Arequipa and Colca Canyon, Peru – July 21st - 23rd, 2017

We arrived early in Arequipa and as usual, had to struggle through hoards of taxi drivers attempting to rip us off. We eventually left the bus station, walked down the road, flagged one down (admittedly, this occurred 20 minutes later) and got one for a ¼ of the “fair price” from the drivers parked at the station. We were able to check into the guesthouse early, but after a quick breakfast on the rooftop terrace, ventured out to explore the city. Arequipa, the 2^nd largest city in Peru, is famous for a historic city center (a UNESCO site) and views of the surrounding towering volcanos. Before delving into the sites, we planned and booked an excursion to hike into Colca Canyon the following day. Colca Canyon is one of the deepest canyons in the world! At 13,640 feet deep, it’s over 2x deeper than the Grand Canyon! Next on the agenda, was to find an electronics store to replace Andy’s iPhone battery, which in addition to holding a charge for all of 30 minutes at a time, had swelled to about double the original size. Finding a repair “store” turned out to be quite the adventure. After visiting two local markets, asking a dozen or more locals, and wandering through areas which had never seen tourists, we finally stumbled upon a 50 sq. ft. shop which had the proper part and expertly executed the repair for about half the US cost. Errands complete, we walked through the UNESCO protected historic city center. The city is gorgeous, with brightly colored shops, pristine streets, and magnificent views. After lunch at a fancy European-esque sandwich shop, rest and cards at the guesthouse, pre-dinner cake at a local pasteleria (bakery), sunset at a rooftop bar in the main square (where we did not buy a drink because the waiter never came – bonus! free sunset views at the best spot in town), and dinner at a touristy gourmet potato themed Peruvian restaurant, we returned to the guesthouse and fell asleep instantly – which was good since the bus to Colca Canyon picked us up at 3am the next morning.

Around Arequipa. 

More of Arequipa.

Food, phone store, swollen battery, and creepy mannequin heads which are too small for the body (seen all over South America). 

On schedule, we were on our way to Colca Canyon bright and early the next morning (I guess not so much bright since at 3am, the sun is nowhere near rising). Along the way, we stopped for “breakfast” which consisted of typical Peruvian bread with butter and jam plus tea and coffee…perfect fuel for an 8-hour hike (go back and read with sarcasm if you missed that the first time around). Next stop was at a condor viewpoint overlooking a beautiful section of canyon. After 20 minutes of disappointment, we were thrilled when several condors flew directly in front of us! They are colossal birds!!! So cool! A few more hours of driving, we arrived at the start of the trek. While waiting to depart, the nearby Sabancaya volcano farted! Not going to lie, we were a bit terrified at first, thinking it was erupting, but apparently a little toot now and then is normal and expected. It was the first time any of us had seen an active volcano fart! After ooing and awing at the volcanic flatulence, we were on our way down Colca Canyon, accompanied by another condor!

Cruz del Condor viewpoint equip with handicrafts for sale and the start of the trek including a distant volcano with gas.

Our group consisted of two American friends (who had just finished a 2-year stint in the Peace Corps in Guyana), a civil engineer from Basque Country (now living and working in Uruguay), a French couple, two Argentinian women (one of which was a little person), and our Peruvian guide (for the first time ever, a female guide!). After 3-hours descending about 1200 m (~ 4000 feet), we arrived at the river at the bottom. Much to my disappointment, the tour did not take us to the deepest section of canyon, and the elusive depth was lost on us… although still spectacularly beautiful, to be fair. After crossing the river, we ventured up the other side for only 30 minutes before traversing the canyon for another 4 hours. Along the way, we stopped for a surprisingly delicious lunch at a village and thanks to the elevation and length of the hike, lost a few of our group members to donkeys along the way. Although a few others did make it without the help of donkeys, the going was slow and rough, especially for the girls with altitude sickness who were wearing Sperry’s and fashion (not hiking) boots. Around dusk, we finally made it to the oasis – yup, an OASIS at the bottom of the dry canyon!!! The lush green vegetation looked oddly out of place, yet exquisite! We passed several, really nice looking resort-type accommodations, before finally arriving at our lodging for the night… fair to say that besides the pool, our accommodation was not so much a resort as a decrepit assortment of concrete huts with bed sheets and comforters that looked like they had never been washed (our comforter likely had been given a mud (or poop) bath before being half rinsed, allowed to grow a little mold in the drying process, and draped over our half century old mattress – again thankful for our silk sleeping sheets). I guess you get what you pay for. Luckily we were so tired that shortly after cards with the group and soup and spaghetti dinner, we crashed in our dirty bed and slept like babies.  

The trek down Colca Canyon.

Traversing Colca Canyon. Along the way, our guide showed us how a fungus which grows on cactus in the area is used as red dye. 

Our not-so luxurious accommodations at the oasis.

Not-bright, but again super early the next morning (4 am wake-up), we packed our backpacks and started the 2 ½ hour assent out of the canyon. We eventually broke free of the herd of cattle and made it to the top about an hour before the rest of our group arrived. After breakfast, we loaded up in the van, and were on our way back to Arequipa. Even though we didn’t get to see the depth of the canyon, the overnight trip was still spectacular and we thoroughly enjoyed the trip – especially because the group meshed well together! En-route to Arequipa, we stopped at a tourist trap to pet some baby alpaca and try colca sours – pisco sours made with cactus fruit (um… awesome on both counts!). We also stopped at a volcano overlook, which also happened to be the highest point on the road at 16,109 feet elevation! We arrived back in Arequipa at about 6pm and showered before heading out to find some grub. As had been our experience in South America so far, most restaurants were closed for unknown reasons, and we eventually settled on a pizza place with terrible service, but decent food. Can’t have it all… 

Trek out of Colca Canyon.         

The town at the end of the trek. The guinea pigs in the cage in the bottom-center photo are not pets, but a delicacy in Peru. The dog in the bottom-right photo found Andy's food to be a comfortable pillow during breakfast. He was so sweet, but similar to our bed sheets likely never had experienced a bath.

The trip back to Arequipa.

Cusco, Peru – July 19th – 20th, 2017

After spending 21 hours in the bus, we finally arrived in Cusco in the late morning. Tired and stinky, we walked ourselves to the guesthouse, where we were able to check in so Andy could rest – he was feeling quite crappy, with similar yet milder, symptoms to what I had been experiencing for the last week (oh how the tables had turned). While Andy slept, Matt and I went out to grab lunch and explore the city. Poor Matt had been with us for almost a week and the entire time either me or Andy was in bed sick (I say “poor Matt” but really, it’s poor us – let me tell you: being stomach sick on a bus is not only horrific, but severely anxiety inducing since any gastro-relief is guaranteed to be epically public).

The drive to Cusco including tourist phone obsession at dinner and my artistic rendition of the earthquake and landslides that forced our 21-hour windy re-route through Cusco.

Andy and I had visited Cusco before hiking the Inca Trail in 2013. It was astounding how much the city had grown and changed in 4-years! Not only was it more crowded with tourists, but chain restaurants and fast-food joints had popped up everywhere! The square was essentially unrecognizable. Yes, sure, the city appeared cleaner and more-wealthy, but much of the local charm had been replaced by tourism… bummer, but we still loved the city. So much beauty and history… not to mention the city is surrounded by incredible ruins and the stunning Sacred Valley. Back at the guesthouse, we stirred Andy, who grunted and re-positioned himself in the fetal position. Marking him for a lost cause, Matt and I brought the laundry for an overdue wash and worked with the guesthouse owner to arrange for a taxi to bring us to some lesser known ruins the next day. That evening, Matt and I went out to eat again. Even though I had previously sworn off all food, stating, “I never want to eat again,” I was eating again… imagine that.

The city of Cusco.

Side streets in Cusco, including the hotel that Andy and I had stayed at in 2013. It is a non-profit that donates the proceeds to helping local kids. Matt and I randomly stumbled upon it while wandering around.

The next morning, Andy was feeling quite a bit better (miraculously) and, for the first time since Matt’s arrival, we all went out together for a day trip. Our taxi driver, Emerson, was awesome! Emerson spoke even less English than we did Spanish, so we mostly conversed in Spanish, helping each other with the other’s language along the way. Our first stop was at an overlook at the edge of the Sacred Valley, where we bought a few souvenirs from a local family, took photos, and pet the baby llama. Next stop was Ollantaytambo, a massive terraced fortified ruin with impressive rock masonry and carvings. The view from the top was incredible! After exploring the ruins for a few hours, we returned to the taxi and made our way to Salinas de Maras, which are pre-Incan salt mining terraces. A salt water spring was diverted to fill thousands of individual terraced fields, allowing the water to evaporate, and the salt to be collected, before filling the field with more salt water. Besides being unique and beautiful, the process had been repeated for the past thousand years or so… impressive! The next stop was at Moray, an Incan site with terraced holes, thought to be used as an agricultural research center. The elevation difference and relative position in the circle mimicked different climates throughout the Incan empire, allowing researchers to develop hearty plants and food stocks… even more impressive!!! The last stop of the day was at Chinchero, and Incan site with some terraces, a Catholic church, and an expansive field overlooking the beautiful Peruvian landscape. Struck by the desire to do cartwheels in the field, we ended up spending a good amount of time laughing at each other’s cartwheel skills, creating shadow puppets on the rock wall, and learning acro-yoga from Matt while watching the sun go down. It was a great day.    

The overlook en-route to the ruins.

Ollantaytambo!

More Ollantaytambo and the awesome llama hat I wish I had bought - reverse buyers remorse. Also, the most inventive sprinkler ever! 

Salinas de Maras. 

Beautiful Moray.

Chincero.

Being kids at Chinchero. Apart from our acro-skills, check out how perfectly the stones fit together in the wall at the bottom-left!

Back in Cusco, our great day got worse when the laundry establishment lost a pair of PJ shorts (my only pair of PJ shorts actually) and then accused me of stealing my own shorts… no, seriously, she actually went and reviewed the surveillance camera footage of us going through the clothes, convinced I had stolen them in order to scam her out of money. Seriously!!!?! It took about an hour and a half to sort it out – the time was mostly spent refusing to leave without them looking for them. Eventually, the shorts were found in the back room and the woman apologized profusely. All of this interaction was done in Spanish by the way… remarkable how fast you can learn a language when you have no other choice.

Narrowly missing the bus, we rushed from the guesthouse with a takeout pizza in order to make it to the PeruHop bus station in time for the overnight bus to Arequipa. When we arrived, our stomachs sank… it was completely abandoned. Had we missed the bus?! Nope, the PeruHop staff had messed up (thanks to the earthquake situation) and booked us on a bus which didn’t exist. Our options were to wait until the next night (which was not an option since we had a tight schedule to maintain) or attempt to take a bus with a different company. The PeruHop office manager was amazing and helped make other last-minute arrangements and a couple hours later than expected, we were on our way to Arequipa on a double decker bus with TVs in the seats and a stewardess – payed for by PeruHop! Customer service?... what’s that? 

Nazca, Peru – July 18th, 2017

Although the original plan was to stay in Nazca for a night to take the flight tour to see the Nazca Lines the next morning, when we got on the bus, we were informed that there had been a major earthquake the night before and the road to Arequipa was closed for the foreseeable future. Therefore, we had 2 options: 1) stay in Nazca and hope the road opens in time for us to make it to Lake Titicaca for Matt’s flight in a few days or 2) drive all the way to Cusco (about 15 hours) and take an overnight bus the next night to Arequipa (about 9 hours) – essentially tacking on an extra 13 hours of bus time. Not seeing another alternative, we decided to take the long-cut to Cusco. Although this undoubtedly sucked, at least we weren’t the tourists on the bus that left the day before – they were stranded between landslides and were stuck on the bus until rescuers could clear the road.

Before getting underway on the overnight journey to Cusco, we stopped at a viewing platform to see a few of the Nazca Lines. The Nazca Lines are a series of massive ancient geoglyphs thought to have been created sometime between 500 BC and 500 AD. The designs, which are simply shallow lines made in the ground, mostly represent animals and human figures. From the viewing platform we were able to see the lizard (which was cut in half by the road, thanks humanity), the hands, and the tree. Thanks to the isolation and dry, windless climate of the plateau, the geoglyphs have remained mostly intact for our viewing pleasure (would have been better from an airplane, but still glad we got to see them).

Views on the way to, and at, the Nazca Lines.

The Nazca Lines!

So, I’ve got to be honest, the trip to Cusco was, without a doubt the worst bus ride of the entire trip – if you have been reading our blog since the beginning, you know we have had some epically terrible bus rides. Around the time we stopped at the Nazca Lines my stomach started grumbling and producing massive amounts of gas and other non-solid products (sorry for the overshare). The cramping was absolutely unbearable. After spending over half the time at the Nazca Lines in the porta-potty and ¾ of the time at “dinner” in the bathroom, it was clear that the next 13 hours were not going to be fun. Indeed, they were not. At about midnight I forced Andy to go make the bus pullover, where I was sick on the side of the road, then around 2am, Andy had to go ask the driver if he could drop us off at the next hospital. Since we were in the middle of nowhere and the health care was considered sub-par (even by the locals), they refused to let us off the bus and instead compromised by saying that I alone could use the bus toilet for solid waste – well it wasn’t solid so that wasn’t a problem… After overdosing on Dramamine, I eventually fell into a drug-induced stupor and when I woke my stomach felt bearable, even non-emergent. Unfortunately, I also woke to Andy hunched over in pain – I guess we were playing tag because now he was “it.”       

Huacachina, Peru – July 17th – 18th, 2017

A Tale of 2 Perspectives, Round 2:

Andy

After arriving in Huacachina, we immediately went to find our hotel to drop off our bags and deposit Dani into her bed to rest. As is usually the case when you are desperate for something, things did not go smoothly. Our hotel was overbooked and subsequently scrambled to find us other accommodations. Thankfully, their sister hotel had availability, so we were whisked over to our new digs. Turns out it was the swanky luxo-camp spot in town with a pool, glamp-ish tent, and bar! It only took an extra 15 minutes to check in and they didn’t up our fee either. Sweet!

The eco-camp in Huacachina.

Poor Dani rested while Matt and I walked around and soaked in the surroundings: a small oasis town ringed around a pond with palm trees surrounded by enormous sand dunes, pretty freaking cool! After a quick tour of the town, we made our way to the meet up location for a dune buggy tour. We boarded our dune buggy which didn’t have the look of a functioning vehicle – it was beat up and rusty, the seats were torn, it was missing some seatbelts, and it generally had the feeling of a very used and abused piece of crap. Not surprisingly, the driver took the loaded buggy (which did start, to our surprise) to the entrance of the dunes, stopped, and told everyone they needed to pay the entrance fee…sure we did. We had all already paid the required fees through PeruHop. Some of us (Matt and I included) were resolved to not pay the scam while others didn’t seem to care or didn’t know better so they paid up. Eventually, after many other buggies past us, we got going again and off we went into the enormous dunes.

Photos from around Huacachina.

The driver was hell-bent on going as fast as he could in the screaming machine. Just driving on empty sand dunes, this meant the whole buggy was bouncing all over the place, catching air, and spraying sand everywhere. It was awesome! I should also mention that Matt and I were in the last row, so about 3 feet aft of the rear axle. This meant that we had the wildest ride! Unfortunately, our neighbor’s seatbelt didn’t work and kept coming undone in the bumpiest parts so they kept flying out of their seat and into the roof of the buggy. It was actually a little scary, but the rollercoaster of a ride was exhilarating and thankfully our seatbelts worked fine.

We stopped at a few sand dunes to try our hand at sandboarding. Most people were not as dumb as me and simply sat on the boards down the pretty short hills. I approached it just like snowboarding though, because, why not. Unfortunately, the boards had no edges and no control, so of course I fell. But I fell on my ass, and I fell so hard that I felt it for the next month. Seriously. Ouch! Sand turns out to be much much much harder than snow. My ass pain made the ride back to the oasis a bit rough, but it was still fun.

The next morning, we enjoyed the delicious breakfast at the sweet glamping hotel and relaxed for a few hours. Dani was feeling a bit better thankfully, so we all managed to climb one of the nearby dunes and soak in the views. Naturally, Matt and I raced down the hill (Matt won) while bounding like astronauts on the moon. I seriously felt like a kid in Huacachina, it was great!

Dani

Huacachina was incredible and unique, although less so from a sick bed in a tent. To be fair, my stomach seemed to be on an upward trend, but after not eating for almost 3 days, my energy level was low – too low for hiking up sand dunes. Alas, when we arrived, Andy and Matt went out to ride dune buggies and sandboard down the fine sand mountains, while I laid in a tent. I did venture out to dinner and even ate a little something, so that was a good sign. The next morning, I felt strong enough to sluggishly walk up the dunes and watch the guys race down. It was disappointing that nobody fell… how rude of them to deprive me of a good laugh. Before leaving town, we stopped at a pisco tour where we learned about how they make pisco. It was pretty interesting – and hey! I actually got to participate! Little did I know that the “upward trend” with my stomach was really just a speedbump before a sharp downturn into the gastro abyss… 

Pisco Tour where we learned about the process (which is essentially wine distillation), tried some samples (well, me less so), and were shown the some local handicrafts (look closely at the bottom-left photo).

Paracas, Peru – July 16th – 17th, 2017

A Tale of 2 Perspectives:

Andy

On the way to Paracas we drove past the Pachacamac archeological site and stopped along the road so the guide, Alonso, could talk briefly about the 2000 year old ruins (and how we didn’t have the time to go in). If you’re in Lima, sounds like you should go to Pachacamac! The bus continued with another brief stop for some delicious fresh bread from wood-fired ovens. Dani wasn’t feeling well and had a couple bites of the bread, but I scarfed down the rest. Between bites of palate satisfaction, I felt bad for Dani but was pretty sure she’d come around quickly…

Our last interesting stop was at Casa Hacienda San Jose to see a plantation house with a lengthy network of tunnels beneath the property. During Spanish rule, plantations paid taxes based on the number of slaves they had working. Naturally, in order to minimize taxes, the plantation owners would send most of their slaves underground when the tax auditor came around looking. Egregious human rights infringements aside, OK clever Mr. Plantation Owner. However, 300 years ago, tax auditors didn’t just make a trip out to plantations for a few hours to check-in. Nope, first it took them a week to get there, and then they’d stay on the property for several weeks. So, hundreds of slaves were forced to live in tunnels/caves for weeks on end, in cramped, oxygen-starved, filthy, and disease-ridden conditions. The tunnel’s size, smell, crowdedness, and general heaviness was so oppressive (not to mention Dani feeling so terribly), that Dani had to bail on the tour early and get some fresh air – this was alarming since Dani is definitely not one to quit on something.

Fresh bread and Casa Hacienda slave tunnels.

With our nostrils enjoying the clean air and our eyes re-adjusted to the bright sunlight, we finally arrived to Paracas. Badly in need of rest, Dani holed up in our hostel room while Matt and I grabbed lunch with some fellow Peru Hoppers and then took an ATV tour that I was super excited about. Paracas is very near to the Paracas National Reserve: a large protected area of wildlife full desert and coastline. I had read about ATV tours through the reserve and it sounded amazing. So Matt and I boarded our ATVs and our guide took us out…to a sandy ATV track between the town and the main road. The guide had us driving around the track in a several loops and then disappeared for a while leaving us to race each other a bit and see how fast we could go. It was a lot of fun, but with the clock ticking, I quickly realized it wasn’t going to be the ATV tour I had hoped it would be. We made the most of it though and enjoyed trying to catch some air and keep from falling off. The guide returned eventually and brought us to a spot on the beach where we could see some flamingoes in the far distance, and then he brought us back to town. “Tour” over. Oh well.

Fun in Paracas! Since backyards are a luxury very few have (if any), many Peruvians simply put their dogs on the roof during the day. 

The next morning, Dani was feeling even worse and we all decided it would be best for her to skip the Isla Bellestas boat tour – which would definitely not help her feel better. I felt terrible about leaving Dani behind in such misery, but we had already paid for the tour and there wasn’t much I could do to make her feel better. So Matt and I boarded the boat tour and immediately came upon dolphins in the bay. Then seals. And then a few sea lions. More dolphins! Fishing boats covered in pelicans! Dani’s missing this! We made it out to the tiny Islas Bellestas which are a natural bird sanctuary and are home to millions and millions of birds. The birds produce poop (AKA guano) and every seven years, a company comes out and scrapes all the guano off to sell it at $1000 per ton (BIG $$$ in Peru). We weren’t allowed off the boats, but you could still smell the islands and they were absolutely carpeted with birds. I’ve never seen so many! We even saw a penguin and a bunch more seals and sea lions. On our way back to Paracas, we saw more dolphins and sea lions fishing. We also saw the Candelabra, which is a 600 ft tall geoglyph carved into the side of the coast-line. The age and purpose are disputed, but it is thought to be about 2000 years old and can be seen from 12 miles out at sea. It was impressive, to say the least.

Isla Bellestas. The black on the hill of the top-left photo is not a different soil color, but birds! The Candelabra is shown in the bottom-middle photo.

Wildlife at Isla Bellestras.

Back in Paracas, Dani was doing even worse, so we tracked down a local clinic with the help of the hostel owner while Matt headed off for a bus tour of the National Reserve. Diagnosed with a stomach infection, Dani was instructed to take the Cipro we had. We slowly walked back to the hostel and I packed up our stuff while Dani continued to try and rest and nibble on some bread before we hopped back on the bus to our next stop.

Paracas National Reserve. Photo cred - Matt since we were at the Dr.

Dani

I felt sick the entire way to Paracas. We stopped several times, which I mostly used as an opportunity to sit on the bus and continue to feel nauseated. My own motion seemed to make matters worse, so staying as physically still as possible was the main objective. I did get out at the Casa Hacienda San Jose to see the slave tunnels, but once inside the tunnels the herd of people squeezed into a small, dank and dusty cavern made me feel both claustrophobic and anxious that I was going to vomit on the crowd…. I ended up turning around and trying my luck at sitting perfectly still.

Once in Paracas, Andy and Matt went out to enjoy themselves while I stayed put in the concrete jail-like room and slept. With a mild-grade fever, we were not sure that taking the antibiotics we had with us was the right course of action. With no doctor in town (or so we thought), I decided to tough it out and continually hoped that if I slept long enough I would wake up feeling a bit better. Unfortunately, it worked the other way around, with the symptom severity increasing. When bloody #2 came out, we started to be more desperate and asked the hotel owner for help. She walked us to an open clinic, where we met with a doctor for the bargain price of 13 soles ($4) while Matt took the Peru Hop bus to the National Reserve. The doctor said I had a stomach infection and to take the Cipro we had with us. In hindsight, taking the meds 2-days earlier may have enabled me to see the bird and animal-life splendor of Isla Bellestas. Instead, I missed Paracas completely and in order to stay on schedule I had to suffer through another bus ride while trying not to puke or defecate all over our new friends. Oh the joys of travel…