Eat, Hike, and Eat Some More

Luisa at the Parque Natural

Boat ride on the lake - saw fresh water dolphins!

Luisa and Ruby making tortillas

Leigh and Luisa at Granja Heidi, our favorite restaurant in Cuzco

View from Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Machu Picchu

Just a friend along the trail

View from the Sun Gate

Art exhibit in Cuzco

Q'oricancha in Cuzco

Our close friend from Austin, Luisa, came to visit us and get this… she was even willing to come to Pucallpa.  Pucallpa is not for the faint of heart and if not for the few researchers, NGO’s, or missionaries it is quite rare to see an American here.   Luckily, Luisa has travelled and lived extensively in Latin America and she has recently been to Haiti to perform relief work as a registered nurse.  So Pucallpa was definitely a step up from Haiti where people were living in tents Everywhere there was a spare speck of land.  She took the whole frontier city visit in stride and we enjoyed showing her the Jungla, Yarinacocha Lake, Parque Natural, Mundo Feliz, my exercise class and our new favorite pool.  We had several visits to our favorite home-made ice cream place and she came to see the kid’s school.  She basically got a slice of our life in the jungle and we were Thrilled to have her.

And the good times continued as she and I took a much anticipated girl’s trip to Cuzco for a few days.  Granted I’ve had little variety in food in Pucallpa, but to me the food in Cuzco was some of the best I’ve ever had!  We did more eating, shopping and sleeping than anything else but managed to get in a tour of the Cathedral, Q'oricancha, Sacsayhuaman ruins and of course, Machu Picchu.  We kept everything at a nice leisurely pace – which is pretty much required when jumping to 11,000 feet – and I really reveled in the idea of doing things at my own schedule rather than the children’s schedule.  I did, however, think of them constantly and did a lot of research for our Thanksgiving trip where I will go back with my family and meet up with my sister’s family.

Cuzco is an incredible place – there seems to be a relaxed pace of life in a quaint, colonial city enhanced by the mountain setting, artist community and friendly people.  I feel like the most miraculous thing is the way they gracefully absorb the huge number of tourists from all over the world.  There seems to be pretty strict control over the signage and the external appearance of the buildings in the center, wisely maintaining the city’s aesthetics.  Staying in San Blas is perfection because it had everything you need without feeling tourist-manipulated.  We could walk down the street to the bakery, a plethora of shops, and countless restaurants and bars.   Our ‘hostal’ was lovely, friendly, comfortable, clean, with hot water and breakfast for $18/night.  I really can’t figure out a way you can beat that.

Food deserves its own special paragraph.  I could go on and on but will just suffice it to say that my body was extremely happy to soak in all the nutrients and flavor.  Our favorite restaurant was a casual place called Granja Heidi.  They grow their own food and raise their own cows – and they have an incredible knack for putting flavors together.  They have a menu of the day that is a 4 course meal including drink for about $7.  After we went there the first day we told the waitress that we would be back every day of our trip.  She thought we were joking.  We did manage to mix in a few other places though and Cicciolina’s grilled vegetable sandwich and gnocchi have a special place in my heart.  There was also a casual Aussie joint that gave us a good brunch/smoothie fix.  I can’t wait to go back for the food alone.

But there was also Machu Picchu.  You can see the pictures and you can appreciate the ingenuity and engineering prowess of the Incas from books, but until you go to the Lost City itself, you can’t experience how special it is.  With the natural setting of the perch atop breath-taking, green peaks it is easy to see why so many people go there specifically for a spiritual journey or find one without even looking.  We took a 1 hour hike to the sun gate which is the point at which the people who have hiked the Inca Trail for 4 days get to see Machu Picchu for the first time.  I loved being able to spy their expressions and was certain they appreciated it more than I after having worked so hard to get to that there.  Other favorite moments were randomly running into Alpaca’s on the trail and temporarily feeling a part of the international jet set.  I enjoyed talking with different folks on the trains/planes from Japan, England, Germany, Norway to name a few.  Always something to be learned - best place to travel in Asia is Korea, parts of Norway have no sun in winter and no darkness in summer.  It seemed quite common for Europeans aged 50-60 to take long trekking trips in the area.  I couldn’t help but notice a lot of folks wait until they retire to take this type of trip – that makes sense on some levels but the altitude and climbing are difficult so to get the full experience I hope people choose to do it sooner rather than later.  And to quote everything I’ve ever read on the subject – Machu Picchu does not disappoint.