Arequipa

I spent two days in the city of Arequipa in southern Peru. Most of the large colonial buildings are made of a distinctive white stone that is easily carved into complex designs. The cathedral stretches along one side of the main square. The building has been an exercise on perseverance. It has been gutted by a fire, toppled in one earthquake and one tower fell in another. The interior was very simple compared to other major cathedrals that I saw, no intricate murals or naves on every side.

Arequipa is in a very dry climate. The hills are brown and there are cacti everywhere, but there is a river through the city and they still grow crops there. 

I went into a small art school that I passed on the street. In the courtyard were straw figures of a man on a bike and two mermaids. Inside there was an exhibit of origami art.

There are three mountains overlooking the city, El Misti, Chachani, and Pichu Pichu. There is a folk tale that says that El Misti loves Chachani and that she love him back. Pichu Pichu also loves Chachani,   and cries because she doesn't love him back. That is why there are two lakes on the side of Pichu Pichu. They are his pooled tears.

El Misti

Chachani

Pichu Pichu

I took a bus tour one afternoon. It was the most touristy thing I did while traveling. There were no other backpackers on board, there was an affluent older couple who had sailed down from California, a young couple from Lima visiting for the weekend, and two teenagers that seemed to have bought the ticket just to get away from their parents and make out in the back of the bus. 

One of the stops was an old water mill. We were able to see how the stream was diverted through the building to power the stone grinder. It was very interesting to the ingenuity of old technology.

Machu Picchu

The last leg to Machu Picchu started at 4:10 in the morning. We walked up in the hill in the dark so that we could be at the top for sunrise, but it was cloudy and didn't make for any sort of dramatic lighting. Our first hour was with a guide, who told us that this was a place of learning, and that the rocks in one temple had a special energy that you could feel if you touched them. Truth is, no one knows what it was built for, in fact the excavation process was very poorly done and the context in which artifacts were found wasn't well recorded, so we are unlikely ever to know much more. 

Yale University had a large collection of artifacts from Machu Picchu that were supposed to have been returned in 1918. In 2008, after requests that the artifacts be returned had been denied, Peru sued the university. Then there were protests, and Peru asked both President Obama and the pope to get involved. Finally, Yale agreed to return them over the next two years. If you want to read the entire article, go here: http://www.npr.org/2010/12/15/132083890/yale-returns-machu-picchu-artifacts-to-peru

Another fuzzy caterpillar

Remember the bridge from yesterday? That's it down there. 

Salkantay trek

I took a four day trek to Machu Picchu. It was incredibly difficult, but also rewarding and beautiful. I was in a group of eight people. There was a woman originally from Eugene Oregon who now lives in Spokane, and recently married couple who met at a hospital in the Ecuadorian jungle, a brazilian, an englishman, a woman from the Netherlands, and a man from New York state. Every person was cheerful and a pleasure to be with, and I am fortunate to have that time with such a lovely group of people.

Day one:

We began the hike in a dry, hot valley, on a sunny, dusty road.

By early afternoon we could see a large mountain in the distance, which we would reach by noon the next day.

We walked until quite late in the day. The sun had disappeared from the valley, and it was getting very cold. My feet hurt, and I was exhausted. On straight portions of the road I would close my heavy eyelids. I had a headache, probably because of the altitude. I dragged myself into camp, which was here:

Incredible. I stayed awake long enough to take a few pictures and eat dinner. I groggily admired the stars on the way to my tent, only to find that my rented sleeping bag was not adequate for the cold. After about an hour I had done some crunches and rubbed my feet until they were warm and was wearing fleece pants, wool socks, polyester shirt, fleece jacket, a hat, and I was completely bundled into the bag, not even an air hole. It was not a restful night, and most of the morning was spent dreaming of looking for a bathroom.


Day two:

Before starting out in the morning I drained the quarter-sized blisters that had formed on the ball of each foot. Then I laced my boots back up and started up the pass.

This sign originally said that I was at 3800 meters, but it had been crossed out and 4100 meters had been written in. I don't know which is correct.

I've spent the last hour trying to crop these photos in both google docs and open office draw. Do get this result I moved them from google draw, to open office draw, to open office presentation, to pdf, cropped them finally, and saved as jpg. It took me over an hour. You better appreciate it.

I made it! Some sources say the pass is at 4700 meters. I did have to go slowly, the faster I went the more of a headache I got. I just didn't have enough red blood cells to carry oxygen to both and my muscles. I got a little irritated with the guide on the way up. He had gone on ahead with the rest of the group and came back to tell me and one other guy to pick up our pace because people were waiting at the top and it was cold. I felt that he should have gathered everyone together before the final stretch to avoid that situation. Because of that we ended up paying to ride horses to the top, even though I was capable of doing it myself.

On the way down the other side of the pass there were rocks covered in red lichen, which looked pretty cool.

We had lunch on the other side of the pass, and pretty quickly we were surrounded by lush green hills and a welcomely warm day. We reached camp around four and had a relaxing evening watching dogs and chickens run around the yard.

Day three:

As we descended the day got warmer and warmer. There were bromeliads and orchids, and fuzzy white caterpillars. My blisters where really hurting that day so I spent most of the time walking alone. Since I wasn't going to catch the group anyway, I took my time and got a lot more photos than I had been able to take on previous days. 

These white caterpillars were hanging from the trees. I don't do well with things associated with webs, but I tried to take pictures of it. I ended up with out of focus fuzzy white things. Luckily I found one on the ground later and got a shot that way. They look soft, but one of the guys there leaned against one on the back of a bench once and it left a large welt across his back.

We ended the day at Santa Theresa hot springs, where heavy streams of water flow off the pools to form a line of showers. It was heavenly. 

Day four:

This day was by far the easiest. I had been freed from the tyranny of my hiking boots by the level railroad tracks that we were walking on. There was an aqua river flowing in the valley, and bird calls emanated from the dense forest. 

From this bridge we could see the edge of Machu Picchu on the ridge line above us.

Old walls along the river.

Another crazy caterpillar.

We all had the take pictures of the caterpillar.

After only three hours of walking we reached the town of Aquas Calientes at the base of Machu Picchu. It was raining but warm, and we are all happy to see our rooms with real beds. We all went to bed early in preparation for our 4:10 start time in the morning.