Chris's e-mail about Peru

Chris in a Peruvian market
Originally uploaded by Jane Rubio.

My first vacation means my first occasion for new travel updates (Goodbye Lithuania, hello Peru). So I am down here at an Internet Cafe in the ancient Incan empire, having flown in from Lima the other day. So far my first trip to Latin America has been a lot of fun. Spent the first night in Lima at a beautiful little hotel called Hotel Antigua Miraflores. Giant-sized bedroom, full jacuzzi, spacious hard-wood ceilings, and most importantly a solid cable selection. In fact, everything was so pleasant that I could overlook the rotting proscuitto in fridge.

Lima itself does not exactly overpower one with its beauty, but if you dig hard enough you find some nice spots. It is a beach town, which in principle should be cool, but verily I say I have never seen such a wasteland of a beach. For starters, the beach is inhabited by approximately 10,000 people in difference stages of homelessness and littered with garbage. There is a highway that runs along the beach one way, but this is no Californian Highway 1 by any stretch of the imagination. This being said, when you finally make it into the area of Miraflores more in the city proper, there are a couple of very picturesque streets. However, net-net, a disappointing city. More on this when I fly back on Friday late morning.

Now this is in stark contrast to Cuzco to which I flew into this morning. In addition to an adrenaline-packed airline entry that features banking approximately 200 feet from a enormous mountain peak to land on a very functional airport (old HK has nothing on this one), the city also has the benefit of being situated at approximatley 10,500 feet high. This translates into headaches and a lingering sense of nausea for the lucky, and full-on puking for the more unfortunate. Thus far, I have been a member of the lucky, but as I begin a four-day hike to Macchupicchu after only a 24-hour adjustment (suggested three-day), only time will tell how I will fare.

One cool thing worthy of being repeated is that Cuzco's special beverage is tea saturated in coca leaves. Yes, the very same leaves from which our dear friend cocaine is derived. They keep pushing this stuff on you incessantly saying that you should be munching on these suckers to help "adjust" to the high altitude, but I view this as a covert national campaign to get the world hooked on the white powder. I also snacked on alpaca for dinner, the very same beast that haunts countless pages of New York Times crosswords past (and future).

Cuzco is extremely beautiful, cheap, and tourist-friendly, and I really would recommend it to would-be travellers. I won't be able to give an update for a little while because I will be hiking through the Andes with a group of eight other Chinese-Americans (I cannot escape Asia, no?) as well as my trusty travelmates in Jane and Ana. We have rain and near freezing nights to look forward to, as well as scaling a 13,500 feet peak or two, but I went to the gym three times before this trip so everything should be OK, right?

Will update folks on the journey later.

Take care,

CJ