Upon arriving in Seoul, Rachel’s brother told us he had got us into the Baekje festival and we would be doing the wedding in Buyeo. I had no idea where Buyeo was and I didn’t know what Baekje was so I asked Rachel. Baekje was on of the three great dynasties in Korea around 550 A.D. before it became united to form the Silla Dynasty. Buyeo was the capital of the dynasty and there is a huge restored traditional palace located in the city. This is where we would be going through the wedding ceremony. Apparently we would be getting dressed up in the traditional costumes from that period of time and the wedding would be the traditional wedding of that era. Pretty cool!

We also found out that the event had been booked up for months but Rachel’s brother had written an appeal to the committee that selected people to participate in the wedding telling them that they had been to our wedding in Canada last year and we had done something really special for them so now they wished to return the favour by doing something special for us while we were visiting Korea. As it turned out, the fact that I was a foreigner actually determined that we got to participate.

The morning of the wedding we visited a nearby Buddhist temple before heading over to the palace. We were a little late getting there and had to be rushed to the back.

Kwanchoksa Temple

The biggest budda statue in Korea at Kwanchoksa Temple

Upon arriving it turned out that I was going to be playing the role of King Sau Dong and Rachel would be playing the role of princess Sunhwa and there would be more than 2000 spectators. This was an actual famous wedding that took place in in Baekje dynastyand was way more than either of us had expected. Suddenly my heart fell to my feet. I didn’t speak any Korean and I wondered if I would have to say something in front of all those people. I also didn’t understand any Korean instructions and wasn’t sure if anyone there spoke enough English to guide me if I had to do anything special. Fortunately, as it turned out, one of the people there spoke enough English to guide me and I wouldn’t have to say anything. As it turned out, the wedding was in traditional old Korean language (that used Chinese characters) and Rachel didn’t really understand anything that was being said either.

For the next hour, Rachel and I were dressed up, given makeup, and special hairdos to look the part. The staff there were fantastic and very helpful. Finally the time came and we were directed outside where we were met by hundreds of people taking pictures.

Jon dressed up like Prince Sau Dong

We walked around to the entrance of the palace where the ceremony was about to start. The priest and other delegates were at the alter at the front and we were surrounded by guards, flag bearers and foreign dignitaries and delegates on either side playing the part. Someone beat an enormous drum to start the ceremony and the priest started a speech with other music playing in the background. At first all the flag bearers and guards walked slowly into the palace lining each side of the path we would be walking down. Spectators were lining the sides and everyone was taking photos.

Drumming before the wedding starts

We are walking into the palace in front of about 2000 people

Finally we were motioned by the priest at the other end of the courtyard and the guy beside us said “walk slow”. Rachel was accompanied by a Korean girl on her side who was giving her instructions in Korean.

When we got to up to the stairs leading up to the alter, the priest motioned us up and we were directed to turn and face the entrance and where we had come from. Foreign dignitaries and heads of state brought up gifts in boxes to lay them down before us. We had to do a special bow of appreciation called “eup”. Rachel and I were then directed to each side of the alter which was covered with many plates of food and flowers.

receiving gifts from the neighbour countires

The priest in a grandiose voice said something and Rachel and I were directed by the word “sit” and we knelt on pillows. We were then brought water to wash our hands before standing up again We then got up and the priest bellowed some more things in Chinese. We had to do a special bow of appreciation that we had learned while we were backstage getting prepared and then we knelt once again. This time, someone brought us a large spoon which we had to sip from three times with the spoon facing each direction. Apparently, the number three is a symbol of completion and many things in Korean culture are done in “threes”. We stood again for the final time and the priest said some more words and that was it. The whole thing had taken less than 10 minutes. The guy beside again said “walk slow” and we went back to the entrance again with hundreds of cameras clicking away including the KBS News camera (one of the largest news syndicates in Korea).

We are marching out as husband and wife, once again

We did a circle around the outside of the palace and came in through a side entrance where and up to the alter where, once again, everyone wanted to take pictures with us.

This time the new reporter came up and asked us some questions which Rachel translated to English like “how do you feel right now?” and “what do you think of the costume?” . He also wanted to know how we had had the opportunity to participate in this festival. At the end he told Rachel and I that we would be on the news that night. I guess that it’s still really different for a foreigner to be participating in Korean culture like this and it’s somewhat of an anomaly.

More pictures with Rachel’s family, who were absolutely delighted at this point, and we were all done.

Picture with Rachel's family

That night we were staying in a 300+ year old house which had been owned by a famous scholar in Chosun Dynasty. In the kitchen we watched the news and the segment we were on had the title “Foreigners Fascinated by Baekje Culture”. It featured clips from our wedding and short interviews with a number of foreigners who had attended the festival that day.

Inside of the house

lots of pots in the yard - these pots are used to store food

enjoying the Korean tea with Rachel's brother and sister-in-law where the scholar was meeting guests

The room where we slept - they used paper window to let the light in and the natural wind/air circulation

A pond in front of the house

All in all it was a wonderful gift from Rachel’s family. Way more than we could have ever dreamt of and something that we always remember.

View more pictures of our trip to Kongju and Buyeo

The bus ride to Huaraz is an interesting one. From Lima to Pativilca, the bus is on the paved Pan Americana Highway, which has an ocean view. From Pativila to Huaraz, the road is unpaved and winding, going up into the mountains and the scenery is beautiful. I arrived in Huaraz around 6 o’clock. The hostel told me to pay 3 soles for the taxi ride but I ended up paying 4 soles from the bus terminal.

The hostel I booked was called Churup, which is also a name of a lake around Huaraz. After two phone calls, Jon booked a bed in dormitory for me and when I got there, there was no dorm available. Instead of a bed in dorm, I ended up staying in a matrimonial room with a private bathroom. This turned out to be the nicest place we stayed the whole trip. The price was 25 soles including breakfast. The bed was excellent, there were plenty cushions, the room had a balcony overlooking the mountains, and there were two big towels and two hand towels in the bathroom, and WiFi internet. It really couldn’t get better than that. The only thing missing was Jon.
I highly recommend Churup. The rooms are very nice and the price is reasonable. The common area was on the fourth floor which had sofas and tables for breakfast. There were nice mountain views and even a wood fireplace.

The room I stayed

Living room on the forth floor with a fireplace

Unfortunately I had to move to the hostel next door, called Alojamiento Soledad, because Churup was fully booked up the following evening. Soledad was 25 soles but didn’t include breakfast. The dorm was spacious but it lacked the same warm character as Churup.

Next day, after checking in to Soledad, I shopped around a few tour operators for the Santa Cruz trek and I chose Monttrek which turned out to be a good choice. I paid 300 soles for a 4-day trekking package which included a sleeping bag, a pole, and a winter jacket. This price didn’t include the park entrance fee of 65 soles. The only problem was that I had to start the trek next day, which didn’t give me enough time to get acclimatized.

The tour started at 6:00 a.m. from the office. In our group, we had two French couples, one Belgian couple, one German guy, two British girls (my tent mates), and myself. The first day starts with a long bus ride. A short way into the trip, we stopped in Yungay and had breakfast (which wasn’t included in the tour price). After breakfast, we got on the car and drove on the winding road going up Llanganuco Valley. The view from the top was spectacular.

Winding road we came up

The spectacular view with the glacier and the lake

After about 5 hours of bus ride, we arrived in Cashapampa where we met our mules and mule guides who would be carrying our tents and food.
From Cashapampa, we descended about 300m down followed by 400m of uphill. As soon as we started to walk up, I felt the altitude and it wasn’t easy. Passing small villages from Cashapampa, we met so many kids saying ‘hola’ with a beautiful innocent smile. The kids and the beautiful scenery kept me going. The hike on the first day is only about 4 hours but going uphill is hard if you are not acclimatized.

Beautiful Scenery

View from where we took a shor break

Beautiful kids

The first camp was at 3750m. Feeling a little bit of altitude sickness, I couldn’t have dinner and had to go to bed with an empty stomach.

The second day is the hardest on the trek with an ascent to a pass of 4750m. My condition got progressively worse on the second day and I couldn’t eat anything but three small bananas. For the first half of the day, the assistant guide Geonela carried my bag and kindly provided me with coca tea. Without her accompanying me, I wouldn’t have made it. When Geonela and I got to the lake right below the pass where the group had a lunch break, they were about to hike up to the pass. I felt so sick that I had to lie down there for about half an hour. This time, the guide Marco stayed with me. From here to the pass is the hardest part. Marco carried my bag and my camera and I held on my bag that he was carrying so he could pull me up. Every step was hard and as soon as I started to walk, I was out of breath. A couple of times, I had to lie down because I felt terribly dizzy and like I would vomit. Marco lifted my legs up so the blood could circulate to my brain. It took long time but I eventually made it to the pass. I think Marco was happier than I was.

I was too sick to enjoy the view but when I went through the pictures after the trip, I saw just how amazingly beautiful the scenery had been. The view of the glacier from the pass was awesome even though the sun wasn’t at the perfect place for photography.

View from the pass

I was glad to go down from the pass. Marco and I made it to the camp site in 1 hour and 45 minutes. After all the delays going up, we almost caught up to the group and ended up getting into the camp only 10 minutes behind everyone. That night, I managed to have a bowl of soup before I went to bed. We camped at 4200m.

Where we camped

I was in much better shape on the third day. We went up about an hour to the view point of Alpamayo. From here it was all downhill to the camp passing a beautiful lake on the way. The third day was quite short and we arrived at the campsite around 3 p.m.. Everyone was happy to take off their shoes and lie down in the sun. I ate a bowl of soup and spaghetti for dinner – my first and last dinner on this trek. Now, it was my tent mate’s turn to have problems with the altitude and she became really sick.

Alpamayo

The last day of the trekking had only about 3 hours of walking down again and the view wasn’t as spectacular as the first three days. We arrived at a small town where we got on the minivan again to head back to Huaraz. We got back to town around 3 o’clock in the afternoon.

The food included was sufficient. Breakfast included a bowl of hot quinoa cereal, eggs, bread with jam and butter, and tea or coffee. Lunch included two ham and cheese sandwiches, a piece of fruit (banana or orange), and lots of snack (i.e. energy bar, cookies). When we arrived at the campsites, we had mate de coca and popcorn. Dinner was usually around 8 o’clock and always came with a bowl of soup and the main dish varied each day. We also had tea with our dinner. Our guide Marco was a very good cook and very caring.

Overall, Santa Cruz is a great trek if you don’t get sick. Just make sure you get acclimatized before you do the trek. Three to four days in Huaraz (3300 m) for most people would probably suffice. I highly recommend it if you travel in Peru.

View more pictures of Santa Cruz

Paracas is a Quechuan word (indigenous language) that basically means “sandstorm”. Apparently this phenomena happens each year sometime towards the end of August and beginning of September where the winds pick up and the skies are filled with sand that covers everything. Fortunately, this didn’t happen while we were in town. . .all the trips and tours would have been cancelled if that had been the case.

View of Paracas

The town is located about 25 kilometers south of the city Pisco. Pisco and its suburb, San Andreas where obliterated during an earthquake of 7.9 magnitude on the Richter Scale that happened August 15, 2007. Forty minutes after the earthquake, there was a tsunami which completely flooded and inundated the houses in San Andreas and way back from the coast line. There had been absolutely no warning about the tsunami and no one had been prepared. 400 people died and over 1000 were injured. 70% of all infrastructure in Pisco either collapsed or was so badly damaged that it had to be completely renovated or replaced. Tubes broke and plumbing failed leaving the city in shambles and in a dangerous state. Very few people in Peru have insurance so most people living there completely lost their homes and many businesses went bankrupt. While there was much support initially from many countries around the world, there was and has been very little support by the Peruvian government to this day. The town is still in shambles and not a very safe place to be with many robberies and vandalism still occurring. We were in the area for the anniversary of the earthquake (3 years later) and there was an upcoming election for the new mayor of Pisco (the people of Paracas could vote for this). There was a constant barrage of propaganda from the different candidates running for mayor. . .all promising more government support in the future. Of the locals we talked with, many thought this was a joke and there was no systems in place to monitor where the money was going (probably a lot of it to line the pockets of politicians). As a result, there were also protests and strikes. One day, the protestors closed the Panamericana Highway (the principle highway running all the way from the northern to the southern tip of South America) between Pisco and Ica.

Paracas is sheltered by a peninsula and wasn’t hit by the tsunami. However, many of the buildings were badly damaged in the earthquake. As a result, there is still reconstruction going on in the area. The best way to describe the place would be as an up and coming well-known resort town. The sights to see around the area are of “world-class” quality and if the place was located in North America or Europe it would probably be much more famous. Certain investment groups have recognized this and already built some very nice hotels in the area. The Paracas Hotel, for example is a waterfront 5 star hotel owned by a Peruvian group, The Hilton is a 4 star waterfront hotel, and there was another beautiful 3 star hotel owned by Spanish investors (all of them charging over $200 USD per night per room minimum which is a lot for Peruvian standards).

There are two parts to the town, one called “Chaco” and the other Paracas. Chaco is where the hostels and lower priced pensions are along with lots of restaurants and tourist shops. There are also a number of dilapidated houses in the Chaco which is a strange contrast from the luxury hotels only blocks away.

Fishing boats at Chaco

The two principle attractions of the area are Las Islas Ballestas (the Ballestas Islands) and Paracas Nacional Reserve. Both of these can be seen in one day but it’s a relaxing place to hang out for several days.

We arrived there just before nightfall taking a taxi from the Pan Americana highway through Pisco and out to the Chaco. This was about a 40 minute cab ride for 20 soles (the correct ‘going rate’). It’s probably not a bad idea to arrive before nightfall as we heard from our driver that some of the taxi drivers here work with thieves (these drivers only work at night). Some of the people that approached as we got off the bus were shady characters and we were happy to get a ride with the guy we did.

The first night we stayed at a hostel called Mar Azul. They were booked up for following nights so we had to change to another place called El Amigo. The best rooms are the ones facing the ocean on the third floor. I think we got the best one in the hostel and were able to work out a deal paying 55 soles per night not including breakfast. This was more than we had been paying but this was also considered a popular resort town. We would recommend this place and it probably was the best value amongst the more budget options. Probably not a bad idea to have a reservation before you arrive. The only thing that we didn’t like was the fact that there is a house opposite the hostel with tons of roosters on the roof which crow throughout the day and early morning. Lots of barking dogs as well.

Hostal El Amigo terrace

The coast of Peru is known for the fog which lasts from April to sometime in early September. For most of this time, the sky is grey most of the day. When we were there, this was gradually changing and the fog would burn off sometimes in the afternoon. For two days, it was completely sunny all day.

On the third day, the sky was clear when we got up and we decided to take advantage of this and take a boat that day as well as visit the Paracas reserve. There is no problem booking the boat tour the day you want to go on it and pretty much all 12 or so tour operators in town offer the same thing for the same price of 35 soles for a 2 hour boat tour to the islands (in the high season). The water is at its calmest in the early morning with winds picking up by 11:00 a.m. but it is also clearer with less fog later on in the day. Try and book on a morning where it’s clear first thing in the morning. For that reason, it’s best to be in town when you book (many people book this tour from Huacachina, one hour away, not only paying more but taking a bigger risk with the weather).

On route to the islands, the boat passes by a formation called “El Candelabro” (the chandelier). It is actually a large drawing in a sand dune on the coast of what archaeologists actually think is of the San Pedro cactus. The very curious thing about it is that it was dug 50 centimetres deep and it never has filled in with sand (remember that this is in a really windy area) and been erased. The climate conditions here are perfect for preserving such a thing considering that this is part of the driest desert on the planet with only 1.6 mm of precipitation per year (it never has rained there in recorded history). There were a number of theories on the origin of the drawing. Some have thought that it was drawn by the indigenous group that occupied the area 600 A.D. to 200 B.C. called the Paracas people. The San Pedro cactus was an important plant in their culture. The drawing might have been used to contact extra terrestrials. A second theory was that it was created by pirates much later on to indicate where treasure is. Yet another theory was that it was created by the free masons that came to the area in the 1800s. One of the symbols of the free masons is a triangle or pyramid with an eye on it (similar to the symbol on the American one dollar bill). There is a triangle with a circle on it in the drawing.

El Candelabro

The islands themselves are something of a marvel. They have the largest concentration of birds in one area on the planet. The principle island is only about 600-700 meters long and it has over 250,000 resident birds (with over 200 different species). The actual top of the island is stained white from all the guano (bird feces) and it they put off quite a noticeable smell as you go by. At a glance you would think the air is filled with mosquitoes (in an area that is absolutely infested with mosquitoes) but no, it’s only thousands of birds in the air. We saw pelicans, cormorants, boobies, gulls, the Humboldt penguin and so many more.

islands completed covered with thousands of birds

Humboldt penguins

Pelicans

Pretty birds but don't remember the name of the birds

There are also a ton of sea lions that laze about on the rocks completely oblivious to all the tourist boats passing by. Our guide explained to us that the ocean here was the coldest in the world at 15 degrees Celsius. As a result, it was extremely rich in marine life and thus could support the large concentration of birds. This temperature is also too cold for sharks and orcas. Thus, the sea lions really had no natural predators in this area and could proliferate. The next couple of years, they were a little concerned and said that they would be expecting El Niño to be coming (a warm ocean current that happens once every ten or so years for the duration of one year that changes pretty much all weather patterns around the globe).  When that change would come, they expected about half of all the birds on the islands to die in one year, for the fishing industry to be damaged (due to less fish), and for the agriculture of the region around Pisco to be negatively affected (as had happened in the past). The year following El Niño would be La Niña which would be a very cold current bringing lots of unpredictable rain storms. I asked our guide how long it would take for the bird colonies to return and he told me ’not long’. Apparently, many of the bird species reproduce twice per year.

Sea lions

Baby sea lion sleeping

The cutest baby sea lions

We eventually said goodbye to the islands and returned back to Chaco. An awesome tour.

That afternoon we went on the tour to the Paracas National Reserve (20 soles on a tour and 5 for the park entrance). The tour starts out with a drive around the luxury hotels and a little description of the history of the area as well as a stop at a view point above the town. From there, we entered the park. I have never been to the moon but I imagine it’s probably similar – just sand and rock for as far as the eye can see. However, what I didn’t realize was how delicate and diverse an ecosystem this was. In this area were tons of animals, over 200 species of birds, and many terrestrial plants (according to the brochure on the park). We only saw a small chunk of the park on the tour and it is actually quite large extending for over 80 kilometres south of Paracas.

The first stop was at “El Cathedral” (the Cathedral). This used to be a large sea arch that had collapsed during the earthquake in 2007. It was still impressive but from the picture it would have been better to have seen it three years ago. From this viewpoint one could also see Supay Beach. Supay is a Quechua word that means ‘devil’. It was named this due to the strong rip currents that had killed many in the past.

Broken El Cathedral

Playa Supay

From there we went to Yumaque Beach (a nice white sand beach for swimming which is packed in the summer), then around to a viewpoint to get some views of the sea north and south of the peninsula and descended from there to see “La Playa Roja” (the red sand beach). The sand was more like little red volcanic pebbles. After that it was off to Lagunillas Beach for lunch and more bird watching before heading back to Paracas with a quick stop to look at a large flock of Peruvian flamingos from the distance (too far away to get photos unfortunately). Inside the reserve, there are many other beautiful beaches for swimming. There are also some good areas for scuba diving and apparently San Gallán Island is amazing for surfing.

Playa Yumaque

Playa Roja

Pelican's beautiful landing

All in all both tours were very good and worth doing. If I were to go back to the reserve, I think it might have been a more enjoyable day doing the route on a bicycle. Apparently, there are a couple of places in Paracas to rent bicycles (the bikes there are apparently of poor quality).

One day, we had to go into Pisco to buy fruit and do some other business. A collectivo from Chaco to Pisco cost 2.50 soles one way. Pisco was obnoxiously loud and stressful after Chaco and it was good to get out of there. While passing through town, we saw a lot more of the destruction from the earthquake. We passed by one hotel that was one week away from its inauguration when it got hit. The owners went bankrupt and it is still structurally unsound, just standing there unoccupied.

Back in Paracas we tried taking more pictures from the beach of the ‘piceros’ (a Peruvian booby) that dive-bomb fishes. It was pretty cool to watch tons of them in the morning all diving to fish while we had breakfast on the water. There were tons of pelicans as well.

A bird diving in to catch a fish

We tried to find a descent restaurant in Chaco but all the ones we went to (about 10 we tried) were mediocre to bad. I actually got sick from eating some seafood soup at one restaurant. Perhaps the most reliable of the restaurants for seafood was Brisa Marina. Probably would have been better to have walked over and paid a little more in the restaurants connected to the more upscale hotels. In Paracas.

We eventually had to say goodbye to the town, the birds and roosters. It had been an enjoyable stay.

Beautiful pelicans

View more pictures of Ballestas Islands and Paracas National Reserve

Thus, we changed our plans and headed for our volunteer opportunity earlier. There, we wouldn’t be charged more to stay as well.

We took Cruz del Sur again for four hours to arrive in Lima (55 soles per person). From Lima we caught a taxi for 15 soles to take us across town from the Cruz del Sur bus terminal just outside of Miraflores to the bus terminal of the “Z Bus” bus company through Pasamayo to Chagra y Mar about one and a half hours north of Lima. You get off the bus at a place called El Ovalo (not safe), and took a taxi out to Eco Truly Park which is right on the Chagra y Mar beach in a beautiful location.

The temple in Eco Truly Park

Unknown to us until after we arrived, we had been followed in another taxi by a group of known thieves (the taxi driver was friends with them and probably also worked with them when they did “hits” on places. This was the same group of thieves, three years ago to the date that had entered the farm and robbed tourists and residents there at gunpoint. We found this out just as we were getting settled into our room and were rushed away to their temple building to hide. Meanwhile, the group of thieves sat in the vehicle outside the farm drinking. One of the ladies there had called the police and we had to wait about 40 minutes before the police showed up catching the car with only three of them in it and didn’t find any weapons. The fourth guy had gotten away on foot running. We didn’t see it, but apparently, the locals all knew about these guys who often would steal cars or break into homes and when they saw them apprehended by the police, started hurling insults and almost throwing rocks at them.

After that, the road into the farm and the beach was closed at night and monitored by police. The farm also had hired hands who did guard duty at night. There were no more mishaps and drama after that.

Eco Truly, we found out after arriving is a Hare Krishna farm (they referred to it as some other religious practice on their webpage) following the Brinda branch of the religion. They also were one of the small handful of places in South America that practiced bio-dynamic  organic farming – a more comprehensive practice than both regular organic farming and permaculture. This system was conceived by Rudolf Steiner, the same man who created the Waldorf School as well as many other brilliant contributions to the world. They are practicing vegetarians and also don’t eat eggs, onion, garlic, or mushrooms. It was heard that we would be having the best food of our whole trip and learning a little bit about bio-dynamic farming and how to cook some amazing vegetarians dishes (we learned how to cook 11 plates all told before we left and have the recipes now).

Our days started off with typically with me writing in the morning with the laptop. Rachel would volunteer in the kitchen with Madre Santa, a master chef who had also managed restaurants in Huaraz, Peru for years.  The agreement was to volunteer for a minimum of 4 hours per day and we only paid $10.00 USD for accommodation and food. Rachel finally got practice her Spanish with Madre Santa and some of the other people who occasionally worked in the kitchen. From her we got the recipes and learned how to make – ceviche, patitas de huacaina, locro, masamora morada, delicious bread filled and baked with beet jam, chicha morada, lomo saltado, arroz verde, how to deep fry vegetables with a healthy recipe, and another soup for which we don’t have a name. All the non genetically modified vegetables and fruit were planted and harvested at a very precise time in accordance to the lunar cycle (which I found out makes a huge difference) and the taste of them was many times beyond any others I have ever tasted. They had so much flavour that it really wasn’t even necessary to add any spice or seasonings. However, all of Madre Santa’s creations were incredible and we would spend most of the day looking forward to the next meal.

I worked a little bit in the kitchen and also with the painting that needed to be done around the farm in preparation for when their spiritual master from Germany was arriving in October and there would be somewhere between 300-500 people staying on the farm. For two of the days, I worked with a fellow by the name of Julio who was one of the very few in South America trained in bio-dynamic farming (there are actually only three people in all Peru). He told me a little bit about it and how it worked. It was interesting to find out that the lunar cycle makes a big different with the quality of the produce for when it is harvested, watered, and planted. The moon moves around the earth a zig zag pattern with it sometimes being closer and sometimes being further away. When the moon is closest to the earth, the gravitational pull is at its peak and the tides in the oceans are at their highest. At these times the same principle applies with water in plants and trees. There is actually more water in the fruits and vegetables at these times. If you are selling for markets, this is the best time to harvest because produce weighs the most. However, if you are planning on storing produce, this is the worst time because the produce goes bad much quicker. Also, the taste of vegetables and fruit is better when there is less water in them because there is a higher concentration of sugars and other minerals.

They also don’t let their fields rest periodically with this type of farming as is what happens in organic farms that plant the same crops over and over again. There is no need for this or to have to put compost or natural fertilizer every year with this system. The reason for this is that certain plants only deplete certain minerals from the soil while leaving other minerals in the soil. The crop that is planted after one that is harvested needs the mineral that was left from the previous one and so on. All of this has been figured out to an exact science with the system.

Another very interesting practice was their “dry” bathroom where they mixed human feces with sawdust and let it decompose. This was used as fertilizer for fruit trees (not for vegetables).

All other compost came from their kitchen and the leftovers which was put in a compost pile to decompose and prepare for future application on the garden. Nothing was wasted there. Julio used to work as a university professor teaching agriculture in the university until the late 1970s. At that time, the agrochemical businesses approached the university and offered grants to the university if the professors would teach and promote the implementation of chemicals. The university, wanting the funds agreed and Julio handed in his resignation the same day telling them that that would it would be the slow death of the industry and the health of the population. After that, he worked as a taxi driver in Lima for many years supporting his family. One day, he received a call from several Germans living in Peru who insisted on meeting with him regarding a “new farming technique”. Thinking that it was just more about chemical farming, he refused to meet with them. However, they persisted and when he met with them they wanted him to start implementing the principles of bio-dynamic farming on a 7 hectare plot of land (something that he had never even heard of). He agreed and the rest was history. He had been working with Eco Truly Park for a number of years now and it was one of the only places like this in all South America.

We also learned about some of the traditions of the Hare Krishna and why they did some of the practices they did. For example, they didn’t eat garlic and onion because both of these vegetables actually absorb toxins that are in the soil. I had always wondered why many diets say avoid garlic and onion. Instead, these are used for medicinal uses like when someone has a cold or the flu.

The constructions on the farm were called “trulys” and made from bricks and adobe. They had been engineered to be earthquake proof and had survived several ones that had hit the area without collapsing (while many structures in Chagra y Mar had fallen down).

This truly is where we stayed

Yoga was offered every morning and some mornings we took classes for an hour to an hour and a half before having breakfast.

For two of the days that we stayed there, the weather completely cleared up and we got a sense of how beautiful the area is. For those days, we did some short hikes around the area and along the beaches to get some really nice pictures.

View of Eco Truly Park from the hill

Temple of all religions

View of the ocean from the hill next to Eco Truly Park

There were two lovely vegetarian dogs on the farm, Tom and Lisa. They would accompany us throughout the day and when we went out for walks. They seemed to like us more than the residents and since we were pretty much the only volunteers on the farm over the course of the two weeks, they exclusively hung around us.

Jon with the lovely dog, Lisa

30 years old turtle with kids at Eco Truly Park

Definitely the big event while we were there was the festival on the 28^th and the 29^th of July for National Independence in Peru. For the weekend they had many workshops on vegetarian cooking, sustainable farming, yoga workshops, dancing during the night, and a special ceremony. The kitchen was rocking 18 hours a day.

Fire Ceremony during the festival

There was no internet on the farm and we had to take a mototaxi into El Ovalo on several occasions (8 soles return). At times like these, safety was a concern and the farm had the numbers of safe drivers who they had been working with for years. We would call them on their cell phones when leaving and when we needed to be picked up.

Accommodation was in dorm rooms but Rachel and I had our own the whole time we were there. We didn’t particularly like the beds or the fact that there wasn’t really a hot shower (we had to pour hot water out of a bucket over us when we wanted to wash while the rest of the people on the farm took cold showers). When we left, this was the one thing that we had missed the most from the places we stayed at off the farm. However, all food that we had after eating on the farm was disappointing.

Right before I headed back to Canada, we headed there to stay one more night and the following day cooked Korean food for everyone on the farm. All the people there were really lovely and very gentle and it was good to see them one last time before saying goodbye.

All in all, we thoroughly enjoyed our stay on the farm and found it just what we needed after a hectic schedule for the majority of the trip. It was really relaxing to stay there.

View more pictures of Eco Truly Park

After coming from higher altitudes and cold temperatures in the Peruvian sierra, we wanted to find the ideal place with warmer temperatures, and lots of sun to relax and do some writing . Huacachina is definitely a good place for that. It’s basically a lagoon surrounded by palm trees and big sand dunes. There used to be homes around in the last 10 years but these got converted to hotels, night clubs and tourist agencies. It is now a very popular resort place and known for dune buggy trips and sand boarding. There used to be 7 lagoons like this around Ica but local farms pumped all the water out of them killing the palm trees and they completely dried up. Peruvians have become a lot more concerned over their resources over the last few years.

We stayed at the El Barco hotel and were able to negotiate a deal of 40 soles per night including a continental breakfast as we stayed there for six nights. The hotel is very comfortable and in a quieter part of the lagoon far enough away from the discotheque to not hear the noise. They also have a pool and a restaurant there.

Hostal El Barco Huacahina - we stayed in the room on the right of the pool

The lagoon is nice to walk around and the sand dune rise right up from behind. Walking up them is fairly tough going as they are quite steep but well worth the effort as the views from higher up are amazing (especially at sunset). The south of Peru is sometimes referred to as the Egypt of South America. Standing up from high we could see why.

Huacachina

Definitely the highlight of our stay there was the combined dune buggy / sand boarding trip for 38 soles. This was a two hour long trip across the dunes on a buggy with occasional stops to slide down on a board. After the experience in the plane in Nazca, Rachel really wasn’t up for this and I went alone.

The buggy is designed for 7 passengers plus the driver. There are smaller ones as well. Try and sit as close to the front as possible. Due to my height, this wasn’t something I could do. The ride starts off at breakneck speeds across the sand climbing up the hills and plummeting down slopes up to 25 degrees incline. It was as much fun as any rollercoaster I had been on. Every several minutes we would stop at a slope and our driver would take out the boards and either go down on the stomach (a much better option) or trying to ride standing up. We had a girl in our group who was a snowboard instructor who was having a really hard time going down on her feet. After seeing how difficult it was for her and trying to ride standing up on one slope, I opted for going down, face first on my stomach after that. Towards the end of the trip the driver took us up to a high point on the dunes way back from Huacachina to watch the sunset.  Beautiful! From there it was back to Huacachina. Just before getting to the oasis there was one final big slope where the driver kept on accelerating going down a 25 degree slope. Since it was dark we couldn’t see the run out at the bottom and it felt like we were about to lose control as everyone screamed in the vehicle. Quickly he came up on the bottom and everyone started to relax. . .an awesome rush!

Dune Buggy

Dune Buggy

Other nights we opted for a much more relaxing way to see the sunset by just hiking up to dunes with a bottle of wine.

Sand dunes in Huacachina

Sunset over the desert

Huacachina at sunset

There was one restaurant we liked in Huacachina with good pizza called El Farolero.

Prices and selection for a lot of things are better in Ica. One day we took a motor taxi into town (3-4 soles one way) to use the internet, buy fruit at the market and go to a cebiche place. The only place recommended by the Lonely Planet guide book that is one block away from the central plaza has excellent ceviche and it was only 7 soles (which included chicarrones or fried calamari). Ica we found to be a noisy and chaotic place after the tranquil environment of Huacachina and we were happy to get out of there as soon as possible.

Ceviche in Ica we liked a lot

We may have stayed at Huacachina a little longer but we didn’t have any reservations for the Peruvian long weekend in August which is their national Independence Day on the 28^th. Furthermore, prices for everything double or triple there and I think our room went for 120 soles per night during the long weekend. All resorts and nice places to stay across Peru are completely booked up for this holiday weekend so it is better to go to on a trek or perhaps even be someplace else. We decided to do the volunteer work we had planned during this time to avoid getting caught up in the rush and paying higher prices. Make sure to book transportation several days before this time as well. Bus companies also take advantage of the holiday and typically double their rates as well. Fortunately, we didn’t have to pay double for our trip.

View more pictures of Huacachina

Anyways, we arrived in Arequipa very early in the morning hoping for warmer temperatures than Cusco. Arequipa is located around 2300 meters above sea level and is known to have warmer temperatures. Unfortunately we weren’t to be having any such luck and it was cold when we got off (although, slightly warmer than Cusco).

We went to the hostel we had made a reservation with called ‘Koala Hostel’, which we found even colder inside than outside. Furthermore, there was no hot water in the electric shower and all we really wanted was just to warm up. Breakfast was really lame there as well. Fortunately we only paid for one night and insisted on changing for the following night (although the hostel policy is to make a reservation for a minimum of two nights stay).

The first thing we did was to find a better hostel which was Home Sweet Home. After that we headed down to the plaza central and the pedestrian walkway to get a feel for Arequipa. The city is quite a bit more modern than Cusco and the heritage buildings for the most part been converted into banks and government offices. One of the main attractions in the city is The Convento de Santa Catalina de Siena. We were about to go there but upon getting the opinion of a family that just excited and seeing the cost of entry, we decided against it.

We stopped for lunch at a terrific Mexican restaurant where it was only 7-8 soles per plate of food. We also went to the ice cream place, which supposedly has the best ice cream in Arequipa. It was pretty good but not anything close to the gelato we had had in Argentina.

As we were walking around, we decided that if we were changing hostels anyways, it would probably be best to book the tour of the world’s deepest canyon – the Colca Canyon, for the following morning. We went with  a company called _Andina Travel Service, which we found to be quite good. Furthermore,  the three day trek only cost us 130 soles per person (not including breakfast the first day, park administration fee  (35 soles) to see the Cruz Del Condor site and hike into the canyon, the admission to the hotsprings (10 soles) and the buffet at the end of the trip (20 soles) in the town of Chivay.

The trip was to leave at the ridiculous hour of 3:00 a.m. in the morning on a bus and we had to be outside and ready. We were only supposed to bring light day packs with clothing, snacks, money, and other essentials for three days.  The remaining little time we had in the day, we went looking for fruit, snacks and water. All of this stuff can be bought down in the canyon; however, since it has to be carried down over one vertical kilometre on the trail and there is no road transport into the canyon, prices down there are very high and in some cases, double.

The next morning, half asleep, we were awakened by one of the hostel staff knocking on the door to tell us our guide had arrived. Crap, they were early! This is one of the times when we would have really liked them to have been late (like with so many other departure times). Quickly gathering our things, we got into the icebox which would be our van for the next 5 hours and picked up several others at different hostels to fill our van.

The ride in the van actually goes over a 4900 meter elevation pass on a paved road (which, I’m sure is probably one of the highest paved roads in the world). The temperatures were absolutely frigid (-15 degrees Celsius) and in the interest of saving some space, had not brought enough warm clothes. The next several hours we tried to sleep amidst shivering and huddling together to conserve body heat. This definitely wasn’t the warm temperatures we had been hoping for.

The van arrived at the lovely town of Chivay where we stopped to have another pretty lame breakfast of frozen hard white poof bread crust and tea. At the end of the trip we made a suggestion to the company to stop at a better place for breakfast. Maybe, there aren’t really any other places open at that time in the morning (about 6:00 a.m.).

From there we continued past some awesome scenery on our right of fine Inca terracing and the lower part of the canyon. At this point, the canyon is only 100-150 meters high. At the deepest point in the canyon, the elevation is around 2000 meters while the rim of the canyon is a little over 5500 meters (over three and a half kilometres deep. . .very impressive).

We continued on to a site called Cruz del Condor which is at a very deep place on the canyon set a top of cliffs. Below the cliffs, many Andean condors make their nests and soar below the lookout point. On a good day, one can see 5-10 condors soaring just below and past the viewpoints. It’s hard to get an appreciation for just how large the bird is. It’s wingspan is longer than the California Condor in the U.S. and on an adult goes up to 9 feet or a little under 3 meters. They can live up to about 70 or so years of age.

We were lucky when we were there, as it was quite warm now in the sunshine, and we saw about 4 or 5 condors. Rachel got some really nice pictures while we were there.

A beautiful condor

Fourty five minutes later we went to the town of Cabanconde from where we would be descending into the canyon. Arriving at the rim, the view down to the base of the canyon is really impressive. Although it didn’t really look too far, it was over 1100 meters vertically down at this point and the trail down would be taking between 2-3 hours to hike all the way down to arrive at the town called San Juan de Chuccho in the very bottom where  we would be staying that night.

Starting point of Colca Canyon Trek

View of Colca Canyon on the way down to San Juan de Chuccho

From there our route the next day was to ascend up to another town in the canyon called Malata and back down again to the town, Sangalle to the resort called Oasis where we would be staying our second night. The third day would be hiking back up the canyon, hoping in the vehicle to go to the hotsprings outside the town of Chivay and then stopping for a Peruvian buffet lunch before heading back to Arequipa for the evening.

Hiking down the views were awesome and the pictures we took (although nice) couldn’t really do it justice to just get an idea of the immensity of the whole thing. We finally got down to the river at the bottom, crossed it and arrived at the hostel in the town we were staying for the night. The canyon is so deep that the sun disappears really early in the day and comes out late in the morning. We lost our sun shortly after arriving. However, that didn’t matter as all we could think about was getting some sleep (after only sleeping for a few hours the night before). We were briefly woken up long enough to get some dinner inside us and then called it a night.

View of Colca Canyon from the starting point

The following morning our guide Pepe showed us the local plants that grow naturally at the base of the valley from. We got to see aloe vera, the pepper plant, a parasite that grows on cactus whose blood used to be used for dyes, the hallucinogenic San Pedro cactus which was extensively used by indigenous shamans for medicinal purpose (and more for recreational purposes by travelers), a plant whose leaves served as a natural insecticide when ground up and sprayed on crops, a cactus that has a really sour fruit that looked similar to kiwi which was good for the kidneys, the chirimoya plant (which, in our opinion, has one the best fruit in the world similar tasting to mango but much easier to eat with more meat on it). It was interesting to find out that natural aloe vera right from the leaves is ‘not’ a good thing to put right on damaged skin. It is better to put the gel in water and let it sit before applying it.

Cactus fruit - super sour

The white ones are live bugs living stuck on cactus and they are used for red colour consmetics

It was interesting to find out how people lived in the valley. Since, they don’t have road access and there is no emergency hospital, people with illnesses have to be carried out of the canyon on mules. Many people had died on the trip. As a result, the people had learned to be very self sufficient making use of natural plant medicines. Furthermore, their food is 100% organic with no pesticides or insecticides. The water coming from the streams was also very good and some of the best I had ever tasted. As a result of this lifestyle, there are a number of centurions in the valley. One of the oldest women, lived to 127 years of age according to our guide. Not surprisingly, there are very few younger people there; all kids or adults in their 40s or older. The younger generation once reaching the age of their 20s leaves for the big city and most of the time, never comes back. As a result, much of the knowledge on organic and sustainable agricultural techniques and plant medicines is being lost very quickly. Perhaps that might change in the future.

We stopped at a couple towns briefly before heading down to Oasis to sit beside the pool that was waiting for us and just hang out. In retrospect, it would have been better to have arrived before we did. It is a delightful place and gets chilly almost immediately after the sun goes over the rim of the canyon. We went for a quick swim in the pool but the water wasn’t all that warm and it was more of a quick in and out. Definitely, it would have been nicer in the summer when the temperatures are much higher in the base of the canyon.

Pool in Oasis

Our guide treated us to a plate of some of the nicest soup we had had in South America as well as good second course. We headed off for bed after this as we had to leave very early the next morning a little before sunrise.

Around 5:30 to 6:00 a.m. we set out with headlamps in the dark up the steep canyon trail. The going was continuous uphill for over 2 hours. We didn’t find it all that difficult as we were now in pretty good shape and our packs light. However, others did find it difficult and rented mules which they rode up to the top. The views were equally spectacular as they had been going down.

View of Colca Canyon

View of Colca Canyon

We headed back to Cabanaconde for breakfast and made a point of buying more chirimoyas. . .something that we would be eating a lot of from now on in Peru.

After that we drove back towards the town of Chivay, stopping at an awesome viewpoint to get some pictures of the Inca terracing on the opposite side of the valley. Our guide picked the best possible place for this.

Spectacular view of terracing

Shortly after noon, we jumped into the hotsprings which were a wonderful 34 degree Celsius and just relaxed for over an hour. This was heaven. Coming out of there all relaxed we had a good buffet lunch with all the typical Peruvian cuisine and much more. Delicious and well worth the 20 soles.

From there it was back to Arequipa and our new hostel (which had much better breakfasts). We decided to stay for three nights there and maybe would have stayed there longer. However, the temperatures at night and early morning were just too cold at this point and all we desired was to go to someplace, anyplace warmer (something that would elude us for the rest of my stay in Peru).  The next day we got some administrative stuff done in Arequipa and Rachel found a good place to get a pedicure done. We also found a real gem; a cevicheria called el Cebillano. This place was recommended by the owner of our hostel and we would highly recommend it to anyone going to Arequipa. It had, by far the best ceviche we ate in all Peru. It was so good the first time we had to go back there the following day to order something else off the menu. They are not listed in the Lonely Planet Guide Book but their address is Calle Misti 110. We wrote to the Lonely Planet suggesting they add it to their next addition so hopefully it appears there.

Seafood rice dish we had on the second day

After a few more days after getting back from the Colca Canyon, we left Arequipa with the bus company, Cromotex, to take the overnight trip to Nazca.

View more pictures of Colca Canyon

As we hadn´t made a reservation that left us with only one other option if we wanted to hike directly and end up at Macchu Picchu. This was on the Salkantay Trek. The official trek starts from a town about 3 hours north of Cusco called Mollepata, crosses a 4650 meter pass and then descends quickly to a town called La Playa before going up again over another mountain to end in Hydroelectrica (which is a 12 km walk around railway tracks to Aguas Calientes in the valley below Macchu Picchu). The other variation on this is to go to the pass and then go down another valley which connects with the Inca Trail (which you need a permit to do as well).

Although there are a ton of companies in Cusco that offer this tour, we wanted to do this without guides or porters so went about trying to find our own information on this. The difficulty with this is that most of the blog posts and information on the internet is outdated. Furthermore, it was difficult to find a map. Eventually, we went to the South American Explorer´s Club in Cusco (a non profit organization in South America with membership and information and other services for travelers) and got accurate information.

Up until the previous year, there was also a fee associated for doing the Salkantay Trek even if it ended up in Hydroelectrica and Aguas Calientes. Eventually we found out that there was none. We were also told that there wasn’t many tour companies doing the trip this year because the number of tourists was down considerably and the route was a little tricky to find. We ended up buying a map from the club which had lots of detailed information. The map ended up being useful but not really too necessary after the first day. If you can speak Spanish, there were enough people on the trail to ask for directions.

We rented equipment from a store just off the Plaza de Armas in Cusco. The temperatures are quite cold up high so it was a good idea to get a winter jacket (which we rented for Rachel). The only thing that we wished we had done here was rent a better pair of poles (many of the companies buy super cheap crap from China which breaks or falls apart – better to get something a little better – something we found out the hard way).

There are a couple of places to shop for food in Cusco close to the Plaza de Armas. One of them is Gato’s Market, a grocery store for tourists close to the Cathedral. They are a little pricey but have a really good selection. Rachel was delighted to find her favorite spicy instant Korean noodles there (which are very difficult to find in South America). The other is called Mega (cheaper but the selection isn’t the best). We shopped at both.

We were finally ready to start our trip. We had read that there is a bus that leaves from usco at around 5:00 a.m. in the morning to Mollepata or sometimes earlier. This is the bus that typically most of the tour companies use. Prefering to sleep and start later, we looked for a different alternative. At the place we rented equipment, the man there said that there are collectivos that leave from the same stop up to about 10 or 11 a.m. according to something he had heard.

Information from another person through word of mouth is somewhat unreliable in South America. As a general rule it is good to ask several people and go with the most common answer. We were able to find one other source that confirmed this and we decided to go with this.

The next morning, we put all the stuff we weren’t taking in the equipment storage of the hostel that we had booked for the night we would be getting back from Macchu Picchu. We had it planned precisely to arrive back in Cusco the night before the World Cup Final to be able to watch it the following morning.

The taxi took us to the plaza for 5 soles from close to the Plaza de Armas where there was a man waiting with a station wagon that only needed two more people to make a full load. We tossed our backpacks in the back of his vehicle and squeezed tightly into the back leaving close to 10 a.m.. There were already four people there – two parents and their two children. There were also two in the front. Seat belt laws in Peru apparently don’t apply. The ride from Cusco to Mollepata costs 10 soles per person plus a little extra for backpacks for a 3 hour collectivo ride. Apparently, the collectivos leave Cusco everyday up until 1:00 p.m. going to Mollepata.

Several minutes outside of Cusco we stopped to pick up several more people who went into the trunk along with our backpacks. The more the merrier – 12 people in a car with only 5 seat belts.

Close to the end of the ride, before getting to Mollepata, the views of Nevado Salkantay are awesome. Rachel stepped out to take a picture.

View of Salkantay from the road to Mollepata

We got into the town close to 1:00 p.m. During our ride, my pole handle had fallen off somewhere never to be found. In all my years of climbing, hiking, and skiing, this has never happened to me. . .cheap Chinese crap! Fortunately I was able to find a spare part in Cusco without having to completely replace the pole. However, I had to go the whole trip without a pole grip.

We strapped on our bags and started walking up the road. The map we had wasn’t all that useful as it turned out and it was better just to ask people on the road. After several hours, we really weren’t clear where we were and there was hardly anyone around to ask. We were still on a road but hadn’t yet arrived at the village of Cruzpata which we were supposed to pass through.

Around the bend came a group of pack mules and their drivers. They didn’t stop to say hello but motioned up an unmarked trail up off the side of the road saying that that was the way and then took off going a lot faster than us. Rachel and I got in a disagreement whether or not to follow them or stay on the road but eventually decided to follow the group. The map was apparently useless at this point. Higher up we ran into an aqueduct. . .thank god. I had remembered reading at the South American Explorer’s Club that there was an aqueduct higher up and that we had to just follow it until it took us to another town.

That was it for the route description. It was already starting to get close to dark as we followed it further up the mountain. There were a number of side trails along the way and it was good that we came across more locals who gave us directions.

A little further on, another mule train passed us and I asked the driver if there were any places to camp. He said that there was a field a little ways we could probably camp in. Our other option was hiking about 3-4 more hours to the next water source after that. ..something that we were definitely not up for doing. He then took off.

The problem was that there were a number of fields and we weren’t quite sure which one would be appropriate. Fortunately we bumped into the owner of the land called Francisco who took us to the perfect campsite with a water tap and flat spot with an amazing view of the surrounding valleys. We were really grateful.

We pitched our tent and watched the sun going down as we enjoyed spicy Korean noodles, tuna, and hot chocolate. Francisco came out to talk with us. It turned out he had a brother-in-law who had been working in the construction industry close to Milan in Italy who was back on the farm visiting. I still wonder how a family down there could save up enough to send someone over to Italy and have them immigrate.

The next morning we awoke to the sound of pigs all around our tent. When we got out, we were surrounded. A couple of cows and chickens had also come over to say hello. We had to chase a few of the animals away who were getting a little to close during breakfast and this was a hard thing to do so close to 4000 meters elevation.

Pigs and a cow joining our breakfast

This is where we camped

We said goodbye to Francisco and his family and continued up a non-descript path above the field. 25 minutes later we arrived at a ridge from where the trail became much more obvious and easy to follow. Looking down we saw the town of Cruzpata. . .we had gone up the wrong valley but apparently, the way we had gone had been a shortcut (we found out later). Working our way around the ridge, the views got better and better. Finally we arrived in the main valley.

View of the valley from the trail

We passed by several towns and now started seeing the tour companies with other hikers. It was going to be easy from here on in to find the trail.

View of Nevado Umantay on the way to Soraypampa

We kept on hiking until the town of Soraypampa where we had lunch and enjoyed spectacular views of Salkantay. Rachel was really tired at this point and I took much weight out of her bag. We were now over 4000 meters elevation and still had a long ways to climb up from there.

View of Salkantay from Soraypampa

Further up, at the end of the town there were two trails heading up either side of the valley. Once again, these weren’t marked accurately on the map and we decided to put our trust in something else and stick to the left side of the valley which turned out to be the easier of the two ways to go.

The going was relatively easy until some very steep switchbacks going up the left side of the valley below a large glacier moraine. We were told by some people we met along the way that this was a short 30-40 minutes. It ended up taking an hour and a half at which point we were completely exhausted and it was almost nightfall when we reached a flat terrain with a water source and a makeshift store below Salkantay. We were at about 4500 meters elevation here and the temperature was rapidly falling. Fortunately we had enough time to get our tent up and cook before it was completely black. That night the temperature was probably -10 to -15 degrees celsius.

The following morning, the views were spectacular and we even saw a couple of condors circling above. Packing our tents we were passed by a couple of tour groups who we would be playing leap frog with for the rest of the hike. The experience of going with a group would have been much different. They don`t have to cook, set up or take down their tents. The only thing that might have been difficult on a trip like that would have been dealing with the altitude. In contrast my backpack was around 24 kilograms and Rachel’s about 13 kilograms. Dealing with altitude with that much weight was a challenge.

Mountain view from our tent

It was only about an hour and half to the pass where there were a ton of people from the other groups and a couple of cyclists who had biked all the way from Cusco and would be descending over 2600 meters that day on their full suspension bikes to La Playa. Looked like a fun ride.

Nevado Huamantay next to Nevado Salkantay from the 4650m pass

Rachel walking up to the pass

After getting lots of pictures we headed down seeing more condors and catching some awesome views of snowcapped peaks. The descent takes you through several different climatic zones down through a cloudforest.

View of the valley coming down from the pass

We ended up camping at a location called Chaullay, which was probably the best place to stay the night. It is essentially a field with a store that is often used by tour groups. This was the only night we had to share a campsite with a tour group.

The next day was a short descent down to La Playa and the least scenic of the hike. When we came to the next town, we could have stayed on the right side of the valley which would have meant hiking down a road. We took the more preferable option of hiking down the trail on the other side of the valley which takes you across a bridge in a canyon and then past a nice waterfall further down the trail. Rachel wanted to hike a little further to cut out some of the hiking time the following day. We came across the town about 40 minutes later and found a small designated campsite with showers and a store on the other side of the football field.

We had our late lunch here at the rever in La Playa

Peruvian kids we met in La Playa

When packing the next morning I came across an interesting surprise, a tarantula in my bag! Good thing we had the tent zipped up tight the night before. It´s important to start early the next morning to catch the views as well as the $8.00 USD train that leaves from Hidroelectrica to Aguas Calientes at 4:30 p.m. (there is no road, only train tracks for abaout 12 km).

The trail from Lucmabamba actually climbs up through coffee plantations and original Inca stairs and then traverses upwards along the valley and up over a ridge to arrive in a town called Llactapata, an old Inca lookout. The views coming up this valley were awesome, however, what we were really looking forward to were the views of the backside of Macchu Picchu from Llactapata. At the top of the ridge it was cloudy and we couldn’t see anything. The guide in one of the groups that we passed told us that sometimes there were no views due to clouds but if we were lucky, we might get a clear view. Fortunately luck was with us and it started to clear up within 20 minutes of arriving at the lookout. Coming down off the ridge, the views kept on getting better and better. Awesome!

hiking up to Llactapata

The path down to the valley and Hidroelectrica is ridiculously steep and brutal on the knees. . .about 1000 meters of non stop steep switchbacks. . .good thing our packs were light and we were going downhill. We arrived at Hidroelectrica exhausted at about 3:00 p.m. expecting to catch the train at 4:30 p.m. only to find out that the schedule had been changed two weeks ago and wouldn’t be leaving until 6:30 p.m. and getting into Aguas Calientes after 7:30 p.m. . . too late. This was hard news to hear after expecting that we didn’t have to hike any further. The hike was only supposed to take 2 hours and we really had no other option.

The first part is quite scenic with views of the back side of Huayna Picchu and the ruins from the bottom. Macchu Pîcchu is really set in an awesome location. . .it’s basically a fortress on the top of a hill surrounded by sheer cliffs. Later on going down the tracks we were exhausted but had to push on before night. The last twenty minutes, there is a road off to the right of the tracks that one has to take (you can’t go through the tunnel the train goes through). Exhausted, we finally arrived in Aguas Calientes close to 6:00 p.m. . .a very full day.

View of Machu Picchu from its back side

We had dinner and bought our tickets that night for Macchu Picchu the next day with the plan to get up before 4:00 a.m. to hike up to the park gate.

This is an incredible hike and very well worthwhile doing. We ended up taking silver purifying pills for water along the way that we would recommend for anyone doing this hike without guides. You can buy these inexpensively in Cusco at many of the hiking stores. Some of the streams have really good water. You can also buy water at some of the stores along the way but the price is double of what you would pay in Cusco.

The other good thing about this option versus doing the official Inca Trail is that you can get to the park gate to be part of the group that goes up Huayna Picchu – a must do. Only 400 people are allowed to go up Huayna Picchu per day and if you’re not at the park gate before 5:20 a.m., you won’t make it (the line is too big at this point). If you were coming from the Inca Trail, you would only be getting into Macchu Picchu by 7:00 a.m. from the Sun Gate. You would have to pay another $45.00 to go to the site again the following morning to be able to do this.

View more pictures of Salkantay Trek

View the map of Salkantay Trek

Astronauta (Astronaut)

The other main attraction of the town is a tour up Cerro Blanco, the highest sand dune in the world at 2300 meters. A trip up there includes sand boarding down. Although we could have gone up this while we were there, we decided to do a similar activity in the desert oasis, Huacachina, the next place on our itinerary.

In Nazca, we stayed at the Walk On Inn Hostal which we found to be a good place to stay with a very good breakfast for 50 soles per night. However, we had to change rooms after our first night and found the mattresses in the second room to be really uncomfortable. Apparently, only two rooms in the hostel have good beds. The Belgian owner is coming up to the end of a lease on the place and is not sure if he could renew it. Thus, he hadn’t invested in new furniture even though they were aware of the problem.

While in town, Rachel decided to take a flight with a small company over the lines. The first company we booked to go with the day before cancelled our flight on the day of the flight 5 minutes before they were supposed to pick us up at our hostel only giving us a phone and not even apologizing. The company name is Alegria Tours and later we found out that they used to work with the hostel we were staying at and our hostel stopped working with them because they were completely unreliable and did this thing to customers all the time (not even giving their customers time to rebook with another company – and many never got to fly because they would have a purchased bus ticket out of Nazca later on in the day). I wouldn’t recommend going with them. We booked a flight through the hostel and Rachel was picked up on time the following day. If you have motion sickness, it might not be a good idea to go on this flight. It is in a small Cessna with room for 6 passengers. The flight lasts about 35 minutes and flies directly over the lines banking 45 degrees from side to side for the passengers on  either side to take pictures. Rachel was sick from the moment the plane took off and ended up really sick and vomiting for the whole flight. Miraculously she still managed to take great shots but didn’t really enjoy the experience. The flight had cost $75.00 USD plus a 20 soles airport departure tax.

Mono (Monkey)

Calibri (Hummingbird)

View from the plane

There really wasn’t much else to say about Nazca except for that. We ended up staying there for several days to do lots of writing and get caught up with other things.

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There are buses that leave from Aguas Calientes (the first one supposedly at 5:00 a.m.) that people start lining up for before 4:00 a.m. Only the people in the first bus going up to the ruins gets people up in enough time to get into the group of 400 that go up Huayna Picchu. Our odds were much better hiking up.

The trail going up from the valley is on old Inca steps that go straight up the hill from the valley crossing the road which switches back the whole way up. Walking from Aguas Calientes was an interesting experience and you can see the train of headlamps and flashlights snaking up the hill.

After carrying a huge packs for the last 5 days over 4600 meters, now we just had light packs and felt like superman. As a result we passed dozens of people on the way up and arrived at about 5:20 a.m. Luckily we had made it on time and even then precariously close to missing the cut.

When the park opened at 6:00 a.m., as expected, it was really cloudy and foggy. This weather would last until a little before 9:00 a.m.

Park entrance was 120 soles or $45.00 USD per person, by far the most expensive park entrance in South America that we had paid but well worth it. With the park entrance, we received a brochure for the park with tons of grammatical and spelling errors in English. This was very amusing. We figured the park probably was bringing close to one million dollars of revenue per day to the Peruvian government  and is the principle tourist attraction in Peru (perhaps the most well known in South America) and they didn’t go to the trouble of getting a proper English translation for their official brochure.

Upon getting into the park we got a guide for an additional 20 soles per person to show us around the ruins for close to 2 hours. This was very well worth it.

Macchu Picchu is something of an enchanted marvel. It was built in the 1500s and took about 50 years to build by the lower castes in Inca society for the priests and rulers. It was then only used for about 50 years before the Spanish conquistadores came and defeated the Incas. However, before they were defeated, the rulers and priests had relocated to another site called Vilacabamba well to the north and ordered Macchu Picchu to be abandoned and part of the Inca Trail to be ripped up so the Spanish could never find the city. Generations passed and the city became overgrown and was forgotten except for a few indigenous people in the valley. The Spanish never ever found it.

Fast forward to the early 1900s. A guy by the name of Hiram Bingham, a professor at Yale University in the U.S. was trying to find Vilacabamba and happened to be in the valley where the town of Aguas Calientes is presently. He asked one of the locals who misunderstood him and took him instead up to the overgrown site of Macchu Picchu. Realizing he had hit a goldmine, Bingham commissioned an archaeological team with funding from the National Geographic Society and Yale University and went back to uncover Macchu Picchu. There was one family living in the site in 1911 when this happened. They uncovered it and took over 3000 artifacts from the site which are still in basement of Yale University. Only this year after much arm twisting and appeals to the National Geographic Society, finally the Peruvian government managed to get Yale to give them back and they will be displayed in a new museum being construced in Cusco and managed by surprise surprise – Yale University. Yale refused to give back all the artifacts and some will remain in the U.S.

Anyways, 75% of all the ruins are still intact in their original form (without reconstruction) which is remarkable. From all the designs, agricultural and social systems which can be gleaned from the structures, the Incas were an extremely technologically and socially advanced society. . .perhaps moreso than ours. For example, all of their structures have survived countless huge earthquakes and natural disasters without being damaged over hundreds of years. The stones that they cut weighed several tons and they were carried for great distances and fit together perfectly as if cut by lasers (which they probably didn’t have at that time). One of the stories that was passed down from generation to generation is that the priests were well aware of how to use the power of their minds to be able to levitate objects such as stones – similar to what has been proposed in Egypt and with the Mayas. The Incas were also superb astromoners and astrologers and were able to use their knowledge for permaculture and when and what to cultivate. This is all reflected in how the city was carefully and intentionally designed.

Temple of the Sun

Terrace

Shortly after our guide finished we went back out of the park to get a snack. There are no plastic disposable bottles inside Macchu Picchu and the site is kept impeccably clean (which was really nice to see).

Re-entering the park, we went to the gate to go up Huayna Picchu. They take down your entrance time when you enter and you have three hours until 1:00 p.m. to complete when they do a sweep to clear everyone off the mountain for the day.

The actual hike up to the summit takes between 30-45 minutes. It’s an incredible trail with stone steps carved into the side of a vertical cliff without much to hold you if you slipped. Good thing it wasn’t wet. . .it would be a little treacherous if slippery. Closer to the top are the series of terraces and an original guard house. I didn’t realize that the terraces were mostly there to prevent erosion and reinforce the foundation for the other structures. Other terracing at the main site were more for agriculture.

The views got better and better and the steps even more exposed. We passed through a cave which they had put stairs through and continued to the top. It was an absolutely magical climb and we were absolutely delighted with the experience. We stayed up for awhile taking lots of pictures and then headed down. There was a trail to the backside of Huayna Picchu going to a place called the Temple of the Moon but we decided to not go. Good thing we came down when we did as it started to rain.

Steep steps on Wayna Picchu

Back down at the main site, one of Rachel’s contacts was really bothering her. This was the first day that she had forgot to bring her glasses as a back-up. What a time for this to happen. Anyways, we headed back out of the park to get lunch. It was already after 1:00 p.m. Rachel decided to take out the contact lens and deal with bad vision in one eye and we entered the park again.

This time we headed for the Sun Gate. To get there, we walked back along the original Inca road towards Ollentaytambo. This is the same road that people doing the Inca Trail Trek enter into Macchu Picchu. The Sun Gate is the last Inca ruin before coming into Macchu Picchu. It takes about 45 minutes to one hour to walk there.

Along the way we came across some park workers repairing the trail who told us the score in the World Cup game for 3rd place. There we learned that Germany was beating Uruguay. How bizarre. . .on the Salkantay Trek, someone had told us that Germany had beat Spain. Of course, without any television, radio or newspaper we had no way of confirming this so had gone for 4 days thinking that Germany was in the finals. . .pretty funny.

The views of Macchu Picchu from the Sun Gate are awesome and it is well worth walking out there. In fact, they are probably better from there than they are from Huaayna Picchu.

View of Machu Picchu from Sun Gate

We walked back to the main site and took a few more pictures before calling it a day before the park closed at 5:30 p.m. and taking the very expensive bus ride ($8.00 USD per person for a 20 minute bus ride) back to Aguas Calientes. We had dinner and then took the train ($38.00 USD two hours back to Ollentaytambo where we got a collectivo for 20 soles for the both of us back to our hostal in Cusco. We got back just before midnight.

Macchu Picchu is an absolute must-do if you are in Peru. Surprisingly, we learned that only about 8 million people have ever visited the ruins. Very few residents of Peru actually have ever seen them. Only about 1500 people per day can get in and they have really only been popular for the last 12 years. Make sure to give yourself a very full day to see them and don’t take an early train back to Cusco. You won’t regret it.

Lamas in Machu Picchu

Amazing Machu Picchu

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