Our First Trip to Peru: Part One

I came across a journal I had brought with me during our first trip to Peru. It's pretty detailed, at least in the beginning. Towards the end of my 5-week trip I got incredibly sick and my journal entries took a back burner. Anyway, I've decided that I want to record my story here, to preserve it somehow in case something happens to my journal. I'll add a few notes here and there in italics that weren't part of the original entries. And remember I wasn't exactly a great writer back then. These entries look like they were written by a teenager but oh well. Enjoy!

July 2nd, 2008
Day 1

After 26 hours of living in an airport we finally made it to Cusco. What a nightmare! The plane from Seattle to New York smelled so bad of urine. The smell went away when the air came on but as soon as we landed in New York and they turned the plane off the horrible smell came back. I covered my nose with my shirt and an older French woman in front of us laughed. She knew exactly how I felt! After a long 7-hour layover we boarded the plane for Lima. It was late and my reading light was on so I tried to push it to turn it off like most American planes operate. Wrong! The on/off switch was on a remote control that was attached to the armrest. So I ended up burning my middle finger on the light and had to spend the next hour with my hand stuck in a bag of ice. There's a blister but I'll live.

So we get to Cusco and there's a gentleman waiting for us to take us to our hotel. His name is Juan Jose but he goes by JJ. He spoke very good English and also worked with a tour agency so he was trying to sell us all kinds of tours. Too bad United Planet had already scheduled everything for us. We check into our hotel, Casa de Campo. It is very nice and there is a good view of the city but the stairs almost killed me! The hotel is situated on the side of a very steep hill and our room happened to be at the very top. By the time we got there I was gasping for air. Cusco is over 1,100m above sea level so altitude sickness is common. The hotel served us mate de coca, or coca tea. It's simply hot water with a ton of coca leaves in it. Although the leaves are used to produce coc.aine we were not taking drugs! The coca leaves help to thin the blood so it can flow more easily. So Brandon and I spent a good hour drinking coca tea and relaxing. I even chewed my coca leaves which tasted bitter and made me feel like a Southern redneck.

Our Room

Some of the 5,00 stairs

At noon the tour operator for our jungle trip came to talk about our itinerary and told us to be ready to leave at 5:30 the next morning. Afterwards we did a bit of exploring. We walked to the Plaza de Armas and visited the Inka museum. On the way to the Plaza we were bombarded by locals trying to sell things like postcards and jewelry. Brandon and I had paused a moment to view a parade going by and an old woman came up to us speaking in Spanish and pinned a rainbow ribbon to our shirts (Cusco's flag is rainbow colored). I said "No gracias" but she did it anyway and then asked for a donation from both of us!

In the Inka Museum

It was about $3 to get into the Inka Museum. They had lots of old artifacts, mostly pottery. Pictures were prohibited but I snapped a few in the rooms that didn't have video cameras. Then we ate at a local restaurant whose name I don't recall. I had some more coca tea and felt brave enough to try one of Peru's most popular dish, cuy al horno. It is roasted guinea pig served whole. Brandon had Pollo con Quiwicha which was chicken covered with a sweet fruity sauce and sprinkled with quinoa. My meal came with a yellowish potato (a little bland) and roco relleno which is bell pepper stuffed with ground beef and veggies and covered in some kind of bread. I loved the bell pepper but the cuy was terrible. Brandon tried some and didn't like it either. The skin was rubbery and the smell was not appealing at all. I could only stomach a few bites.

Yes, my guinea pig was served whole. He even had his claws and teeth. Note the excited look on my face...not!

Afterwards we made our way back to the San Blas area and Brandon bought a hat for $10. Now he looks like Indiana Jones. (But Brandon lost said hat 3 weeks later in the airport on his way home. He is looking forward to buying another) Then we visited Iglesia San Blas, or San Blas Church. No pictures were allowed and I was unable to sneak one. I wish I could have, the church was amazing. The pulpit was carved from one piece of cedar and the details were unlike anything I had ever seen.

After the church we decided to head back to our hotel for a nap. The altitude was giving me a killer headache, despite all the coca tea I drank. The trek back to our hotel was no easy feat though because it was all uphill. Then of course the 5,000 stairs to get to our room. We slept until around 8 and then went downstairs for dinner. Dinner is eaten late in Peru. Brandon had simple chicken broth and I had a fruit pancake (which may have actually been a crepe. I never had a crepe before. And you'll notice that I let a lot of food touch on this trip. This meal would have otherwise been a no-no for me but when in Rome...). The pancake was so delicious! It was a pastry that was wrapped around fruit (apples, banana, pineapple and I think papaya) and drizzled in chocolate sauce. More coca tea to get rid of my headache didn't help so I took some Tylenol and called it a day.

Day 2- Manu

Our day started early at 5 am. We got dressed and proceeded to take our suitcases downstairs to wait for the bus to Manu. This was extremely difficult because the hotel had turned out all the lights so we couldn't see the stairs! We made it down to the bottom just in time. We loaded all our luggage into the 15-passenger van and were on our way. I'd like to point out here that this van was in serious need of repair. The windshield was held on with duct tape, I shit you not! We couldn't get out the side door, the guide had to get out and open it from the outside. And I think I remember the gear shift acting up (it was a manual). Our guide was Ronald, the nicest Peruvian ever! He was always smiling and was a genuinely great person. He also spoke very good English. Traveling with us was a mother and daughter from Colorado and two sisters from Minnesota. One of the sisters had spent the last year traveling abroad to 25 countries and this was her last week before heading home (totally jealous!).

The trip started out on a two-way road for about an hour. There was a yellow line down the center but that seemed more like a suggestion than a requirement because most of the time the van drove in the middle of the road. After about an hour we turned onto a dirt road through a small town. I thought we were stopping for a break but I was wrong. This dirt road would be our only way to Manu. For the next 7 hours we drove on this bumpy dirt road that was only wide enough for one vehicle. If another vehicle came our way someone had to pull over. Did I mention we were also weaving our way around some pretty tall mountains with no guard rail to speak of? I feared for my life at least a dozen times. We passed by some very poor shantytowns where we had to share the road with all kinds of livestock. One bull even charged at our van. I guess we got a little too close. We stopped in a couple towns on the way and after about 5 hours we could start to see the change in the environment around us. We went from a dry, dusty land to a more tropical place. It was constantly cloudy (hence the name "Cloud Forest") but it never rained while we were there.
When we got into the actual park we stopped and had lunch. We continued on for about an hour and then we stopped at a platform called a lek. Here we could observe a bird called the Cock-of-the-Rock. The birds weren't out though so we kept going. We also did a bit of walking to look at birds and plants and the van came and picked us up after a half hour or so. We ended up seeing a hawk and the Cock-of-the-Rock before getting to our first lodge called San Pedro Lodge. We had about an hour before dinner would be ready so a few of us hiked up a trail near the lodge. It only led to another lodge so we went back and just relaxed in our rooms.

The Cock-of-the-Rock. My camera was so shitty, the jungle pictures turned out terrible.

Our room

Dinner that night was delicious. The meal started out with veggie soup. The main course was lomo saltado which is like beef stir fry with rice and french fries (this became one of my favorite Peruvian dishes). Peruvians eat a lot of potatoes. Dessert was flan, a half-solidified pudding. It tasted like caramel which I liked but I couldn't get over the weird texture so I only had a few bites. The lodge had electricity from only 7 to 9 so Brandon and I just went to bed. We each had our own twin bed but my mosquito net had a few big holes in it so we slept in the same bed. We were exhausted and fell asleep before everyone else but I woke in the middle of the night and got really freaked out. It was so dark I couldn't see a thing. I even touched my hand to my nose and couldn't even see my hand. Anyone who has ever been in a cave knows exactly what I'm talking about. I decided that tomorrow night I'll just sleep with a flashlight.