Peter in Ecuador

ENTRIES OF ECUADOR ARE AT THE TOP OF THIS BLOG AND ARE FOUND IN ORDER OF RECENCY. ENTRIES OF MY TRAVELS IN PERU AND CHILE ARE FOUND FURTHER DOWN AND APPEAR IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER, WITH THE OLDEST AT THE TOP OF THE SECTION.

The following are entries from travels in Peru and Chile in Chronological order from start to finish.

After a week of saying goodbye to friends and co-workers I flew from Portland to Los Angeles on Friday, the 19th. My itinerary calls for a weekend in LA, a week in Peru, and three weeks and Chile, before studying for a semester at the Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador in Quito.

After a layover San Salvador I made it to Lima. I spent way to mch on my hotel for fear of getting robbed. Lima is not the safest city. Just about everyone and their dog feels comfortable jumping out in the middle of the street. It takes a little getting used to. It adds excitement to travel. I woke up the next morning at 3 am to make it to the airport in time for Puno, where my friend Jorge lives. Jorge Ordoñes married Jessica from Oregon. They met as Willamette MBA students. They were so nice to show me around the city of Puno.

Puno is on the coast of lake Titicaca, which is a large lake between Peru and Bolivia. The lake has man-made floating islands made out of the plant that growths there, part of which which is also edible. Titicaca is Quechua for rock of the puma. Jorge and Jessica were so great to me. I saw a lot in one day! Jorge paid for two seats on the overnight bus ride to Cuzco I think, so I´d have more room to sleep. Gracias Jorge!

I stayed the night in the small town of Calca where Jorge´s mother lives during the week. She´s an attorney and a ¨notary¨ which is a title with a lot more weight than in the U.S. Like the rest of Jorge´s family, she was extremely hospitable. She spoke Quechua to her live-in maid. The small quiet town was a nice break from the busy town of Cuzco.

The Sacred Valley is a national park with impressive steep mountains covered in vegetation on either side of a narrow valley. It equals any national park I´ve visited anywhere even without the ruins. At either end of El Valle Sagrado, which can be traversed by bus in an hour, are two fortresses, Ollantaytambo and Pisac. In one day I was able to visit both. Ollantaytambo is easily traversed in an hour. I would have liked to stay longer, but I´m only in Peru a week, and I wanted to see Pisac. To reach Pisac one can take the bus 90% of the way up, or one can hike. I decided to hike. A local told me it would take an hour, but he probably didn´t know that I´ve been living at sea level and am not accustomed to the altitude. It was an arduous hike, but worth it. By hiking I was able to see more of the ruins and take the path the Incas would have taken to arrive at the top. Of particular note in the ruins of Pisac are the fountains of water that are channeled from a nearby spring. (The same technology exists at Machu Pichu). By the time I reached the top, I took a few photos, and then paid for a taxi to take me down to the valley where I took a bus with the locals back to Cuzco. (Local buses are a lot cheaper than for the tourists).

Machu Pichu was amazing. I woke up at 5 am to catch the 4 hour train ride from Cuzco to Aguas Calientes. The train ride itself was very beautiful with beautiful green mountains on either side of the river Urubamba. From Aguas Calientes, we took a bus to a place near the ruins (otherwise it would take half the day just to get there). From where the buses stop it is only a few minutes before getting an amazing view of the city´s ruins. What makes Machu Pichu so famous I suppose, is first its striking position atop a high mountain, secondly its completeness, and thirdly its mystery; there are a lot of theories about the city´s purpose(s) and why it was abandoned before its construction reached completion. I started off with a guide in a group but then took off on my own, realizing I would not be able to see everything I wanted to otherwise. I was able to catch the bridge that runs along a vertical rock wall, which had a gap for a drawbridge, another protection for a well protected city. The higher peak (seen at the far end of the fotos) Huayna Pichu can be hiked but only if you start by 1 pm. Luckily I ran into some Norwegian guys I had met earlier in Lima who advised me of this. I made it in at 12:50. The estimated time to hike to the top and back was 2:30. Because I was worried about catching the train back it took me 1:30. Due to my having hiked Pisac the day before, and because I am still not used to the altitude, I was pretty much dying. My shirt was drenched in sweat. Fortunately I brought a spare shirt for the train ride home. For more details on this amazing city check out the source of all knowledge, Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Machu_Pichu Nobel Chilean Poet Pablo Neruda was inspired to write a book-lenth poem, Las Alturas de Machu Pichu (The Heights of Machu Pichu) is in part a call to raise the Latino voice as a unique and strong identity. Here´s a link to one of his more famous parts of the poem: http://animalscience.ucdavis.edu/Laboratory/AnimalGenomics/Art/Alturas.PDF

In Lima, I was once again well received by Jorge's family. It turned out that Jorge had business in Lima while I was there. As a result, Jorge, Jessica and I all stayed with Jorge's sister Sandra in her apartment in Surquillo, a neighborhood in Lima. We had a great time. Sandra is a physician practicing in emergency room treatment. We went to "Larcomar" an upscale mall on the beach in Miraflores, Cieneguilla, a getaway just outside of Lima where we went as guests to a country club at which Jorge and Sandra's uncle are members. I played squash for the first time and got my first sun burn of the trip. We ate out a ton. Thanks again to Jorge, Jessica and Sandra for a great time in Lima!

I arrived in Santiago around 4 am. Driving by van along Los Libertadores, a main street running through downtown at that time of the morning was so strange because I had only seen it busy and full of people and micros (¨Mee-crows¨). I arrived at the apartmen of Hernan Cortes and his wife Maria Rosa late in the afternoon because I took the wrong bus. All the metros have changed, with new numbers and more metro lines too. (Santiago has progressed a lot in the past 5 years). Maria Rosa has been suffering from cancer for many years now. They are like Chilean aunts and uncles to me. They let me leave some of my luggage at their place and I left the same day for Southern Chile.

Southern Chile is as beautiful as everyone said it was going to be. The people were friendly, and the bus rides were not too bad (except the one between Osorno and Concepcion which was at night and there were too many people snoring for me to be able to sleep). I was fortunate to see several friends, who received me well, and showed me around. Of course there were a lot of places I learned about while I was traveling, most of which I was not able to visit, so I´ll have to catch those next time I travel this way which I hope will be soon.