So, after leaving Peru and taking care of the border formalities near Arica, Chile I really desired to press onward into Chile. I spent a few hours in Arica – basically killing time and drinking beer waiting for the next bus to the town of San Pedro de Atacama.

The trip to San Pedro was an overnight jaunt of about 11 hours. I arrived groggy and was more than happy to accept the first offer of accommodation, especially since it was very near the bus stop and much less expensive than I was led to believe prices would be in this desert outpost. A simple room cost me the equivalent of $8 (USD) and the place had free wifi….perfect!

My first order of business was to investigate tour options to Bolivia’s huge salt flat – the Salar de Uyuni. I had heard rave reviews from fellow travelers about it’s wonders and about Bolivia in general. The problem was, that the holidays were coming up and so I had, for the first time since this trip started, pre-booked transportation, so I was running short on time. The tours available were all three-day, two-night or longer and there was just no way for me to take one and still have time to get to Santiago for the next leg of my journey.

But Wait! Chile has alien landscapes too!

Valle de la Luna; near San Pedro de Atacama, Chile

I opted, instead, to take some day-tours around San Pedro de Atacama. The first of which was an afternoon/evening trip in and around the Valle de la Luna. Our guide on this particular tour was a former miner and had learned a great deal from the geologists at his company. He was a wealth of information about the processes of volcanic eruptions and ash deposits, glaciation, erosion and plate movements – all the forces that have carved out this landscape. The tour was absolutely fantastic, interesting and educational and ended with watching the sunset over the desert. It was a pretty spectacular sight!

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After a few days of seeing the sights near Arequipa, Peru, it was once again time for me to pack my things and move along. Having not taken any of the requisite vaccinations or medicines to head to the jungle (and into Bolivia) my best option was to head back towards the coast and south. I wanted to press on as far into Chile as I could tolerate….hopefully making it to San Pedro de Atacama for the possibility of touring Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni from there. I was starting to run a bit short on time, so the likelihood of a Uyuni tour seemed like perhaps a bit of a stretch, but nonetheless, I thought it best to push in the appropriate direction.

After traveling extensively and seeing some of the best of what the world has to offer, I have a tendency to get pretty jaded. Seriously, after visiting the Kostnice Ossuary in the Czech Republic…well, no church or temple is ever going to live up to that. Having grown up very near the Buffalo Bill Historical Center, I truly believe I have visited one of the best culture/history museums in the world. Scenic beauty….Anyone who has gazed upon the Tetons in northwestern Wyoming has seen one of the most gorgeous places on the planet. It’s hard to top these experiences – I don’t spend too much time visiting museums or churches anymore unless there’s something completely cutting-edge about them. The one thing that is left, that I do get a great deal of satisfaction from are those chance encounters with other travelers. On this particular journey I had one of those experiences that makes life on the road very fulfilling. Even meeting other travelers sometimes becomes exhausting…it’s the same drill, where ya from? how long you been here? how many times you been robbed? ad nauseum… But it’s a dance we all do while we’re traveling and if you can get through it you might just have a great experience.

So…from Areuipa to Tacna (both Peru) is about a 5-hour bus ride. After that, one must arrange other transport to get across the border between Tacna and Arica, Chile. The quickest way is to take a combi (shared cab). There are several sedans around the bus station in Tacna performing this service…they all go with 5 passengers, so, once you find an available one, you may be stuck waiting for a while until the requisite number of passengers are committed to going. On the way, the driver hands out the customs and immigration forms for Chile…of course, Chile being a country with wonderful fruit and allegedly good wine among other agricultural products is fairly concerned with what types of pests might come in on plant or animal products so they take a preventative stance in regards to individuals entering the country. Jordan, one of the passengers sharing in my combi ride expressed some concern over the shells and turtle bones she had collected on a beach in Ecuador. I let her know that my experiences with Chilean customs had shown that they weren’t joking about preventing individuals from importing plant/animal products into the country. She decided to go ahead and try to bring them in anyhow…what’s the worst that could happen right?

The worst that could happen would probably be a pretty hefty fine…fortunately, it didn’t come to that, but she did get held up in customs for quite some time when the inspectors found the shells and bones during routine baggage x-ray. I don’t guess she was held up for too long actually…maybe 20 minutes, certainly no longer than 30 minutes, but our combi driver was getting very antsy about the situation. None of the passengers had any urgent need to get to Arica, but the driver wanted to go. He made it pretty clear that he intended on leaving Jordan behind…of course, this wasn’t my problem..I hadn’t tried to bring animal bits into the country…why should I care what happens to her? Well, I cared because I applied compassion to the situation and knew that if it were me, I would be pissed off if, after I had been given the shake down by customs, I suddenly had no transportation from the middle of the desert and half of my belongings had gone away in the car. So…I resolved that I wouldn’t go with the combi driver…so he would be missing out on two fares if he decided to ditch her. It worked…upon my refusal to get in the car he decided to go ahead and wait.

So, that’s it, we became instant friends and didn’t have to go through the exhaustive “where ya from” dance. When we got to Arica, Jordan let me ride with her in her cab to her motel and I ditched my bags there for a few hours while we walked around town and drank beer until it was time for me to catch my bus southward. While she was certainly one of the more vibrant and seemingly genuine people I’ve met on the road, this situation certainly isn’t unique and every time I meet someone in this manner the experience is absolutely wonderful and memorable. These brief friendships are one of the most rewarding things to me about traveling. Thanks, Jordan for a great afternoon and good luck to you, wherever you are now.

After Machu Picchu and Cusco I decided to head back to Arequipa. This decision was based on a couple of things, namely that the routing I wished to take required me to backtrack a bit, but also, I wanted to take a look at the Colca Canyon.

The Colca Canyon (and Colca Valley) are in close proximity to Arequipa and many tours of the area are available from and returning to Arequipa. One of the most popular, and most convenient tour packages available is a two-day, one-night tour from Arequipa with an included hotel stay in Chivay (a small village near the entrance to the Colca Valley). These tours are CHEAP! Mine cost me just over $20 U.S. and included two days of transportation, an English-speaking (marginal) guide, hotel and desayuno (which must be Spanish for “here, have a piece of bread and jam in the morning”). The Colca Canyon claims to be the deepest canyon in the world, reaching depths of 4160 meters (13,648 feet) – that’s over twice the depth of the Grand Canyon in the U.S. The high point on the tour was a mountain pass at 4910 meters (~16,000 feet) but before we got that high, the omnibus stopped at a roadside stand selling coca tea…6 ounces of prevention and you forget all about the symptoms of altitude sickness!

For me, the draw was less about the size of the canyon, but more about the Andean Condors that live in the area. At this time of year, they aren’t as common as other times of the year, but, nonetheless, I was fortunate to see a few, amongst them this close-up view:

Andean Condor

A Welcome Relief

The rustic charm of the village of Chivay was a welcome relief and contrasted sharply with Cusco. Though there are plenty of tourists in the area, the tourism isn’t nearly as in-your-face and the village seems to be mostly authentic except for the special white man tourist restaurants that the tour groups are herded into. There are folklore shows and pan flute-playing bands, but none of them play “LaBamba” and they seem to stick to local, authentic music only. Dances are performed for the benefit of the visitors, but they are performed in the traditional way, slightly cheesy as this may seem, I reckon it’s as good a way to preserve culture and tradition as any and was actually quite educational.

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In my best Spanish….I think that means “little horses made of reeds”…I could be wrong here.

So, why am I writing about little horses made of reeds? Well, it’s because I think these are a shining example of how culture can survive and, at the same time, be a source of pride and an attraction for visitors. My tour guide to Chan Chan informed me that a young Peruano status-seeker once proposed that the local fishermen of Huanchaco should consider giving up their simple, handmade boats in favor of much faster and efficient motor boats. The fishermen balked at the idea, protested that motor boats would cause too much noise and allegedly, according to my tour guide, had a law passed prohibiting the use of motor boats forever (or at least until the law gets changed).

Caballitos de Totora

Archeological evidence suggests that the Moche people (the tribe that pre-dated the Chimu) were the first to use this type of boat in Peru some 3,000 years ago. They are still used today by the fishermen and so far as I know, this is the only place in South America where these types of boats are used.

Renewable Resource

The reeds that these boats are made of take 10 months to grow and 2 months to dry. The boats themselves only last ~3 months. The fishermen make quite an effort to keep their fleet in “ship shape”.

A Culture Sold Out on a Wholesale Level

In my Machu Picchu post, I alluded to my horrible experience aboard the vistadome train back to Cusco. Here’s how it went:
First, if you are familiar with the Disney “Small World” ride then you might get a feeling for what this train ride might be all about. It really is 3 1/2 hours of “It’s a small world” with less leg room. First, the train crew attempts to re-enact a traditional dance of residents of the Altiplano (stay-tuned for more on that). Of course, the dance is restricted to the already narrow footpath down the center of the train car. The costumes they wear are absolutely garish and awful and can’t possibly be representative of the ancient people. Of course, the dance is done to some lounge-act version of horrible 80′s American pop music. After the horrible re-enactment, the train crew puts on an alpaca fashion show – complete with even more completely tasteless music. Everyone else on the train gave obligatory applause for each clothing item presented…I couldn’t bring myself to show any appreciation…I felt that that would be a sign that this is what people actually come to Peru to experience. It’s not. This experience was very representative of my time in the Cusco area. Little flute bands running around, playing covers of…you guessed it, awful American pop tunes…oh, and some tourist at some time must have asked them to play “LaBamba” as they ALL play that one too (by the way, LaBamba is a Mexican folk song from the state of Veracruz, it’s not Peruvian and Peru ain’t Mexico!)

Now, I’ve been to many a place that might be considered “over-touristed”, for example the Taj Mahal or The Galapagos but never have I seen such pandering from the local residents. Sure, they are all happy to make a buck but they haven’t sold out the way the Cusquenos appear to have sold out on an absolute wholesale level.

So, in my opinion, much of the rest of Peru could learn valuable lessons from the fishermen of Huanchaco; namely that it is o.k. to retain tradition and culture. People will still visit Peru as it has many wonderful treasures to see and lots of great things to do. Travelers and tourists will still spend money, why not keep the experience more authentic?

For something that wasn’t part of my original South America travel plans, Machu Picchu turned out to be an absolutely wonderful surprise. The ruin is set in an absolute gorgeous location, it is very well preserved and the construction is very impressive. The fact that it is at high altitude left me in awe at what these ancient people were able to accomplish without modern day tools and conveniences.

How (not) to independently tour Machu Picchu.

So, you want to visit Machu Picchu yourself? There are several available options from all-inclusive tours to DIY hiking trips. The option I chose is somewhere in the middle. I handled all the arrangements myself, but my transportation was all diesel powered.

There’s a good reason that Machu Picchu stayed hidden for so many years. It’s located in a remote, nearly inaccessible area. If you are an avid hiker or have some spiritual need that you wish to fulfill, you might consider researching trekking along the Inca Trail to get to Machu Picchu. Otherwise, arranging transportation for yourself can be a pretty fun adventure.

The Train

Peru Rail operates service between Cusco (Poroy) and Machu Picchu (Aguas Calientes). There are 3 classes of service: Backpacker; well suited to the no-frills traveler, Vistadome; you get a car with windows in the ceiling and food/drink service are included and last is the Hiram Bingham service, which I think is for royalty and heads of state.

Train service is also provided between Ollantaytamba and Aguas Calientes with greater frequency and reduced cost.

What I did was find a shared taxi service from Cusco to Ollantaytamba. I overnighted in Ollantaytamba and caught a 5:30 AM train to Aguas Calientes. What I should have done was got myself all the way to Aguas Calientes and spent the night there. Once in Aguas Calientes it is necessary to buy your entrance pass for Machu Picchu (I’m fairly certain they aren’t available at the monument itself) and you need to purchase a bus ticket to go from Aguas Calientes to Machu Picchu. You can, of course, walk if you feel so inclined. Bus service begins at 5:00AM.

Guide books and articles I have read all write off both Ollantaytamba and Aguas Calientes as a horrible, but a necessary evil to getting to Machu Picchu. Despite the fact that they are complete tourist traps they still retain a “mountain town” character that I find charming.

There are several advantages to getting to Machu Picchu early in the morning. First is if you can manage to get to the top of Wayna (Huayna) Picchu before sunrise, you can get beautiful light for your photos. 2nd is that it gets a bit crowded later in the morning. I was there in the low season so the crowds were bearable, but I’m led to believe that from May – September there are often shoulder-shoulder people.

At the entrance, I was offered guide service, but my best negotiating couldn’t get the price below 100 soles (~$30USD) so I opted out…which was probably a wise choice as that left me free to climb Wayna Picchu and I can always read more about Machu Picchu on wikipedia.

For my return trip to Cusco I opted for Vistadome service on Peru Rail. This was quite possibly the worst thing I have endured in all of my travels, but that’s for another post.