On food

Last summer, we posted many times about food. This was in part, I'm sure, due to the abundant interest our family has in food, but probably mostly a result of overexposure to novel things, like yogurt with corn and kidney beans.

There were fewer new things on this trip, but some interesting foods (and drinks) nonetheless.

Very common in Peru (probably all of South America) is meat from the grill, or a la parilla. I generally opted for the safe pollo, though Nick, as ever, has been more adventurous (more below). Pictured at right is my second pollo a la parilla, this in Cusco (my first was actually in Panama).



Later that night, I made my most adventurous culinary step into the land of Banana Desserts. Though I'm generally not a fan, I tried these bananas with a pisco sauce; pisco is the national liqueur, it seems, and is presumably grape-flavored. Nick had many a pisco sour on this trip, though its ingredient list warned me off (they contain egg whites).



Our best meal of the trip was in Cusco, the night before we left for Aguas Calientes. Amusingly, we had sought out a tapas place recommended by Lonely Planet (since I apparently never learn). Once arriving in the little courtyard where the restaurant was located, we mistakenly entered a neighboring retaurant, but that has been one of the very best mistakes I've made on a trip! We had an absolutely wonderful meal there.

Nick began with a drink called a Machu Picchu, which contains pisco and grenadine, topped with orange juice and creme de menthe. From what I understand, it was delicious, but the straight mint layer was a bit tough.







We ordered two entradas, or starters, an avocado salad and chicken and peach brochettes. The chicken literally fell off the skewer, and was served with a pineapple chutney. The avocado salad, Nick asserted, was the most avocado he's eaten in one sitting, but of course, neither of us objected.




For dinner, we ordered two entrees and switched halfway through. One was a chicken stew of sorts, which was very good (though not picture-worthy). The other was a piece of alpaca stuffed with bacon, spinach, and elderberries, served with pureed quinoa (which ended up with the consistency of grits, though with the distinctive flavor of quinoa).

And, of course, despite being wretchedly full, we ordered a tiramisu for dessert. It tasted slightly different than many tiramisus I've had (in a good way), but I don't know what it was that did it.

Pizzas have been, as they were in Asia, weirdly common. Nick had this one in Aguas Calientes, complete with ham, cheese, banana and egg. It actually was really good (though I didn't have any egg); the overripe and sweet banana complemented the ham in the same way pineapple does on Hawaiian pizzas.




Breakfasts have typically been bread and butter, with tea and coffee and juice. A similar breakfast was even provided on the train! The bread is big and puffy (and cooked, I think, in wood-fired ovens). This woman was one of several selling hers on the street.














Our final night in Cusco, Nick ventured about as far as one can in Peruvian cuisine and ordered a guinea pig, or cuy. It is brought to the table whole, but our waiter then said, "Perhaps you would like to take a picture? Then we will cut it for you." Apart from childhood memories of my two guinea pigs Pigeon and Hershey, I did not have a lot of enthusiasm for this particular adventure and didn't even try Nick's (opting once again for the very safe pollo, this time shredded in a delicious, almost curry-like sauce).


Finally, I would be remiss to exclude our thoughts on local beer. We tried both Balboa and Atlas in Panama City (both rather agreeable), but I much preferred Cusqueña here in Peru. Last night (in Lima) we also tried (and enjoyed) the limeña beer, hilariously called Cristal.

Machu Picchu

Our second day in Aguas Calientes saw us exploring what, for me, was the main reason for visiting Peru: the ruins at Machu Picchu. Surprisingly, these ruins did not come to widespread attention until 1911, when Hiram Bingham stumbled upon them (after a tip from some locals of Incan descent) while searching for a different city. The stunning architectural and engineering skills required to build this city, combined with the strikingly beautiful setting in the midst of the rugged Andes, make these some of the most spectacular ruins I've seen.

Before exploring the ruins themselves, I took a short hike to the Incan Drawbridge (Katherine only came partway, since the Lonely Planet Guide's description of the trail as "scenic but level" proved, once again, to be innacurate). It's worth noting that the Inca Trail, a path from the Sacred Valley to Machu Picchu, is a bit of a misnomer: it's actually part of a vast network of trails throughout the Andes, some of which are still being unearthed today. The trail to the Incan Drawbridge is the start of one such trail; it's impossible to hike beyond the bridge, where the trail seems to continue, somehow, along a sheer rock face of the mountain behind the ruins.

After this brief interlude, we began exploring the ruins themselves, which are broadly divided into three sectors. The agricultural sector is formed by a sequence of terraces used for cultivating a wide variety of fruits and vegetables in Incan times; it's now a grazing area for alpacas. The ceremonial sector features the most impressive stonework, and consists of several temples and various artifacts used for astronomical observation. The residential and industrial sector is larger, and apparently was where the Incas lived and worked. This picture shows the ceremonial sector on the left, and the residential and industrial sector on the right. A few agricultural terraces are visible in the foreground.

One of the most impressive aspects of Machu Picchu is the skill of the Incan stonemasons. In the ceremonial sector especially, mortar was not used; instead, stones were carved to perfectly match one another. In some cases, the invisible parts of the stones featured knobs and abscesses designed to fit perfectly together, enhancing the jigsaw puzzle effect of Incan construction. This style of construction proved, in some cases, to be more resilient than the subsequent Spanish construction: one of the churches we visited in Cuzco had been restored more than once, after earthquake damage, but the Incan ruins on which the church was built (which the Spanish tried, and failed, to destroy) remain.

At the end of the day, we hiked back down the mountain and visited a charming museum and botanical garden on the valley floor. The museum, especially, was worth a visit: it expounded upon many of the theories explaining the purpose and construction of Machu Picchu, and described the archaeological excavation there that began in 1911 and continues to this day. I think we were glad to have had two nights in Aguas Calientes, because it made our visit to the ruins much more leisurely (and we couldn't have left after one night anayway, as it turns out, due to a railway strike). But there is very little to do in Aguas Calientes other than hiking Putucusi and visiting the ruins, so we found ourselves twiddling our thumbs on Thursday after visiting the handicraft market -- as in most tourist destinations, all of the souvenirs begin to look the same after awhile.

To Aguas Calientes

We left Cusco at a shocking 5:45 a.m. on Tuesday to catch the Vistadome train to Aguas Calientes, a.k.a. Machu Picchu Pueblo. Aguas is the base camp for anyone not simply day-tripping to Machu Picchu. Despite Aguas Calientes' status as Tourist Trap No. 1 in all of Peru, we were glad to set aside enough time to properly see the ruins and their surrounds.

The Vistadome is so named because it has windows in the ceiling, predictably, which Nick argued would simply allow us a better view of the sky. Not so, it turns out -- many of the mountains in the region are steep enough that their peaks were best viewed through the ceiling! The morning was foggy but it was a lovely and very picturesque trip through the Andean countryside.

We arrived in Aguas around 10 a.m., and after checking e-mail we found lunch and strategized about how to spend fully 48 hours in this very small town, shown here from downriver.

Lonely Planet recommended a hike up Putucusi, a mountain facing the ruins at Machu Picchu, and so after a brief rest (the hike hadn't figured into my plans before ordering tacos and beer for lunch), we set off for the mountain.

If you are a loyal reader of this site, you will remember that Lonely Planet also recommended a certain boat ride from Siem Reap to Battambang in Cambodia. This waterway, described by the good LP as Cambodia's "most scenic," turned out to be a forest. The ride took some eight or nine hours, during which the engine of our "boat" periodically ran aground in this "waterway."

The hike we were about to take was described as "steep" with "portions" made up not of trail but of ladders. It was indeed steep. Imagine climbing about 1,500 vertical feet via stone steps and log ladders. Nick chugged along despite a low water supply and constant complaints from me; it took us about two hours to reach the top.

And despite the complaining, the 5 or 6 ladders (ranging widely in size, from one with about 10 steps to one with close to 100, at right), and

the biting flies you could actually watch swell and turn red with blood, it was totally worth it. The peak offered a prime view of the ruins across a wide valley, and panoramic views of all the cloud-shrouded mountains surrounding us. Plus, my painstaking slowness matched our arrival perfectly with the reemergence of the sun, which prompted a gorgeous rainbow extending down into Aguas.

The descent was almost as difficult (though half as long) and coupled with our descent from Machu Picchu itself yesterday, I feel like I can barely work my legs (Nick rolls his eyes as I stagger from place to place).

We also had a great dinner Tuesday evening after recuperating from the hike at Indio Feliz, though I'll cover that in more detail in an upcoming food-only post.

Cuzco

It's a pleasure to be blogging again, this time from my first trip to South America (and only my second visit to the southern hemisphere). Cuzco is a charming city, though as you may have noticed there is some disagreement about how to properly transliterate its name into English. This charm, and the pleasant nature of our trip so far in general, has served as a useful counterpoint to our experience of the week leading up to our trip, during which it became clear that: a) LAN airlines canceled our flight from Mexico City to Lima, and felt no particular responsibility to help us make alternative arrangements; b) the LAN customer service line is staffed by sadistic weirdos who actively worked against our efforts to travel to South America; and c) spending several hours in a single day trying to "reason" with airline representatives and travel agents drives me to drink. In any case, an entirely new round-trip ticket later, Katherine and I find ourselves in the capital of the Incan Empire, ensconced in beautiful architecture and delicious food.

Katherine and I have spent much of our time in the Plaza de Armes, the main plaza of the city. This picture was taken from the hills above the city, and shows La Iglesia de la Compañia, one of several churches in and around the plaza. Most of our day today was spent exploring the amazing religious architecture of the city. When the Spanish arrived in 1533, they destroyed all of the Incan temples, and built Catholic churches in their place (in many cases, literally on top of the ruins of the temples). Since then, most of the churches have been partially or totally destroyed in major earthquakes, and then rebuilt. A fascinating aspect of the religious iconography in Cuzco is the extent to which Incan and Catholic traditions are merged: for example, the Virgin Mary is an even more important figure in Peruvian Catholicism as in the rest of the world, and her depiction in local Catholic art is strongly reminiscent of the Incan Mother Earth figure.

Katherine and I parted ways shortly after lunch today, as I hiked up the mountains above Cuzco to see the "Christo Blanco" up close. Obviously much smaller than the corresponding statue of Christ above Brazil, the figure is still quite commanding as he surveys the city. The views from the top of the hill were also quite spectacular, though at an altitude of over 11,000 feet, the climb up was rather strenuous! Too bad I'm not going to the family reunion in Rocky Mountain National Park this summer, since I'm way ahead in my high-altitude adaptation.

Cusco

This is our first post from Peru (and Nick will add further thoughts soon), but we've only really been here for less than 48 hours! The pace of this trip is easily outstripping that of our last trip, which was a leisurely five weeks. With only eight days for three locales, we've been a bit more proactive in sight-seeing. The climate is far more agreeable as well. We've both had mild headaches, and I've had some trouble breathing while climbing, but otherwise the lack of oxygen here at 11,000 ft hasn't troubled us too much, either.

We began our adventures with a "layover tour" in Panama City. We had eight hours, which perfectly accommodated this tour. It started, oddly enough, at a large Panamanian mall. We got lunch there before being driven through Old City in rain like I've never seen. Panama is not naturally blurry - this is the rain coming down our windows.

From there we stopped at a neat marina, where we could see the city skyline, before traveling on to the canal.

We got to see two ships moving through the canal (at the Miraflores locks, where we visited the canal, there are two channels, so two ships can pass through nearly simultaneously). One, a large container ship, spent about $78,000 to traverse the entire canal. The visitor's center also had a very educational museum and places to observe the boats across four levels of its building.

We landed in Peru after 10 p.m., and crawled into our beds just before midnight. Rest was more than welcome after our mostly sleepless run-up to our actual arrival in Peru. The next morning, we left for the airport at 9:30, so did not see much of Lima before departing.

We arrived in Cusco shortly after lunch and our charming hotel provided us some coca tea and told us to "take it easy." We did, resting for a while before heading out for a little walk around the main square. We ate a delicious meal around 4 p.m. (though did not try the "gin with gin" advertised on the menu).

Nick headed back to the hotel for a rest while I checked out the square and enjoyed bananas with pisco, a Peruvian grape liqueur. I also got some great shots of the main square, the Plaza de Armas, by lamplight.

Wemblin' South

On Friday, Nick and I will head to Peru (hopefully - keep appendages crossed). Check here for photos and updates. We'll be in Cusco and Machu Picchu and expect to report some amazing things!

Halong Bay

Now that I'm back in Belleville, IL -- universally recognized as the ideal place to blog -- I can fill you in on the long-awaited details of Halong Bay. It was an amazing way to end a fantastic trip: for three days, we cruised, swam, and kayaked around one of the most beautiful places in the world, ate delicious food, and relaxed on the boat or at our resort.




The trip began with a boat trip around the bay, on a boat much like the one shown here. This geology is very typical of the bay, which contains some 3000 islands made of limestone karsts. Note that this particular island has a small tower at the top, where we hiked in order to see a commanding view of the bay and many islands. This picture also barely shows the edge of a sand beach (look between the boat and the floating structure it's moored to), where we spent some time swimming. Katherine stayed relatively close to shore, because she was afraid of jellyfish; this fear was completely justified, as I discovered on an ill-conceived swim with Gwynne out to the buoys that marked the edge of the swimming area. Near the buoy, I encountered (though never saw) a jellyfish, which stung me on my arm and foot. As Wikipedia notes, "... jellyfish stings are known to be extremely painful," which I can now corroborate. Another triumph of Web 2.0!



On the second day, after enjoying a lovely sunset, a fascinating lightning storm, and a rejuvenating night's sleep on the boat, we spent the bulk of the day kayaking around some of the islands. We began by exploring a "floating village," a collection of boats semi-permanently moored to an island and to one another. These villages feature most of the comforts of home, including power, garbage collection, and even cell phone reception; the largest floating village we saw had nearly two thousand residents! This village, in addition to the myriad of fishing vessels and homes, also had a school and a pub, with a pool table -- I think that playing pool in a floating village would pose a particular challenge.



My favorite part of kayaking, though -- in fact, my goal for the trip, which I articulated to the ladies before we set off -- was paddling through natural tunnels in the limestone into lagoons among the karsts. In this picture, Katherine and I are emerging from the first of three tunnels that took us to an incredibly beautiful pool far from the shore of this island. The third tunnel was so small and well-hidden that I doubt we would have found it without our guide.



After a long day of kayaking (and a refreshing swim off the boat, preceded by a careful check for jellyfish), we were ready to relax at our amazing resort on Cat Ba, the largest island in Halong Bay. This is the view from the beach bar at the resort, which we enjoyed while sipping tropical drinks in between dips in the pool. Gwynne suggested that we swim out to this island, but I had learned my lesson.



Our excellent guide Thuan joined us for a six-course Vietnamese dinner that evening, and we decided to take advantage of the resort's karaoke room afterwards. Thuan's English while singing bad 80's music was even better than it was while describing the geology of Halong Bay or the nuances of Vietnamese cultural history. My duet with him of "Hello" by Lionel Richie was unforgettable; I also really enjoyed our group rendition of "Under the Sea."



On the last day, I had a terrifying moto ride to a national park on Cat Ba island, to take a 3 km hike up to the highest point on the island. The ladies remained at the resort, getting massages and/or lounging on the beach. The hike was challenging but short, and the view at the top was a spectacular array of row after row of these limestone karsts marching out to the ocean in the dim distance.



After one last dip in the ocean, we left Cat Ba and Halong Bay to head back up to Hanoi. We had a few more adventures on our complicated routes back home (for me, Hanoi to Bangkok to Taipei to San Francisco to Denver to St. Louis to, hopefully, Indianapolis and then Rochester), which I'll detail in my final blog post sometime in the next few days.