Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!! Part 1

The Inca Trail to Machu Picchu!

The market in Cusco

Back when I purchased my tickets to Peru (FINALLY!! After a long wait – I had been planning the trip for over 2 years!! I secured my fellowship back in 2007 and set the dates in 2008) I talked to my friend Dan. Dan and I met on my trip to Israel in December 2007 and have stayed in touch since our 10-day bus tour through the Holy Land. Dan was super excited that I would be in Peru, and pretty quickly bought tickets to come visit me in Peru! We hadn’t seen each other since Israel, but we had a blast on that trip and anxiously began trying to plan a trip to Machu Picchu.

We both wanted to hike the famous Inca Trail, but Dan only had 7 days in Peru, and the trail takes 4 full days. Eventually, after tons of emails and calls to companies that offered treks on the trail, we settled on a company called Llama Path, and booked our 4 day/3 night, 45-kilometer hike to the sacred citadel of the Incas.

Dan arrived in Lima at midnight on a Saturday night, and I met him at the airport. I booked us on a 6am flight to Cusco (to maximize our time in Cusco before hitting the trail: it is recommended that you spend at LEAST 48 hours at higher altitude before starting the trek!), so we sat in the airport having coffee and catching up until our flight.  We made it to Cusco without any trouble, checked into our unique hostal, Hostal Frankenstein, and had a quick shower and nap before hitting the city to explore.

We decided we wanted an authentic lunch to start off the trip, and headed to a local lunch spot we heard about from our hostal owner. We had a great Peruvian lunch of roasted meat, potatoes, and Inca Kola. In case you haven’t heard of it, Inca Kola is a neon-yellow soda that sort of tastes like a combination of cream soda, cotton candy, and bubblegum. The only problem was that the medicine Dan and I were taking to prevent altitude sickness actually changes the way you taste carbonated beverages, and neither of us could actually taste the bubbles in the soda!

 

Since I had spent 2 weeks in Cusco at the very beginning of my Peruvian adventure taking Spanish classes, I sort of knew my way around the major landmarks of the city. After lunch, we wandered through the main market in Cusco, which is really a pretty interesting place. You can buy everything from scarves, hats and gloves to meats, cheeses, herbs, fruits and veggies, or even full meals cooked up in front of you. My favorite area was always the meats, because I have just never seen anything like it. The smell is actually pretty awful, but where else can you buy a whole cow snout (and WHY would you want to?!)?

 

I took Dan all around the town, and we ended up in Plaza San Blas, which is a cute little plaza high above the main plaza that is surrounded by cafes, restaurants and art galleries. We strolled around, had a coffee, and visited the small, but informative Coca Museum. The museum is dedicated to spreading information about the coca leaf, the plant that is the raw material for producing the infamous drug, cocaine. The Incas have used the plant for centuries, but it had many medicinal and ceremonial uses long before modern chemistry was able to turn it into something nefarious. Chewing the leaves (with or without a carbonate based catalyst) or drinking coca tea is said to relieve everything from altitude sickness, fatigue, upset stomach, headaches, and much more! I personally love coca tea, and drank tons of it while at school in Cusco. It tastes like a yummy herbal tea, and with all those supposed benefits, why not?

 

After buying tons of coca themed souvenirs, we headed to explore an old monastery and convent that was in the guidebook. El Convento Santo Domingo was a pretty cool site – it used to be an Incan complex that had been built over by Catholics over the centuries so that the architecture of the complex is now a jumble of perfectly sculpted Incan stone walls, classic Spanish, and modern looking buildings all piled on top of each other.  We spent a while wandering the cloisters and corridors, but I’m not a huge history/architecture/museum fan, so we opted not to read every plaque or visit the convent’s sister museum, and instead headed to dinner.

 

We had a classic Peruvian dinner of lomo saltado (stir-fried beef, peppers, and onions over French fries) and even stopped for a pisco sour (the national drink of Peru! Its made of Pisco, a grape brandy, lime juice, simple syrup, and egg whites and garnished with a drop of bitters) before we ended up collapsing back at the hostel.

We woke up in the morning and had a huge breakfast before heading out to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley is an area outside of Cusco that is basically filled with tons of different ruins. There are a bunch of sites to choose from, and since they all seemed relatively similar (rocks, hills, old stuff) we sort of randomly picked one to go to. We ended up at Pisac, a site about an hour bus ride from Cusco.  The bus ride was super scenic, and in between my mini-naps, I was treated to valley vistas surrounded by snow-caped mountains :)

We arrived in Pisac, and split a cab with a French couple up to the top of the ruins to start our tour. We elected not to hire a guide, and spent 2 hours wandering through the huge archeological complex. We climbed up and down the trails, stomped through the ancient buildings, scrambled around the crumbling stone walls, and perched on top of the long-empty agricultural terraces. The Incas used these huge stair-like terraces to grow their food, but now they lay fallow. I think they are super cool are really enjoyed seeing the way the ancient cultures carved these huge hillsides into what look to me like a staircase for giants.

We headed back down to the town of Pisac for lunch, and after some alpaca kebobs, set our sights for the market. Pisac is supposed to be a pretty cool place to shop for souvenirs, but when we stepped back outside a storm was headed in, snd the thunder and wind had prompted most shopkeepers to pack up their goods and head indoors. We took the hint, and headed to the bus stop to try to beat the rain.

We made it onto the bus before any major downpours, but the bus was packed! We were forced to stand for the whole hour trip home (on the way to Pisac we had comfy seats and there was nobody standing) and poor Dan got thrown around pretty well during the trip. We made it back to Cusco in one piece (although we were pretty hot and tired from the long ride) and headed to our orientation for our trek!

Our route to Machu Picchu

We sat through the briefing and were told what to expect during the hike…..Basically, it sounded tough. Lots of hills, lots of stairs, lots of possible pain, haha.

But, I knew all that long before we threw down a ton of money, and we had opted to hire a porter to carry our things (clothes, sleeping bags, etc) so all we had to do was carry a daypack with our raincoats and water. At the urging of our guide we even rented walking sticks – he promised even though we would look like dorks the benefits would outweigh the nerdiness.

After the orientation we had a delicious dinner of pollo a la brasa, or roasted chicken, a Peruvian specialty. We tried to have a beer, but the medicine had the same effect on its carbonation, and it’s hard to enjoy beer without being able to taste the bubbles! We went back to the hostel to try to pack and get into bed early, but packing and showering took us a while, and we got to sleep around midnight. I don’t know if either of us slept very well, we were both pretty excited and anxious about starting the trail the next day!

Inca Trail: Day 1 – Cusco to Wayllabamba

We awoke bright and early (and by that I mean dark and really early…3:30am), grabbed our daypacks and small bags of clothes (to give to the porters to carry), and headed out to meet our tour group. We got on a private bus that took us to breakfast – our group was made of 13 hikers from around the world. I was actually the youngest member of the crew, and the oldest in the group was only 39 years old. There were 2 girls from New York, a few Aussies, a girl from England, a couple from Venezuela, and a few people who were sort of from everywhere (born in Poland, lived in England, Australia, the States, etc). It was an eclectic but young and well-traveled group, and I was sort of worried that I wasn’t going to be able to keep up with them all on the trail!

After breakfast in a quiet valley, we got back on the bus and headed to the head of the Inca Trail. We started the hike at “Kilometer 82,” a distance marker and train stop on the train line that leads from Cusco to Machu Picchu.  When we got out of the bus it was quite a busy scene. All the groups hiking the trail start in the same spot, so there were buses, hikers and porters everywhere. But, this is where we noticed the first awesome thing about our tour company. Our porters, the men that carried all our food, tents, supplies and gear, were all wearing red from head-to-toe. We could spot them from a mile away. For our 13 hikers we had 2 guides, 18 porters and a chef! That’s a support crew of 21 people for our 13 hikers.

Our AMAZING porters 

After packing up all our gear, filling up our water bottles, and lacing up our shoes, we started on our way! We had to get our passports checked before starting (the trail is SUPER regulated and only a few hundred hikers are allowed per day), but after the obligatory stamp, we were hiking.

 

The first couple of hours were over relatively flat, dry, desert valley terrain. We wound through the valley, following the train tracks and hugging the banks of the river that flows all the way to the base of Machu Picchu. I say “relatively” flat, because the guides tend to refer to anything other than a 45 degree hill as “Inca Flat.” Inca Flat became a running joke, and almost killed my feet on the first day.  Against my better judgment I had purchased a new pair of hiking boots, and breaking them in on the trail wasn’t exactly the best idea!

Foot relief

But after soaking my poor feet in a freezing cold mountain stream, we continued our hike. We had an amazing 3-course lunch (cold drinks, hot soup, chicken, salads, rice, fresh avocados, and dessert!) and hiked for a few more hours to our first camp site.

Our first day of hiking was pretty difficult – I was short of breath most of the day, it was pretty hot, and the Inca Flats were pretty rough, but the views were SO incredible.  I shared the trail with donkeys, llamas,  and hummingbirds, climbed up and down hills and valleys, and finally made it to camp. The porters had hot tea, and warm water and soap waiting, and we had a Happy Hour of hot chocolate, popcorn and camp songs all before our elaborate 3-course dinner.

 

We all passed out after a few rounds of cards and a few thousand calories worth of rice and hot chocolate. A great first day!!

Inca Trail: Day 2 – Wayllabamba to Chaquicocha

Aka the Hardest Day EVER

In the jungle

O.M.G.

By far the most difficult day of hiking/physical activity I have EVER experienced. But it was absolutely amazing.  We woke up BEFORE the sunrise (to hot tea delivered to our tents, and buckets of hot water and soap to freshen up), had an amazing breakfast, and then set off for a 12+ hour day of hiking.

The first two hours was literally straight uphill through the rainforest. Luckily, we had an overcast morning (with a slight on and off drizzle), so it was cool and shady in the forest. After a quick snack break in a valley, we had an amazing view straight up the mountain to the famous Dead Woman’s Pass – it was covered in a thick mist and as we restarted the hike it started drizzling.

STAIRS. I have never climbed so many stairs.  We climbed for 2 hours on a rocky trail poised on the edge of the valley, through on-and-off misting rain, and we finally made it to the very top of Dead Woman’s Pass! From day one (8923ft) we climbed to 13,779 feet!

At Dead Woman's Pass

Sadly, we still had 6-7 hours left of hiking :(

After reaching the peak, and refueling on chocolate and a variety of Amazonian nuts, we had to begin a treacherous 2,000 foot descent.  Unfortunately, the weather on the next valley was crazy: once we crossed the peak there was a driving wind blowing the now legit rain into our faces and the temperature dropped to a few degrees above freezing. Instantly my hands were numb, my pants were soaked, and I was trying my hardest to see through the tiny slit I left in my waterproof jacket hood.

I finally decided to just go for it and I ended up half-jogging down the never-ending staircase. After about 30 minutes of awkward galloping, countless downhill switchbacks, and a few hundred meters, the weather lightened up and it began to warm up. Overall, we climbed down for about 2 quad-liquefying hours. Knees still shaking, we stumbled into camp and had hot tea and a huge delicious lunch.

But the respite was short lived, and we were told that we had to climb another 1,500 feet up. And then? Down another 1,320 feet to the next campsite (to our next meal).

So, I re-laced my terribly ugly boots and fortified by a small mountain of carbohydrates took to the trail again. I can’t say I didn’t consider lasso-ing a llama and riding it up the next pass. But the next few hours were beautiful, up slopes covered in ruins, past high, hidden mountain lakes, and up and down more and more stairs. We came to the top of the next pass (13,123 feet!) and then into a valley. Hanging on a ledge on the inside of the valley, there was a HUGE ruin, a compound overlooking the jungle floor.

Dan's feet didn't fit on the stairs! :)

It was a really amazing site (and sight). I was almost getting sort of tired of piles of rocks that people call ruins, but this one was really beautiful. The sun was setting behind the mountains, and this huge site was just clinging to this precipitous ledge. It was a great way to end the day.

After wandering around the ruin for a while, we climbed DOWN the valley for the last time for the day, and found our campsite. From the site, we were surrounded by vistas of snow capped peaks and the sunset. The fog rolled in just as the sun dipped all the way behind the mountains, and it got cold quickly. We had a HUGE meal, complete with hot cocoa and dessert. Not surprisingly, we passed out immediately. We had another big day coming up!

The Challenges of Attempting to do Science in South America

I have been in Peru since the end of June and this country never ceases to amaze me: the people are extremely helpful, friendly and giving, the scenery is breathtaking, the food is a gastronomic delight, and overall, living here has been a super-fantastic experience in almost every way. Its been great to get out on my "own" and pick up my professional and personal life and move it all to Peru for 6 months. But attempting to do science here has been a constant struggle.....

I thought I should document some of the struggle - I'm sure my boss will have a hard time understanding why it is so difficult to make progress here, and my colleagues from back home might find it interesting to hear about the daily things Peruvians overcome just to TRY to acquire scientific data here. So here goes!

Supplies: UGH. I mailed 8 boxes of supplies from the US. We used a shipping system through the US Navy who have a base here in Lima. It was supposed to be easier and more reliable, and honestly I expected it to be quick-ish. Well, one box made it after a month....but the other 7 boxes did not make it to my lab for another 4 months. Apparently they were being held "hostage" until everyone was sure who/what/where/when/why I would be doing. Bureaucracy, its fun. While they were being held, I returned to America and smuggled in replacement supplies since for a long time I had no idea if I would ever get my original materials, but lo and behold, a week after returning to Lima with suitcases full of tubes and pipette tips, my boxes were released and now I have tons of scientific supplies in my room at home because there is NO room in my lab. Yes, there are boxes of tubes, plates, and tips all over my bedroom.

It is either expensive, difficult, or impossible to get many things here. Some plastics are easy-ish (plates, tips, tubes), but we had a 3 month fiasco trying to order sterile media filters. And one item like that can bring a project to a screeching halt - we couldn't filter our powdered media or PBS (and you can't get the liquid) so we couldn't start our experiments on time.

Other things, like fetal bovine serum are AMAZINGLY expensive, even by American standards. They pay up to 3 times the US price. An antibodies and other "hazardous" products are expensive AND require special shipping permissions, making it nearly impossible to acquire them at all.


IRBs: My experience with ethics committees and IRBs was relatively tame, but so many people have HUGE issues getting their studies approved. Mine was already in the process of being approved at UCSD and here in Peru before I left the states, but it still took almost a month and a half after I got here to have it all rubber stamped and fully ok'd. But there are researchers here trying to set up studies from scratch in 3 or 4 hospitals that go thorough 6 month long struggles attempting to get studies approved before the can even BEGIN to start.


Space: If you take into consideration the average lab, like mine, we have about 5ish feet per person of personal lab bench space. The lab I work in here is much different! For each 5 feet of lab space there are about 3-4 people sharing a bench. That means you are constantly bumping people, asking to share equipment, and are generally elbow-to-elbow with someone the ENTIRE work day. No jamming alone to tunes on your iPod, no quiet time pipetting, just constant chatter and people in your professional and personal space bubble all day long. I usually love it, but some days you just need to get things done quickly and with concentration, and that is difficult here!

Coming in on the weekends: A pretty difficult thing to accomplish. Saturdays are do-able, you are able to get into the lab, but Sundays are really hard. You have to get special permission in advance, get paperwork signed, and it's a big deal. While this might seem nice overall, it makes doing science tricky.


Letters with stamps: Everything in Peru is documented with paperwork, and everyone that fills out said paperwork has a stamp. If you don't collect the right stamps in the right order, your stacks of papers are meaningless. This is true everywhere, from retails store to the university.

For example, if you walk into a local pharmacy, the Peruvian equivalent of a CVS or a Walgreens, you walk up to the counter and ask for what you need - all the merchandise is usually far out of reach behind the counter. Let's say you want sunscreen. If they have 10 varieties of sunscreen, you have to stand there and ask about each one, what SPF each is, how much it costs, is it waterproof, etc. Then you decide, and you get a piece of paper with the name of the product and the price. You then take the ticket to the cashier, and pay for your desired product....and you get a stamp. Once you get a stamp, you take the paper to a whole new person, who may or may not fetch you the product you intended to purchase. It takes at least 3 face-to-face, talking interactions to buy ONE product in a small store. The more products, the bigger the store, the more complicated every purchase becomes.
It is a similar process for all paperwork. Someone needs to be paid, someone has to approve everything, and you must have a rubber stamped piece of paper to prove it all. It's mind boggling!

Management: As I said before, I work with some very intelligent and amazingly nice Peruvian scientists, and it has been a privilege to be able to just barge in and use their space and attempt to do science, but it has been tough at some points die to the management style here. It's hard because the main bosses, the Principal Investigators (PIs) who's names are on the grant, are usually far away and in America. This means they show up every once in a while and get updates, but the rest of the time they manage the labs via half-English/half-Spanish e-mail exchanges and subordinates, which is a tricky thing to do. This means a lot gets lost in translation, and the rest is up to the people on the ground here.

Equipment: My main headache causer so far. I had two mini-mental breakdowns due to a refrigerator and a -80 degree freezer. The fridge had been cleaned out, but when it was plugged back in, it was plugged into an outlet with the wrong voltage (they use 220 volts down here, but also have a few 120 volt outlets to accommodate American equipment).....that meant that even though the light in the fridge lit up, the motor wasn't running. In fact, the fridge actually heated up to about 90 degrees (Fahrenheit) and $10,000 worth of my supplies (which i kinda-sorta smuggles into the country) sat in it overnight.

When I discovered it, I was heartbroken (Read: crying, mumbling incoherent Spanish at my poor labmates, etc). Not only were the supplies insanely expensive, but they were extremely difficult to get to Peru, since every refrigerated item has to be hand carried on ice on a plane by a scientist coming from America. Luckily, when we called the supplier they assured us the supplies would be alright even after heating....but who knows.

A second major and ongoing fiasco is a -80 degree (Celsius) freezer with a broken door latch. All my human blood samples that I collect from patients go into this freezer, but the latch that keeps the door securely shut is broken, and ice formed around the seal in the door. One Saturday morning I came in and discovered a huge puddle collecting under the unit and freaked out. All my samples that were supposed to strictly be kept frozen were sitting in puddles of cool water inside the freezer (along with many other people's samples). In the US, we would have it fixed or replaced immediately, but getting maintenance done here is hard, and getting a ginormous and expensive replacement freezer is next definitely impossible, especially on short notice.

I have definitely learned a lot from this experience, and I have a newfound appreciation for how spoiled I am at home doing science in a shiny new lab in the USA!

Huanchaco

This weekend was another infamous holiday in Peru, so a few friends and I decided to hit the north of the country and head to Trujillo and Huanchaco, cities on the beach about 13 hours (by bus) north of Lima.

The hostel's pet turtle

The Crew :)

Fanny, Dan Karlin, Dan Pastorius, Josh and I grabbed tickets on a comfy overnight bus, packed our bags, and got psyched for a few days of awesome Peruvian seafood, surfing and ruins. We decided to stay in a hostel right on the beach. We had big plans to visit ruins, see the city of Trujillo, and enjoy some Peruvian culture.

Fanny being serenaded

We arrived at the beach early in the morning after a LONG bus ride up the coast of Peru. Our hostel was awesome, it was two buildings, the first with a huge courtyard full of hammocks, complete with a resident tortoise :) We dumped our bags and went to find breakfast. The town was compact and fun - tons of restaurants and bars and cute shops full of touristy jewelry.

Caballitos de totora

We decided that we wanted to take some surfing lessons in the afternoon, so we found a little shop with some enthusiastic teachers, and headed back to the hostel to get our suits.  We showed up for the lesson and were led to the "other store" where they had all the wetsuits and boards...which was clearly just a crash pad for 20-something Peruvian surf bums. But we suited up in our mismatched wetsuits, booties with holes in the toes, and huge foam boards and headed out to the waves.

Sunset

On the beach, the "instructors" gave us a brief lesson on land (paddle, jump, pray!) and before we knew it we were out in the waves. The water wasn't as freezing as it was in Lima, and we had a fun hour or so being pushed into the waves by the instructors. But our foam boards were soon waterlogged and heavy, and my girly arms got pretty tired, so we didn't last very long after our teachers floated off at the end of the allotted lesson time. But it was so warm and sunny, and the water was great, and we sat on the beach and watched the men fish and surf in their traditional reed boats (caballitos de totora or "little reed horsies" :). 

Jammin' Josh

Street food!

We watched the amazing sunset, ate some fantastic ceviche, and lounged in the hammocks of our hostel drinking the local beers. We caught wind of a "Reggae Party" happening at one of the (only) bars in town, so once it was late enough, Josh, Pastorius and I headed out to see what a Peruvian beach reggae party would be like.

We severely underestimated how late the "party" would begin, and ended up being some of the first people to show up at the bar...but we had fun and eventually the party picked up speed.

But the band was pretty bad, and Josh was complaining that he could totally outdo the guitar player - so at some point when they were taking a break between songs I gushed to the lead singer about how my friend LOVED them so much and would be so psyched if he could play a song with them :) My Spanish flattery and charm being much improved since my early days in Peru, this worked like a charm, and in no time Josh was on stage improv jamming with the band! He rocked it!

Outdoor sleeping...

We got some street food (skewers of mostly unidentifiable meat - but what you could identify, you mostly didn't want to...chicken hearts, anticuchos (beef heart), regular grilled chicken, and random other treats), and headed back to the hostel. But what we didn't realize is that there was a strict curfew and we had been locked out! But the boys came to the rescue and scaled a wall using the vines growing on it as a ladder and made it over the outer wall and into the outdoor courtyard to unlock the door.

Peruvian hairless dog (ew!)

For some reason, we then decided it would be a great idea to sleep in the hammocks in the courtyard...so we grabbed all out pillows and blankets, and "camped" in the hammocks outside our rooms :) 

I was rudely awakened by other tourists giggling at us, and upon further inspection, realized I was the only one left in the hammocks. Apparently the boys got cold and left me swinging in the breeze alone!

Chan Chan

But we had a super relaxing day and did almost nothing but eat, lounge, shop and soak up the chill Peruvian beach vibe. We were all surprisingly totally in love with the little city of Huanchaco, and were having too much fun being tourists but not looking at ruins, museums, art or anything in the guide book!

On our last day, we decided to actually visit Trujillo, the city we originally were aiming to explore. We first stopped off at Chan Chan, which is famous for being the largest adobe city in the ancient world. We paid our money, skipped the high-pressure option for a guide, and wandered through the adobe maze. It was mostly eroded, with only small sections that had been "restored" to anything resembling the intricate patterns our guidebook claimed used to cover the walls of the city.

It didn't take long before we were all slightly bored, and we eventually headed into town for dinner. We had no real goals for sightseeing, so we stuck to the main plaza and a few side streets and found an Italian restaurant.

We ate and reminisced, but eventually we had to catch our overnight bus back to Lima :(

It was a really fun long weekend, and we were all happy and relaxed after all the sunshine, surfing, shopping, ceviche and local beer!

Fun differences between the US and Peru

After traveling to the USA a few weekends ago, I thought I would write about some of the things I found interesting and some differences I noticed between America and Peru - don't get me wrong, there are a lot of differences, but some are just more striking or life impacting than others. Peru friends: let me know if you have any to add! :)



Things I can't seem to find in Lima (which I actually seem to miss):
-Bud Light
-Chocolate chips (there is one brand of chocolate "flavored" chips, and they are bad and expensive)
-Books in English that don't suck
-Peanut butter that doesn't cost $8 or suck
-Cool Whip (via Dan Pastorius)

Random American things I can get easily in Lima:
-Snickers, M&Ms
-Kraft Mac n' Cheese
-Kraft Singles
-Reddi Whip
-Lay's Potato Chips
-Miller Genuine Draft (ew)
-Boone's Farm
-Jim Beam and Jack Daniels
-Free ATMs!! I can use an International bank named ScotiaBank and get money out without a fee. 

Things that are still odd/annoying to me about South America:
-The elastic and ever-changing concept of "on time" and time in general. "I'll be there in 15 minutes" might mean: a) 15-20 minutes, b) 2 hours, or c) "I had no intention of actually showing up, but I am trying to be polite and not tell you that." (or the converse, d) you walk into a meeting 30 seconds late and everyone is already there and stares at you...its mind-boggling)

-No toilet seats on the toilets (why!?!). Just the porcelain. And usually no toilet paper. And you throw the paper in the trash can. That's right, ALL paper goes into a trash can next to the toilet....this one might scare off a few Americans.

-Blatant disregard for anything even resembling traffic laws (like lanes, passing, or right of way) BESIDES wearing your seat belt (but only in the front seat....safety first?). This lack of rules also applies to any line as well (like to get on a bus, purchase something, etc)

-Complete lack of any emission laws - so much pollution! When I come home and wash my face, the water runs black :(

-Triple carbs at every meal (rice, potatoes/fries and bread....plus juice and dessert sometimes)

-Complete lack of heating...you just wear all your layers inside, too.

-Serious cat-calling: whistles, noises, kissy faces, whispers, shouts...you name it, I've ignored it.

-Never carrying a purse with valuables: Sometimes I carry a bag with a book or other little stuff, but my money/keys/cell phone are always in my pockets.

-Sub-par showers. Usually no pressure, sometimes only lukewarm water, and sometimes you get electrocuted from the electric water heaters in the shower head.

-Hanging my laundry to dry: Thought it would grow on me, but my jeans never fit right and some of my shirts get all stretched out. Grr. However, getting laundry done for you is super cheap :)

-CENTIMOS: Ugh. 1 centimo = 1/100th of a Peruvian sol = .0035 AMERICAN CENTS = worthless!!!! They are these stupid little coins that are ONLY given out and accepted at MAJOR grocery stores. Otherwise people must use them to level out shaky tables or something, because they serve no real purpose. And they feel like they are made out of plastic.

-Napkins: Peruvians like to fold their napkins or cut them into super small pieces. For example, if they are going to place a napkin under your drink at a bar, you will get a 1-ply square that is just smaller than your glass. And all napkins are about 50% smaller and thinner than their American counterparts.

Things that are amazingly better/cheaper here:
-FRUIT!!!! Cherimoya, maracuya, grenadilla, papaya, camu camu, I could go on forever.

-Aji! Amazing condiment made of peppers...like hot sauce but SO MUCH BETTER. Ugh, I am going to miss it...it has completely converted me to a spicy-foods-at-every-meal-even-breakfast person.

-Triple carbs at every meal - its blessing and a curse, but so yummy! (rice, potatoes/fries and bread....plus juice and dessert sometimes)

-Public transit: while I have a love-hate relationship with combis (mini-buses), its nice to never have to drive anywhere and get across town for 30 cents.

-Giant beers that you buy and share with everyone at your table (and you aren't allowed to say no when a Peruvian offers you some).

-Ceviche: raw fish marinated in lime juice, spices and heaven. Nuff said.

-"Sours": like Pisco sours, or maracuya (passion fruit) sours. Drinks made with pisco, fruit, sugar and just enough egg white to put a layer of foam on top after its blended or shaken.

-Long-distance luxury bus travel: So awesome! Nothing like Greyhound, and there are so many companies to choose from! And if you do an overnight bus, you magically wake up in a new city.

Random things I just find odd:
-When constructing a building, they leave the rebar sticking out of the top floor, like they might add another level on at any moment. All the buildings have this eerie, unfinished look.

-Stray dogs, they are everywhere!!

-Greeting people: when you walk into a room, you MUST greet everyone that is in the room personally, usually with a kiss. Even at work, even your boss.

I'm sure I will be able to add to this before I'm done here, but this list was a start!

Ciao!
Kristyn

Fin de Semana Larga!

Hola,

I bleed for science

Well, since Taylor left I have settled into my new place (although the commute is KILLER - at least 1 to 1.5 hours each way) and attempted to begin a regular lab schedule. The only problem is my supplies still haven't arrived and the project has been slow to get rolling. I did all my test runs this week on myself! That's right...someone in the lab who has drawn blood "once or twice before" stuck me, and I was "Patient 0." It was actually sort of fun to test my protocol on myself, and I think we worked out all the kinks and are ready for real patient sample next week!

Pisco and wine!

In the meantime, we had a long weekend for yet another Peruvian holiday. Of course I wanted to take advantage, and I planned a trip for myself and about 13 other Gringos that just arrived in Lima on various scholarships. We ended up going to Ica (I had already been there - wine tasting and sand dunes!) and to a small town called Lunahuana to go white water rafting.

We left at 6:30am on Saturday morning, but for some reason decided that since it was so early, the best idea would be to stay out all night the night before the bus, and go straight to the bus from the clubs....clearly this logic might leave something to be desired (like sleep!) but I embraced the plan and around midnight we headed out to a bar in Barranco.

Tacama vineyard

We stayed until after 4am, and the guys got odd looking hamburgers from a cart in the street on the way home. I had a bite, and they tasted delicious...but I still can't bring myself to eat red meat from a stand at 4am. We grabbed our backpacks, got to the bus station, and all promptly passed out for the 4 hour drive to Ica.

Some of The Gringo Crew

When we arrived, it turns out one of the guys packs didn't make it onto the bus, so we waited around for a Peruvian "15 minutes"....15 minutes coming from a Peruvian means anything from 20 minutes to about 2 hours. Then its "un ratito," which means "just a sec" or "maybe some time tomorrow if you're lucky." So we waited for about an hour and his bag did miraculously arrive. We dumped our stuff at our hotel and headed out for a wine tour.

The boys dancing on stage

Since I had already been to Ica (during the Peruvian Independence Week), we negotiated a great tour of 3 wineries and transportation for all 10 of us for only 20 Peruvian Soles per person (about $7 for a whole afternoon of wine touring!). We had lunch at the first bodega, and then hit two more. It was a relaxing and fun afternoon, and by around 6pm we were all pretty tired. We agreed to a long nap back at the hotel and all crashed for a couple of hours before dinner.

Pisco...

After the nap and a late dinner in Ica, we headed out to clubs near the oasis and the dunes...Well, I guess I should say "THE club," because there is only one decent bar in the whole tiny place. We danced and had a few drinks, and around 3:00am a few in the group headed home. Since I didn't climb the dunes last time I was here, I thought it would be a great idea to hike up the dune in the dark and watch the sun rise from the peak. 3 other gringos (Dan, Josh and Mary) were actually foolish enough to come with me ;)

Climbing the dune

Knowing we might get thirsty on our long hike up the dune, we purchased a bottle of pisco at the bar and began our little quest. We sadly underestimated the grade of the dune and spent the next HOUR on our hands and knees crawling up the dune! Armed with our bottle of fortification, we crawled on, and made it to the top...but we also underestimated the number of hours it would be before sunrise and we arrived about 2 hours too soon. Dan entertained us with borderline terrible jokes, and we sat at the peak as the sky gradually lightened.

We watched the sun rise over the misty valley and the oasis come into view. It was a beautiful morning, but we were all tired and quite sandy, so we began or trek down the dune. We discovered that if your ran down the dune while taking huge strides, you could bound down like a moon walker! However, we also quickly discovered that one false step meant that you would end up tumbling head-over-heels in the seemingly soft sand.

I volunteered to gingerly walk down the sand mountain after carefully storing everyone's camera in my ziploc bag and watched my friends careen down the steep slope (some more gracefully than others). We all made it down the hill with our limbs intact, and grabbed a cab back to Ica. Since it was only about 7am, we had a difficult time finding an open establishment for breakfast. But our taxi driver was sympathetic enough and drove us around in circles until we found a restaurant. We had tamales and juice and walked back to our hotel and went to sleep at about 9am.

We were rudely awakened by our alarms at 11 am, got dressed, and checked out of the hotel. The other 6 gringos had gone sandboarding, so we wandered the super small town of Ica in search of a massage. We found none, save for the world's creepiest Turkish bath house, which would "only massage women today. Men tomorrow." We never found a legitimate massage place, so we had some lunch, grabbed some ice cream, and sat in the plaza like all the other Peruvians. The mean security guard blew his whistle at us when we tried to sit in the grass (apparently that's not allowed in a park?) so we crashed on a bench and waited for our friends.

Who doesn't like Crack?

They eventually finished, but 4 of them decided they wanted to go to Paracas (to see the penguins), but I had my heart set on river rafting, so 6 of us hopped a bus to a town called Canete. It was an easy ride, and we arrived, grabbed a cab, and all 6 of us jammed in with our bags for the 40 minute drive to the town called Lunahuana. I had picked the town because it was supposed to be surrounded by vineyards with a river running through it for white water rafting...and it was only 2.5 hours from Lima! We arrived in the dark and couldn't see the river, and also had some trouble finding the hostel.

Our prison cell

After calling and stopping every person on the street, we found the place - but we were told we had "no reservations." Just so you know what I went through to secure reservations, I'll tell you that I called over 27 hotels in this small town, and FINALLY found this place which claimed they had space for 10 people!! But when we arrived he gave us the run around about having to "call and confirm the day before" and blah, blah, blah....and that they had no rooms for us. Knowing that every other hotel was dull (because I had called them all!!) I demanded that he figure it out. He thought for a while, wandered around in circles, and then brought me over to what I can only imagine was a storage closet. In the closet there were mattresses piled - he said he would try to make up 2 rooms for us in this "unfinished area," (read: construction site and storage closet). I knew it was better than the alternative of sleeping in the street, so I agreed. He tried to charge us triple the original price (for us to sleep in closets!!) but I talked him back down to the original price of 15 soles per person (about $5.50) and we left to get dinner and let him prepare the rooms.

Our prison cell bathroom

We had a tasty pizza dinner and laughed about the hostel. Luckily everyone thought it was hilarious, and we were all glad that we were only 6 people, not the original and impossible 10 people, because it never would have worked! We ate and had a beer, and even though we were all exhausted from our extreme lack of sleep, we decided to hop a cab into town to see the plaza. We got to the plaza, tried in vain to find an ATM, and attempted to get a drink. We ordered, waited for about 30 minutes, and then gave up when the waitress told us "one minute" for the 5th time.

We headed back to our dungeons/prison cells hoping to find 6 beds. We found 5 "bed like" items, shockingly had hot running water, and decided to ignore how odd the whole situation was and try to get sleep. My bed was rock solid, but I got a few hours....

The Rafting Crew

We woke up on Monday and were finally able to see our surroundings! We were in a valley between rocky hills, and it honestly looked a lot like Southern California. Barren and brown, but here, there was a river running through the valley! We checked out of the hostel as fast as possible, and started aimlessly wandering down the one road in town hoping to find breakfast or a cab that would take us somewhere. We were amazingly picked up by a combi (mini bus) and taken almost directly to the rafting place. We accidentally over shot the location, but after a few calls and a bit more wandering (a very common theme here in South America...I end up wandering a lot) we found it. And they even had a restaurant! We ordered lots of lomo saltados (beef sauteed with peppers, tomatoes, onions and french fries over rice) and waited for 4 more friends who were supposed to arrive from Lima to go rafting with us.

They arrived miraculously on time and we all ate breakfast, put on tons of sunscreen and bug spray (tiny mosquitoes everywhere!!!) and then suited up for rafting. We all piled into the back of a truck wearing all our gear, and were taken up river. After carrying the boats down to the water we were given a quick lesson and jumped in! The water was low since we were in the middle of the dry season, but we still had a lot of fun. We were divided into 2 boats, so we tried to race each other. Every time one raft would take the lead they would inevitably get stuck on a giant rock and the other team would pass....only to get stuck on the next rock! But it was fun, and in the middle of the trip the guides had us get out, swim around, and jump off rocks and float down the river. The water was surprisingly warm, and it was fun to float in the water!

After my raft won, we went back to the rafting office. They had a campground with a pavilion, hammocks, a huge lawn, and a rock climbing wall, and in our indecisiveness we ended up just lounging around soaking up the sun for the entire afternoon instead of going to visit wineries or anything. It was super relaxing, and we bought snacks and a couple beers from the teeny shop down the road and laid in the lawn for hours.

When we were all sufficiently eaten alive by the mosquitoes, tired of chips and crackers, and ready to return back to gloomy Lima, we hopped back into a combi and returned to the bus station. It was a mad house (the last evening of a holiday weekend, everyone was headed back to Lima) and we were split up, but we all safely got on buses headed back to Lima. We got back into dark, dreary Lima and I grabbed a quick bite to eat with two of the guys who live near my neighborhood.

Overall, it was a fun trip, and I want to go back to Lunahuana and lounge in the sun and explore the vineyards some day!

My pictures from the weekend: http://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/6717

Until the next mini-adventure,
~Kristyn