Joy was very under the weather from the night before and elected to stay at the hotel. Was it tap water? Bad food? air travel? Who knows!! That’s what’s scary!
Jane and I were the only two to venture to the Ballestas Islands. We saw birds, which are no longer exciting to me because we have the same birds at home — cormorants, turkey vultures — but we saw penguins!! Which I do NOT have and it made it worth the trip.
On our boat trip to the Island we saw another geoglyph they call the candelabra. You would think the sand would blow away; but it doesn’t seem to. No one knows how it got there.
Here’s the pack of penguins! So cute!!
click. The penguins jump in, one after another, to go eat fish in the sea.
The island and rock formations were very interesting.
Notice the rock is white. That’s guano (bird poop) and it’s so precious, people live out here in those barracks and scrape it off the rocks to sell as excellent fertilizer. They even build walls at the top to keep the poop from sliding down the rocks and losing it in the ocean.
The sea lions would be on the little sandy beach on the islands, but it was past breeding and birthing season. But we found a few hanging on the buoys.
click.
By the end of the trip, I had forgotten that some part of Peru was green. Most the trip was brown and rocky. (It WAS winter.) They grow asparagus, quinoa, corn and potatoes.
There was a lovely park in Lima where bunches of cats roamed free.
The 8 of us who went up in the plane to see the Nazca Lines met our new Tour Guide, Edgard, and the other 6 people on our trip. Because we were leaving sea level and heading to 11,500 feet ABOVE sea level, Edgard, promised if we would drink 2 liters of water between 8 pm and 10 am the next day, we would not have altitude sickness. THAT IS FOUR BOTTLES OF WATER!! I was so scared of getting sick, that I drank it all — but I counted one bottle that I made coffee with in the morning. It did work pretty well and I only took the altitude medication for a day. I didn’t take the altitude pills. I had a bad headache a couple days, and my stomach gurgled plenty, so I didn’t eat as much as I would have liked. But all in all it was SO MUCHBETTER THAN BOLIVIA. I made sure to drink at least a bottle of water throughout the night with electrolytes in it.
We flew into Cuzco, ancient capital of the Inca Empire and the oldest continually inhabited city in South America, and were greeted by these native dancers.
We left Cuzco and drove through small villages to the Sacred Valley of the Incas. It came to be known as the Sacred Valley simply because the corn they grew in the valley was HUFE and they called it sacred; thus they thought the valley should also be called Sacred. The air quality looks pretty good here!
We were told that the country did not have enough money to feed and house their people. If their people were hungry, it was up to them to figure out how to make money in order to eat. So you see a lot of little stands of people selling whatever any other people may want/need.
This is the huge sweet corn grown only in the Sacred Valley. They have a special cooking machine to pop it and they add no oil, but a little sugar and it’s delicious! Yes! I ate candied popcorn for breakfast!
We were greeted by local women who still speak the original language of Quechua (pronounced catch-you-wa), wear original garb and weave many things by hand.
We had an authentic Peruvian lunch. It was a sweet bread, sweet potato slices, giant yellow corn, quinoa, and potatoes. There will be a food theme of corn, potatoes and quinoa throughout the trip.
I drank coca tea to stave off the altitude sickness.
The highlight here is the piece of meat in the upper left with a cover that looks like the rubber from a bike tire. It’s guinea pig .. poor things.
I’m glad I don’t eat meat!!
We had several meals where we got to choose what we wanted, so I was able to eat pretty much what I liked, without relying on only bread, rice and potatoes.
The Catholics inserted themselves into the Peruvian lives, against the religions of their choice. This Catholic religion seems to have a lot of God’s. This one was the God of Trees. They actually have a 3-day celebration every year giving thanks to the God of Trees.
I think they have over 300 Gods and they often get a 3-day celebration — so that means constant celebrations; and at least one day of the celebration includes heavy drinking.
Cynically you realize this just looks like a God of Trees, only because some guy chopped off two adjacent branches with a chain saw. Sheesh.
Due to altitude, we puffed ourselves up this hill to find some very interesting steppes. The Incas survived only for 80 years and it is still not known why they disappeared. But it is very clear that the Inca people were very smart at agriculture and avoiding war.
These steppes contained different seeds from the nearby countries, dirt/soil from the nearby countries, differing humidity, and differing temps. Experiments were made on which seeds, which soils, what temperatures worked best to grow the healthiest plants in each country.
Once they determined a seed would grow best in Ecuador, for example, the leader of the Incas GAVE the seeds to Ecuador and convinced them to try it. They did grow!! The next year the leader gave them other seeds; and they grew too. The third year Ecuador was anxious to meet with the Inca leader again, but he would only give them more seeds if they joined them. And THAT was how the Incan country grew so large without starting a war. They acquired Colombia, Ecuador, part of Brazil, some of Chile and Bolivia.
The first photo is a Incan holy ceremonial place and our tour guide gave ‘what-for’ to the other guide who let his people on that property. I get winded just looking at the second photo. It took a lot of energy, but was worth the trip. The third photo shows pure elation that we did it and survived.
Edgard was VERY down on UNESCO. Once you are under their control, they won’t let you do repairs, etc. unless it is approved by them AND THEY PAY YOU NO MONEY. I always thought once you are approved by UNESCO, they had your best interests in mind and they funded the repairs you needed. So sad.
I added glaciers to this photo, since I would have just thought it was a snow-capped mountain. The glaciers, as are all of them in the world, are melting at an unprecedented pace.
Coming off my Bolivia trip, I thought the salt mining would look like the Salt Flats — an evaporated ocean leaving behind only salt. But this was a mineral spring of salt water that they engineered so it would pour into many, many hand made sections. They filled the sections, let the sun evaporate the salt and then shoveled up the salt for use. Very primitive — and I wonder how they sanitize that salt!!
We went to a family’s home for a home-made meal. Lots of potatoes, some chicken and a ‘tortilla’ that looked more like a hush puppy.
Ten or so years ago, families were wiped out due to wind, famine, flood, war — can’t remember what. But our tour company, GATE1 Tours, started a program to provide money to families who would sign up to provide a meal and show us tourists their homes and how they live and eat.
This was an additional dinner cost and we found out that the fees go straight to the family. In this case it was the home owner mama, her daughter, and HER daughter, who is aged17 with Downs Syndrome. They were all lovely, enthusiastic and great hostesses.
This is a screenshot of GPS of one of our bus trips. I believe they are called switchbacks up (or down) a mountain. I am a chicken rider, so I just talk, read, sleep and try not to give driving a second thought, lest I have a panic attack.
More to come!