Peru Days 7-10 - Inca Trail with Trek Peru

This is the third time I've been on a hiking trip, and the third time I've underestimated the physical toll such an activity would take on my body.  I suppose it teaches me a good lesson to always be humble, respect nature, and be in a decent physical shape at all times.

Visiting Machu Picchu has been on my bucket list for many years now.  This year, I checked that off the list.  Most of the tour operators were around the $600 range, so I chose the one that promised me a private toilet tent - Trek Peru.  I have to say this is NOT an endorsement of the company.  In fact, I was deeply disappointed as my toilet tent did not show up.  At this point they are investigating what happened to the darned thing.  Our guide Martin was well informed, all our stuff arrived intact and before us, and for the most part our tents were set up well and in time for our arrival, the food was generally good (although the lack of dessert made me sad and I saw another group had a cake) but this toilet tent thing simply blew my mind, especially after I had asked multiple times for confirmation on this.  So, dessert and toilet tent aside, everything was as expected.

We met some folks on the way.
1)  Team New York - I spend a bit of time walking with some of the gentlemen on this trip.  They seemed nice and one even fed me a Kind bar when I was dying which I really appreciated.  I never learned their names, but thank you.
2)  LA Engineer - We met on day 2, and he gave me me a CLIF blok when I was dying.  I like it when people save me from dying.
3)  Toronto bros - Liked wearing infinity scarves/bandanas.  They piggy backed each other on cliffs (I seriously thought they may fall over) for photos, carried porter packs for fun, did push ups and shot gun beers.  Champions of the world.
4)  Brazilian bros - Liked riding on people's asses to try to overtake.  Also into the infinity scarves/bandanas.
5)  Fat Mexican dude - Truly entertaining.  He was a very huge man (with a huge mother and sister also on the trip).  Paid the porters extra because they couldn't carry their day packs.  On the last day when everyone was standing in line in the dark, he tried to get ahead of the line with no flash light, tapping his stick like he was blind.  Zito turned on his headlamp to show him the way, and he exclaims "don't ruin my night vision!".  We were all stunned and unsure what his deal was, and then he proceeded to tell us how to get used to the dark and see better.  People sure are weird!

Camp toilets are gross.  We all had to do the third world squat, and learned how to do pachamama (really means mother earth, but we used it to mean bodily function) in the great outdoors.  Thank you to all my gym trainers or work out friends who made me do squats, to save me from falling into a squat toilet.

Our guide Martin was a pretty funny dude.  He entertained us with many stories, and knew a lot about the history of Machu Picchu.  He seemed to play down the amount of physical activity we had to exert on the trail, which led to poorly managed expectations.  His explanation for the ruins and the significance that was built into the construction seemed to be for the most part aliens.  He also told us most of the tourist clothing items they sold were made in Bolivia, not Peru, and the local joke when one was trying to buy alpaca items was "maybe alpaca", not "baby alpaca".  Glad I did not buy any maybe alpaca except for 2 hats for Lingon and I.  He told us of how parents in the Incan times would give up their children as sacrifice, and their children would be prepped for months and then taken up to the glaciers where they would be made to drink some hallucinogenic liquid and then whacked in the back of the head and offered to Gods.

Here are some photos from the trip.
-Day 1:  Relaxing, we only started walking around 10am or so, and for the most part it was pretty easy.
 -Day 2:  The most physically challenging.  The uphill section was long and the altitude was high, I felt myself getting weaker and weaker, and got really queasy in the stomach.  Thanks to our friends Team New York and LA Engineer, plus all the other random people on the trail feeding me and cheering me on, I made it, and was totally wiped out after.
-Day 3:  A very long day, with what Martin said was downhill 2000 steps, which probably destroyed my knees.
-Day 4:  Sheer exhaustion, more because we had to wake up very early and it was after all the last day of the hike.  Part of the early day was because the porters needed to catch a 5.20am train, which is crazy, so we had to wake up at 3.30am, leave around 4.30am, and then stand in line for 1.5 hours for the control to open.  Many people were still in line, and before the start of the whole hike I wanted to be first, but was glad I was not, since that would involve being awake about 2 hours earlier  I was cold and miserable for quite a while, but eventually the control opened and we were allowed to start walking and eventually I warmed up.  Nothing could prepare me for the beauty of Machu Picchu.  The photos I took simply do not do it justice.  The guide took us around and explained the various parts of the lost city.  At 10am we went to climb Huayna Picchu, which was about 10,000 steps up and down (I think this number is sheer exaggeration, but it certainly felt like it at the time), and the breath from the top was unparallel.

Day 1 - most relaxed

Day 2 - toughest day, a lot of uphill, up to about 14,000ft.  Here is a photo of Zito and Lingon just 10 steps away from the top!!

Day 3 - lots of ruins, lots of downhill stairs, but overall not too bad

Day 4 - the jewel, took my breath away

Here were some photos of the food that was made for us on the trail.  In general food was pretty good, albeit salty, and I supplemented with a coca tea (these leaves are used to make cocaine, but the tea form is very benign and supposed to improve health, and especially help with altitude sickness).

Martin said there is a chance they will restrict Machu Picchu and have people stand on observatory platforms.  If you get a chance to go soon, please do, but please take care of the site and preserve it as well as possible for other people to see.  It is such a stunning site.

Peru Day 6 - Sacred Valley

Today's post will not be a long one since it is late and we have to get up at the crack of dawn to start our Machu Picchu hike.  This will also be the last for the next few days since I will be sans internet.  Bet you are happy about less reading.  ;-)

I'm going in sort of reverse order today.  I wanted to start out with dinner, since it made such an impression on me.

Lingon and I went on a date to Chicha, one of Gaston Acurio's restaurant for dinner.  It was sort of by accident, but a nice accident!  They gave us Andean potato chips with some sauce that I did not like that much.  For our starter we got a mixed cerviche, which had prawns, octopus, trout and a few accompaniments.  Delicious.  For entrees, we got a trout (cuchuro black butter, rocoto red hot pepper, broad bean puree and sauteed jataco) and lechon (sacha tomato, potato, melted kapchi, corn on the cob and sauteed jataco).  The trout was sublime, everything was just perfect, from the way it was cooked to the accompaniments.  The lechon (pig) was cooked with BBQ sauce, which I really did not like, though Lingon did.  The meat itself was really tasty and well cooked.  I was not crazy about the tomato thing, but all other accompaniments were good.  The jataco, which is a leafy green vegetable, was amazing.  Tasted so fresh and delicious and really stood out - funny thing to stand out, a green, but it really did.  I also loved the dessert, which was a chocolate souffle with Andean mint ice cream, and fried coca milk with vanilla cream and quinoa ice cream.  The souffle tasted pretty standard but very well done.  The fried coca milk was most like a custard which was battered and deep fried with perhaps quinoa, tasted a bit like matcha which I love, and maybe that's why I liked it so much.  This was the most unique dish of the night and possibly my favourite.  Included a picture of the inside which was a vibrant green and a nice surprise when I cut into it.

Well, that's it for dinner.  So much for a shorter post.  But now let's go back to the day time.

Woke up for the first time since getting to Puno not feeling like complete backside.  My head still hurt a bit, but the loud painful thumping in my head was absent!  Finally getting over altitude sickness!!  Since Lingon is a Starwood  Platinum member, we chose breakfast as our freebie at our hotel.  Again, this breakfast was pretty standard - fruit, eggs, bacon, pastries.  The only standout was that it had smoked salmon and the pastries looked nicer.

Then we headed out for our Sacred Valley group tour to see the Inca towns and ruins, which cost S/. 30.  This was very cheap since our hotel was charging us about US$63 and Zito and Dawg's was about US$45.  Wow.  We found this tour at some travel agent near the square.  Note that you have to buy your own boleto turistico, which is either S/. 70 for a limited one or S/. 130 for a full one.

We started out at Pisac.  I thought we were going to the town and market, but for some reason it was given a miss, perhaps as it was not the main market day.  We went to the ruins, which consisted of agricultural crop steps, as well as structures for houses, temples, storage, etc.

Then we went to Urubamba for lunch, which was a rather unexciting place.  The bus took us to quinoa, but since lunch was not included for us we walked around and went to another place whose name I forgot which was almost right across the street, but it had a nicer looking dining area with live flute music.  The buffet cost S/. 35.  I think this is a standard stop for all tour buses for lunch, with all restaurants having a buffet option (Quinoa was S/. 25 in comparison but looked a bit sad).  The food was edible.

Next off we went to Ollantaytambo, which had magnificent huge steep terraces that served as a fortress.  Across from the stepped terraces that we climbed were storage units that had holes which allowed the wind (and boy was it windy!) to enter, which served as refrigeration!  How smart the Incans were!

Our last stop was Chinchero, whose church was the main attraction.  Unfortunately no pictures were allowed of the interior.  It was a very old, poorly maintained church, but well ornamented with a rather interesting history.  Nothing spectacular, and if you were on your own I would give this a miss.  I got a picture of the exterior and also of the light after the sun had set (bad picture, sorry!).

I really enjoyed the tour today.  The ruins of Pisac and Ollantaytambo were simply magnificent.  How did they do all this?!  Seems daunting.  The people back in the day seem so clever, resourceful and strong!

OK, well, goodbye for the next few days and hope you don't miss me too much.

xoxo

Peru Day 5 - Cusco

Today was an exciting day!  After a few days of not seeing Lingon, we were finally to be reunited in Cusco!  We had an early flight and since the airport was far away we had to wake up early.  As luck would have it, I woke up with a splitting headache and major throbbing in my temples, I seriously thought I was not going to make it.  Miracles happen, and I showed up at the airport, and eventually started feeling better throughout the day.

Zito and Dawg were staying at a different hotel, and they had a free airport pick up, so I negotiated my own airport transfer.  Lingon had taken one for S/. 20 earlier in the morning, so I was content to get a car that would take me for this price, and make it without incident to Palacio del Inka where Lingon had already checked in.  It was so nice to see him after what seemed like a long time!  It is hard being apart.  Our hotel was gorgeous and we had an upgraded room.  :-)  I loved the vaulted ceilings and the old world charm.

After settling in, we went to lunch at Incanto, which was recommended by our hotel.  Did not find a website but here is their Tripadvisor review.  The initial purpose, or at least mine was, was to find cuy, which is guinea pig, served whole, so it looks all creepy and stuff, but the group got sick of looking and we settled on this place and ordered the cuy which was already butchered up.  Now we're not all that sure how cuy is supposed to be prepared, but Dawg thinks it is meant to be roasted.  This preparation was deep fried.  The skin was chewy, and had a weird taste, but once we removed the skin the meat frankly just tasted like chicken to me.  There was very little meat and it was a rather expensive dish at S/. 65.  I'd say don't get cuy here.  As to the dish in general, no comments, but I have not given up hope yet.  The other dishes we got were alpaca pepperoni pizza, which was tasty.  The alpaca had a stronger taste than the filet the other night, which was probably more in line with what I had expected alpaca to taste like.  Also got an Incanto house salad, good tasting, for fiber.  The last dish was the lomo saltado which was better than that at Mojsa in Puno from the previous night, but still loses out to Limon.

Alpaca pepperoni pizza, Incanto house salad, cuy and lomo saltado

Next, we went to visit Qorikancha, or the Sun Temple.  The walls used to be covered with gold and there used to be many ornaments made of gold.  Sadly all that was left was the stone, which was still somewhat impressive.  There was a pretty big courtyard, and let me just say I am in LOVE with courtyards and Cusco has an abundance of them!

Then we went off to Sacsayhuamán, or Sacsaywamán, also known as "sexy woman".  LOL.  I am glad we went here, since I was initially somewhat on the fence.  The stones were really big, the largest supposedly weighing 200 tons.  There are many theories on how it was constructed, but I chose to just enjoy the view instead of thinking too hard about it.  Hopefully some day someone will find out though, because it is seriously impressive.  We had a magnificent view of Plaza de Armas in Cusco from up there too!

We had dinner at Senzo, since Dawg wanted to try Central in Lima but we had no time and this was the chef's other restaurant.  We ordered some appetizers to share - salad with goat cheese, paiche (fish from the Peruvian Amazon) cerviche and fried polenta.  All the appetizers were big let downs.  Both Dawg and Zito wanted to eat light so they had a traditional Peruvian soup called Chairo which I thought was nice but very small and expensive for what it was and disappointing.  Lingon and I shared two items.  The suckling pig was SO good, skin was fried to perfection and the meat was tasty and somewhat fatty but not too grossly so.  The tartar of alpaca tasted similar to beef tartare, slightly different texture, which came with a dried potato ragout that resembled mac and cheese and was really delish.  I must comment that the bread was delicious.  In the picture below, the one on the left had some weird herb whose taste did not agree with me.  The regular white roll was just a white roll but very well done.  The olive bread was a favourite with the table and even I who don't like olives enjoyed that bread.  They gave us some petits fours at the end of the meal which were OK.  Overall I feel that Senzo is not that well rounded a restaurant, but Lingon's and my mains were really good, so kind of mixed there.  Together with 1 beer, 3 cocktails and 2 glasses of wine, that entire meal cost about USD$230.  They charged an 18% tax (no idea why, it was the first time we were hit with this) and 10% service in the bill, which was a first, and a tad disappointing.

To end it off, here are some pictures of a few courtyards of the Belmond properties that I really liked.  If I ever build a house, I will go for that look.  The Hotel Monasterio was having a bridal fair too so it was all pretty and decked out!  I think I liked the look of Palacio Nazarenas better, though.

Monasterio Main Courtyard

Palacio Nazarenas main courtyard

Another courtyard of Palacio Nazarenas

Pool area, day and night, of Palacio Nazarenas

Peru Day 4 - Lake Titikaka and Puno

Our hotel provided breakfast.  Pretty standard with cereals, bread, fruit, yoghurt, etc.  They also have coca tea so we made sure to have that to try to combat our headaches and various weaknesses.

Today we decided to take a tour of Lake Titikaka.  The tour picked us up at 6.50am.  We were all so tired.  Here is a picture of Puno from the harbour area.  There were cute paddle boats in a pond adjacent to the make that looked gross and full of algae.  The tour was S/. 75.

Our first stop was to the floating reed islands of Uros.  We went to one of the islands and the president of that island, who was but 23 years old, talked to us (and our guide translated in Spanish) about their way of life.  These islands last about 25 years (that island we were on was 25 years old so I was crossing my fingers we would not sink in!).  These man-made islands are constructed with mud and reeds.  They showed us the inside of their houses, and we got to see some of the crafts they made.

Next we visited the island of Taquille.  We went to the main square where they were honouring a chief justice that Dawg and Zito sat next to and chatted with on the plane from Lima to Puno.  There were these cool brick arches they build along the walkway, perhaps welcoming visitors there.  We had lunch which consisted of quinoa soup, grilled and steamed flounder, and a vegetarian omelette.  Not too bad tasting.  We sat on a balcony with a beautiful view of the shimmering blue lake water and I quite enjoyed that!

After lunch we took a 30-min walk to the other side of the island and caught the boat back to Puno.  Let me make it known that the boat moves very slowly.  So although we were only 35km from Puno, it took us about 3 hours to get back from there.  We spent about 6 hours in the boat which I think is a very long time.  Had we know, I think we would all have chosen to take the faster boat.  Anyhow we just slept on the boat and I suppose that was OK.  I enjoyed the Uros visit, and the Taquille visit was just so-so.  I guess I'm happy to have seen Taquille but Uros was very unique while Taquille seemed like a fair common type of day trip visit that could be done anywhere.  For those wanting to do this independently, we were told Uros was easy to get to with ferries from 9am-6pm, but to get to Taquille posed a challenge since there were no regular boats, just sometimes cargo boats, which may not wait around to take you back.

We had dinner at Mojsa again.  We tried all new dishes - quinoa tabouleh salad, a hearty creole soup, chicken with yellow pepper sauce, lomo saltado and alpaca steak, as planned.  The alpaca tasted like pork.  I was worried it would be too gamey and I would not enjoy it, but I did!  We also got a Puno caramel sandwich, and a Maras (place in Cusco) flourless chocolate cake, which was not as dense as we imagined but rather fluffy.  The food was good, but I feel like Limon in SF provides a much better lomo saltado.  This was our second visit, which I supposed counted for something.  Good solid food in Puno!

Lastly, here is my bruise update for the day.  Looks the same as yesterday.  Maybe I will not continue with this daily bruise update until the look changes.

Peru Day 3 - Puno

Day 3 in Peru was pretty much a travel day.  We woke up early to get to the airport for a flight to Juliaca to visit the town of Puno, and arrived at midday.  We took a taxi to Puno, official price S/. 80 but we negotiated down to S/. 75 on principle.  The flight had been quite bumpy and I felt a little ill at the airport.  I tried to sleep it off in the taxi but woke up eventually and had to tell the taxi driver to stop the car, ran out and yakked all over the land, twice.  Zito had a picture of my projectile yak which hopefully I will obtain later and post online.  Very fun.  I also almost fainted since right at that moment altitude sickness hit me.  I was the only one of us that did not take diamox, and as luck would have it I seemed to be hit the hardest.  Eventually I regained my composure and we made it to Puno.

We checked into Hotel Tierra Viva.  The lobby had coca tea which we drank since we were not feeling too well.  Got into my room, and it had a funny smell which was like pee to me, but the boys said it was a different odour, and Dawg said it was cleaning fluid smell which I did not think so at all.  The hotel bed was comfortable, very basic room, and they gave us 2 bottles of water.  The rate of US$70 also includes breakfast.  Very reasonable, I would say.  My one BIG complaint was that as I was showering, the water got colder and colder, like someone was trying to chase me out of the shower, which was most uncomfortable, especially since all I wanted was a nice warm shower to rest my sick body.  The smell I can deal with, but this hot water situation made me feel really terrible.  Also the wifi is slow, which I’m not too surprised about but it is really frustrating.

Puno looked like it had some fun shopping.  We walked around to find alpaca things to buy, and I loved these alpaca rugs that I’m considering purchasing.  We also went to a market where I saw super creepy cow heads (see at your own risk, it is really gross).  Dawg purchased some corn snack which was delicious, and as I ate it I felt more and more sick.  He also got coca leaves and some ash-looking thing whose name I forgot, but apparently if you chew on this thing it will give you a high or help you with altitude sickness.  These are the leaves of the plant that makes cocaine, but I was assured that neither the tea nor this leaf-chewing business would not produce any such evil effects.  Still on the fence on whether I would try the leaves.  Dawg and Zito bought some hats and a sweater from this one lady off the main street and it seemed to be a good buy since it was much cheaper!

We went to Mojsa for dinner, ranked #4 on Tripadvisor in Puno, which overlooked the Plaza de Armas.  The guys had some Mojsa energy drink which was supposed to help with altitude sickness.  For food they ordered quinoa soup, which we were told was a specialty of the area, a quinoa caprese dish and a chicken avocado dish.  They were kind enough to let me sample their food which was delicious, but I chose not to participate in dinner since I was feeling truly horrible, and it was all actually very good.  We will go back tomorrow to try their alpaca steak and other local specialties!  Hope I am well enough by then.  :-/  There was a good view of the Plaza de Armas and the church from the restaurant.  Make a reservation if you want to come here for dinner, they had a "full" sign when we left dinner around 7.30pm and did not seem to be admitting anymore folks.

Here is a bruise update.  Getting darker, but at least the skin is healing.

Astrid y Gaston, Lima

Dinner at Astrid y Gaston was a most magnificent experience.  From the journey in the cab ride, seeing the beautiful San Isidro area, to the last dessert plate, our senses were given a jolly ol' treat.  It is worth noting that the restaurant has moved to the Casa Hacienda Moreyra, wonderfully outfitted in a swanky neighbourhood.  We almost went to the Miraflores location but thanks to the Dawg we made it to dinner at the right place.  They used to have an a la carte menu, but now it is a full tasting menu, of which we had one cocktail (part of the menu) and 28 or so other courses.  Here is a picture of the menu together with a book they made describing the various compartments of the dinner.

The stark white building was gorgeous on the outside, with a beautiful garden.

We got to see their test kitchen in the distance and they allowed us in their actual kitchen which was a treat, but the experience was not quite as informative as NOMA in Denmark since they explained a lot more about their process there.

The dining room was very well furnished, clean, modern.

The food was prepared meticulously.  Our server explained to us that a lot of the dishes were custom made by local artists, which I think is really special.  It seems like molecular gastronomy is really popular now - a lot of the dishes were created by making the foods into powders and then reshaped or recreated into the form that was presented to us.  The presentation was unique and gorgeous.  I would say I loved 80-90% of the flavours, which I think is quite an endorsement since I do not generally love this type of cuisine.

If you get a chance to go, go!  Aside from trying the fabulous innovative delish food, try to solve the mystery of how to open the bathroom door.  Took me 3 tries.

Chez Wong, Lima

We had lunch at Chez Wong, what we think is chef Javier Wong's house.  One has to email or call to get a reservation and there is no official website.  Lunch only (I think).  The entrance to the building looks just like anyone's house (we had a bit of a hard time finding it), but the whole downstairs was converted to a kitchen and dining area.

It is quite a novel idea to eat at someone's house.  I had done this when I was a teenager with my parents in Hong Kong, and again a few years ago with Lingon in Buenos Aires, and it is just different and fun.  He had cute glasses with an image of him on them smoking a cigarette while in action.  Thankfully he did not smoke while cooking our food.

Watching Chef Wong slice up his giant flounder is really quite mesmerizing.  His knife is so sharp and he does everything so quickly.  We had cerviche of flounder and octopus, as well as 2 other stir fry dishes.  The cerviche was exceptional, with leche de tigre (milk of the tiger), which I think is basically lemon garnish and fish sauce with onion garnish.  I could taste the freshness of the fish and octopus, and it was very clean tasting.  The stir fry felt like it had MSG, though I'm not sure whether it did or not, but I get this weird bodily sensation when I eat MSG.  Again the fish was so fresh, just that the sauces made me feel really weird.  I might go again just for the cerviche which was ultra fabulous, but otherwise the stir fry was good but not worth a second visit.  Each dish cost S/. 150.

We felt like we missed out on some almond crusted fish, but did not really know how to request for it.  We probably had the last dish of the day, and Chef Wong look kind of pissed that we had requested another dish and taken away from his hanging out time with a group of friends.  We later found out that group of friends was his son and his son's friends, and we had a chance to chat with his son, who was the only person in the restaurant speaking English.  Such a nice young man.  We asked him if he cooked, to which he replied in the negative, and he said his dad had to find another Padawan, which was funny.  It was nice to see Chef Wong relaxing with a glass of wine after a hard day of cooking!  Thank you for the lovely meal!