ADIOS

August 22, 2011

Almost every morning during our time in Peru saw us getting up early - usually around 5:30 or 6:00 - in order to catch a tour, a bus, or a train. Our second day at Machu Picchu, we were able to sleep in a little, though we didn't want to waste too much of the day in our hostel room.  And the day we flew back to Lima, I think we didn't get up til after 7:00, as our flight didn't leave until around 11:00 AM. On our last morning in Peru, we allowed ourselves the luxury of sleeping in even later; there were still things we wanted to see and do, but our flight home didn't leave until late that night, so we didn't have to be anywhere until then.

 

 

 

 

We checked out of the hostel, but left our bags in the storage room, and walked down to the center of Miraflores, looking for some breakfast. While we were walking, a man approached us and began asking us questions, much like the Limping Man at the pyramid the day before. While The Limping Man hadn't made me feel uncomfortable, this gentleman did, mainly because he kept on walking along with us and talking to us, even though we tried to ignore him. Finally I ducked into a Payless Shoe store (yes! Payless is in Peru!), followed by The Doctor, and the man went on his way. When we went back out, we did see him again, and had to dodge him, but had no more interactions with him.

 

 

 

 

We looked at a couple places for breakfast, but nothing grabbed us, and before we knew it we had come to Bircher Benner, a vegetariano restaurant The Doctor had eaten at a few times and had wanted to take me to. It was getting close to lunch time anyway, so we decided to just go ahead and eat here. It was a nice place, up a flight of stairs on the second floor, and consisted of two or threes cute little dining rooms. The food was good, though they were out of the dish I wanted, something made with the large Peruvian corn kernels. Apparently that is seasonal, as a I couldn't seem to find their corn anywhere. My second choice was good though, and it was nice meal.

 

 

 

 

One thing outside of our structured itinerary that I had insisted on doing was visiting the Museo de la Inquisicon, or the Museum Of The Inquisition. I had thought it was in the Miraflores district of Lima, but we discovered the day before it was actually in El Centro. After we ate, we found a taxi; we showed the driver the address in our guidebook, and he conveyed he knew where it was, but once he got to El Centro, he made a couple phone calls on his cell while driving, from which we were able to gather he was asking for directions. He even stopped and asked a female traffic cop, but in the end he got us there, without any real difficulty.

 

 

 

 

The museum was free, and the displays were interesting, but sadly all the information was in Spanish. Though we were able to figure out that the building had once been a prison and had seen a lot of torture, we weren't able to learn too much more than that. All the information in Spanish was on signs shaped like stocks, which I thought was clever. There were displays of chains and shackles, and even a wooden cross, and one room had been some type of courtroom and had figures in position as if a trial

were going on. (Below: Yours truly offering damning testimony against the accused.)

 

The piece de resistance however, was the torture room.

 

Displays showed victims being subjected to water torture, the rack, a garrotte, and even someone being suspended from their wrists, with their writs behind their back.

 

My guidebook had described these exhibits as "stomach churning", but I have to say I found them a little tame.

 

But then, I have been around the block a few times . . .

 

 

Across from the museum was a large square with a statue of Simon Bolivar on horseback. 

 

The Square was in front of the Building of Congress, which seemed to have a fairly heavy police presence.  I don't know if there was something going on, or if they are always there.

 

In the plaza itself were a lot of pilots and stewardesses in their Peruvian Airlines uniforms; I don't know if they were attending a conference, or were part of some kind of protest.

 

On our way to the museum, The Doctor had noticed a few churches, and seemed interested in trying to find them. We had no idea where the ones he had noticed were, but over the roofs of some buildings across the street we could see what appeared to be Cathedral domes, so we headed in the direction. While we were waiting to cross the street, we heard a crash, and I turned in time to see a car run over some low concrete dividers in the street. It was the sound of a crash that made me look - BEFORE the car had hit the divider - and it appeared the car had been sideswiped by a truck or van, causing it to veer out of its lane  We went over for a closer look; there didn't appear to be any injuries, nor did it appear that any other vehicle had stopped, so I don't know if it was a hit and run, or if it was simply just a one car accident.

 

The church we found turned out to be the Cathedral Of St. Francis and was a magnificent old cathedral.

 

Almost at once I noticed a sign on an attached building pointing to the "Museo y Catacumbas". I had read about the Catacomb Museum in my guidebook, and it had sounded interesting, so since we were right there and had a little time to kill we decided to go in.

 

We arrived just in time to join a tour that was in English. Unfortunately, they did not allow photos to be taken, which was kind of disappointing. There is still an operating monastery connected to the Cathedral, and most of the tour was in that section of the grounds, and we didn't go into the cathedral itself, which I am sure must be amazing. Nor did we see any actual Franciscan Monks, though we did pass the doorway that led to their private quarters, according to our guide.

 

 

 

 

The first part of the tour consisted of a lot of early art, many of the paintings depicting St. Francis himself. One room we went into was an old counsel room, which I believe the guide said is still used for meetings today. At one end of this room was a very old painting of The Last Supper, and I was delighted when our guide told us that - like the painting I hadn't been able to see in Cusco - this one also showed Christ and His disciples eating Guinea Pig! I was so happy to see it, I think I actually punched The Doctor in the arm, which I am sure is not appropriate behavior for a monastery.

 

 

 

 

Eventually the tour took us down into the catacombs, where the remains of 25,000 people are interred (that was the figure our guide gave us; however my Fodor's guidebook says 75,000). The catacombs date back to the 17th century, and I was pleasantly surprised to hear that one did not need to be Catholic in order to have been buried here. It was pretty much considered Lima's public cemetery for several hundred years. We were able to see several rows of open crypts. For whatever reason, the bones have have been separated by body parts - one section of crypts contained leg bones, another arms, and one was all skulls. One room had a rather artistic (but somewhat creepy) display of skulls all laid out in a circular pattern. The catacombs are still used for burial, but only for the monks at the monastery, and our guide told us one monk had been buried there as recently as two weeks ago. All in all it was a pretty interesting experience, and I was glad we had stumbled upon it.

 

 

 

 

We left El Central and took a taxi back to Miraflores. We went back to Kennedy Park, and saw even more stray cats in the daylight.

 

They seemed perfectly at home in the park, sharing their space with the humans . . . or perhaps it would be more accurate to say they were willing to tolerate our presence. It was still so sad to seem them though. Some of them were so beautiful.

 

I was glad to see that someone was leaving dishes of food out under some of the trees for them.

 

 

 

 

We bought some kind of pastry like dessert from a vendor with a cart in the park. Not sure exactly what it was, but The Doctor was curious to try it so we shared one. It was similar to a pizzelle or waffle cookie in shape - thin, flat, and round, and about the same size, but much sweeter and stickier.

 

 

 

 

We spent the rest of the afternoon walking around the center of Miraflores. Several times over the two days we were there, we visited some of the Inca Market places, where there was booth after booth of Peruvian handicrafts and souvenirs. We kept finding an excuse to go back, and usually we would both end up buying a few things. They really have some lovely things, and I told The Doctor that we needed to come back in November and do all our Christmas shopping at these marketplaces.

 

As dinner time drew near we decided we wanted Mexican food, but couldn't find any Mexican restaurants. The Doctor even asked at two different tourist information kiosks, but both said there were none in the area. This was surprising considering the number of restaurants that were around. We finally ended up back on the street we had been to the night before with all the restaurants, and once again ran the gauntlet trying to find a place to eat. We ended up at one that had a few Mexican items on the menu, and both got tacos, though their tacos were a little different than any I have had before. They were good though. They had a big old hunk of some kind of strange cheese in it that I was a little concerned about, but I ate it anyway.

 

With only hours left in Peru, The Doctor was still frantically trying to complete the collections of coins for his nieces and nephews. We had a pleasant - and as it turned out very patient and obliging - waitress, who spoke enough English to understand what he was trying to do. He would show her the coin he needed more of and she would dig in the pocket of her apron, and if there were none there she would run into the back and come back with what he was looking for. She actually did this a few times, and seemed pleased to be able to help. Based on the apparent shortage of these coins that we seemed to encounter everywhere we went, I think The Doctor must have cleaned out what little supply the country had on hand.

 

 

 

 

After we had dinner we went to a little cafe and got some delicious desserts, and I got a hot chocolate.

 

Then we headed back to the hostel, where we collected our luggage and waited for our ride to the airport. At a number of places in Peru, and especially in Lima, I had seen green signs on the wall with a big white "S" on them. The only word I was able to make any sense out of on the signs was "Sismos" which I imagined must have something to do with earthquakes, and decided these must indicate a kind of "fallout" shelter for earthquakes.

 

The Pirwa Hostel had one of the signs, so I asked the manager at the hostel what they meant, and he confirmed they were for earthquakes. When I asked if the hostel was a safety zone, he said "If it's a small earthquake. A big one, you're on your own."

 

 

 

 

Our car finally came and we left. The Doctor said his good-byes to the staff at the hostel. He had spent a lot of time here prior to my arrival, and had gotten to know a couple of them. They had been extremely helpful, especially over the first weekend when he was trying to rearrange aspects of our trip that had been affected by my canceled flight. (I should also mention that although we stayed at four of Pirwa's hostels, we never did run into either Liset or Yesica, the two women I had dealt with through emails, and to whom Yolanda had spoken to on the phone.)

 

 

 

 

It was dark out on our ride to the airport.  Alont the way the Doctor pointed something out to me - it was one of those Inca Kola kiosks in the middle of the road, and sure enough there was a traffic cop in this one, directing traffic. I had first seen these in Puno, and assumed they were for traffic cops, but this was the first one we had seen being used.

 

At the airport we checked in, made it through security, and then had to go through immigration. We didn't have any forms, so I had to get out of the line and try to find some. There were tables in the back of the room but there were no forms on it. Finally a woman saw me looking around, and she called me over and gave me one. She didn't speak English, and I had to make gestures to explain I needed two, a second one for someone in the line. We filled out the forms in line, but I had the feeling we were missing something. I remembered having filled out these forms on the plane coming into Peru, and thought I should have the bottom tear off section somewhere. The Doctor didn't think he had ever had anything like that, but I was sure we were going to need them.

 

 

 

When we got to the head of the line, the man at the desk (who didn't speak English) made it clear we were missing something. He took us over to another woman (who spoke some English, but not much), and she told us we would have to pay a fee of $5.00 each, due to missing the forms. As she started to process us though, she saw that I had been in the country for 8 days, so she told me I would have to pay $8.00 instead of $5.00. The Doctor, who had been in Peru for 14 days, still only had to pay $5.00. We didn't understand why I had to pay more, but it wasn't that much and there was no point in making a big deal out of it.

 

 

 

 

On our way to the gate we stopped at a gift shop to make sure we weren't leaving Peru without any vital souvenirs and/or gifts. At our gate our carry on bags were inspected, and then we boarded the plane.  The Doctor had the window seat, and I was in the middle, and another guy was next to me. The Doctor managed to get some sleep on the flight, but I didn't get too much. My cold had been gradually growing worse, plus my stomach was bothering me. I am not sure if it was the cheese (!) from the taco, or the desert we had after, but I was feeling quite unsettled and afraid that I might have managed to get the Traveler's Diarrhea at my very last meal in Peru. Luckily, that was not the case, and whatever was bothering me didn't linger.

 

 

 

 

It was early morning when we arrived in Ft. Lauderdale. We learned later that five international flights had arrived within minutes of each other, and it was mess - hundreds of people, and long lines. A lot of people missed flights while waiting to be processed and were not to happy about it. There were a lot of short tempers. We had a couple hours between flights, and made it with just a few minutes to spare. Frankly, I was not as concerned about making the connection coming home as I had been on the way to Peru!

 

 

 

 

We had to go through immigration and customs again. When we got to the front of the line at immigration, we went to the same counter together. The man at the counter looked at us and asked if we were related, and when we said "no", he gave us a curious look and said "Just long time friends, something like that?" We said yes. He was friendly, and processed us quickly. We didn't need to get our passports stamped coming BACK into the US, but The Doctor asked the man if we could get them stamped anyway. He took The Doctor's, stamped it, and then said "Who's gonna pay the fee? We charge $25.00 to stamp these now." We just kind of gave him a blank stare, and before we could answer, he grabbed my passport, stamped it, and repeated "So which one of you is paying the fee?" We started to reach for wallets, but he smiled and said "I'm just messing with you. There's no fee!" What a kidder he was!

 

 

 

 

I sent another Tweet to Matthew Rush, since we were passing through his home town, and he replied with a friendly "Wave! Wave!". We boarded our plane and made it to Logan airport in Boston without further incident.

 

 

 

 

After collecting our baggage, we went outside. The Doctor and I said our good-byes (I was touched when he said he would miss me!) and gave each other a parting hug. A friend was picking him up, so he went off in search of her, while I stayed and waited for the Knight's Limo van, which arrived shortly to pick me up.

 

 

 

 

When I got home, I dropped my stuff off at the house, and left immediately to pick up my cat Milky White from the vet where I had boarded him during my trip. I was exhausted, and on my way back home from Worcester I came dangerously close to falling asleep at the wheel a couple times, which I have never done before. But we made it safe and sound, and Milky White was glad to be home.

 

 

 

 

It's taken me longer to finish this blog than it took to live the experiences I have written about. I've been home almost two weeks now. Lake Titicaca, Machu Picchu, and even Keiko are all memories now, but still vivid ones. The cold I picked up on Lake Titicaca got worse before it got better, but is gone now. The Doctor's cold also lingered, and he spent the rest of his first week home recuperating. All in all, I felt lucky that I at least managed to survive the trip without any major health problems, as that had been my greatest worry prior to leaving, but I was sorry The Doctor had such a rough time of it in Puno with the Soroche. The worst part of the the trip for me was having my flight out delayed by three days, and though it made for a shorter and more rushed trip, we still were able to do almost everything we had planned. I wouldn't have missed any of it for the world!

 

 

 

 

As one final note, I want to mention that The Doctor's father passed away suddenly and unexpectedly just this past weekend. My thoughts will be with him during the coming days as he goes through this difficult time.

BACK TO LIMA

August 21, 2011

 

 

On Sunday morning we checked out of the Pirwa Hostel in Cusco where we had spent the night, and walked around the corner to the OTHER Pirwa Hostel, where there was a free breakfast available to guests of both hostels. It was pretty much the same fare as at the other hostels where we had stayed - just bread and juice or a yogurt beverage, but here it was sit down service as opposed to a buffet. The dining room was on the second floor, and had a nice view over looking the Plaza de Armas.

 

 

 

 

After eating we went down to find a taxi to take us to the Cusco airport. There had always been a lot of cabs and other traffic around the plaza, but on this morning it was completely deserted. There was some sort of military presence in front of the large Cathedral (the one with the painting of Guinea Pig being served at the Last Supper, which I didn't get to see . . .), and it was obvious that something was going on and the whole area had been closed off to traffic. Whether this was related to the protest we had seen the night before, or something else, I don't don't know.

 

 

 

 

We had to walk a couple blocks beyond the Plaza before we found a taxi, which drove us the short distance to the Cusco Airport. Before we were even allowed to check in at the Peru Star counter, a security guard made us open our luggage and went through it pretty thoroughly. The Doctor passed the guard's inspection, but in my bag he found a can of insect repellant (recommended by the nurse at the travel clinic, but something I had never had to actually use), and took it out. This was just a short local flight back to Lima, but of all our flights it was the only time we had been subject to such an inspection.

 

 

 

 

When we checked in at the Peru Star counter we were told our flights had not been paid for. The Doctor had handled this part of the trip, and was sure everything had been charged, but upon closer inspection he could see on his own copy of the receipt that he had only paid a deposit for the flight. He paid it then, and we were able to check in.

 

 

 

 

The official flag for the Cusco Region of Peru is a Rainbow flag, almost identical to the Gay Pride flag. I had wanted to buy one, and there was a little souvenir kiosk across from the check-in counter that had some small ones for sale. I went over, but there was no one around, which was highly unusual. Sales people in Peru - especially at gift shops - are very good at making their presence known, usually quite aggressively. They stand outside their stores, calling out to you as you pass by, urging you to come in to check out their merchandise. It was pretty odd not to find anyone at the kiosk.  I would have just left and got one later, but as it was the Cusco flag I wanted, I wasn't sure I would be able to find any in Lima. Finally we saw an older woman hurrying back with a cup of coffee. I bought both the Cusco Region flag, and the National flag of Peru.

 

 

 

 

We made it through security and boarded the plane without further incident.

 

It was a short flight to Lima, and after we claimed our baggage, we found the driver from Pirwa who was there to pick us up. He was the same driver who had picked me up when I first arrived, and he remembered me.

 

 

 

 

When we got to the hostel we checked in and settled into our room for our final night in Peru. Then we set out to find some lunch and check out the city. The Doctor had spent several days prior to my arrival in Lima, and had expressed his disdain for the city on numerous occasions. Frankly, I didn't see anything wrong with it, it didn't strike me as being too much worse than any city in the US. Granted we were in the Miraflores district, which is supposed to be the nicest part of the city. It was overcast, and apparently it had been during the entire time Doctor had been there the previous week. It seemed that the fog and mist roll in from the ocean, and meets with the smog from Lima and it all just hangs over the city blocking out the sun. I'm not quite the sun worshipper The Doctor is, so I probably wouldn't even have noticed it wasn't shining if he hadn't mentioned it a time or two. The city also doesn't get a lot of rain, so it doesn't get a "natural washing", and so there is a certain amount of grunge and grime everywhere, but it otherwise seemed to be kept as clean as humanly possible. We didn't seen any trash or garbage littering the streets, and the parks we passed through seemed clean and well groomed.

 

 

 

 

I needed to get some more stamps for postcards, so The Doctor led me to the Lima Post Office or "Serpost".  

 

There only seemed to be one counter open, with a long line going out the door. I got at the end of the line, and was soon approached by a nice looking uniformed security guard wearing a gun (perhaps a police officer?) and he said something to me in Spanish. He pointed at my hands, and I assumed he didn't want me coming into the building with the bag I was carrying, so I handed it off to The Doctor who was waiting nearby. But he pointed again, and I realized he had seen my postcards and was indicating that I could move forward to the head of the line to get my stamps, which I gladly did (not sure how the other customers in line felt about that . . . ). The woman at the counter spoke no English, but I showed her the postcards and she gave me 4 stamps. I needed more than that, so I had to write the desired number down on piece of paper and show it to her. She didn't even have enough international postcard stamps in her drawer; I was willing to to just take the ones she had, but she pulled out some other stamps that were a little more expensive. She very carefully pointed to the prices on both sets of stamps to make sure I knew they cost more, but it wasn't that much so I went ahead and bought the number that I needed. Of course there was an issue with "change" but between the two of us, we managed to work it out. In spite of the communication problems, she was very pleasant to deal with.

 

 

 

 

We walked on, and The Doctor showed me the sights he was familiar with, the Catholic Church he had gone to Mass at, the movie theatre where he had sat through Captain America entirely in Spanish (which I teased him about mercilessly), and some of the parks in the area.

 

 

 

 

 

We sort of stumbled on a Vegetarian restaurant which he hadn't seen before, and decided to have lunch there.  I am still not quite sure what happened at the restaurant. We both looked at the menu board posted outside which was entirely in Spanish, and then went in and sat at a table near the window.

 

A very cheerful woman came over who spoke no English. Plus she seemed to be missing several of her upper front teeth which gave her a slight speech impediment. The Doctor always tried to be polite and always greeted people with either "Hola", or "Buenas Dias". While I understood why he did this, I found it rather annoying, because it automatically gave the mistaken impression that he spoke Spanish, when in reality that was pretty much the extant of his vocabulary.  I always said "Hello", which usually didn't elicit a lot of smiles, but at least we knew where we stood with each other starting out. Out waitress was very cheery and immediately began chattering away in Spanish. To be honest, with her missing teeth, I couldn't really tell what language she was speaking, but certainly had no idea what she was saying. When she finished, she smiled broadly at the Doctor, who paused briefly, then responded with a "Yes".  They both looked at me, and though I didn't quite know what was going on, I replied in the affirmative also.    She seemed pleased and hurried away.

 

 

 

I asked The Doctor what had just happened, and he replied "We just ordered". I asked him what we had ordered, and he said we had ordered one of the combos. He seemed surprised that I didn't know what had happened, and I was surprised that he DID! I asked how he knew what she had been saying, and he said he had looked at the menu board out front, and had been able to match up some of what she had said with what he had seen on the menu. The menu had been in Spanish so I still couldn't figure out how he had understood any of it.    He asked if I would have rather ordered something else, and I said "I don't even know what they have!!!" When the food came it good, so I guess it turned out OK, but I was still baffled by The Doctor's apparent comprehension skills.

 

 

 

 

It was while we were eating here that I noticed a sudden rush of water coming down the sidewalk. I looked out to see two or three street cleaners going past the restaurant. One had a large plastic trash can on wheels filled with water, and every few feet it would tip it to spill water onto the sidewalk. One of the other men had a push broom which he used to scrub down the wet sidewalk. I was quite impressed with this. As I said, the city seemed to be as clean as was humanly possible.

 

 

 

 

While we ate I looked through my guide book to see what was available to see and do in this part of town. There was a lighthouse I had wanted to visit, but while it was in the Miraflores district, it was of course near the ocean, which was not really within walking distance from where we were. I had also read about a pyramid that sounded interesting, and when I read the description to The Doctor, he recognized it as something he had seen earlier during his stay in Lima, but hadn't know what it was. We decided to check it out.

 

 

 

 

We went back to the hostel first and on the way we went back by the Post Office to mail my postcards. The same security guard was on duty, and when I showed him my freshly stamped cards, he led me over to the mail slots. For striking such an intimidating figure with his uniform and gun, he seemed very friendly and helpful.

 

 

 

 

After a brief stop at the hostel, we went on to the Pyramid, which the Doctor was able to lead us to with no problem. (Below: The Doctor holds The Pyramid Of Doom in front of the Hauca Pucllana Pyramid)

 

The pyramid sits right in the middle of the Miraflores district of Lima and is known as Huaca Pucllana.  If I recall correctly,  it pre-dates the ruins at Machu Picchu by approximately 1,000 years.

 

It only became an archaeologically dig 30 years ago. Prior to that it was buried under a mountain of dirt, and had been used as a jump by Motor Cross enthusiasts. It is not in as great shape as the Pyramids of  Egypt, (based on the pictures I've seen of them) but the parts of it that are intact were interesting to see.

 

After buying our tickets, we looked through the small museum while waiting for the next English speaking tour of the site. There were several interesting artifacts in the museum, small sculptures, pottery, and even a shark's tooth and fin that had been excavated from the pyramid. There was a photo of the shattered remains of large jar that had been unearthed in a pit.

 

They had been able to piece the jar back together and it was on display in the museum.

 

After that we waited outside for the tour to begin. An older gentleman with a major limp came over and started talking with us. He spoke fairly good English, and asked us a lot of questions about where we were from, where we had visited in Peru, what the climate and landscape were like where we lived, a whole host of questions. To me, he just seemed like a man who was genuinely curious about the world, but I could tell The Doctor felt a little uneasy with him hanging around. When the tour finally started he said he would catch up with us later, and walked away. He did join the tour after it had started and talked with us a little more, but then seemed to latch onto a European couple and visited with them quite a bit. Later The Doctor told me he had been approached by a man earlier during his time in Lima, who had started out the same way, asking the same kind of questions, but then ended up asking for money to send to his family in Cusco. Given that information, I could understand why our limping friend would have made him nervous, but he never asked us for anything, nor seemed to ask the other couple either.

 

 

 

 

The tour of the pyramid was quite interesting. It is still an ongoing archaeological dig, and much of it has yet to be unearthed and restored. They are rebuilding it as much as possible with the original bricks. The walls that remain standing are a couple layers of brick deep, and were built with a small gap between each brick. The guide explained that this made the structure virtually earthquake proof. He said Lima had been destroyed 3 times by earthquakes during the last 1,000 years, but Huaca Pucllana has survived them all. (Below: Photo showing how the bricks have spaces between them.  The white flecks in the bricks are bits of sea shells that had been mixed with the clay during the brick making process.)

 

He showed us one wall where the original yellow coloring of the bricks was still visible. Another area had a pit where the remains of human sacrices - all female - had been found.

 

Some other sacrificial pits had been "recreated" with replicas of mummies (including infants) that had been offered as sacrifices. If I understood correctly, these persons had been from other regions of Peru, and might have been prisoners of war.

 

Near the base of the pyramid were some other recreations depicting the brick making process.

 

This area had some actual footprints that the guide told us were from the feet of the actual workers who had made the bricks, and had been preserved in the hardened mud for a 1,000 years. I have to admit to being a little skeptical of this fact . . . but who knows.

 

Another display showed a replica of the clay jar I mentioned earlier which had been restored from shattered fragments.

 

The display showed a man preparing to smash the jar with a rock. Our guide said that the people believed that as long as a body survived, the soul would also live, which of course was the reason for the mummification process. But in this case, the jar had an illustration of a shark on it, and contained pieces of a real shark. It was an offering, but the vessel represented the body of the shark, and had to be destroyed to prevent the shark from from attacking the souls of the dead in the afterlife. This explained why the jar been in fragments when it was unearthed. I only hope that by putting it back together, the archaeologists didn't awaken the soul of the shark it represented, wreaking havoc in the afterlife . . .

 

Next to the pyramid was a nice restaurant that opened out into the Huaca Pucllana complex. You could sit right there and eat a nice meal while looking at the pyramid. The European couple told us that they had dined there the night before, and the food was good - they especially recommended the steak. I asked if it was expensive, and without hesitating they said yes. A little later they asked if I was from New York, and I told them no, Boston. The woman said, "Well, maybe for you it wouldn't seem so expensive . . . " We did check the menu before leaving, but it offered nothing in the way of Vegetarian entrees.

 

For dinner that night we walked around quite a bit trying to find some place interesting to eat at. We went down one street that was full of restaurants, and as I have described many of the gift shops, the restaurant's hosts and hostesses were extremely aggressive about trying to lure us inside. They were out on the sidewalk ready to pounce on you the minute you came close. One hostess spent some time with us showing all they had to offer, and pointing out the vegetarian options when we told her we were both "vegetarianos". We decided to look on a little more, but she followed us, and even when someone from another restaurant was showing us their menu, she was still trying to call us back, saying her place was better than their's. The entire street was like running a gauntlet, and finally we left it just to get away from all the pressure. We looked around some more, but ended up going back to the restaurant with the persistent hostess. I ordered a vegetable lasagna, which was good, but more like a casserole than any lasagna I had ever had.

 

The Doctor ordered a ravioli dish, but the hostess, who doubled as a waitress, was kind enough to remember that we were vegetarianos, and told him the raviolis were stuffed with beef instead of cheese. From the way she said it, I got the impression that is the customary way they are make in Peru. So he ended up ordering a spaghetti dish with a pesto sauce which he said was some of the best pesto he had ever had.

 

 

 

 

After we ate The Doctor wanted to pick up a few things, so we went to a local grocery store. This was more like what I am more used to, as opposed to the "Super Marcado" we had visited in Puno. I walked up and down the aisles, and though there were some products that were foreign to me, there were many brand names that I recognized. One thing that the Doctor pointed out to me was their milk, which was sold in plastic bags as instead of cartons.

 

We hadn't gotten dessert at the restaurant, so we went to a cafeteria like place with a sidewalk counter that The Doctor had visited a couple times before, and there we got some churros. We each got a large one with filling (mine was chocolate), and some smaller plain ones. We took these back to a nice park called Kennedy Park, and ate them there. I was wearing my Chullo Hat and eating Churros. The only thing missing was Charo . . .

 

It was after dark, but Kennedy Park was well lit, with lots of people walking around or sitting on benches, and it felt perfectly safe. Everywhere we had been in Peru I had seen stray dogs, probably hundreds of them up to this point. Lima was no different, but Kennedy Park was the first place I noticed stray cats in great numbers. They seemed to be everywhere, and probably numbered several dozen. Like the dogs, they seemed tame and friendly, and didn't mind being approached and petted. The stray dogs had made me sad, but all these cats broke my heart and I wanted to take them all home with me.

 

That same night I saw something I hadn't seen anywhere else in Peru. On a light post was a poster for a lost dog. Those are always sad, but it must be especially difficult losing a pet in a city with so many stray animals, knowing that your pet is probably out there somewhere wandering around with them.

 

A STRONG LEGGED AND SURE FOOTED PEOPLE

August 20th, 2011

On Saturday morning we checked out of the Pirwa Hostel in Agua Calientes, but left our overnight bags in their storage room for the day. We found a Mexican restaurant that was open for breakfast, and then went to purchase bus tickets for our second trek up to Machu Picchu. The Doctor bought the tickets, and - even with a major company that sells bus tickets all day long - he again ran into trouble with the currency. The didn't want to break whatever denomination bill he had, and not having any coins himself, he asked me for some. After the incident over the coins earlier in the week, I just kind of rolled my eyes, but I really couldn't help as I had no coins either, and I told him so. He asked me again, and I was beginning to wonder exactly what his issue was; What Part Of I DON'T Have ANY Coins Was He Not Understanding??? I had to explain to him a couple times that I had NO change. Finally the woman at the counter found some change somewhere, and we were able to complete the transaction.

Even when we got on the bus, The Doctor still seemed unclear about my change situation. I was really beginning to think he had some sort of Peruvian coin fixation. He seemed certain that I must have some change, as I had paid for breakfast at the Mexican restaurant, and was certain the woman there had given me coins with my change. I told him I had left those as a tip, but he still seemed skeptical, so I reached in my pocket to prove my point . . . and there was a s/5.00 coin . . . which was all we had needed at the bus station. I was very tempted to just keep my mouth shut, but I could not bring myself to be deceitful with The Doctor, so I pulled it out and showed it to him. He broke out into a hysterical fit of laughter, which I tried to sit through with as much dignity as I could muster. I guess he felt vindicated because I had been so adamant about not having any change, so I let him enjoy his moment.

The ride up the mountain was just as "exhilarating" as the previous day. Lots of narrow curves and sharp drop-offs. We survived though, and made it to the top in once piece. (Below: This view from Machu Picchu looks down on the road the bus travels, and gives you an idea of its many sharp turns.) 

After going through the entrance gate, we stamped our passports again, even though we had already done it the previous day.

Our visit to Machu Picchu the day before had been under clear and sunny skies. On our second day there was a very low cloud cover, but the ruins were no less beautiful because of it. In fact, they took on a whole new look, with blankets of fog sweeping in and swirling around the mountains.

Terraces and buildings would be visable one minute, and then completely obscured the next by the swift moving clouds.

Occasionally there was a very light rain, more of a mist really, and it was a bit cooler than the previous day, but we actaully felt lucky to be able to experience Machu Picchu on two days that were so very different from each other. Of course this meant taking a lot of pictures of the same things we had photographed the day before, because they looked so very different with the low clouds. We were glad that we had spent a good part of the previous day on higher parts of Machu Picchu, as those views looking down would not have been so good on the second day.

We spent a few hours exploring the main parts of the complex. In retrospect, it would have been wise to have hired one of the guides at the main entrance to show us around, or to at least have picked up a detailed map of the ruins. There are few signs or markers, so for the most part we only had a vague idea of what we were actually looking at. Generally it was easy to differentiate between a dwelling, and say, a temple, but I am sure additional information would have been helpful, and made it far more interesting. I think we both kind of wanted to experience it on our own. In a way, we were like Hiram Bingham, trying to figure things out for ourselves - though I know of course he would have more of a foundation of knowledge about the Incas upon which to base his conclusions. We were pretty much just winging it. Some things seemed fairly obvious - at least to us. Several times we would round a series of 3 or 4 corners ending in a very small room with a drainage hole in the wall near the floor.. We assumed these were bathrooms, which would indicate they had some sort of indoor plumbing, even perhaps a primitive type of "toilet". Whether we were correct or not I have no idea.

On that note, it is hard for me to understand how anyone can actually "know" anything about Machu Picchu.  In my opinion everything is pretty much just a theory anyway. No one even seems certain as to what Machu Piccu was in the first place - I've heard theories saying it was an agricultural community, some type of ceremonial grounds, or even just a "vacation resort". If we don't even know it's purpose, how can we know what the specific buildings were used for?

One case in point was the structure known as The Temple Of The Condor. From above, the shape of the building does resemble the large bird, which was sacred in their culture.

Much of the interior is divided up into very small chambers; at least one was little more than a cave which was accessible only through a low and narrow crawl space.

I overheard one guide lecturing to his group about the Temple, and saying how when Bingham first saw it, he decided it was a prison. The guide went on to say "But why would they have kept prisoners in the Temple of The Condor". My question would be, how do you know for certain it was in fact a temple? Both are just theories, and for my money I tend to lean more towards Bingham's prison theory. The guide also argued that the bones of both llamas and guinea pigs had been found in the small cave like room, proving it had been a chamber for offering sacrifices to the Condor. Why couldn't those have been the remains of meals given to prisoners in solitary confinement. I am sure the belief is that since the building was shaped like a Condor, it must have been built to honor their sacred bird; but who says they couldn't have designed it that way so the prisoners would always be under the watchful eye of the Condor? My knowledge of the Incan culture is close to non-existent, and I am sure the archeologists who have studied their culture and the ruins at Machu Piche have a lot to base their theories on, but at the end of the day they are still just that - theories! (Below:  The Doctor exploring The Temple Of The Condor . . . or is it a prison???)

I am reminded of David Macaulay's "Motel Of The Mysteries". Written from the point of view of hundreds of years in the future, the book chronicles the archeological discovery of a mysterious ancient temple complex. The explanations for the items inside the temple seem to make perfect sense, but the accompanying illustrations reveal to the reader that it is actually the ruins of a cheap motel. The altar is a television set, the burial chamber is a bathtub, the ceremonial headdress a toilet seat lid. It is intended to be humorous of course, but I think it is also an interesting commentary on how much of what we "know" about ancient cultures is probably little more than guesswork.

We climbed up to the ritual stone known as Intiuatana, or "The Hitching Post Of The Sun". Twice a year the sun sits directly above the stone, casting no shadow at all, and researchers believe it was some sort of astronomic calendar or clock. The stone itself was roped off, but was quite popular, with people crowding around to get their picture taken in front of it. Many held their hands a few inches from the surface, as if trying to absorb some sort of energy from it.

The Doctor of course wanted a picture of his Pyramid Of Doom sitting on it, but there were just too many people around. We sat and waited for a few minutes, in the foolish hope there might be a lull in the steady stream of tourists circling around it, but it did not appear this would happen any time soon. There was a guard nearby, and he seemed to be trying to keep people moving, and he soon approached and motioned for us to be on our way.

As we started to descend I noticed a guide standing rather nonchalantly on the very edge of the stair wall of the steps going down. He was waiting for his group, but his perch was quite precarious and looked very dangerous. After he had moved on, I decided that if he could do it, so could I, and I stood in the same spot and had The Doctor take my picture. It was pretty nerve racking. The fall might not have killed me, but I might have wished it had . . .

After I was done I offered to take The Doctor's picture on the same spot. He started to get into position, but in a near panic I called him away from the edge, and made him take the small pack off his back. It didn't weigh much, but I didn't want any added weight, no matter how light, that might pull him backwards over the edge. After removing the pack, he got back into position and I quickly snapped the picture. I can honestly say I felt much more fearful with him on the ledge than when I was on it myself. I would never have forgiven myself if he had taken a tumble.

Such risky behavior might not have been advisable. Just a few minutes before this we had seen emergency personal with a stretcher tending to someone, though it wasn't clear if they had fallen or were having breathing or heart problems.

We had also seen someone when we first arrived at Machu Picchu that day who looked in pretty bad shape due to exertion, and I expect they had to be carried out on a stretcher as well.

The Doctor had expressed a desire to find some place to just sit for awhile and absorb his surroundings and meditate. After walking around inside the complex for a couple hours, he found a wall over looking the valley beneath us and the surrounding mountains.

I left him with his thoughts and retreated a few yards away, where - being a less reflective soul than he - I simply sat and wrote post cards.

After The Doctor had sufficiently contemplated the meaning of life, we continued on exploring the ruins. One thing we had begun to realize was that the ancient inhabitants of Machu Picchu must surely have been a strong legged and sure footed people. Everywhere we turned there were more stairs, and these were usually very narrow and steep.

I joked at one point that the Incas had not abandoned the city, they had all merely fallen to their deaths. Though lower than we had been at Lake Titicaca, we were still at a high altitude. The climbing would have been an effort under normal circumstances, but with the thin air it was even more exhausting. Still we did quite a bit of it, as we wanted to see all we possibly could and leave no stone unturned . . . or unphotographed for that matter.

When it appeared we had seen most everything (and I know we probably didn't even come close) The Doctor asked me if there was anything specific I wanted to do before we left. I told him about all I could think of was to find and spend time with some Llamas, as we hadn't seen any close up that day. It didn't take long before we spied a group a ways up (of course they would be UP!) form us. It took us awhile to get to them as we attempted going up one way only to encounter some walled off terrace or an area that was off limits, and had to go back and look for another route. Of course they were always moving, and in the end I think we ended up finding others than the ones we had initially started out trying to reach. But I didn't care which ones they were, I just wanted to mingle with them again before leaving.

We wanted to eat and do a little more shopping before catching the train back to Cusco that evening, so after some time with the llamas, we slowly made our way down from Machu Picchu. It had truly been everything we had hoped for and more. I had been strangely captivated by Peru, even some of its less attractive areas (like Juliaca for instance) and Lake Titicaca had left me spellbound. From early on I had known I would not mind coming back to Peru again some day, perhaps when we had more time, and with a little better planning - now that we knew what to expect. I had hinted at this a couple times, but the Doctor seemed less enthusiastic about such a plan than I. But after seeing Machu Picchu and being overwhelmed with its beauty and mystery, even he was warming up more and more to the idea. As interesting as I found many aspects of the trip, there was no doubt in either of our minds that Machu Picchu was the highlight.

Another spine chilling bus ride brought us back down the mountain. As we drove along the river rapids after entering Agua Calientes, I saw a few people gathered along the riverbank. They appeared to be trying to pull something out of the water. The bus was moving kind of fast, so I didn't get a good look, but it appeared to be a llama. Whatever it was, I got the impression it was dead, but perhaps it was just injured or trapped in the rapids.

After we got off the bus we walked around for a little bit looking for a place to eat. We went to check out a place called Toto's House; we ended up not eating there, but right in front of the restaurant was a little dog napping dangerously close to the rail road tracks.

Other than the buses that go up to Machu Picchu and back there are no cars in Agua Calientes, but the train goes right through the town. No sooner had we crossed the track ourselves than I saw a train was coming in our direction. The dog continued to lay there, his nose just inches away from the rail. I began calling to him softly, and finally managed to coax him away from the oncoming train. I suspect the dog was used to the train, and perhaps even had some sort of relationship with it, for as it reached us he turned and began barking at it and chased it as it went by. He may not have ever been in any danger from it,  maybe had just been waiting for his nemesis to pass by, probably something he does every day.


We ate lunch at an outside table at a cute little restaurant not far from our hostel. I ordered a pizza; my cheese intake had been minimal up to this point, but here I finally broke my "Don't Eat The Cheese" rule big time. The menu described my pizza as being made with "Nestle Milk and Tropical Fruit". I was curious about the "Nestle Milk" part (none of the other pizzas seemed to mention it as an ingredient), and I am still not sure exactly what it referred to. Maybe the cheese was made from it, maybe it was in the crust. In any case it was very delicious, and was topped with pineapples, bananas and mangos.

While we ate a cat came down the sidewalk, and passed under our table, barely stopping to say hi before continuing on his way.

We returned to the hostel, picked up our overnight bags and headed to the train station. We had allowed enough time to spend a little while at the large vendor market right outside the depot, and did some shopping there.

When making the train reservations, I was unable to book our return all the way to Poroy; all that was available was a train to the town of Ollantaytambo (which was such a mouthful we simply called it "The Big O"), about an hour from our destination of Cusco. And this was only available on the "Vista Dome" class train, which was more expensive than the "Expedition" class train we had taken on the way. The Vista Dome was supposed to have larger overhead windows for a better view of the mountains, but I didn't think they were big enough to justify the extra price. Plus, most of our trip would be after dark so there was really no view anyway. And I was even more unhappy when we discovered that The Doctor and I had somehow ended up in separate seats. He had a window seat, and I had an aisle seat across from him and one row up.

Shortly after the train started they brought us a light snack consisting of a small pasta salad, a little piece of cake, and some Coca Tea. A bit later there was a pre-recorded message playing over the train's PA system giving the cultural background of a traditional dance, some kind of "Dance Of The Devil". I wasn't paying much attention, as I assumed they were leading up to a sales pitch for a DVD or something along that line. Suddenly, I heard screams coming from the back of the train. I turned around to see a man in a mask and colorful costume gyrating wildly up the aisle, doing the "Dance Of The Devil". He went up and down the aisle a few times, and pulled a couple women up to dance with him.

This was followed by a little Peruvian Fashion Show, featuring a male and female member of the train crew. The "Devil" and another crew member helped with their quick clothing changes in the back of the train.

The female model was greeted with appropriate applause, but every time the male model came down the aisle he received a great deal of cheering and cat calls, (mostly - but not entirely - from the women) to his considerable embarrassment.

  It was all quite entertaining, and I felt a little better about having paid more for the Vista Dome train, considering a "show" was included. Of course, after they were done modeling, the two models made they way down the aisle trying to sell the fashions they had been wearing, but I don't think they had many customers.

When we arrived at "The Big O" we disembarked the train and made our way up the main road. We didn't have a definite plan on how we were getting back to Cusco from there, but knew there was a bus service that cost about s/10.00 per person, or if the bus were full (as the guidebook had said it might be) we could hire a taxi for around s/40.00. We passed several taxi drivers offering rides to Cusco, but we kept walking until we reached the "bus station", which was little more than a small booth and a parking lot full of large vans. We were hustled into one of the vans; we were the only ones in that van, and we waited for several minutes while other full vans pulled out and left. Finally, they pulled us off our van and put us in another van that was full except for two seats.

It was only about an hour's drive, but it seemed a lot longer than that. We finally reached Cusco, and were dropped off near the Plaza de Armas. We walked back to the hostel, got our luggage out of the storage room and got settled back into the same room we had had two nights before. We then went back out and walked around for awhile. The Doctor needed more decongestants, so we went back to the same pharmacy where he had purchased some before and stocked up. Shortly after this we heard a lot of commotion, and soon saw a small army of protestors marching down the street. They were organized and relatively peaceful, and were followed by a police car. They carried a couple banners, but they were in Spanish, so we had no idea what was going on.

We looked around for some place to eat, but nothing seemed to grab our attention. Neither of us were terribly hungry, so we finally decided to go back to the Fallen Angel and just get some dessert. As we approached the restaurant I noticed an unmarked car sitting right outside the door with two uniformed police officers sitting in it, their seats slightly reclined. They seemed to be keeping their eye on a little plaza near the restaurant, which as near as I could see was deserted. Being that the Fallen Angel was the closest thing Cusco has to a gay club, and as it was a Sat. night, I wondered if the area was known for gay cruising, and if they police were monitoring for that behavior.

We both got some very delicious desserts, and then headed back to hostel and went to bed.