To sum up the rest of our trip following our time at Lake Titikaka, here are the highlights:
-We continued with our classes. In addition, I took a second salsa dancing and zapona (pan flute) lesson through the school.
-My dad (Marcel) arrived in Cusco and joined us for the last eight days of the vacation. Details of the last week are below.
We took a trip to Machu Picchu. This involved first taking a taxi to the train station in Ollantaytambo (more than an hour from Cusco), taking a relatively short train ride to Aguas Callientes, the closest town to Machu Picchu. There, we enjoyed the thermal hot springs. The next morning we woke up at 4 am and waited in line to get on one of the buses that would take us from the town to the ruins. It was quite impressive seeing the surrounding mountainous hills silhouetted by the darkness. By about 6 am, we were on a bus to the ruins. The road was a series of switchbacks on a rather steep hill. Within half an hour, we were into another line waiting to enter to ruins. Soon, we were in, and began a short walk up to a terrace a couple hundred feet above the main ruins where we were able to watch the sunrise over the surrounding mountainous hills before beginning our tour of the ruins. We walked up to the Sun Gate on one of the surrounding hills, walked back down to the ruins, explored many of the individual rooms, and saw a chinchilla, as well as many lizards and a millipede. We were surprised by the vast size of the ruins; they stretch over most of the hill on which they are situated. After more than six hours of exploring, we returned to a bus, rode back to Aguas Callientes, ate lunch and returned to Cusco, via train and a collective bus.
We went to Cusco's Traditional Dances at the Cultural Center featuring folk dances and music from throughout the region. Bright costumes, varied music and enthusiastic and smiling dancers made an otherwise cold auditorium warm with energy and life.
We took a trip to Parque Nacional Manu. We travelled from Cusco in a van with our tour guide, cook, and driver along a challenging route passing through arid landscape and later on single-lane, unpaved roads with no shoulders (just rocks and waterfalls on one side and plunges to deep ravines on the other side) and entered the area through a lush cloud forest with plants and animals of unusual sizes, colors, and shapes. We were able to mountain bike some of the way to the Manu Cloud Forest Lodge where we would spend the night. My mom insisted on biking up front so she would not have to watch anyone (especially me) navigate the turns and heavily-bumped road!). Before we retired to our rooms, we were able to view the Peruvian national bird, the Andean Cock of the Rock. These birds have black lower-body feathers and red upper-body feathers. They have red feathers covering their beaks in an unusual sort of rounded hood. From a viewing point, we were able to view about seven males from a close range. Afterwards, we returned to our lodge (next to a rushing river) for the night where we dined and shared the lodge with a group from Lima.
The next day, we travelled by van for about three hours and then boarded a small wooden motorboat so we could navigate the Alto Madre de Dios River. As we did so, we were able to view countless birds, capybaras, side-necked turtles, white and black caymans, and even a jaguar. We stopped a number of times, once to swim briefly in the river, another time to enjoy some hot springs and finally to see a large village by the name of Boca Manu. The villagers there were distracted from the high heat by watching a national parade on t.v. celebrating Peru's Independence Day. After a bit more than seven hours, we got off the boat at a small path where several lodge staff members were standing. They took our luggage by boat and we walked (through the jungle) to the Manu Lodge, a screen-windowed establishment located on Oxbow Lake, home to many species. There, we enjoyed a catamaran ride after bailing out water and resident fish. We saw many birds and a monkey, but none of the rare giant otters that live there. After dinner at the lodge, we were able to see the brilliant night sky very clearly due to the lack of light pollution.
In the morning, we took another catamaran ride at dawn to spot more birds and hopefully some monkeys. We were successful. We returned to the lodge for breakfast and then went on a hike of the surrounding rain forest. Countless types of flora and fauna were visible. After lunch, we appreciated some rest time, considering the somewhat oppressive nature of the humidity. In the afternoon, we enjoyed a catamaran ride to a trailhead. After a short hike, we reached a viewpoint from which to watch the sunset of the forest. Despite the heat, humidity, mosquitos and biting flies, it was well worth it. The view of the skyline was stunning. Soon afterwards we delighted in seeing the Southern Cross from the water on on short paddle back to the lodge.
The following morning, we departed from the lodge and went by boat to a ranger station where we signed the visitor log for the park before we continued on to Colorado, a pretty scuzzy gold mining town. Here, the guide got a taxi, which we rode to another small town where the guide encountered some issues regarding the ferry tickets. Somehow this was resolved, and we found ourselves on a wooden motorboat crossing a river polluted by the processes of gold mining. On the other side, the guide found another taxi, which we took to the bus station. The guide left us here, and we continued on past several tarp cities that were for gold miners. Not the happiest route that we've taken. After an hour or so, we arrived in Puerto Maldonado, where we would spend the night before leaving in the morning by plane for Lima. Fortunately, in Lima we had time to get to downtown Lima where we enjoyed another round of ceviche and some sightseeing around the Plaza de Armas. Later that evening my mom and I left Lima first on the start of a long journey (with enough time in Atlanta for a tour of CNN) and my dad left early the next morning but managed to get home before us.
What a month it was! Thanks for reading the blog. Check back for next adventure.
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