as he completed his mission and accomplished one of his dreams - to do the Inca Trail and see Machu Picchu. Let's see what adventure he has next for us!

 

 

 

Living in Darkness

I remember last year when it didn't get light out until 10am and was dark already again by 3pm. Being home with Charlie was a bit depressing because he usually napped from around 1 to 3, so there was only a small window to get outside in the light.
Of course last year, we didn't get snow until January 2, very coincedentally when we were flying home from Paris in a giant snowstorm!

This year we've been fortunate enough to get snow as of November 29, which is my sister in law's birthday. It came and it hasn't left, and judging by the weather forecast, it appears the snow is here to stay until the spring.

While many people are complaining about shovelling, scraping, and digging out their cars out of snowbanks, I am thrilled that the snow is here and I really hope it doesn't leave until at least January 30. It's been beautiful to walk the dog after the kids have gone to bed, strolling through the woods with the snow glistening off the trees. I don't even have to bring my flashlight because the snow is reflecting the light.

So I say Thanks for the snow! It's beautiful. And it makes those long dark Finnish days not so dark after all.