Peru- Day 2 : Cusco, Saqsayhuaman and Qenqo

Day 2 of the Peru trip started off at 3:30 AM. We had to get ready as the car was going to pick us up at 4:30 AM. There was no breakfast open at the time, but the restaurant was nice enough to box us cute little cheese sandwiches (just mini buns with Cheese), some fruits and milk at 4AM. The driver showed up promptly and took us to the airport and we said our byes. He did not know at that time we would meet again! 

We were flying into Cusco. After a one hour flight delay we reached Cusco around 10PM. There was another 45 minute drive from airport to the hotel. We stayed at Mamasara, a cute place on the edge of the mountains but walking distance from the Cusco historic Plaza. We were told to get ready in an hour for the tour!

The hotel was beautiful. Full of cute things..

By now we were only in day 2 but the kids had had enough of this waking up at ungodly hours, skipping meals because the "tour was going to start" and this waiting on a bus for "all parties to show up" etc. 

We calmed them down, thanks to leftover idlis and chappatis, curry which had been packed. We ate whatever survived the heat thus far and went on the tour.

We were not disappointed. We got to go first to the Plaza and see the Basilica.

It was in three parts. Every painting was a gem and the altar piece was just spectacular, not to mention that everything was gilded in gold. There was no photography allowed inside which was unfortunate as I did have a camera that could take photos without a flash. . . they couldn't police it, so they banned cameras altogether. 

After walking through the churches we walked to the temple of the sun! We also got some interesting perspective on these buildings. The base is always Inca. The top is Spanish style. They literally built the Churches on top of the open Inca temples.

However, they were not winning the people over. So the Jesus is wearing local clothes, the last supper has a guinea pig in the center, Mother Mary is in the shape of a triangle (mountain - Inca god) and Jesus and Mary have Sun and Moon behind them everywhere.. the Inca gods were fused into Christianity to get "customers". 

We also saw a cleverly done painting of a Madonna. If you walk across a 100 foot line, she looks at you no matter where you are on the line. This optical trick was used to convince the natives, that they had "sinned". 

There were a zillion mirrors in the basilica. They are not usual in european churches. They were put in to attract the Inca people to come as they had no mirrors and seeing themselves in the mirror was an amazing experience. 

Then we walked along the plaza streets to go visit more cute places.. streets and street signs were welcoming!

We took a short break at a small grocery store to buy water and snacks. We found "fryums" Peru style and loved it. It was made of some soy bean type flour and local spices. There was lot of Gatorade. Given how much we were walking in the hot weather (yes, it is summer in the southern hemisphere in December, although there was no direct sun, it was quite warm), we decided to stock up on gatorade. 

After a brief wait we got a larger bus to take us to our next stop.. Saqsayhuaman (they say it like Sexy Woman). For a few minutes I was like "why does he keep saying we will go to see sexy woman?!" are we on the right tour?! maybe not a family friendly tour?!.. then we saw the sign board and all was revealed.. 

This is one amazing place. They set up a city on the mountain top with stones that are not from the mountain. Some of these stones are 200 tons. They had a tiered city with priestly folks, city dwellers and farmers with terraces built into the mountain side for farming. They had elaborate systems to get bath water and sewage into separate streams, a nice drain system for water to go to public baths, etc. etc. They didn't destroy this and build a Church on top, thanks to Jesus.. instead there was a separte giant Jesus statue built on the adjoining hill overlooking Cusco. You can see it in the far left in the picture below. Our tour did not take us to that statue. It reminds you of the statue in Brazil. Given we don't know when we will go to Brazil, I wanted to go see the White Jesus (they call it Christo de Blanco) up close and personal.. tour guide said "no time". 

We were given 30 minutes to roam around Saqsayhuaman including hike to the top of the bath area to get pictures (one above was taken there). Kept clicking..... processed them over time. Here are some HDR shots which bring out the detail and the depth.. no photographs can do justice to the experience of walking by those walls. 

It was worth the rushed hike up to the bath area because we got an amazing view of Cusco from Saqsayhuaman! 

Then we walked back to the bus. Somehow word had gotten out that the buses had come I guess.. there was a sudden increase in number of vendors selling stuff to the tourists! Women in colorful local clothing were wandering around with alpacas and llamas to take pictures with the tourists. You had to pay them a Sol each to pose (3.2 Sols to a USD). They gladly pose for a Sol as do the animals! 

 Some of the vendors just let you take their picture. We did buy some trinkets for the kids.. all three of them. 

I wanted to buy some colorful things and was promptly vetoed. I did get a nice cap the next day which is banned in the house now.

From this place we went to another place called Qenqo! That was a priestly sacrificial site on an adjacent mountain where the weather gods were literally present. One minute it is warm, next minute the clouds roll in so fast and we had a hail storm. It was surreal! Most of this site was unfortunately desecrated. There was a 50 foot stone Jaguar that was beheaded. It was one thing for the spaniards to kill the Jaguars, did they have to do this?! 

You also had an amazing view of Cusco from Qenqo! 

A video of the hail storm...

Finally it was time to go back to the hotel. We had a pit stop at a place that sold Alpaca sweaters and there was a small demo on how the stuff was made starting with how to get the wool and process it. There was free Coca and Mint tea for getting rid of altitude sickness and stomach cramps. It was a local Eucalyptus added to mint tea. Would have failed every drug test with all that coca tea. However it did help me cope a little bit. The eucalyptus made me throw up later that night though. 

We found the place to be very expensive, so we went back to the bus and to Cusco Plaza. By then I had a pounding head ache and skipped dinner. The wife and kids decided to eat at the only Indian restaurant in the Plaza. The food was disappointing according to them. We went back to the hotel and dozed off.. as it was going to be another wake up early day.. 

The kids were inconsolable when the driver told us "we will pick you up at 6AM. we have a lot to cover". The little one said "you call this a vacation? I would have happily just stayed home. All we see is a bunch of giant stones piled on top of each other on mountain tops.. we have to wake up at 5 to go see this over and over again?!"

Everyone has a perspective!

Jr. suddenly started siding with her sister, which has not happened in the history of time! We were worried that there was a mutiny on our hands. San did her little lecture thing about how many kids don't get to see anything and how fortunate they are etc. etc. and we hit the bed... 

Day 3 post tomorrow.. (I am reasonably sure becasue I finished editing the pictures!)

Peru- Night 1 : Lima Plaza

Throughout 2016, I travelled for work. We closed out 2016 with a family vacation to Peru between Christmas and New Years. 

When you travel so much as part of work, you just want to stay home and relax and wake up late and maybe laze around on a long weekend. It would be a wrong thing to do as it is probably the best time to go spend with family and take in some sights, spend some good times. 

2016 had many defining moments. The most significant one I can think of was when San had an accident and was in the hospital for a few hours getting her head scanned after she hit her head on the pavement.. on my birthday!  Everything turned out okay and she is the same old San, thanks to all the gods I know and don't know. That moment made me realize yet again, how fragile our lives are and how one mistep can change things. 

After that happened I still had to go to Asia with her recovering. So I made a resolution on my return flight. We will go on this trip to Peru and I will try to be the bestest most obiedient hubby on this trip. I almost succeeded. 

We left on Chirstmas eve and came back on the afternoon of New Years day. It was an amazing trip, with great sights, challenges we had to overcome as a family, interesting twists and turns.

Given this is going to be the first in a series of posts, here are some takeaways from the entire trip.

1. We were glad that all four of us were in decent shape. If you are older, have heart issues, are not in the best of shape, have small kids, talk to other folks and travel agents.. if you choose to follow our itinerary. In spite of all the yoga, there were times when I thought my heart could not take the strain. Also given my pores open up so easily, it was very difficult to manage the abrupt changes in weather and what I was wearing. The little one was going through altitude sickness practically the entire time, but she managed to brave it!

2. There is no shame in packing enough food. I was tired of all the curd rice and idly packing to Asia. We were told that there are vegetarian options and food should not be an issue. Not true. Vegetarian food and finding the right food can be a big challenge. So take those Maggi noodles and MTR pongal mixes.. you can thank me later.

3. Use a travel agent. We used Peru Expeditions and a guy by the name of Andres, who we did not meet, but who did an excellent job of co-ordinating things from the phone. When you have a busy schedule with taxi, van, bus, boat and plane rides with tight connections, you don't want to take chances.

4. My family was amazed that I remembered Spanish from College days ( I had taught myself Spanish from Primsleur for two years just to understand lyrics of what I was dancing to.. ) and San actually said "some good came out of all that dancing! We are able to communicate with folks here thanks to your dad!". So brush up on some Spanish! Especially when you bargain for those Alpaca sweaters... comes in very handy. 

Now for the travelog!

We left Christmas eve on a red eye flight to Panama City, spent 4 hours in the Panama City airport which constantly reminded me of Kuala Lumpur's Air Asia area from the recent India trip. You are kind of trapped in an enclosure with minimal options for 5 hours. As usual, something intersting happened.

There was a Copa Airlines lounge. So I went there with my United card and lo and behold, they said they will let me in with one guest. So the little one tags along. She walks into the lounge and goes "so you get to stay in lounges like this on your way to Asia. I have no sympathy for you anymore. This is nice compared to how we wait at the gate!". Told her to hold her thoughts. After 30 minutes of sitting in that leather seat, she said "you are right. it is boring after 30 minutes. they have juice and crackers and stuff and the rest room is nice, but we are still waiting". Told her it gets worse when the plane is delayed and that is usual for China flights. So daddy Narayanan won back a point! 

After that break we flew into Lima. We went to our hotel which happened to be in a very nice area called Mira Flores. The family noticed that there were no english signs anywhere on the 50 minute ride from airport to hotel. I spoke to our driver in Spanish and all those words came rushing back. Suddenly I was mixing Hindi, Tamil, English and Spanish and the kids were like "what is going on in your head"?. then the translate module in my head kind of stabilized and we had a decent conversation.

We were given a little under 1 hour to get ready for a "Lima by Night" tour with a guide. There were lot of folks driven in multiple vans to a common location. Then we split. Practically eveyone went in a big bus that was the "spanish tour" and the four of us and another couple from Kentucky ended up in a small van that was the English tour. Our tour guide told us he has spanish, local Inca and Japanese ancestry and he wove an interesting story line on the history and culture of Peru in 3 hours.

We did a brief stop (didn't get out of van) at a place called Huaca Pucllana which was an archaeological dig site. Apparently Lima is built on one large burial ground and there are sites like this cropping up everywhere and the folks today prefer to have their city develop instead of become pockets of archeological digs.

Initially the van did not stop anywhere in downtown plaza area as there was no parking and it was Christmas day. Most main streets were deserted, but the Plaza was a different story. 

It had a street fair atmosphere that evening. 

Then we walked through 300-400 year old streets. Every building was amazing. Just look at this door knob on one of the buildings! 

Or the balconies. They were really ornate and had different roots w.r.t. where they originated. 

Then we visited two chuches that were very popular in that area. It was a good thing to visit Churches that were hundreds of years old and get to say a prayer and take some pictures. 

There is San walking in.. These Churches were amazing.. they were just the starting point. Over the next 5 days we would visit so many old Churches (mostly photography not allowed) which had so much gold and silver and amazing paintings in them it was breathtaking!

We continued to drive past the Plaza and things were winding down. This was shot from the moving van..

Then we walked through a few streets in the Plaza which were restricted only to pedestrian traffic. The narrow roads were full of shops, with really inexpensive goods, but we had to keep walking. We did stop at a bakery to have some paneton bread which is a must have delicay on Christmas (Peruvian tradition) but the bread has Italian origins in Peruvian culture. The bread was delicious!

and before you know it, you are in the Plaza. It was full of people. There was a large nativity scene on one of the buildings, a tall light tree and steet vendors selling things to kids. We had a great time wandering around and our guide was nice enough to click a family picture!

The gold plated water fountain in the middle of the Plaza was beautiful. We kept thinking, why dont we create these beautiful things today? Why did we stop 400 years ago or so? Even in India, you see the palaces in Jaipur and wonder why there are no new palaces which are being built that might last a few hundred years at least...

Remember, the default water you will get there contains gas. We learned that the hard way. So you have to explicitly say "Agua sin gas" before buying your water!

Once we were done walking around the plaza, it was time to head back to the hotel. We had a busy schedule for day 2 per tour guide. on the way out we saw four santas playing different instruments and folks getting portaits with the four santas.. Given Jr. is a saxophone player, captured this for her!

This was the last picture clicked on way back. There was a lot of traffic and our van was at a stand still. So I made a request to the guide and we both ran to the end of the street to get this pic and we ran back to the van just as the light turned green. 

It was an evening well spent and a unique evening at that, it being Christmas! 

The next morning we had to wake up at 3:45AM as there was a flight to catch from Lima to Cusco.

Day 2 post to follow! 

ps. There are also wide pano photos and videos that were taken on every day on the iPhone. Will be posting the collection of Pano Photos on a separate page.

pps. "people photos" goes to FB! 

Camping 2016- Sugarloaf Ridge State Park

We started the once a year Camping trip with the cousins four years ago?! Even the blog comes up with a sketchy timeline. 

The last camping trip to SugarLoaf was in 2013,  and in 2014 we went to Big Sur. Last year don't remember camping and this year we made it again to SugarLoaf. By now we knew the drill.. What to expect and how to prepare better. 

Given this is our first trip without the Sienna, we packed the Prius..

squeezed in everything we need and pitched the tents..

went for a great hike, but took a wrong turn with the two folks leading the hike (me and Anu) supporting each other's hypothesis that we were on the right track only to find out 2 miles later that we were going to end up on the other side of the freeway. Note to self : Always trust the sun, better than trusting your self! 

we got some beautiful views on the hike 

with the setting sun casting nice shadows

the waterfall had no water in it given it was almost fall when we went there.. 

we saw lizards, deer and one snake and that pretty much summed up the fauna sightings

 

we thoroughly enjoyed the camp fire in the cold September night

The kids had Sunday morning classes and we did a rush job of wrapping up the tents before the sun was out and were on our way back nice and early. Next year might bring us a two day camping trip.. who knows?!

We had been camping inside our own house for a good two months in summer, with nothing but plastic sheets to separate us from the elements. That was like training for the real camping trip.  Given the new routine with the kids growing up to practically adult sizes, we are definitely investing in some decent camping gear starting next year!

Until then... 

Using Alaska Airlines as a private plane

When you have the zoom lens available on a flight, you can take pictures from the air.. of snow covered mountains above the clouds..

Got to do this on July 4th as we flew out of Seattle..

The white balance is tricky as we have to go through the glass window and some of the light reflecting off the window as well as the sun's angle on the clouds makes it difficult to guess. 

Then of course there is HDR processing that helps remove the glare and automatically puts the highlights and details. 

 

Have never taken my camera bag with me on any business trip. If there is no smiling wife or kid, feel no motivation to grab the camera bag. Also, I will have to check in bags and not looking forward to that. Will figure out something on next rip to Asia.. Maybe just the camera and the 24-105mm?!

It is always great to have a nice zoom on hand.. sometimes and iPhone doesnt cut it.. this was one of those times.

Traffic jam, in Paradise, and a snowball fight, to make things right!

Isn't it ironic?!

The weekend trip to Seattle for 4th of July was interesting. Flew out Friday and came back Monday and we managed to visit Mount Rainier on Saturday and Snoqualmie falls on Sunday. 

We had a single goal. Get to Paradise point and let kids play in the snow. I was also dreaming of having a hot cocoa there after some snow play after our previous experience there. 

The trip was supposed to be 3 hours but it took us an extra hour because all of Seattle citizenry decided to visit Mount Rainier on that day. There were 50 cars stuck at the entrance to the park and by the time our turn came to pay and enter, we had spent an hour at the park entrance. Once in, we made a mad dash to Paradise point. My instinct is to stop at every pretty vista point to take pictures. But given the delay, it was going to be touch and go, so we drove straight to Paradise.

That is where my inner Morisette was awakened. There was a traffic jam, in Paradise! There was no parking for a good mile. Dropped everyone outside the point and parked 1.2 miles away and hiked back. 

Then we made it to the snow and all was forgotten! 

There were smiling faces all around. Given there were 2 males and 8 females in the group, the decision making on how far we hiked at what rate was decided by the ladies. Given the tension in the vehicles prior to the hike, we were all happy to play in snow. There were points where the snow had caved in and water was flowing underneath.. fortunately we did not have any fall in's! Here is a life saving tip for my fellow travellers who are driving the vehicle. Never come between a womans bladder and the nearest restroom.  

There were a lot of pictures and picturesque scenery. We made it back out after playing in the snow with a 10 minute stop at Narada falls and drove back towards Seattle. Given the 1.2 mile hike back to the car, there was no time for anything else. We are getting used to these rush trips on Seattle visits!

Here are some pictures in HDR. 

 

You can see Jr. and her grandma on the bridge. I was already in "let's go" mode as we had to get back in time for dinner. Here is another life saving tip for male drivers.. Never come between a woman who is perceiving her children to be starving and the proposed dining location!

We did have other little things that entertained us, like this baby squirrel which seemed to be comfy around people. That was a surprise given our backyard squirrels run away!

Or me amusing the family by doing Triangle pose barefoot on the snow. I am getting better at this as time goes by. All that pulling in your inner thighs towards each other to avoid slipping, works.  

On a side note, I did get pictures from the plane on the way back from above the cloud line. The camera was right under the seat and the zoom was put to good use. 

Don't think we can ever tire of Mount Rainier or Paradise. Even if we spend a couple of hours there, we always have a great time! 

The national parks should let us buy the pass ahead of time online or with our phones and let us keep moving if we show the pass on our phone. They should seriously try to go the app way, especially on long weekends.