Things I Didn´t Know about Peru

While I am waiting to go out and spend some afternoon time in Lima, I thought I´d sit down and write a few surprises I´ve encountered during my trip. Yáll are probably smarter than me and knew all this, but oh well.

1) Spanish is the SECOND language spoken by most of the people outside the big cities. In Cuzco, for example, Quechua is the native tongue--though everyone does speak Spanish.

2) In Peru, people don´t flush toilet paper down the toilet. Even used toilet paper is put in a little basket by the toilet. This is true in homes and restaurants and such, but also hotels.

3) Americans use the word Inca incorrectly. Inca is the ruler of the Quechua people. So when we talk about Inca ruins, what we really mean is ruins the Quechua people built for their Inca.

4) There is still a lot of resentment toward the spanish in Peru--especially in Cuzco and the Sacred Valley towns. While the Quechua are now almost all Catholic, they resent what the Dominicans did to their native culture.

5) One US dollar is 3.2 soles in Peru. A beer is 8 soles. A Big Mac is 4.5 soles. A real steal because of the strength of our dollar. But food and flowers are two things that are cheap even for the native people in Peru. We were looking at elaborate flower arrangements in church--ones that would have cost upwards of $75 or $100 in the US. These same flowers cost about $10 in Peru.

6) All hotels in Lima, Cuzco, and the Sacred Valley seem to have outlets that support US electronics. I brought an adaptor with me, but didn´t need it.

7) Potatoes and Lima beans are indigenous to Peru. There are over 200 kinds of potatoes--black, blue, yellow, red. And the Georgia staple, the Lima Bean, came from Peru. (Yeah, the name should have given it away long ago to me)

8) Ecalyptus trees are native to Peru. I´m not sure why that surprises me, but it does. Oh, and there´s no real tree line in the Andean mountains. Mountains as high as 13, 14, and 15,000 feet never ever get snow. The snow line starts around 18,000 feet.

That´s it for now. If I bored you, sorry.

Things I Didn´t Know about Peru

While I am waiting to go out and spend some afternoon time in Lima, I thought I´d sit down and write a few surprises I´ve encountered during my trip. Yáll are probably smarter than me and knew all this, but oh well.

1) Spanish is the SECOND language spoken by most of the people outside the big cities. In Cuzco, for example, Quechua is the native tongue--though everyone does speak Spanish.

2) In Peru, people don´t flush toilet paper down the toilet. Even used toilet paper is put in a little basket by the toilet. This is true in homes and restaurants and such, but also hotels.

3) Americans use the word Inca incorrectly. Inca is the ruler of the Quechua people. So when we talk about Inca ruins, what we really mean is ruins the Quechua people built for their Inca.

4) There is still a lot of resentment toward the spanish in Peru--especially in Cuzco and the Sacred Valley towns. While the Quechua are now almost all Catholic, they resent what the Dominicans did to their native culture.

5) One US dollar is 3.2 soles in Peru. A beer is 8 soles. A Big Mac is 4.5 soles. A real steal because of the strength of our dollar. But food and flowers are two things that are cheap even for the native people in Peru. We were looking at elaborate flower arrangements in church--ones that would have cost upwards of $75 or $100 in the US. These same flowers cost about $10 in Peru.

6) All hotels in Lima, Cuzco, and the Sacred Valley seem to have outlets that support US electronics. I brought an adaptor with me, but didn´t need it.

7) Potatoes and Lima beans are indigenous to Peru. There are over 200 kinds of potatoes--black, blue, yellow, red. And the Georgia staple, the Lima Bean, came from Peru. (Yeah, the name should have given it away long ago to me)

8) Ecalyptus trees are native to Peru. I´m not sure why that surprises me, but it does. Oh, and there´s no real tree line in the Andean mountains. Mountains as high as 13, 14, and 15,000 feet never ever get snow. The snow line starts around 18,000 feet.

That´s it for now. If I bored you, sorry.

Cuzco, Guinea Pigs, and Sexy Women

Cuzco has been a blast. Just imagine a city where most of the architecture is built on top of walls that were created in 1100 AD. Just crazy old and fantastic.

Wednesday--We saw every old church possible in Cuzco, including one that has a cross which Pisarro´s own people carried when they first came to the city in the 1500´s. We also spent a lot of time at the Temple of the Sun, probably the best, most precise Inca walls ever built. Of course the Dominicans came and put a church on top of it, so you can´t see most of the original.

Thursday--Today is only half over but it was jam-packed with sights and sounds. We started the day by going to a traditional market in Cuzco. Think of the biggest farmers´market you can imagine and then make it twice as crowded, twice as dirty, and 4 or 5 times as cheap. It was miraculous. Rows of chocolate and fresh cheeses right up against hanging dried llama fetuses and racks of fresh butchered meats.

After the market we went to Sasqyunhuaman. I spelled it wrong, but oh well. It´s an Inca ruin from the 1400´s just north of the city--three rows of huge rounded walls that you can´t wrap your head around. Some of the stones weigh up to 300 tons. It was incredible. But every time a peruvian says the name of the site, I always think they´re saying, ¨sexy woman.¨

For lunch we had some new stuff including alpacca and pork (with the skin attached). But the highlight had to have been when they brought a whole guinea pig out on a plate. Ugh. I just wasn´t brave enough to try it, though I´ve tried everything else.

Tomorrow we head to Lima. Then it´s Miami on Sat and back to DC on Sunday. More later

Machu Picchu

Well, I have just spent the past two days in Aguas Calientes and Machu Picchu and want to give you all a brief rundown.

Monday--In the morning, we visited a class of 5th graders in a local school. They were so fantastic and hugging us and going nuts. Nearly all of them want to be tour guides when they grow up. I never knew the Peruvian economy was so bad, and evidently tourism has turned everything around. Then we took the train from Ollataytamba to Aguas Calientes, the small town just 25 minutes driving from the ruins.

We got to the ruins at about 230 or so and it was beautiful--more spectacular than you can imagine. We walked around for three hours taking in most of the lower level sights, though we did climb to a high tower that houses the "hitching post of the sun." We also got the classic picture of the ruins with the mountain behind.

As we were leaving, the sun was setting and we were basically the only people at the ruins. I´m not sure much can compare--even my years in Alaska. Later that night all of us went to get pizza and beer (no kidding). We played a hilarious game called Sapo where you try to throw gold coins in a metal frog´s mouth. I, of course, sucked at it.

Tuesday--we got to the ruins at 7 a.m. and my mother and I walked with a married couple on our tour, and with our tour guide, to the top of the mountain you always see in the Machu Picchu pics. Yes, the top of that f´ing tall mountain. We climbed a total of 1500 feet I think. This is fairly remarkable considering our hotel was another 2000 feet lower than the ruins!

I´ll describe the ruins in another blog. They were magical. And we saw chinchillas in the wild among the ruins. And llamas too. We took the train this afternoon and now we´re in Cuzco, the first city of the Incas. Can´t wait to explore tomorrow.

Talk to all of you soon. Sorry to be brief and not very detailed. It´s killing the writer in me, but I figure it´s neater to get something out while we´re actually here in Peru.

Hello from Peru

It´s late Sunday afternoon and I wanted to catch all of you up on the trip to Peru I´m taking with my mother. It´s been unbelievably beautiful here, but we´ve done so much hiking, walking, eating, and even rafting that I´m dead tired.

Wednesday--we were in Miami and didn´t do much. Simply took a boat ride around the rich islands in the bay. We had a 1 a.m. flight that night to Lima.

Thursday and Friday--we hit the ground running in Peru. There are 12 of us on the tour, mostly older married couples, as I had anticipated. We saw lots of ancient sites in the city including old Incan pyramids and visited an Gregorian monestary and its catacombs. Friday night I actually ventured out to a gay bar and met some nice new friends. More on that another time.

Saturday--we flew from Lima (which is at sea level) to Cuzco, which is 11,000 feet. I´m pretty in shape, but I can tell you that you get tired more easily, and sometimes even lightheaded. We drove down from Cuzco to the Sacred Valley and Urabamba River (a lower elevation of 9,000 feet) where we visited the ancient Incan ruins of Pisac. It was a hellish hike, but really wonderful. We visited a llama farm where we also saw alpacas and vicunyas. Of course they made us drink lots of coca tea, which is supposed to help you adjust to elevation.

Sunday--we are still in the Sacred Valley which is really amazing. Our old monestary hotel has flowers blooming everywhere, even though Peru is entering its winter season. Today we visited another Incan site, the only one where the Incans actually defeated the Spanish. The name is too long and I don´t remember. Maybe Oyatollamba? Something like that. Then we did a rafting trip down the Urabamba River. Mom and I rode in front and we were completely drenched. But eating a huge picnic lunch after made it all worthwhile. After the picnic we visited a famous ceramics studio, but the highlight for me was petting the marmoset named Bellaluci.

Tomorrow is our first day at Machu Picchu.