Peru

Urubamba

Posted by Jim St. George on March 10, 2016

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The Inca ruins at Pisac, not far from Urubamba

Urubamba. I first heard the word in 1974 when Paul Simon released his Live Rhymin’ album and was accompanied on a couple songs by a group of that name. He explained on the album that Urubamba was a river in Peru that ran past Machu Picchu, and ever since, once I heard those Peruvian flutes, the name has had a certain magic for me. So, when we were looking to explore the area around Cuzco and Machu Picchu and discovered there was a beautiful hotel in the town of Urubamba, right on the river, I jumped at the chance.

It’s worth saying from the start that the hotel, Tambo del Inka, is one of the most beautiful hotels we’ve ever stayed in. Ever. The design, the lighting, the soaring ceilings and gigantic fireplaces, the location right next to the river were all truly exceptional; it was a delight to come back to the hotel after a couple energetic hikes we did.

On our third day in Urubamba I hiked up a big hill behind our hotel. Below is the town of Urubamba, with the Urubamba River in the foreground and our hotel in the lower left corner, right along the river. You see a straight street running through the town up into a valley; that’s where I’d hiked the day before as it wound higher and higher up the valley toward the snow-covered peaks you see in the distance.

It’s probably also worth saying that we might be the only people who have ever gone to Urubamba and Cuzco and not gone to Machu Picchu; Urubamba is only about 35 miles from what Lonely Planet calls “the best-known archaeological site on the continent.” In the first place, we were there seven years ago after hiking the Inca Trail, so going there on a train seemed somehow cheap. But cheap it wasn’t. When we got to the hotel and asked about the cost of tickets – train to the ruins and tickets into the site, we were quoted a price of something over $500. So we just said “Heck with it. We’ll do some hikes on our own.”

A view of Pisac from along the climb

Mark near the top of the climb in Pisac

Which we did. Our first day we caught a local bus to the town of Pisac where there are some Incan ruins high above the city. Again, the hotel quoted us a price of something like $300 for a car, driver, guide, etc. – they’d probably throw in some cold water for free – we said “Yeah, we can do that on our own.” We did and it was a great hike, well marked, up to some pretty great ruins. And then, on returning down to Pisac, we got online and asked TripAdviser for a restaurant recommendation. It was one of those moments you can’t believe you could be so lucky. Here we are in this little town that no one has ever heard of (actually, there is a bit of tourist infrastructure, but I’d certainly never heard of Pisac) and we had an amazing lunch, essentially gourmet quality. Blown away – and so glad we didn’t just settle for whatever the hotel would have guided us to.

The next two days I just went on hikes from the hotel. I had observed, you see, that while sitting is about the most uncomfortable position imaginable for me while I’m dealing with this pinched nerve, walking is great. And walking with a loaded knapsack stretching my back and shoulders is even better. And walking uphill with a loaded knapsack is like catnip for me. It’s essentially the only time I’m pain free. So walk I did. Urubamba sits at about 9,400 feet above sea level but you go up from there. The first day I climbed to over 11,000 feet on a gravel road in a beautiful valley behind the city and the next day up a big hill behind our hotel. One of the things I’ve been intrigued with in these weeks in Peru is just how much of the world, here in South America at least, is two miles or more above sea level. Having had weeks to acclimate to the altitude, starting way back in early February in Guatemala, has been a real luxury.

Lunch in Pisac, amazing gourmet-quality food in a tiny town in remote Peru.

Finally, I have to again mention how good the food has been in Peru. Urubamba is a pretty small town. It sees its share of tourists but it’s by no means the major destination in the area. Still, we ate at three or four really good restaurants, typically with some Peruvian-Asian fusion thing going on. Just great food.

Oh, and one last thing. What did I learn when I was reading up on the group Urubamba and their collaboration with Paul Simon, this Peruvian music that I’ve loved since 1974? While they’re named after this most famous river in Peru and are known for popularizing Peruvian folk music, the musicians are actually Argentine and Uruguayan. Weird. And one more thing I learned. While traveling in Peru you can get really tired of one of the song they collaborated on with Paul Simon, “El Condor Pasa (If I Could)”; it plays everywhere, constantly. I always assumed it was just an American pop song that was adopted here. Turns out it is in fact a classic Peruvian song, written in 1913, and is considered Peru’s second national anthem. Simon & Garfunkel popularized it for us Gringos, but it really is a native Peruvian song.

That’s todays music history lesson. From Urubamba we went back to Cuzco for the night and then we take a train down to Lake Titicaca where we’re going to spend 10 days or so exploring the Peru-Bolivian border area.

Another picture of Mark on the hike in Pisac

Mark contemplating the insignificance of human life in the vast world … either that or just humming El Condor Pasa

Oh, I was on the hike in Pisac too. That’s me in the distance…

Some of the old terraces along the trail in Pisac

And one more picture of Mark on the trail

On my way out of Urubamba to hike up the valley I chanced on this beautiful local cemetery

A view down the valley toward Urubamba from somewhere above 11,000 feet. The hike took me through the quietest, most remote mountain villages you can imagine.

Hiking up in the mountains you’re never far from another beautiful stream

Just a pretty door. This was the courtyard in our favorite lunch place in Urubamba.

Did I mention cats? This is Nina, the local entertainment at our favorite lunch stop.

Of course, Mark is more the cat person than I am. So as he was trying to get Nina to climb in his lap she turned and sat in my lap instead. Just to prove who was boss, I assume.

On leaving Urubamba we took a car back to Cuzco, crossing the Andes through beautiful countryside often at 11,000 or even 12,000 feet above sea level

Another view of the Peruvian altiplano, the high plains of the Andes

A beautiful day to travel in Peru

Cuzco, Our Missed Opportunity

Posted by Jim St. George on March 7, 2016

Posted in: Peru, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Leave a Comment

Cuzco’s Plaza de Armas as seen from the Church of the Society of Jesus. The city is surrounded by beautiful hills whose lights twinkle at night.

Cuzco is a great city. We were here in 2009 for just a day, part of a tour to hike the Inca Trail. We were enchanted and knew we needed to come back to do the city justice.

What’s so great about it? Well, for one thing it’s the belly button of the world, or at least so the Incas believed. It was their capital from the 13th century until the Spanish overthrew them in the 16th century. The conquering Spaniards, led by Francisco Pizzaro, were astonished by the city’s beauty, according to one author, and they made it the capital of their Andean empire building beautiful churches and other important buildings. Sitting a little over 11,000 feet above sea level (thank goodness we’ve had weeks at relatively high altitudes to prepare us) Cuzco is a center for great hiking and other adventures and just an all around beautiful city.

The Plaza, with the Cathedral on the left and the Jesuit church on the right

There’s a fun story about the great churches in Cuzco. If you go to the central square, the Plaza de Armas, there are not one but two giant churches. One, it turns out, is the Cathedral as is typical of Spanish colonial squares, built in the 16th century only a couple decades after the conquest. The other is the Iglesia de la Compañía de Jesús, the Church of the Society of Jesus, built by the Jesuits also in the 16th century. (As though it’s not odd enough having two huge churches on adjacent sides of the square the Cathedral complex is actually made up of three separate-but-connected churches.)

Cuzco had some absolutely great restaurants which, after a pain-killing Manhattan, I could enjoy. This was an antipasto plate for about $10 that was amazing.

After the Jesuit church was substantially damaged in a 1650 earthquake they decided to rebuild it as the most magnificent church in Cuzco. The Bishop, ensconced in the Cathedral, objected and complained to the Pope himself that the Jesuits should not be allowed to outshine the Cathedral’s splendor. The Pope ruled in the Bishop’s favor but by they the Jesuit church was nearly complete, and magnificent it was.

So there you are, two grand churches just a stone’s throw from each other. And grand they are. The Cathedral compares well with nearly any of the great European churches and has an enormous collection of colonial art from what is known as the Cuzco School. The favorite is a local rendition of the Last Supper, with Jesus and the Apostles all prepared to dine on a roasted guinea pig, a local favorite. Meanwhile, the Jesuit church nearby boasts the city’s biggest altar, a huge dome, and a beautiful baroque facade. Enough church to go around for everyone.

You’re not allowed to take pictures inside the Cathedral, so I copied this off the web. You have to love that guinea pig in the middle of the table, though it looks as though it’s not really big enough for the 13 of them. According to a worker inside the church that guy on the right foreground is supposed to be not Judas but Francisco Pizzaro, the conquerer of the Incas.

Oh, and one other great thing about city: Cuzco’s flag is a rainbow flag, pretty much identical to the gay banner used in much of the rest of the world. What could make us feel more welcome than seeing rainbow flags flying over so many restaurants and bars and public spaces?

OK, then, if it’s such a great place why do I call it a missed opportunity. To start with, we came here right after a tough two-day hike down into and back out of the Colca Canyon and our legs just hurt. We can both climb uphill pretty well, but those downhills – thousands of feet down into the canyon – were killers. Every step for the first couple days was painful not unlike, I would guess, someone who’s just run his or her first marathon.

One more food picture. Here we have an octopus tiridito, another great dish.

But then to add insult to injury – or greater injury to injury, as the case may be – a pinched nerve, last observed in France nearly two years ago, reappeared. I had felt a bit of pain before starting the canyon hike but decided to do the hike anyway. In fact, it gave me no problem whatsoever; it seemed to go away on it’s own. In Cuzco, though, it struck back in some force. Not the same lying on the floor screaming in agony as I experienced in Poitier, but really painful. Enough so there was no way I could enjoy exploring the city or even thinking of going on another hike. Instead I spent part of all three full days we were in Cuzco in a 24-hour clinic getting shots, an IV, and some anti-inflammatory medicine. Apparently, though, prescriptions for pain are unknown in Peru, or at least unavailable. Sad, because while I didn’t need morphine or anything that strong I could definitely have used something for a couple days.

So that was Cuzco, a city of great architecture, beautiful churches, amazing restaurants, and at least one clinic where the staff spoke English. A great city that we just didn’t get to enjoy that much. From here we’re headed deeper into the Sacred Valley – as this part of Peru was known to the Incas – to Urubamba, and then on to Lake Titicaca. Stay tuned.

A view of the grand Jesuit church

Another shot from the Plaza de Armas with the baroque facade of the Jesuit church in the background

Colca Canyon

Posted by Jim St. George on March 2, 2016

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Colca Canyon from near the top of our hike. We would hike 4,000 feet down to that river … and then back up.

One of the major attractions of going to Arequipa, besides seeing the city itself, is that it’s reasonably close to the Colca Canyon and the major jumping off spot for tours there. Formed by the Colca River, the canyon is over 10,700 feet deep; twice as deep as the Grand Canyon and one of the deepest canyons in the world. As Lonely Planet puts it, “Going to Arequipa and missing out on the Colca Canyon is like going to Cuzco and neglecting to visit Machu Picchu.”

A view of Colca Valley, just before the start of the canyon

Mark enjoying a view of the canyon

So off we went. There are a couple options for going to the canyon from Arequipe. One is to do it as a day trip: a three hour bus ride out there, a couple hours driving around and stopping at view points, and a three hour ride back. That sounds like a pretty good description of hell to us, so we took the other option, a two day trip including a long hike down into the bottom of the canyon on the first day and a really long hike back up out of the canyon on the second day.

Now, this option had its drawbacks, including the fact that you still have the three-hour bus rides on each day. And that the bus picks you up on day one from your hotel at 3:00 AM. Yup, 3:00 AM so you can get to a town near the canyon for breakfast, stop at a viewpoint to watch Andean condors soaring, and still hit the trailhead by 9:30 or so.

Fortunately the bus was reasonably small and comfortable, maybe 16 people or so, and we could finish our night’s rest before getting to the Colca region for breakfast. To say that breakfast was light, though, would be a bit of an understatement: it consisted of bread, butter, and a little strawberry jam. Local bread, very tasty, but still not a lot to fuel a long hike.

From there it was on to Cruz del Cóndor, nearly 4,000 feet above the canyon floor, where a family of Andean condors nest and soar. They’re a beautiful bird to watch as they swoop and soar around the rim of the canyon, their 10-foot wingspan making them pretty recognizable. Amusingly, though, when you see close-up pictures of them they’re kind of ugly. They are, in fact, a kind of vulture who feed not on little animals they spy like eagles do, but on dead animals, preferably big carcasses like deer and cattle. While the Andean condor is one of the longest-living birds, with life spans of up to 70 years, it has been on the U.S. Endangered Species list since the 1970s.

From Cruz del Cóndor you can see those specks in the middle of the photo. They were sometimes closer, but I never managed to get a picture then.

After a brief stop to watch the condors, then, it was off to the trail head. There’s not a lot to say about the trail except that it was a L-O-N-G route down to the bottom of the canyon. And if anyone ever says “Yeah, but at least it was downhill,” let me be the first to say hiking up is easier than hiking down. While some of it was a beautiful and gradual slope, a lot of it was steep with loose rocks; you felt as though you could slip and fall at any second. But, wobbly though my legs were after the 4,000-foot descent, we made it to the bottom.

That’s the “Oasis” a tiny village at the bottom of the canyon where we would spend the night. You can see the zig-zag trail leading up on the other side of the valley that we would hike up the next morning.

Lunch was this quiet, bucolic spot on the edge of the canyon

From there it was an up-and-down route first to lunch and then back down to the bottom of the canyon where we spent the night. Now, we knew the accommodations weren’t going to be our normal standards; the price we were paying suggested this was going to be backpacker style instead. One of the things we learned was that we’re really not cut out to be backpackers. Rustic indeed. It’s not just that our cabin didn’t have plumbing or a bathroom, it didn’t have electricity. Yikes – nowhere to plug in our phones (which are also our cameras) or iPads. No towels provided, though the cold showers available weren’t that enticing anyway. Not even toilet paper, to be honest. Yeah, that’s basic. Still, it was lovely down there in the bottom of the canyon.

Then it’s up at 4:45 or so to start the hike out of the canyon by 5:00. Still dark, but fortunately we’re smart enough to travel with small flashlights. We know it’s going to be hard work, as the trail takes about three hours and is just up, up, up. Every step you take is up. But it was totally worth it. Going up is hard work, but – unlike going down – it never feels dangerous or particularly difficult. We started hiking under starlight but within 20 minutes or so daylight began breaking through and pretty soon you were watching daybreak in the canyon. Spectacular. And I’ll brag for just a bit: while the guidebook says it’s a 3-hour hike for normal hikers and two- to two-and-a-half hours for fit hikers, I did it in just slightly under two hours. There I was, passing up 20-something kids, feeling just fine.

Only then did we get breakfast. After that we stopped at a few small towns, had lunch, and then it was a long drive back. Fabulous scenery, got to know a few of our fellow hikers from Germany, Italy, Spain, Bulgaria, Wales, and just in general a great way to spend two days. After a night back in Arequipa, then, it’s off to Cuzco.

That’s me and our guide Ivan on a leisurely section of the hike

Hiking on Day 1 we got to this spot where just three days before there had been a bridge. Then there was rain … and no more bridge.

Recognizing the importance of tourist traffic, the locals had already built a temporary bridge so we could still do the hike

This 74-year old woman is selling tuna. We’d been confused in Mexico when we saw tuna ice cream for sale, but learned here that tuna is the name of a cactus fruit. She was selling them for about 10 cents each, though they were worth a LOT more than that; they were really good.