Speed Vacationing in Peru

Gap Tours doesn't mess around when it comes to jamming entire countries into small amounts of time. I have been so non-stop for the last 2 weeks, that most mornings I wake up having no idea where I am. Albeit I wanted this fast pace trip, because I finally come home in just 7 short days and, of course, I wanted someone else to do all the work (that someone is Alim, our Peruvian tour guide.) Gap has also introduced me to some amazing people, including Jesse my Australia roommate and John, my fellow American who reminds me an awful lot of my cousin Robbie (we are always getting into trouble.) Although most days I feel more like a tourist than a traveller, for anyone who wants to see the world with the typical America's two-week vacation, a tour is the way to go.

Peru is the land of plenty. Although rich in natural resources and major tourist attractions, they still struggle economically, falling victim to governmental corruption. One town in Peru, Arricipa, is so rich in copper that they desperately want their independence, and have gone so far as to create their own currency and legal system, but of course it has never been formally granted. To hike Machu Picchu 4,000 - 5,000 tourists a day pay $50 USD each, but only 2% of that $200,000 a day comes back to preserve the site (after both Lima and Cusco take their cut.) While Peru sells low-cost gallons of natural gas to Canada and the US, they charge their own citizens about 10times that amount. From what I hear, unfortunately, there aren't many Peruvians that actually want to be from Peru. Needless to say, I have loved it so far; it is truly an amazing country.

Our first stop in Peru was to Lake Titicaca. Besides it having a very funny name, it is the largest navigatable lake in the world, with impressively large islands and rich in ancient history. Our first stop was to stay the night with a local family on one of the islands.
We hopped off the boat and walked to the center of the "town", first playing a game of football with the locals (where I nearly died from overexertion in the altitude), and then met our new "mama's and papa's". My new daddy happened to be a 16 year old boy, who brought us back to his small clay hut, where Jessie and I played spoons (a fun card game) with him and his siblings all afternoon. That night we all dressed up like the local people (4 layers of colorful skirts, a cumberbun/corset, black jacket, and a hat your grandpa would wear) and went to the dance hall, where I was aptly nicknamed "payasita" by the locals, which means little clown.

From there we travelled back to Puno, where that night we ate Guinea Pig (its little cooked head and teeth were pretty gross, but it basically tasted like deep fried skin), and then early the next morning headed to Cuzco.
Cuzco is the historical capital of Peru, described as the "Rome of America", and hundreds of years ago was the heart of the Incan empire. With cobblestone streets and a duomo cathedral in the center of town it was an amazing place to spend a couple of days. After a cancelled plane ride to the Amazon Rainforrest I did an afternoon ATV ride through the Peruvian mountains, which ended up feeling more like a game of Mario Kart, as we raced through patches of mud and I nearly got driven off a cliff .


The next day we finally got a cleared flight to the Amazon, and after a bus ride, boat ride, and long walk through the forrest, we arrived at our resort. Despite having no outside walls, no ceilings between rooms and no hot water, the place was high class. The highlights of our two day adventure included pirrahana fishing, a hike through the jungle at night (seeing a massive tarantula, lots of frogs and other bugs), and having spider monkeys right outside my window.


The Lares trek is the "alternative" mountaneous hike to the Inca Trail since unfortunately, the Inca trail is closed for the entire month of February. Almost instantaneously I realized our guide was angry at the world (he kept telling me I asked stupid questions and yelled at me like an angry grade school teacher when I made noise during his 20 hour speeches), but that our porters were amazing; they would set up our camp and tents, then break it down quickly and run ahead of us to have our next spot set up, and in the mornings serve us hot tea in our tents!!
Here is my summation of the Lares Trek: knee-deep mud, rain ponchos, mountains, high altitude, lots of llamas, amazing food, and lots of laughs. After the trek I even had to throw out my 3 month old sneakers, and a pair of socks. Disastrous!


Last, but cetainly not least, was my visit to Machu Picchu. After a night in the town of Aquas Calientes (which literally means hot water), where there ironically was no hot water in the showers at our hotel, we took our 4am bus (with thousands of other people) up to the top of the mountain where the Incas built their civilization 600 years ago. We luckily had the best weather EVER and since it is actually quite big, it never felt overcrowded. Hands down the most amazing sight I have ever seen!! I cannot believe I will be home in less than a week!!

3rd World Country, 1st World Experience

I can just picture the look of dissapointment on the face of a Miss World contestant when she is told she is the second runner up, which is a fluffy phrase they use so they don't have to let her know that she is actually 3rd place; not first, not second, but dream-breaking 3rd. When it comes to countries, the western world decided to give these same rankings, based on economic development and quality of life, but inadvertantly put into the publics mind that certain countries are just not good enough; the world's second runner up. If I were a judge, I would change the criteria adding culture, character and charisma. It seems the more "economically developed" a country becomes, the more they lose their own culture; the "better" the quality of life becomes, the more they end up just like any other Western world. I was only in Bolivia for 10 days, but it didn't take long for me to realize how spectacular and different a 3rd world country can be. I never felt I was getting the real "South American" experience in Argentina or Chile - they were expensive, people dressed in western style clothes, and you could find a MacDonalds in most cities. Bolivia is culturally different, the local people wear very traditional clothing (top hats, large skirts and multiple layers of colorful wool), the houses are made of mud and straw, and exotic foods and spices are sold on every corner. It may be considered a 3rd world to western cultures, but it is first world in my book.


It is hard to imagine a city that covers an entire valley, with houses perched from the highest peaks to sky scrapers lining the bottom, all of this at a staggering 3,630 meters above sea level - but this is La Paz. It has the feel of a chaotic Asian city with pushy street sellers (selling everything from trinkets to help you find a husband to baby Llama fetuses), a constant stream of beeping vehicles and people everywhere. The rich people live in the valley's center (because they pay more for their oxygen) whilst the poorer people live at the highest altitudes. For the first two days in La Paz I swore I had a brain tumor, as I would wake up in the middle of the night with excruciating headaches, but this is unfortunately just a side affect of altitude sickness. While in La Paz I visited the town center (and stumbled onto a speech being given by the President), took a tourist bus, went to the valley of the moon (not to be confused with the one in Chile - this one is basically large sand spires that you walk through), and haggled with the street sellers for some Alpaca clothing.

After meeting the members of my gap tour (three Ozzie girls, two Scottish guys and one Dutch guy), we flew to Sucre, "the white city" and historical capital of Bolivia, which hundred of years ago was so wealthy from the nearby silver mines, it economically outranked London and France.
After a quick city tour we headed to the markets where we bought up large quantities of toothbrushes, diapers and other miscellaneous items, and spent the afternoon at a local orphanage. The following day I subjected myself to a full 4 hours of mountain biking, which offered beautiful views, but really just left me itchy from the constant vibration, and tired from the 1km uphill bike.

From Sucre we headed to Potosi, with a staggering altitude of 4,070m, where locals still work in silver mines dating back to the Spanish colonial era. Unfortunately it is quite a sad lifestyle, as I saw in the amazing documentary "The Devil's Miner", and witnessed first-hand on a mine tour, where you will see children as young as 11 working in the dark and dust filled caves.
The Bolivian people are very religious and although they believe in Jesus Christ outside of the mines, while underground they worship the devil, making offerings and sacrifices to devil statues found in every mine. The best part of the mine tour was that I got to hold dynamite and amonia nitrate which we gave as a gift to the miners in addition to cigarettes, alcohol and coca leaves (the starting product of cocaine, which the miners chew ALL day long for extra energy.)


Our next stop was to Uyuni, a small, dusty town, which is the jump-off point for the famous Bolivian Salt Flats. The following day we headed out in our convoy of 4x4 vehicles stopping first at another train cemetary and eventually ending up at breathtaking salt flats. White salt and perfectly reflected sky on the flat water (since much of the flats were flooded) stretched out as far as the eye could see. Traditionally people use this scenery to take depth manipulated (and ridiculous) pictures, which of course I did too!
That night we slept in a guest house made entirely of salt; the walls, the floors, the tables and even the beds. We spent the next two days touring the 5,000m scenery including spectacular lagoons, snow-capped volcanoes, desert flats and even some geysers. After a long exhausting trip we hopped on a night bus back to La Paz. Although the trip was only supposed to take 9 hours, in traditional Bolivian style, the trip took about 20 hours, as we had to sleep overnight next to a river that we weren't able to cross in the dark.

I have been in Peru for the last 2 days with a new gap group, (and a 1 day rendevous with Mick!!) and it has been amazing so far. I will post about my Peruvian adventures in a week or so!!