Back on US soil, but not in my heart

Well, if you can believe it, Lima Int'l does NOT have an internet cafe in the American terminal, so instead, I ate lucuma and chirimoya gelato (lucuma is this weird fruit, kinda dry, reminiscent in flavor to a date, and chirimoya is the Peruvian darling, the custard apple).  Ok, I did more than eat ice cream waiting for my plane...spent way too much money on a Peruvian cookbook (you will all thank me, those of you who taste the delicious dishes!) and tried to figure out how to sneak a bottle of water onto the plane. Do you know that in many int'l airports now, (including Beijing and Lima) even after 2 security checks, you CANNOT bring any liquids on the plane. Even if the liquids were purchased in the 'security lock down area'?  What the heck is that? So I asked the airline agent if she was ok if I asked the flight attendant for water every 30 minutes or more on our 9 hour flight? I was not being facetious, but I think she thought I was. In the end, I poured the water in my water bottle and zipped it in my mini backpack and just got on. Phew. 

Well, my heart is in Peru. Yes, I really loved it! It is not that I didn't want to love Bolivia, but with being so sick there, I didn't fully get to dive into the culture and people. I have to say that I think the Salt Flats and Altiplano (high plains) in central and southern Bolivia were the most spectacular scenery of the month, but the Bolivian people are so timid and reserved, that with my not being on my game, I didn't get to interact with as many local people as I would have liked. Peruvians are quite gregarious and outgoing, as am I, and then I was back on track, health wise, by the time I returned to Cusco, on 12/29. I would easily return to either country down the road. If Veronica's parents hold true to their promise, I can go whenever it is convenient for them - they better watch out for what they offer. I could easily escape to Lima for a week of R&R. Especially with their 5 star hospitality and warmth!

I have missed sharing several parts of my Peruvian adventure... On our train ride back from Macchu Picchu to Cusco, Veronica, Dustin, Divakar and I had the pleasure of meeting 5 awesome SF'ers ... of course they are awesome, they live in SF! Yasi, Luis, Toan, Nila and Maggi...each one was born somewhere other than in the US! Yasi & Nila in Iran, Luis in Peru, Toan in Vietnam and Maggi in the Czech Republic (hope I got that right!) We hammed it up with them the whole ride back and in the end, we decided that we should all go for New Year's Eve dinner... our group already had a reservation for 6 (we had invited my new found friends Sonia & Marisol, from my plane ride to La Paz) and so we just called and added 5 more, plus one, for the Brazilian girl Nila and I had befriended. A dozen for dinner, please!  The resto was going to put us in the lobby of the hotel/resto to accommodate us!  We got some pretty hilarious pictures of Toan and Veronica, who were nominated to participate in the FASHION SHOW that the train attendants were putting on...yes, fashion show. It was hilarious. And you thought train rides were just train rides. No sirree bob. This train ride was multi purpose, baby.  Veronica and Toan are now international models...and we have proof (TBD on pictures).  I am already in touch with Yasi, back in SF and am really excited to attend a party she is throwing in a few weeks. Sometimes you have to go far far away to meet people from home!

So New Year's Dinner was fun, of course, they forgot my order, so I ate at 11:40pm...and they ran out of pisco sours and beer (WHAAAT?) so I was pretty mellow that night. And so was everyone else.  I know I am having ANOTHER birthday in 3 weeks, but I still feel young at heart. And NYE is no time to be mellow, despite bitter rain and lots of fireworks landing at our feet! Veronica and I were hung in there after dinner and went out to the Plaza de Armas to check out the festivities.  Definitely not as crowded as it would have been w/o rain, but still busy.  Lots of music and people wearing rain jackets and dancing regardless! I bought 'a beer' in the grocery store and V and I shared that, almost got blown up and proclaimed deaf by some more fireworks, chatted with some locals (we helped them open their gigantor bottle of wine and then they kindly shared it with us, ok with me, in a cough medicine looking plastic cup of which we shared...ha) and then decided that unless we went into a bar (which was ok with me) we could just go home, since we were leaving for the Sacred Valley the next day.  So we mosey-ed on home in the rain...

The Sacred Valley is definitely worth a visit when hitting Macchu Picchu and Cusco...do not miss it. Even if you don't do a tour, and just spend a day or two in the cute little towns nestled in the rolling green foothills, do it. So peaceful and relaxing. We had a driver meet us at noon on the 1st...after we had all explored the local Cusco markets and churches.  He took us to Urubamba, where we would be spending the night.  The town of Urubamba is nothing spectacular, but the place where we stayed was heaven on earth. Rumi Kuychi (sp?) is a set of 7 bungalows (2 bedroom condos) that are each individually owned and then managed by Claudia and her husband, who is the architect. It was a perfect retreat from the masses of tourists in Cusco and Macchu Picchu.  The gardens are Rumi Kuychi were amazing, and we had our own kitchen, dining room, fireplace, and 2 complete bathrooms and bedrooms with just the most relaxing vibe ever...  We played with the 3 huge, yet charming dogs (a Great Dane, Husky and playful Chocolate Lab) and then hit lunch at Chepita...where the portions can feed 3 people each, easily.  I had fresh trout with a soupy accompaniment of onions, tomatoes and potatoes (bien sur) and I swear I ate for 40 mins and it looked like I hadn't even touched the plate.  My tres amigos all ordered rocoto relleno (delicious stuffed pepper dish, very very popular in Peru).  We were going to hike around the valley after a late lunch, but it started raining pretty hard, so we followed Divakar's lead and went to visit a lovely ceramic studio - Seminario.  The owner and creator, Pablo Seminario met us and showed us a film of his work, which is quite impressive. He creates originals, of course, but he has studied all of the centuries of Peruvian ceramic works from pre-Inca tribes to present day communities.  The store/workshop is also an oasis and private home for Pablo and his wife, who is the artist and colorist of the ceramics he creates. A great story of how a hobby became a career and became his life!  After a visit we returned home to our cozy bungalow and just chilled out.  We had a staff member build us a fire (complete with natural aromatherapy from the eucalyptus branches) and we decided to skip dinner, and just eat the Panetone (fruit cake/bread) and drink beer since we were all so full from lunch and just wanted to enjoy the peaceful atmosphere...and then the peaceful atmosphere turned into a massive debate between Divakar and Dustin about the Catholic Church's stance on birth control and women's rights to their own body.  OMG. I am not Catholic, not a great/enthusiastic debater, and certainly was not in the mood to argue a subject so intense as this...Veronica hung in there, but I left after an hour and went to take a bath and try to relax (I needed earplugs in the bathtub to quiet the heated debate!)  We all (eventually) slept soundly... we had actual duvets and not the heavy alpaca blankets normally found on beds in Bolivia and Peru. 

Breakfast was served in Claudia's home, complete with a puffed caniwa (lighter in color) and quinoa (darker) and fresh yogurt and fruit juice. Yum.  Divakar and I did the planned Sacred Valley tour, while V and Dustin decided to take a combi (shared mini van/bus ride) to meet us later in Ollaytantambo.  I liked the tour... our guide Edith was very knowledgeable and her English was great.  We almost didn't get on the right tour, though...we had someone bring us (Divakar and I) to the market in Pisac, and we were met there by Edith, but after waiting 45 minutes, and then finding out that our tour bus had also been waiting FOR US for the same amount of time - oops!  Then they starting loading our bags onto a tour bus, but when I asked the driver who the guide was, he said some guy's name, and I looked at Divakar and said - um, no, that is not our guide! So we de-bussed and kinda had a mini freak out. We couldn't find Edith anywhere.  We didn't want to get left in Pisac, though, so we were tempted to just get on any bus out of there...when Edith arrived. Phew! Back on track.  I have to say, that Raychi was awesome...our 2nd stop. The terraces were huge (nothing like the small delicate rice terraces I saw last summer near Guilin, China) and the burial sites carved into the mountain side were incredible. Each hold in the earth was for an individual body, just large enough to put them in there and place some important belongings with them...including cuy (guinea pigs) for food in the afterlife, and some personal effects from their lives on earth for good measure.  Ollaytaytambo (sp?) was great, too, but it was overcrowded with tourists and hard to get a nice picture of the amazing attempt to build a Sun Temple there - the stones were so huge it was hard to imagine how they moved those pieces from hundreds of miles away without the use of the WHEEL. Many lives were lost in the process, and then the Spaniards came and put the kibosh on everything before the temple was even half done. But the remnants are still there!

We met Dustin and Veronica in Ollaytaytambo and we all rode back to Cusco together on the tour bus... since I was the last one on the bus (oops) I had to sing, but I enlisted the aid of Dustin and Veronica.  It was hilarious...we had Veronica looking up the lyrics to some classic American songs so we could all sing together...the bus was not totally enthused. We got limited applause until we sang ' LA BAMBA'  - that was hilarious.  Well, upon return to Cusco we had one last group dinner at a yummy resto called 'A Mi Manera' in the cute cobblestone neighborhood of San Blas.  I tried alpaca for the first time...interesting! A bit gamey, a bit dry, but not bad.  We had every intention of continuing our singing and doing karaoke in Cusco, but we wimped out and went home for sleep.  Divakar and I were headed off to the jungle of MANU the next day, and Veronica and Dustin were headed back to Lima, and then back to DC.  Jealous that they will be near/at the inauguration, while I figure out how I can participate from afar (and pay off the travel debt I have!!)  Well...I am going to end this humungous blog entry here and continue more tomorrow. Glorious weather we are having here in SF. I think it must have been 75 F today. Decadent. Inauguration day minus 2!!! BARACK OBAMA 1/20/09 Besos, Miss M

Semi-finals here in Peru

She´s baaaack! Online that is. Almost back in the US and I am ashamed that there have been little to no updates since the 2nd of January. It isn´t that I can´t find internet cafes all over the place, it is that the days have just been really jam packed with activity, and I can´t seem to find the time to sit still and write down all of this amazing stuff! Ok, well, in the jungle of Manu, there was definitely no internet (um, we had no electricity for 3 nights and 3 days, folks! Not because the lights were out, because that is life in the wilds) so that explains part of my being MIA...and the rest is just because I haven´t been able to force myself to sit down and write.

I am in the bus station in Lima and will be getting a bite to eat and hopefully writing some more before I fly back to the US. It has been an amazing trip and I sincerely plan to detail more of it and add pictures over the next week or so. If you can believe it, I was flying over the Nazca Lines this morning at 8am and then hopped a bus at 11:30am to get to Lima by 7:00pm. My flight leaves at 1:40am and is a direct flight back to LA, then I get up to SF by noon.

More later this evening, I hope. I have missed y´all...hope you have been reading. Give me a ring soon or shoot me an email and I can properly catch you up on the trip. Or look for an invite for a Peruvian themed food night at my place, complete with a slide show...ceviche, yum!

Besos,
Miss M





I am writing from Puno, Peru...just 1,000 m from the famous Lake Titicaca! I finally found out what Titicaca means...´cuz c´mon, the name is a bit wacky, eh? Titi = Puma or Cat and Caca (in Quechua, people, not Spanish where caca means poop) = grey. So the Lake is supposed to represent a grey Puma. Hmmm...ok, I will accept Sr. Tour Guide´s explanation today... we have had at least 5 different guides, but this guy was hilarious...he dropped his voice an octave and was very demonstrative with his gesticulations. I think he was making up for the fact that he was 4´11¨(ok, maybe 5´2¨) !





So...I left off in Cusco with Veronica, Dustin and Divakar. A group of 4 is a great size for travel. Even numbers, 2 guys, 2 girls, easy going. Veronica had kindly organized the majority of the week in Cusco and the surrounding areas...so we scuttled off early Tuesday morning the 30th to the PERURAIL train for the 4 hour trip to Macchu Picchu. This was the fanciest train that I had ever ridden on! We were served breakfast as we wound up the mountain to the most amazing archeological site. We arrived into the town of Aguas Calientes and had a man from our hotel pick up our bags as we raced off with our guide to catch another mode of transport, a shuttle bus, to the base of Macchu Picchu. I have to admit, that compared to the trekkers who took 4 days to get to the ruins, 4 hours seemed cushy! I must come back and hike the trail another time...and give myself plenty of lead time to adjust to the altitude.

Bolivian Catch-up and a Bit of Peru

Buenos dias! Yes, it is 1:45am on the 3rd of January, and I should be sleeping, but as I have literally not had a moment to get to a computer all week, I had to seize the moment. And it will be just a moment, unfortunately. I haven´t even been very good about writing in my journal ( not a little black book, but rather, a small light blue book with white flowers...not as edgy).

As I mentioned before, the Salt Flats and Altiplano of Bolivia were amazing. When I get home I will post pictures for you to see the wonders. Hard to capture in words, but apart from the Salt Flats, which we hit the first day of the trip, you hit many other lakes and terrains that are so unique. It had rained a few days before we hit the Salar de Uyuni (as they say in Spanish), so the ground literally reflected the sky. Surreal. These flats are only mined manually by folks in the small town bordering the flats, so they hope to be there a while. No machines- just our crazy caravans of 1980´s Land Cruisers.

Apart from the salt flats on this tour we hit many lakes that have distinct colors because of the mineral composition. And many of these lakes have flamingos en masse living and thriving there. The flamingos share the water with a few varieties of other birds, and nearby on dry land we found many vicuñas prancing around. They are the smallest of the llama, alpaca family...and so elegant. We also saw two randomly roaming ostriches...just racing around the dry, rocky terrain. Crazy! We were the only car to stay in the town of San Pedro de (something) on Christmas Eve, and after settling into our humble yet cozy guest house (sorry kids, no hot water!) we were served dinner by our cook, Leonidas, and were quite happy with a nice soup and pasta. I had bought a red candle for Xmas and the group (Christian from Italy, Lizzy from England/New Zealand, Emma from England/New Zealand, Sarah from Ireland/South Africa and Valerie from France) enjoyed dinner together and a couple of games of Bullshit before we decided to scour the streets for any Xmas activity. Oh, and we all had a small glass of rum and coke to celebrate...but we decided to keep it light on the rum. After all, we were at nearly 4, 800 m! It wasn´t close enough to midnight to find people at church, but we did find this local youth band (plus a few older dudes) practicing for a Xmas music festival in Chile, and they invited us in to listen to a few songs. It was awesome!" The music was not awesome, and in fact I nearly went deaf when the tuba player blew in my ear, but hey. They were sincerely trying to make some nice music! That was out Christmas Eve night.

Christmas Day we climbed in elevation to 5,000m. That is friggin´ way too high for me. I was a space cadet. And to boot, we stayed at the most dodgy guest house ...only a ramshackle toilet and no sink or shower. I found out later someone said there was an outdoor shower, but with 60 kilometer/per hour winds, I was glad I didn´t try it! We were near Laguna Colorada...a spectacular lake that had a vibrant red hue to it...I forced myself to not be left behind, and I climbed along this windy corridor up this rocky hill to get a view of the lake. This walk would have taken someone at sea level with no wind probably 30 mins, maybe 40 mins max. It took me over 2 hours. I had to keep stopping to get my breath, and to not feel dizzy. There was an amazing view at the top, but I felt like I would be blown down before I made it. Xmas was never such a challenge before! I do have some awesome pictures of those 3 1/2 days in the outback of Bolivian, and loved my group, and our guide, Luis Mario, who was always in a good mood (even when we got a flat tire!) but geez! That night, I was miserable. We were all 6 in the same room (same as the night before) which was fine, but the mattress was rocky, and there was NO heat at all. In fact there was a major draft in the place, and so they gave us each like 10 layers of alpaca and wool blankets, which is a great idea, but they were so heavy it felt like I had 2 people laying on top of me and I was suffocating. So I put some blankets under me, and some over me, and threw my rented sleeping bag over me, too, for good measure. Then after I tossed and turned all night, I got sweaty, and had to take more layers of 10 pound blankets off of me! I just could not sleep with my heart racing. The altitude does wacky things to you.

I forced myself to eat something each meal, while in Bolivia, drink tons of water, and drink lots of mate de coca (coca leaf tea) to try and help with the altitude. What I didn´t know was that I needed antibiotics-- but when you have been in the car/bus from La Paz to the border of Chile over a few days, you actually have NOT hit any major cities where you can pick up some over the counter solution. That happened on Saturday when I returned to La Paz...my head was just pounding and I could not function. Yes, my oxygen levels were low, and oh, I am anemic? Who knew. But what made it all better was the Septicide (Cipro with a nice safe coating) and just high tailing it out of La Paz and over to Peru. Cusco was just enough lower in altitude, and by Sunday night the 28th, I had a nice bed and was ready to get better.

So, a bit about my first week in Peru and then I have to get a few hours of sleep! I met up with my friend Veronica and her 2 good friends Dustin and Divakar around 11am on Monday the 29th. None of them was feeling that great yet, as they had just landed in Cusco from Lima. Big altitude adjustment. We did the city tour of several of the Inca Ruins sites near Cusco, and we also visited the Catedral in Cusco, and the place of reverence to the Sun (the name starts with a Q and I can´t recall the spelling) and got a taste for how much history lies in this region. Amazing. We all 4 got along pretty well, I thought, and so from Monday through today, Friday, we had a blast. I will write more about my first week in Peru on the next blog entry. Have to get a few hours of shut eye before Divakar and I are off to Manu, to explore the Peruvian jungle. We will be back on January 6th and I hope to write more then.

In sum...I am healthy again, Bolivia was interesting and worthwhile, but quite a test, Peru has been great, having fun with Veronica, Dustin and Divakar, met some other awesome SF people along the way, seen some incredible historic places, and am ready for more!

Hasta pronto! Feel free to email me if you like... love to get notes!
Besos,
Michele