I recently spent 14 wonderful days in the magical, spectacular, diverse, beautiful country of Peru.
I flew in a day early and spent the afternoon exploring the upscale southern Lima neighborhood of Miraflores--where I would stay to begin and end my trip.
Grabbed a Peru style pulled pork sandwich and some fries (with Peru's famous potatoes of course) for lunch then explored the nearby Kennedy Park.
Walked from the cliff top town to the pebbled beach.
There were invitations to surf, but I did not.
A Gaudi style park and monument dedicated to love back up on the cliff.
Hang gliding is also a popular activity.
View from the hotel pool.
Next day I met up with some of the tour group members for an interesting tour of the colonial city center.
Lots of Morrish/Iberian influences--including shielded balconies and interior courtyards.
October 18th was the city-wide large celebration/feast for the Lord of Miracles--celebrating a painting of Christ that survived an earthquake in 1655. Everything was still decked out in purple--the color of the Nazarene order that now protects the painting.
Local saints and other Catholic images.
The main Cathedral and the Plaza de Armas.
Naval Museum (sadly no time to visit it).
Housed in the home of Miguel Grau, a navy commander who held off Chilean advances at sea for a few months during the ill-fated War of the Pacific in 1879, in which Chile gained territory from Bolivia and Peru--something I often referred to in my political geography class explaining how Bolivia became landlocked,
Balcony bridal shot?
Welcome gathering with a bar stop (with a drag performance) and then dinner at a restaurant that served wonderful traditional food. I travelled with
Detours Travel--a gay oriented adventure travel company based in Canada. I liked the itinerary and the flexibility to choose or skip certain activities. The thirteen men came from the USA (Rhode Island, NY, North Carolina, Utah and California) plus Canada, England, and Turkey. Our guide Beau is from Australia. There were three married couples and seven single men.
Tour leader Beau on the right.
Next morning we headed to the Lima airport in the port city of Callao for our flight to Cusco.
Cusco. Elevation 11, 152 ft.
Got to taste a Pisco Sour. Not too bad. The is what my Lonely Planet Guide (page 59) said about this famous local cocktail made from pisco, lime juice, simple syrup, bitters and whipped egg white:
"The origin of the pisco sour is speculative. Legends of the brandy cocktail often mention the name Vicotr Morris (1873-1929), a Utah (USA) native and son of a Mormon. In 1903, the 30-year-old left his family florist shop behind to follow the silver and copper-lined mining trail to Peru's high Andean city of Cerro de Pasco. Thirteen years later, Morris and his Lima bride moved to the coastal capital and promptly opened the popular watering hole Morris Bar on Calle Boza (now Jr de la Union) where it is widely believed the novice bartender invented the froth-topped pisco sour."
Plus Chicha Morada, a drink made from purple corn, fruit juice and spices--pretty tasty.
Coca tea, said to help with altitude sickness.
One cuy (guinea pig) for all to have a taste. I ate half of a cuy years ago in Ecuador.
My lunch: ceviche of lime marinated trout.
On our drive to the Sacred Valley that afternoon we stopped to see and learn about Adean culture and animals.
Traditional dye techniques.
Urubamba. We stayed at a nice resort north of town,
Next morning we drove up to the Salt Mines of Maras, where terraced evaporation pools have been used for millennia to extract salt from an ever-flowing saline hot spring.
We then walked down to the small village along the Urubamba River.
After lunch we visited Ollantaytambo--the last living Inca town in the world.
These seven striped flags are a traditional Inca flag. They differ from the much newer gay pride flags that do not have a light blue stripe.
These are not pets, they are a food source.
Very impressive Inca fortress--the last stronghold of the Inca empire.
Images of the sacred valley from that afternoon and then the next morning as we headed further north to Machu Picchu.
We arrived in Agus Calientes via a beautiful train ride.
That afternoon we stood in a long line to catch busses that took us up a dozen switch backs to the timed entry at Machu Picchu.
View from the bus on the switch backs.
We had tickets for the third circuit that focusses on the religious center of the mountain top city. Wayna Picchu is the peak in the distance.
Residential sector
Reflecting disks.
Circular Temple of the Sun
Temple of the Three Windows
Wayna Picchu. The climb for the next morning.
Looking down on the Urubamba River.
I like this photo of llama and bird.
Some of the group hiked all the way down the mountain to Aguas Calientes, but I knew my knees would not like all of the stone steps and so I saved my legs for the next morning's hike.
That gave Mark (musician from England who is the lead singer in a cover band) Moti (Jewish Turk now living in Ireland) and I time to walk up to the nearby hot springs for a soothing dip.
Riding the switch backs back up to Macchu Pichu.
The well-ordered arrival point.
The Wayna Picchu crew. On my right in Ben from California. He is my age. We made up the slow hiking group. The other five did the up and back hike in less than 90 minutes while we two took three hours.
We followed the 3B trail through Machu Picchu and then the 3A orange trail to the top of Wayna Picchu.
The start of the grueling climb.
Grateful for metal rods (ala Angel's Landing) to help on the very uneven stairs with varying heights.
Ben was slower than me, so I mostly stayed behind to let him set the pace. We both needed plenty of stops to catch our breath.
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Looking down on the four speedsters who had already summited and were now back down to where the summit loop trail divided into the up and down sections.
These stairs through the hilltop structures was the steepest and hardest section.
Our leader, benevolent and beautiful Beau, waiting at the top for us last two to arrive.
From his perch, he then took this photo of me. I had my doubts about making it all the way to the top. This past year my stamina has been diminished (thanks cancer). I worried about the elevation and the steepness of the hike. I did my best to prepare with frequent hikes this past summer in the Wasatch Range. What I learned then and at Machu Picchu is that I could still do it but at a slower pace. It was so worth the effort.
Magnificent!
Tight squeezes on the way down.
The switch back road up to Macchu Picchu.
The upward path as viewed from the downward path of the loop at the top.
Ed's tracking of our magnificent outing. Ben and I had quite a wait for the late morning busses back to Aguas Calientes. We got back just in time to then go catch our train back and then bus back to Cusco.
This train was extra fun and extra touristy with a welcome band, glass roof cars where there was music and dancing, and an aisle fashion show of local creations.
Nothing better than hanging out on a train deck or open door and watching the scenery go by.
Our Novotel in Cusco centered on the courtyard of a onetime large home.
This Dominican church and convent of Santo Domingo was built over the foundations of the most important Inca temple dedicated to the Sun God. Some of the temple walls and rooms still remain--they were mostly covered, modified, or plastered over to hide what was Inca. I first learned of the Spanish tactic of building churches atop temples to co-op the sacred space in order to draw Indigenous peoples into Catholicism when I visit Cholula Mexico years ago.
Lego like protrusions on the top of the wall illustrate how the tightly fitted rocks were interlocked and thus earthquake proofed.
Left over pigment from plaster applied to cover up the Incan stones.
A trapezoidal door re-carved to be rectangular.
An outside shrine to the sun god. The church was built to prevent the sun's rays from reaching this circular altar to discourage continued Incan worship.
The view from the sun god shrine.
Incan motifs and holy images.
And Catholic adornments.
Just up the road is the twelve angled stone. I opted not to wait in line for a photo of me by the stone.
Cheese seller.
Potatoes in all their varieties.
Freeze dried potatoes ala Inca.
After paying the merchant for my photos.
Got to sample a few new tropical fruits. Yum
Cheese and family style pull apart bread from the market for lunch followed by a fresh mango smoothie.
There once was a statue of Pizarro on the corner of this square (once Pizarro Square, now San Franciso Square)
At the end of a rainy morning walking tour of Cusco.
I opted not to go to the animal rehabilitation center (which all the others did) and instead visit this sacred temple site overlooking Cusco.
More impressive Inca stonework.
Next stop and interesting museum about the Inca.
Years ago, I taught a World Civilizations class at DePaul University. One of the units was about ancient civilizations in the Americas. I remember learning and teaching about pre-Incan civilizations like Chavin and Nazca.
I enjoyed this 3D model of the Sacsaywaman scared center I had just visited.
Nativity in a gourd.
Church of San Francisco
More Marys masquerading as Incan shrines.
Plaza of San Francisco without the statue of Pizzaro.
Inside the main cathedral.
The view from the trendy San Blas neighborhood.
Where I met Moti (left) and Ed for late afternoon coffee.
Next morning we were on the road by 4:00 am to travel south a few hours to Rainbow Mountain. Once the sun came up it was a spectacular drive.
ATV partners! Moti at the wheel is from Turkey but works in IT in Dublin. He is Jewish. His ancestors fled Portugal during the inquisition and ended up in Constantinople within the security of the Ottoman Empire. Recently Portugal and Spain have begun offering citizenship to descendants of those Jewish exiles, so Moti now holds Portuguese citizenship along with Turkish. Perhaps most unique about Moti is that he is an albino with accompanying sever myopia. I asked if I could share this about him and he approved. Moti is such a happy man. His laugh is contagious. We were all impressed with how self-sufficient he is with his limited eyesight. He is helped in his navigation by walking with his phone camera on which helps to zoom in on things. His only major limitation is when he has to go up or down uneven surfaces. When such surfaces emerged, someone from our group always recognized a need and stepped in to give Moti a guiding hand.
When we arrived at the ATV rental place most in the group had already paired up with partners or with new pals. There was an odd number so one in the group had requested to go solo. In the end Moti and I ended up being partnered for the journey. He was aware of his limitations but knew from bike riding and walking that he could see straight ahead and if following other ATVs could probably make it work. I had my doubts, but I was willing to give Moti a chance. He assured me that if it was too hard, he would relinquish the driver position to me. We did a few practice runs around an open lot and then head out with the crew. At one point he admitted that his parents and sister would be having a fit is they knew what he was attempting to do. I have to admit I was a bit nervous. It didn't help that just as we were getting ready to leave that I got a neck spasm (a cancer med side effect) that made turning my head painful. It also didn't help matters that on the first climb out of the staging area there was an ATV that had dropped off into a gully and medics were retrieving the (uninjured) driver. I had thought I would sit in the back and take photos (like Ed was doing) but after one photo I realized I needed to keep my eye on the single lane trail. Moti did great. I remember only having to tell him to move to the center of the trail twice. We were both very happy when we safely reached the trail end!
Photo from Ed of me trying to take a photo.
Last photo by me. No more photos on the ride up. I was too busy making sure Moti didn't drift off of the trail!
We are the back ATV.
It was a spectacular setting.
The end lot of ATVs and motorcycles. Then a hike up to Rainbow Mt.
A close up of some of the colors to come.
Beauty all around!
I initially refrained from such touristy photo opps,
After my wanderings, I caught up with Moti and Beau where Beau was kindly shepherding Moti down the rough slope and steps of the mountain. Moti decided to have his photo taken with the llama so I then decided to do it too.
As I stepped into position one of the llamas decided to stand up.
I tipped the llama owner for sharing his llamas.
Heading back down, this time with me as the driver and Moti behind. This was my first time ever driving an ATV. It was fun.
Murals outside the restaurant where we had an early morning breakfast on the way up and lunch on the way down.
Window views of the drive back to Cusco.
Back in Cusco and after a shower, I headed out for a late afternoon walkabout.
Nativities galore.
Plus high end shops for alpaca wool products, artwork and gold jewelry.
Next morning we flew to Lima and then headed south via the Pan-America highway along the coast to the resort area of Pisco (airport) and Paracas (hotel).
Lots of big billboards along the way.
And coastal desert--thanks to the cold upwelling of water from the Peru/Humbolt current--which helps to make Chile's Atacama Desert further south the driest desert in the world.
Balcony view. Took a few swims in the pool. Delicious seafood for dinner.
Morning boat excursion out to see the wild-life rich Ballestas Islands.
The candelabra--possibly an outlier of the Nazca lines.
Lone seal on the top right of the cone.
Guano (bird poop) dock and operation center. Guano is an excellent fertilizer. Once every eight years special permits are granted to harvest the guano from the rocky islands.
A juvenile penguin. The only one we saw. Most have sought out cooler waters now that El Nino warm waters have moved in.
Each Detour trip has prepaid activities like Machu Picchu and Rainbow Mountain. Other days are open to activities arranged by Detours. For our Paracas stay there were four optional activities offered. Most of the group signed up for two or three of the optional island tour, the peninsula ATV tour and the winery/sand dune tour. I was the only one who signed up for a fourth opportunity-- a two-hour flight over the Nazca lines ($300). Beau worked his magic to make sure I could squeeze in all four activities. So right after the island tour, I hoped in a van for a short drive to the airport in nearby Pisco. There I joined six other passengers in an eight-passenger plane.
Before takeoff, I noticed the captain cross himself in prayer.
Back at the resort, Ed heard a plane overheard and took a photo thinking it may be me. It was. My window is the second window from the right. Right behind the co-pilot.
Town of Paracas
The peninsula we would explore via ATV later that afternoon. We travelled from the town of Paracas (lower right) out to the far bay with its yellow and red sand at left center.
Rivers descending from the Andes to the east make ribbons of oases along the coast.
Our general flight plan. I totally missed seeing a few of them including the first one--the whale. I was positioned above the right wing which was not optimal for photography but fortunately the co-pilot would tell us what we were looking for and then the plane would dip to the right for my side to see then to the left for the other side to see.
Trapezoids
Dog (with bent head at the bottom)
Condor
I am unable to figure out what this one is. Maybe part of it is the pelican.
Parrot
Parrot
Lookout tower alongside the Pan American Highway with lizard (top left bisected by road), tree (center) and hands (right)
The town of Ica--which we would visit the next day.
Perhaps vineyards for the making of Pisco.
Paracas National Reserve in two outings--the morning route out to the Ballestas Islands and the afternoon route (in red) along the isthmus.
Solo driving this time. Moti opted out of this ATV adventure.
Not a plant in sight. But the sea birds like it.
Delicious Japanese style seafood for dinner (again).
Morning walk along the shore.
Ever hear the story of the Pelican?
His beak holds as much as his bell-ican.
His beak holds enough to last him a week,
And I don't see how the hell-ican!
My grandpa Fife loved to ask us grandkids: "Ever hear the story of the peli-can?" He didn't always finish the limerick. He just asked the first question, and we automatically recited the rest of the poem.
A bouncy house water theme park offshore. No time for me to try it.
Ceviche for lunch at a winery.
Pisco liquor is a specialty of Peru. It is often made into a Pisco Sour cocktail.
Pisco tasting--three of us did not imbibe. A few sips of a pisco sour earlier in the trip was enough for me.
A familiar looking church style.
Next stop the Huacachina oasis on the outskirts of Ica.
We stopped at an outdoor outfitter shop and picked up skis, boots and pools (all very old school). We were also given ski wax which we soon learned needed to be applied liberally and often. From the shop we walked across the small town and up into the dunes to meet our buggy. It was a painful (boots rubbing against shins not padded by long johns and long socks) and long walk.
The crew.
Our packed to the gills ten passenger dune buggy. We had a rollercoaster like blast going up and down dunes. We had a great driver/guide who took us to four different slopes starting out with a bunny hill first.
Four of us tried skiing and the rest slid down on boards. We did four runs on four different slopes.
The first video is my trial run on the shortest (bunny) hill. It is like skiing powder. You need to sit back. The sand really grabs. By the time of my last run (the fourth video) my legs were shot and I sat down near the end but then popped back up to finish. All in all it was a blast.
Peru has such diverse and beautiful environments.
Such a fun outing. I think my travel mates were surprised that old, slow hiking, non-athletic, non-gym going me could rip down the dunes like a pro!
The Huacachina oasis village with the lights of Ica in the distance. We walked the length (left to right) to get from and to the outfitters.
Morning swim before out drive back to Lima.
Busy streets of trick or treaters in Miraflores as we walked to dinner.
Farewell dinner. Grilled octopus for me.
The happy, congenial crew (three left before the Paracas extra three days)
I stayed on an extra day for more Lima exploring. I Ubered to the colonial center.
Past the National Stadium.
I was dropped at Plaza San Martin (the Liberator of Peru).
Beautiful old hotel.
I walked along Jiron de la Union (where the Pisco Sour was created) to the main square.
A cute little art museum in an old home.
Caption for the threaded art work.
The AI-helped translation of the caption that I pulled up. Peru is also a nation of immigrants and natives.
Fascinating art using embroidery thread.
Day after Halloween decorations.
Unlike Cusco, Lima has a big statue of Pizarro on a side street from the main plaza.
Pizarro towers over the indigenous people.
Navy band and a changing of the guard in front.
Moti recommended that I visit the Monastery and Catacombs of San Francisco. I hired a local guide which turned out to be a good thing. She told me when I could slip in a few photos (which were generally prohibited).
Mary as an Andean Mountain
Last Supper with Cuy (Guinea Pig) on a platter in the middle as the main course.
Parque de Muralla (Park of the Walls to the north of the Monastery of San Francisco) runs along the Rimac River and includes remnants of the wall that once enclosed Lima.
Rio Rimac--the reason Lima was established in this location.
Remnants of the wall.
Bikes can be rented in the park for all ages of beginners.
Colorful hillside settlement across the river.
National Public Prosecutor's Office
Murals on the front of the office: Aztecs, Spanish, Peruvians.
Agriculture, Fishing, Pastoralism, Mining, Forestry.
Packed with people on a Sunday afternoon.
Many of them waiting in long lines for Chifa restaurants (including those recommended by my Lonely Plant guidebook).
Year of the monkey. 1956 is my year.
I picked a smaller restaurant and ordered Chaufa de Langostino--Shrimp Fried Rice for me. Chifa (China fusion) restaurants are found all over Peru. Chinese food emerged with the banning of slavery and the recruiting of workers from China.
I finished lunch at about 3:00. I had had a delightful walkabout and had seen what I had hoped to see. I decided that rather than Uber back to my hotel in Miraflores, I would walk the five miles back. It was a straight shot south.
I happened upon this Museum of Minerals and went in to check it out.
National Stadium
People were lining up for this fright factory in a park.
Noon flight home with a stop in Atlanta.
Farewell Peru. You were wonderful.
