Day 84: Lima Archaeological Museums - Sunday January 30, 2011

We have visited Lords of Sipan, Kuelap, Chan Chan & Chavin among other great archaeological sites in Northern Peru. So we enjoyed seeing some of the best artifacts from the sites in the Larco & National museums. The Larco tied the findings and clarified pre-Inca Peruvian history. We live for enlightenment like this! They even have a small library if you want to go beyond the labels. We understand more about what we saw in the north, and are properly prepared for both Inca and Pre-Inca history in the south. Also, the Larco museum has beautiful grounds and a very good restaurant. Oh, and a gift shop…

We are looking forward to Justin’s arrival tomorrow and the start of the next leg of the adventure. Adventure photography is one of his current hobbies. He is in for a treat!

The carrying capacity for taking things back home holds us back from buying even more loot. To make room, I have started discarding clothes and things that I am tired of. That won’t be enough. We are going into an area with incredible weaving and crafts. Fed Ex, here we come!

Day 83: Golf & Lima - Saturday January 29, 2011

We had a lot of fun at the Lima Country Club. It is a longish urban, park course. All around one looks up at all the high-rise places to live and our hotel. It had plenty of bunkers, water & OB, but no surprises. I played my game and Carol played one of her best! The bar snacks included bite size boiled herbed potatoes and several types of olives. We were so happy to be doing something familiar and comfortable as playing golf & staying at luxury accommodations.

Miguel and Gloria picked us up at the hotel and showed us the 2 main business districts, the colonial center, the old homes and the affluent districts. One can live very comfortably in Lima at 1/3 the cost. We finished off at a fabulous Cliff-side, ocean view super mall. Over drinks, we finally talked politics. I am glad that things are now going well economically and politically in Peru. We hope that Miguel & Gloria visit us so that we could enjoy their company again.

Tomorrow is our 3-museum day. We have visited several sites where the archaeological treasures ended up in Lima, the Capital. Things are building up for Justin’s arrival day after tomorrow!

Day 82: Lima Day - Friday January 28, 2011

The Country Club Hotel etc. is quite gracious and has a talented kitchen. We bought some Peruvian silver pieces as pictured.

We spent a delightful afternoon with Claudia’s parents (Miguel and Gloria) and aunt. The view from the high-rise unit and 17-floor terrace are magnificent! The company was the best! It's funny how common topics arise everywhere, e.g., problems with lowering cholesterol. The family went beyond duty in taking us to Porsche to pick up our car and to lead us back to the hotel so we wouldn’t have to navigate.

We have golf at 3:30 tomorrow across the street at the Lima Golf Club. In the afternoon, Miguel, who is an architect, is taking us for an architectural tour of old Lima – what a treat!

Day 81: Golf & Errands in Lima - Thursday January 27, 2011

The first order of business today was to get the car to the dealer for a replacement tire and general service. The Porsche dealership here is a class operation and very helpful. Finding one’s way without a navigation device is very challenging given that there are frequent desvios with no guidance. One thing for sure, we are sending a car to pick Justin up at the airport rather than navigating the town on our own.

We played golf at Country Club La Planicie, a very nice course in an upscale, gated neighborhood. Even with the gates, many of the homes were behind high walls. I guess they are afraid of the millions in the barrios. The situation makes us uneasy about the long term prospects for social stability.

We are spending the next 4 nights at Country Club Lima Hotel. It is grander than Los Incas Hotel, but doesn’t have the killer view of the city. The restaurant is as special here.

We are looking forward to Friday afternoon with Miguel and Gloria. I am particularly keen to hear their insight on the socio-political aspects of Peruvian society. My feeling so far is that there is a lot of frustrated energy in the people and they tend to be friendly – except on the roads. We took the day off from pictures today..

Day 80: To Lima with Love - Wednesday January 26, 2011

The road from Huaraz to Lima had us recrossing 13,480’. The “Top of the World” plateau at 13,250’ was exhilarating. I must admit that I was looking forward to lower elevation. There were farms from 12.500’ down to 7.000’ on the hillside. Below that, it was only the river valley. There is no way to overstate the magnificence of the high Andes.
Entering Lima through the barrio suburbs, we encountered a “desvio” in the Pan-American Hwy. The drivers were frustrated and aggressive. The small beater taxis particularly concerned me, since they had little to lose by getting another ding. My prejudice. I enjoyed the 450 horses to take advantage of holes in the flow. Most drivers seemed to have given me a little extra room because I was an obvious stranger.

The view from our suite at the Los Inkas Golf Hotel overlooks the City of Lima all the way to the Pacific Ocean. The restaurant presented the modern Peruvian dishes. The ceviche mixta was one of the tastiest ever, and the swordfish “chateaubriand”----mmmm...

Nevertheless, the day had its down side. We had two ½ hour road delays at road repair sites out of Huraraz. Feeling & being part of the frustrations of the drivers in the desvio entering Lima. The Golf Los Incas Hotel & Spa is across the street from and overlooks Los Inkas Golf Club but the golf privileges are at a course about 10 minutes away. How is that for a bit of funk in information not mentioned in the hotel’s web site?! Like Quito Golf Club, Los Inkas did not even respond to my e-mail requesting guest play.

Day 79: Chavin de Huantar & the Continental Divide: Tuesday January 25, 2011

The drive to the headwaters of 3 rivers to above 13,000’ was stupendous & grueling. We’re so glad we took a taxi. The roads were in awful condition. We bounced around a lot while our driver went from one side of the road to the other looking for intact pavement. The magnificence of the scenery made it well worthwhile. The drive up to the peak was through a glacier valley and the most recent glacier just receded completely. Upon crossing a tunnel at the peak, there was a giant Zeus/Christ holding a cross. In the glaciated valleys were many stone corrals for the animals grazing in the National Park. Thatched huts provided refuge for the herds people. Being part of the indigenous society going on with its daily life was a treat!

Chavin is an early (750-400 BC) ceremonial site at the meeting point of three passes. Its rivers drain into the Maranon River, and then on to the Amazon. We crossed the Maranon River while traveling from Chachapoyas to Celendin. Then it was brown water running through a desert canyon. Today its tributaries were rushing and clean.

Chavin has a spectacular site below the mountains. It is considered to have given rise to a unifying pre-Spanish religion for most of what is now Peru and to have been a major pilgrimage destination and possible oracle. The major temple is for a shaman based religion that used psychoactive substances to contact major spiritual forces of this world (puma), the underworld (snake and lizard), and the heavens (eagle according our guide). The San Pedro cactus still grows on site, as it does in a lot of the kitchen gardens in Huaraz where we are staying.

The temple was expanded over the years, with passageways and “meditation” rooms between stages, reminiscent of the Mayan temples we saw a few months ago. The temple faces east, our guide says aligned with the moon. At its core is the Lanzon, a slender stone hidden inside the temple core. The Lanzon is carved with dualistic symbols, which are echoed in the half-white/half-black stones of the gate and fasade of the main structure.

The people grow potatoes and corn. This is the first place we have come to where llamas are herded instead of just posed for tourists.

Day 78: Huaraz: January 24, 2011

Archaeological sites and museums are closed on Mondays. So today was unhurried. We took a taxi/guide to a mirador on the Cordillera Negra side that has a commanding view of the Huaraz valley and the Cordillera Blanca. Just existing there was a joy. The receding glaciers were clear in the sunny light. The Huaraz and suburbs view was also gorgeous. The Santa River divides the Cordilleras Negro and Blanco as well as the city. It drains in the Pacific near Chimbote -- along the unpaved shortcut that we didn’t take. It would have been only a fifth the length of the unpaved roads we took in Amazonia.

The shopping in town was not as good as at our hotel. We walked with a somber little procession honoring the Virgen de Belen (Bethlehem). This is the first time I have seen Joseph represented with a crown and finery. The true believers were in prayer. We had free dessert at an anti-drug abuse kiosk. The street food looked delicious, but we needed vegetables. We had Chifa (Chinese) comida coriente. It was light but also relatively light on vegetables.

We spent the afternoon getting ready for Lima and Justin’s part of the adventure. It takes a lot of research & some arrangements to stay focused!

Day 77: Huaraz Valley now & Waullac 600 AD: Sunday January 23, 2011

The Huaraz Valley is surrounded by some of the highest Andes mountains. The area between 10,000’ – 12.500 has been farmed for thousands of years. The rock used for the early homes had been largely replaced by mud brick and now mostly baked brick & cement.

Over the decades, I have developed a fondness for rock work. The funerary buildings had marvelous domes built of large flat stones or very large long ones, and subtle interplay of large & small stones in the walls.

The 2 we entered aligned east and each had a ritual power rock that probably oriented to some seasonal celestial event. We have been unable to find more information. The site is thought to be funerary. The site is mostly lived in and farmed. The people recycled or cleared a lot of the stone walls. Some of the original canals are still in use. We saw one indigenous farmer tilling his small stone-enclosed field with a 2 oxen drawn wooden
plow with a steel head.

Dealing with the high elevation (10,500’-11,000’) is still a physical challenge, especially walking uphill. We walked all over the central part of Huaraz. It is a livable and busy little town. Most structures were built after a disastrous earthquake in the ‘70s. We lunched at a trout restaurant right next to the hatchery & pond. I ordered the delicious trucha orgy: trout ceviche, trout a la plancha and pan-fried trout. The trout was so fresh that it tasted more like it came from a fresh water white fish family than a salmon family!

We are spending a total of 4 nights in Huaraz and booked a 9AM-8PM tour of the 1,000BC site day after tomorrow as the private site is closed on Mondays. With the high mountain light and the movement of the clouds over the Blanco Mountains, the view, particularly from our suite, changes every few minutes. Wednesday will be a travel day to Lima, 265 miles away. We hope to be better acclimated for the 13,000’ stay at Cuzco.

Day 76: Driving N Coastal Desert to 13,480’ & Huaraz: Saturday January 22, 2011

Peru’s north coastal plain from Trujillo is mostly desolate desert except in river valleys or irrigated farms. This is the way it has been here for thousands of years. The few simple homes in the harsh parts were made of palm leaf woven mats for protection from the wind, blowing sand and sun. The road was excellent and well kept up. The towns we drove through were working towns and a bit light on the charm.

As I drove, the desert took on a vast desolate beauty -- with dry mountains, or the Pacific Ocean as the backdrop. I have been to comparable deserts: Parts of the Mojave through south Nevada; the Sahara desert on the lee side of the Atlas mountains, Takla Makun in Xinhuang, and parts of Baja are the ones I thought about. As my eyes adjusted to the light and colors, the desert’s beauty just snuck up on me – as always...

We passed by the mud brick fort at Paramanga that marked the southern frontier of the Moche and Chimu ‘nations’ that we visited at Chiclayo and Chan Chan. At Paramanga, we turned up the river valley toward Huaraz some 125 miles up into the high Andes. Carol took a beautiful series of pictures of the landscape above 12,000’ – 13,480’. We had police checks four times today to confirm our papers. No explanations for why, but we got navigational information from them as long as they were slowing us down.

Our hotel is at 10,600’. I got winded going up the stairs. From our suite, the Cordillera view of the Blanco mountains above the Negro mountains is just Wow! We are staying at a German Swiss owned & run hotel. It has been 4 years since we were in Switzerland and we had unexpected, excellent Swiss food.

Day 75: Shopping Trujillo & Chan Chan Friday, January 21, 2011

Today’s early morning was dedicated to errands at an upscale mall in suburban Trujillo: Banking, replacing toiletries, maps & books, new jeans, haircut, cappuccino & car wash. Toto, the mall’s anchor supermarket is almost on par with Gelson’s. The produce was stupendous – 8 types of potatoes! I got my haircut at an edgy mall salon. Everybody wore black and they played Peruvian rap.

Chan Chan was the capital city of the Moche people 1 AD-700 AC and successors to 1470. Their area went from nearly the Ecuadorian border to Lima with a population of a million inhabitants (over 25,000 in Chan Chan proper X-suburbs). The site is several square kilometers – “cuidad de adobe mas grande del mundo”. Trujillo is its modern successor. Unfortunately, the structures were built of mud brick. Centuries of rain erosion left it looking like a vast desert graveyard. What remained was moving and eerie.

We drove the Malacon of our little town looking for beach side comedor for lunch. We had typical beach side stall food: ceviche mixto, cabrito with rice & beans & a vegetarian combo. It is healthier than the beach side hamburger stands in Santa Monica. Carol is fulfilling her chili deficiency with aji.

Although there are more mud brick Moche, et. al. sites nearby, we decided to move on tomorrow toward the Cordillera Blanca area. On the road to the Andes again!

Day 74: From the High Andes to the Coast: Thursday January 20, 2011

We went over several Andes passes today, the highest at 12.240’. What can I say about the location.. I have been dazzled by the beauty, drama, and light -- not to mention the effect of elevation on human perception. We loved just being in the Andes at such high elevation. We were in the Amazon drainage. The two major towns in Peru’s Amazon Department – Celedin and Cajamarca are only connected with the outside world by several hundred kilometers of dirt roads. This location is remote! We were thrilled to finally reach a paved road – only to be shortly greeted with nube (clouds/fog at 10,300’ – 8,300’).

Our hotel and service in Celendin were amusing. The Andes people view hot water as simply being not cold water. The bygone staff was very sweet and welcoming. Our room, though lacking charm, had a lovely little balcony overlooking the lively Plaza.

Since I put the back up tire into service and won’t get a replacement till Lima, I drove with higher attention to where the tire hits the road. So far I have lost one tire in 600 miles of dirt roads. I don’t have much confidence in the practicality of the baby spare tire in the back when I am so far away from easily available Michelin sport-size tires. We will be more aggressive again on unpaved roads after Lima.

The river valleys and coastal areas are now quite familiar. Even the car became its old self. We checked into Hotel Bracamonte, in the seaside town of Huanchaco, near Trujullo, Peru. The prospect of locating inside of Trujullo, a recently grown city of 800,000 (1.5mm metro), was too daunting. We are saving ourselves for 4 nights in Lima. The kitchen here is excellent with very fresh sea food.

Day 73: Mountain Roading Amazonia, Peru: Wednesday January 19, 2011

If yesterday’s road trip was high adventure, today’s was celestial. 6 hours of dirt roads, zig zagging, up & down Andes ranges from 3,000’ – 11,650’. Switchbacks with sheer cliffs on one side and sheer wall on the other side were the norm. The pictures don’t pick up how scary it was, particularly the pockets to the one lane to accommodate opposing traffic.

Every moment was dramatic! The scenery was majestic.. The Cayenne even sacrificed a tire. We were lucky to be close enough to a town to have a tire repair man come to help. We still have 3 hours of unpaved road to Cajamarca. The tire delay was enough for the heavy rain to arrive. Cold and wet, we took refuge in Celendin.

Note: There are a lot of pictures of scenery for today, but the transmission from Peru may have cut them short..

Day 72: High Adventure – Kuelap, Peru: Tuesday January 18, 2011

Kuelap ruins antedate the Incas and Spanish – 800AD-1540AD. They are magnificent: Covering 1 km of a 10,000’ mountaintop; enclosing some 600 buildings that housed 6,000 inhabitants. The soaring stone walls and 3 narrow passageways (one supposedly designed to be a snare for invaders) into the city made it defensible. The Incas conquered Kuelap only 40 years before the Spanish in turn conquered the Incas. What took the Incas so long to conquer, the Spanish destroyed. Ironically, the Chachas allied with Spanish to overthrow the Incas, much to their subsequent regret, per our Indigenous guide. Only 30 visitors today to this terrific site!

The buildings, mostly homes, were round and had a stone-filled sink for waste water inside each house. We had a lot of fun thinking of Justin when we looked at the Cuy coop in each residence. They were long stone runs, with little doors for the cuyes to come out into the house.

The highest adventure today was driving over 120 miles on dirt roads -- up and down the high Andes with rain. There were a lot of repairs from the recent rains. The toughest spots were tight turns in mud with a steep cliff or river on the side. Death from a mistake or inattention is a possibility. The ride is exhilarating & most demanding of focus. Maybe this is one reason why there are so few visitors. It is really remote. The Cayenne lived! Lets see how it compares to the ride into Cuzco.

It is on to Cajamarca tomorrow along another long unpaved Andes mountain road.

Dinner at a restaurant around the block was satisfying and unusual, including cow udder, another local fruit juice and blackberry wine, as well as plentiful vegetables.

Enjoy the pictures!