4 more images of Peru and a look-back post

Not quite ready with the selections from October's edit but this should wrap up Peru (and September).

Peru 2.4

Peru 2.4
Near our fishing village, a pre-Incan ruin that is layers and layers deep after generations of kings buried the monuments of the previous generation, then decorated the new larger monument in their own motifs. Fascinating, with superb, well-preserved art.

Peru 2.3

Peru 2.3
Yes. Wall-sized. See Peru 2.2 below.

Peru 2.2

Peru 2.2
Really looking forward to seeing this image of Huanchaco life projected to wall-sized.

Peru 2.1

Peru 2.1
The markets of Peru are alive with colour. It was our first month of our year-long tour so tried desperately not to shop. Mailed a box home as soon as we left Peru.

Peru was the right place to begin a year's travel

Peru was an eye-opener of a place to launch our trip. It’s a little difficult to remember all the things that went through our minds as we settled into our year off during that first month of leisure. But I recall being sharply aware of the need to travel differently than any previous travel we’d done. This was a year off, and there was no way any person could spend that many days in full-on explorer mode. You have to stop and let the time pass you by. And you have to do that surprisingly frequently. You can bully your way through the strenuous two days of climbing Mount Putukusi and neighbouring Machu Picchu after a big bad bout of altitude sickness, but there are serious physical limits in the longer term. I speak now from a position of clearer understanding. Our first major steps on returning home were health care – Karen to a naturopath to fix her digestive tract, me to the family doctor to treat a knee injury. Now the knee MRI data is in and it turns out that a year of stress to one’s knees doesn’t necessarily cause ligament damage. At least not in my case. Instead, a year of daily strain (and about a dozen mountain climbs) results in bone injuries – extensive bruising and a small fracture to my left femur. My knee may take as long to heal as it took to cause the damage. And Peru was a powerful dose of knee wear with which to begin our year’s adventure. About two-thirds of the way through our year off we began to look back at Peru and comment that it was a good thing we’d done Peru first, because at that point we didn’t feel capable of the mountain exploits we’d done back in September. Now, a full year later, I have similar thoughts regarding the year off. I don’t think I could do it again. I certainly can’t do it again in the condition I’m in now. The effects of aging isn’t the point of this piece but I had to get past that to get to the wind-down in Huanchaco. While Machu Picchu was one of the icons that we built our year off around – the others were Easter Island (up next) and Angkor Wat (towards the end) – the lazing away of days and weeks in Huanchaco is the travel style that we wanted to perfect. Later, we executed a nearly perfect down-time dropout on the island of Koh Phangan, where we spent 33 days doing as close to nothing as two people can manage. In Peru, we spent almost half our month in Huanchaco. It is a small fishing village, with little going for it but charm, and we made it our home. By the time we had wandered every street I knew we were successfully living in the moment. That’s a sensation that we are striving for in our travels and, as much as Machu Picchu was a miracle in the mountains, Huanchaco was its own miracle on the seashore. I am more likely to go back there, but that may just be the bad knee talking. We could always bus it up Machu Picchu.

Re-living our tour in photos

A totally unexpected result of travelling for a year (unlike any other number of months) is that we are re-living the experience month by month as we sort photos. It's September now so we have spent weeks sorting and editing our Peru pictures. As we build a slideshow of our month in Peru, we are choosing from photos that weren't available for posting during our trip. We carried two cameras but only blogged from a backup point-and-shoot. So, here's the result, a handful of our Peru favourites. We might find a few more before the end of September when we switch to reminiscing about Chile. But first we'll have an essay on Peru, which will be our next text post.



Best of Peru 5

Best of Peru 5
Machu Picchu, Peru: Our second climb in two days began at 3:30 a.m. Fortunately, we stayed near a hot spring where we soothed our legs while waiters brought fruity drinks.

Best of Peru 4

Best of Peru 4
Lima, Peru: Saint Day celebration parade.

Best of Peru 3

Best of Peru 3
Moray, Peru: Terracing at Inca agricultural research site. The varied altitudes of the terraces created micro-climate zones in which the Incas did crop-suitability experiments.

Best of Peru 2

Best of Peru 2
Salinas, Peru: Salt flats in the land of the Incas, still active after 4 centuries.

Best of Peru 1

Best of Peru 1
We took two cameras with us but only downloaded from the backup. So we have 1,000s of unseen photos. Here's one from Sacsayhuaman. This 15th century Inca fort is a 2 km walk above Cusco so Karen is trying to absorb some of the energy from a 7-sided building block. At least it's a distraction from her love affair with her aerosol oxygen can.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Soft landing in L.A.

After 33 hours in transit, we arrived dazed and confused at LAX on Saturday afternoon. That was the longest Saturday ever, but we're beginning to feel more human again after lots of sleep, short walks in the neighbourhood and good home cooking (thanks Deni and Cynthia). One more flight to go, for a total of 31 over 11 months. Not to mention all the other forms of transportation we've taken. More boats than usual, which is not too surprising considering the number of islands we've visited, but more surprisingly, nothing resulting in seasickness. Bob does not fit in southeast Asian buses, but there was often no other option, so we became adept at snagging a seat with optimal legroom. We took just one train -- from Hanoi to Lao Cai for our visit to the northern hilltribes near Sapa. It just seemed the few trains didn't go the same route we wanted to take. I can't wait to sleep in my own bed. We've stayed in a wide variety of accommodations, ranging from the bungalow on the beach in Than Sadet, Koh Phangan, southern Thailand, for $13 a night, or the homestay with a family in Ubud, Bali, Indonesia, for $10 a night, to the big splurge with the overwater bungalow in Moorea, French Polynesia. I don't remember how much that one cost, but we calculated at the time that four days there cost the same as a month in Peru. I can't wait to cook in my own kitchen again, much as this has been a gastronomic adventure as well. We were surprised by the quality of the cuisine in Peru, amazed by the awesome tuna at Easter Island and enjoyed fresh fish and seafood almost everywhere. We savoured fine wines in Chile, New Zealand and Australia and sampled the local firewater, with mixed results. We rarely tried wine after reaching Asia in January because it was always stored in ridiculously hot temperatures that massacred the vino. Even the Two-Buck Chuck wine (from L.A's Trader Joe's) tastes better than anything pulled off the shelf in Asia, no matter how exhalted its provenance. Everything about L.A. immediately let us know that we were back in the North American culture: the differences from Europe are mildly amusing; the differences from Asia are profound. Much as we always enjoy going to Europe and after having immersed ourselves into Asia for half our tour, the return to North America has left us all tingly inside. It'll probably be another jolt when we finally get back to Canada. We can't wait for that last exciting hit of (reverse) culture shock.
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear you are safely back in North America. Well done. Fantastic pictures. Can't wait to see you on the weekend. - Love Mum/Carolyne

August 4, 2010 at 7:50 AM
Anonymous said...

You're back on North American soil .... hooray!!! Now just a little bit longer and you'll be on Canadian soil. I'm excited to see you guys on the weekend ... can hardly wait. Much love, Angie.

August 4, 2010 at 1:59 PM
Anonymous said...

ooops .... I meant to say American soil the first time around ... my bad.

August 4, 2010 at 2:01 PM

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