When you first arrive to Cusco, you are sure this is the most colorful and liberal (gay friendly) city in the world. The first one might be true, but I wouldn't try to test their liberalism. The Cusquenians adopted the rainbow flag, usually identified with the gays, as their city symbol. You can see these flags all over the beautiful, colonial, main square, on churches and all around the city.
The center of the city is really beautiful. Apparently, we are not the only ones to think that. Cusco is full with tourists, mostly on their way to Machu Picchu. Most of them are organized groups of Americans, but you can find tourists from everywhere. Cusco is also considered to be the most Israeli city of South America. We usually don't tend to hang around Israeli places, but this time it was inevitable. There is a whole alley full with small restaurants and other businesses with signs only in Hebrew. Nevertheless, these tourists don't seem to be enough in order to fill all the touristic restaurants, that make their waiters try to hunt you with their menu whenever you pass by.
We also heard from few people that they were sick in Cusco. It's not like the food is especially bad there, people usually bring their diseases from other places. So Lilya decided to try that too. If you are planning on getting sick in South America, Cusco is a great place to do that. There are a lot of places to eat chicken soup, a lot of tourist doctors (that will be glad to take your money) and a cable TV at the hostel. After 4 days of enjoying frequent toilet visits, not eating and having a fever, Lilya finally decided to visit a doctor. After few lab tests the doctor discovered that Lilya has Salmonella and few parasites (she did not mean Oren). After that she gave her a recipe for 5 different medications that together with the visit cost more than 100 dollars. Good thing we have insurance to cover that.
Even though Lilya was sick we didn't stay indoors all the time. Cusco was the capital of the Inca's Empire, and it is surrounded by many other Inca's settlements, an area called The Sacred Valley. On Sunday we went to Pisac, a small town 40 minutes away from Cusco, which had a big Sunday market and some ruins that you need to climb almost 2 hours in order to get there. Lilya was too weak, so Oren and Yolene, which we met again in Cusco, continued climbing until the top, while Lilya was enjoying the afternoon sun on one of the terraces. Only later we discovered that you can get there with a taxi from the other part of the town, as all the organized groups did. The ruins themselves are huge. The historical city surrounds the agricultural part with large terraces hanging above the cliffs. The Inca people were probably very fit because you will need to climb trough steep stairs in order to get from anywhere to anywhere in the city.
On another afternoon we visited Sacsayhuaman (or Sexy Woman, so even the Gringos will remember the Quechua name). This is a very impressive 12 century walled complex built next to the old city of Cusco. There we met a very graceful local guide to whose service we couldn't refuse. The old city of Cusco was shaped as a Puma (the Inca's had a really vast imagination), this part was supposed to the puma's head. Most of the site was ruined in the search for gold or covered with soil by the Spanish, but a lot was recovered.
We visited the sacred valley again when Lilya started feeling better. This time we took the bus to Maras - a beautiful site that contains round terraces that might have been used for agricultural experiment, but must have also had a religious significance. The researchers don't really know, so all you can do is think: "what I would have done with such large circles?". After Maras our cab driver took us to the Salinas - where the natural salt coming from deep in the ground in gathered into pools. If you are in the area, combine these two, because the Salinas are truly unique.
After too many days of eating nothing but dry chicken, dry rice and white bread, Lilya had enough and we booked the Salkantay trek. A 5 days trek that ends at the Machu Picchu.
Tip 1: Don't be afraid of people jumping on you when you get off a bus, offering you hostels. The best hostels we found were offered to us by those guys. This is also your chance to negotiate about the price, and get a hotel room for the price of a hostel room.
Tip 2: You don't have to visit touristic sites in a touristic way. Instead of taking the expansive City Tour, you can take a public bus or a "Colectivo" and do it your way. It might take a bit more time but the experience is completely different. You can get all the information in the official tourist information office.
Tip 3: "La Chomba" (Av. Tullumayo 339 Parte Alta). This cheap local restaurant is the best place to eat in Cusco and maybe in all Peru. The food is great, the dishes are enormous and it costs practically nothing. Too bad we discovered it on our last day there.
Saturday, 31 July 2010
Thursday, 29 July 2010
Thursday, 15 July 2010
The Peruvian coast and Arequipa
There is a strange thing about Peru - its whole coast is a desert. But not a nice sunny desert (like we have in Israel for example), but a grey, frustrating desert with very poor settlements along the way (a bit like some parts of Afganistan, as we imagine it). This desert also includes the highest sand dune in the world - the Cerro Blanco, which was our next destination after Huaraz. We took an early bus from Lima as soon as we got there to Ica and from there another taxi to Huacachina. Huacachina is a real Oasis! Like the one you would see in the movies. It is a small village built around a lake in the middle of the sand dune. The are no more than 150 residents, but it is full by five times more tourists. And it is not the cheep restaurants around the lake that attracts them to Huacachina. Huacachina is the sandboard capital of Peru. The main attraction there is to take a buggy and head for the sands. At our hostel we met Yolene, the nice French girl we met at the Santa Cruz trek, who travelled with us from this point until Cusco. After spending the noon watching the Argentina-Mexico match, we took a buggy a guide and 3 sandboards and went sandboarding. The ride on the buggy on the dunes was an experience by itself! Just like riding a crazy roller-coaster while being surrounded by enormous sea of sand. After a short drive we stopped and our guide tried to show us how to sandboard on two relatively small dunes. Lilya proved that her surfing lessons were not useless and stood all the way down. Oren fell down almost immediately. The next dune was much higher and steeper. Lilya was considering sliding down on the stomach like it was offered by the guide. But then Oren said that he didn't take any pictures of her sliding, and that was enough to convince her to slide while standing. She was doing fine at the beginning, until she realized she was going to fast and then she tried to slow down. The result was that she rolled few times on her way down. At the end she had enough sand in her hair, ears, eyes and mouth to sell as a construction material. The last dune was the largest and we all slide down on our bellies. We were still removing some sand out of our ears 3 days later...
On the next day we ere supposed to take a boat to Islas Ballestas, which are often called Galapagos for the poor. We got up early in the morning and took the ride to the Parakas port where we should have taken the boat. Although the sea looked completely flat, we waited for more than two hours until we was told that the Cruz was cancelled due to the stormy sea. But don't worry! We came to see sea birds and we got sea birds. The whole port was full with pelicans and seagulls that came to claim their share in the daily catch of the fishermen. They fly very low and dive to catch the fish in the water, and once in a while go to the shore and make faces to the tourists in return for some food. Oren had a great time photographing the birds until Lilya drag him back to the car that took us back to Ica. The day didn't ended with a disappointment, though. Ica is one of the centers of the production of Pisco which is the traditional Peruvian alcoholic drink, (a sort of Grapa). We got addresses of few vineyards/distilleries from a local convenient store and took a cab to visit them. In each place you get an explanation about the process of production (boring!) and then taste some of the products (fun!). The second distillery had an historical production line including a special place where the juice is squeezed out of the grapes by people that step on them. This method is not being used nowdays, of course, except during the yearly spring festival. We learned there about the historical methods for producing the Pisco and then got a lot of tastings from the Pisco products and the liqueurs. We had no trouble sleeping in the night bus to Arequipa that night!
Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru. Its center built mainly from a white volcanic stone, which gave it the nickname "The white city". We spent the first day wondering around the city and especially in the beautiful main square. At the end we booked a two days tour to Canyon del Colca. We found ourselves in a tourist bus with another 20 tourists. The way was nice, but the tour was very touristic, including the too expansive places for the launch and the inevitable folklore show at the too expansive restaurant at night. At every stopping point there were lots of local women wearing the "traditional" clothes selling their crafts or asking money for a photograph with an alpaca, a baby lamb or a tied hawk.
The highlight was on the second day when we arrived early in the morning to Cruz del Condor. This amazing view point is located above a cliff which is the nesting place of the condors. At 8 a.m, when the air becomes warm enough, they spread their wings and rise up, completely ignoring the hundreds of tourists that stand with their cameras and wait for them. They fly low, letting every amateur photographer get his own condor shot. Only after two hours the condors and the tourists say goodbye and flying (or going) each to his own business.
Our buisness with the Peruvian coast ended that night when we took the night bus to Cusco.
Tip 1: If you are in the area of Ica, spend one day in Huacachina. Staying there is nicer than in the busy Ica.
Tip 2: If you're planning to do sandboarding (and you should), it is better to rent a smaller buggy, with only few people in it. It is much more exciting and you don't have to wait until all the rest of the group finishes to slide down.
Tip 3: It is OK to skip the so called "wine tour", it is not exactly Provance... But if you have some spare time it can be nice. The visit in El Catador distillery was very fun.
Tip 4: In Ica, try the local chocolate, it's really good.
Tip 5: You don't have to go to Canyon del Colca with a tour. You can go there by public transportation and have a small trek into the canyon, which supposed to be very nice. Anyway, don't miss the Cruz del Condor. Even though it is very touristic, the condors are really breathtaking. Don't get there too early, the condors will not fly in the cold sunrise air.
On the next day we ere supposed to take a boat to Islas Ballestas, which are often called Galapagos for the poor. We got up early in the morning and took the ride to the Parakas port where we should have taken the boat. Although the sea looked completely flat, we waited for more than two hours until we was told that the Cruz was cancelled due to the stormy sea. But don't worry! We came to see sea birds and we got sea birds. The whole port was full with pelicans and seagulls that came to claim their share in the daily catch of the fishermen. They fly very low and dive to catch the fish in the water, and once in a while go to the shore and make faces to the tourists in return for some food. Oren had a great time photographing the birds until Lilya drag him back to the car that took us back to Ica. The day didn't ended with a disappointment, though. Ica is one of the centers of the production of Pisco which is the traditional Peruvian alcoholic drink, (a sort of Grapa). We got addresses of few vineyards/distilleries from a local convenient store and took a cab to visit them. In each place you get an explanation about the process of production (boring!) and then taste some of the products (fun!). The second distillery had an historical production line including a special place where the juice is squeezed out of the grapes by people that step on them. This method is not being used nowdays, of course, except during the yearly spring festival. We learned there about the historical methods for producing the Pisco and then got a lot of tastings from the Pisco products and the liqueurs. We had no trouble sleeping in the night bus to Arequipa that night!
Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru. Its center built mainly from a white volcanic stone, which gave it the nickname "The white city". We spent the first day wondering around the city and especially in the beautiful main square. At the end we booked a two days tour to Canyon del Colca. We found ourselves in a tourist bus with another 20 tourists. The way was nice, but the tour was very touristic, including the too expansive places for the launch and the inevitable folklore show at the too expansive restaurant at night. At every stopping point there were lots of local women wearing the "traditional" clothes selling their crafts or asking money for a photograph with an alpaca, a baby lamb or a tied hawk.
The highlight was on the second day when we arrived early in the morning to Cruz del Condor. This amazing view point is located above a cliff which is the nesting place of the condors. At 8 a.m, when the air becomes warm enough, they spread their wings and rise up, completely ignoring the hundreds of tourists that stand with their cameras and wait for them. They fly low, letting every amateur photographer get his own condor shot. Only after two hours the condors and the tourists say goodbye and flying (or going) each to his own business.
Our buisness with the Peruvian coast ended that night when we took the night bus to Cusco.
Tip 1: If you are in the area of Ica, spend one day in Huacachina. Staying there is nicer than in the busy Ica.
Tip 2: If you're planning to do sandboarding (and you should), it is better to rent a smaller buggy, with only few people in it. It is much more exciting and you don't have to wait until all the rest of the group finishes to slide down.
Tip 3: It is OK to skip the so called "wine tour", it is not exactly Provance... But if you have some spare time it can be nice. The visit in El Catador distillery was very fun.
Tip 4: In Ica, try the local chocolate, it's really good.
Tip 5: You don't have to go to Canyon del Colca with a tour. You can go there by public transportation and have a small trek into the canyon, which supposed to be very nice. Anyway, don't miss the Cruz del Condor. Even though it is very touristic, the condors are really breathtaking. Don't get there too early, the condors will not fly in the cold sunrise air.
Friday, 9 July 2010
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