Dana and I just got back from the trip that happens once in a lifetime. You probably know the feeling. It was just all over...cool. We knew it was a special thing as it was happening to us, and now we're sad it's over. Ima make this short and snappy, because it really is hard to encapsulate the experience in a blog post. So, dear friends, feast your eyes on this here, "Things I Learned Last Week: Peru Edition".
(And If you have Facebook, I'm having trouble making the photos appear on my feed, so here is a link, or you can go in through my photos tab, if interested): http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.914537612192.2288059.6108414&type=3
1. Peruvian food is the shit. So is the Wire. Even people from England know it.
2. Peruvian people know how to have a good time. "Hey it's Tuesday, let's have an impromptu dance party in the street. Oh, and also a zumba class."
3. Climbing/hiking/crawling/crying/breathing heavily/taking your body weight in Excedrin to Machu Picchu in 3.5 days is hard.
It's 4215 meters, or 13,828 feet above sea level at the hike's highest point, to be exact. Not for Joe Six Pack (hi, 2009!), that's ferdamnsho.
Despite this, we were the first group to the Sun Gate at 6am and the ladies (below) were the first 3 of 500 in Machu Picchu that morning. Boo ya, or something.
4. The Spanish were quite the marauders of indigenous people.
Hmm sounds familiar. Can't quite place it...
Cuzco:This Dominican Cathedral was built on top of an Inca site...This monastery was build on top of the Temple of the Sun, the most important Incan temple.
5. The Armada Roja is no joke. These amazing dudes carried our campsite on their backs each day, RUNNING through the mountains, many in SANDALS. "Respect, yo" —Omar Little
6. People have run the Inca Trail (45km/28mi). For Fun. As a Recreational Sport. Because they chose to. Like it's not compulsory.
Professional world class athletes marathoners ran it in 5 hours, 25 min.
Locals who live in the mountains ran it in 3 hours 45 min.
Guess I should put away my kg of ice cream I had delivered last night.
7. The Incans were smart, yo.
As most of you know, I am kind of a history dork (two of my favorite recent gifts were a Benjamin Franklin pendant and a 1790s recipe book.) So I won't go on and on in this post (but next time I see you, watch out!), but dude, these people had it goin' on. They had such a specific way of cutting stones (nuts, actually), that they can still, 600 years later, withstand a 8.0 earthquake. The buildings surrounding said ruins that were built in the last 20 years...collapsed immediately in a 1998 quake. Unreal.
Ruins in Lima- withstand giant earthquakes Really high up food repository- for preservation
and to keep it away from enemies.
8. It is easy, in 2012, to take bathrooms and showers for granted. Truth.
I am breaking my good friend Amy's cardinal rule of blogging PV (Post vino) because this recipe vale la pena (is worth it). It's a traditional Argentine dish from the Northern provinces called criollo.
Had a dinner party tonight. Fue fantastica. Here's the recipe. You need time( 2.5 hours mas o menos), but skill? Ehh--
Ingredients:
-1 large pumpkin about 11lb (I skipped this part, mainly because...me w a knife? I think I already gave the swayzes enough of a heart attack quitting life and moving here.)
-4tbsp of evoo
-1 large onion, finely chopped
-3 fresh red chiles, seeded and chopped
-2 garlic cloves, crushed
-1 large tomato- roughly chopped
-2 fresh bay leaves
2.5 c of beef or veggie stock
-1.5 c of red wine ( or more, if you're me. come on.)
-1.25 lb of potatoes, cut into 3/4 in cubes
-1.25 lb of sweet potatoes, same prep as above
-1 corn cob cut width ways
-3 peaches, peeled, stoned, and cut into thick wedes
-salt and ground pepper
1. Wash outside of pumpkin .
Using a sharp knife, carefully cut a slice off top from step to make a lid. using a spoon, scoop out the seeds and fibers and discard. Scoop out some of the flesh, leaving a shell of about 3/4 in thick inside of pumpkin. Cut flesh you have removed into 1/2 in pieces.
2. Brush inside of pumpkin wEVOO and season w sal and pepper. put the lid and pumpkin on a baking sheet, flesh side up. Set aside.
3. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Gas 6. Heat remaining oil in large pan over high heat. Add beef, season and sautee 8-10 m until golden brown, then remove w slotted spoon. You may need to do this in batches. Avoid adding too much beef or it will steam rather than brown.
4. Lower the heat add add more oil. Stir in onion and chillies and sautee for 5 minutes. Scrape any residual off bottom. Add garlic and tomato and cook 2 min more.
5. Return meat to pot and add bay leaves, stock, and red wine. Bring to boil and then lower heat to simmer. Cook for 1 hour or until meat is tender.
6. Place baking sheet containing pumpkin in oven and bake for 30 min.
7. Add potatoes, sweet potatoes, pieces of pumpkin and corn to the stew. Pour in more liquid if needed and bring to boil. Reduce to simmer, cover and cook for 15 m.
8. Finally add peach wedges and season w a&p to taste. Spoon the stew into the partially cooked pumpkin lid an bake for 15 min.
9. Serve (You can also do this wout the pumpkin in a big pot and serve in bowls.
10 DISFRUTEN! (Enjoy, as we are here:)
Oh and Kate saved the day w my video woes of Bomba Del Tiempo last night. Here's a link to hers on my FB page. So...unreal.
Wowsa. You don't often hear, "Well, the Argentines love their reggae." But man, do they. These guys know how to do it up. Kate and I decided we are going to go back, after we've got about a bottle of pinot (noir/grig, no me importa) under our collective belt (yes, Swayz, that is necessary for a good time). Images, vid and Info below:
http://labombadetiempo.blogspot.com/
UPDATE: I cannot for the life of me figure out how to upload videos right now; it keeps giving me an error message. Kind of sad, because it needs to be seen in moving pictures to be believed. Once someone (Greg) helps me understand this nonsense, I'll post.
Um, yea. I was here this past week. What is that, you ask? It's a freaking glacier, dear friends, and I hiked that joint like no other. As I sit here continuing to destroy the kg of ice cream I ordered last night, I am recounting the sheer dexterity required (read: they put our 2nd guide, Diego 2, next to me the whole time because I kept falling) to do the Big Ice hike. After you strap your crampons on (gross), you jump out on the ice and plod around for several hours, walk through chasms in the ice and generally get a feel for what a 250km2 block of ice is like. For all you space comparison fans out there, and I know there are a few!, Buenos Aires is the 9th largest city in the world, and it's 200km2.
By the way, did you know you can get ice cream delivered to your apt here at midnight? Do we have that in NYC? If not, I think I'll abandon my lifelong dream to work on conferences and go into the midnight ice cream delivery business.
Anyway, I digress.
Some more vastness perspective for ya'll:
Relaxing with our glasses of whisky at the end of the hike. Because that's JUST what one needs after hiking for 8 hours. I was drunk in like .235 milliseconds.
What I'm about to say may surprise many of you who have only known me to live in a city. BUT I did grow up in the woods (figuratively speaking...kind of) with a state park in my backyard. Ok here it goes:
I could live on an estancia for the rest of my life. Sign me up, train me to be a gaucho (cowboy).
I am a firm believer that everyone needs to go to one on a trip to Argentina, and not because I developed a severe crush on the gaucho who taught me how to horseback ride. No, no, Dear Readers, this is all about the views, the quiet, the homecooked food, and homespun linens and blankets, and the fact that they don't run an electric current through much of the day because of their limitations with their generators. In.love.
Below are some random photos, but there are more in the ol' archives! (facebook) if you want to take in a little more.
Next up: Bertotti and I take on Peru for 12 days. Wish us luck hiking the Inca Trail for 4 days, and hopefully we'll live to write another blog post!
Let's face it, people. You could spend a month in Patagonia and not see even remotely the same thing twice (unless you're me and you get lost in a small eco-reserve and you start to think you're going insane because of all the flamingos everywhere). Anyway, I was so enamored with my week there, I thought I'd share with you my step by step guide for a sure fire amazing/lifechanging/transformative time in Patagonia:
(More pics with explanations are on my FB, by the way).
Day 1: Ushuaia/Canal Beagle
Suck it up and fly on the 4:45am flight to Ushuaia. Try not to forget your camera, but if you do (me), the fine folks at Eduardo's on the main drag will dry your tears of self-anger with a pretty decent camera that you then can try to sell online.
Yay! You land, it's 8:30am and you've got the whole day ahead of you! Time for...a nap! After indulging your 'I'm on vacation; I can do what I want" self, time to explore! Ushuaia is a pretty cool town with a colorful history, and it's kind of neat to be able to say you were at the southernmost city in the world.
Some main points of interest:
- Yamani Museum - a 30 peso, 30 minute tour through this museum will give you a good foundation for what these native peoples were like, until the Spanish wiped them out with disease, natch. Nice work, Europeans, yet again!
- Prison- I didn't actually go into the prison, but there are a few good photos opps outside. I learned a lot about the origins of the European version of Ushuaia (as opposed to the Yamani version) through various other tours, so if you're doing any others, no need to go into the prison unless they're your thang. (Saw a lot of people with Alcatraz t-shirts there, so apparently there's a cult following(?))
-Boats! Sitting! Wind! Looking at sea lions! Even though it's super touristy, take a boat tour of the Beagle Channel. There is Some great wildlife, and the tour helps you get a sense for the geography and to see how vast the area is.
-King crab (centolla): Of course, it's becoming overfished, but you NEED to try this once when in Ushuaia. I'm not usually all about plundering scarce wildlife, but as they say, "When in Ushuaia..."
-Ushuaia is considered the capital of the Falklands/Islas Malvinas. This year is the 30th anny of the end of the war (actually the day you're here, Suz, Erin an Molly! It's one of the 18 national holidays) and many Argentines consider it to have been a senseless killing in that the government sent troops, accustomed to the north, to their death in the frigid south. Below is a monument to this in town.
Day 2: Ushuaia/Lagos Escondidos Tour
I decided to see another part of the area with a really personal experience. I took a 4X4 tour with 4 other people for about 7 hours. The guide was REALLY knowledgable and fun and we got to get really up close to these amazing lakes in the mountains. It was in Spanish, which was awesome for me, so if you go, check the language of your tour before you go! We got to walk along the water, while our guide Walter went ahead in the car and got the asado going. There was a tiny hut with no electricity and running water/bathrooms up ahead, and we shared an amazing meal with beautiful views of the lake.
There's also a funny video of us on the rugged terrain embedded below.
Hang out at the local Irish bar on the main drag! The servers are really friendly, and it's a great way to meet locals. I was invited to a costume party that night that was to take place at the bar after closing, but when I asked what time, Maxi told me that people would start to show up after 2:30. I wish I hadn't gone home to 'close my eyes' for a minute, because I woke up at 4:30am completely dressed. Sigh. Argentine time. I still must conquer you! (Except that I was at a tranny club until 5am last night, so I made a bit of a comeback. You're welcome, Swayz.)
Day 3: Hiking in Tierra Del Fuego National Park/Ushuaia/Andes Mountain Range
I think I had an out of body experience that day. Honestly. Even though the activities and excursions I went on were SO fun, and I met a lot of cool people, this might have been my favorite day. It reminded me of being a little kid with Julie and playing in the woods, not seeing anyone for hours and telling Jer an Swayz, "We'll be back!" before departing for the day. I essentially climbed a mountain and sat on top for a couple of hours, eating the Argentine version of Wheat Thins and reading my book. Oh and staring. A lot. The water- how was it so blue?! (sediment from glaciers and mountains make it that way)The mountains- how just in general was on top of one?! (I took my life in my hands; that's how). The clouds- I felt like I could reach out and touch them and those shapes?!
You could honestly spend a week hiking that jam. I would have, had I had the time. (That's a lot of hadding). Anyway, these two mini videos will take you through my experience and my trek to the top.
For anything I mention on these posts, I have all the logistics, prices, contact details typed out in my email, so if you would like any information, just let me know!
Stay tuned tomorrow/whenever I get around to it (ah, spoken like a true Argentine) for the second leg of my trip to El Calafate. You will be richly rewarded with crampons, glaciers, tales of me falling, and how I learned to horseback ride.
Trivia Question: What do you think I had an encounter with during this trip that wasn't to my liking? The first one to guess correctly will receive the grand prize of being blessed with my presence in April!*
