Journey to Machu Picchu

The tale of the journey of nine American city-folk through the ancient Inca empire.

Name:
Location: Los Angeles, California

Sunday, April 10, 2005

Day 2: Spending the day in Cusco and a picture costs me a great deal of dignity

The alarm went off at 6:30, but of course we didn’t wake up until much later than that. It’s just so easy to hang up on the wake up call! We headed down to breakfast where we met up with the rest of the crew. Greg and Bev were there with Ian and Helen from Australia. We were all reveling in the fact we only flew six hours from Atlanta, whereas they came a much longer distance and even crossed the dateline. That’s dedication! It was a very diverse and fascinating group of people that we would all get to know very well once thrown in the crucible of the Inca Trail.

Breakfast was very light and consisted of rolls and such since everyone warned us that eating too much could invite altitude sickness later on in the trip. They also don’t serve coffee here, but instead “essence of coffee” which is basically the blackest and most condensed form of the beverage served cold, then you add hot water to fill it out.

We boarded a bus and got a quick daylight tour of Lima on the way to the airport. There are some nice areas in the city with beautiful architecture and landscaping…the rest is all the casinos. We learned the two lowest paying jobs in Peru are teaching and being a policeman. Eh…no one needed education and public order anyway.

Shannon at the Airport
Shannon, Barbara and the local guide outside the Lima Airport

Back at the insanely busy Lima airport, we made our way through the crowds and down to the back end where we were to head off to Lima. Fortunately, we had enough time for everyone’s favorite airport pastime: duty free shopping. Here the primary item you see for sale in stores or from vendors are sweaters and hats made from alpaca or llama wool. Alpaca is a higher quality than llama, but both pale in comparison to vicuna, which we will get to later. If you want a colorful poncho, a nice patterned sweater, or just an interesting cap to keep your head warm in the crisp mountain air, they have it. Everywhere.

Waiting at the airport
Dad, Barbara and Shannon waiting to fly to Cusco

The view while flying to Cusco is staggering. The clouds form in ways you rarely see in the U.S. (at least on the coasts) and the mountains coming up through them are truly a majestic sight. The mountains here are all bright green, which adds to the beauty of the landscape.

Flying over Cusco

Flying over Cusco
The view while flying over Cusco

On the plane we tried our first Inka Kola. This is a drink you find all over the place (kind of like their Coke) and it’s bright, highlighter yellow. It tastes a lot like bubblegum – so carbonated bubblegum. If you can ever get your hands on some, I recommend it.

We landed in Cusco and already there were indications everywhere about the dangers of altitude sickness. The city is about 12,000 feet above sea level and while you don’t notice the thin air right away, you start to realize something’s up when you walk across the main square and your heart is already pounding out of your chest and you’re out of breath. Either that or we were frightfully out of shape. I choose to blame the altitude.

Outside the airport at Cusco
Shannon, Simon and me outside of the airport at Cusco

The airport sported an oxygen dispenser in case anyone had an issue, and an ad for a hotel on the wall talked about how some Scottish scientist is pumping air into the rooms to make it more comfortable. They’re REALLY not kidding about the altitude folks.

Ad for hotel in Cusco
An ad for a hotel in Cusco. What a peculiar selling point...

Driving into the city we passed a large statue of Pachaputec, the famous Inca mentioned before. Cusco was the spiritual and political capitol of the Inca empire and it is where the Spanish journeyed after their long voyage to “meet” these people and “make friends” with them. The result being there is very little Inca construction left in the city but there are a whole hell of a lot of cathedrals.

Pachaputec
A Statue of the great 9th Inca, Pachaputec

We arrived at our hotel which had a huge glass ceiling which surprisingly opened to the air at one end. I guess they’re not too worried about the climate or the rain in here. We checked in and then were given coca tea, a traditional herbal beverage used to help with the altitude and any number of other ailments.

In the Cusco Hotel
Ian, Helen and Bev in the Munay Wasi Hotel in Cusco

No, coca tea is not chocolate. It is precisely what you think it is. Hot water mixed with leaves of the coca plant, which the D.E.A. is actively burning down throughout the South American continent, much to the chagrin of the local farmers who grow it for a living. The ancient Incas used coca leaves in all kinds of offerings and ceremonies, and now the farmers use it to gain energy and to cure themselves. Despite its initial bad taste, it’s very soothing on the sinuses. Chewing the leaves numbs your mouth and is supposed to give you energy and quell feelings of hunger and thirst. It was not lost on Dad that the leaves are used to make cocaine and he reminded us of this at regular intervals. But we all had some to help…acclimate…yes…

Coca Tea
Ah...coca tea. So innocent here - a federal offense in the U.S.

Simon and Shannon drink tea
Simon and Shannon drink coca tea

We took a bus to lunch in the Plaza de Armas, the center of the city where the imperial palace was and where all the main Inca relics were kept in their time. Being Sunday, everyone was out on the streets enjoying the beautiful weather and selling everything and anything. At lunch we had more coca tea and had a number of different local dishes. Some of us decided to try alpaca, which tastes a lot like pork chops in my opinion. We were serenaded by a group of singers/dancers/flute players who performed some Andean music. They were definitely showmen. Especially when they attacked the table afterwards looking for tips and for us to buy their CD’s. Perhaps they didn’t notice we had tipped them long before.

Lunch performers

Lunch performers
The lunch performers. Before the attack.


Then we were turned loose on the streets to enjoy the afternoon. We had no idea how unprepared we were for the onslaught that awaited us. Our family has been to third-world countries before and we’ve dealt with street vendors pushing their wares. But this was unlike anything else. They came from absolutely everywhere and if you stopped for but a second, you were done for. Some had gourds that their “husbands” spent “days and days” carving into interesting shapes, some had oil paintings that they painted themselves (how odd that every vendor with paintings would happen to have the same style and the exact same subjects in all of their works) and some had little bracelets and alpaca finger puppets. They would come after you saying what nice gourds they had, or the little girls with the puppets would start reciting the presidents all the way back to Truman. I couldn’t even do that. One girl lost a sale with Dad though when she said that George Bush was bad and Bill Clinton was good. Oh little girl…politics is a messy, messy game. Barbara on the other hand was kind enough to humor the vendors and became a local favorite. They followed her everywhere like an icon. She eventually bought a gourd that was actually quite nice and she got a really good deal on it. Amazing how the prices come down when you have three different women fighting to sell you the same gourds.


Cusco Plaza de Armas
The Plaza de Armas in Cusco. This was the site of the Inca's palace

Fountain in the square
A cathedral seen through the fountain in the Plaza

Cam Recorder
"Cam-Recorder" in action


But there was one little bit of commercialism that nailed me hook, line and sinker and cost me quite a bit of dignity. Some people won’t necessarily sell anything, but they’ll dress up in colorful local dress, find some puppy or baby llama, then ask you to take their picture. One such band of cute, adorable thieves saw me and I knew they would want some money, but I also knew it would be a great picture. I asked how much they wanted for it. “Voluntario” they responded, meaning they weren’t going to charge me. So I took the picture and then the hands came out like no one’s business. I was going to give them something anyway so I just reached into my pocket and grabbed a couple coins and gave it to them. Then the mother started yelling at me and pointing at her hand again as if I hadn’t given her enough. It turned out I had given her half a Sol (the local currency is the Sol and 10 Soles, noted as s/ 10 are roughly $3) so that wasn’t very much. I reached for some other coin and handed that off. I had just changed my money and hadn’t really looked at the coins I got so I wasn’t entirely sure what I gave her.

Then we walked away and soon thereafter they chased me down and surrounded me. The girl, the mother, the grandmother, and god knows who else were boxing me in and shouting at me while waving the coin I had given her. It had a chip in it and they were claiming it was counterfeit. I knew that counterfeiting was a very real and rampant problem so there was a good chance they were right. And how do you blow off a little girl? So I took the coin back and gave them another. More yelling. Now I’m panicking. I want out of there so bad I give whatever I’ve got in my pocket and an American quarter. In the aftermath, it looks like they also made off with the “counterfeit” 5 sol piece. Ultimately, I handed over about $3 to the mob. I had been totally had by a little girl and her puppy. At least the picture was cute.

THE picture
I paid good money for this picture. They look cute now...


Now I was quite the laughing stock among Dad, Shannon, Simon and Barbara (Shannon especially was not going to let me forget) so I was determined to regain my credibility and strike some good deals. Shannon, Simon and I split off and wandered the streets a little to see what the city was like and I practiced with the vendors along the way. I didn’t buy anything but I managed to get any number of alpaca sweaters down to about $2. We all later came under the impression that “cinco soles” is a pretty fair price for just about anything they have to sell.

Simon and his hat
Simon sports his stylish new Peruvian alpaca hat and "Feaux-Kleys"


The gang at the fountain
Dad, Barbara, Simon and Me at the fountain. Shannon took this beautiful picture


Walking the streets
Shannon and Simon walking through the streets of Cusco


Evening falls
Evening falls in Cusco


Afterwards the three of us decided we wanted to try the national drink, Pisco Sour. Pisco is a Peruvian liquor and Pisco Sour is what you mix it into. To find this piece of Peruvian culture, we wandered into Rosie O’Grady’s Irish Pub. This must have been from the lesser known Irish invasion of Peru. Pisco Sour is quite good and tastes a lot like a margarita. If you ever get your hands on some Pisco, I highly recommend it.

Pisco Sour
Shannon, Simon and me in the most Peruvian Irish pub ever.


We headed back to the hotel where some people had been laying low since they were feeling under the weather from the altitude. The suggested remedy? More coca tea. Dinner was again pretty simple and made with ingredients to help with the acclimation, and lo and behold…more coca tea. By this point my hands were shaking and my face was starting to twitch. Perhaps it is time to lay off the tea.

After dinner Simon, Shannon and I had an all out game of poker and then headed to bed. It had been a long and eventful day, but it was just a warm-up. The trek still lay two days ahead of us.




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