Our visit to the Inca land — Peru
Hello folks! Let me alert you that this is my first ever attempt to write about my travel experience and my Aaji(grandmother) motivated me to take this step given the abundance of stories we were sharing with our family about our excursion.
Let’s begin this journey through the historical, cultural and adventurous experiences of Peru!
Our first stop was Lima — which is the capital of Peru. Being the capital city, it was quite modern with hotels and shopping malls all around. We spent the evening walking around the town, seeing lot of travellers and tourists like us. Not to our surprise, we saw many high-end shops selling alpaca and baby alpaca wool. Alpacas are sheep-like domesticated animals found in the Andes mountains. Peru and neighbouring regions are famous in the world for the alpaca wool and hence you would see a lot of shops selling alpaca wool all around Peru. As we strolled around, it was almost dinner time and we wanted to try some authentic Peruvian cuisine. Since we had heard a lot about the delicious food, we were eager to get our Peruvian food experiences kicked off as well!
We went to a place called Punto Azul which was highly rated for its authentic Peruvian food. We began with chicha morada which is a local drink made from purple corn, found abundantly in the Andes mountain range. This is kind of a national drink of Peru and you can find it everywhere you go. For the main course we ordered Chupe de Pescado — seafood soup & Risotto Punto Azul — squid ink pasta, which gave us a pretty good headstart for what to expect from the Peruvian cuisine. And then to end the dinner, we ordered some local desserts, one of which was made up of Cherimoya (Indian sitaphal/ramphal like peruvian fruit). This hearty dinner after the long travel from back home in San Francisco just served as a perfect end to the day!
The next day we set off to our first tourist spot — the mysterious Nazca lines. Nazca lines, for those of you who don’t know, are a bunch of perfectly-straight lines, many running parallel, others intersecting, forming grand geometric forms. There are also strange symbols, and pictures of birds and beasts. The purpose behind making these structures is still a mystery that has kept scientists and archaeologists baffled for almost a century now.
We had booked a cab driver who took us on this long road trip to Nazca city. It was around 450 km from Lima and we had planned to return back on the same day. Lucky for us, our cab driver was very fluent in English and we could communicate with him smoothly. He was a reserved kind of person yet he told us innumerable stories and experiences about his life and about Peru. He told us about Caral archaeological site, which is known as the most ancient city in the North & South America and we were surprised it didn’t show up when we were researching about places to visit in Peru. It definitely goes on our list the next time we decide to visit South America. He also told us interesting stories and local tales about Nazca & Palpa lines. One of them mentioned about the recently found mummy around Nazca, with 3 fingers and 3 toes, which lead some to believe these are alien creatures. We discussed the hypotheses and theories behind it on our way there. Finally we reached Nazca, where our small 6-seater plane was waiting for our arrival. It was a one hour flight over those Nazca lines, where we toured over 13 figures etched on the surface of the Peruvian dessert on a giant scale, that could only be appreciated from the sky. Our pilot guided us through each and every structure explaining the hidden figures. We were truly amazed to experience this mystical place. Totally worth the long tiring drive to this place from Lima.
On our return journey to Lima, we decided to take a quick pit stop at Huacachina — an oasis in the Peru Atacama desert. It was a small town built around the oasis with one of the world’s tallest sand dunes right next to it. According to legend, the oasis was formed after a local princess was arrested for bathing in its waters. As she fled, her billowing gown turned into the towering dunes that encircled what is really a naturally formed lake. Earlier in the days, Huacachina, which the locals call the “Oasis of America,” was a luxurious getaway for the wealthy. Today, a boardwalk and shady palm trees surround the water along with several bars and restaurants, make the oasis a welcoming sight after a day in the desert. It was amazing to see how this western part of Peru, in spite of having the vast Pacific ocean along its coast, exhibits some of the driest places on Earth. There literally were places where you could have one foot in ocean water and one in desert. I had difficulty believing how humans have not devised a mechanism to make use of the salt water to hydrate these deserts. With that we ended our day and returned back to Lima.
One last thing worth mentioning about Lima was the ceviche we had for dinner that night. Ceviche is a seafood dish typically made from fresh raw fish cured in lemon juice, and spiced with chili peppers or other seasonings. It was a sampler of white fish, octopus and shrimp. It was our first ever ceviche experience, and let me tell you, it really was fabulous! I never expected to say that for raw fish, but trust me, I loved it!!
Getting up at dawn the next day we had to catch an early flight to Juliaca (pronounced Huliyaka), which was the nearest airport to our next destination — Puno. Being located at an altitude of 12,500 feet above sea level and surrounded by Andes mountain range Puno does not have an airport of its own. We were here to visit the famous Titicaca Lake, which is a large, deep lake in the Andes on the border of Bolivia and Peru. It is the “highest navigable lake” in the world and is the largest lake in South America by volume of water and by surface area. There, we met the Uros people, who live on the famous man-made floating islands.
These islands are built by the Uros using reed (grass) available abundantly in the shallow waters of the lake. It was amazing to see how these people had formed a whole world in itself on each of these smaller islands. Four or five families were settled on each of the islands and tourists like us were taken in groups to one of the 60 islands to experience the lifestyle of these Uros people. As we took a short boat ride from Puno, which is on the banks of this lake, we were welcomed by couple of ladies to their island. They had a nice outdoor communal area on the island for our group to settle down, as our guide dived right into information about how these islands are created, the history behind it, how people live and survive there, how they trade their handicrafts for food supply and many other things. Each tourist couple/family were taken to one of the houses to see the houses from inside.
They had common handicraft stalls placed outside their houses for us to buy some souvenirs, this being one of their main income sources. In addition to these residential islands, there were separate islands which hosted the schools, market places and lodges for tourists to stay overnight. It was delightful to see how these people had converted their islands, to adapt to the needs of the booming tourism in Peru. Towards the end of this tour, altitude-sickness caught up to us. It is a very common thing for tourists who are not used to such high altitudes, to get dizzy or have other side effects. Luckily for us, there is a tasty local solution to the altitude sickness called coca tea. This is made up of dried leaves of the coca plant, which is native to South America. It tastes like a usual herbal or green tea but has a much higher power to combat ill-effects of high altitude. Fun fact: Coca is the prime ingredient of Coca-cola.
After getting back from our tour, we got some rest after the rather long day, before heading out for some street shopping in the evening. Our hotel room in Puno was located overlooking the main square called Plaza de armas. We could watch the locals hang out in the plaza and tourists clicking pictures of the church located on a side of the plaza. There was a parade, routinely marching around the plaza area, with some local bands and musicians. It was fun to see all this and get the local feel. In the afternoon, when we were looking for lunch options, we decided to try the alpaca meat, which is quite well known in the highlands of Peru. It was delicious and had a unique smoky taste to it. We also tried another famous dish called Papa a la Huancaína, which is an appetizer of boiled yellow potatoes in a spicy, creamy sauce called Huancaína sauce. Both dishes gave us a good taste of the Andes food. Overall I loved the vibes of Puno and was in awe, seeing people living a happy and healthy life at such a high altitude.
The next day, we headed out for yet another early morning flight to our most awaited destination — Cusco. This was the capital city of the famed Inca Empire and the starting point to the journey to Machu Picchu — known as the lost city of Incas. Machu Picchu is one of the most visited tourist spots in South America, with over 2 million visitors flocking the city every year. People usually come here to experience the 4 day Inca trail hike to Machu Picchu. We still had a day and half to explore Cusco, before we embarked on our hiking journey through the Inca times. We set out for an evening stroll in this beautiful Andean city. With its Spanish architecture, stone arcades and the cathedrals and churches, this city was truly the jewel of its times. No doubt it was deemed to be the capital! Just going around the cobbled streets and listening to the chatter of the city pulled you into its charm and magic. You could spend a nice, peaceful evening just sitting on one of the church steps or benches in the garden. We again had a chance to explore the local cuisine for dinner that night, and went to a beautiful dinner place called Morena Peruvian kitchen, suggested by the caretaker of our hotel. We were amazed at the stone walls and a rustic wooden decor, giving the place a very unique touch. We began our dinner with soothing tropical fruit juices followed by one of most the famous Peruvian dishes called Lomo Saltado — beef stir fry. It was amazing how unique and flavourful each of the local dishes were. We ended our dinner with a special cacao brownie served in an actual cacao pod!
The next day we started off on our journey to explore the Sacred valley — one of the lesser known, but equally stunning destinations of Peru. Sacred Valley is a 70-mile stretch of land in the Peruvian Andes that runs roughly from Cusco to Machu Picchu and remains a place of immense natural beauty. It has several small cities each telling its own unique story.
Our first stop was Chinchero, which is a picturesque colonial village renowned, above all, for its intricate traditional textiles.We visited one such textile market where we were greeted by local women in traditional Andean dresses. They welcomed us with a local coca tea and gave us a short demonstration of how these textile markets work. They weave all day long, using natural dyes to create stunning alpaca wool creations, including shawls, blankets and tablecloths. The colors can be as subtle or as vivid as the women choose, ranging the entire rainbow of colors. Hence the locals aptly call this place as the birthplace of the rainbow.
Next we went to Moray — a pre-Colombian agricultural laboratory and one of the least visited but most fascinating Inca sites in the Sacred Valley. It is an amphitheater penetrating deep into a hilltop and is made of a series of descending concentric rings. It’s a wonder, such that each level is said to simulate a different altitude, allowing the Incas to experiment with different crops for their vast empire. It was hard to believe this was all developed centuries ago. Like they say, necessity is the mother of inventions! Near Moray, we also visited the original Inca salt “mines” at Maras, which are still in use today. These are a series of cascading, shallow pools built to trap water from a salty hot spring and then evaporate it. Its an incredible wonder having salt mines at an altitude of 10,000 feet!
After that, we headed for lunch at a small village called Urubamba, prearranged by our tour operator, and accompanied by some live music from a local couple. The music was so soothing we decided to buy a dvd copy of the album as a souvenir of Peruvian cultural music. Next we head out to Ollantaytambo. The name comes from the word Ollanta, which is the name of an Inca captain, whose history was kept as an oral tradition, and from the term tambo, a Spanish derivation of the Quechua (local language) word tampu, which means — city that offers accommodation, food and comfort to travelers. Here we visited the fortress and sanctuary of Inca ruler Pachacuti. The site dates to the mid-1400’s, and our guide explained the ruins were built in the shape of a llama. It’s one of the few places where the Spanish lost a battle during the conquest. Like many of the other Inca sites, several mysteries surround it.
Our last stop for the day was Pisac. This was yet another beautiful site with Inca terraces on one side and 5 cities located on the top of the mountain, which gives the name Pisac (literally meaning five cities).
The most interesting thing we saw here was the tombs built in the cliffs, that looked like honeycombs. These were the tombs of their great leaders who were mummified and buried there. As we were heading out from this place, we bid goodbye to a gorgeous sunset that melted its way behind the ripples of green velvety curtains.
Next day was the day we had planned this whole trip around — the Machu Picchu hike. We were picked up early morning from our hotel room in our private bus, with all the other hikers going with our tour — Alpaca Expeditions. We were a small group of only 3 couples and were assigned an english speaking local guide who was to accompany us throughout our Machu Picchu experience for the next 2 days. We began our journey on the famous Inca trail which leads to Machu Picchu at the end of it. The most popular Inca trail hike is the 4D/3N, but we had opted for 2D/1N option. It is part of the same trail, except that the longer version gives you more time and better feel of the experience.
The trail is 6.8miles, and we started from Chachabamba (6889 ft), which is at the 104 km mark on the Cusco — Aguas Calientes train route. It is comfortable hike with an average difficulty level, and I think anyone with a normal healthy lifestyle would be able to do it. The hike itself is not very long (few hours), but along the way you enjoy a mixture of incredible ruins, snow capped mountain peaks, beautiful waterfalls and lush jungle. We started early to beat the crowds at the landmark points on the trail. There were huts with thatched roofs on our way up, where we took breaks to munch and keep ourselves hydrated.
On our way we got to know our co-hiking couples. One of them was a Japanese couple and the other one was an American couple. Our tour guide was making sure we are moving at a pace comfortable for everyone. He was a local, who knew the Inca language. He shared with us innumerable stories about the Inca people. He shared local tales about how the local people knew about Machu Picchu, even before it was officially discovered by the American archeologist, Hiram Bingham. We were very impressed by the abundant knowledge each of our guides had, about the Peruvian region they were serving, and how much they loved helping spread this treasure trove of knowledge to the world. On the way up we passed through one of the Inca sites on the trail, called Winay Wayna (Forever Young), which was at an altitude of 8694 ft. This is built into a steep hillside overlooking the Urubamba River. It is surrounded by cloud forest, with mist rolling in and out, a lush deep-green on steep mountain slopes, and a steady waterfall casually reclining in the distance. An ageless site, just as its name suggests!
At this time we were almost half way through, and were about 3 miles shy of Machu Picchu. Then, after walking for some time that just flew by, listening to all the amazing stories, it was time for our lunch break. To our surprise, we were served with hot corn soup and freshly made chicken stew and guacamole. This was thanks to our porter, who carried the fresh ingredients needed for our meal, all the way up there. Just as we were heading out with our satisfied souls, after that sumptuous meal, we were joined at our lunch spot by some llamas! It looked like this was their regular lunch spot too, and they were enjoying their grazing without being bothered by humans around them taking pictures. It was a pleasant surprise to meet them, as we moved on with the rest of our hike.
After a couple hours of hiking, we finally reached the famous Sun Gate (8923 ft), which gives you the first site of Machu Picchu. It had begun to rain around the time we reached the Sun Gate, so initially we saw clouds gently resting over Machu Picchu, like a bride in veil. As the clouds cleared after some time, we saw the ruins from above, and it was a gorgeous sight! We couldn’t believe something so beautiful and intricate could be built among these high Andes peaks. Truly a masterpiece!
Machu Picchu, in its day, was known to be the summer retreat for the Inca leaders, whose civilization was virtually wiped out by Spanish invaders in the 16th century. From here, we kept getting closer to Machu Picchu looking at it from every angle as our trail went on. We reached the actual site after about an hour from Sun gate. It was about 4 pm and was the perfect time to click some pictures of Machu Picchu (7875 ft) in the sunset glow. There were also some Llamas grazing around, left there by the Peruvian government as Peru’s symbol. They serve as a tourist attraction to best compliment this historic wonder, giving it a special feel. We then headed back by bus to a city at the bottom of the valley below Machu Picchu known as Aguas Calientes. There are also direct trains to this city from Cusco for those who are not able to hike up but still want to enjoy this historic site. We ended our long day with an amazing Latin American dinner suggested by our guide. Our whole group, along with the guide, had gathered for dinner together discussing the plans for next day. The hard part was over, the plan for next day was going directly to the Machu Picchu and exploring the ruins for as long we we wanted.
We began our day with a heavy breakfast, ready to explore the ruins for the next few hours. From his experience, our guide had expected long lines to take a bus from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. We finally got into 3 or 4th bus. I must make a special mention about the Peruvian government handing all this tourism extremely well. No where did we experience any inconvenience or lack of information about what to do next, where to go etc. Everything is well arranged and suited for all kind of tourists, coming to Peru from all over the world! It was very impressive, especially coming from San Francisco — a city which needs to learn a lot from Peru, on crowd management and resource handling, at each of the tourist destinations it has.
When we reached at the top, it was still pretty early in the day, around 8am. As we cleared our check-in at the gate and entered, the ruins were still in the morning haze. The sun rays had just begun to peep in, but not strong enough to clear the haze. It gave the ruins such a dramatic look, that I could never forget this moment. It felt very pure and untouched, as it truly was. We walked along the terraces and grabbed a spot to wait before starting our tour. Our tour-guide began his formal introduction about Machu Picchu, with stories from the Inca times, making us feel like we were on a live historic movie set. As much as he was trying to keep it light and fun, it was a lot to take in. It definitely inspired me to read about all this information later on, when I was back home. He told us about the unique Inca trail Marathon, which is known as the most difficult marathon in the world. It starts in Cusco (11,150 ft) and ends at Machu Picchu (7875 ft), with two high passes (13,000' & 13,800'), and thousands of Inca steps on the way. He had done this marathon himself a few times, and we were left agape just listening to the details of the marathon. Although an unofficial marathon, it is a prestigious run in Peru. In those days, this was done by the relay runners carrying messages to kings from various cities.
After that he began to explain the different parts of these Machu Picchu ruins. Like I mentioned before, this was like summer vacation home for the Inca kings, and so when they stayed here for days, they used to run all their work from up here. So they had a dedicated area for businesses, and market places for trading of goods. There was a special place for worship known as the Sun-temple which glowed with the first light at sunrise. In the Peruvian culture, the trio of Snake, Puma and Condor holds utmost importance, and they represent the past, present and future. There was also a special Condor temple where the dead from high born people were buried and thought to be taken away to gods by Condor. There were special rooms/houses built for priests along these temples. As we were immersed in these stories from the Inca era, the sun began to peek and we could see different shades of this beauty that we were here for.
The Huayna Picchu mountain which served as a perfect backdrop to these Machu Picchu ruins was also starting to show up as the morning fog cleared. We could see the clouds running playfully as the time passed by. We began to take a stroll along the ruins with our tour guide continuing to explain the stories. We spent almost a couple hours going though these ruins and then our tour guide left us to explore some more on our own. A few from our group had opted to do the 45-minute Huayna Picchu hike which boasts a rather beautiful view of the ruins from up above and also the moon temple at the top.
Around 1pm in the afternoon, with satisfied souls and carrying the treasure trove of information we got with this 2 day hike, we started on the return journey and back to Cusco with the Inca rail. We slept like babies on returning to our hotel. The most tiring part of our trip was over. Now we were eager to head out to our last destination — the Amazon jungle (also known as Amazonas)!
Early next day we took a flight to Puerto Maldonado, which is the closest airport to the Tambopata area of Amazon rainforest. There are two research areas in Peruvian Amazon — Manu and Tambopata. Manu being deeper in the jungle, it wasn’t convenient to get there in the short period of time we had. So we decided on visiting Tambopata, where we had booked an all inclusive jungle lodge package. We began out 4 hour long boat ride through the Tambopata river.
As we sat down, we were provided with a special lunch — arroz chaufa (fried rice) wrapped in a banana leaf. A very amazonian way to have our lunch. We were a group of 10 people along with a couple of tour guides and the boat driver. In places like this, you need a team effort to have as many eyes looking out for any activity among the trees, in the sky and in the river. We were lucky — we spotted a few macaws, squirrel monkeys, a harpy eagle and toucans on our way to the resort, getting the Amazon experience right from the start. As we reached the lodge, we were greeted with freshly made passion fruit juice. Amazon jungle is known for a massive fruit production of all types of tropical fruits. We were given a briefing about the excursions and other schedules that were planned for us by the lodge. The most amazing and unique part of this resort was — our rooms had just 3 walls. The fourth side of the room was a wide opening to the Amazon jungle, with no glass wall, and no curtains, giving you the true feel of living in the jungle, but also the comfort of being inside a room (instead of a tent). It was scary for me initially, but we were equally excited about this experience.
We quickly settled down and headed out to regroup with our fellow tourists for a special welcome dinner. Also, these lodges have special presentations and talks for guests visiting the area to learn more about the research projects going on in the Amazon. These can range from how to better process & export the abundant produce made in jungle to protecting the gold mines hidden in these areas. Peruvian government wants to protect the Amazon jungle and hence they have laid out strict rules against mining gold. We were amazed to see so many interesting projects being done at these research centers in Amazon jungle. We learned that we could also volunteer to help in these projects for as long as we wanted. They have various options depending on our availability and interest. Definitely something to think about, if you plan to dedicate your vacation time for a noble cause. We ended our day with a sumptuous dinner.
The next day we were headed out to see the Macaw clay lick very early in the morning. The clay lick is where the Macaw birds flock to in the morning and feed on the minerals in the clay. They are said to lick it bit by bit, and thus the name clay lick. The beauty of this is you get to see the wonderful macaw birds in dozens, coming together at this location. Our tour guides had telescopes to view these macaws closely. We saw 3 unique types of macaws on that day. We were there for a couple hours before we headed back to our lodge. On our way back, to our surprise and astonishment, we spotted a leopard sitting around in the bushes basking in the morning sun. Our tour guide mentioned viewing a leopard in Amazon was a very rare phenomenon and even guides like them who are in the jungles almost every day of the week, don’t get to see them as often. We considered ourselves really lucky that we got to see it. We were only about 10–20 ft away from it. He was on land and we were in our boat, so we were safe enough to go that close. We waited for almost half an hour gazing at its movements, and activities. We took turns viewing the leopard from the telescope our guide had. It was a truly special moment we would never forget — having seen a leopard in its natural habitat, doing it normal things without being affected by our presence.
After we returned to our lodge, we had a tour planned to explore the Amazon wildlife for the afternoon. Just as we left our lodge for the trail, we encountered a group of brown capuchin monkeys swinging around on the trees and playfully enjoying their time. Among them was also a mother carrying its child on her back and jumping from one tree top to other. It was fun to watch them. As we proceeded we also saw a few other species like a howler monkey sitting on a tall tree top with its tail wrapped around the branch, a rather shy trumpeter, a skinny tree covered by what is called army ants, and then a swarm of leafcutter ants, who were super busy with their leaf-collection routine, for cultivating their own fungus.
Also, at one of the spots on the trail, our tour guide gathered us all together, and started waving a small twig in what looked like a rabbit hole. From there, came out a rather scary looking 8 legged, black, velvety textured tarantula. It scared us all to our cores, seeing the huge tarantula, but our tour guide was holding it so that we could all take a closer look at it. It seemed quite a routine for him to hold the tarantula in his hand. We also got a glimpse of a few baby tarantulas on our way back. After that, our first stop was at a canopy tower built for visitors to enjoy the rainforest from up above the tall trees. It was as tall as the tallest trees surrounding us (100+ ft), and once we were up there, it gave us an entirely different appreciation of these miraculous Amazon giants. We saw a few Brazil nut trees, which are among the tallest trees in Amazon. The Brazil nuts are held in coconut-like shells that weigh up to five pounds, and are so hard that we can only open them with special machines made to crack them open! These nuts are packed with healthy fats, protein, and vitamins, making them popular worldwide. We took a few shells with us to try our hands at opening them ourselves, after getting back to the lodge. It was around 4 o’clock by then, and our tour guides mentioned this was the perfect time to be at the canopy tower since we could see a lot of birds flying back to their nests before it got dark. We got to see some toucans, parakeets, parrots, a yellow-tufted woodpecker and a stunningly beautiful multi-coloured bird called Paradise Tanager. Beauties of Amazon! We clicked a few snaps, but it was worth experiencing these moments in themselves rather than trying to focus on capturing them.
With that we moved on towards our next stop which was the oxbow lake. An oxbow lake is a bow shaped lake that is formed when a river bend gets cut off from its main channel, transforming it into a calm lake. In Tambopata, there are various oxbow lakes and they provide an ideal habitat for many different wildlife species. It is a wildlife lover’s dream to see so many unique species here in the lake. We got to see a few, like the Hoatzin — a bizarre, dinosaur-like looking bird, piranhas, electric eels, etc. We also saw a trail which marked an anaconda track. We witnessed a beautiful sunset as we were wading through the calm waters of the oxbow lake.
Then we docked our boat on the shore to go see some of the largest and oldest trees in the Amazon rainforest known as the Kapok trees. The trunk of this giant tree was almost 30 ft in circumference and its top, which was almost 150–200 ft, was obscured by the dense canopy created by surrounding trees, which were equally enormous. We were truly amazed by these giants of the rainforest. It was almost dark by now, and as we started on our return journey back to our resort, the tour guide mentioned we could also get to see some of the nocturnal animals of the rainforest. We saw a bunch of spider varieties, a few cicadas, and a lot of different frogs and toads on our way back. I was scared out of my wits, till we finally got back to our lodge safely, without any incidents. With that, we ended our Amazon tour, and also our Peruvian adventures.
We were suppose to head out for a 24 hour long journey back to the States in the morning. With content hearts, exhilarated minds and inspired souls we ended our first journey though the South American lands. We would definitely recommend each and everyone of you to go visit Peru and experience this country first hand with its amazing culture and great historic places filled with natural beauty. Until then hasta-la-vista!
