As I'm sure most of you know, I was blessed beyond belief when my FAMILY graced Peru with its presence earlier this month. Since my Dad has already written an account of our trip, I decided that he could be the "Guest Blogger" for this blog and recount our trip to you all. If he has your email address, you've probably already read, or attempted to read, his story. I'll post my own account later on, but for now I give you my Dad's version!
During the first 2 weeks of July, 2012, four members of the
Goering family went to Peru to visit the 5th member of the
family. Kelsey is a volunteer with the
Peace Corps, and she has been stationed in Peru since June of 2011. We had decided some time ago that we would
pay Kelsey a visit, so this was the time for Kit, Scott, Joel, and me (TR) to
head south and invade Peru.
We had made the arrangements back in April. I was able to find decent flight connections
out of Kansas City, although I quickly learned that there are no cheap flights
to Peru. Based on a friend’s
recommendation, I worked with a travel company called Peru For Less (PFL) to
set up our itinerary. Although working
with this company increased the cost of the trip, it was well worth it to have
our hotels booked, drivers waiting at each stop, and good tour guides
throughout the trip.
July 1: Our flight was scheduled to leave at
11:30 am from Kansas City. Because we
didn’t want to get up in the middle of the night, Kit and I spent the night in
Lawrence. We picked up Joel and then
headed to KC to pick up Scott. We made
it to the airport in fine shape and checked in with no problems. While we were waiting for our flight, I
decided to make one last check of my carry-on bag. It was then that I couldn’t find my Peruvian
money. It simply wasn’t where I had put
it. I thought then that maybe I had put
in my suitcase, so I asked the ticket counter folks if I could retrieve my
checked bag. I was able to get my bag,
but, when I opened it, the money wasn’t there.
I was, to say the least, somewhat panicked. It was about that time that Scott opened the
last compartment of my backpack and found the Peruvian money, right where I had
packed it. So, it was much ado about
nothing on my part.
Our flight to Houston arrived on time, and we decided to get
something to eat at the Houston airport.
We were waiting on our sandwiches when Blake Griffin strolled by our
table. Blake Griffin is a professional
basketball player who plays for the Los Angeles Clippers; he’s 6’ 10”
tall. He took a seat in the corner of
the restaurant, whereupon almost immediately 2 different groups of people wanted
pictures taken with him. Sometimes it’s
good to not be a celebrity.
Our flight to Lima left right on time; it’s a 7 hour flight
due to arrive at 10:30 pm. During
Daylight Savings, Kansas time is the same as Peru time, so jet lag isn’t an
issue. We actually landed a few minutes
early, but it took us over an hour to get through customs. We finally cleared customs, retrieved our
bags, and headed to the airport lobby.
When arriving passengers walk into the lobby, there’s a rope barrier,
behind which are the people meeting the arriving passengers. Well, Kelsey was not going to let a barrier
get in her way. As we walked in, she
charged under the rope and just about tackled the four of us!
Kelsey had already found our PFL rep and driver. Once we got settled down, we headed to the
van and started driving to the hotel.
Our drive took us along the ocean for a while and it was a beautiful
drive at night. We finally got to our
hotel around midnight.
July 2: Our hotel was called the Lima Wasi. It was clean and comfortable, and we only had
to haul our bags up one floor. The hotel
was located in the Miraflores section of Lima, which is described as one of the
more upscale regions of Lima. The
surrounding streets and neighborhoods were clean and well-tended; we had no
qualms about strolling in the city around our hotel. Our hotel was located about 4 blocks from the
ocean, although there was a long walk down the cliff to get to the beach.
Breakfast was included at the hotel; the breakfast spread
consisted of eggs, cereal (with yogurt instead of milk), rolls, lots of fruit,
and sliced ham and cheese. This menu was
consistent throughout our trip at our various hotels.
While we were waiting for our driver and guide for our Lima
city tour, I observed the traffic on the street in front of the hotel. I quickly counted at least 10 different bus
companies, with buses ranging from 10-passenger vans to full-size tour
buses. I also quickly realized that one
must have a lot of guts to drive on the streets of Peru. The concepts of ‘yield’ and ‘right-of-way’
seem to be, well, foreign concepts to Peruvian drivers. Whoever gets to a spot first has the right of
way, and nobody yields to anybody else unless a wreck is imminent. Taxis and buses stop about anywhere to pick
up or drop off passengers, and other cars simply swerve around them. Everybody honks their horn as much as
possible. There appeared to be a fair
number of private cars in Lima; in the other cities we visited, the traffic
consisted mostly of commercial vehicles and taxis. Most of the cars were small; a lot of older
Fords, Chevys, and various Japanese brands, especially Suzuki. Almost all of the few new vehicles were
either Kia or Hyundai.
At 9:00 our driver and guide arrived for our Lima city
tour. Our guide’s name was Miguel; he
was a Lima native who spoke excellent English.
We got to experience Peruvian traffic first-hand, as our route took us
on wide streets, narrow streets, the highway, and alleys.
Our first stop on the tour was the Plaza San Martin. This plaza is a monument to Jose de San
Martin, who is recognized at the liberator of Peru. The Incan empire in Peru had been conquered
by the Spanish in the 1500s and the Spanish ruled for 300 years. San Martin, who was born in Argentina, led
the revolt in against the Spanish in Argentina, Chile, and Peru. Peru declared its independence in 1821 and
San Martin was Peru’s first president.
He later relinquished power to the other great South American liberator,
Simon Bolivar of Venezuela.
Our next stop was the Plaza Mayor, in the heart of the
Historic Centre of Lima. This plaza,
which is also known as the Plaza de Armas, was originally the home of the
Spanish government of Lima, and is now the center of the Peruvian government. There are many important buildings around the
Plaza, including the Government Palace, the Municipal Palace of Lima, the
Archbishop’s Palace, and the Cathedral of Lima.
Several buildings feature ornate mahogany and cedar balconies which were
constructed without nails or glue.
From the Plaza Mayor we took a short walk to the Convent of
San Francisco, which was actually a monastery and church. It’s now been turned into a museum, although
the church is still used as a church. There
are some elaborate gardens and incredible mosaics within the convent. It also has a library which contains some very
old books, including a Bible printed in Antwerp in 1572.
The Convent also has a bell tower, which we climbed and were
rewarded with some excellent views of downtown Lima.
After we finished the tour of the Convent, our driver picked
us up and we headed back toward the hotel.
Along the way we stopped at the El Parque del Amor, or ‘Love Park’. This park, which overlooks the ocean,
features a famous sculpture of a woman and man locked in a passionate embrace. There are several tiled fresco benches in the
park, and there are fabulous views of the Pacific. This concluded our Lima city tour.
Since we hadn’t had lunch, we decided to stroll to Manolo’s, a
restaurant that is noted for its churros.
A churro is a long and narrow fried pastry, usually filled with
chocolate or vanilla. This restaurant
was located near Parque Kennedy, which is a large and beautiful park located in
the heart of the Miraflores district. It
was at this restaurant that Joel and I enjoyed a burger topped with a fried
banana. This is also where we first
enjoyed drinking Inca Kola, which is a soft drink made in Peru which tastes
like bubble gum.
It was also at this restaurant that we had a ‘small world’
moment. Scott was wearing a Jayhawk t-shirt. While we were eating, a gentleman came up to
our table and uttered ‘Rock Chalk!’
Naturally, we were delighted to hear this and had a nice conversation
with him. Turns out that he is a KU grad
who grew up in Liberal, Kansas.
After lunch, we headed back but made a detour to go to the
Larco Mar shopping mall. This is a mall
that is literally built right into the cliff that overlooks the Pacific. It’s definitely an Americanized mall,
featuring restaurants like Tony Roma’s and Chili’s. The best part for us was the view of the
beach and ocean.
Following this, we were done for the day. After a late afternoon siesta, we enjoyed a
late supper and called it a day.
July 3: This was a day of planned R&R in Lima. Kelsey had planned to take us to the Peace
Corps headquarters, but everybody was on vacation over the 4th of
July. So we were on our own for the day.
We
decided to visit the native shopping district, which was a couple of miles from
our hotel. The weather was in the 60s,
so we decided to walk. We first strolled
through several blocks of the silver/gold shops; then we hit the ‘Andean
Market’, which featured native handicrafts.
I don’t think we bought anything.
We returned back to the hotel, where we embarked on our next venture.
This
venture was a trip to Polvos
Azules, which is a
shopping center in the heart of Lima.
Literally translated, the name means ‘Blue Dust’. This place features knockoffs or black-market
sales of famous brand names. You can buy
anything from DVDs to luggage to clothing to shoes. (There were aisles and aisles of shoes.) Joel bought some cologne; Scott bought some
jewelry, and I bought a copy of Rosetta Stone Spanish for about 8 bucks.
This trip also
featured our first two cab rides in Peru.
Taxis do not have meters.
Instead, you tell the driver where you want to go and then negotiate a
price. Kelsey was extremely well-versed
in the art of negotiating and would not settle for any price above what she
wanted to pay. Every taxi driver we
dealt with in Peru ended up settling for the price that Kelsey suggested. It was good to have her on our side.
Taxis are also
designed for 3 or 4 Peruvians, not 5 Americans.
In Lima we were able to pile the entire family into a cab…4 of us in the
back seat. Fortunately, most of our
rides were 15 minutes or less.
Then, on the
evening of the 3rd, we all got ‘dressed up’ for our Big Night
Out. Kelsey had made reservations for us
at Astrid And Gaston’s. Gaston Acurio
Jaramillo is a world-renowned chef who owns several restaurants in Lima. Astrid And Gaston’s is his most famous
restaurant, and has been rated one of the top 50 restaurants in the world. Naturally, we hicks from Kansas were excited
to go to this place. We loaded up into a
cab and headed to Gaston’s restaurant.
After a 20-minute cramped ride, we arrived…at a different Gaston’s
restaurant…which was closed. Since we
weren’t exactly sure where our restaurant was, Kelsey called her friend, who
told us that it was close to Parque Kennedy.
We hailed another cab; the driver didn’t know of the restaurant, but he
agreed to take us to the Parque and then ask somebody where the restaurant was
located.
So, it was
another cramped 20-minute ride to Parque Kennedy. Once we got there, the driver asked a cop,
another cab driver, a security guard….nobody knew where the restaurant was. The guard called somebody on his cell phone,
who gave us an address about a block away from our hotel. Finally somebody told us it was on a little
street close to the Parque. We drove
down that street but didn’t see anything.
At the end of the block, we asked a young woman if she knew where the
restaurant was…turns out we had just passed it!
We piled out and headed back to the restaurant, but not before we paid
the driver 20 soles for an 8-sole ride.
(A sole is the Peruvian unit of currency; it’s worth about 40 cents.)
Once we got to
the restaurant (30 minutes late), Kelsey told them that we had
reservations. Naturally, they had no
record of our reservation. We stood
around for 15 minutes, and then they finally seated us. We eventually had a wonderful meal…Joel and
Scott each had Cuy (guinea pig), which was actually quite tasty. Halfway through the meal the host came by our
table and informed us that they had found our reservation, so it was their
mess-up when they couldn’t find it. We
did get a free appetizer for the inconvenience.
All in all, it was a fine meal and well worth all the hassle! It turned out that Astrid and Gaston’s was
only 10 minutes further than the restaurant we had eaten at the previous day….so
we walked back to our hotel.
July 4: This was a travel day for us. Our driver picked us up at 9:00 and took us
to the airport in Lima. The drive took
well over an hour, due to the massive amount of traffic. This drive is also where I first noticed the
Peruvian method of speed control: massive slow-down humps. Later inspection revealed that these humps
are sometimes 3 feet wide and almost a foot tall.
Our
flight to Cusco was delayed an hour, but the flight was only 90 minutes long,
so we made it to Cusco in good shape. We
flew on TACA Airlines (the first of several in-country flights on this airline),
and we were impressed with the legroom on the plane and the service provided by
the airline personnel. Cusco is located
south and east of Lima, on the slopes of the Andes mountain range. Although the distance from Lima to Cusco is
slightly over 600 miles, our driver told us that it is a 26 hour drive, because
of the winding and narrow roads.
Upon
arrival in Cusco, we were met by our PFL rep, a young woman named Corey. Our driver, who appeared to be driving a
small tour bus, took us to our hotel, which was the Sonesta Hotel. The Sonesta is located in the heart of Cusco,
and it was the best lodging we had in Peru.
Corey took the time to go over our travel plans for the next few days,
and then it was time to explore the city.
We had
lunch in a restaurant located on the main plaza, an Irish pub called Paddy’s. Paddy’s bills itself as ‘the highest Irish
owned pub on the planet…11,156 ft.’ We thoroughly enjoyed our food and drink,
as well as the conversation with the group of Aussies at the table next to us.
After
lunch, we took a stroll around the plaza and then went on a tour of the Convent
of Santo Domingo. This Convent was built
by the Dominicans on the site of the Incan temple Koricancha. This temple was the heart of the Incan empire
which ruled much of South America up until the Spanish conquest in the
1500s. The architecture of the convent
features both the Incan stone walls and the Spanish designs. A couple of major earthquakes have hit this
site since the Spanish built the convent.
Not surprisingly, the Incan walls survived the earthquakes, while the
Spanish walls suffered major damage.
We walked
around the city a bit more, and then decided to call it a day. Upon returning to the hotel, we had our first
taste of Coca tea. Coca tea is a local
remedy for altitude sickness, and we certainly didn’t want to get sick, so we
tried it. It tasted like an herbal tea,
and, unfortunately, there were no side effects.
We had a late supper of soup at a local café and then retired for the
night.
July 5: We enjoyed another good breakfast buffet at the
hotel and then checked out. We left our
bags in storage at the hotel and only carried our carry-on bags for the next
two days. The PFL driver and guide were
at the hotel at 9:30 to take us on the Sacred Valley tour.
The
Sacred Valley is the valley of the Urubamba River, which rises southwest of
Cusco and flows northeastward, eventually emptying into the Amazon. This portion of the valley is wide and
fertile, and was a very important area of the Incan empire. Our guide was a local woman named Maria
Elena, and she was very knowledgeable about the culture, history, and climate
of the valley. This was a very
interesting and informative day for us.
Our
first stop was at a roadside ‘zoo’, which was a sanctuary for some native
species that are becoming endangered.
We got some interesting pictures of the local fauna that we certainly
wouldn’t have seen in the wild.
After
another stop for pictures at a scenic turnoff overlooking the valley, we headed
down to the valley itself. Our first
stop was at the market in the town of Pisac.
Maria arranged for us to get a short demonstration of sliver crafting at
one of the shops, which was quite interesting.
Kit and Scott purchased some of the handiwork at that shop. The market itself was quite large and varied,
and we spent quite a bit of time there.
After we
left the market, we stopped at a roadside restaurant for a delicious buffet
lunch. As we left this place, Maria
pointed out several places that were flying an orange ‘flag’. This indicated that these were spots where
one could purchase Chicha, a local brew made from corn. We stopped at one of these spots, where we
sampled the local fare. It’s quite
potent (and cheap), but it’s not very good, even when flavored with
strawberries. We also played the local
game known as ‘frog’, which is sort of a skittle toss game.
Our
final stop was at the town of Ollantaytambo.
This village features a large Incan ruin, which at one time was an Incan
palace and ceremonial center. We hiked
to the top of the ruin (not an easy task) and listened as Maria told us about
the history and architecture of the site.
This
concluded our tour of the Sacred Valley.
Maria and the driver headed back, while we waited for our train to
depart. Maria had told us that we should
hike around the village, which we were going to do, but a rainstorm interrupted
our plans. We hustled down toward the
station, where we found a café where we ate dinner and hung out for a couple of
hours before our train departed.
Our
train left at 7:00 pm, destined for Aguas Calientes. We arrived in the small town around 9:00
pm. Another PFL rep met us in the train
station, and she took us on the 10-minute walk to our hotel, the Green
Nature. It took us some time to get
checked in, but we finally got settled in before our early start the next
morning. This was a short and not very
restful night…there were a couple of dogs outside of our hotel that insisted on
barking most of the night.
July 6: This was our day to tour Machu Picchu. Maria had told us that the site is beautiful
at sunrise, so we arose at 5:00 am and had a quick breakfast at the hotel. We then took a 15-minute walk to the bus
depot, where we purchased sandwiches (for lunch) and water for our trek. Buses begin the journey to Machu Picchu at
5:00 am and run continually all day until 5:00 pm. We left at about 5:40 am for the trip up the
mountain.
The bus
ride took about 20 minutes and was on a dirt road that had 15 switchbacks up to
the entrance to the park. We went
through the gate shortly after 6:00 and were treated to the wonders of Machu
Picchu.
We did
a bit of hiking and climbing on our own and were able to view the sun rising
over the mountains that tower over the city.
We once again had a ‘small world’ moment, as a couple from Olathe noticed
Scott’s Jayhawk shirt and wanted a picture of it to send back home. We returned to the park entrance to meet our
guide at 8:30.
Our
guide’s name was Fabricio. He was, in a
word, fantastic! It turns out that he
studied archaeology and worked at Machu Picchu for several years. He is now the president of the association of
tour guides for the site. He definitely
knew everything there was to know about Machu Picchu. He conducted a tour for us that really didn’t
have all that much climbing, which was good for all of us, especially Kit. But we certainly learned a lot in the 3 hours
that he spent with us.
We
learned that Machu Picchu was a city in the jungle that was an important Inca
community. The Incans used irrigation
from the glaciers on the above mountains for growing their crops on the many
terraces of the city. There are a number
of palaces and temples contained within the city. It was in a remote location,
and the Spaniards never discovered the site.
Once the Incans had been conquered, they abandoned the city and the
jungle reclaimed it. It was
re-discovered in 1911 by a professor from Yale, and the reclamation work has
been ongoing since then. Fabricio estimated that only about 40% of the
city has been reclaimed and restored.
Words
and pictures cannot do justice to Machu Picchu.
This needs to be on everybody’s bucket list.
Once
Fabricio’s tour was over, he left us and we did some more hiking and climbing
and then enjoyed our sandwiches for lunch.
At 1:00 we decided we had had enough fun for the day, so we boarded a
bus for the return trip to Aguas Calientes.
Once we
got back into town, we perused the local market and then enjoyed a more substantial
meal in a local restaurant. We retrieved
our backpacks from the hotel and eventually boarded the train for our return
trip to Cusco. The train left at 4:45 pm
and didn’t arrive in Cusco until after 8:00.
Our driver was there to pick us up and take us back to the Hotel
Sonesta. We were pleased to find that
the hotel staff had taken our bags out of storage and delivered them to our
rooms. We had another light supper at a
local café and retired for the evening.
July 7: This was another early start, as our driver picked
us up at 7:00. He delivered us to the
bus depot, where we boarded a bus for the day-long scenic bus tour to
Puno. The bus was a large, tour-bus
model with comfortable seats. It was about
¾ full, so we were able stretch out a bit.
The
bus left promptly at 7:30 and it took about an hour to get out of Cusco. Once we were on the road, we followed the Urubamba
River for a good portion of our trip.
This was another chance to observe the countryside of Peru. Throughout the day, we saw numerous small
houses and villages. These were, for the
most part, farmers who had small plots of land where corn, wheat, and barley
were grown. We also noticed small herds
of cattle and sheep. These herds were
either tethered where they were grazing or were watched by a shepherd.
The
first stop on the bus tour was the Church of San Pedro of
Andahuaylillas, which is a church known as the ‘Sistine Chapel of the
Americas’. The interior of the church
had some awesome paintings, done by an artist from Barcelona. Naturally, the church was built on the site
of an Incan temple.
The
next stop was the village of Raqchi, which featured another Incan ruin. This ruin contained a temple known as Wiracocha, as well as the remnants
of a small village. Surprisingly, the
Spaniards had left this temple untouched.
We stopped for lunch at another roadside buffet
restaurant, which had a couple of alpacas tethered in the yard, which were good
for more photo ops. The restaurant also
featured alpaca meat, which turned out to be quite tender and tasty.
We had another stop about an hour later for more
picture-taking of some Andes peaks and glaciers, at a place known as La Raya
Pass. This spot was close to some large
herds of llamas and alpacas.
Our final stop was the village of Pukara. This village is close to some pre-Incan ruins
and had a museum which contained sculptures from these ruins. This civilization is believed to have been in
existence about 3000 years ago.
This final stop also featured a bit of excitement. To get to the museum, we had to turn off the
main highway onto a narrow street of the village. Our driver made the initial turn, then backed
up and crept through the intersection.
However, he cut the turn just a bit too close. As the rear wheels of the bus climbed over
and then dropped off the sidewalk, one of the side windows hit a ledge that was
jutting out from the building on the corner.
Naturally, the window shattered into a million pieces. Fortunately, the window was right over the
rear door of the bus, so nobody was sitting beside it and nobody got hit with
any glass. By the time we finished the
tour of the museum, the driver and another guy had cleaned up the glass and
taped plastic over the window, and we continued on our journey without further
ado.
We finally arrived in Puno shortly after 5:00. We had some good views of Lake Titicaca along
the way in to the city. A PFL rep named
Willie was at the bus depot to pick us up; the driver delivered us to our
hotel, which was named the Casa Andina.
It was yet another fine hotel. We
took a 3-block walk to the pedestrian mall, where we enjoyed dinner. It was a bit chilly (the elevation of Puno is
over 12,000 feet), so I bought a hat to keep my ears warm.
July 8: Another early start, as our driver picked us up at
6:40. The temperature, according to my
phone, was 33 degrees. We had several
more stops to pick up more tourists, and then we arrived at the dock and
boarded our boat for our Lake Titicaca tour.
The boat left shortly after 7:30 and we headed out on the lake.
During
the initial part of our boat ride, our guide explained some of the history and
geography of the lake. We learned that
Lake Titicaca is the highest navigable lake in the world and serves as part of
the border between Peru and Bolivia. It’s
mostly fed by glaciers and serves as a source for drinking water for the local
inhabitants. It’s the largest lake in
South America.
After a
45-minute ride, we arrived at the ‘floating islands’. These are man-made islands which are made of
reeds which grow in the lake. The people
that inhabit these islands are descendants of the Uro people, who created these
islands as a defensive measure to escape other conquering tribes. We docked at one of the islands and
disembarked for a ‘tour’ of the island.
Walking
on the island felt like we were walking on a sponge. The island that we were on was about 50 yards
in diameter and was home to 23 people who lived in 6 different houses. All of the structures on the island were also
constructed of reeds. We were treated to
a demo of how the reeds are harvested and then woven together to form the
foundation of the island. We learned
that it takes constant maintenance to keep the island together. All told, there are about 2000 people who
live on 40+ islands. They make their
living from tourism and fishing; each week they travel to the mainland to sell
fish and purchase necessities.
After
we left the floating islands, we had another 2-hour boat ride to the island of
Taquile. This island is inhabited by
about 3000 natives, who have lived on the island for centuries and still adhere
to many original customs. They make
their living by fishing and farming; there are several varieties of livestock
on the island.
As we
docked on the island, our guide was sure to tell us that we would be walking
down 539 steps once we were ready to leave the island. Of course, he neglected to tell us that we
would have to walk up those 539 steps prior to our descent. We walked about 1/3 of the way up and then
made a detour to one of the local restaurants.
While we had lunch, our guide gave us a history of the island and its
people. The menu featured fresh trout
which had been caught in the lake.
Following
lunch, we were treated to a demonstration of the local dance. The dancers then invited members of our group
to join them. Scott and I accepted the
invitation and showed those locals some real dance moves.
Then
we set off to the town square, located at the top of the island. This was a long and slow climb and was a
struggle for the older members of the family.
But, we finally made it to the top, where we enjoyed beautiful views of
the lake. While we were lounging in the
square, I asked our guide how many boats visited this island each day. He told me that during tourist season
(June-August), an average of forty boats visit the island each day, which
nicely augments the income of the natives.
We
finally descended the 539 steps. The
steps, of course, are made of rock and are uneven and have no bannisters. So, it was another adventure to get down to
the dock. But we all made it and boarded
the boat for the return trip to Puno. 3
hours later, we departed the boat and got on the bus for the ride back to the
hotel.
At
dinner that evening, I finally ordered Cuy, or guinea pig. The only method prepared by this particular
restaurant was fried Cuy, so I ordered that.
The skin was too tough to eat, so I had to dig to find the meat. The meat itself was tender and tasted like
mild pork, but there were only about 8-10 total bites. I can now say that I’ve eaten guinea pig.
After
dinner we did a bit more shopping. We
found a shop that had a barrel full of finger puppets, and we had a grand time
picking through that barrel and buying a large quantity of these puppets.
July 9: This was another travel day for us. Our driver picked us up shortly after 9:00
for the hour drive to the airport at Juliaca.
We had a flight to Lima, then a 3 ½ hour layover, then a flight to
Piura. During our layover at the Lima
airport, we reverted to being American and ate at Subway. I also learned that I shouldn’t have thrown
away my boarding pass from the first flight.
Everybody else could get through security by showing boarding passes for
both flights. But I threw away the pass from
the first flight and had to pay another $8.00 in airport tax to get through
security. I figured it was easier to do
that rather than dig through the trash can in the food court.
We
finally boarded the flight to Piura and arrived at about 7:00 pm. We took a short cab ride to the hotel/hostel
where Kelsey had made reservations for us.
This is the location where all the Peace Corps volunteers stay when they
need to spend time in Piura. Once we
were settled, Kelsey needed to take her dirty clothes to the laundry. So we went on a several block walk to the
laundry where she dropped off her clothes.
Along the way, it became very obvious very quickly that we were the only
white folks in the city. Piura is not a
tourist destination and very few foreigners visit the city. On the way back to the hotel, we treated
ourselves to some ice cream.
July 10: This was another R&R day
for us. We had a late breakfast at a
small café close to our hotel. Kelsey
needed to buy a few supplies, so we took a cab ride across town to the mall
where there is a large grocery store. We
had several near-death experiences in that 10-minute cab ride, but we made it
safely. Once we bought everything we
needed, we walked back to the hotel. The
weather was considerably warmer than anything we had experienced thus far
(temperature probably in the 80s), so we stopped for ice cream once again
before returning to the hotel.
We
lounged all afternoon. Kelsey and I went
to the local corner store to buy some beer and snacks; later Scott and I went
for more beer and snacks. In the evening
we all walked a few blocks to a nice restaurant for supper. We returned to the hotel to watch the last
few innings of the all-star game…in Spanish, of course!
July 11: We arose early and had
breakfast at a local café. We then took
cab rides across town to the bus depot.
Again, we had several near-death experiences in the cab, particularly in
one roundabout. We finally arrived at
the bus depot where we got the last 5 seats on the bus to Paita.
Paita
is a city on the ocean, an hour straight west of Piura. The road between the cities traverses a
barren landscape…very sandy with only scrub vegetation growing anywhere. I could see very few houses or
inhabitants. The roadside was filthy with
a lot of trash blowing about.
We got
to Paita, which is a very dirty (and smelly) city. There is a lot of shipping done at the port
of Paita, especially fish…which accounts for the smell. After we got off the bus, we walked across
the street to the spot where hopefully we could hire a car. We were lucky enough to find a car waiting,
and we all piled in for the trip to El Arenal, Kelsey’s village.
The
trip took about 30 minutes, the last half of which was on a dirt road. We arrived at one of the outskirts of the
village where one of the local schools is located. This school has both elementary and secondary
students. Once we arrived, Kelsey called
Esson, who is one of her socios.
A ‘socio’,
in the Peace Corps vernacular, is a local person who is a partner and/or
advocate for the Peace Corps volunteer.
Kelsey is very lucky to have Esson as one of her socios, because he
holds the elected position of ‘gubernator’, which is, I think, the highest
local elected position, above the position of mayor. Esson is 25 years old. He met us at the school a few minutes after
being summoned, and we went into the school to meet the administrators.
Kelsey
had worked with the administrators and teachers at the school, and they really
wanted to meet us. We first went to the
principal’s office where we were treated to a snack of 7-Up and crackers. Of course, none of the students, teachers, or
administrators spoke English, so all conversations were rather awkward.
The
principal insisted that we go to several classrooms, which we did. In each classroom, we were paraded in front
of the class; each class then gave us a greeting, then all the students swarmed
up to us to have their picture taken with the gringoes. All in all, we managed to thoroughly disrupt
all the classes that we visited.
Before
we left, somebody thought it would be a great idea for us to have some guavas (a
fruit) from the tree in the school yard.
So, several of the older boys climbed the tree and threw down a dozen
guavas for us to take with us.
We
spent about 90 minutes at the school.
When it was time to leave, Esson called the two local mototaxis for the
ride into the village. A mototaxi is
essentially a motorcycle with two rear wheels, and a bench seat between those
two wheels. There is also a cover over
the driver and the passenger ‘compartment’.
The six of us (Esson and the Goerings) piled into the two mototaxis for
the short trip down to the village.
Once
we got there, we walked a block to Kelsey’s house. We were pleased to see that it’s a clean and
comfortable dwelling; Kelsey has her own bedroom and bathroom. We met her host mother, who is a very sweet
woman. We also met Kelsey’s host
grandmother, who lives in the house next door.
The boys and I checked out the backyard, which featured a flock of
turkeys and at least one chicken.
Upon
our arrival, Kelsey’s host mom broke open a bottle of 7-Up for
refreshments. Once we had our fill,
Esson took us for a stroll through the village.
We first visited the other elementary school, where again we had to
visit a couple of classrooms and completely disrupted their day. We then went to the Health Post, where we met
Kelsey’s other socio, a woman who is the local obstetrician. We also met one of the nurses who has helped
Kelsey with her sexual education classes.
These two women insisted on sitting down with us for a visit; it was
another awkward conversation, as neither of them spoke English. They did insist that we join them in sharing
a 2-liter bottle of 7-Up. We spent an
hour there before continuing on our village tour.
Our
next stop was city hall, where we had a short conversation with Her Honor, the
Mayor. Fortunately, we weren’t there
long enough for the mayor to break out another bottle of 7-Up. We continued on our tour and walked by Kelsey’s
first house. Kelsey was rather shocked
to see that her bedroom window had glass in it; she never had that luxury
during the time she lived there. From
there we went to the town cemetery to look at the elaborate graves and
headstones, then we headed back to Kelsey’s house.
It was
about 1:30 by this time, and lunch was ready.
Kelsey’s host mom and dad (he had returned from work) had already eaten,
but we had lunch with Esson and Kelsey’s host sister, Sebrina, who had just
gotten home from school. We had a
wonderful meal of chicken, rice, and potatoes, and we finished the 7-Up. After lunch we retired to the living room for
conversation…although, again, our hosts didn’t speak English.
Esson
and Sebrina left the house and told us not to go anywhere. Soon they returned with several bottles of
beer. So we all enjoyed a glass of beer
together.
Then,
at about 2:30, Kelsey’s host mom informed us that her brother (who owns one of
the cars-for-hire) would take all of us to Pueblo Neuvo, which is a nearby town
that is home to Kyle, another Peace Corps volunteer. So, at about 4:30, her brother shows up with
the car, which fortunately was a minivan.
We all pile in….the Goerings, Esson, Kelsey’s host mom and sister,
another woman, and the driver. We head
over to the next town, with a couple of stops along the way. Once we got there, we stopped at a park,
where Kelsey called Kyle and woke him up from a nap. We picked up Kyle and went a couple of blocks
to another park, which was across the street from the local cathedral. Esson insisted on showing us the cathedral, so
we all traipsed inside. It was a
beautiful church, and it had just turned 100 years old.
We
finally convinced our hosts that it was time for us to head back to Paita. Our driver took us back to the bus depot,
where we said our goodbyes to Esson and to Kelsey’s host mom and little
sister. We boarded the bus and waited
about 10 minutes before it filled up and we got back on the road. We finally got back to Piura and back to our
hotel around 7:30.
Since
it was our last night in Peru, we went to one of the nicer local restaurants
for dinner. We had a great meal and
returned to our hotel at about 9:30.
July 12: Our last day in Peru. We had a late breakfast, and then took
another trip to the mall for more supplies for Kelsey. When we returned to the hotel, we checked out
and Kelsey rented a different room for another night. So we hauled all of our luggage to Kelsey’s
single room for storage until departure time.
We
then took a walk to the ‘car depot’, where we hired a car for the 20-minute
ride to the nearby town of Catacaous.
Once we arrived, we browsed through a couple of markets, and then we
hired a couple of mototaxis to go across town to a local restaurant that Kelsey
liked. We had a good lunch which
featured some interesting local fare; I cannot name what we ate, but it was
good. After lunch, we took mototaxis
back across town, where we hired another car and returned to Piura.
We
lounged all afternoon; at 5:30 we left the hotel and headed to the
airport. We said our tearful goodbyes to
Kelsey and proceeded on our flight to Lima.
We
arrived in Lima and claimed our luggage with no problems. We then checked in for our United
flight. Naturally, the line for our
flight was the longest line in the airport, but we finally got checked in. We had a snack before we went through
Security; it took us a while to clear the various checkpoints, but we finally
made it to our gate. Our flight was due
to leave at 11:45 pm; we didn’t start to board until about 11:50. We finally took off around12:15 am and headed
to Houston.
July 13: Our flight arrived in Houston
on time at 6:30 am. We made it through
the first wave of Customs in good shape, but then we had to go claim our bags
and go through Security again. This took
quite a while; we didn’t get to our departure gate until after 8:00. Soon after we got there, a thunderstorm hit
the airport, which delayed all incoming and departing flights. Our flight to Kansas City was scheduled to
leave at 9:25; we finally took off at 11:20.
We
made it to KC and were pleased to find that all of our bags made it as
well. We met Scott’s girlfriend, his
roommate, and his roommate’s girlfriend for lunch. We took Scott home and then headed to
Lawrence to take Joel to his apartment.
Kit and I then hit the road and arrived back in Newton at about 7:00
pm. Great to be back home!
We had
a great time in Peru. Of course, it was
great to see Kelsey and have the family together again. But we really enjoyed our time in Peru. It’s a fascinating country, and I would
highly recommend a trip to see the sights of Peru. I would also recommend utilizing Peru For Less
as a travel agency for any trip to South America.
Had
Kelsey not been there, I doubt if we would have ever considered a trip to Peru,
but I’m certainly glad that circumstances dictated that we visit the country. This was definitely a trip that we will not
forget.
“The happiest moments of my life have been
the few which I have passed at home (or abroad) in the bosom of my family.”
~Thomas Jefferson
