Peru, Day 4

I woke up at five a.m. to the sound of rain hammering the rooftops all over Aguas Calientes. And while I tried to sleep again after that, at six there was the sound of a drill at a construction site to make sure I didn’t succeed. It only last about five minutes, though, but it was kind of the drill-operator to be the morning alarm for probably everyone in the town.

With nothing else to do at six a.m., I headed downstairs for breakfast, which consisted of oatmeal with capuli (a Peruvian fruit) preserves, a bowl of cut pineapple, papaya, honeydew melon, and pepito (a local fruit that tasted like a combination of an Asian pear and a honeydew melon), some bread (like the pita-type bread I had in Cuzco) and cheese, a couple pieces of puffed rice mixed with something that tasted like licorice, and coffee that was full of grounds.

While eating I had a long conversation with very nice twins from Ottawa, Canada, who were traveling through Peru for a month. They told me that they saw a double rainbow that spanned the middle mountain at Machu Picchu yesterday afternoon. Their guide was all about extra dimensions and explained to them the relationship between Machu Picchu and civilizations he’s visited on Mars and Venus. Apparently, people on Venus wear silver body suits and when they have “pure sex” they produce rainbows such as what was seen at Machu Picchu yesterday. I asked the women if the Venutians had to remove their silver body suits to have sex, but they weren’t sure. Not surprisingly, Venutians and Martians have much cleaner oceans and rivers than we have here on Earth, and more advanced civilizations generally. Sometimes it’s good to travel on one’s own and not rely on local information. Not that the women’s guide was unreliable. I’m just saying…

The rain stopped at around 10:30, and with nothing else planned for my time in Aguas Calientes I decided to check out the local hot springs, which were about a 15-minute walk from my hostal. The walk was interesting as it followed a path alongside a river filled with rocks and rushing water. There were also many stores along the way renting out towels and even bathing suits.

Since I wasn't actually planning to enter the hot springs, I convinced the ticket salesman at the entrance to let me pass through to take some photos. It took me another five minutes to walk to where the hot spring pools were, and there I found a number of people soaking in the water.

By the time I got back to town I decided to grab a quick lunch before heading to the train station for my trip back to Cuzco. Unfortunately, I chose the wrong place to eat -- it has since knocked me out of commission and prevented me from seeing and doing many things. The culprit: the place in the photo below (I'm not sure of its name).

I ordered seco de cordero (stewed lamb in a green sauce with rice) and a jugo de durazno con leche (peach juice with milk). No red flags appeared as I ate my meal, which was in fact pretty tasty. The lamb was mild in flavor and the green sauce, which was made with cilantro and had peas, carrots, and potatoes mixed in, was a nice accompaniment. Was it worth 50 soles ($17.30)? Absolutely not. But as I said before, that's par for the course in Aguas Calientes.

After lunch I returned to my hostal to gather my things, and also to get a photo of the hostal's Peruvian Hairless, an indigenous breed. This was probably the friendliest, happiest dog I've ever come across, and it occurred to me several times to take it back with me as a souvenir. Since that was impossible, and against my general code of ethics, I decided to settle for a photo. Below is Martha, the receptionist, playing with the Peruvian Hairless. It's not a good shot, but it's still pretty cute.

I headed to the train station at around 2:30 and found myself sitting across from the same couple from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan that I'd sat with coming up here. It was nice having people to talk with on the way back to Cuzco, though I started to feel the effects of my lunch about halfway through the train ride.

It didn't stop me from eating the food served during the trip. The two pastries and peach tart were nothing to write home about (but they were fine for blogging), but the Inka Cola I had is worth mentioning, I guess. It was basically a cream soda, but the color was unlike any yellow I'd ever seen. It was scary looking, but it tasted fine. It was just fun to drink something called Inka Cola.

By the time I got back to Cuzco I was really feeling pretty bad. I thought perhaps I was suffering from motion sickness, which I never get, but seemed a possibility since the train journey back was hardly a smooth ride. Since I didn't know what was about to hit me, I checked into my hostal in San Blas and returned to town to find something to eat. I ended up buying bread from a bakery and two potatoes from a woman grilling them on a street corner.

By the time I returned to my hostal my hunger had vanished. I took two bites of potato and two bites of the ham and cheese empañada above, and that was it for me...

Peru, Day 3

Machu Picchu at 6 a.m.

Although I’ll be traveling for two months and through five countries on this trip, already on my third day I hit what might be the highlight: Machu Picchu.

I started off very early after a quick, 5:30 a.m. meal at the Treehouse Restaurant, which is operated by the hostal where I was staying. The yoghurt and bread were all homemade, and for the first time on my trip thus far the orange juice I was served came from real oranges.

This hit the spot as much as anything can at 5:30 a.m.

I wolfed this down in about five minutes and then, with bus ticket ($14 round-trip) and prepaid entry ticket ($60) in hand, I set off for the bus station to catch a ride up the mountain for the 6:00 a.m. opening of Machu Picchu.

The bus ride only took about fifteen minutes, which, with the stunning and surreal landscape, really heightened my expectations of what I’d find at Machu Picchu. The bus was oddly quiet as all the passengers seemed riveted by the steep, lush mountains out the window and the mist that swirled everywhere as if the Urubamba River that cut through the landscape was boiling and sending steam into the sky. It would have made for a wonderful, 90-minute walk from Aguas Calientes, but the steepness of the climb would be a killer.

This was typical scenery along the bus route from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu.

When the bus arrived, there was a collective groan at the sight of perhaps one hundred tourists already lined up at the entrance. However, when the gate opened the line moved quickly and I passed through only a few minutes after six a.m. People quickly dispersed, and I found myself mostly alone in an empty landscape, which I admit that I preferred. Machu Picchu was so stunning that the last thing I would have wanted is a bunch of tourists crowding around me and the ruins I’d come to see. After all, how often does one get to visit one of the eight Wonders of the World and have it mostly to one’s self? This changed by mid-morning as large tourist groups began to arrive, but by then I’d seen the main area of Machu Picchu and was ready to hit the surrounding trails.

It’s amazing that there’s still so much debate about who built Machu Picchu and for what purpose. From what I can gather, it was intended as a winter or summer getaway for a very powerful ruler. It also apparently served as a place of escape when the Spanish conquered Peru – the Spanish never knew about Machu Picchu, or if they did then they never made it here. It’s mind-boggling that it was “re-discovered” by Hiram Bingham – former U.S. senator and the inspiration for the Indiana Jones character – less than one hundred years ago when he more or less stumbled upon it with the help of local guides.

One of the most amazing things about Machu Picchu is its very aesthetic, if I can call it that. Like Ankor Wat, and many important temples and shrines in Japan, Machu Picchu is a stunning example of how people long ago found ways to integrate their architecture into the landscape. The use of stones from the mountains helps in this regard, and so do the terracing, the grassy fields, and the hidden, extremely advanced irrigation system they built. There’s really no describing this place, and the photos don’t do justice to how it feels being here. Without tourists around, the quiet is profound and helps give Machu Picchu an even greater power.

The mist rose up as if from the earth itself.

Terraced gardens, still perfectly functional.

There's a lot of open space, here, too, which is what the llamas like.

This is a typical walking path in Machu Picchu.

The mist started to burn off as the morning went on.

One of the first of many surprises for me was the sight of so many llamas.

They were a little skittish, which made me a little skittish, too.

They more or less stay together and feed, sleep, and poop on the grass (be careful where you walk!). I had about ten of them at once decide to use the same path I was on, and since they’re bigger than I am, and because I’m clueless about their temperament, I hung back and gave them the right of way.

This one gave me the stink-eye. I stepped back and bowed in obeisance, as is recommended.

As you can see below, by mid-morning most of them were sprawled out on their sides and sleeping in the warming sun. (At least I’m pretty sure that they’re sleeping. I hope they weren’t shot by some deranged American tourist.)

Maybe you need to strain to see the llamas. Or click on the photo for a larger image.

If anyone reading this is planning a trip to Machu Picchu, make a point to arrive as soon as it opens. The mist is a morning phenomenon, apparently, and burns off by around 9:30. Without it, Machu Picchu is still breathtaking, but the sense of mystery is heightened so much when the mist is present. Wandering through and around the stone buildings is a special experience when there is mist swirling everywhere.

It took me only about two hours to see the principle area of Machu Picchu, and as more tourists were starting to trickle in I decided to explore two of the trails. The first one I went along was called the Inti Punko Trail. It’s well worth walking – or should I say climbing – though I’m sure it would be hellish in wet weather. Thankfully, the day was absolutely gorgeous, which is surprising because it was raining when I arrived in Aguas Calientes yesterday morning and remained drizzly and overcast all day. I guess I got lucky with the weather. No complaints here!

With the weather so nice, it made having a picnic with the boxed lunch I’d ordered from my hostal perfect. As you can see, I was given a veggie and cheese sandwich, a granola bar, a tangerine, some dried fruit, a hardboiled egg, and a box of pineapple juice.

This didn't really do much for me. It looks good, but it's kind of junky.

I found a nice flat rock with a view of Machu Picchu in the distance and tucked into it while butterflies flittered around me and birds chirped from the surrounding trees. I think I can safely say that it was the most memorable place I’ve ever eaten.

That flat rock served as my lunch table.

I met some older (and hearty!) Japanese tourists along this trail. As they stepped by to let me pass them I said, “Sumimasen,” which surprised them. We got to talking a little and hiking some together, which was nice, especially since most people I came across there didn’t make eye contact or return my hellos. (What’s up with that, by the way?) They were all in their sixties or early seventies, I’d guess, and didn’t seem at all bothered by the altitude or steep and endless series of steps.

I didn’t make it very far along the trail to the Inca Drawbridge, unfortunately; it got a little hairy along the way as vertigo kicked in. Despite this, heading in that direction gives one a different view of Machu Picchu, as the photos below show.

After five hours at Machu Picchu I decided to head back to town. The place was much more crowded by 11:00 than it had been when I first arrived. I grabbed a seat on the first bus I came across in the lot and said adios to Machu Picchu.

By the way, if you come here and plan to eat, I recommend bringing a packed lunch. The food prices in the small restaurant here are outrageous. I bought a small bottled water and a small bottle of iced tea, which together cost $7. It even costs $1 to use the bathroom, and if you have a need for toilet paper you need to take what you need from a roll in front of the person selling tickets to enter – within view of people lining up to enter Machu Picchu, which is pretty weird.

To cap off the good day I went to a pretty nice restaurant called Pueblo Viejo.

The inside of Pueblo Viejo. It looks fancy, but it was very casual.

I got there early, which is typical for me, and ordered something off the menu: lomo saltado, a famous dish all over Peru. I also ordered a glass of Tacama Gran Tinto, which is a wonderfully smooth wine made in Ica, Peru. When I’m at home I gravitate toward Chilean wines, such as Odfjello, but I would choose Tacama every time if I could get hold of it. I also got to gorge myself on a complimentary salad bar, which surprised me with its huge, salted maize. This was a great salad bar – the most ruffage I’ve been able to find in three days – and the maize, I decided, tasted something like Kellogg’s Corn Pops. Who knew that such a taste would go well in a salad?

Look at the size of those corn kernels!

But back to the lomo saltado. Lomo saltado is a simple dish consisting of strips or cubes of steak stir-fried with green onions, a spicy pepper, red onions, and tomatoes, and served with French fries and rice. This version came in a wonderfully balanced sauce of vinegar, soy sauce, and Worcestershire sauce (according to the waiter).

How could this possibly be bad? It was amazingly good.

The dish I was served, with hardly a wait, hit all the right notes for me, much to my delight. This was the first Peruvian dish that truly wowed me – and I’ve been expecting to be wowed for several meals now! The beef, delivered fresh from Cuzco, was perfectly cooked and full of juices, while the red onions had a perfect crunch and weren’t overwhelming in their essential onionyness. The French fries and rice, though both starches, were excellent complements to the salty, spicy meal. Although it hit me hard in the wallet at 42 soles (US$14.50) for the lomo saltado and 15 soles for the glass of Gran Tinto ($5.20), it was lip-smacking good. The service was some of the best I’ve had, too, and the interior had real charm. I also enjoyed my window seat where I could watch all the local activity and colors as dusk fell and a nearby school let out.

Dusk makes everything in Aguas Calientes beautiful. Which is kind of saying a lot.

Pueblo Viejo is located right off the main plaza and around the corner from the produce and meat market. They are open from 10 a.m. – 11 p.m. most nights. Their telephone number is 211-193; their website is www.grupointi.com.

After dinner, despite being quite full and satisfied, I saw a foreigner eating an ice cream cone and knew I had to have one. So I went a few doors down from Pueblo Viejo to Coffee @ (yes, that’s apparently their name) and ordered a single scoop of a triple swirl: vanilla, strawberry, and lucuma (a Peruvian fruit that is orange-brown and tasted to me like caramel).

Coffee @

Not a large selection -- there were two of some kinds -- but it did just fine for me.

I don't think he wanted his photo taken, but damnit I needed the photo.

It was great. I sat on a bench in the main square beside two women eating steamed corn on the cob and watched kids dancing to the huge delight of onlookers.

I don't know if you can see the kid standing in front of the girl in the white jacket, but he'd just taken his shirt off and thrown it to the woman in the red sweater. She caught it and busted out laughing. I think she was flattered the kid threw it to her. It was pretty hilarious.

Peru, Day 2

The main plaza in Aguas Calientes.

After another sleepless night I ended up crawling out of bed at 5 a.m., showering, and grabbing a “breakfast” of toast and Tang that was waiting for me downstairs. From there I headed to Pomoy train station, which was a pretty interesting taxi ride for all the rolling, mist-covered hills and the city-outskirt activities I could see. It wasn’t long before I got on the train heading to Aguas Calientes, the town on the doorstep to Machu Picchu.

I took the second class train, which costs $71 for the three-hour trip, which is about $350 less than the first class train, and the views were great. For the first half of my trip I alternated conversations with a couple from the Upper Peninsula of Michigan and a couple from Queretaro, Mexico. During the second half of the trip I either had my eyes riveted to the stunning landscape or else was fighting to keep from falling asleep.

One thing that helped was the unexpected breakfast that was served on board. It wasn’t much, but I needed the energy, and it tasted pretty good. They served fruit, two kinds of cheese, two kinds of meat, and I also managed to get coco leaf bread as well as a mini-cinnamon roll.

Not a bad spread for a three-hour train trip.

The trip was pretty spectacular.

Fairly typical scenery along the route to Aguas Calientes.

The mist is ever-present on the tops of the mountains.

The train’s interior was filled with windows, which gave you something of a feeling of being in an open car.

Not a great photo, but it's hard to take a shot without attracting people's attention...

The train follows a river that is easily the roughest I’ve seen anywhere – the rapids’ churning waves often reached four or five feet.

This shot doesn't capture the violence of these rapids at all.

We occasionally passed small towns and villages, and the closer we got to Aguas Calientes the more frequently we saw local Indians and the more spectacular the mountain scenery became.

These small villages are few and far between, but I would have loved to stop and walk through them.

Local Indian women trying to sell items to passengers. I didn't see a single transaction during our five-minute stop.

By the time we arrived it was raining, and because the rain only came down harder after I’d checked into my hostal, Rupa Wasi, and because I was incredibly sleepy, I decided to wait until early tomorrow morning to hit Machu Picchu.

For lunch I headed to the only place in Aguas Calientes that my guidebook said served Peruvian food, and even this had many “French touches.” At first I found it hard to believe that the entire town didn’t have Peruvian food, but the overabundance of restaurants, which appeared literally every few feet as I made my way to my hostal, quickly made it clear that the town catered in a limited way to a very particular kind of tourist: pizza eaters. Now, I love pizza, but this was disappointing.

Before I went to have lunch, I moseyed through the local market, if it can be called that. The market doesn’t even have a name, apparently. People just know where it is and go there for fairly basic needs. It contained a few things I hadn’t seen before – certain types of fruits, beans, and potatoes – and asking about them in my limited Spanish hardly helped me learn anything.

Mmm, potatoes...

Colorful little tray of spices and coco leaves.

I should have sampled some cheese, but that's easier said than done.

Once I’d seen the market – that is, three minutes later – I tracked down a restaurant called Indio Feliz. I was welcomed at the door by a Frenchman named Patrick, and he ushered me in to his empty restaurant, which was by far the most unexpected thing I’d seen in Aguas Calientes.

A welcome sight when tienes hambre.

The interior was decorated in a fusion of Peruvian antiques and French seafaring. Yet, somehow it seemed to work.

This doesn't properly capture the atmosphere. Each room was unique in its own right.

Since the restaurant didn’t officially open for 15 more minutes, he gave me a grand tour of the restaurant’s two floors, then took me to the top floor, which gave a view onto mist-shrouded mountains, a lot of hanging laundry in neighboring, half-built houses, and several pieces of antiques that ranged in price from US$2000 - $15,000 and were two hundred years old. I guess that when your lunches cost $20 with a drink and you hire local people and buy local foodstuffs, you’ll soon be able to buy expensive furnishings.

I ordered the most Peruvian items I could find on the menu: “Peruvian Creole Soup” (cabbage, carrots, potatoes, and parmesan cheese from the Altiplano) and “Pepper Chicken with Peruvian Ocucaje Pisco Sauce,” which came with fried sweet potatoes, a cooked tomato topped with pesto sauce, steamed beans, and a plate of thick homemade garlic and dill potato chips. The “Homemade Orange Pie with Custard and Ice Cream” made the lunch set, though it obviously wasn’t Peruvian.

Peruvian Creole Soup

While I generally dislike fusion, the fact is that this was a really good meal. The chicken was well cooked and had a lot of flavor, and the sauce it was in was excellent – slightly peppery with a strong hint of citrus. The vegetables were creatively made, especially the tomato, and even the potato chips were interesting. I’ve only been in Peru for five meals so far, but this has been the best so far.

Pepper Chicken with Peruvian Ocucaje Pisco Sauce

In any case, I could see myself returning here for a meal very easily – I wouldn’t hesitate over trying more on their menu, and the welcome service I got was more than I’d expected – though I intend to branch out some if possible.

Homemade Orange Pie with Custard and Ice Cream

Indio Feliz can be found at Calle Lloque Yupanqui Lote 4 M-12. Their telephone and fax numbers are (084) 211090 / 211320. Their website is www.indiofeliz.com, and according to their business card “[They] welcome national, international and extra terrestrial tourists.”

I went to dinner rather early, partly because I had lunch early and partly because I wanted to get to bed in time for a decent sleep since I have to be at the bus station at the crack of dawn. I ended up crossing the footbridge to the local side of Aguas Calientes and wandering around.

I thought she was making pisco drinks behind the soccer stadium, but she told me they were mates.

It’s an interesting enough area to visit, though I did get a lot of looks, perhaps because there weren’t a lot of other foreigners around. I came across some pollerias and other local restaurants, but for some reason I decided to eat closer to my hostal. The walk was nice in parts, especially when crossing the river, which cascades toward town from the mountains.

Looking down toward the town of Aguas Calientes.

I ended up choosing a place that advertised “tipical Peruvian food,” which included guinea pig, alpaca, trout, pig, lamb, and stuffed potatoes. I went with the Peruvian oven-baked trout (trucho de horna). For 30 soles ($10.38), that’s a bargain in Aguas Calientes.

The front of the restaurant looked inviting enough.

I also ordered a medium-sized Peruvian beer called Cusqueña (8 soles); unfortunately, this ended up being the highlight of my meal.

The medium-sized beer was 2.5 liters. I can't imagine what the large size looked like.

The presentation of the dish, as you can see in the photo below, was quite nice. A fried trout fillet with half-caramelized onions, large circular wedges of fried potato, a small salad, and some rice. Sounds good, right?

Trucho de horna (Peruvian oven-baked trout)

Well, the first potato I tried had a big black hair cooked into it. Okay, I’ve dealt with this sort of thing before – I just set it aside and went on with things. But my first bite of trout tasted like dirt, and the fish had very little give to it. My second bite was the same, and I’m starting to wonder how fresh this fish actually was. Trout sometimes has that taste to it, though, and I like to give people the benefit of the doubt whenever possible. In the end, I ate most of the meal. He charged me 4 soles as a service tax, which is a first for me here, and since my meal was not very good I decided to consider the service tax his tip (which in Peru is at most about 10%). The total for my meal was 42 soles, or US$14.53.

The restaurant was named Caminos del Inka II and was right across the entrance to the alley that leads to Indio Feliz. I would not recommend this restaurant, though the man who ran it was nice.