Queso Helado

Ingredients

• 5-6 cups (1 liter) of fresh milk
• 1 can of evaporated milk
• 2 tbs (50 g) coconut
• 1 cup of sugar
• Cinnamon and cloves
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2 tsp corn starch
• 2 egg yolks

Instructions

1). Boil fresh milk, cinnamon and cloves for ½ hr.

2). Add concentrated milk, coconut, vanilla, sugar, and corn starch. Boil for 20 minutes.

3). Strain the Mixture, add two egg yolks, and beat vigorously. Add a little sugar to taste.

4). Freeze overnight.

Lomo Saltado

Ingredients

• 1-2 lbs (3/4kg) Beef Steak
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium onions
• 4 tomatoes
• 5 potatoes
• 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 1 tsp soy sauce
• Salt and pepper
• Oregano and cumin

Instructions

1). Grind up 1 clove of garlic, peel 2 tomatoes, and liquefy in blender

2). Cut beef into thin strips

3). Dice other two tomatoes along with oregano. Dice onions

4). Cut potatoes in preparation for French Fries

5). Fry the beef slices until brown on outside. Drain the juice and save.

6). Add liquefied tomatoes, garlic, pepper, and cumin. Add salt last so as not to suck water out of beef.

7). Add garlic and onions

8). Add other tomato and saved meat juice. Add balsamic vinegar and soy sauce.

Aside

1). Fry French Fries with salt.

Sango

Ingredients

• 5-6 cups of milk
• 1/4 cup of Pecans
• 2 tbs coconut
• ½ cup raisins
• Handful of crushed toasted peanuts
• ½ stick of butter
• ½ cup of cheese
• 1 can of toasted wheat
• 1 tsp of vanilla
• Sugar, Cinnamon, and Cloves to taste

Instructions

1). Toast wheat in frying pan without oil. Toast until color is slightly yellow. Be careful not to burn.

2). Add milk, raisins, peanuts, coconut, cinnamon, cloves, vanilla, and about 1 cup of sugar and ½ stick of butter. Boil for about 10 minutes.

3). Add wheat slowly until mixture has the consistency of oatmeal. Sprinkle with cheese and serve.

Papas de la Huancaina (my favorite)

Ingredients

• 5 boiled potatoes
• 2 hard-boiled eggs
• 2 Aji Peppers
• About 1 ½ cups cheese
• ½ can of evaporated milk
• 2 garlic cloves
• 1 small package of soda crackers
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• Lettuce and Black olives

Instructions

1). Boil the potatoes if you have not already done so.

2). If you have fresh aji. Peel and remove the seeds and boil for 10 minutes. If dry, remove the seeds. Fry the aji in pan with a little oil and salt. Add the onion and garlic and fry until onion is transparent. Add peanuts and cook for a second.

3). Add whole mixture to blender, add a little water and blend. Add cheese, milk, crackers, and cookies. Add salt and pepper to taste.

4). Serve on a bed of lettuce with olive and slice of hard boiled egg.

It’s delicious

Aji de la Calabaza

Otra Receta

Aji de la Calabaza

Ingredients

• 1 Calabaza (this is like a gigantic zucchini and if you can’t find it you can use 3 or 4 zucchinis in its place.)
• ½ diced onion
• 3 cloves crushed garlic
• 100 grams of habas peladas (these are gigantic peas native to Peru, peas or soy beans will probably work too)
• 1 choclo (this is like a giant piece of corn, white corn with suffice)
• ¼ pound of cheese
• ½ can of evaporated milk
• 2 dried yellow aji peppers
• 1 sprig of huakatay (this is an herb local to Peru)
• Oil, salt, pepper, and cumin

Instructions

1). Peel the calabaza, cut in circles and cut out the middle with the seeds. Grate the calabaza pieces with a cheese grater until you have about 8-10 full cups of grated calabaza.

2) Remove the kernels from the corn and peel the peas

3). Remove seeds from dried aji and soak in water for 10 minutes. Combine with three cloves of garlic and blend with ¼ cup of water, ½ tsp of cumin, salt and pepper to taste. Save a little garlic to fry with the mixture. After mixture is blended, add to sauce pot with a little oil and garlic and stir until sauce has thickened. Add ½ onion and fry until onion is cooked. Add the huakatay and the habas and choclo.

4). Squeeze the water out of the calabaza and add to the mixture. Cook mixture until corn is finished. Add the cheese and ½ can of evaporated milk. Allow mixture to heat up and serve.

Rocotos Rellenos

So we have been taking cooking lessons and in order to remember the recipes, I am going to post them on my blog so that we can all share and try them. The food down here is absolutly amazing.

Rocotos Rellenos
Ingredients

• 6-8 Hot Red Peppers
• 1/3 cup of vegetable or soy oil
• 1 diced red onion
• 6 cloves of crushed garlic
• 1 and 1/2 lbs of cubed beef steak
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 12-16 seedless black olives
• 1 diced tomato
• 1-2 hard boiled eggs
• 1 raw egg
• 6 large boiled and skinned potatos
• 2 lbs fresh cheese
• 1 and 1/2 cups of evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup of toasted peanuts
• salt and pepper to taste
• 3 cups vinegar

Instructions

1). Cut the top off the peppers and remove the seeds and viens. Save the tops Put the peppers in water with 1 tsp of salt, 1/2 cup vinegar, and 1 cup of sugar. Bring the water to a boil and boil for 10 minutes. After 10 minutes, strain the peppers out of the water and repeat two more times. This is to remove the picante from the peppers.

2). Heat some oil in a frying pan and add the garlic. After a minute, add the onions and a tsp of salt to help pull out the water. After the onions become translucent, add the tomatoes and cook for two minutes. Last, brown the meat, add a little cumin, add the raisins and peanuts. Cook on low-medium for 10-15 minutes.

3). Butter a large oven dish. Thinly slice the potatoes and layer into the oven dish. Start with a layer of potatoes, then a layer of cheese, layer of potatoes, layer of cheese and end with a layer of potatoes. Add small pinches of butter to the top of the potatoes.

4) Remove the peppers from the last wash of water and rinse. Fill the peppers with the meat and vegetable mix, add two black olives per pepper, and add a slice of hard boiled egg. Top with a thin slice of cheese and cover with the top of the pepper. Place in the oven dish with the potatoes.

5) Whisk the evaporated milk, 1 tsp of salt, and 1/2 cup of water in a small bowl and pour over the oven plate.

6) Beat one egg white until foaming, add the egg yolk and pour the foam over the oven plate. Sprinkle sesame seeds on top and bake for 15 minutes at 350 degrees or until the cheese is melted.

Serve with Pisco Sour :)

The Womb of the World

The Quechua people have a legend that the first Inca ruler, Pachachutec, emerged from the waters of Lake Titicaca with his sister and went on to found the Inca empire. I find that hard to believe as the water is so cold it would freeze the caca out of your titis.

Despite the funny name, we decided to visit Lake Titicaca and find out for ourselves just how cold the water was. We took the tourist bus from Cuzco that made the 7 hour journey to Puno in style. The bus stopped six times along the way to view ruins, take in some sites, have lunch, and just make the journey nice and relaxing. Most of the stops were relatively uninteresting, but the buffet lunch was fabulous and well worth the price we paid for the bus. There was also an interesting incident that we like to call "Alpaca attaca."


So there I was, minding my own business and hanging out with the alpacas. If you`ve never seen an alpaca, they are quite possibly the cutest animals on earth. They have these adorable faces and make the funniest sound when you scratch their butt. I´m going to discover a way to breed pygmy alpacas and then sell them to little girls who want ponies. Well, one of the alpacas must`ve sensed my ambitions and didn`t like me hanging around his girl. One moment, I was petting the cute little alpaca and all of a sudden the slightly uglier and larger one came over and tried to bite my ankles. I dodged away deftly and he followed. I shuffled backwards and all of a sudden I had a facefull of alpaca. The alpaca had reared up on his hind legs and was trying to knock me over. Luckily, they have really long and awkward necks, so I was able to grab that and keep him away from me. The owner came over laughing and calmed the alpaca down, telling me that he likes to play. Yeah.

We arrived in Puno with very little in the way of places to go and ended up asking the cab driver for a hotel recommedation. Big mistake. I told him we were only looking for a bed and warm shower, and he managed to bring us to both, but there wasn`t much else. We walked in and the manager was sitting behind a desk with pornography hanging on the walls behind him. He wrung his hands nervously as I looked at the place. He took me up to the third floor to show me the double room. The halls were dark and reminiscent of something from a really bad horror movie. The bathrooms didn`t have toilet seats and were about 100 ft from our rooms. And the shower was literally a water closet with a closet door that closed and lukewarm water. I immediately said yes. Why? you might be wondering. Because I was suffering from the worst case of travelers diarrhea I had ever had. I actually had to take antibiotics for this one as it didn`t go away within two days and I had crippling stomach pain that night. So Katie, horrified at my selection and scared for her life every time she went to the bathroom, moved right in and settled into our new abode. It was most assuredly the worst hotel I have ever stayed in, and a horrible place to get sick. But there we were.

So our first day was spent recovering from being sick. We wandered around Puno, did some internet stuff and went out to the Yauryi. This is a really interesting ship that is moored in Puno. In the late 1800`s the Peruvian navy wanted a ship of war to patrol the waters of Lake Titicaca. Well, being that Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world nestled on a plain on one of the highest mountain ranges in the world, this was no small undertaking. The ship was constructed in England and then shipped over in thousands of parts to Peru. These thousands of parts were humped by donkey and laborer hundreds of miles over the Andes and to Lake Titicaca. There, the Yauryi was assembled and set sail with another steam powered ship. Unfortunately, there wasn`t enough coal around at the time to power the steam ship, so the crew had to resort to burning dried llama dung. The ship was eventually decomissioned and then abandoned on the shores of Lake Titicaca. In the 1980`s an enterprising woman ,with way too much time on her hands, found the steamship and decided to rebuild it. The product sits at a very upscale hotel who we conned a tuk tuk driver to take us to.



The ship is magnificent. Perfectly restored and beautiful, with original wood paneling and funiture, fully decked out engine and steering room (I`m sure there`s a nautical name for that, but being from Colorado, which is thousands of miles from the nearest nautical thing...I don`t know it), and a full compliment of crew that lays around and waits for tourists to give tours to. Katie and I were given the tour and then played a little Capitan and his First Mate dress up and then it was off for drinks.


We wandered over to the nicest hotel in Puno. We brazenly walked in like we were staying there and because we were gringos, they didn`t give us a second look. We ordered a Pisco Sour and a Piña Colada from the bar. The waiter brought me the Pisco Sour and Katie the Piña Colada. I guess it`s not accpetable for a man to order a Piña Colada here. What! I like Pina Coladas!

The drinks were drank and then it was off to find the agency that we would use to travel around the lake. I had read about a relatively unique service that offered three days of sea kayaking around the lake. This sounded like a blast as I have never been sea kayaking and have always wanted to try it. I proposed the idea to Katie and I think she only accepted because she wanted to get out of the hole in the wall that we were staying in. So we organized the tour through Titikayak, met the verbose Guido the sea kayaking guide, and got ready for our journey.



That morning we woke up early and traveled by uncomfortable bus to the small town of Llanchon. Katie and I had our first true gringo moment when we accidentaly overpaid the bus driver. We arrived in a small hostal that overlooked the lake and after a brief introduction, a little food, some stretching and some kayaking instructions, we were ready to head out on the lake. The paddling was very relaxing as we glided along close to the coast looking for frogs and fish. The water was crystal clear and we could see almost 15 to 20 feet down. We were carrying our lunch and we stopped as we rounded the peninsula and before we started the long paddle out the first island of Amantani. When we did start the long paddle we had an interesting incident.



Sea kayaking is pretty boring. There was really nothing exciting going on in the hour or so that it took us to get out there, so I decided to try to spice it up by playing a little game of bumper boats with our guide. Who knew that kayaks were really unstable. Katie and I started paddling toward our guide and he laughed as our boat contacted his gently and pushed him around. The laugh quickly turned into a little scream and Katie and I watched in horror as our guide tipped in slow motion. I thought it was quite funny at first to see our guide`s kayak upside-down in the lake. He had regaled us with tales of learning how to roll in the kayak, and I thought he was going to just roll back over like a river kayak. After a few seconds and no movement, I realized I was mistaken and started to feel bad. I felt really bad when he came spluttering to the surface and started to shiver because the lake was so cold. I still felt bad until he loaded himself onto the support boat and Katie and I watched as he kicked his feet up and slept while Katie and I paddled to the next island. It turned out to be a blessing in diguise for him.


We didn`t really mind as we continued paddling to the next island. This was very very relaxing as the wind was at our back and we could just let it carry us to our destination. Our destination turned out to be this very quaint and charming little village situated on the island. Our hotel room had an expansive view of the lake and delicious food, which was just what we needed after paddling for five hours straight.


Katie and I slept like stones for a couple of hours and then we went to the festival. This was just a bunch of middle schoolers playing for a room of gringos, but it gave us the opportunity to dress up. Katie looked especially cute.


They played local music and we danced with around like the idiots we are. It was actually surprisingly fun for being so touristy.


The nexy day, we got up early, had a delicious breakfast of bread, jam, and muña tea, and headed for the sailboat. We thought it would be cool to try to sail around the island and then hop in our kayaks and paddle to the next island. Unfortunately, wind and sailboats were conspicuously absent from the village we were in. We did find a local fisherman with a sail and he agreed to sail around the island with us. He rowed us out and never raised the sail, but did let us try their strange way of paddling. They have a paddle mounted in the stern, they stand there and like a gondolier, move it back and forth like a fish´s tail. In this way, they are able to propel the boats surprisingly fast. First, our guide tried it and was able to move us passably well. Katie tried and did better than Guido. After a short time, I decided to give it a try. I got back there and nearly threw myself out of the boat with the first stroke. I eventually got the hang of it, but I couldn`t steer to save my life. After nearly running the boat aground, I turned it back over to the boatman.

We hopped back into our kayaks and proceeded around the island. This is where I discovered the fun of getting as close to rocks on the shore as you possibly can without hitting them. I weaved our kayak in and out of the rocks along the shore and had a ball doing it. We had lunch next to a flock of seagulls and then it was off to the other island. The journey was a very long way, and Katie and I decided to just be towed by the support boat to the other island. I know it`s lazy, but we were on vacation. After an uneventful tow, we proceeded around the new island called Taquile. We weaved in and out of rocks again until we reached our destination for the night. This was a small, secluded beach on the other side of the island that we had all to ourselves.


We put our kayaks back in the boat and went back for lunch which was at another stunning location. We were going to be camping on the beach again, and of course for a beach fire, you need some kind of alcohol. So we decided to run to the little village on the island and see if we could find some wine or beer. We hiked along the beautful island full of grazing sheep and little children peering at us above the walls. Our guide told us about a custom they have here. All the men were wearing these unusual, elf-like hats that were either white or red. Our guide explained that the men wearing the red hats were already married and the men with the white hats were available. It was kind of funny because we saw some little 12 year old kids with white hats on. The sun was quickly setting so we decided to try to run some of the distance to the village. If you`ve never run at 13,000 feet, I wouldn`t really recommend it. We made it about 100 yards and nearly died of exhaustion.


We got to the village and found our wine. The view of the lake from the plaza was absolutely stunning. Kids were playing with a bouncy ball as the sun set behind us and illuminated the tall moutains is Bolivia. We hustled back to the campsite on the beach and were greeted by the most gorgeous sunset I have had the priviledge of seeing since I`ve been here. The sun set and we got our tent set up, the fire roaring, and the wine flowing. We watched the millions of stars appear one by one and then went to bed and slept like the dead.


The next morning we woke up and I decided to go swimming. Swimming at almost 13,000 ft is not something I recommend. It was bitter cold, but nice to finally feel clean after a few days on the lake. We were going to paddle around the rest of the island and take a boat back to Puno, but my back had decided to give me some grief. I occasionally have lower back problems that are almost debilitating. I can barely move when this happens to me. So we just rode the boats all day and made it to the floating islands.

These are these really cool islands close to Puno that are made out of reeds. The islanders lay a new layer of reeds down every 2 months and have built their houses on them. They are a major tourist attaction now and have all the trappings that this kind of tourist attraction usually does, but they are still cool and interesting. We took a couple of pictures, rode around on the gondola and headed back to Puno.



All in all, great and relaxing trip. It was kind of expensive, but most definitely the best way to see Lake Titicaca.

Salcantay and Macchu Picchu

This was one of the most incredible side journeys that I have taken since I have been down here. The whole thing started with a couple of my friends writing and telling me that they were going to be down here at the same time we were. My roomate and I had already planned to meet up and hike to Macchu Picchu and it looked there would be two more with us. Amazingly, after a few short e-mails back and forth, we all found each other in Cuzco, had dinner, told stories, and planned our trip to Macchu Picchu.

We wanted to hike to Macchu Picchu, but the Inca Trail was all booked up, and we actually wanted to do the alternative route to avoid the crowds. So I looked up a few things on the internet, got a few recommendations and settled for what turned out to be a great guide. The night after we all met in Cuzco, we met with Miguel, our guide, to discuss the trip and figure everything out. We went over in painful detail every aspect of the trip and every single little charge along the way. In the end, we calculated that we could do the trip with about $200. That was $100 dollars less than what was offered by the agencies and we would have the flexibility to do whatever we wanted to do. We settled on the journey and the price and started to work out the details.

We left the next morning at 4:30am. Well, we actually didn`t leave until 5:30am, but we had to be at the bus station at 4:30. Knowing this, and knowing that my watch alarm wasn`t going to wake us up, we bought a little travel alarm to let us know when that ungodly hour in the morning passed. Unfornately, the little alarm decided not to function correctly, but for some strange reason, I woke up at 4:30 on the nose. I jumped out of bed and checked my watch and the next 20 minutes were a flurry of activity as Katie and I tried to get ready to go. Luckily, we had packed everything the night before. It was a mad dash for the taxi and we booked to the station. We arrived and had to wait another hour for the rest of the people to show up. Typical Latin American country. I did have one moment of satisfaction when I chucked the useless alarm as hard as I could at a stone wall and watched it shatter into about a billion pieces.

The bus ride was uncomfortable and uneventful, except for the view of the giganic mountains that we were heading towards. We came around a corner and this perfectly shaped, glacier-coated mountain rose out of a cloud covered valley. It was like something out of a fairy tale. We suffered through the rest of the ride and arrived at our first destination of Molletapa. This was just a little town that had a small restaurant where we had a typical breakfast and then prepared to go. We were pretty proud of ourselves because we decided not to use the pack horses that had been offered to us and instead carry everything on our backs, true Colorado backpacker style. That would turn out to be a very painful decision.

We started hiking from the village and were accompanied by two local children. They loved Katie`s sunglasses and were very helpful at finding all kinds of things that Miguel was telling us about. The first thing he showed us was this little fungus the grew on the underside of a cactus that turned into a brilliant red paste when you crushed it. We rubbed this paste on our faces to make us look like fierce Inca warriors. Mine was gone within about half an hour.

The first hour or so was pretty easy. We walked along flat ground, I practiced my Spanish with Miguel, and we even descended a little. The next three hours were brutal. We started climbing up this road. I have discovered that Peruvians don`t believe in switchbacks. If it`s possible to take a shortcut and go straight up something, there will be a trail. This was a recurring theme throughout the entire trip. So we started climbing straight up these switchbacks and pretty soon everyone was pretty tired. Luckily, there were sections on flat road where we could bring our heart rates back to normal, but it was still pretty tiring.

Just as we were climbing another switchback, and getting ready to mutiny against Miguel, we arrived at a flat field with a little store and an amazing view of the snow-capped peaks that we were headed towards. The other groups were resting here as well and we threw down our packs and feasted on salami and cheese sandwiches. We bought some overpriced gatorade, gave away a lot of our cookies to the cute little kids that were there, and had to pack up way before we were ready to leave. The next few hours were monotonous as we were just hiking along the road. Distances here are very decieving. We could see exactly where we were going, but hour after hour, we just couldn`t seem to get any closer. After several more hours of cruising along the road, we came to a flat field and the mountain of Salcantay rotated into view. This was our first camp.

We quickly set up our tents before it got dark. As the sun set and the mountains were lit up in Alpenglow, we ate spaghetti and drank the wine the Katie and I had brought. As we were finishing the wine and hot cocoa, Miguel lauched into a story about two German hikers who disappeared. In 2002, a German couple arrived at the same camp that we were at. They camped there the first night and then attempted to ascend the pass that we would go up the next day. Instead of going to the left and over the pass to the north, the Germans took the path to the right and went up a much more difficult and dangerous pass. They camped near a lake up there, and no sign of them was ever found again. A few days later, some local guides went looking for them. The guides found their tent and all their gear, but no sign of them. A rescue helicopter was called in and the search was expanded. Even the German government got involved and sent a special rescue team to the area to look for them. They were never found. Miguel has two theories about what happened to them. The first involves a village that is on the other side of the pass that the Germans were trying to ascend. Apparently, the people from this village are known as theives and unsavory characters, and maybe they somehow knew the Germans were there and came over and robbed them. The question remains as to why they would leave all their camping stuff down at the lake. The second theory is that they were climbing on the mountain and an avalanche buried them. Miguel thought this was the much more likely option. We went to bed and slept well knowing we were close to a village of theives.

The next day, we were awakened by Miguel kicking our tent and the faint light of the sun rising behind the mountains. This was the long day. We had to get an early start in order to be in our next camp before it got dark. We had some breakfast of disgustingly burned chocolate oatmeal, handed some money to Miguel to get us through the checkpoint and packed up our stuff. We waited for Miguel to come back. He got us the student discount with his connections, and we started the long haul up the pass. This was a brutal trip. We started at about 11,000 ft and hiked to more than 15,000ft in about 5 hours. The uphill was absolutely brutal and unending. We did manage to have some lunch before we reached to the top of the pass and the rest was very welcome. The only positive thing about this uphill was that we were constantly hiking closer to the base of beautiful Salcantay. The mountain loomed over us and reflected the sunlight amazingly. It was incredible. When we finally did reach the pass, the view of the mountain was gorgeous. Unfortunately, the wind was howling and that gets kind of cold at 15,000 ft. We took a few hasty photos and then began the long descent into the valley.

If we thought the ascent of the last few hours was brutal, then we were ill prepared for what the descent was like. Miguel had told us that the descent would be even harder than the ascent and from my experience climbing mountains in Colorado, I knew this was true. We began the descent and almost immediately were slowed down as yours truly and others started to feel the pain. Some folks were handling it just fine, so we sent them ahead to make camp and get some stuff done before we arrived. As we struggled down the valley, we passed many small villages with beautiful scenery. I was really wishing for my paraglider so I could`ve just glided down the valley.

After about three hours of mind-numbing descent we started to pass more and more greenery. The valley went from a light green of high altitude sierra grassland to the dark, dense green of mountain jungle. I couldn`t believe my eyes. We had just walked from one ecosystem into another. It was incredible. The jungle got denser and the air heavier as we descended. We eventually met up with the rest of our group that we had sent ahead and all continued together. Our feet, knees, and ankles were all taking a bruising, and to top it off, it started to rain a little. The last three hours of the hike were mostly a blur of pain as we hurried to get to camp before nightfall. It did get dark before we got to camp, but we plunged ahead without light because we were so close and didn`t want to stop to pull out our lights. We hauled our exhausted bodies into camp just after nightfall to the sound of applause. We were traveling the trail with about three other groups and a group of Spaniards applauded us as we came into camp. We were particularly proud of the achievement because we were carrying all our stuff, but it was definitely a painful choice.

The Spaniards helped us set up our tents and toasted us with beer and smiles. We cooked a meal of pasta, salami, and beer, washed off, and took stock of what we had just done. We had hiked over 10 miles, climbed over 3000 ft, descended more than 6000, and I burned over 6000 calories. But the hard day was behind us.

The next morning we woke up in the damp jungle to find almost everyone gone. Apparently, the Spaniards were hiking the entire way to Macchu Picchu and they had a very long way to go that day. We leisurly cooked breakfast and eventually packed up and made it to the trail. Today was a descent of the river to a little town where we would take a bus to our next destination...the hot springs.



The river we descended was beautiful and we crisscrossed it on numerous bridges. Early in the journey, we also encountered this really cute little kid and his dog. This kid obviously knew how to look cute for tourists, but we just couldn´t help ourselves. The day was pretty uneventful. We stopped for lunch, encountered some interesting animals from turkeys to millipedes, and finally made it to the small town, plopped down and had a celebratory beer. We were all pretty tired. But we somehow found the energy to participate in some dancing with the locals. They showed us a few moves none of us had seen before.



Then it was off to the hot springs. We had decided to camp at the springs that night for a well-deserved break. The truck ride to the Springs was pretty fun. We stood in the back and held onto the roll bars while ducking coffee trees and poisonous plants. We made a game out of trying to distract each other so that a tree would come and smack the other person in the face. I was having a particularly good time as every time we passed a coffee tree, I would pluck off some coffee beans and throw them at Dave. They would hit him in the face and he would curse the trees and wonder why they were only falling off and hitting him. Miguel was dying as he tried to contain his laughter.

We got to the hot springs after dark with way too much beer. We cooked our usual fare of pasta and salami, and then settled into the hot springs. They were immensly relaxing. The heat and beer made us pretty tipsy and we went to bed feeling warm and satisfied.


The next day was a return to city we had departed and then a trip to the Hydroelectrica. This is only way to get into the valley that contains Macchu Picchu. You have to drive to this little stop and either take the train to Aguas Calientes or walk along the tracks. We opted to walk and send our backpacks along with Miguel on the train. I`ve never actually hiked along train tracks, and although it was a little jarring, the walk was pleasant. There was a little adventure as I opted to try to cross a bridge the was suspended above the river about 60 feet just on the rail ties. Interesing feeling hopping from railroad tie to railroad tie with nothing but 60 feet of air underneath you. After about 2 hours of hiking, we came around a corner and the town of Aguas Calientes came into view. This is the closest village to Macchu Picchu and it was touristy.


You walk into the main part of town and are greeted by people trying to get you into one of the many restaurants that line the train tracks. We stopped, had some much needed lunch and met up with Miguel to get our backpacks as he got off the train. It felt like way too short of a goodbye for someone that had taken care of us for the last four days. We tipped him well, said our goodbyes with promises to send pictures, and that part of the journey was over. We went to bed early that night so we could get up at the crack of dawn to get to Macchu Picchu.

The next morning, we got up before the sun and started hiking in the dark to Macchu Picchu. For some people, this is the only thing they do when they come to Peru, and we had been advised to get there early to avoid these crowds. So we started hiking early and were soon hiking up a steep slope to Macchu Picchu. Again, there were no switchbacks as the trail ascended straight up the mountainside about a thousand feet. We got to the top and got in line for Macchu Picchu. We gave them our ticket and rounded the corner. Our first view of Macchu Picchu was of a few stone walls obscured by a thick fog. We started wandering aimlessly through the ruins. We found a large tour group and tried to insinuate ourselves into it. We all quickly realized this was a mistake as the guide started to talk about Macchu Picchu`s connection to drugged up Inca spirituality. We quickly made an exit and wandered through the ruins some more.

I had been told that it is best to climb Huayana Picchu, the mountain that overlooks Macchu Picchu, early in the morning so as to avoid the large crowds that go in the afternoon. We meandered our way over to the entrance, signed in, and started to climb yet again. The climb was steep and hard and the only thing that made it endurable was all the songs we made up about "Huayana Picchu all night long" or "I`ll Macchu Pich you." Endlessly entertaining.


We finally made it to the top and were greeted by more clouds. I can`t remember if it was Pat or Breanne, but someone was feeling adventurous and decided to climb up on a part of the ruin. We clambered after them and were soon on top of a precarious ledge perched above the valley floor with an unobstructed view of the river about a 1000 feet below. The height was intoxicating as we sat there and waited for the clouds obscuring Macchu Picchu to clear. The surrounding mountains would peek their summits in and out of the clouds as we floated above the ruins.


Macchu Picchu finally did rear it`s supposedly jaguar-like head out of the clouds and like the tourists we were, we snapped hundreds of photos of the site. We climbed a little higher to the very summit of Huayanna Picchu and were greeted by tons of tourists and mosquitos. There was also one very hot, half-naked brit who took a liking to Pat.




The descent from Huayanna Picchu was interesting. I had it set in my mind that I wanted to go down a different way than we came up to avoid the tourists and visit a seldom seen part of Macchu Picchu called the Moon Temple. The rest of the group was unsure that they wanted to go that way. I finally saw the real value in hiring Miguel. We didn`t have to worry about trying to make decisions six ways. I decided in my typical only-child fashion, that I was heading to the temple and the others could come if they wanted. They opted not to, which was probably better because there were several harrowing descents and the hike back to Macchu Picchu was a bear. The moon temple was cool, the structure was built in the back of a rather deep cave, and you got the feeling that you were just trekking through the forrest and you happened along some undiscovered ruins.

I made it back to Macchu Picchu about 20 minutes behind the rest of the group and found them almost immediately. Well, almost all of them. Katie had wandered off somewhere looking for me and we lost her for the next hour. The complex was stuffed full of tourists. There were lines to get up almost everything and large groups lead by English-speaking, flag-welding, animated guides. Languages swirled around us as we sat on top of the main pyramid and took in the chaos. I kinda wanted to wander around the rest of the ruins and listen to tour guides, but the rest of the group wanted to go back to town for lunch. We hadn`t really eaten anything that day as we hadn`t prepared for the 5 am departure Since I had already defied the will of the group once and lost my girlfriend for my all that, I decided to stick with them as we made a slow exit. We eventually did find Katie at the entrance and we all beat a hasty retreat by bus down the mountain for lunch.



Usually, people take the train back the same day that they visit Macchu Picchu, but we had another night in Aguas Calientes because there were no seats left that day. So we shopped, did some internet stuff, said we were going to go hike to the waterfalls the next day, but ended up sleeping in and being lazy all day. We did have one high point in the rest of the trip and that was the train ride back to Ollantaytambo.

We hopped on the train the next day and there were hardly any people on it. Katie and I surrepticiously stole the good seats from Dave and Breanne, and settled in for the hour and a half train ride to Ollantaytambo. Just as we were falling asleep in the warm cabin, we were awakened by the sound of music playing and bells ringing. I had the brief dream that I was on the Polar Express with a warm cup of steaming hot chocolate....and then I woke up to this.....


A crazy masked man was dancing around the cabin with a board on his head. But the really funny part didn`t come until after the dance was over. A tall, dark, and handsome train attendant emerged from the bathroom and gave us his best "Blue Steele." He pranced down the aisle doing modeling poses and I`m sure trying to forget the fact that he was modeling sweaters on a train. Needless to say, we were very entertained.


Katie and I were stopping in Ollantaytambo for a night and a day of horseback riding while everyone else continued to Cusco. The trip ended with hugs and promises to write and send pictures, and just like that, it was over. We`d been traveling together for five days and it seemed like just 10 minutes. All-in-all a very memorable trip with great friends, great scenery, history, excitement, and lots and lots of spaghetti.

Sandy Sand Sand

We have been traveling down the desert coast now for a few days. This is part of the Gringo Trail that begins in Lima, travels south to the desert and Arequipa and then ends in Cuzco and Macchu Picchu. The desert is really amazing. It is created by the Humbolt current that travels up from the Antarctic and congeals the waters of the Pacific Coast south of Lima. These cold waters ensure that all the moisture is wrung out of the air before it reaches the coast.

We started the journey in Lima. We made a quick stop at one of the exclusive southern beaches near Lima, nearly got stuck in the small town trying to find a bus to our next destination, and spent the rest of the day traveling to Pisco. Pisco is the launch off point for the desert preserve of Paracas and the Islas Ballestas or "Poor Man`s Galapagos." These islands are a short boat ride away from the coast and there are many tour operators that go there. We arrived in Pisco, threw down our bags and booked a tour. Many tours combine both the Islas Ballestas and the Paracas National Reserve into a single day. We heard that the reserve tour was not worth the money, so we just booked the Islands and did the reserve by ourselves. One of many good decisions that we have made.

The Ballestas Tour started with us being picked up from our hotel in early in the morning and bussing to Paracas. The tour guide was this middle aged lady who was very nice, but had an extremely strong accent. The road to Paracas National Reserve is peppered with feeesh factories. These factories make feeesh oil, feeesh food, and other feeesh products. It did actually smell pretty bad. It was also kind of ironic that all these factories and industry were situated right next to a national park.

We made it to the dock and were herded onto the boat with a bunch of other tourists. It´s been a while since I´ve done anything touristy and I decidedly don´t like being a tourist. But this was a pleasant trip. We had some great luck right off the dock as dolphins were surfacing to eat a school of feeesh that were right below the surface. There were also these really cool birds called comorants (I think) that were dive bombing the fish. It was really cool to watch. The birds would get about 20 or 30 feet above the water and then fold their wings and lawn dart into the water. They would surface and repeat the whole process.

Our next stop on the Ballestas tour was a mysterious image carved into the sand that some people hypothesize was used by ancient cultures...to contact extraterrestials. Extraterrestrials seems to be pretty popular explanation for pretty much anything here.