Day 2 Peru

Day 2 Sunday March 25, 2012

Today I set my alarm clock for 4:30am. Surprisingly, even after only about 5 hours sleep in less than ideal environments, I woke up very easily and ready to roll. My flight from Lima to Cusco was scheduled for 7:00am, and the taxi showed up a little bit early, so I was at the airport by 5:10am. The departure process for in-country flights is significantly more "primitive" than international flights. After lining up at a "gate", everyone boards a bus that transports passengers to the tarmac next to a plane, which in this case is a British Aerospace 146. First over-the-cab-wing plane I've every flown in.



This flight was also without incident and afforded me my first glimpse of the Andes. I had an aisle seat, and the girls sitting next the window were sleeping and closed the shade, so I dozed on and off during the flight. The landing was nice and smooth. When I got to the airport, I grabbed my luggage and made my way to the parking lot. I found a taxi and gave him the directions I had to my hostal for the evening, he said "No problem, I can take you." When I asked how much, he said "30." Stupidly, I agreed, not knowing how far it was from the airport, and thinking that $10 for a taxi ride was okay even if it was pretty close. Unfortunately, about a mile from the hostal, he said "Thirty Dollars" and when I protested that it was 30 Soles, I realized he never stated a currency. I argued with him about it a little bit, but realized I had no real ground to stand on. Damn it..... lesson learned there. That won't happen again.

I arrived at the hostal (http://www.lacasademiabuelo.com/) and was greeted by the wonderfully delightful owners. I believe that they are brother and sister, and were ready and waiting for even though it was only about 9 in the morning. They knew that my flight was early, and that I had arrived in Lima late the night before, so they had my room ready and waiting for me, even though it was hours before check-in. At best, I hoped to store my bags and go explore the town some, but instead, I managed to get a few hours of sleep, and then was able to check things out much more refreshed in the afternoon.

I was slated to meet Victor at 12 noon to finalize paperwork and details about the ride, but he was running a little late. About 1, he showed up, and we rode to his office.

This is from the last day, but here is Victor:



We rode two-up to his place, worked out all of the details and payment, and then he dropped me off at my hostel. We planned to meet at 9:00am the next morning.

I had the rest of the evening free, so I set out to see some of Cusco. I walked around town checking out various alleyways and side streets, Incan walls, and cathedrals. I quickly realized that the altitude had a much greater impact on me than I expected it to, and climbing the staircase into the San Blas neighbor left me huffing and puffing. I have to remember to take it easy while climbing up.



As I walked around, I fired up my GPS to try to locate one of Cusco's several vegetarian restaurants I had loaded into it. Uh-oh.... this isn't good. There is only one road displaying, and NONE of my POIs are on here. Damn-it.... what did I do? Somehow, after verifying that everything was there, I wiped out the map and POIs on my GPS. Crap, so much for that. I specifically traded for this GPS so I could load Peruvian maps on here, fat lot of good it's doing me know.



I had only eaten 2 Lara bars early in the morning and as it was approaching 3:00pm, I was getting quite hungry. I stopped at a Juice bar place called "Yo Jugga!" and had a veggie sandwich and a strawberry/orange juice. I paid S12 for it, and it definitely hit the spot. This would hold me over until dinner.

Next, I headed to the minor Plaza next to the Plaza de Armas to check out the goods that were being sold here. I found two prints that I really liked, and decided to chance it and buy them on my first day. The survived the trip in one peice, and made it home just fine. I also purchased to locally made charms on cheap chains, one of a llama and the other a hummingbird.

I converted some more USD into Nuevo Soles and realized that the conversion rates SUCK on the ground in Peru. The ATMs have far better conversion rates, do yourself a favor and take out cash this way if possible.



After wandering about for a while, I ended up buying one more print off of this college-aged kid on Plaza de Armas. He seemed like a nice guy, but caused some serious frustration on my part. I changed some USD to Peruvian Soles in Atlanta, and as part of the deal received a 200 Sole bill. I had twice tried to use it, and once tried to break it for smaller bills, and all three times the receiving party acted like they didn't know what it was and handed it back. Basically, I had an unusable S200 and an unusable (small rip) USD$100 on me, both tying up a significant portion of my planned budget, and both seemingly unusable. I didn't know what the sort on the S200 was, but figured I'd get something figured out eventually. So, as I am paying this kid for the print, he points right at the S200 bill and asks me what it is. He claims that it is not Peruvian money, and acts genuinely confused by it for a few moments. Eventually, he says something like "I think you were robbed..... you should let me take that to my art class so I can show them what fake money looks like." That almost immediately confirmed that the money was real, at least in my head, but apparently not widely used in this region. Nice one, kid. The owner of the hostal would later confirm it was legitimate and part of the latest revision of bills in the country. He even took it to the gas station on the block and had it broken up into more usable bills for me the next morning.

For dinner, I was planning on eating at this vegetarian restaurant near the Plaza that I had seen, but at 6:15 it was still closed. I ended up at an Italian place instead, and had a rather normal spaghetti Pomodora with free salad bar. The salad bar consisted mostly of pickled vegetables and beans, different, but good. The salad bar reminded me of the appertivos served in Italian bars.



I was pretty wiped out by this time, so I headed back to the hostal and watched the Dakar on Speed before passing out around 11pm. Fairly relaxing day, although I learned that the altitude is going to have at least some impact on my trip.

All of today's pictures:

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/Peru%20March%202012/2%20Sunday%20March%2025th/

Day 1 Peru

Day 1 Saturday March 24, 2012

This day I have the least amount of notes in my journal as it was a long day and I got to my hostal in Lima about 1:30am or so. I kept a fairly detailed daily journal during the trip, but not so much for Saturday.

Woke up early, fairly excited about getting off the ground and to Peru. My wife and her brother and his wife were slated to depart Nashville International at 1:30pm, and my own flight was scheduled for a 12:06pm departure. Mark and Jessica stayed in Nashville overnight, so Karen and I got up early and had breakfast at G's Pancake house before leaving for Nashville. It was nice to be able to hang out in the airport with all three of them before getting on my plane.

The flight to Atlanta was uneventful, and I had a rather easy 3 hour layover before leaving for Lima.

About 4 months ago, I began to eat vegan again, and was planning on sticking to this as much as possible while in Peru. Suprisingly, I was able to eat vegetarian and nearly vegan for the duration of the trip, but I "fell off the bandwagon" a few days after getting back to the states. It sort of sucks as I would have really liked to sample some of the more traditional Peruvian dishes..... feel so dumb sometimes. meh, whatever. That said, I had the vegan meal options on the flight. They were not very good in either direction, which was a big dissapointment after have really decent vegetarian food on my flight to London last year. The overnight meal to Lima was some sort of grilled vegetable dish that was basically grilled vegetables in a brown sauce. The vegetables were very mushy and not tasty. Fortunately, I had some Larabars with me to hold me over.

The flight was very smooth, with no problems. We flew over Cuba while the sun was still up, which was pretty interesting. I didn't see anything noticable other than some buildings and roads, but possibly as close to Cuba as I'm going to get to seeing Cuba, at least for a long while. We also flew over Panama City Panama, which was neat for me as I had lived near there when I was a kid.

We arrived in Lima about 12:15, and I made it through customs and baggage claim with zero problems. Walked out past all of the waiting cabbies, and out into the parking area to catch a taxi to Hostal Las Fresas (http://www.hostallasfresas.com/). The ride over showed that the hostal was not in the best neighborhood, but the entrance was on a weird somewhat hidden alley, and once I was inside, I felt completely safe. Very basic room, but at a good price. I paid S70 for the night and a taxi ride that was pre-scheduled for the next morning. After getting to the room, taking a brief shower, and jotting down notes for the day, I crashed out pretty hard.



Rest of my pics from today:

http://s290.photobucket.com/albums/ll256/sandalscout/Peru%20March%202012/1%20Saturday%20March%2024th/

Planning and Packing

Essentially, it started like this (post from my motorcycle forum):

"I have a feeling I won't be riding this weekend , bike is partially dismantled, too cold, need to Christmas shop, family in from out of town, etc...

Oh yeah, and I have a lot of research to do on Peru! My birthday was today, my wife gave me a guidebook to Peru, and as I puzzled over it, she handed me a plane ticket to Lima for March! I'm going to Peru for 1 week in about 3 months! WOOHOO! Honda XR250R or Falcon 250 rentals for about $45 a day! Machu Picchu! Cheap food and hostels!!!! WOOHOO! My wife rocks!"

I posted the above line on December 9, 2011 at 9:25pm on the night that I found out I was going to Peru. I was overjoyed at the prospect, caught off guard by an awesome trip, and overwhelmed with the idea of planning an awesome ride. I can be a bit of an over-planner on a trip, and for a few days, Cusco seemed to be starting the same way. I had some help on here with a few different ride reports, but specifically Poolman's "Sacred Valley of the Incas" (http://www.advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=700838) and swamp's Machu Picchu report (http://bamarides.com/ride/dual-sport/machu-picchu-9109-90809-%28completed-!!%29/?PHPSESSID=1e2f1d07272fcaf0f37f68adf67b5cfd). Both swamp and Poolman helped me during the planning stages, graciously responding to PMs (even initiating them themselves, great guys!) and helping clear up any questions I had.

Fortunately, I realized that over-planning for this trip was simply not going to happen. As with most emerging countries, you have to learn to go with the flow. Situations can change on an hourly basis, roads can wash out, governments can shut down. Fortunately, I embraced this idea quickly. I booked my connecting flight from Lima to Cusco, found a hostel for me first night, and setup a rental bike at MotorcycleToues2CuscoPeru.com. Victor at Maginka World tours has been incredibly helpful, responding to questions, verifying route options. He and I discussed getting into Machu Picchu via the back door, and laid the groundwork for an excellent 5 days on the bike. I am enlisting their services as a local guide and translator as well. I was initially a bit bummed by the idea, but my wife was very much relieved by the thought. I have some high school Spanish that I have not used in years, but could probably fumble my way through what I needed to say while in Cusco or Ollantaytambo, but if I ended up somewhere that the locals where speaking Quecha, I'd be screwed. Overall, probably a good idea.

So, after nailing down a rental bike, the rough plan to get to Machu Picchu and booking my entrance, I basically stop planning. I've done some research on various villages I might visit, checked out the possibilities of riding Colca Canyon, seen what options I have to make a big loop versus an out and back ride, but basically, I decided to wing at last part of this ride. I think it'll make things more exciting, but also not setup a plan that is waiting to be thrown out the window. Instead of planning everything I want to do (like I did in the UK last year), I spent a lot of my time buying gear.

I'm a bit of a gear whore. I'm also a list maker. It's bad at times. I was always making this big lists of things I "needed" before I went. I already own a Giant Loop Coyote and Diablo tank bag, and I have a nice heavy duty backpack with 2 liter water bladder in it. I didn't have any good motorcycle boots, so I ordered a set of Gaerne G-adventure boots. My wife got me a Steripen for Christmas, and a hidden wallet. I ordered 2 FatTees wicking shirts, and a pair of new lightweight cargo pants from REI. I decided to take a pair of shoes for any hiking I do, and my Patagonias were nearly worn through the sole. I found a set of nike trail shoes on discount. I spent $64 on socks! I already had a pretty decent first aid kit, but now it kicks but. I visited the doctor and received my Yellow Fever inoculation, Hep-A, Diamox for altitude. I planned to buy a SPOT and a GoPro. My buddy TN-Steve offered me his old SPOT that he no longer used, awesome! I realized that I could not load non-North America maps into my fancy-dancy fairly new Delorme PN-60 GPS. I traded it with marcusarelius for a old-new Garmin 60CSx so I could load maps up from OpenStreetMaps. I tracked down electrical connectors, chargers, and AA power headlamps. My buddy Matt snagged one of those could rechargeable USB power supplies on Woot for me (Thanks Matt!). I like buying gear, and I like crossing things off lists. It's pretty bad.

To be honest, some of the stuff I got is probably overkill. I always like to think of myself as an outdoor person, I used to be really big into hiking, but in reality, I've only "camped" probably 5 nights in ten years, and I'm known to beat feet as soon as the sun rises so I can get home and get some real sleep. Somehow, during all of that, I amassed a decent stockpile of outdoor gear. Oddly enough, much of it is crap. This prompted me buying some new gear, as well as building my first aid kit and personal effects bags. Some of the stuff I could have gotten in Peru (probably cheaper), but I don't want to spend a half a day walking around looking for a pharmacy when I could be checking out a town. Don't get me wrong, sometimes that's a great way to find new and unexpected things, but I realize I'm on a bit of a constrained schedule this trip. I will be flying to Lima on Saturday March 24th, flying out Cusco the morning of the 25th, and then jumping on a bike on the 26th. My return flight leaves Cusco on Friday the 30th.

So, basically, I'm ready to go. I can get all of my stuff into my Coyote, a backpack, and a helmet bag. I'm fairly impressed at how small I got everything, and I'm taking a tooltube bag, tool roll, air pump, spare tube, 2 days of clothes, extra shoes, and a 20 degree sleeping bag (it's what I had). I've only ever done 1 overnight trip on my bike, and that was to my parents house last summer. So, my first bike big trip, in a foreign country on a continent I've never visited, on a new bike, and where I barely speak the language. Oh yeah, I've only been riding for 1.5 years. I can't wait to get this started.

Oh, and my wife's brother called her a few weeks back and said that they were going to Italy during the same time frame that I was going to be in Peru, so she's headed to Europe while I'm in South America.



Karen's bags for Italy are in the background.