November 01-05
The flight from Rio to Manaus was a smooth one. We had an interesting connection through Sao Paulo to get on the flight to Manaus. Bussing from terminal to terminal when you don't know the language is challenging, but we managed. We had never flown over such huge swathes of forest area and as we approached Manaus, all we saw was a carpet of green. The amazon from the plane looked huge. This is where 20% of the world´s oxygen is generated.
We had booked a taxi to take us to the hostel. The weather was really warm. A local who had come to pick up a collegue from CISCO overheard our grumblings about the humidity, and welcomed us with ¨Welcome to Manaus, welcome to hot¨!! After checking in at the hostel, we went to the travel agency to book our tour for the next day. After initial negotiations, we had to pay up for the tour. This took me on an interesting chase with the tour operator, looking for ATMs that functioned. I was able to get out only half the cash and promised to pay the other half the next day. Apparently, the next day was a holiday for " the day of the dead", and people had pulled all the money out of the ATMs.
After this, Nicole and I went on an unending quest to find lunch that afternoon. Manaus is a heavily industrialized city. Why the Brazilians chose to put this in the heart of the amazon is beyond me. More on this later....
The ordeal to find luch turned into a nightmare. Most restaurants were either closed, or the food was very very unappetizing. We finally managed to get some fruit juice, that held us together until evening. Also, they make fresh plantain chips on the roadside in Manaus. We had some of these fresh hot chips. We then headed out to the grocery store to buy pasta. Nicole made the best possible pasta in the tropics, which we had for dinner. We went to bed early, to get ready for the next day´s trip to the Jungle. All this time, we had AC in our hostel room. We were in for a real experience the next few days without the AC.
Amazon, Day1(Nov 2)
We got picked up at the hostel at about 8am. We had to travel 100km south of Manaus to go to a lodge in the amazon jungle. The first stop was at the amazon river which we had to cross on a small boat. Here, we were shown the meeting of the two rivers, the Amazon and the Rio Negro. For a few kilometers, the black Rio Negro and the brown Amazon flow side by side without mixing. This is one of the weirdest sights. Two rivers of different color flowing next to each other without mixing. The two rivers have different pH, velocities and temperatures, which makes this possible. We actually dipped our hands in the water and could feel the water getting colder as we went from the Rio Negro to the Amazon. The river at this point looks like a huge lake, and we were surprised to see such big ships on the river...
After the boat crossing, we were picked up by a bus on the other bank and driven down south on the trans amazon highway. The force of nature was evident, as we saw the damage to the road at several points due to floods. Even at the river bank, people were rebuilding a supermarket, which was swept away by the floods in the previous months.
The bus ride brought us to the banks of another tributary, where we were supposed to take a boat to get to the lodge. Our boat was late, and we whiled our time by getting some drinks at the local store. Finally our guide decided to hire a different boat and off we went. Here the drought was evident. The amazon has hundreds of tributaries, channels and lakes around it. During summer, they go dry and the water level goes low. People who live on these smaller rivers are put into hardship, as access to water dwindles during this time of the year. Its also bad for tourism, as you have to walk through the jungle and river access is diminished. So we were there in not such a great season. The only benefit was that during the dry season, there are not many musquitoes and we were spared this torture.
After the last boat ride, we had to walk trought the forest plains for 30 minutes to get to the lodge. During this walk, we could clearly see the water level on the trees from the flooding that happens during the rainy season. The water level in some cases was 30-40ft above the ground!!!! We also saw large bales of switchgrass deposited by the river on tops of trees. It looked like someone had built a hut with tatched roof.!
Our lodge was a fairly decent place(for what you can get in such an extreme and hostile environment). We deposited our bags and went to lunch in the canteen. After lunch, we got on the boat with a bunch of other tourists to go piranha fishing. To get to the fishing spot, we had to repeat the task of walking to the point where there was sufficient water in the river, and then taking a very slow boat ride.
Once we got to the ¨spot¨, we were given fishing poles and baits. The piranha fish are very intelligent. For the longest time, they kept eating the bait without getting caught in the hook. Finally the fishers luck kicked in and our guide caught one. Then others started catching some as well. Nicole was the first one to catch the fish between us. The guides had shown us how we were supposed to remove the fish and release them back once we had caught them. Of course we were very inept at this and had to keep calling the guides to do the release for us. I did mage to hold the fish in my hands a couple of times. They are very bony and slimey and also very snappy.... We saw the razor sharp teeth and it was actually quite scary. Something you don´t want your fingers to get stuck in.
After piranha fishing, we sailed back to the lodge during the sunset. This was one of the most beautiful scenaries I have seen, and Nicole got some brilliant pictures. The ride back was also funny. Some fish from the river kept jumping from the water and into the boat. Maybe the sounds of the motor or our headlights were disturbing these creatures??? This created a very hilarious and ruckus situation on the boat, especially everytime the fish hit the women :). Finally at the end, a 2 footer jumped onto the lap of Luis, our guide and he kept it for dinner!
Day2 (Nov3)
The next day morning, we visited a local family. Our guide described the process for obtaining manioc flour from the root of the manioc plant. Very hazardous. Apparently, my guide and his family were involved with this and his dad lost his eyesight due to the high alcohol content. Now things are better with mechanization. We also went to a local church and dance hall. People here live of the land and life is fairly easy as long as you prepared to deal with extreme weather.
By day 2 one thing had become clear. We had bought quick dry clothes for this part of the trip and they were completely useless. Our skin all of a sudden had become extra active and we were wet all day long. We must have lost quite some weight here, because all the water we were drinking just kept pouring out.
We returned to the lodge for lunch. That afternoon we had rain. At about 3.30 in the afternoon the rain stopped and we ventured out. This was in our opinion, the best part of the trip. We entered the heart of the rainforest jungle. Here our guides took us through various forms of dense vegetation often pointing out plants that are used by the natives for cures.
We had one crazy experience. There is a palm tree in the jungle which produces a fruit. It almost looks like an almond. It has a very hard shell and a very hard fruit inside that tastes like dried coconut(cobbari in Kannada). It is extremely hard to get the hard fruit part out. But there is a worm that goes into the hard shell and eats the fruit and occupies its place. Now the worm is softer to remove and tastes just like the coconut!!!!!
I tried one and it was really like the coconut flesh you eat after drinking tender coconut water. Unfortunately Nicole got a bad worm :(. !!!
We also saw a giant cycad tree with very flat bits of trunk jutting out. The natives use this part as a drum to indicate location if they get lost.
Last but not least, we saw and petted a tarantula. We walked back to the hostel in the dark.
All along our walks, in small streams and waterways, we would always saw small caymans( crocodiles). At night they were visible by their glowing eyes juting out of the water. There were plenty of birds as well, which we had never seen before.
On day two evening, we got aquatinted with a few of the fellow tourists.
Day3 (Nov4th)
day 3 was supposed to be a chill day. We repeated walk through the woods and boat ride to get to one of the tributaries. At this point, the boat ride was getting to me. Moving slowly in low waters in the hot sun is not much fun. We finally stopped off on the river bank to go look for a sloth. After hiking a couple of hours, we came across another tour group who had spotted and captured the sloth. We all got to hold the little guy. It felt like holding a teddy who moved so slowly. Just had to be careful to kelp hands out of reach of his long sharp nails.
When we released the sloth, he raced back up the tree. But that racing back was only for 5 steps. After that, like some autopilot button had kicked in, he moved up slowly( very very slowly).
Post sloth, we went to another local house on a boat. The locals here chop down huge trunks which they season in the river, and build floating houses on to of these. If the river level rises, your house just floats up instead of being washed out. We had lunch at this house and played around with the local kids on the beach.
After this, some of the tourists left and Nicole and I made our way back to the lodge with the guides .
In the afternoon When everyone was resting, I ventured out around the lodge, and spotted an Agouti. This is a very large rodent almost the size of a large hare.
That evening, we were taken out by the guides in the dark to the closest tributary. Here Luis did something crazy. He stripped off to his shorts, jumped into the marsh and caught a 2 foot cayman( crocodile) !!!! Both Nicole and I had a chance to hold it .
Luis explained to us about the cayman habitat and how to check for a healthy pup. The one we had caught had thick flesh at the base of his tail. This was a good indication that the pup was healthy and would make it out well…
Day 4 ( Nov 5)
Day four was a half day business for us. We left the lodge with a different set of tourists to look for a giant cycad tree. Just before we left, we spotted red beaked tucans which had flown into the lodge. There was some effort to climb the tree with the natural vines hanging off the branches. None of us could do as well as Luis who practically scaled up to 50 ft.
On the way back from the tree, we cut the motor for the boat and were lucky to see a few pink dolphins. No pictures though. On the walk back to the lodge we spotted howling monkeys and trails left by leaf cutter ants, which almost look like mini ant highways. All in all day four was when we saw the most fauna.
We had a different guide who accompanied us back to Manaus in the afternoon. We cleaned up in our hostel after our return and left for the airport at 12 am. We had a 3 am flight to Salvador Bahia.
Now my rant…
Having been in the amazon for 4 days and having see it from air, gave us both a fair sense of the biodiversity, and largeness of this area. It is mind boggling that 20% of the worlds oxygen comes from this place. It was even scarier that Manaus is so heavily industrialized. It is a major hub for making cellphones… employs 30% of the local population. The markets of Manaus are filled with very accessory you can think of for a cell phone. On the way back from the jungle, we even passed by the Foxconn plant… I asked the local if they had any water treatment plants for the waste and did not get a satisfactory reply. If only people knew what DMSO and TMAH were. Plus PetroBras runs oil tankers on the amazon… ufff. No easy solutions here, the boat we used to get around the waters used gas… someday we will have to rekon with the need for another cellphone model and 20% of worlds oxygen supply.
Saturday, December 29, 2012
Monday, December 24, 2012
Brazil: First stop, Rio!
October 29 - November 1:
Our flight from Lima, Peru was through Sao Paulo and landed late at night in Rio. We had pre-booked a, night´s stay at a hotel in the center, an area specifically called Lapa, before moving on to the neigborhood of Ipanema. The hotel, was the cheapest we could find in one of the safer areas and had to laugh at its name, "Hotel Snob", which clearly does not fit our description!!
Since we did not arrive until midnight or so, we had no place to eat and luckily we could resort to room service! Maybe we are snobs after all, he he! It was while attempting to read the menu, that our realization of not knowing the Brazilian language was first tested...that ordering food (and, generally, communicating) would be a challenge from then on!! Other than a few names of items that appeared similar to Spanish, we could not disipher 98% of the menu. We pulled out our little Portuguese language book, which had a section for menus, but that didn´t help much either!! We finally decided on what we understood to be a mixed salad, a side of rice and a side of beans!! We were both famished and weren´t up to being too adventurous by ordering 'unknown' items. Yikes!...we figured out the food but then we had to order over the phone!! I dialled the operator and spoke in Spanish, praying that the person would understand! Luckily, she did. It took at least an hour for the food to arrive, by which point it was about 2am!! We uncovered the food and were surprised by the large portions!! We somehow managed to eat most of it.
The next morning, we enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast - a huge change from the usual bread and jam breakfasts of Peru. We left, our backpacks at the front desk and then went off for the day to explore the center of Rio. From the hotel, we walked through a park to get to the local bus stop. Once there, we spent about 15 minutes just to locate the correct bus stand. The road was lined with bus stands with corresponding bus numbers, but with little information about destinations. Finally, after asking 2 to 3 people, a man pointed us in the right direction and we boarded a bus towards the Natural History Museum.
We were already a little pekish by the time we got to the museum, that the very atmospheric restaurant, packed full of locals (having their lunch break from work), tempted us. We shared a couple of light bites and then entered the exhibit halls.
The museum was very interesting. Neither of us realized the oldness of Brazil´s history. The first section of the museum included information and artifacts relating to the indigenous people, or tribes, of Brazil. This section was actually relatively small in comparison to the rest of the museum, dedicated to the colonial period! The latter section had a huge amount of artifacts in comparison to that of the indigenous history (no suprise, I guess!).
After the museum we walked towards the commercial area of the center in order to locate a cafe that my sister had mentioned that we must go to. The cafe is called "Confeiteria Colombo" and is indeed a wonderful cafe that one could sit in for hours. The cafe is very untraditional and clearly an establishment among locals and tourists. It is beautifully decorated in an art-nouveau style and lined with giant wooden framed mirrors from Belgium!! Here they serve some lunch type foods (salads and sandwiches), but also a whole selection of savoury pasteries and delicious desserts.
The next stop on our list was to walk around the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa. According to our 2010 Lonely Planet guide book we could take a streetcar (tram), but once we located the station it all looked closed down. A guard emerged from behind the gate and told us we needed to take a bus, instead. A few days later we got into a converstation about this streetcar with some tourists from Spain. Sure enough, the service, which was mostly used by tourists, was made non-operational after 2 accidents occured.
Once we got to the edge of the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa, we got off the bus and walked towards a staircase, Escadaria de Salarón, that I had read about in our guide book. In 1990, a crazy Chilean artist decided to cover the edge of about 215 steps with tiles from 120 countries. The work was still in progress at the time our guide book was published, but we reaped the full effect of the artist´s intentions as, unkowingly, all steps had already been covered. The effect can be appreciated especially when looking uphill from the bottom of the staircase, in which the stairs almost blend together into a mosaic of colours, words and designs - very unique and picturesque!
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the bottom, it was a little too late in the day for us to go back up toward Santa Theresa. As a result, we didn´t get to see as much of the neighbourhood as we had hoped. The neighbourhood is on a hill overlooking the city and is a popular place for artists to reside.
The bottom of the staircase ends up in Lapa and so we walked back for about 20 minutes to the hotel, passing under a random aqueduct-looking structure. We realized later that the discontinued streetcar passed over this structure, at one point. We picked up our backpacks at the hotel and got into a taxi to our hostel, Mango Tree, in Ipanema.
After leaving our bags in our bedroom, we ventured out to walk along the beach of Ipanema. Even on the way to our hostel, we noticed that the area was nothing like we imagined. Neither of us expected the beach to be lined with highrise buildings, mostly hotels and apartments. We both had envisioned low buildings, including houses, restaurants, bars and stores. Instead, the commercial area of Ipanema (and Copacabana) is all around the interior side. There were actually no restaurants by the beach, only shacks selling fast food, fresh coconut juice and other drinks could be found at several points along the sidewalk. I was looking forward to sitting at a restaurant, overlooking the ocean/beach - I think that´s the Greek side of me! Ok, so we did come across one restaurant by the beach, but then we decided that it was too windy to sit outside and nothing too special sitting inside at night...so picky!!
Back to our walk along the beach...We strolled along for quite a while, people watching and taking in the views. Along the sidewalk, there is a lane for pedestrians running, jogging, cycling etc. This was being used by quite a few people. We also noticed several workout stations on the beach where people could do their sit-ups, pull-ups etc. using a metal frame structure. In other spots along the way, there were groups of people playing a volleyball type game, which neither of us had seen before. Instead of using ones arms/hands to hit the ball, they used their shoulders, foreheads or legs/feet...I guess like playing football but with a volleyball net!?! It was quite amazing to watch. Other people were working out with instructors who had set up various strengthening and cardiac exercise stations. One pays the instructor to participate in these and, again, there were several of them along the way! Overall, at night, the beach becomes one long place for people to do their workouts!! No interior gym needed! How nice, I would workout everyday, if only I had a beach like that to go to along with hundreds of other people doing the same to motivate me!
As we approached the adjacent neighborhood of Leblon, we began to head back and walked the interior streets a little to find a restaurant. We ended up in a bar/restaurant where we had risotto and our first Brazilian beer. The risotto was good and the beer...well, let´s just say it tasted very mild!
The next day we headed to the beach in the morning. Swimming is not so easy in these waters, as the waves are quite big and strong. Rakesh got his legs wet and I managed to take a quick dip before getting knock over by the next wave coming toward me! Otherwise, we hung out on the beach for a little and had to ignore (or constantly shake our heads to say "no" to) the many vendors who came our way, selling drinks or merchandise.
Back at the hostal we asked for a restaurant recommendation for lunch. We were told about a lovely "per kilo" restaurant, called Papafina, close by. In fact, we had read in our guide book that Brazil has a lot of these "per kilo" restaurants, which I think is a fantastic idea and is actually cheaper than going to a regular restaurant. It was good for us, too, as we could see the food (buffet) and not have to guess the items on a menu. For some reason, however, other than doing our own cooking, we still ended up going to regular restaurants and continued to have the same problem of not knowing what to order. As a result, overall, we weren't as adventurous with eating local Brazilian food, as we would have if we understood what the items were. Instead, we often had the same food (i.e. Rice, beans, shrimp, pizza, pasta) etc.).
After lunch, we boarded a local bus to get to the famous "Christo Redentor", or "Christ the Redeemer", situated on top of a 700m mountain. One can walk up to the peak, but we chose the lazy way and took the funicular. The statue is very impressive. According to wikipedia, it´s the largest Art Deco statue in the world, measuring about 30m in height and width and sits on top of a 9.5m pedestal. The views down on the city of Rio and beyond were also quite impressive, though obscured a little by smog!
We took the bus back toward the hostal, but ended up getting off at the wrong stop, way in advance. We were in the neighbourhood of Leblon at that point, I believe a little ritzier than Ipanema, but I may be wrong.
That night we took a long walk along Ipanema beach and into Copacabana, hoping to find a restaurant overlooking the beach. Copacabana is similar to Ipanema, but not as populated and not as safe at night. It has a lot of Petrobras gas stations along the middle of the road, too, so probably not as nice as Ipanema. We came across the restaurant I mentioned above, but because it was not worth sitting outside, we ended up back near the hostal, at an Italian restaurant. Maybe that´s how much we needed to have some familiar food!! We ordered a pizza, and much to our regret, it wasn´t very good at all...and expensive, too!!
The next morning, we got up early and took a taxi to the airport for our departure to Manaus!! It was still dark outside and this was the first time where it dawned on me that taxis (and other vehicles, I believe) do not stop at red lights, at night, in order to avoid the risk of an assault!
We returned to Rio before leaving Brazil. More about this city, later.
Our flight from Lima, Peru was through Sao Paulo and landed late at night in Rio. We had pre-booked a, night´s stay at a hotel in the center, an area specifically called Lapa, before moving on to the neigborhood of Ipanema. The hotel, was the cheapest we could find in one of the safer areas and had to laugh at its name, "Hotel Snob", which clearly does not fit our description!!
Since we did not arrive until midnight or so, we had no place to eat and luckily we could resort to room service! Maybe we are snobs after all, he he! It was while attempting to read the menu, that our realization of not knowing the Brazilian language was first tested...that ordering food (and, generally, communicating) would be a challenge from then on!! Other than a few names of items that appeared similar to Spanish, we could not disipher 98% of the menu. We pulled out our little Portuguese language book, which had a section for menus, but that didn´t help much either!! We finally decided on what we understood to be a mixed salad, a side of rice and a side of beans!! We were both famished and weren´t up to being too adventurous by ordering 'unknown' items. Yikes!...we figured out the food but then we had to order over the phone!! I dialled the operator and spoke in Spanish, praying that the person would understand! Luckily, she did. It took at least an hour for the food to arrive, by which point it was about 2am!! We uncovered the food and were surprised by the large portions!! We somehow managed to eat most of it.
The next morning, we enjoyed a nice buffet breakfast - a huge change from the usual bread and jam breakfasts of Peru. We left, our backpacks at the front desk and then went off for the day to explore the center of Rio. From the hotel, we walked through a park to get to the local bus stop. Once there, we spent about 15 minutes just to locate the correct bus stand. The road was lined with bus stands with corresponding bus numbers, but with little information about destinations. Finally, after asking 2 to 3 people, a man pointed us in the right direction and we boarded a bus towards the Natural History Museum.
We were already a little pekish by the time we got to the museum, that the very atmospheric restaurant, packed full of locals (having their lunch break from work), tempted us. We shared a couple of light bites and then entered the exhibit halls.
The museum was very interesting. Neither of us realized the oldness of Brazil´s history. The first section of the museum included information and artifacts relating to the indigenous people, or tribes, of Brazil. This section was actually relatively small in comparison to the rest of the museum, dedicated to the colonial period! The latter section had a huge amount of artifacts in comparison to that of the indigenous history (no suprise, I guess!).
After the museum we walked towards the commercial area of the center in order to locate a cafe that my sister had mentioned that we must go to. The cafe is called "Confeiteria Colombo" and is indeed a wonderful cafe that one could sit in for hours. The cafe is very untraditional and clearly an establishment among locals and tourists. It is beautifully decorated in an art-nouveau style and lined with giant wooden framed mirrors from Belgium!! Here they serve some lunch type foods (salads and sandwiches), but also a whole selection of savoury pasteries and delicious desserts.
The next stop on our list was to walk around the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa. According to our 2010 Lonely Planet guide book we could take a streetcar (tram), but once we located the station it all looked closed down. A guard emerged from behind the gate and told us we needed to take a bus, instead. A few days later we got into a converstation about this streetcar with some tourists from Spain. Sure enough, the service, which was mostly used by tourists, was made non-operational after 2 accidents occured.
Once we got to the edge of the neighbourhood of Santa Theresa, we got off the bus and walked towards a staircase, Escadaria de Salarón, that I had read about in our guide book. In 1990, a crazy Chilean artist decided to cover the edge of about 215 steps with tiles from 120 countries. The work was still in progress at the time our guide book was published, but we reaped the full effect of the artist´s intentions as, unkowingly, all steps had already been covered. The effect can be appreciated especially when looking uphill from the bottom of the staircase, in which the stairs almost blend together into a mosaic of colours, words and designs - very unique and picturesque!
Unfortunately, by the time we got to the bottom, it was a little too late in the day for us to go back up toward Santa Theresa. As a result, we didn´t get to see as much of the neighbourhood as we had hoped. The neighbourhood is on a hill overlooking the city and is a popular place for artists to reside.
The bottom of the staircase ends up in Lapa and so we walked back for about 20 minutes to the hotel, passing under a random aqueduct-looking structure. We realized later that the discontinued streetcar passed over this structure, at one point. We picked up our backpacks at the hotel and got into a taxi to our hostel, Mango Tree, in Ipanema.
After leaving our bags in our bedroom, we ventured out to walk along the beach of Ipanema. Even on the way to our hostel, we noticed that the area was nothing like we imagined. Neither of us expected the beach to be lined with highrise buildings, mostly hotels and apartments. We both had envisioned low buildings, including houses, restaurants, bars and stores. Instead, the commercial area of Ipanema (and Copacabana) is all around the interior side. There were actually no restaurants by the beach, only shacks selling fast food, fresh coconut juice and other drinks could be found at several points along the sidewalk. I was looking forward to sitting at a restaurant, overlooking the ocean/beach - I think that´s the Greek side of me! Ok, so we did come across one restaurant by the beach, but then we decided that it was too windy to sit outside and nothing too special sitting inside at night...so picky!!
Back to our walk along the beach...We strolled along for quite a while, people watching and taking in the views. Along the sidewalk, there is a lane for pedestrians running, jogging, cycling etc. This was being used by quite a few people. We also noticed several workout stations on the beach where people could do their sit-ups, pull-ups etc. using a metal frame structure. In other spots along the way, there were groups of people playing a volleyball type game, which neither of us had seen before. Instead of using ones arms/hands to hit the ball, they used their shoulders, foreheads or legs/feet...I guess like playing football but with a volleyball net!?! It was quite amazing to watch. Other people were working out with instructors who had set up various strengthening and cardiac exercise stations. One pays the instructor to participate in these and, again, there were several of them along the way! Overall, at night, the beach becomes one long place for people to do their workouts!! No interior gym needed! How nice, I would workout everyday, if only I had a beach like that to go to along with hundreds of other people doing the same to motivate me!
As we approached the adjacent neighborhood of Leblon, we began to head back and walked the interior streets a little to find a restaurant. We ended up in a bar/restaurant where we had risotto and our first Brazilian beer. The risotto was good and the beer...well, let´s just say it tasted very mild!
The next day we headed to the beach in the morning. Swimming is not so easy in these waters, as the waves are quite big and strong. Rakesh got his legs wet and I managed to take a quick dip before getting knock over by the next wave coming toward me! Otherwise, we hung out on the beach for a little and had to ignore (or constantly shake our heads to say "no" to) the many vendors who came our way, selling drinks or merchandise.
Back at the hostal we asked for a restaurant recommendation for lunch. We were told about a lovely "per kilo" restaurant, called Papafina, close by. In fact, we had read in our guide book that Brazil has a lot of these "per kilo" restaurants, which I think is a fantastic idea and is actually cheaper than going to a regular restaurant. It was good for us, too, as we could see the food (buffet) and not have to guess the items on a menu. For some reason, however, other than doing our own cooking, we still ended up going to regular restaurants and continued to have the same problem of not knowing what to order. As a result, overall, we weren't as adventurous with eating local Brazilian food, as we would have if we understood what the items were. Instead, we often had the same food (i.e. Rice, beans, shrimp, pizza, pasta) etc.).
After lunch, we boarded a local bus to get to the famous "Christo Redentor", or "Christ the Redeemer", situated on top of a 700m mountain. One can walk up to the peak, but we chose the lazy way and took the funicular. The statue is very impressive. According to wikipedia, it´s the largest Art Deco statue in the world, measuring about 30m in height and width and sits on top of a 9.5m pedestal. The views down on the city of Rio and beyond were also quite impressive, though obscured a little by smog!
We took the bus back toward the hostal, but ended up getting off at the wrong stop, way in advance. We were in the neighbourhood of Leblon at that point, I believe a little ritzier than Ipanema, but I may be wrong.
That night we took a long walk along Ipanema beach and into Copacabana, hoping to find a restaurant overlooking the beach. Copacabana is similar to Ipanema, but not as populated and not as safe at night. It has a lot of Petrobras gas stations along the middle of the road, too, so probably not as nice as Ipanema. We came across the restaurant I mentioned above, but because it was not worth sitting outside, we ended up back near the hostal, at an Italian restaurant. Maybe that´s how much we needed to have some familiar food!! We ordered a pizza, and much to our regret, it wasn´t very good at all...and expensive, too!!
The next morning, we got up early and took a taxi to the airport for our departure to Manaus!! It was still dark outside and this was the first time where it dawned on me that taxis (and other vehicles, I believe) do not stop at red lights, at night, in order to avoid the risk of an assault!
We returned to Rio before leaving Brazil. More about this city, later.
Monday, December 3, 2012
Pictures: Lake titicaca and islands
Uros Islands:
On boat, on the way to Uros island, with reeds in the background.
Uros people collecting reeds.
Pay station for Uros islands.
Uros island.
Example of a boat, made of reeds and used to transport tourists from one island to another.
Another island and boat.
Reed boat.
Island with it´s inhabitants. This is the one we visited.
Crane.
Local boy on the island we visited.
Reed houses on the island we visited.
Guide talking about reeds (or totoras) and showing how it is eaten.
Steps in constructing a floating island:
1) Mud is sawed into blocks.
2) Thick sticks are pushed into the top of the block.
3) Ropes are tied around the sticks to keep the blocks of mud together.
4) Reeds are placed on top of the blocks in a criss-cross fashion.
5) Houses are built of reeds, too.
THE END!
Local sewing reeds together for thatched roof.
Local artisan work.
Local stove. Mud/reed mix used for fuel.
Even they have solar panels!
Got carried away with photographing islands and boats!
Amantani:
Our room at Glady´s house. The books, pencils and fruit on the table, were gifts from us to them.
Glady´s house.
Our bedroom door. I think we must have bumped our heads at least 3 times!
Walking up to Pachatata, our first night.
On top of Pachatata.
Sunset from Pachamama.
Island houses.
Primary school.
Main square.
Rakesh playing with local kid.
Men and women collecting rocks to fix dock.
Men fixing dock.
Local women. Some of them spinning wool.
Pachatata peak, with mountains in background.
Views from Pachamama peak.
Sunset with snow-capped mountains of Bolivia!
Sunset!
View of Amantani.
Lone Inca ruin!
Girl who goes to the same school as Tania. They know each other. Well, most of the islanders know each other. I bought one of her bracelets.
Rakesh, Gladys, Aquelino, myself and Tania (left to right).
Local lady spinning wool while walking!
Band playing (Aquelino with drum), on our last night.
Us dressed in local clothing, along with Tania.
Taquile:
We could be on some island in the Mediterranean!
Back in Lima
October 28 -29:
After our not so pleasant adventure, we finally made it back to Lima. Unfortunately, since we could not get in touch with Juan -the taxi driver and friend of Coco AND our "chauffeur" during our first stay in Lima - we were not greeted by his familiar face at the airport. Instead, Javier, the man who sat next to us on the plane, accompanied us out of the airport, to the main street, and bargained with taxis for a good price - only 25 soles!! Thank you, Javier!
Due to the fact that our flight was cancelled, we no longer had that much time to spend in Lima. As a result, we decided to take it easy. The one last thing on my "to do" list before leaving Lima, was to have ceviche, a raw fish dish. Although, I had already tried ceviche once before, in Cusco, I had heard that Lima was the best place to have it. Javier, recommended we go to the port area of Lima, Callao. After wondering the streets of Miraflores for a bit, we decided to call Juan to pick us up and take us to Callao to the restaurant Javier had recommended. Juan, however, notified us that the port was too far away from Miraflores and that it would be too costly for us to go there. Instead, we went to a restaurant called "La Onceava" in Barranco, a recommendation previously given to us by Coco. Juan did not know exactly where in Barranco it was, but he assured us that he would find it. And he did! By driving to an area with ceviche restaurants, he asked a policewoman, and she directed him to the right place.
"La Onceava" is a great restaurant, with fantastic ceviche!! Even Rakesh, raved on about it!! Coco had told me that he is friends with the owner (dueña) of the restaurant. I had written the name of the person down, but didn´t have my notebook with me. I asked a waiter if the "dueña" was around. The waiter replied, "¿la dueña Consuela?" and I immediately remembered that name! I then asked if we could meet her, as she was a friend of a friend. The waiter came back to us later and said that once we were done with our food, we could go inside the restaurant to meet Consuela.
Meeting Consuela was a wonderful experience. She seemed thrilled by the fact that we knew Coco. Not only that, but she showed real excitment at the fact that we were non-locals who had come to her restaurant (indeed, we were the only "tourists"). Consuela was extremely warm and affectionate as she smothered us with kisses, especially Rakesh!! She then wanted one of the waiters to take a photo of us all together (it´s actually on our camera and hope we can share it with her sometime soon).
The next day, Juan picked us up in the morning from our hostel and took us to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Juan and took a photo of us three. We already have an open invitation to Juan´s house for ceviche, when we return to Lima!
After our not so pleasant adventure, we finally made it back to Lima. Unfortunately, since we could not get in touch with Juan -the taxi driver and friend of Coco AND our "chauffeur" during our first stay in Lima - we were not greeted by his familiar face at the airport. Instead, Javier, the man who sat next to us on the plane, accompanied us out of the airport, to the main street, and bargained with taxis for a good price - only 25 soles!! Thank you, Javier!
Due to the fact that our flight was cancelled, we no longer had that much time to spend in Lima. As a result, we decided to take it easy. The one last thing on my "to do" list before leaving Lima, was to have ceviche, a raw fish dish. Although, I had already tried ceviche once before, in Cusco, I had heard that Lima was the best place to have it. Javier, recommended we go to the port area of Lima, Callao. After wondering the streets of Miraflores for a bit, we decided to call Juan to pick us up and take us to Callao to the restaurant Javier had recommended. Juan, however, notified us that the port was too far away from Miraflores and that it would be too costly for us to go there. Instead, we went to a restaurant called "La Onceava" in Barranco, a recommendation previously given to us by Coco. Juan did not know exactly where in Barranco it was, but he assured us that he would find it. And he did! By driving to an area with ceviche restaurants, he asked a policewoman, and she directed him to the right place.
"La Onceava" is a great restaurant, with fantastic ceviche!! Even Rakesh, raved on about it!! Coco had told me that he is friends with the owner (dueña) of the restaurant. I had written the name of the person down, but didn´t have my notebook with me. I asked a waiter if the "dueña" was around. The waiter replied, "¿la dueña Consuela?" and I immediately remembered that name! I then asked if we could meet her, as she was a friend of a friend. The waiter came back to us later and said that once we were done with our food, we could go inside the restaurant to meet Consuela.
Meeting Consuela was a wonderful experience. She seemed thrilled by the fact that we knew Coco. Not only that, but she showed real excitment at the fact that we were non-locals who had come to her restaurant (indeed, we were the only "tourists"). Consuela was extremely warm and affectionate as she smothered us with kisses, especially Rakesh!! She then wanted one of the waiters to take a photo of us all together (it´s actually on our camera and hope we can share it with her sometime soon).
The next day, Juan picked us up in the morning from our hostel and took us to the airport. We said our goodbyes to Juan and took a photo of us three. We already have an open invitation to Juan´s house for ceviche, when we return to Lima!
Flight from Juliaca
¨The clouds look ominous...¨. That observation from Nicole summed up our flight experience from Juliaca back to Lima. We had booked a minibus to take us to the Juliaca airport from Puno. As we were approaching the airport, we saw thunderstorms and lightning in the distance. It is amazing as to how far ahead you can see in the highlands of Peru. Once we came to the airport, we checked in without any hassel and patiently waited for our flight in the lounge. Ten minutes before boarding, there was a huge commotion and the staff anounced that the flight was delayed due to weather. Half an hour later, the flight was cancelled!! In these Andean highlands, the winds can get really rough and the incoming flight from Lima had to turn back.....We felt really sorry for the passengers on board...they must have had such a rough ride through the storms......
Ok, once we knew that we could not do anything, we had to deal with the situation at hand. We spoke with the staff at LAN airlines. Even though they had told most of the other crowd that they would be put back on a plane at 12pm. Nicole´s excellent Castellano came in handy here. She spoke with the LAN rep and asked if we could be put back on an earlier flight. We also had to call in our hostel in Lima to cancel the first night. We lost some money here, since that is what happens to last minute cancellations. The lady who helped us out was kind enough to recommend a couple of hotels where we could stay the night.
It was late at night (around 10:30pm) and we had to find our way back to Juliaca. Let me just say that it is not a city you want to stay in, or make your way back to late at night. The security at the airport hailed the last cab for us. We were asked to pay 2.5 times the regular cab fare and I haggled with the driver and we paid twice the regular fare.
The first hotel we went to was completely booked up. We went to the second hotel and they had one room (the expensive one ofcourse...). We dropped off our baggage and ventured out to find a bank and some food (Oh, did I forget to mention, that we were out of cash at this point...). We took an auto-rickshaw to the center of the town and managed to get some cash out. Here we had a really weired experience. We kept trying to stop people to ask them for a place to eat, but everybody kept ignoring us and just walked right past us....!!! It was strange, almost like we did not exist at all.
We finally managed to trap a few people at the ATM when they were taking out money. Even here, the girl who spoke to us, did not make eye-contact. We were told about a mall close by, where we could find food.
I have never ever in my life been as happy about finding a food court in a Mall, as I was then. This was a known terrain and I could navigate. Most of the stores were closed, but we managed to find a pizza to take back to the hotel. When we got back, our hotel was completely boarded up in metal shutters. Infact almost all of the buildings in the city were like this. There was no doubt that Juliaca was not a very safe place.
We went to the airport early the next day; just to make sure that the early flight that was promised was a real deal and not something they said to placate our nerves. Thankfully it was real. During our checkin process, we bumped into another man who had stayed in the airport all night (after having argued with the security...since they don´t let people stay in the airport at night). We just exchanged pleasentries but did not talk for long. I was not sure if he had secured a place on the earlier flight, and did not want to rub in that fact. Funnily enough, he had managed to get on the same flight as us and sat right next to us. Javier turned out to be quite a fun person and we had a very memorable conversation on our flight back to Lima!!! He told us that in his 20 years of flying around, this was the first time something like this had happened. He was very interested in our travel stories and now we have a pen-pal from Lima. Hasta Luego Javier (hope you are reading these blogs).
Overall it was a nice ending to an awful experience that we don´t ever want to repeat again!
Ok, once we knew that we could not do anything, we had to deal with the situation at hand. We spoke with the staff at LAN airlines. Even though they had told most of the other crowd that they would be put back on a plane at 12pm. Nicole´s excellent Castellano came in handy here. She spoke with the LAN rep and asked if we could be put back on an earlier flight. We also had to call in our hostel in Lima to cancel the first night. We lost some money here, since that is what happens to last minute cancellations. The lady who helped us out was kind enough to recommend a couple of hotels where we could stay the night.
It was late at night (around 10:30pm) and we had to find our way back to Juliaca. Let me just say that it is not a city you want to stay in, or make your way back to late at night. The security at the airport hailed the last cab for us. We were asked to pay 2.5 times the regular cab fare and I haggled with the driver and we paid twice the regular fare.
The first hotel we went to was completely booked up. We went to the second hotel and they had one room (the expensive one ofcourse...). We dropped off our baggage and ventured out to find a bank and some food (Oh, did I forget to mention, that we were out of cash at this point...). We took an auto-rickshaw to the center of the town and managed to get some cash out. Here we had a really weired experience. We kept trying to stop people to ask them for a place to eat, but everybody kept ignoring us and just walked right past us....!!! It was strange, almost like we did not exist at all.
We finally managed to trap a few people at the ATM when they were taking out money. Even here, the girl who spoke to us, did not make eye-contact. We were told about a mall close by, where we could find food.
I have never ever in my life been as happy about finding a food court in a Mall, as I was then. This was a known terrain and I could navigate. Most of the stores were closed, but we managed to find a pizza to take back to the hotel. When we got back, our hotel was completely boarded up in metal shutters. Infact almost all of the buildings in the city were like this. There was no doubt that Juliaca was not a very safe place.
We went to the airport early the next day; just to make sure that the early flight that was promised was a real deal and not something they said to placate our nerves. Thankfully it was real. During our checkin process, we bumped into another man who had stayed in the airport all night (after having argued with the security...since they don´t let people stay in the airport at night). We just exchanged pleasentries but did not talk for long. I was not sure if he had secured a place on the earlier flight, and did not want to rub in that fact. Funnily enough, he had managed to get on the same flight as us and sat right next to us. Javier turned out to be quite a fun person and we had a very memorable conversation on our flight back to Lima!!! He told us that in his 20 years of flying around, this was the first time something like this had happened. He was very interested in our travel stories and now we have a pen-pal from Lima. Hasta Luego Javier (hope you are reading these blogs).
Overall it was a nice ending to an awful experience that we don´t ever want to repeat again!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Lake Titicaca and islands
October 24-27
Wednesday morning, after a first decent hostel/hotel breakfast (i.e. eggs were served! Not JUST bread, butter and jam) we headed to the docks of Puno in a taxi. As we were getting out of the taxi, we were immediately accosted by a whole host of boat operators who wanted to take us on a tour of the Lake Titicaca islands. I got a little irritated, as I didn´t like the feeling of 4 men closely following/surrounding us while we were trying to get away. I spoke to them sternly, in my best Spanish, and said that we did not want to join a tour group, but wanted to visit the islands independently. They then explained to us that they would just sell us tickets for the boat trips for 30 soles (return trip) and that we could then go off independently. Phew! I was relieved, but then felt a little badly that I was a little harsh with them.
Our plan was to first visit one of the Uros (floating) islands and then head to the island of Amantani, where we decided to spend 3 nights. It was up to the discretion of the captain of the taxi boat, as to which of the Uros islands we would visit (though I believe they were all pretty much the same, so it didn´t make much of a difference).
Uros islands:
We spent an hour on one of the Uros islands, where we learned about the lives of the families living on them and how the islands are made. When we got onto the island, Rakesh and I had to pay an entrance fee of 5 soles each. The others did not have to pay as it was already included in their tour package. It´s clearly one way the island makes some money.
The Uros islands were occupied by the Uros tribe in the past, but now are inhabited by Amarayas. They speak amaraya vs quechua. These islands are built out of reeds!! How crazy!! The reeds (or totoras) grow in abundance in the lake, fairly close to the main land. In fact, it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the Uros islands. The reeds are not only used to build the islands, but also to build their houses, boats, handicrafts, and even to provide vital nutrients to children. While on the island, the guide passed out a reed to each of one us so that we could taste one (or part of one, as they are pretty long). You peel them, kind of like a banana and chomp away from the top. They are quite bland in taste, but pretty edible!
The base of the islands consist of a mix of mud and reeds. Several blocks of mud are held together by tying rope around a thick stick of wood that are anchored on top of each block. More reeds are then piled on the top, in a criss-cross fashion, to make the flooring!! The islands float, but stay put as they are anchored to lake bed, otherwise the winds would blow them out to the middle of nowhere!!!. The guide said that if the inhabitants of one island do not like the inhabitants of a neighbouring island, all they have to do is move their island further away!! I´m sure that was just a joke, ofcourse. Since the reeds rot, they have to be replenished. The guide said that the islands last for about 30 days before they have to be reconstructed again!
The families survive mainly on fish and poultry. They (the men) hunt for the poultry and catch the fish, themselves. They thrive on tourism and the making/selling of their beautiful, though expensive, crafts!! We contributed a little more than just paying the entrance fee and bought a pillow case, with one of their Gods, Tumi, embroidered on it.
Island of Amantani:
The journey to Amantani was a slow 3 hour boat ride. We initially sat outside, but then the sun started to get to me. I moved inside the cabin, but then had to endure the horrid smell of petrol for the rest of the journey, yuck! Rakesh managed to find a little bit of shade and remained outside.
Once we arrived on Amantani, we were introduced to a local lady, Gladys, who would be our host for the rest of our stay. We had to pay another 5 soles each to enter the island, and then we began our ascent to Glady´s house. It wasn´t that long before we got out of breath and I wondered, how do these locals walk up these hills (actually, mountain tops!) every day!!!
[One reason why we did not want to join a tour group, was the fact that local families are often exploited by the tour companies and are not paid as much as they would if one were to stay with a family independently. For 30 soles or roughly $15 a night per person, we were given a bed, and three meals a day.]
Glady´s house, just like every other house was next to a plot of farm land. Most of the houses on the island are built of mud, and some are painted in colour. Gladys lives with her husband, 13 year old daughter, Tanya, and her in-laws (her 2 older sons live on the mainland). There is no electricity on the island, but like some other houses, they had a solar panel to be able to light up the bedrooms at night. Our reason for staying on the island for 3 nights was to have a small idea of how the locals live. Clearly, life there is quite primitive, with no electricity, plumbing, running water, etc. We can´t complain about the candle-lit dinners we had every night!! All our meals were prepared by Gladys, who had to use a wood burning stove (they use eucalyptus trees as their source of fuel) and candle-light at night! Going to the bathroom, was very primitive (sorry for the details, but worth remembering). They had a western toilet bowl, but no seat and no flush! We had to manually flush the toilet using water that they kept in a large container on the side. As for showers...there wasn´t a way to shower!! Aaahhh!! We didn´t shower for 3 days!! At one point, I was thinking of having a bird bath, but the water was too cold...ofcourse, no electricity, no hot water!! There was no sink either! Instead, we used a small basin to wash our hands/face and to brush our teeth! After 3 days, it was nice to get back to known comforts and to finally have a shower!!
It was around lunch time when we arrived at the house. Gladys had already prepared lunch and we sat down to eat. For every lunch and dinner, we started off with soup. It was a variation on the same theme. Vegetables with quinoa, barley or corn. Sometimes, it contained potatoes. Next we had a bowl of rice, with vegetables, including corn and potatoes. Once we had fries with a fish dish, and another time we had pasta. The market only occurs once a week, so the locals mainly consume vegetables and local grains. There are very few cattle on the island, which are mostly used for farming and not for consumption. So any meat/fish that they eat, comes from the mainland. As a result, Rakesh (and I too), were very happy to have mostly vegetarian food. I was happy, because I was getting a little tired of having meat all the time, especially since I´m not used to eating meat/fish on a daily basis.
After lunch, we took a short nap. In fact, our naps are worth mentioning. Another reason for spending so much time on this island, was purely to relax and not do too much. After a month of traveling non-stop, we needed a break! As for naps, we took one after breakfast and then again after lunch!! We couldn´t believe how much we slept! We clearly, needed it. Two naps a day! Don´t think we´ve done that since we were babies!
Around 4:30pm we headed out, with Gladys, to the main square where we found the daily group of tourists and guide. Every day the island gets a group of tourists that spends only one night before heading out to another island. We knew that the group had all gathered at the square to begin a hike up to one of two peaks, Pachatata (father earth). The locals, continue to worship the earth (which I think is wonderful). On this island, they have a Pachatata peak and a Pachamama (mother earth) peak. In January, they hold a celebration/rituals at a site on each of these peaks, and practically all the inhabitants (and tourists, I assume) attend/partake. Gladys told us she would meet us, with her daughter, back at the square at 6pm. We started to ascend toward Pachatata with the group, but then broke away from them as we wanted to be on our own. It was a pretty tiring ascent up on a beautiful stone-paved path lined with houses at first and then just farm land divided by stone walls. Along, the way and closer to the peak, local kids and women sat to sell their crafts laid out in front of them. We got to the top just as the sun began to set. It was quite breezy and cold at this point, so we took in the sunset amongst the clouds, took a couple of snap shots and then began our descent back to the square. We needed to use our flashlights for the latter half of our decent as it was dark at this point.
Once at the square, many of the tourists had already gathered there. Like, us, they were all waiting and looking for their respective hosts. Since there were no lights around, but only a few flashlights, it was hard to determine which of the local women was our host. All the women wear the same outfits: a black shawl-type garment, which they often put over their heads to shield themselves from the sun, a black skirt and a white blouse with beautiful embroideries on the front. The black shawl also had beautiful embroideries. With their dark skin too, how on earth were we supposed to tell Glady´s apart from Maria, Lydia and so on and so forth. This lead out to a comical scene where other tourists began calling out such names as they attempted to locate their respective hosts. Finally, at about 6:15pm, it was Glady´s daughter, Tania, who came to pick us up. She was the one who spotted us first!!
Dinner at about 7pm, was similar to lunch, as mentioned above. I forgot to add that breakfast, lunch and dinner was also accompanied with a hot beverage consisting of either coca leaves, muña (a local wild herb), and/or freshly picked eucalyptus leaves, which we added to hot water. Rakesh and I fell in love with the muña, a herb that we had never had before!! Rakesh said its taste is a mix between Tulsi (Indian basil) and mint, in case that gives some of you an idea. Also, all our food was served in a beautiful unvarnished clay bowls, with a simple black design inside. The bowls looked like they were straight out of an Inca museum!
After dinner we went to bed at about 8:30pm. It was pitch black outside and with no lights around, other than in the bedrooms, it was hard to do anything. That´s why the locals go to bed early and wake up early. We seemed to be tired anyway, and so it wasn´t hard to fall asleep.
On day 2 and 3, we had a similar routine. Breakfast, nap, walk, lunch, nap, walk, dinner and then soon after went to bed for the night. The differences are that we took different walks to explore other parts of the island, on our walk before lunch. On one of these walks we were directed to go to see an ancient Inca site - basically one lonely large stone situated on a pebble beach. We had to ask several locals to find this site. We ended up on a beach a little further away, where we saw a farmer tending to his crops on the side, and two men loading trash onto their small wooden paddle boats (the latter was not the nicest site). We eventually found our way over to the Inca stones. On another walk, we ended up at one of the island´s small harbours, where we saw tons of women and men scraping up small rocks and hauling them in their sack over their back to the harbour, where other men worked manually to fix part of the wall and path. We found out later, that the husband of our host, Aquelino, was helping out with this work, too.
Our walks after lunch, however were somewhat a repeat of our evening walk on the first day. On both days 2 and 3, we climbed up to the peak of Pachamama vs that of Pachatata. By going up either one or the other peak, at around 4:30pm, we were able to catch the sunset, which was different each time. We probably overdid it with our photographs. The views were very impressive with the clouds (one day had more than others) and then the snow-capped mountain peaks in the far distance. One of these mountain ranges was on the Bolivian side! As we sat to take in the sunset, we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were not looking at a sea, but at a LAKE and that we were not on top of a hill, but on top of a mountain peak! At this point, we were at over 3,800m (or 12,500ft) and surrounded by a HUGE body of water!! It was definitely very hard to get our heads around this fact!!
On our last night, we asked to partake in one of the tourist events and that was to go see some live music. Little did we know though, that this would also involve us dressing up in local outfits AND dancing. I was dressed up with the black skirt, white blouse and black shawl and Rakesh was given a thick and heavy woolen poncho type garment to wear. I couldn´t believe how heavy the the skirt was, too!! Glady´s husband played the drum in a four person band. Glady´s daughter came with us, and helped us with the dances. All three of us held hands in a circle and pretty much went round and round and round...woo, I definitely got a little dizzy at times. We also danced in larger circles, interlinking hands with the other tourists. It was a different and fun night.
On the 4th day, after breakfast we were accompanied by Tania to the dock where we got onto another small motor boat to visit the island of Taquille and then return to Puno.
A little about the local life: During our stay on the island we saw a lot of people, including young children and old men/women, carrying lots of various items on their backs. The women had the typical beautifully coloured woven fabrics that they use as sacks. They hauled anything from food to farmland products. The children go to school, though like Tania, they help out with chores outside of school. For instance, after a short day at school on Friday, Tania helped to haul manure to the other side of the island where her family helps tend to potatoes. We also saw people hauling farming tools. Life on the island is very traditional and includes, working on the farms, making and selling crafts, and helping out with construction (e.g. fixing the dock). It was interesting to watch women and girls walking around with or without sacks on their backs while spinning their wool, too! Amazing! Some people own stores, where one can buy a few essentials. It seems that mostly the women do the cooking. With no electricity around and with people living a simple and traditional life, we definitely felt like we were living in the past.
Island of Taquile:
It took us an hour to get here from Amantani and we had 3 hours to visit the island. After paying another 5 soles each to enter the island, we walked along a stone-paved path toward the main square. Unlike Amantani, their were hardly any houses in sight along the path, until we got to the square. This island definitely felt smaller than Amantani and there are not as many inhabitants. While walking around the island, the lake seemed magical. It felt like we were looking at the mediterranean sea! Deep blue waters...yummy!! It was pretty much the same from Amantani, too.
Once we got to the square we grabbed a couple of avocado sandwiches and started to head up another path towards the peak. We ate our sandwiches in the shade and just as we were about to head back down to find the rest of the group, a french girl that we knew from the group was heading up. Apparently, the way to the second dock, where we were to find the same boat, was in the direction we were heading in. It was the guide who had told her to go up this way. After walking uphill for a while, we got to the peak where there were some more ruins. It was at this point that we realized that the rest of the group was nowhere in sight. We did not take in the ruins that much as we attempted to figure out rest of the way to the other dock. With a little bit of panic, since we were slowly running out of time (we had to be back at the boat by 12pm) we finally managed to find our way, after asking a couple of the locals for directions. It wasn´t the straightforward path that the guide had told the french girl!! We got to the boat before many of the other tourists, who apparently, sat down for lunch in restaurants near the square and then they all took a different route to the boat. No wonder we couldn´t see them! They also missed the beautiful views we had from the peak. Blue waters, with various yellow coloured shrubs dotted all around the island.
The other difference between this island and the island of Amantani, is the locals´ outfits. The men wear red hats, a white shirt and black pants. The women wear similar clothing to those on Amantani, though do not have as much embroidery on their clothing, and do not necessarily wear a white blouse.
Unlike on the Uros islands, the inhabitants of Taquile and Amantani speak quechua. The quechua that Rakesh and I learned in Lima and Cuzco, is quite different from that of these islands!
Lake Titicaca:
Just a bit about the lake. It lies at an elevation of 3, 812 m (12,507 ft) and is the highest navigable lake in the world!! Commercial crafts navigate this lake!! This might give you an idea of how large this body of water is! The lake is split between Peru and Bolivia.
Back in Puno: From Taquile it was another slow 3 hour boat ride to Puno. This time we sat on the roof along with other tourists and about 8 of the locals. Once in Puno, we returned to the hotel we had stayed in before we left for the islands. As with several similar situations during our trip, we were able to leave our large back-packs at the hotel during our island hopping. Also, for a small fee, we were able to use a bathroom in order to shower, etc. Ah, so nice!
Wednesday morning, after a first decent hostel/hotel breakfast (i.e. eggs were served! Not JUST bread, butter and jam) we headed to the docks of Puno in a taxi. As we were getting out of the taxi, we were immediately accosted by a whole host of boat operators who wanted to take us on a tour of the Lake Titicaca islands. I got a little irritated, as I didn´t like the feeling of 4 men closely following/surrounding us while we were trying to get away. I spoke to them sternly, in my best Spanish, and said that we did not want to join a tour group, but wanted to visit the islands independently. They then explained to us that they would just sell us tickets for the boat trips for 30 soles (return trip) and that we could then go off independently. Phew! I was relieved, but then felt a little badly that I was a little harsh with them.
Our plan was to first visit one of the Uros (floating) islands and then head to the island of Amantani, where we decided to spend 3 nights. It was up to the discretion of the captain of the taxi boat, as to which of the Uros islands we would visit (though I believe they were all pretty much the same, so it didn´t make much of a difference).
Uros islands:
We spent an hour on one of the Uros islands, where we learned about the lives of the families living on them and how the islands are made. When we got onto the island, Rakesh and I had to pay an entrance fee of 5 soles each. The others did not have to pay as it was already included in their tour package. It´s clearly one way the island makes some money.
The Uros islands were occupied by the Uros tribe in the past, but now are inhabited by Amarayas. They speak amaraya vs quechua. These islands are built out of reeds!! How crazy!! The reeds (or totoras) grow in abundance in the lake, fairly close to the main land. In fact, it only took us about 30 minutes to get to the Uros islands. The reeds are not only used to build the islands, but also to build their houses, boats, handicrafts, and even to provide vital nutrients to children. While on the island, the guide passed out a reed to each of one us so that we could taste one (or part of one, as they are pretty long). You peel them, kind of like a banana and chomp away from the top. They are quite bland in taste, but pretty edible!
The base of the islands consist of a mix of mud and reeds. Several blocks of mud are held together by tying rope around a thick stick of wood that are anchored on top of each block. More reeds are then piled on the top, in a criss-cross fashion, to make the flooring!! The islands float, but stay put as they are anchored to lake bed, otherwise the winds would blow them out to the middle of nowhere!!!. The guide said that if the inhabitants of one island do not like the inhabitants of a neighbouring island, all they have to do is move their island further away!! I´m sure that was just a joke, ofcourse. Since the reeds rot, they have to be replenished. The guide said that the islands last for about 30 days before they have to be reconstructed again!
The families survive mainly on fish and poultry. They (the men) hunt for the poultry and catch the fish, themselves. They thrive on tourism and the making/selling of their beautiful, though expensive, crafts!! We contributed a little more than just paying the entrance fee and bought a pillow case, with one of their Gods, Tumi, embroidered on it.
Island of Amantani:
The journey to Amantani was a slow 3 hour boat ride. We initially sat outside, but then the sun started to get to me. I moved inside the cabin, but then had to endure the horrid smell of petrol for the rest of the journey, yuck! Rakesh managed to find a little bit of shade and remained outside.
Once we arrived on Amantani, we were introduced to a local lady, Gladys, who would be our host for the rest of our stay. We had to pay another 5 soles each to enter the island, and then we began our ascent to Glady´s house. It wasn´t that long before we got out of breath and I wondered, how do these locals walk up these hills (actually, mountain tops!) every day!!!
[One reason why we did not want to join a tour group, was the fact that local families are often exploited by the tour companies and are not paid as much as they would if one were to stay with a family independently. For 30 soles or roughly $15 a night per person, we were given a bed, and three meals a day.]
Glady´s house, just like every other house was next to a plot of farm land. Most of the houses on the island are built of mud, and some are painted in colour. Gladys lives with her husband, 13 year old daughter, Tanya, and her in-laws (her 2 older sons live on the mainland). There is no electricity on the island, but like some other houses, they had a solar panel to be able to light up the bedrooms at night. Our reason for staying on the island for 3 nights was to have a small idea of how the locals live. Clearly, life there is quite primitive, with no electricity, plumbing, running water, etc. We can´t complain about the candle-lit dinners we had every night!! All our meals were prepared by Gladys, who had to use a wood burning stove (they use eucalyptus trees as their source of fuel) and candle-light at night! Going to the bathroom, was very primitive (sorry for the details, but worth remembering). They had a western toilet bowl, but no seat and no flush! We had to manually flush the toilet using water that they kept in a large container on the side. As for showers...there wasn´t a way to shower!! Aaahhh!! We didn´t shower for 3 days!! At one point, I was thinking of having a bird bath, but the water was too cold...ofcourse, no electricity, no hot water!! There was no sink either! Instead, we used a small basin to wash our hands/face and to brush our teeth! After 3 days, it was nice to get back to known comforts and to finally have a shower!!
It was around lunch time when we arrived at the house. Gladys had already prepared lunch and we sat down to eat. For every lunch and dinner, we started off with soup. It was a variation on the same theme. Vegetables with quinoa, barley or corn. Sometimes, it contained potatoes. Next we had a bowl of rice, with vegetables, including corn and potatoes. Once we had fries with a fish dish, and another time we had pasta. The market only occurs once a week, so the locals mainly consume vegetables and local grains. There are very few cattle on the island, which are mostly used for farming and not for consumption. So any meat/fish that they eat, comes from the mainland. As a result, Rakesh (and I too), were very happy to have mostly vegetarian food. I was happy, because I was getting a little tired of having meat all the time, especially since I´m not used to eating meat/fish on a daily basis.
After lunch, we took a short nap. In fact, our naps are worth mentioning. Another reason for spending so much time on this island, was purely to relax and not do too much. After a month of traveling non-stop, we needed a break! As for naps, we took one after breakfast and then again after lunch!! We couldn´t believe how much we slept! We clearly, needed it. Two naps a day! Don´t think we´ve done that since we were babies!
Around 4:30pm we headed out, with Gladys, to the main square where we found the daily group of tourists and guide. Every day the island gets a group of tourists that spends only one night before heading out to another island. We knew that the group had all gathered at the square to begin a hike up to one of two peaks, Pachatata (father earth). The locals, continue to worship the earth (which I think is wonderful). On this island, they have a Pachatata peak and a Pachamama (mother earth) peak. In January, they hold a celebration/rituals at a site on each of these peaks, and practically all the inhabitants (and tourists, I assume) attend/partake. Gladys told us she would meet us, with her daughter, back at the square at 6pm. We started to ascend toward Pachatata with the group, but then broke away from them as we wanted to be on our own. It was a pretty tiring ascent up on a beautiful stone-paved path lined with houses at first and then just farm land divided by stone walls. Along, the way and closer to the peak, local kids and women sat to sell their crafts laid out in front of them. We got to the top just as the sun began to set. It was quite breezy and cold at this point, so we took in the sunset amongst the clouds, took a couple of snap shots and then began our descent back to the square. We needed to use our flashlights for the latter half of our decent as it was dark at this point.
Once at the square, many of the tourists had already gathered there. Like, us, they were all waiting and looking for their respective hosts. Since there were no lights around, but only a few flashlights, it was hard to determine which of the local women was our host. All the women wear the same outfits: a black shawl-type garment, which they often put over their heads to shield themselves from the sun, a black skirt and a white blouse with beautiful embroideries on the front. The black shawl also had beautiful embroideries. With their dark skin too, how on earth were we supposed to tell Glady´s apart from Maria, Lydia and so on and so forth. This lead out to a comical scene where other tourists began calling out such names as they attempted to locate their respective hosts. Finally, at about 6:15pm, it was Glady´s daughter, Tania, who came to pick us up. She was the one who spotted us first!!
Dinner at about 7pm, was similar to lunch, as mentioned above. I forgot to add that breakfast, lunch and dinner was also accompanied with a hot beverage consisting of either coca leaves, muña (a local wild herb), and/or freshly picked eucalyptus leaves, which we added to hot water. Rakesh and I fell in love with the muña, a herb that we had never had before!! Rakesh said its taste is a mix between Tulsi (Indian basil) and mint, in case that gives some of you an idea. Also, all our food was served in a beautiful unvarnished clay bowls, with a simple black design inside. The bowls looked like they were straight out of an Inca museum!
After dinner we went to bed at about 8:30pm. It was pitch black outside and with no lights around, other than in the bedrooms, it was hard to do anything. That´s why the locals go to bed early and wake up early. We seemed to be tired anyway, and so it wasn´t hard to fall asleep.
On day 2 and 3, we had a similar routine. Breakfast, nap, walk, lunch, nap, walk, dinner and then soon after went to bed for the night. The differences are that we took different walks to explore other parts of the island, on our walk before lunch. On one of these walks we were directed to go to see an ancient Inca site - basically one lonely large stone situated on a pebble beach. We had to ask several locals to find this site. We ended up on a beach a little further away, where we saw a farmer tending to his crops on the side, and two men loading trash onto their small wooden paddle boats (the latter was not the nicest site). We eventually found our way over to the Inca stones. On another walk, we ended up at one of the island´s small harbours, where we saw tons of women and men scraping up small rocks and hauling them in their sack over their back to the harbour, where other men worked manually to fix part of the wall and path. We found out later, that the husband of our host, Aquelino, was helping out with this work, too.
Our walks after lunch, however were somewhat a repeat of our evening walk on the first day. On both days 2 and 3, we climbed up to the peak of Pachamama vs that of Pachatata. By going up either one or the other peak, at around 4:30pm, we were able to catch the sunset, which was different each time. We probably overdid it with our photographs. The views were very impressive with the clouds (one day had more than others) and then the snow-capped mountain peaks in the far distance. One of these mountain ranges was on the Bolivian side! As we sat to take in the sunset, we had to keep reminding ourselves that we were not looking at a sea, but at a LAKE and that we were not on top of a hill, but on top of a mountain peak! At this point, we were at over 3,800m (or 12,500ft) and surrounded by a HUGE body of water!! It was definitely very hard to get our heads around this fact!!
On our last night, we asked to partake in one of the tourist events and that was to go see some live music. Little did we know though, that this would also involve us dressing up in local outfits AND dancing. I was dressed up with the black skirt, white blouse and black shawl and Rakesh was given a thick and heavy woolen poncho type garment to wear. I couldn´t believe how heavy the the skirt was, too!! Glady´s husband played the drum in a four person band. Glady´s daughter came with us, and helped us with the dances. All three of us held hands in a circle and pretty much went round and round and round...woo, I definitely got a little dizzy at times. We also danced in larger circles, interlinking hands with the other tourists. It was a different and fun night.
On the 4th day, after breakfast we were accompanied by Tania to the dock where we got onto another small motor boat to visit the island of Taquille and then return to Puno.
A little about the local life: During our stay on the island we saw a lot of people, including young children and old men/women, carrying lots of various items on their backs. The women had the typical beautifully coloured woven fabrics that they use as sacks. They hauled anything from food to farmland products. The children go to school, though like Tania, they help out with chores outside of school. For instance, after a short day at school on Friday, Tania helped to haul manure to the other side of the island where her family helps tend to potatoes. We also saw people hauling farming tools. Life on the island is very traditional and includes, working on the farms, making and selling crafts, and helping out with construction (e.g. fixing the dock). It was interesting to watch women and girls walking around with or without sacks on their backs while spinning their wool, too! Amazing! Some people own stores, where one can buy a few essentials. It seems that mostly the women do the cooking. With no electricity around and with people living a simple and traditional life, we definitely felt like we were living in the past.
Island of Taquile:
It took us an hour to get here from Amantani and we had 3 hours to visit the island. After paying another 5 soles each to enter the island, we walked along a stone-paved path toward the main square. Unlike Amantani, their were hardly any houses in sight along the path, until we got to the square. This island definitely felt smaller than Amantani and there are not as many inhabitants. While walking around the island, the lake seemed magical. It felt like we were looking at the mediterranean sea! Deep blue waters...yummy!! It was pretty much the same from Amantani, too.
Once we got to the square we grabbed a couple of avocado sandwiches and started to head up another path towards the peak. We ate our sandwiches in the shade and just as we were about to head back down to find the rest of the group, a french girl that we knew from the group was heading up. Apparently, the way to the second dock, where we were to find the same boat, was in the direction we were heading in. It was the guide who had told her to go up this way. After walking uphill for a while, we got to the peak where there were some more ruins. It was at this point that we realized that the rest of the group was nowhere in sight. We did not take in the ruins that much as we attempted to figure out rest of the way to the other dock. With a little bit of panic, since we were slowly running out of time (we had to be back at the boat by 12pm) we finally managed to find our way, after asking a couple of the locals for directions. It wasn´t the straightforward path that the guide had told the french girl!! We got to the boat before many of the other tourists, who apparently, sat down for lunch in restaurants near the square and then they all took a different route to the boat. No wonder we couldn´t see them! They also missed the beautiful views we had from the peak. Blue waters, with various yellow coloured shrubs dotted all around the island.
The other difference between this island and the island of Amantani, is the locals´ outfits. The men wear red hats, a white shirt and black pants. The women wear similar clothing to those on Amantani, though do not have as much embroidery on their clothing, and do not necessarily wear a white blouse.
Unlike on the Uros islands, the inhabitants of Taquile and Amantani speak quechua. The quechua that Rakesh and I learned in Lima and Cuzco, is quite different from that of these islands!
Lake Titicaca:
Just a bit about the lake. It lies at an elevation of 3, 812 m (12,507 ft) and is the highest navigable lake in the world!! Commercial crafts navigate this lake!! This might give you an idea of how large this body of water is! The lake is split between Peru and Bolivia.
Back in Puno: From Taquile it was another slow 3 hour boat ride to Puno. This time we sat on the roof along with other tourists and about 8 of the locals. Once in Puno, we returned to the hotel we had stayed in before we left for the islands. As with several similar situations during our trip, we were able to leave our large back-packs at the hotel during our island hopping. Also, for a small fee, we were able to use a bathroom in order to shower, etc. Ah, so nice!
Sunday, November 18, 2012
Photos of Cuzco
Pisac:
Pisac market, 30 mins outside of Cuzco.
Local lady in Pisac market.
Several varieties of corn (Pisac market).
Baby sleeping at cafe (where we went for lunch overlooking Pisac market).
Cusco:
Plaza des Armas (main square).
Locals with their llama.
12-corner stone! Can you count them all?
The work of the Incas vs the Incapables.
View of Cuzco.
More views of Cuzco from San Blas square.
Art on wall of house in San Blas.
Plaza des Armas (again). Fountain of an Inca and beautiful flower beds.
Tres leches con chocolate cake, we ordered at a nice cafe on Plaza des Armas.
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