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The Inca Trail
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 5 October 2009
To think I wasn’t even going to do the Inca Trail orginally. I’d fallen into the trap of listening to too many other backpackers talk about how it’s too touristy, too expensive, and not even as good as the many alternatives such as the Salkantay Trail. Luckily, a comment from Gillian on this post started to [...]
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Machu Picchu
Blog: Felicity Sees... - 5 October 2009
The traditional Inka trail trek is so popular that you have to book a place several months in advance if you plan to do it. I didn't, so an alternative was always on the cards. I wasn't much up for gasping my way through thin air and days of leg burning hikes, so signed up instead for a different tour called 'Inka Jungle' which offered a bit more variation and a bit less exertion {well, supposedly}.
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Proxima para; Peru
Blog: Felicity Sees... - 5 October 2009
From one side of Lake Titicaca to the other, from Copacabana I crossed into Peru to the nothing-to-write-home-about town of Puno. Of more interest here than the town itself are the unique and unbelievable floating islands, still inhabitated by what looks to be the final generation of the Quecha speaking fisherman culture, now entirely reliant on tourism to survive.
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Breaking the Language Barrier with Google (Part 4): Finding a Job
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 5 October 2009
When I first started looking for a volunteer job in Peru, I did what everyone does: I browsed the web. I was looking for a job that would utilize my retail consulting background in a Spanish-speaking environment. Ideally, I was looking for an NGO or microfinance organization that helped small-scale entrepreneurs, like street vendors, craftspeople, weavers or artisans. The question that worried me was: how was I going to find a job when I haven’t spoken Spanish in 4 years?
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Cusco
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 3 October 2009
In my first few months of traveling, I’ve hardly managed to get away from the gringo trail, so I’m quite used to seeing places that are full of tourists. Nothing could have prepared me for Cusco though – it’s easily the most touristy place I’ve been to so far. The city is absolutely heaving with [...]
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Huanchaco, just what I needed!
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 3 October 2009
Lovin´ it! Huanchaco is just what the doctor ordered. Yesterday, I woke up, went running along the beach and leisurely drank some coffee, okay, a lot of coffee. It was great to be agenda free. We drank coffee, enjoyed some eggs, dropped off the laundry (I hadn´t done laundry since Columbia, [...]
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The Wheels on the Bus go Round and Round, and Round…
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 3 October 2009
As Todd mention, we left Ecuador after the Riobamba bust. Now, we are in Peru. To be specific, on the beach in Huanchaco. It only took 4buses and about 28hrs. We powered through and made it hear late afternoon the day before yesterday. We seemed to catch each connection [...]
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Sand Surfing in Peru - weird, fast and a lot of fun!
Blog: 501 Places - 3 October 2009
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Cusco Characters: Profesora Patty
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 2 October 2009
When Profesora Patty rings our doorbell each weekday morning, the kids run to the window to lower a string to her with the front door key attached. After entering and climbing the stairs to the 3rd floor, she settles in to start each day teaching our kids Spanish from eight in the morning to one in the afternoon. While she patiently teaches them the difference between the indefinido and imperfecto tenses, my wife and I have our mornings free to volunteer.
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Riobamba Bust.
Blog: Documentariously Challenged - 30 September 2009
Riobamba was supposed to have the coolest train ride ever. It even has a cool name, Nose of the Devil. Doesn´t that sound like something you want to do? You were even able to ride on the roof. But noooooo, some indigenous people, okay actually it was a lot of indigenous people, decided that they [...]
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Cusco Characters: Lina (la empleada)
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 30 September 2009
When my daughter and I first arrived in Cusco at the Chavez’ home we were unaware that they had an empleada (domestic maid/cook). After some initial unease (on our part) interacting with a domestic servant, we quickly warmed up to Lina, who was a very good cook and served as our introduction to Peruvian food. The first meal that she cooked for us was a Palta Rellena (avocado half stuffed with diced vegetables) with Papa Rellena (beef, egg and vegetables inside deep-fried mashed potatoes) and Chicha Morada (purple corn drink). Simply delicious.
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The Colca Canyon
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 28 September 2009
After nearly five months of traveling, I’ve got depressingly used to early starts for tours. But 3am was a new one for me, and waking up at that ungodly hour had me thinking that the Colca Canyon would have to be seriously special to justify it. Those fears were magnified by our first stop, at a [...]
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Cusco Characters: Miguel Angel
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 27 September 2009
In some ways, Miguel Angel is much like the city in which he was born. The 28 year old Cusqueño with a cheerful countenance and easy manner seems torn between the same two worlds that divide Cusco: the world of the traditional and world of the tourist.
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Cusco Characters: Señora Nilda
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 26 September 2009
As the director of the Centro de Textiles Traditionales de Cusco (CTTC), Señora Nilda plays an important role in preserving traditional Andean weaving techniques. CTTC is the NGO where I work and it supports over 400 weavers in 9 communities around Cusco from its museum, store and office location on Avenida Sol.
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Cusco Characters: Señor Alcides
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 23 September 2009
Señor Alcides picked us up in front of the Cathedral in the Plaza de Armas in a beat-up, red Volkswagen beetle. He graciously got out of the car to open the passenger-side door for us (we soon learned that this was the only way it could open). My wife and kids piled into the back and I got in front. Señor Alcides is the director of an afternoon shelter for kids in Cusco called Colibri, where our kids have been volunteering for the past few months.
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Women in Hats
Blog: Kiva Stories from the Field - 22 September 2009
By Suzy Marinkovich, KF9 Bolivia We can’t get enough of them. We love them so much that they even have their own lending team of fans and a discussion on KivaFriends. Whether they are made of straw or soft fabric, bowler, flat-brimmed, or a tiny saucer looking thing on our borrower’s heads – we just love [...]
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Frog Juice and Fried Guinea Pig
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 21 September 2009
So far on this trip I’ve eaten some strange things (grasshoppers in Oaxaca and ants in San Gil, Colombia), but I have to say the things I saw in Arequipa market have to take the biscuit. As in all Latin American markets I’ve been to, there are plenty of stalls selling freshly squeezed juices and delicious [...]
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Doing Without
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 20 September 2009
When we compare our daily lives here in Cusco to our lives back in the United States, there are definitely gaps. These gaps are of two types: Things we have in Cusco but not back home and vice-versa. On the plus side, there is far less stress, less of a frenetic schedule, more time to read books and each day brings something new, unexpected and refreshing. For the things we don't have here in Cusco, it's interesting to note how we’ve coped. To illustrate, here is a sample daily schedule, highlighting the things we have gotten used to doing without:
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Peru: Then and Now
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 18 September 2009
I read the other day that the approval rating for Peru's current president, Alan Garcia, is in the mid-20's (actually up from 19% in the later part of 2008). This current displeasure mirrors public sentiment during my 1986 trip to Peru, when the same Alan Garcia presided over an economy that experienced one of the highest yearly inflation rates on record.
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Peruvian Culture Shock
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 16 September 2009
We have been in our Cusco apartment for three months now and have gotten used to its idiosyncrasies. There are many pluses to living in Cusco, but not many of them reside in the bathroom. Most of the inconveniences are minor, such as having to put the used toilet paper in the trash instead of the toilet bowl (Peruvian toilets can’t process anything but human waste and water). Another inconvenience is not being able to swallow the tap water while brushing your teeth (Peruvian tap water is not potable).
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Inca Walls
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 12 September 2009
One of the pleasures of living and working in Cusco is my daily commute walking past several beautiful Inca walls. The walls I like best (called Cyclopean) are enormous "pillowy" limestone and granite stones that seem to flow the entire length of a city block. They're made from large, smooth polygonal stones with rounded edges that are joined perfectly into irregular jigsaw patterns (see photo).
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The Nazca Lines (and a very lucky escape)
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 12 September 2009
The last stops had brought some real ups (trekking in the Andes, sandboarding in Huacachina) and downs (the Islas Ballestas). Arriving in Nazca it seemed to me that the Nazca Lines could easily go either way, and I was in two minds as to whether to bother with flying over them or not. Eventually, I realised [...]
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How to Eat Well in Peru: Eat Peruvian Food
Blog: AlpacaSuitcase - 9 September 2009
It was the best of food; it was the worst of food. This tale of two cuisines details our gastronomic ups and downs while dining in Peru. After only a few weeks of eating all kinds of dishes, a pattern began to emerge: Peruvian food is really good and most (Peruvian) attempts at “international cuisines” (i.e., Italian, French, Mexican and American) are pretty bad. That Peruvian food is really good should come as no great surprise.
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Sandboarding at the oasis
Blog: Itinerant Londoner - 9 September 2009
As has so often been the case on this trip, it’s the unexpected pleasures that turn out to be some of the fondest memories. Huacachina is definitely a place to fall into that category. Just south of Pisco along the Panamericana sits Ica, which is surrounded by a desert landscape with some of the world’s biggest [...]
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Nazca Lines, Peru - ancient religious symbols or space runways?
Blog: 501 Places - 8 September 2009
