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November 15, 2012 · 11:05 pm

Cusco at last

Another day, another beautiful city in Peru, our last for this trip, alas. We are also staying at a lovely old hotel, the Ninos Hotel (the one on Meloc Street). It is run by a nonprofit that uses the proceeds to support needy children AND it turns out to also be very charming and affordable. Right now I am sitting Ina n adirondack style chair on the second floor terrace overlooking the hotel’s charming courtyard which has stone arches, wooden balconies, a gurgling fountain and lots of potted plants. This is an old colonial building which like several of the places we have stayed in Peru, offers little clue from the outside of the world within. From the street it is a stone building with a big green wood door with lots of ornamental brass thingamajigs. Our room is somewhat spartan but in a chic way, with well chosen tables, beds, light fixtures. Not bad for $50 a night.

Cusco reminds us a little of Arequipa because of the main square which is dominated by a cathedral and Jesuit church and rimmed by arcade-style buildings lining a lovely park. But the architecture is different. The cathedral and church are not the white Arequipa stone but a light brown stone. There are also lots of narrow lanes made of round cobblestones and big flat stone blocks leading up from the plaza into the pretty artsy neighborhood of San Blas, which is fun to explore, with lots of little shops selling baby alpaca sweaters, handmade jewelry, textiles from the amazon, handmade macramé and stone necklaces sold by Anglo kids who display their stuff on the sidewalk. The setting for Cusco is also very dramatic. It is set into a valley with mountains gently rising off in the distance on all sides. At times the city reminds me of Greece (especially the San Blas lanes) or of Spain (especially all the lovely plazas sprinkled around downtown) or of Florence (given all the art and artists around.)

The sights we have seen:
– The Jesuit church on the main plaza and the cathedral, both which have astonishingly ornate gold covered altars. The cathedral has famous “cusco school” paintings which are an interesting mix of European style art and Andean influences. This includes the famous Last Supper painting where Christ and friends are dining on, among other things, cuy (aka guinea pig).
– the main market, Mercado San Pedro. I never tire of wandering around the markets in these towns (or just about any town) because you see how people live, what they buy, what they sell, what they eat (chicken soup served on big porcelain bowls was a popular item at lunch, with people sitting on benches in front of the stands where,the soup was prepared on the spot, holding the bowls and eating.)
– Qorikancha, another impressive Inca ruin that the Spanish build a colonial church and convent right on top of so it is an odd hybrid architecturally.
– a terrific textile museum/shop selling woven items from different villages. It also had a really interesting exhibit on how the weavers work, all by hand.
– the museum of popular art, a hidden gem, that displays the folk art of artists from about the 1930s onward, all kinds of tableaus of Christian scenes and everyday life scenes with figures made of clay or tin or silver or bronze. One Christ on the cross was made of cuy bones (aka guinea pig)’
More tomorrow on the food…

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November 14, 2012 · 9:28 pm

More machu Picchu and excellent food

Pretty much everything I read about Machu Picchu as far as logistics matched up when we finally got there:

– Aguas Calientes, the gateway town to Machu (think Estes Park to rocky mountain national park) was a bit honky tonk but not without charm. we sat in the Plaza and had fun people watching and playing “name that nationality” since people come there from all over the world. We really liked the place we stayed, Gringo Bill’s, which used to be an old backpacker hotel but now feels like a mix between that and a boutique hotel, complete with psychedelic wall murals ( some mildly pornographic like the one in our room of a couple in the act) and plush bed linens. The place was laid out all helter shelter with rooms in odd places and open air areas scattered throughout. Our room had a balcony opening onto the sidewalk. It was not as noisy as feared. just a little. They also served the best scrambled eggs to date (and we have been served them every morning of this trip.) We had a good dinner at Indio Feliz, whose every inch was decorated with eye catching stuff. Highlights include lots of on the house items/sides including homemade potato chips and bread rolls with density (the Peruvian bread is airier). we had some cusquenia (beer) and a small pizza at Inka Wasi, a little away from the tackier stuff and across from the swanky El Mapi Hotel (think The James Hotel.) The town also has an other worldy feel because of its setting, a small patch of flatland, or flatter land, surrounded by huge conical shaped mountains.
– Machu Picchu was best at 6 am when there were relatively few tourists and the sun broke through the clouds draping an intense light on the green lawns of the ruins and the trademark jagged mountain looming over them. It was indeed a good idea to get a guide to explain things since there is little else In the way of explanation. We found Felix (or more accurately he found us) right after we got off the bus from Aguas and we think we did well. His English was excellent (this isn’t always the case with guides as we found out at Pisaq, where our guide couldn’t really go off script in English so she couldn’t answer questions) and he seemed very
Knowledgeable (although we noticed that the content of the spiels varies by guide.) we paid $46 for -a two hour tour, plus Felix gave me his walking stick which I found invaluable when we hiked to the Sun Gate, which was a perfect 2 hour hike, not too rigorous, although I feel like I have been walking on cobblestones or jagged stones for days. and I have.
– we did bring in some water in a plastic bottle and some crackers, which is technically verboten but we weren’t alone. And we were discrete. There is a nice restaurant and a somewhat pricy snack bar outside the gate. you do have to pay one sole, about 38 cents, to use the toilet. Whatever.
– It did seem wise to buy the Machu Picchu tix in advance. a guy at our hotel ran into a problem when he tried to buy a tix in Aguas ( I think) because he didn’t have cash and no credit cards allowed. We bought the bus tix the nite before and didn’t have to wait long for a bus there or back.
– the place did get crowded by about 10 am and the crowds thickened soon after until early afternoon, when people left for lunch or town and the train ride back to Aguas.
– Peru rail was an adventure. On the way to Aguas from Ollantaytambo, we somehow landed amazing seats (there were assigned seats) right at the front of the car. It was like sitting in the front seat atop a double decker bus. I tried not to look too much at the rails in front of us. But the ride and view was spectacular, surrounded by high mountains, a rushing river with huge boulders to our left. They served us a little meal too. On the vistadome train the next day. (this is the train with windows in the roof so you can see the vista) the crowd was rowdier and there was an amusing floor show (aisle show?) In the train where two attractive railway attendants modeled variou alpaca items and one dressed like a scary Indian clown, if sorts, and danced with passengers. A far cry from Amtrak.
– Next stop…the best meal of our five days in the Sacred Valley. Stay tuned for the next installment…

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November 14, 2012 · 12:36 pm

Machu Picchu

too busy to blog yesterday. We were up at 5 am to be in machu Picchu by 6 and glad we did, since place was glorious at that hour with few tourists and the sun breaking through the clouds shrouding the jagged peaks all around us. More later since we are hitting the road again for cusco. here are some photos Not ffrom Machu Picchu. One is of the market in Pisac, another gringo bills hotel near machu, another of the street where our lodge is in ollantaytambo.

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November 12, 2012 · 1:56 pm

Pisac ruins and market

Full day in Pisac, first visiting the ruins and the the huge Sunday market. A lot of fun and activity, since we took a spectacular walk down the mountain from the ruins to the market over some rocky terrain, crossing right over some of the ancient stone terraces rising above the town. We had an excellent empanada pulled right out of a huge clay oven at Horno Tipico de Santa Lucia and the best brownie in the sacred valley at the Blue Llama. At the market we bought alpaca sweaters and mittens, a cute knit kids hat, a peru tshirt, an inca cola tshirt, a scarey knit face mask, pornographic inca playing cards, a cd of Peruvian flute music. We bartered a bit but we aren’t very good at it.

tonight we had dinner at mayupata, a somewhat upscale restaurant where Noah had alpaca grilled with miso sauce and I had a good loom saltada, a beef stir fry that seems a good bet when all else fails. Dirck wasn’t eating much. He has had an upset stomach and today a headache which leads me to think he had altitude sickness. Last night we ate at the heart cafe which is a do good place (it helps kids and abused women, I believe.) the food was mediocre, despite the good reviews we had heard. one thing I’ve learned is that the Peruvian version of the American and Italian staples we usually eat rarely resemble what we are used to. the pasta with tomato sauce ends up being sweeter than we are used to, the pizza has odd crust and cheese, the chocolate chip cookie is crumbly like an oatmeal cookie, the burrito tortilla has the texture of Ethiopian bread.

I have also learned that there are broken MasterCard machines all over southern Peru, nd sometimes broken Visa machines. allegedly. Basically the restaurants and shops don’t want to pay the credit card fee. Which is starting to irritate me because they have big signs on their doors touting their credit card use.

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November 11, 2012 · 1:38 pm

moray, salinas, urubamba…sacred valley

I am very glad we hired a driver to take us to the remarkable ruins in Moray and the super cool salt pans nearby because there is no way we could have driven safely ourselves. at first we didn’t think we would need the tall high ceilinged van the driver showed up in but it turned out to be pretty handy, navigating dirt and rock roads through the sacred valley a pond then winding up narrow switchbacks improbably carved into the tall mountains. we drove through glorious green fields of corn and rouge-colored soil where we think potatoes were being planted. and then we drove up and around and up and a little down Nd then up through high mountains with stunning views across the valley of snow capped mountains.

in Moray, we walked around and then into a huge ancient Inca site, rings of stone walls winding downward like an amphitheater. Rough stone steps hang down from each terrace for you to get up and down. Way cool. apparently the Incas used these as test plots for their crops. later we went to near y Salinas, a mountainside filled with glaringly white pools of salt.These are salt mines that have been used to harvest salt since the Inca days. We watched a few people in native dress harvesting the salt. For lunch we ended up at an excellent place, Tres Keros, where we had well cooked trout, chicken and the best logos Santeros (a beef stir fry) of the trip. our driver tried to steer us to some buffet we suspect was run by a friend of his and even told us that tres Keros was closed. but we found it very open when we walked in.

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November 10, 2012 · 1:43 pm

Morning in the sacred valley, peru

I am sitting in a garden with orange, red, white, purple and ink flowers lining a green lawn bordered by a three foot high stone wall. And just beyond that mud brick houses with worn red stucco tiled roofs and just beyond that huge heather colored mountains on all sides, the tops shrouded in clouds. Rising up from the mountain directly across from me are the tannish brown walls of a terraced fortress. these are the ancient Inca ruins of the ollantaytambo fortress that we climbed yesterday afternoon. Spectacular. And they are what we see in the morning as we open the French doors of our second floor room here at Apu Lodge. (see photo below.) There are also the sounds, water cascading down the mountains along the channels lining the narrow cobblestone lanes bordered by high stone walled buildings that open into courtyards and gardens; the varied calls of birds, the occasional crowing rooster and barking dog.

This village is particularly magical at night when most of the tourist buses have cleared out. We ate last night at El Alburgugue the well known old hotel for travelers that is located outside of the village along the train tracks that take people to Macchu Pichu. I had to eat simply since my stomach was still on the fritz but the food was good, especially Noah’s lamb and our shared after dinner brownie. We walked back on a dark street lining the river with the stars very bright in a sky unburdened by street lights, past the town square and then onto our cobbled lane with the water rushing along the channel. We all slept very well.

We also ate lunch at Paki Rumi near the ruins…good albeit atypical burritos as promised. We sprung for the boleto touristica, a 10 day pass that gets you into attractions ina nd around Cusco, not machu Pichu, of course. About 170 soles or 70 dollars. Not sure it’s a good deal but easy. We spent 50 soles on a guide named Wilson at the ruins, well worth it. And 100 soles for the driver from cusco, again worth it.

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November 10, 2012 · 12:06 am

The sacred valley: first stop ollantaytambo

Our travel arrangements, the most complicated of our trip, worked like a charm. A cab was waiting for us at 5:45 a.m. Outside our hotel in Arequipa and it whisked us to the airport in 15 minutes. we are liking these smaller Peruvian Airports! Our Taca flight to Cusco was only a little late leaving and the flight was only 35 minutes…and quite a spectacular ride. I am not sure I have flown that close to mountains before. we seemed to be skimming right over Colca Canyon, close enough to see the hole of a volcano and gas rising from it. Our son’s flight from Lima arrived about a hour later, again largely on time. We met the driver from our hotel and away we drove through bustling Cisco, which looks quite different from Arequipa and up up up into the Andes. It was a spectacular 1.5 hour drive, up and around high almost purple brown mountains, past verdant green fields.

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November 9, 2012 · 1:23 am

Sol de mayo, tambo del matadero, restaurant on the roof – Arequipa

Our stomachs were both a little shaky today but we still enjoyed a lovely traditional meal with our friend Ignacio, who is from the family our son is living with in Lima. Sweetheart of a guy who is also a foodie so we did had the best Arequipa dishes! I had a superb shrimp soup – chuppe del Cameron’s – huge fresh water shrimp Ina red bisque with all kinds of stuff in it, a chunk of potato, squash, a poached egg, choclo (thick kernel corn.) I also had my first glass of chicha morale, sweet purple juice that looked a bit like grape juice. I liked it! D had pork chiccarones (yummy fried pork ribs, a roccoto relleni (- red pepper stuffed with chu ks of beef, raisens,etc) and a potato pie that looked like scalloped potatoes but tasted different. For desser we tried another Arequipa specialty quest heldado, a yellow ice cream made with cheese and grated cinnamon. Later we saw someone selling it on the street. (excuse my incorrect Spanish spellings. I will clean up later.)

although I appreciate the artistry of peru’s big name chefs, I have to admit that the food I have liked the most here is the more simple traditional fare. We ate at Chicha, another famous restaurant and it was okay. But I preferred our meal today. I think my stomach did too.

We also saw some more sights including two more superb churches, especially de la compagnia, with it’s gorgeous stone carved facade. It’s worth the 4 soles to visit the lovely side chapel which is hand painted with fruits, veg, figures. Also went to the church near the restaurant where we ate in the pretty little suburb of yanahuara, San Juan Bautista and got a good view of the volcanos rising in the distance from a lookout next to the pretty plaza. Ignacio also took us to see a few Tambos, hidden little lanes lined with old houses that reminded us of mews in London.. Tambo del matadero and tambo Brouce can be found off of bolognese street near the river. We had a drink and superb vibes of the plaza des armed at sunset with the lights of the city and the mountain ranges outlined against the sky tonight at the restaurant on the roof. Well worth the climb and not as touristy as we feared. They even lent thick wool ponchos to some underdressed slovs who sat near us.

Found some good shops too including a really nice handmade jewelry store on Jerusalen street, mutze, and a high end shopping plaza patio del ekeko downtown on the Mercaderes, a pedestrian walkway full of strollers. Great people watching.

Tonight at our hotel we met a nice guy who is a Peruvian actor and singer named Jorge madueno, or Pelo, who just shot s film here. We loved this place!

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November 7, 2012 · 9:40 pm

Monasterio Santa Catalina in Arequipa

Wow! We were blown away by this sprawling, spectacular 16th century monastery. Talk about a visual feast. One beautiful sight after another. The monastery is sort of a self contained mini walled in city with one vaulted “cell” after another for the cloistered nuns, who as I understand it were usually girls from well to do families who lived much better than your everyday nun. Their quarters were often spacious and the thick stone vaulted walls painted in startling hues of red, blue, ochre, and burnt orange. They had their own kitchens and servant quarters. Granted the beds looked a bit spartan. They also had gorgeous cloisters to gather, with painted murals every where and flowers and cactus plants. There were narrow brick or tiled lanes bordered by stone residences. I don’t know how true to life the restoration was but seemed pretty nice. I got some decorating ideas, including some fabulous wall color ideas. of course it will be hard in Iowa to replicate the
monastery’s view from on high of a snow capped volcano.

As my husband noted, some museums grab me more than others. Grand cathedrals and museums full of old paintings tend to bore me quickly.But give me an old house or monastery where I can wander through the rooms and see how people live and I am wide awake. I also love folk art and the kind of melodramatic Spanish art thAt filled the monasterio. There was also a very cool video in a side gallery of contemporary Andean male dancers doing some crazy moves while holding onto a pair of what looked like very sharp scissors. MUST read up on that.

At the public mercado (you knew I would find that right?) we marveled at the astonishing selection of potatoes (Peru is the home of the potato) and produce. Our stomaches are a bit iffy today so we ate lightly. Although we did get a little paper cone with five Dulces (sweets) …tiny crispy cones filled with creamy caramel. Here are some photos of our hotel and the monastery.

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November 7, 2012 · 3:30 am

Watching US election results in Arequipa Peru

Well it would help if we understand Spanish. But hey, we just found CNN in English so we are all set. But there is a certain cognitive dissonance to be watching American election results in this very ancient city in Peru.. We are in an 18th century hostal in the old section of Arequipa, in a room with thick stone walls, worn wooden French doors, wrought iron grills on the windows, thick red bricks by the bathroom. our room opens up into a small stone and tile courtyard with lots of potted plants. Oh god, CNN is talking about how close the vote is in Iowa. This is nerve wracking.

Arequipa is absolutely charming. The Plaza des Armas is gorgeous with a huge white stone cathedral with snow capped mountains looming behind it and two story arched colonnades lining the rest of the square. Oh god, james carville says Obama will likely carry Florida and win the election. Back to Arequipa, the creamy white sone facades of the churches and even the banks are stunning, many opening into lovely courtyards. Then some buildings are painted in deep shades of blue, red, mustard
including la casa de melgar hostal where we are right now. We had an excellent dinner two blocks away at Zigzag, which specializes in meat and fish served sizzling on black volcanic stones. I had rack of lamb. Dirck had chunks of pork, beef and alpaca. yes alpaca. No guinea pig this time.Tomorrow we sight see…first stop the monasterio de Santa Catalina, whose thick stone walls line a long block. Cannot wait. Love this place. Reminds us at times of places in Spain and Italy yet it feels very Distinctly South American…especially Peruvian. Here are some photos of our hostal. Oh my god elizabeth warren won. I am soooooo happy!