Three Cities, Three Parks, and Venn Diagrams

While in Peru this last week, I had the opportunity to visit the Parque Del Amor (Love Park). This park is located in the Miraflores area of Lima right on the ocean. It was designed with a focus on a central sculpture and had a winding, tile-covered bench around the edge. I couldn't help but think of two other parks that I've been to that had similarities. Here's an overview shot of Parque Del Amor:


If you notice in the photo above, there's a huge sculpture of a couple making out. You can question the artistic value but it is the focus. In center city Philadelphia, there is a place called JFK Plaza, which locals call Love Park. Here's a photo of JFK Plaza I took a few years ago on my brother's wedding day:


You can see the world-famous LOVE sculpture and the reason for the commonly-used Love Park name. Now, as I mentioned, the Parque Del Amor has a winding, tile-covered bench that was designed in the style of the one at Gaudi's Park Guell in Barcelona. Here's a shot of the bench in Lima:


...and the one in Barcelona that wraps around the edge of the plaza (sorry about the odd angle-it's the best overview shot I have):


I found it interesting how these three parks all had common, overlapping features. Leave it to the engineer in me to view the common love theme in terms of a Venn Diagram.

Inca Kola

I'm the type of person to try pretty much anything once especially when it comes to food. Someone once said to me that if they were in a place with cannibals that they'd eat right along with the group. I'm probably somewhere in that league.

Here in Peru, the most popular soda isn't Coke or Pepsi, it's Inca Kola. Its looks are a lot like the bright colors of Mountain Dew or even the antifreeze that you use in your car. How could I not try it?

Now part of the national identity/pride, Inca Kola was actually created by an English immigrant to Peru about 100 years ago. I read that it was originally flavored with lemon verbena but I doubt that they use verbena to flavor it today. Actually, it tastes a lot like old-fashioned bubble gum. It's a bit sweet but I guess I expect that in all sodas. I really, really like the flavor and would probably drink it regularly if I could find easily it in the U.S.

Inca Kola also comes in a diet, or Light, version too. It's not quite as sweet tasting but otherwise they've got the flavor right on. I actually prefer the diet version to the regular because of it being less sweet.

Yum. I like this Inca Kola stuff. Now to go find some new and exotic food to match it with!

Chicha Morada

It's purple. It's sweet. It's good!

Chicha morada is a corn-based, non-alcoholic drink that can be found in Peru and other parts of south America. Apparently, it's made by boiling purple corn with fruit (like pineapple), some cinnamon, and some cloves. People drink it like you'd drink horchata in Mexico; or maybe like a soda, fruit juice, or something like that in other parts of the world.

Not much else to say about it other than it being unusual and that I really liked the taste. Here's the required photo:

Nazca Lines

On Wednesday, I boarded a Cruz Del Sur bus from Lima and headed about 300 miles south to Nazca Peru. The purpose of trip? To see the world-famous Nazca Lines of course! I left Lima at 415am and arrived into Nazca around noon. The trip usually takes approximately six hours but our bus had a flat tire that took an hour-and-a-half to fix.

Upon exiting the bus station, I was immediately inundated with offers to see the lines, rides to the airport, and so on. I jumped into what I was told was a taxi that would take me over to the airport. It turns out that the people who took me worked for one of the air-tour companies and they took me to their office near the airport. After a quick "disagreement" about what they told me and so on, I started to walk to the airport, which was about 15 minutes away. :-0 Fortunately a real taxi went by and I hoped in for a quick ride to the front of the airport.

Inside the airport are ~11 companies offering various tours on various types of aircraft. I priced out a few of the companies and settled on a 45 minute tour in a four-person Cessna-type plane. After watching a video for a few minutes, I was off to see the lines from the air.

The Nazca Lines are a series of massive drawings on the desert floor. They are believed to be between 2200 and 1400 years old. The odd thing is that they are best viewed from the air as, on the ground, they just look like wide stripes of white earth between the reddish rocks of the surrounding area. There are a variety of theories as to why they are there; everything from alien landing strips to religious symbols. For me, they are just another curiosity in our curious world.

I'll put up some of the best photos but, as you can guess, taking pictures of the desert floor in an airplane circling rapidly is difficult at best. Here's one of my favorites, the hummingbird (the nose is pointed up in this photo):


...the monkey:


...the spider:


...and of course, the world-famous spaceman/astronaut:


After the brief flight, I went back to the center of Nazca and ate at a really great rotisserie chicken place and got back on the bus for the six-plus-hour return back to Lima. Sadly, one day after my visit, one of the Nazca-air-tour planes crashed. Seven people died. My heart goes out to their families.

Coca Tea

During a visit to Peru, especially in the higher elevations, you'll probably get at least mild altitude sickness. The locals swear by Coca Tea as part of, if not the whole cure.

Coca tea is what you think it is. It's made from the leaf of the coca plant, which is also the one used to make cocaine. The tea is good (if not a little boring) and is available in loose-leaf and tea-bag varieties. Apparently, the percentage of cocaine is so small that I won't have to worry about failing a drug test if I apply for a new job.

Here's a cup of the good stuff:

Uros Islands (Lake Titicaca, Peru)

The Uros are a pre-Incan group and their man-made, floating islands are located on Lake Titicaca in Peru. Lake Titicaca (no, not that way...more like: tih-tea-ha-ha), as you may know, is the world's highest navigable lake at close to 12,500 feet above sea level (see the altitude sickness story). To visit the islands, you board a shuttle boat at the Puno port and take a 15 minute ride.


Arriving at the first island you visit is sort of like stepping back in time about 2000 years except for the occasional solar panel. Everything you see, including their houses, boats, and the islands themselves are made from reeds that grow in the lake.


Here's a shot as you approach one of the islands:



During the island visit, you hear how the islands are constructed and maintained. They are basically on a foundation that comes from the reed root balls, which form something that acts like a giant cork. They tie these together and lay more reeds on top until the island itself is about five-feet thick. The island base continuously rots away from underneath so they must add new reeds pretty much weekly.

Walking around the island gives you the sensation that you're on a giant sponge but your feet are still dry. Here's an example of the root ball material along with a couple of locals:


Each family lives in a one-room, open-style house. The one that the group got to "tour" had solar power, a TV, and a couple of other modern conveniences.


Other than maintaining the island itself, the locals are basically dependent on the tourists for their livelihood. They sell handicrafts at prices that seem a bit high but you end up buying something as a sort-of charitable contribution. :-)


After you're done seeing the island, you get on a hand-made, reed boat and two of the locals paddle you over to another island where you can continue making "charitable contributions". It was here where I had bad travel judgment and had a bowl of fish soup. Hmm... I'm essentially on a hay bail on a lake in the middle of the third world... What should I order if I'm hungry? Oh yeah, I'll have the fish soup!


Well, the soup was actually pretty good but the threat of "stomach discomfort" after eating something like this is very high as you'd guess. I did end up surviving but, hopefully, next time I'll think before I eat...

Pisco Sour

Last week, I had the chance to discover Peru's national drink, the Pisco Sour. It's sort of the equivalent of Mexico's margarita, Cuba's mojito, and Brazil's caipirinha. Unfortunately, I ended up getting altitude sickness while in Arequipa and Lake Titicaca (story coming) and it's kept me from enjoying a second round. Well...I'm back at sea level for the rest of the trip so today's the day.

In case you don't know, a Pisco Sour is a drink made from pisco, which is a brandy-like alcohol distilled from grapes. The other ingredients are: lemon or lime juice, egg whites, simple syrup, and bitters. It doesn't taste very strong so I guess it's pretty easy to get smashed.

Since most are back to work today, I'll have one for you with my cebiche lunch!

Colca Valley

Every adventure starts around 2am, doesn't it? Well, this one did.

Today's excursion was a day-trip to Colca Valley, which is located about 100 miles north of Arequipa. The Colca Valley is the Peruvian version of the Grand Canyon in the US, although they say it's around twice as deep or so. But wait, back to 2am...

I woke up around 2am to get ready for the tour bus that picked me up exactly at 3am. I was the last to get picked up, which should be a good thing I guess. Unfortunately, it meant that I got the middle seat in the last row. Bummer. Oh well, at least get some sleep.

Or not. About one hour into the journey, the road went from paved to unpaved and completely washboard. So much for sleep. The washboard-dirt road continued for about an hour or so until, miraculously, pavement appeared. Yum, back to sleep. Wait, it's 6am and time to get out.

Actually, at this point, we were at the highest point of the journey. Here's a shot (not sure why it's turned this way) of my watch showing us at just over 15,000 feet:


The place we stopped definitely was cool though. We were well above the clouds and you could see other tall peaks.


Back on the bus for about an hour until a quick breakfast stop. We ate some bread, drank some tea, and, wait, that was it. Weak breakfast.

Back on the bus for just short of two more hours (yes...six hours total) until we arrived at a place called Cruz Del Condor. The area is famous because, at around 845 each morning, giant Andean Condors take off from the cliffs down below. Our bus pulled up and we saw our first condor. These things are massive; almost 10 feet from wingtip to wingtip. They are an amazing sight, of which, of course, photos are difficult to take. This is the best shot:


Here's the view from the top:


What really doesn't show up well in this last one is that there's a snow-covered peak in the top-center of the photo. Well, enough of this fun...back on the bus.

We stopped at a couple of turn-off points that all basically looked the same. This photo kinda' sums up the "Incas-have-been-farming-here-for-16-trillion-years" theme:


Back on the bus...again. Remember the bit about the road? Yes, this is a photo out of the front window of the bus of one spot along the way:


We ended up stopping for a touristy-buffet in a village lunch not long after this photo was taken. Not much to report. Lunch was just okay but kinda' pricey. Back on the bus.

Our next and final stop was in a town called Chivay. On this day, the town was having some sort of festival where it looked like they were turning (previously cut down and moved to this location) trees into giant Christmas-tree-like-decorated things. People were tying toys, candy, clothing, and other things to the tree limbs:


and then hoisting them into an upright position.


I'm not sure what happens next because we had to get going...BUT...I did have a chance to make a couple of new friends before we left.


By now, you know what happens next. Back on the bus. We arrived into Arequipa at 5pm, exactly 15 hours after we left but with a pretty big adventure under our belt.

Cuy - Tastes Like Chicken

In Peru there are several regional specialties you just have to try while you're there. One of the local favorites is called cuy (coo-ey).

To save you the trip to wikipedia, in the US, we call cuy guinea pig. Yes, guinea pig. That not-so-cute-and-somewhat-smelly pet that kids love to want but hate to have. The cuy in this case was served fillet style and deep fried. In what reminded me of my trip to China a few years ago, the chef was kind enough to include the head with the meal. Here's a shot of our friend:


As with every food that you can't really describe, cuy tastes like chicken. I swear. It was actually pretty good and I'd probably eat it again. This meal got me thinking that I'm not sure what my parents ever did with the guinea pigs that we had when we were kids. My mom used to make a dish that we all called Chicken Surprise. Maybe one version of it had a real surprise in it?

Altitude Sickness

I left Lima on Tuesday morning and arrived in Arequipa. Arequipa is the second largest city in Peru and it is about 7800 feet above sea level. As with pretty much every city that the Spaniards conquered, it has a distinctly colonial feel to it and seems like a very nice town. I walked around during the evening and found a place for dinner (see the next post).

It didn't take long for the effects of altitude sickness to hit me. I started to feel it almost right after I arrived. Since 7800 feet is not really that high up, I think it was really a combination of the dehydration from my previous "stomach discomfort" and being very tired. I don't think that it helped that I had two drinks with dinner...

Altitude sickness has the interesting effect of making you feel completely hung over along with more "stomach discomfort" and a POUNDING headache. I spent all day Wednesday in bed and didn't eat until this morning. With the help of some medicines from a local farmacia, I'm feeling much better now but I'll still be taking it easy today.

Cebiche

As I wrote in my last post, my stomach wasn't in top form yesterday so eating non-standard food wasn't at the top of my list. So, what did I end up doing? Going for cebiche!!!

If you don't already know, cebiche (or ceviche) reminds me of something like a fruit salad but made with raw seafood. Lima is known for this dish so the opportunity to eat excellent cebiche out weighed my desire to eat only white rice.

I was at a local travel agency trying to book a side trip and asked for a recommendation. One of the employees practically fell over herself with excitement as she made a recommendation for a nearby place. I walked the two blocks to the nondescript building and went inside. It had a definitely locals-only feel to it but I seemed to be welcome.

After ordering, a giant plate of fresh cebiche came out and I stared to dig in. Wow! It was amazing. The seafood tasted great and the dish had a light-spicy flavor that made it even better. As a bonus, the cebiche had sea urchin on top, which is one of my favorites!

Yes, my stomach was turning as I ate but it was totally worth it and I'd do it again in a second. Yum............


Well, on second thought, the photo doesn't really make it look appetizing. You'll have to take my word for it.

Farmacia

I arrived in Lima (Peru) Monday morning around 1230am and headed over to the B&B near the beach south of downtown Lima to get some much needed sleep.

Unfortunately, I brought with me from the US a bit of stomach "discomfort" so I wasn't really feeling 100% on Monday during the day. I might be the first tourist to arrive in a third-world country with this condition.

I made a quick stop at the farmacia to get whatever medicine the 16-year-old-looking technician recommended and I started to feel better within an hour or so. It's my belief that every pharmacy in the third world is staffed exclusively by very young female technicians. I don't know what their training or qualification is but 99.9% of the time they fix whatever is wrong with you. I'm beginning to think that the US could save a lot of our health-care dollars by importing these technicians.

Another funny thing about farmacias is that you rarely, if ever, get a full container of pills. I got six each of two medicines for a total of twelve pills. My friendly technician carefully cut the pills from two different blister packs so I received the correct quantity. There's only partial names on the back of the pill packages. In other words, I'm not completely sure what medicines I'm taking but I am feeling better today...not completely better but better for sure.

Here's what's left of whatever drugs I got. Note the "generic packaging":