Heading to the Jungle!

We've now bee in Cusco for almost 8 weeks, and frankly we're running out of activities so thankfully we leave tomorrow for 5 days in the Amazon rainforest.  We're staying at this place called the EcoAmazonia Lodge, and for 5 days we'll be busy hiking and looking for wild animals.  Of course, we're practically experts at dealing with animals after spending 2 weeks volunteering at the zoo!

There's no internet access in the jungle so we wouldn't be able to post anything until we're back next Saturday so stay tuned!

The Bathroom Situation

Mothers and daughters have many opportunities to bond in life.  I never thought one of those opportunities with Sydney would be the Peruvian bathroom situation.  The two of us have had bathroom experiences that I hope none of the women reading this blog have to have...EVER!   Our Cusco home bathroom situation is acceptable (although I am in a now six week fight with the shower as you may have seen in an earlier post) It's the bathrooms we encounter outside the home that are the problem.

In an effort to make this bathroom situation more bearable for the two of us and to get us in and out of bathrooms as fast as possible, we decided to develop a rating system each time we go.  Here is our scale:

EXCELLENT
GOOD
POOR
HORRIBLE

Here are examples so you have a clearer understanding.

HORRIBLE:  We were visiting one of many Incan ruins, in the middle of nowhere, early in our trip and Sydney looks at me, crosses her legs and says, "Mom, I gotta go."  I cannot let this child pee on Incan ruins (disrespectful!) so we search for a bathroom.  I found the "bano" sign and we got into the line.  There was a man sitting outside the bathrooms with a bucket of water.  As people stepped out of the stalls, he took a bucket of water and threw it inside the stalls.  I thought he had amazing aim to be able to  get the water into the toilets after people left the bathroom.  What a talent this guy was!  When it was our turn, he pointed us into one of the stalls.  We walked in and all we saw was a drain, about the size of a standard checker board, on a flat floor. There was no toilet.  There was no toilet paper.  There was this drain on a very wet floor and it smelled "DEESKUSTING", as Sydney pointed out.   I had to brace Sydney on my arms, over the drain while she peed.  She looked horrified  and said, "Mommy!  This is awful!  I wish I was a boy right now".  I could not have said it better myself, bless her little heart. When I walked out of the bathroom a woman said to me in English, "You are a brave soul.  I used bathrooms like that in Europe 20 years ago and swore I would never do that again!"

EXCELLENT:  The JW Marriott of Cusco wins!  We happened to find the hotel walking around the city and Sydney had to go.  (They also had internet access so Scott and Luke had a few minutes to surf and check email) WOW!  This lobby bathroom wasn't reality.  There was marble and granite, working locks and hooks on the doors, hot AND cold water options, fragrant soap and the floor was D-R-Y!   Both of our mouths dropped when we walked into the bathroom.  We started to jump up and down and dance out of sheer joy because when we found the JW Marriott it had been about four weeks of mostly HORRIBLE and POOR experiences.  I told Sydney I wanted to hang out and live in this bathroom, but of course, we couldn't.  But we both washed our hands in the temperature of our choosing and our hands were nice and dry when we left because they had real towels to dry your hands with!  HEAVEN!

While this is not the most riveting blog we have posted, I want to remember to be forever be grateful for bathrooms with water temperature options, clean floors and towels or air for drying hands.

Cuy

Well, for lunch today we made plans to go to a traditional peruvian restaurant that specializes in Cuy (guinea pig for you gringos).  At La Qunita Eutalia they have no menus.  Instead you look at the hand written chalkboard for what's on the menu that day, and the waiter hands you a sheet of paper and a pen to write down what items you want to order.

In addition to Cuy (3rd item down on the menu), the restaurant is known for rocoto relleno (stuffed peppers).  We also decided to try Costillaro (lamb ribs)...you can probably guess which is which in the picture below:

And, here is the Cuy...it's served basically deep fried with the head still on.

Melanie fell in love immediately...

It's actually quite good...tastes much like fried chicken...the only problem is that it's not easy to eat.  There's not a ton of meat and it's not something that you can just cut into pieces.  Honestly, it's meant to be picked up and eaten with your hands like you would a chicken leg.  We did our best and it turns out Sydney is a big fan (Luke, not so much).  If you can stomach another picture, here's the finished results...

Overall, a cool experience, but we pretty much all agreed that we won't be running out for another round of guinea pig so all your little furry pets back in the states will be more than safe around us when we return!

The Black Market

A few weeks back we picked up an alternative map of Cusco called the "non touristic map".  One of the items on it is a place called Baratillo.  The description is "second hand market (buy northface, Adidas, jask wolfskin, zara at very cheap prices."  It goes on to provide a warning "keep in mind this place is not 100% safe" so of course now I feel absolutely obligated to check it out!  Plus, Melanie has developed a slightly unhealthy infatuation with North Face products.

Anyway, our excursion to the market was planned for Saturday.  We first stopped for lunch.  Melanie recently found the only bagel place in Cusco, which is run by an Israeli and fellow MOT (oddly enough he also runs a sushi restaurant).  After bagels and milkshakes, Melanie strapped on her money belt, we hid all our valuables, grabbed the kids by the hand and headed off to the black market.  

After about a 10 minute walk we come to an area packed with peruvians.  There are tents covering the entire street for about 3 blocks selling anything you could imagine...used phones, chargers, toilets, and tons of old clothes.  We spend the first 20 minutes just walking around browsing and getting our bearings (we're the only white people in the whole place)...and then the real shopping started!  We duck down some alleyway into an actual building with 3 floors of vendors selling name brand shoes and apparel.  On the surface, it looks like high end stuff, but the prices suggest otherwise.  We start negotiating for a North Face jacket for Melanie...we start at 58 soles (~$20), but get it down to 51 soles pretty quick.  We find another North Face fleece for Luke for 40 soles and some North Face hiking pants for me for another 50 soles.  We even found a vest for sydney for only 8 soles.  

All told we spent about $50!  All the items look legit on the surface, but the labels are in all chinese so guessing that they're completely counterfeit...no matter because we're feeling confident that we not only braved the cusco black market, but are now looking extra sharp decked out in all our fake north face gear!

Entertainment...Part 2

Well, I feel like I'm part of a Seinfeld episode, but it seems our entertainment issues have been solved...at least temporarily.  Yesterday, as we were walking home, we passed a street vendor selling DVDs.  I casually inquired if he had any in english, and he answered in the affirmative so we all started perusing the titles.  Then it hit me...these were 1st run bootlegged DVDs (for you Seinfeld fans out there, picture Jerry with a video camera taping "Death Blow" or "Cry, Cry Again")!

I have to say, the selection was pretty damn impressive, but I was very skeptical whether 1) these would be the actual movie and 2) they would be in english.  Regardless, after reading 9 books and watching the 5 movies we brought no less than 3 times each, I figured it was worth the risk.  Plus, you couldn't beat the price...we bought Iron Man 3, Oblivion and Wreck it Ralph for a total price of 5 soles or about $1.80 (or about $0.60 per movie).

We rushed home to check them out and see if they were legit ("legit" meaning they were the actual movie, since at $0.60 each these movies aren't exactly "studio sanctioned"), and to our pleasant surprise they were!  Other than a weird intro featuring chinese writing (which just reinforces that there's no copyright protection in China), the movies are all the real deal!!!  Not only are they studio quality, but the sound is good and we can choose english as one of the set-up options!

The kids and I enjoyed a movie night yesterday with Iron Man 3, and I plan to stop by my favorite bootlegger often to refresh my DVD collection.  If you have any requests, let me know!

A Little Girl

A heartbreaking thing happened today. I was on my way home from the nutrition clinic walking to meet the kids and Scott.  I noticed this peppy little girl, about 8 years old, walking by herself ahead of me.  She was way too young to be walking by herself through the busy streets of Cusco.  I looked around for an adult near her.  There was no one.  I sped up to get behind her and saw her shoes;  they were broken, worn, torn, and disgusting.  I then saw her stop at a restaurant to look at the menu.  (Could she read?)  We came to a stoplight and I said "HOLA".  She looked at me and flashed me a small smile and had the cutest face I have ever seen (besides Lucas and Sydney, of course).  I followed her up to the street where I was turning.  I stopped next to her, leaned down, said hi again and asked her where her parents were.  She opened her mouth to respond to me (with still the CUTEST face you have ever seen) and her teeth were actively rotting out of her mouth.   I have seen a lot of rotting teeth; this was the worst.   She told me her parents are at home and she is going home now.  I asked her if she was hungry and she said yes and then took off.  I had a energy bar in my backpack, but I could not get it to her fast enough. I felt so badly.  Hungry kids make me sad.  

The San Pedro Market

A few weeks ago we went to this famous market in Cusco.  I forgot the camera.  We finally made it back today.  My pictures don't do the place justice.  I find the entire culture under this roof fascinating.  Have an open mind.  Here goes...

I'll start slowly...here is the bread we eat EVERY SINGLE MORNING with butter, jam and sometimes cheese. Yum, right?  Not that yum after six weeks of it. 

Chicken soup, anyone?

 This was the meat aisle. I did not recognize the white stuff for sale in the bucket.  Do you?

This pig had a rough day, but is for sale.

I am told Peruvians will use all parts, and I mean every single part, of animals for soups and stews

Intestines for sale...

This is such a learning experience for us all.  We all have to eat on the planet...we just go about it in different ways.  A few more pictures will be posted on Flickr soon. 

The Inca Trail

6 months ago when we were thinking about a trip to Peru, the one thing I really wanted to do was to hike the Inca Trail.  For those of you that don't know, the Inca Trail is the walking trail created by the Incas some 500+ years ago to go from Cusco to Machu Picchu. So rather than just take a train all the way Machu Picchu like most people, this past Saturday at 6a we started the 2D/1N "mini-Inca Trail" hike (it's mini because the 4D trek is a little too much for the kids).  

The first part of the trek is train ride to KM 104.  KM 104 is a little more than 2 hours outside Cusco and isn't an actual train station (we had to give the conductor a special pass for the train to even stop there).  Stop is relative because the train barely even comes to a halt long enough for us to get off and as soon as we're clear it moves on leaving us in the middle of nowhere.  

No train, no car, no road, no electricity or phones…just nearly 8 miles of walking in front of us to get to Machu Picchu so we strapped our backpacks on, slathered on sun screen and bug repellent, loaded up with water and started walking.  Our first stop, only about 10 minutes in, is Chachabamba, a small Inca ruin that was thought to be primarily a guard post for Machu Picchu (since Machu Picchu was primarily reserved for the upper class).  After a tour of the ruins, our guide Miguel warned us that the next part of the trail is the hardest.  For the next 3 hours, save for a few brief stops to rest and have a snack, we walked up the mountain on our way to a place called Winaywayna.  

For those of your familiar with Laguna Beach, picture walking up Park…about 10 times on an unpaved and uneven surface…and that's maybe close to what this was like.  On the way, we were able to freshen up at a waterfall:

And the reward for getting to Winaywayna…more stairs straight up!  The Incas weren't just incredible engineers, but they must have also been in amazing shape to traverse these trails and steps on a regular basis.

After Winaywayna, we start the more "gentle" path to Machu Picchu.  The trail winds through several different climates.  At times it's blazing hot as the sun beats down on us, and then the trail turns and we're in the midst of the cool jungle.  All the while, we have some of the most amazing views of the canyon and Urabamba river far below, and the mountains that completely surround us:

After another 2 hours of walking, we're in desperate need of a break, but Miguel pushes us on.  No rest for the weary until we finally make it to Intipunku, The Sun Gate.  Entering the gate provides the very first view of Machu Picchu and only those who take the Inca Trail ever get to see it!  

After soaking in the view and catching our breath, and with the sun starting to set, we begin the final hour walk down from Intipunku into Machu Picchu itself.  We'll spend the next day touring Machu Picchu in depth, but we stop briefly at the Guardhouse for the signature photo:

The hiking was hard, but the scenery and the experience were amazing…in fact, it's hard to do it justice.  Despite sore feet, shoulders and backs, all of us felt such a sense of accomplishment that made the whole experience so worthwhile.  But the day wasn't quite over yet.  We head to the buses to go into Aguas Calientes to spend the night.  The bus takes a winding road down the mountain side with what seems like mere inches from either crashing into the mountain, or toppling off a cliff…but at this point it's nice to be riding and not walking!  And once we get into town, what's the best best way to recover from some 7+ hours of walking?  How about a natural hot spring (video on flickr)?

After a quick dinner, it's off to bed because we're headed back to Machu Picchu at 6a the next day.  I won't bore you with all the details of our tour of the site because I don't think it will come close to doing it justice.  Here's a map of the site that might help, but all I can really say is that it truly is one of the 8 wonders of the world:

If you're interested, you can check out the 300+ photos and videos of both the Inca Trail and the next day's tour of Machu Picchu on Flickr.  There's also photos/videos of our hike to the Inca Bridge, which is a treacherous trail that extends on the back side of Machu Picchu mountain.  ENJOY!!!

Entertainment

As much as we're enjoying our time in Peru, I'll be honest that we're running a little short of entertainment options at night.  After the kids go to sleep (between 8p and 9p), time seems to slow a bit for Melanie and me.  At this point, I've read 7 books, watched 2 full seasons of Game of Thrones and started season 8 of Curb Your Enthusiasm.  Melanie has read 4 books herself, and even Lucas has read 4.

Since Season 3 of Game of Thrones won't be out for a few more months, any entertainment ideas are welcome...books we should read, shows we should download, whatever.

The Zoo is Crazy

Seriously, I've never been to a place quite like this zoo.  Every day something new happens that would likely result in a normal zoo being closed down by whatever authorities oversee these things, but in Cusco there is no such oversight.  Anyway, this morning we had 2 separate incidents of monkeys escaping from their cages.  In one instance, we look up to see a full size spider monkey swinging from the condor cages.  As the zoo administrator tries to coax the monkey down by tempting him with some bread, she asks me to grab the toucan.  I guess she was worried that the monkey might grab the toucan and kill it so I grabbed some loose clothing lying around (the old clothes are used for the animals to sleep with and to cover the cages from the sun) and cover up the toucan (you can't catch the toucan if she can see you).  Once covered, I pick her up and take her to her cage.  All the while, one of the other zoo keepers somehow convinced the spider monkey to jump into his arms, at which point he took him back to his cage and disaster was averted.

Later, we start our daily responsibilities of cleaning some of the animal cages.  We're supposed to clean out any excess food, and pull out the loose clothes that are left in the cages overnight.  Sometimes the animals crawl inside the clothes and make it difficult to pull them out without letting them loose.  Today, I'm cleaning out some random animals cage and he's not visible so I'm assuming he's hidden in the clothes and so I'm trying to be a little extra careful.  After pulling out a few pieces of clothes, it quickly becomes apparent that the cage is empty...the animal has apparently escaped in the night!!!  We of course alert the zoo administrator, who doesn't really seem that worried.  By 11:30a when we left it was still unclear if the animal was ever found...oh well!

Finally, Friday is apparently "meat day" because next thing we know some random guy is walking in with a side of beef draped over his shoulder.  He literally has a huge chunk of meat about the size of a 10 year old boy, hanging over his clothes...no protection, no gloves, no nothing.  After he deposits the meat in one of the back rooms, for some reason he insists on shaking all of our hands.  Keep in mind that he has raw meat literally all over him...thanks goodness we were all wearing gloves.  I gather someone else comes in later in the afternoon to hack the meat up to give it to the animals!

Next week we're back at the orphanage, but the zoo will never be far from our thoughts.  We'll miss it's non-stop entertainment and look forward to volunteering there again in 2 weeks.