A little drug humor with your tea?

This is mate de coca, a simple tea made from the coca leaf, which we´ve been enjoying since our first hours in Cusco. Its a local favorite, mostly because it is the natural cure for soroche, otherwise known as altitude sickness. And yes, if you refine the leaves to a concentrated form you get cocaine.
The tea carries none of the effects of cocaine and is completely legal here. Unfortunately because of its illicit capabilities we can´t bring it back to the States with us, even in the prepackaged tea bags. Soroche has not been a factor since our first night here, but we´ve been drinking as much as we can while we can.
I wouldn´t say it´s my favorite tea, but I like it. It has a sort of an herbal, nutty, barnyardy taste that´s difficult to describe. I know that sounds bad, but if you come to Peru you should try it, if only for the experience. I also think its a pleasant little marvel of nature, that it cures an ailment specific to its habitat.
If you make it to the Andes and try it, as a warning, even though it has no concaine-like effects and is non-addictive, it can lead to harder stuff...

-Reid

Cusco: Part One

Inevitably plans change... We'd planned on flying to Cusco.  A one hour flight compared to the 22 hour bus ride seemed like a no-brainer. Upon discovering the price, however, we realized that we are cheap. Since bussing figures to be our means of crossing Boliva we weren't so excited about lengthening our time on the road. Our hostel had a small travel agency in it, and when we saw how nice the busses were our minds began to change. They were actually quite posh, with reclining, comfortable seats and meal service. Figuring that the bus saved us a nights stay in a hotel and aclimated us to the altitude more gradually, it became not only economical, but practical.
We departed Lima at 2:00 pm, which gave us a few hours of daylight to watch the landscape change, going from metropolis to stark desert in a matter of an hour. By the time night fell not much was different. When we reached daylight again the brown dunes had turned to dramatic green hillsides whose winding roads amounted to the lenghty travel time.

We were pretty ready to get off the bus in Cusco.We'd picked a hostel a short staircase off a level road, an easy task to climb at sea-level, but halfway up we could feel the effects of the altitude. Certainly not the crippling effects we'd been warned about, just slight headaches and the feeling of having the lung capacity of a ninety year old. We were greeted by Jose, one of the hostel owners, who led us to the rooftop terrace to wait for our room to be prepared. He returned with cups of coca tea (yes, that coca) and we sat in the sun taking in an unbeatable view of the hub of city, Plaza del Armas.

Plaza de Arrmas, as seen from our hostel patio

Enjoying the coca tea

Not missing the bus

That evening we took in some of the town and had a nice meal at the Plaza. We'd been excited to try "cuy," or as we know it, guinea pig (sorry to any guinea pig owners, but its an Andean staple). While good, it didn't quite live up the hype, but we're eager to try it prepared another way.  We also tried alpaca, sauteed with vegetables, which was good and tasted a lot like lamb.

Cuy al Horno, roast guinea pig

The next morning, after a long night's sleep, we woke up intending to spend the day taking care of a few errands and then seeing the city.  Again, plans change.  On the docket were organizing our trip to Machu Picchu and finding a place to get Yellow Fever vaccines.  We thought the trip to Machu Picchu would be a piece of cake to put together, considering that it's why most tourists come here.  Buy a train ticket.  Buy an entrance ticket.  Save money over going through a travel agency.  Yeah.  Not so much.  We couldn't find any consistent information on pricing or availability of entrance and train tickets.  This was only compounded by temporary changes in rail service and a new online system for buying entrance tickets, which is not 100% up and running.  Throw in a language barrier, and after several hours we had made exactly zero progress.
Ditto for our vaccine adventure.  This was something we had heard mixed information on whether or not it is required for entrance into Bolivia.  We guessed wrong.  It is.  Rumors of a free clinic (I'm sorry Mom) had us walking across town to find the hospital.  After a few failed attempts we were directed to a pharmacy in the main hospital where we could just purchase the vaccine, syringe and all.  We had a momentary, but very real, fear that we might actually have to inject oneanother.  Luckily we were directed upstairs where a nurse did all the dirty work.  Once we found the right place it took a mere five minutes.  No perscription, no appointments (no rubber gloves), done.  As far as healthcare systems go;  Peru: 1, America: 0.
This experince was a realization for us in that sometimes professional assistance is preferable.  It was a nice thought, planning our Machu Picchu trip on our own, but it just wasn't going to happen.  We went straight to our hostel, who of course has a travel agency, and they booked our trip easily... for less than we were expecting to pay.
These kinds of setbacks can be rather frustrating when traveling, especially since this was supposed to be our one day to enjoy Cusco. Learning from past travel experiences, we handled it pretty well and didn't let it get us down. Booking our visit so late in the day meant we couldn't get to and see Machu Picchu in a single day. We'd have to take the train to Aguas Calientes on Tuesday, stay the night, and see Machu Picchu on Wednesday. Ultimately it pushes plans back a day, but it bought us another half day in Cusco, a city we then really began to enjoy.

Hillside view from Plaza de Armas. Our hostel is a few levels down from the church.

Quite hungry at this point we made for the San Pedro market, filled with produce vendors, souvenier stands, and dozens of restaurant stalls. Our dinner the night before was nice, but it was Peruvian food served in a familiar restaraunt setting. At the market we got to eat the way locals do. Not much for aesthetics, just tiny white benches right by the cooks. For less than two dollars we shared a huge bowl of soup and lomo saltada (sauteed pork with potatoes and rice), a seemingly unfair price for how good the food was. For dessert, we had picarones, pumpkin and sweet potato donuts smothered in rich syrup that cost fifteen cents apiece. We also stocked up on food to bring to Machu Picchu for similarly low prices.

Vegetable stand at San Pedro Market

Lomo Saltado



Fresh fried picarones

We'll be coming back for breakfast, and likely for lunch.

We wrote this post on Monday, but the computer wouldn´t upload the photos. We´ll have more on Cusco after our trip to Machu Picchu.

Lima

So... we´re here! We´ll spare the details of the slog down to Lima. Suffice it to say, we had three four-hour flights, Portland to Houston, Houston to Panama City, and Panama City to Lima. All flights were unremarkable, but the fourteen hour layover in Panama was where things began to drag. Thankfully everything from there on was a cakewalk. Customs was a breeze, we had a cab waiting for us with a prearranged fare, and the hostel we booked upgraded us to an eight person ensuite, which we got to ourselves.

Ah, beds... I remember those

Our view of the courtyard

The hostel converted their well (top left corner of picture above) into a barbeque which they fire up on Thursday nights, so we didn´t have to go far for dinner. Mike, one of the owners manned the grill, and cooked up some scallop and octpus skewers, fish, and chicken to be served with mashed sweet potatoes, salad, bread and boiled potatoes with a sauce. After being limited to airport and airplane food this was a welcome change. Throw in a Peruvian beer and we were in bed by nine, the first beds we´d slept in since Monday night.

Mike, uncharacteristically without a beer

Why, yes, that is Cristal we´re drinking

This morning we´d made plans to meet with a local named Rosario, a family member of a friend of Reid´s dad. For only knowing her through several degrees of separation she was a very generous and enthusiastic host. Already having recommended the hostel and arranged our cab from the airport, she also offered to take us around Lima for the day with her daughter Giselle.

Rosario and Giselle with dog Boni

Rosario and Giselle took us around their neighborhood, Miraflores, to a farmers market in the adjacent neighorhood of Surquillo, beachside malls and parks, and to what is the early favorite for meal of the trip. We´d asked to go to their favorite ceviche restaurant and it did not disappoint. To share we had plates of traditional ceviche pescado with sweet potato and Peruvian corn, causas: sweet potato puree and lemon with crab, tiradito: ceviche topped with chile and olive cream sauces also with corn and sweet potato and a house specialty: cilantro rice with squid, lobster and octopus, all washed down with chicha, a drink made from purple corn and apples.For all their time and help we were eager to pick up the tab which was a mere 105 soles (about $35). A meal of this size and quality would have easily gone for well over $100 in the U.S., so, yeah, we like Peru.

Ceviche Pescado

Arroz Punto Azul

Needing to walk that off, we took a walking tour of Central Lima. We saw the president´s house and the impressive Basilica Catedral de Lima, which houses Pizarros tomb. We returned to Miraflores and wrapped up in a quieter neighborhood, Barranco, where most artists and writers, including the 2010 Nobel Prize winner for literature, live. Still full from lunch we passed on dinner and moved on to ice cream, then thanked our guides and called it a night.

Basilica Catedral de Lima

A chuch across the street from the Peruvian equivilent of Wal-Mart

Library in Barranco

Most guide books suggest departing for Cuzco (to see Machu Picchu) before leaving the Lima airport. They say that there isn´t much to see, but we´re glad we stayed a few days. I suppose Lima is much like Los Angeles; sprawling, smoggy, croweded, and the traffic is awful. But 10 million people live here for some reason, and L.A. doesn´t have really cool, crumbling architecture topping its shoe shops and fast food restaurants.We´re glad we saw Lima, especially the way we did.  This feels like a city worth spending some time to get to know.  That said, we´ve got 30 days left and lots of ground to cover, so we are very excited to head for Cuzco tomorrow. 

Eyes and Stomachs, that's... nice?

Perhaps we should explain.

First of all, we're going on another trip!  (Finally!)  To be more specific, we are backpacking across South America for one month.  True, this is a tall order, but we are so excited to see new things, meet new people, and eat as much food as possible.  This is a whirlwind of a trip and we will be taking in all that we can... with both our eyes and our stomachs.

To say that this trip came together quickly would be a huge understatement.  We have a general idea of where we are going, a few thoughts on how to get there, and that is about it.  Basically, this is our idea of a perfect trip.

We leave Wednesday the 26th for Lima, Peru.  We are so incredibly lucky to have an acquaintance of an acquaintance meeting us there to show us the city and it's food in a way we could never have discovered on our own.  The plan is to stay in Lima for a couple days, then head to Cusco and Machu Picchu.  From there... we'll see.

We realize how fortunate we are to take a month off from real life to go on this adventure.  We would be remiss not to thank a few people right out of the gate...  Our bosses are beyond incredible for letting us take this time off, our landlords have helped us out in a most generous and unprecedented way, our parents for their enthusiasm (despite anxiety) - especially Nan's mom for watching our pets, and our friends (Scotty, we're looking at you...)

We look forward to sharing our adventures with all of you... and we'll see you in a month!

Nan and Reid