sybarites

As the grand finale of our year-long journey, we could hardly have done better than a visit to Machu Picchu. What can I possibly say about this spectacular place without repeating what thousands of other visitors have already said? Beautiful, fascinating, an architectural wonder, blah, blah, blah. I’m not irreverant, but I can’t offer anything original.

However, I thought the resident llamas were a nice touch. Apparently, they were brought to site years ago by a production company that was filming an historical documentary and, when filming was over, they just left them there. They’ve been hanging around mowing the lawns ever since. Just in case one tires of photographically documenting every carved stone in the city, one can focus on these living local icons.

When we started this trip, we thought it would be interesting to have a theme. One of the suggestions was to make it a tour of UNESCO World Heritage Sites. How clever and cultured we would be! However, these are way more numerous than I thought (830 properties) and we seemed to follow that theme without even trying. Towards the end, it was like, “What, this is another World Heritage Site?” I don’t know what the criteria are for earning this designation but its seems that all you have to be is, a) older than 100 years and, b) on a tourist trail.

It turns out that it would’ve been more interesting to have adopted the theme of Seven Wonders, Old and New. Of course, we’d only have been able to visit the supposed locations of six of the Ancient Seven, but the ones that could be considered new would have been reasonably accessible. Indeed, it seems somewhat poignant that Machu Picchu was our final destination as it is in the running for the new “official” list of the Seven Wonders of the Modern World. Thus, it prompted the question of how many other Wonders have we visited in the past year; of the twenty contenders, we have explored eight: the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower, the Great Wall of China, Machu Picchu, the Taj Mahal, Angkor Wat, Hagia Sophia, and the Kremlin & St.Basil’s Cathedral. Only twelve more to go! Our path seems determined.

I think I can reasonably say that, after having walked over miles of pavement in various cities over the past year, we are in fairly good shape. Not marathon-good or anything but better shape than we were when we owned a car and were travelling only to work and back. However, we are milquetoasts compared to the strength and stamina of the porters on the Inca trail.

The tour company we went with, Llama Path, was recommended to us by friends and has a mandate of sustainable tourism. I understand that this means they strive to be friendly to the environment and fair to their staff. Before the labour laws came into being several years ago, it wasn’t uncommon for porters to carry 60kgs. of weight over the rough and high trail of 45kms, to find/bring their own food and to secure their own shelter, which meant sleeping on the bare ground inside a natural cave. This is almost unbelieveable but we were assured of its truth by those who had been working the trail for years. At any rate, things are miles better now with regulated pay, hours, treatment and a maximum carry-weight of 25kgs.

For our group of 11 clients, there were 2 guides, 1 cook and 16 porters. They carried everything we would need for our trip, less the sleeping bag and sleeping mats that we carried ourselves. I was struggling with a little over 7kgs. in my pack so I find it remarkable that the porters carrying the propane tank, or the folding tables, or the cook stove were breezing past me at a steady pace. That work is some Jesus hard. (Marc is hidden somewhere in this picture of our porters in their uniforms during a rarely seen break.)

At any rate, we were regularly rewarded during our trek with some excellent opportunities to explore various Inca ruins. I think my favourite is Winay Wayna, a small city perched on the very edge of a mountain-top near Machu Picchu. The theory is that it was used mainly an agricultural establishment which provided much of the food needed at MP. The terraces, the water management system, and the remaining buildings are fantastic feats of architecture- it was just fascinating to me to see how they had built a city and a farm on the side of steep, unforgiving mountain.

Our guide explained that in the Inca culture, there were three ways the people got work done: 1 – “you scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours”, a way of one person helping his neighbour with a big chore and then having the neighbour return the favour; 2 – “all in” where every member of the community must be present to assist with a large task that benefits the community, or else pay a fine; 3 – “labour taxes”, one member of each family must pay taxes in the form of 3 months’ labour for public services, like building irragation systems, repairing buildings, constructing terraces, etc. Clearly, the Incas got alot done during their reign and I have to wonder: did the average person have more respect for public property because he/she was a part of its construction and/or maintenance?

If I were forced to choose, I might have to say that the trek along the Inca trail to Machu Picchu was better than the Wonder itself. This 4-day excursion was among the best things that we did on the RTW trip, if not the best. A little bit spendy, certainly, but thoroughly enjoyable and just amazing for the sights along the road.

The trail to Machu Picchu was built roughly 500 years ago, before the arrival of the Conquistadores. Our guide told us that the first 2 days of trekking is on trail that is only about 30% original but that on the third and fourth days, the trail is 80-90% original. Considering that the road is paved with stone and snakes through cloud jungle, over extremely high mountain passes, and skirts whole valleys, it is beyond remarkable that it has remained intact, let alone in good enough shape for people to continue to traverse it.

The highest point we crossed, Dead Woman’s Pass (doesn’t take much imagination to wonder why it has this name) was 4215m. (13829ft.), not a height that I will take lightly anymore. The altitude took its toll on both of us, sapping our strength and only allowing 20 steps between rest stops. Luckily, we had acclimatized for a couple of weeks before setting off but some of our group had a rough time with altitude sickness, unfortunately. Fortunately, we discovered coca leaves. Yes, they are of the plant of ill repute but I found that tucking a wad in the side of my mouth and chewing on these bitter leaves actually made quite a difference in my performance; I felt less headache-y and a little more energetic. It was much nicer, however, to chew on a coca candy and/or take a little coca mate (tea) and significantly less gross than the wad of leaves.

Apparently, the messengers that used to run the Inca trail back in the day used to make good and regular use of the coca plant and would cover as much as 120kms a day. I can’t even begin to imagine that as it took us the better part of 3 days to cover only 45kms of trail. There’s a race held each year – or every other year (?) – over the section of trail we hiked and the record is sometime just over 3 hours. The record holder is a porter who ran baggage-less along the entire route. Inconceivable.

One of the prettier aspects of the trail (besides the ruins enroute and the trail iself) was the orchids. We’ve come across other wild orchids in our travels but nothing as extraordinary as these two, whose names I have, of course, forgotten.

On the second day of our Inca Trek one of our fellow trekkers overheard Janet and I talking about my birthday. He brought it up at lunch and by dinner the tour company had arranged a little celebration.

After dinner the gas lamp went out and in came a cake with “Feliz Dia Marc” written across it with dulce de leche and a single candle. Everyone started singing happy birthday. How the cook had managed to bake a cake at an altitude of 3800 meters and over a propane stove will boggle me for years. We suspect he did it in a pressure cooker. The cake was dense and tasted a little like pancakes, though not unpleasantly so. The icing was fluffy and not overly sweet. Overall, it was one of the best birthday cakes I’ve ever had. To top the night off, the guy that originally heard it was my birthday pulled a miniature bottle of Jack Daniels Single Barrel from his back pack and gave it to me as a gift.

I had expected my birthday to go by quietly, but it turned into a very special, memorable birthday.

I was just bitten by the biggest insect I have ever seen. I took off my jacket and started walking around when I felt a pinch on my finger. When I looked under my coat I saw a long brown something and dropped the coat. Out crawled a four or five inch long brown insect, which looked up at us gnashing it’s half-inch mandibles and waving it’s antennae for a few seconds. Then it spread its wings and flew towards us before veering off to land in a tree. I haven’t been able to find out what it was.

This was just after we saw our first Peruvian Hairless Dog.

Update: My aunt Carol discovered the identity of the insect. It’s a female dobsonfly. Since they spend most of their life as larvae in water, most people don’t know they exist from the United States to Northern Argentina. The ones in Peru are BIG.

I can´t remember the last time I drank red wine that came out of a box. I´m certain that when and/or if this has ever occurred, it has been an act of desperation and a genuine result of zero options. However, I am now forced to revise this personal statistic as I have willingly consumed – relished, even – a glass of boxed vino tinto.

The circumstances involved are exceptional. The evening in question was the third and final night of our 4-day trek along the Inca Trail to Machu Picchu, a breathtaking and awe inspiring enigma of history, if I´ve ever seen one. However, the night before we began our pre-dawn hike up to the Sun Gate, our group of 11 hikers were treated to an exceptional campsite meal. The chef of our trek (we had a real chef!), Roberto, produced an astonishing meal from the cook tent perched at 2800m. in the Peruvian jungle. In the mess tent, with real tables and chairs, we were presented with a first course of delicious chili-vegetable soup followed by a main course of stuffed chicken in cream sauce, tender beef in gravy, fresh beet and apple salad, garlic bread, fluffy rice, and delicate toasts with mandarin-raisin salad. I was agog. How he could´ve conceived such an elaborate meal -nay, feast! – in such an environment is amazing. And to this meal was added the vino. Maybe it was the altitude, or the aching muscles or the good company, but that wine was a lovely slice of luxury next to that dinner.

More to follow on this Wonder of the Modern World as soon as we can upload some pictures. This trek was one of the most incredible things we have done this past year.

If I were forced to describe Cusco in terms of what other city in the world it most closely resembles, I think I would say “Florence, Italy.”  This picture especially illustrates my point with its red-tile roofs and late 16th century architecture.  Plus, with all the plazas and an abundance of churches, it really does seem to have a lot in common with it’s Italian cousin.  Of course, having never been to Spain myself, it may be that Cusco closely resembles a city or two there, given that it was conquered by the Spanish…

If you look closely, you can see the title of this post shaved into the distant hillside.

We must’ve walked past this ancient Inca wall in Cusco about 4 times before we realized what we were passing. Not four blocks from our hostel is this remarkable example of Pre-Colombian architecture.
I read that they used several techniques to made some exceptionally solid walls: they placed larger, convex stones at the bottom and smaller ones at the top, all doors and windows are trapedoizal in shape and the stones are carved to roughly the same trapedoiz-ish shapes.

In this pic, Marc is posing beside the famous “Stone of 12 Angles”, which was not only in the wall past which we walked several times, it was nearly constantly the focus of a tour group. Sometimes we can be so unobservant.

Indeed, they are so well made that they have withstood two major earthquakes 300 years apart and are still so solid that colonial and modern buildings use their Incan foundations. The way the stones fit together so tightly, without the use of mortar, is quite impressive. They say that some are so well fitted that not even a knife’s blade can slide between them. This church and cloistered convent is perched on top of what used to be part of the Sun Temple.

Besides wall watching, we spent some time examining Incan art and pottery.

Yesterday, we made a fortunate and random coffee stop at a place called Cicciolina’s, in Cuzco. They have an exceptional bakery, tapas bar and fine-dining restaurant all in one building. I had to try a flaky croissant with cheese and basil, even though I had already eaten breakfast. Perusing the tapas menu, we decided to return for an early birthday dinner at the restaurant, since we would be hiking toward Machu Picchu on my actual birthday.

Cuy, or roasted guinea pig, is a traditional Peruvian specialty and was actually depicted as the meal into which Jesus and pals were about to dive in the last supper painting in Cuzco’s biggest cathedral. We weren’t going to go out of our way to try it until we saw it on Cicciolina’s starter menu. A fine dining restaurant is usually a safe place to explore the unusual. The guinea pig confit was served in a terrine of sorts with two different mashed starches: one was yucca, the other we were not able to identify. The meat was mild with the texture and color of dark chicken meat or domestic rabbit, rather than the strong flavors of game or wild rabbit. This marks the first time that Janet has eaten meat from an animal which she has also had as a pet. I still can’t make that claim.

Janet followed that up with an alpaca steak, her first camelid meat, in a four pepper cream sauce with crispy yucca souffle and oven roasted tomatoes. The alpaca was much like a beef steak, but a little tougher and stringier, although not unpleasant or strongly flavored. I played it safe with lamb. The surprise turned out to be the mashed starch, which tasted like liver had been added. On it’s own it wasn’t particularly pleasant, but when tasted with the lamb it became a rich earthy flavor that wasn’t overpowering. For dessert we tried the pear poached with lemongrass and coriander.

Everything was so good we stopped in for lunch this afternoon and our sandwiches did not disappointed. I ordered the serrano ham with machengo cheese, roasted red peppers, carmelized onions and organic arugula grown in the nearby Sacred Valley. Mmmm, sacred lettuce. Although none of those ingredients are particularly unusual, they were all very high quality and complimented each other extremely well. It’s hard to go wrong with carmelized onions and arugula. Janet ordered a tasty teriyaki chicken sandwich with avacado, toasted seasame seeds and organic greens. Our drinks were equally special—lemonade with mint and ice tea with mint, cinnamon sticks, and whole cloves.

The experience made me dread going home where we may not find such interesting food or will have to pay four times as much for it.