Sweathog and Mountain Woman: September 1-4, 2018 Lima to Cusco

Saturday, September 1

Today we are touring Lima with our guide whose name is Ana. She is very knowledgeable and her English is excellent. We spent a lot of time in the St Francis of Assisi Cathedral. There were thousands of bouquets of fresh flowers at each of the side altars. We were also allowed to go through the Rectory and the catacombs. There were hundreds of skulls and large bones, etc. We were told that in older times, for enough money, you could be buried in the cathedral and it would assure you of going to heaven no matter how bad a person you had been. It is no longer being utilized and will be sealed up after the death of the last few aging priests still living in the rectory. We viewed a lot of splendid vestments. The Cathedral is considered to be from the 1600’s. Peg would have loved these Cathedrals so much. Coincidentally, St Francis Of Assisi is Ed’s confirmation name. We dined that evening at a nice BBQ restaurant. The menu was scary! Rabbit, guinea pig, intestines, bull testicles, llama,lamb, alpaca and beef. We had the latter two!

Sunday, September 2nd

Spent most of the day flying to Puerto Maldonado. This is small very poor town that reminds us of Kathmandu on a smaller scale. We went to a butterfly sanctuary for an hour while we waited for three other people who were going to the jungle lodge. Saw very few butterflies. Our journey to the Sandoval Lake Lodge required us to take a bus, a boat, similar to a gondola but with a motor, hike 1.6 miles through the jungle and then a long canoe across the lake! We arrived after dark and saw black cayman eyes in the water! The room was small and the bed had a mosquito net over the bed. We had power only from 6 am to 9pm. Dinner was at 7:30 and was the toughest beef we have ever had, similar to jerky! We met our guide, Soledad, at 5:30 am and took a 2 hour ride around the lake in the canoe. The sounds from the jungle were amazing. We saw Squirrel monkeys, flying through the branches, large and small black Cayman and a family of 11 giant river/fresh water otters. They would catch a fish and eat crunching bones and all. They wee ones cried when they could not keep up. We also watched a medium sized bird eat a snake, an electric eel, that that was about a foot long. After lunch we took a 2 hour jungle hike identifying medicinal plants and the many beautiful flowers. Ed skipped this as he has come down with another respiratory bug and feels crummy. We are sharing these jungle experiences with a lovely English father and 2 daughters. One last outing here in the jungle was a night walk. The only night life we saw was a giant tarantula. This is truly an amazing place. I could have done another day. Nice just to sit and listen to the sounds. Amazingly, no mosquito bites but lots of deet. Tomorrow morning we do the same modes of transportation, canoe, hike, boat and bus back to the airport to Port Maldonado.

Tuesday, September 4

Arrived in Cusco. Many modern buildings all built on Ancient Inca foundations with stones they had stolen from other Inca structures in the outlying areas. Went through two Cathedrals filled with much silver and gold. Each stunning and beautiful. All the streets are one way as they are severely narrow made of cobblestone. Our guide’s name is Ever. He will be with us for 8 days thru Machu Pichu trek. As with the others, his knowledge is excellent however,his accent is thick and we do not always understand him. We are now at 12,000 feet, which is higher than the Ancient Inca Trail. Ed, of course is not feeling it much but I am quick to get short of breath with any incline. They immediately offered us cacao tea to help us adjust. I had a second cup at 6 pm and was feeling dizzy, light headed, and unbalanced. Someone told us a lunch the next day it is a trace of cocaine. Very unpleasant feeling. No more tea!

This is definitely my favorite City so far. We walked for maybe 6 hours today, lots of steps. Visited the market, it was huge with many smells, some good, some not so much. It is a very clean City and has an amazing police presence. Our guide tells us that Peru is very aware of the importance of tourism’s impact on the economy and required guides, waiters, hotel staff and taxi drivers to take classes about making the tourists visits safe and pleasant. On our second day here in Cusco, we drove to surrounding Inca sites. One was a Sacred Temple to water where there was a large natural spring. The original Inca structures of canal and fountains still stand. We visited a small village church that had hand painted murals on the walls and ceilings. These were done by the Spanish 500-600 years ago. They are beautiful and amazingly preserved.

The town was preparing for a celebration the next day. Our guide told us there are religious celebrations every several weeks as moral boosting for the general population. Their daily lives are simple but hard and long. Their living conditions are very rough but given all this, they are happy. We will now drive 60 miles to the Sacred Valley. Along the way we stopped at an experimental farm constructed by the Incas to test seed growing at different altitudes and degrees of heat and amounts of water. The whole area is in circular concentric terraces with watering and drainage systems in place. A civilization so advanced. Next we walked through a salt mining area also constructed by the Incas and still functioning today.

Our next stop will probably be my favorite spot. It was an authentic textiles site. It is here that we learned how the dirty lamb and alpaca wool is made beautiful. The two fabrics can not compare. One is course and one so soft. They showed us how it is washed, how they spin it into a single thread, how they make they the dyes from natural roots, lichen and berries and then how they blend colors and dip the wool strands. Next they weave the different patterns. It takes from 36 to 40 days to create a table runner of a simple design. These native women,in native dresses, greeted and left us with a song. The Inca women are amazing. They do so many things and always are multitasking with an baby on their back.

I loved this stop! We will be in this area for the next 4 nights as we climb toward our goal of Machu Pichu. Our hotel is very quaint and clean with a lot of flowers in the courtyard. Our first evening we walked to the small plaza or town square. Every town has them. The Andes tower over us at 10,000 feet. We were treated to hundreds of school kids dressed in native Inca costumes dancing historical dances. This ceremony was to celebrate the anniversary of their school. Our next day we climbed to the top of a temple/fortress set high on a ridge above the small city. We also went to their local market. Nothing goes to waste here. We saw a whole cow head eyes and tongue intact. Next we wandered through the back streets where Inca farmers would have lived and the same is true today. We saw an authentic Inca dog, they have no hair except the tip of their tail and head. Similar to Nepal, there are stray dogs every where. We even went into a typical one room home and observed their actual lifestyle. There was a family alter, an adobe wood stove, Guinea pigs running all over the dirt floors. It smelled like pee. These are the meat of choice here, no refrigeration needed! We have not tried it yet. This ended today’s tour, thankfully. We needed to rest. Tomorrow begins our trek.

Cathedral in Lima