Four blondes take Peru

By Cara
For more photos, please click on Cara's Picasa album:


Life is hectic. We all work long hours and have a million other things going on, but for me, I can always slow it down to go visit an awesome new place. And particularly if it involves hanging out with a couple of my best friends--Katie, Jackie (my roommate from when I lived in London) and Annie, i.e. All-American Annie, my freshman soccer buddy at Macalester College. Jackie, Annie and I went to visit Katie during the last week of April and had an awesome time. I'm positive we were a handful, but I think Katie enjoyed herself just fine and hopefully she's now fully recovered... let me begin.

Lima
Jackie and I arrived on a Saturday night, and true to form, demanded Pisco Sours before we did anything else. Literally, less than 2 hours after landing we had the famous Pervuian drink - in both hands. We spent our first evening hanging out with Katie's friends in what we thought was a typical Peruvian restaurant (turned out to be Mexican, details...).

The next day, after a couple hours of reading bridal magazines in our underwear, we made our way over to the Arambulo residence to have lunch with Katie's "host family"-- Luis, Charo, Beto, and Jorge. Katie knows how lucky she is to have found these people who have essentially taken her in as their American daughter, but let me reiterate. Our afternoon exploring a market, hanging out, and cooking with the Arambulo family was definitely my favorite of the trip! They are truly wonderful people who were excited to invite me and Jackie into their home and get to know us. Jackie spent the remainder of the trip scouring menus looking for "arroz con pollo" because she loved Charo's version so much. Dan (Katie's brother who is about to live with them for a few months) should buy his sister an extra birthday present this year for forging a relationship with these wonderful people! Note to Arambulos: if you're ever in DC, call me up!

Luis and Katie enjoying Pisco SoursJackie and Beto sitting on the patio drinking Pisco sours while Katie and Charo and Jorge slaved away in the kitchen.
Katie, Cara, and Jackie dressed like real Peruvian chefs


After lunch Beto drove us to central Lima where we walked around the Plaza de Armas, by the Rio Rimac, and into a locked enclosure under a bridge to see an antique Spanish cannon (still not sure what this was about but apparently it's worth big bucks).

Jackie, Katie and Beto in El Centro, Lima
Jackie and Cara


We then went to the Lima City Ballet's "rendering" of Swan Lake. Though extremely amusing thanks to one pair of particularly tight, white/see through spandex, but the New York Ballet they were definitely not. Issues included staying on point, dancing in-sync and occasionally dropping ballerinas - it was quite laughable. After ballet we went to do karaoke and discovered that singing in Spanish is actually hard and we really don't know the words to our favorite Juanes song, "A dios le pido."

Dani and Katie singing/yelling karaoke


The next day we took a walk around Miraflores and San Isidro and made Katie try on every white dress we saw (don't worry JoAnn - she didn't find any she loved).


That night we went out to an amazing ceviche dinner with Beto and his friend, Sebastian (who happens to love blond American girls). Wasn't he in heaven.. yes. Pisco sours number 11-19 were consumed here.
Beto, Katie, Cara, Jackie and Sebastain at arguably the best ceviche restaurant in Lima, Pescados Capitales.



Cusco
The next morning Jackie and I took off for Cusco and spent most of the day walking around the old city, taking pictures of creepy mannequins, and buying things for $5 or less. We were concerned when the first question from our hotel was "Would you like to rent a heater for $6 a night for your room?" and looking back on it, we probably should have, though we do love cuddling.





The next day we had to find a way to get to Piscacucho, where our train to Machu Picchu was leaving from, so we hired Juan Carlos the taxi driver (JC!!!!) to drive us around the Sacred Valley for the day. It was a really cool trip. JC stopped at beautiful overlooks along the way, for awhile it was nearly every 60 seconds ("Other photo, si???" "Uhhh okay...")



Then to an animal rescue farm where Jackie fell in love with the ugliest dog known to man - a Peruvian hairless dog.



Then to the ruins at Pisac (highly recommended!!)



and Ollytantambo (not too bad if you like stairs).



We made it to the train station and took the train with all the other gringos to Aguas Calientes, a really lame tourist trap of a city where everyone goes to bed at 8pm. Jackie and I spent an hour or so looking for a bar, restaurant, really anywhere that had people we could talk to, and then resigned ourselves to hanging out with ourselves, and drinking pisco (are you catching on to the theme here?).
Jackie doing what she does best.
Cara doing what she does best (notice how much more of a light weight Cara is...).


Machu Picchu
The next morning I had Jackie out of bed at 5am and ready to go up to Machu Picchu. Everyone we spoke with told us to get there early if we wanted to climb up Waynapicchu, the super steep mountain in the background of every classic Machu photo, as they only allow the first 300 hikers of the day up. We ended up being numbers 30 and 31 and slogged our way to the top of the mountain in record time (think 45 minutes of stair-master with slippery rock stairs), expecting the world's greatest view of Machu Picchu. Instead we saw abyss.
Cara "slightly" pissed about the view.
Jackie LOVING the view!


In fact we saw nothing but abyss for the next 3 hours, but then got really lucky when the clouds finally parted, and we got an amazing view.



For anyone planning a trip to Machu Picchu: ignore the warnings to get up there at 5am. Sleep in, eat brunch, get a pedicure, go up around 11am. Seriously.

Jack and I couldn't wait to get out of Aguas Calientes, and made it back to Cusco that evening. We made up for being lame the night before and found a party full of Dutch people celebrating the Queen's birthday. We were definitely the only Americans in the bar as evidenced by the fact that nobody else was "beating the beat" if you know what I mean. I definitely wish we had a Queen...



Puerto Maldonado
Finally done with Cusco and the altitude we boarded a plane the next morning for the Amazon! The first clue that something was amiss was when we met up with Katie and Annie who were dressed like explorers, while Jackie and I had brought jean skirts, tank tops, flip flops, and eyeliner ("What do you mean you didn't bring pants???" she said.) However, Jackie came to the rescue with two pairs of hot, black yoga spandex, which we paired with sweet rubber boots.

The "Wilderness Explorers," Annie and Katie, and the "Beauty Queens," Cara and Jackie, sporting our new rubber boots.


For a much better play by play of the jungle you should definitely read Katie's description in her blog. I will say that we saw a lot of ants, a really sweet frog, poisonous spiders, we had to get up at 4am one morning, I chewed on a leaf that made my mouth go numb, and the night hike was the most terrifying thing I've done in awhile (there are jaguars in this jungle!!!).




The night before we left was my buddy Annie's 25th birthday (she's getting so big!!), and we managed to celebrate in style with a 350 sole tab ($130) (this is impressive for a Peruvian bar in the middle of the jungle). Annie was a great sport, letting us relive the days when she was a freshman, by helping her make bad decisions all evening long. We got dancing lessons from a few of the guides, and to top the night off, went running into the jungle to continue celebrations (I wasn't nearly as nervous for this night hike!) The night ended up better for some (I had a great time!) than others (poor Johan), but was definitely an experience we'll never forget.







Lima
Back to Lima and we capped off our awesome week with $5 pedicures, more shopping, more friends, and lots more pisco (why hasn't anyone introduced me to this before?).





All in all, Peru is an amazing country and I would encourage everyone to visit at some point. Though we felt like we saw a lot in our short time, there are so many other places to visit-- Puno, Arequipa, beaches, Katie could probably name like 10 more-- and I'd definitely come back. Machu Picchu is incredible, the Sacred Valley was gorgeous, and the jungle was definitely an experience; however, by far my favorite part of the trip was seeing Katie and living her life for a few days-- seeing her apartment, walking around her neighborhood, and meeting her friends. She has carved out a pretty great existence for herself in Lima and that's impressive for just living there nine months.

So I'll finish with this: Katie, thank you thank you thank you for such an AMAZING week! It was wonderful to be able to see your life in Peru, and understand what you've been up to for the last year. I know you are sad to leave and it's going to be hard, but we are so excited to have you back!

Viva las gringas!



Cara's full picasa album:

Rains at Machu Picchu

As many of you probably heard, the rainy season in the mountains has been devastating for the very popular tourist destination - Cusco (and nearby citadel - Machu Picchu). Apparently the famed Incan city is untouched as the incredible aqueducts have drained all the water from the city but the 40+ mudslides have destroyed part of the railway to the citadel and the city below. Since there are ONLY two routes to the citadel - rail and hiking - and they are both closed it WILL NOT be possible to visit Machu Picchu until April (at the earliest). Last week, over 2,000 tourists were stranded, many who were hiking to Machu Picchu and were not aware of the damage and had to either hike another few days to Ollantaytambo or wait for the Pervian government to send police and military helicopters to evacuate them.
An update in the local Peruvian paper yesterday states:
The railway to the citadel was blocked last week when parts of the line were washed away by floods and mudslides caused by torrential rains that battered Peru’s southern Andean region. “We expect it will take eight weeks to repair the railroad tracks and (Machu Picchu) will be able to receive tourists again,” Pérez told Radio Programas Peru. “Of course we are advancing on different fronts.”
Peru’s Civil Defense estimated Friday about 23,500 people had been left homeless and more than 37,000 people lost part of their property. Flooding devastated 14,000 hectares of agricultural land and destroyed 4,000 homes. Some of the property destroyed was in Machu Picchu Pueblo, where buildings were built too close to the Vilcanota river and swept away when it flooded.
Blog of the humanitarian relief efforts
Living in Peru photos
Peruvian Times article

My parents are coming this weekend and we had to change their itinerary to go to the jungle rather than spend a week in Cusco (and now I get to go to Iquitos - lucky me!) I would definitely recommend going to Cusco if you are coming to Peru but only for 3-4 days.

Machu Picchu

My boyfriend Seth left today to go home to the freezing cold state of Minnesota. We enjoyed two great weeks exploring Peru and its diverse landscape. Here are some photos from Cusco and our 4-day hike to Machu Picchu along the Camino Inca (Inca Trail).


Seth eating a fancy dinner of guinea pig (cuy) at MAP cafe in the Museo de Precolombino in Cusco the night before we started the hike. Not too bad except when you consider that you used to have guinea pig as a pet when you were a kid... poor Spike.

Saqsaywaman is an old temple overlooking Cusco and is one of the highlights of our trip (besides Machu Picchu). The rocks were rolled on logs from a quarry 8 km away. Look how big they are! They are carved to fit perfectly together and have withstood many earthquakes and are a fantastic Incan site that everyone who comes to Peru should try to visit.

Our group at the top of the third pass on the Camino Inca (Inca Trai). My friend Emily Howland, fellow Macalester soccer player and her friends, Devon and Anj who are traveling around the world, went with us and we met other awesome people in our group.

Steep steps with lots of people taking breaks. Our day packs had everything from bug spray and SPF to sunglasses and rain gear - and we used all of it everyday! Seth and I hired a porter which was a life saves as Seth wasn't feeling great for the first few days. It's part of the initiation into Peru but nonetheless it is not fun to be sick while hiking.

Our favorite ruins - Winywayna - with a nice hike down to a hidden waterfall (thanks Lizz for the tip) behind the terraces.

Can you see Seth?

The clouds in the valley next to Machu Picchu.
We woke up early every morning to hike but the last day was the worst as we had to get up at 3:45am to stand in line at the check-point until they opened at 5:30am and rush to Machu Picchu for sunrise. It was chilly and dark and it rained for the last hour of our hike before the Intipuku (Sun Gate, where you can see Machu Picchu for the first time). The valley was covered in clouds and we couldn't see anything when we got there. So we waited... and waited and finally walked down 45 minutes to the terraces above Machu Picchu but still, nothing. More waiting... ate our AM snack but still nothing but clouds. Then we climbed down to the entrance to check our bags and explore the ruins when all of a sudden the clouds lifted and you could see everything (except Winapicchu) but it was great!



An alpaca on Machu Picchu (or is it a llama- i can't tell the difference) but they are very cute.
Overall I would highly recommended this trip except November is the beginning of the rainy season and it rained everyday! Friends who have done this hike warned us and I will warn any adventurous readers who want to hike it - two of the four days are climbing up (and sometimes down) very steep stairs at altitude (12,000 ft or more). It's not easy (except our guide had an 80 year old on one trip so it can be done).
After a two-hour tour from our guide Jime (pronounced Jimmy in English) we relaxed on the terraces enjoying the beautiful views until our tummies were rumbling and it was time for lunch. It was weird to get on a bus after hiking. It was a bit confusing to be hiking and seeing lots of amazing ruins and going over mountain passes of over 13000 ft and camping outside when it was 40 degrees F and then seeing tourists with purses and make-up who were speaking dozens of languages on our last day when we hadn't showered. Oh well. The dirt road to Aguas Calientes, a horrible tourist town full of people who are only in Peru to go to Machu Picchu, had lots of switchbacks (with all the money that Machu Picchu makes you would think the road would be paved). We ate lunch at a restaurant that our guides get a commission for taking us to but the food was ok. Emily enjoyed a real coffee (none of that instant stuff they had on the trail) and we said goodbye as Seth and I boarded the train to Ollyatatambo for a few days in the Sacred Valley before heading to the Amazon (next post).
What a great trip!