Tour of Peru Days 4 & 5 - Colca Canyon

Pictures at the bottom.

We left Arequipa on Monday afternoon intending to go to Puno, next to Lake Titcaca. We enjoyed the nice scenery on other side of the mountains and volcanoes near Arequipa. As we were driving up into the Altiplano (high plains) we figured out that we would arrive to Puno too late, so we called an audible and headed towards Colca Canyon. 

Colca Canyon is arguably the deepest in the world. The road is arguably the worst in the world. I think it used to be paved but hasn't been touched for decades and is worse than if it had never been paved. On the way to the small town of Chivay, the combination of altitude and an hour of washboard roads caused all three kids to get sick. Fortunately, we had bags ready. (The rest of the trip, the kids agreed to take Dramamine if we put it in York peppermint patties.) After an hour on the horrible roads, we arrived to a newly paved road that was straight as an arrow. Then a long series of hairpins descending to Chivay.

We arrived in Chivay around 8 pm. It's a very small town with the standard plaza with the cathedral on one side, the police station on another, and hostels and bars taking up much of the rest. Our Lonely Planet guidebook served us well and we found a hostel on the plaza with 3 beds for $20 (less than what room service for your dog costs at the Chicago Trump Tower). For $20 you don't expect much, so it was great. It even had hot water after the front desk gave us a wrench to replace the missing knob.

We left the next morning, Tuesday, to drive  farther into the canyon to Cruz del Condor, a lookout where condors often are gliding nearby. The dirt road went through small villages. Men, women, and their animals were walking along the road to go to their fields. We approached a tunnel at one point and suddenly a huge tour bus with 4 x 4 wheels came barreling out. We got out of the way, but didn't feel too secure heading into the one-lane tunnel. When you don't know when the end of something is, it feels a lot longer. The tunnel felt like it was forever.

Once at Cruz del Condor, we saw a handful of condors soaring around. The view was nice. The canyon is really deep. A lot of nice women were there selling their goods. The women have intricate hats and vests, cowboy style, that are made by the men. 

After getting our fix of condors and canyon views, we headed back to Chivay. We stopped at the plaza for a bit, where the kids played with a baby alpaca. The locals love to touch Eva and Jane's hair. 

We left Chivay by the same bad road we arrived, no sickness this time. Then we caught the highway across the Altiplano up  to Puno. The scenery going to Puno was beautiful high plains through a national reserve. Many alpacas and related animals, lakes, and flamingos.  

You should be able to click on the slideshow below to go to a bigger view of the pictures.

Tour of Peru Day 3 - 4 Arequipa

We spent Sunday (day 3) and a lot of Monday (day 4) in Arequipa. 

On Sunday we went to church. There was a dog in the main chapel, not a dog for a blind person either, just a stray. Nice people all around. 

In the afternoon we visited sites around Arequipa. It's known as the White City since most historic buildings are made of white volcanic sillar.  We saw the Plaza de Armas, Cathedral, lookout area, Santo Domingo church and many other cathedrals.

At one church, the guardian of the church, who said he was 90 and didn't look over 60, took us through a series of doors to an outdoor patio. About 4 tough looking dogs were on the roof overlooking us. The kids couldn't get over the feeling that the dogs might pounce on them at any time.

On Monday we visited the Santa Catalina Monastery in Arequipa. Get more info on its history at that link. It was one of the big highlights of the trip. It used to be an active monastery, but now is mainly a tourist stop with a smaller group of nuns running the place. The architecture is awesome: endless nooks and crannies similar to Old Jerusalem, clay red walls, bright blue walls, nuns' cells (that's what they call them) and outdoor kitchens. It was a photographer's paradise and we (Stace) took a few hundred shots.

On Sunday, while walking around we had smelled some pizza, so we returned there Monday after walking around the monastery. We considered trying the local specialty of guinea pig, but nobody was willing. We were the only ones in the  pizzeria, sat down, and ordered. A few minutes later, two ladies entered. They were standing up behind Stace, who was across the table from me. One was on a cell talking loudly, while the other acted like she was putting her purse down next to Stace's. Then she nonchalantly started reaching for Stace's backpack without looking. She missed it and on her second try I realized she was going for Stace's  bag. I told Stace what was going on and to grab her bag. She grabbed it and the ladies took off. As far as we know it was the only attempt to rob us during the whole trip.

Arequipa was an awesome city. I don't remember seeing any North Americans, lots of Europeans. It probably rarely gets visited since it's a flight away from Lima and Cuzco. It's a beautiful place. 

Our hosts, the Moscoso family, were great. They helped us get around the city and see the touristy sites and also let our kids entertain them. Eva and Jane loved dancing for them. Peter liked to arm wrestle with Amparito. Eva loved teaching Senor Moscoso how to say words in English from her Spanish-English First Words book.

Rather than try to pare down the photos, I'm inserting this slideshow. You can try watching it here on the blog or click on it and see the bigger size on Picasa.

P.S. No promises on when we update this blog. I suggest you use google reader to simplify keeping track of your blogs. 

Tour of Peru Days 1 and 2

About a month and a half ago we made a 2 week long trip through the southern portion of Peru. We packed up our car, got on the Panamericana and headed south. It was the best trip of our lives. The uncertainty of each day kept it very interesting. Peru is a beautiful country with landscapes varying from coast to desert to high plains to mountainous valleys to near jungle. It's taken a while to decompress from the trip and get back to normal life. We'll attempt to post some of the more interesting pictures over the next few days. This is installment #1.

Browse through the slide shows for pics of what we saw. Lots of scenery since we were in the car a lot of the time.

Day #1: left from Lima to Nazca. Nazca is famous the Nazca lines, which are lines in the desert made long ago that make pictures of animals or just geometry shapes. You can see them from an airplane, but we didn't go for it because we were running late. The drive was mostly a desolate desert. People had plopped down homes in the desert made of matted reeds. We made it to our hotel, Oro Viejo, and enjoyed the pool.

Day #2: drove from Nazca down to Arequipa. It was a day full of driving. The Panamericana made me miss I-80. Outside of Lima it is just a 2-lane undivided road with lots of double-decker buses with risk-loving drivers, semi-trucks from the '70s, and others with minimal driving skills. Some parts were covered with sand leaving only one lane to handle both directions of traffic. In one stretch the road rose along the cliffs and left little room for error. Broken barriers and crosses marking grave sites did not console Stace much. We arrived in the late evening to Mark's co-worker's parents' house (got that?) who hosted us for the next few days. 



More later.

Another Side of Peru

We live in La Molina, a tranquil, nice part of Lima. Stace drives the kids to and from school each day in another part of town and passes Alberto, a guy in a wheelchair, who sells mints or gum. The kids like him and encourage Stace to buy from him or give to him even when he's out of goods. Stace asked what he needed help with a few weeks ago and he pointed to his tires, indicating that they were wearing out. We decided we'd try to help him out by buying him some new tires. So on Saturday, Sept 26, we met up with him and loaded him into the back of the SUV. He said the place to buy the wheels was 15 minutes away, so we thought it would still be in a nice area. We were wrong.

We didn't have a clue where we were going and Alberto only seemed to know the path slightly better.

We were headed to Plaza Grau--a central market place in Lima.

It took 40 minutes to arrive.Our destination was a street with hundreds of bikes for sale. Once we turned onto the street, we didn't have to find the store, the vendors found us. 

We took over 2 hours to get back where we picked up Alberto. Everyone we asked on the streets had ideas on how to get home, but none of their suggested paths out worked.

Later, after telling some neighbors about where we had been, we were told to never go there again, especially in our own car.

Since it was a unique experience in a unique part of Lima, I'm posting a lot of photos.

We drove past many workshops. Check out the housing high on the hills.

Here's a closer shot of the housing.

This is the Lima Fruit Market. The Daewoo minicar (yellow) is a common taxi around here.

 

 Some band going through the streets.

Special price.  We went with the high performance nylon.

Ballerina, Asleep, Alberto, Karate Kid.

   

 I told them I'd buy them soda if they got us out of there quick.

 

Bikes. Alberto in back of car.

 

Fruit sellers.

Grilled bananas.

These tricycles are everywhere and can hold a lot. Once I saw one with a 2 year old child in the front basket with the husband peddling and the wife on the back rack.

  

Some semi-trucks using woven mats and sticks to keep their goods in.

 

 

Traffic.We were the only car that wasn't a taxi or a bus. 

 

This was a unique stretch we drove through. People gave us the "Gringo, you're totally lost" stare.

 

A wedding was being held at the other end of the block.

 More shops.

 Finally made it back to La Molina. Alberto was grateful for the new wheels.

 

Cast Away - DIY

Jane got her cast about a month ago, so it was time for it to come off. The pediatrician in Utah said it could come off after 3 weeks and that we wouldn't need another set of x-rays down here, so I thought I'd do it myself.

[maybe later, problems with video]

Above is video of Jane pouting and walking around like a peg-leg pirate.

Here's Jane in her last days with her cast.

Close up.

Over the course of 3 days I used my multi-function tool to get it off. Here is Jane on the operating table.

First, I used the mini-saw. I could get off the part by her foot alright, but struggle down the length of her leg.

Next, I used the knife to score a line down the leg. Then I cut that line at an angle to get a little chunk of cast off. With a little more help from the can opener attachment and the needle nose pliers, we made it all the way.

Here's the final product. A lot of old, scaly skin and some worn off skin from the cast.

It's now been about 3 days since removal and she's still walking a bit as though she still had it on. A few more days and she'll be back to 100%.

Fiesta

Our nice front door neighbors invited us to the mom's birthday party this past Tuesday. We thought it would be interesting to see how they do it. They were all very nice. We arrived at 8:30 and we're about to leave at 9. They said we should stick around a little longer until mariachi singers came, who were supposed to show at 9. We left at 10:30 with no sign of the singers so we could put the kids to bed. Five minutes after leaving we heard the mariachis singing, so we hurried through bedtime to return. We caught their last number. Stace even got in a little dancing with them.

Here we are with some of the relatives of the birthday girl.

"Yes, in our country it is customary to take your kids to parties in their pajamas."

Stace, with the birthday girl, Faviola.

Stace, with some other party guests. All were very welcoming.

LarcoMar - Oceanside Mall

Yesterday we made our deepest excursion into town. We went to LarcoMar, a shopping/tourist area that is built into the cliff overlooking the Pacific Ocean, in the Miraflores district.

Here we are at one of the lookout areas.

A little better shot of the view to the south.

Here's a shot of the beach and cliffs below the mall.

A lot of people go paragliding in the area. They take off from the cliffs above and go back and forth in front of the mall before either landing below on the beach or somewhere off to the south. This is Stace sailing past us.

We ate at a place that overlooked the ocean and was recommended by the Lonely Planet Guide to Peru, Vista del Mar. They served this really good cooked, salted, but unpopped, corn.

The sunset was awesome but the glass kept us from taking a decent shot of it. 

Pedro wanted his new favorite dish, antecuchos de corazon (skewered cow heart). Eva had fetuchini. Jane had the ham from Eva's futichini. Stace and I both had milanesa a la napolitana, a favorite of mine from Argentina.