Our Trip to Peru -- Over the Top

The third day of the hike was, without doubt, one of the most challenging days either of us has ever faced. It began poorly, the night before, when Katy seemed to fall ill. She was suffering from pretty severe sinus pain that we feared was brought on by the altitude and we worried that she would not be able to climb at all. After a phone-call diagnosis by a Peruvian doctor some pain medications and antibiotics were prescribed and we decided to forge ahead.

The first quarter of the day was a steady uphill that seemed to portend well. But then we hit the "Seven Serpents" -- a series of 14 switchbacks that went almost vertically up a steep wall from roughly 14,000 to 15,000 feet. Part of the way up, Katy climbed onto a burro to get to the top. Paul, meanwhile, was suffering shortness of breath and, candidly, a healthy helping of panic at what he was experiencing. The next 45 minutes seemed like an eternity.

Eventually, we made it up the Serpents and then had a well deserved rest. As you can see from this photo, Paul was not particularly happy at this point. But at least we had made it.

From there it was a relatively short hike (maybe a mile and only 300 more feet up) to the top of the Salkantay pass. There we paused for a well-deserved second rest and some good photos. As you can see, the pass itself is right in the shadow of Mt. Salkantay. The peak behind us is up around 20,000 feet and has been climbed only twice in history (at least as far as anyone knows). To have gotten so close to it was exceedingly difficult and rewarding -- but also amazingly unnerving and challenging.

And so we began a long downhill slog. We still had more than 4 hours to go to the next lodge (overall hike time on this day was 9 hours) and after about 2 hours we stopped for lunch. The most amazing thing happened -- lunch was a hot lunch served in a tent that had been erected for that purpose. Our cook had left the morning lodge after serving us breakfast and literally run ahead of us to set up for lunch. Never had a simple meal tasted so fine! And when we finished the downhill run to the lodge both of us indulged in Pisco Sours to celebrate -- we'd refrained from alcohol until then as a precaution but boy were we ready.

Oddly enough, the second lodge was at almost exactly the same height (12,000 feet) as the one we had slept in the night before -- so our total up and down of 6,600 feet (more than a mile) had gotten us "right back where we started." Except now we were over the pass and past the most challenging part of the hike.

Our Trip to Peru -- The Hike Begins

On Thursday evening we met the others in our hiking group (all Americans, save for two English couples) and our guide, whose given name was (I kid you not) -- Washington. His father had been and admirer of George Washington and named his Peruvian son after the first American President.

Early the next morning we began our trip. Our convoy headed out and the cars let us off about three miles from our first night's lodge. And so we began our walk. Over the next 6 days we would go approximately 39 miles and climb more than 2 miles up and down in elevation change.

The lodges were a chain operated by the Mountain Lodges of Peru. Each one is constructed at distances that are a day's walk from each other. Only the first one is accessible by road. All of the remaining lodges were constructed using materials that were carted in by hand or by burro.

Despite their isolation, the lodges are models of hospitality. They were, in a word, spectacular. When we arrived at the first lodge (pictured above) after a short 3 hour acclimatization hike we were met by staff who gave us a cup of hot tea and a cold towel to wipe off the dust and grime. They took our poles and carefully put them away, and then took our boots away, to be returned to us after they had been cleaned. The next morning they were all carefully laid out by the door.

The other service at the lodge was gracious. Each had a small bar (the local specialty is a drink called the pisco sour which is an absolute killer) and a hot tub. The view on the left is the view from the hot tub at the first lodge of Mt. Salkantay. Our goal, in the hike was to cross the pass below Salkantay's peak -- basically walking through the notch on the left side of the photograph.

After a fine meal (our chef followed us from lodge to lodge and his cooking could easily match up against some of the good restaurants in Washington DC) we retired to bed, there to find that our towels had been twisted into an origami of swans and that two hot water bottles had been put in the bed to keep our feet warm. Talk about being well treated. If you ever want to go on a hike but have a nice place to stay each evening, this is the way to do it.

And so, our trip began. The next day we took a second hike to get the feel for the thin air. The lodge was actually at about 12,200 feet. On the second day we took a short 4 hour hike to a glacial lake up at about 14,000 feet. As we walked we could see the tops of Salkantay and her companion peaks -- all at about 20,000 feet. Remarkably, we could see an Andean Condor circling the top -- at a guess the condor was up around 22,000 feet. Even at that distance and through binoculars you could see how magnificent he was.

The glacial lake was well worth the trip. You could see the moraine left by the glacier and the ice-blue water of the lake was stunning. We found the trip up and back a challenge -- it was not so hard on the legs, for we were well prepared physically, but the thin air was quite a noticeable factor. Still, after two days of preparation work, we thought we were ready to climb across the Salkantay pass.

Black Salt -- DC

We went to the Black Salt Restaurant last night for dinner -- the first time we'd been there in more than a year. We had such a good time, we wonder why we don't go more often -- though it is geographically undesirable, located over in the MacArthur Park area of town [all the way across the town from our Capitol Hill house].

Black Salt has a fish market in the front of the restaurant that gives the place a nice local feel. People from the neighborhood by the fresh fish there. Even better, the whole place has a nice ambiance -- not overly pretentious and a friendly staff. [Paul even met one of his rugby buddies there who was tending bar].

We had a great meal. We had fish of course, since it is a fish market! In fact, the restaurant provides a list of daily fresh fish that are available for grilling or baked. Last night they had everything from tuna to tilefish.

Katy started with a sashimi appetizer platter (one of the daily specials) that had hamachi, scallps and some strange Japanese fish whose name we forget. It was served with a sea urchin vinagrette that served as the dipping sauce. Quite lovely. Paul had the gazpacho -- a cold soup served, in this case, with lump crabmeat and a whole tomato in the center.

For our main courses, Katy ordered off of the daily specials and got a roasted rockfish with a suprisingly spicy panag curry sauce and great fresh vegatables. Paul was even more adventerous -- he said "let the chef choose whatever he wants to do." He wound up getting a grilled mangrove snapper [we were told that is the rarest snapper around] covered in a dijon cream sauce layered on top of fresh sweet corn, more crabmeat, cooked tomatoes and peas. The sweetness of the corn was perfectly matched with the crab meat and the dijon sauce and the fish was cooked to perfection.

We accompanied the meal with a 1/2 bottle of 2005 Muga Riserva Roja wine from Spain. The wine was a good full bodied red, that was perfect with the appetizers, but it clashed with the main courses -- especially Katy's spicy rockfish. In retrospect we should have gone for a Pinot Noir or a white wine of some sort.

Of course, the best course of the night was dessert! Katy had a wonderful Dark chocolate flourless cake with raspberries and coconut sorbet (with real coconut grated in it). Paul had something called Butterscotch creme which was a utterly sinful concoction of scotch, vanilla, cream, almond crackle and two shortbread cookies. It was so sweet that he didn't finish it, if you can believe that!

We don't know why we don't go here more often ... but we are going to fix that in the future.

Our Trip to Peru -- Part 2 -- Cusco

Well, we left Lima on a short flight to Cusco. Short it was, but the change was dramatic. Lima is on the coast. While we were there it was cloudy, misty, with a little rain and a chilly 60 degrees. We arrived in Cusco where it was 60 again -- but this time it was bright and sunny and much warmer, though the temperature difference was minimal.

An even bigger difference was, of course, the altitude. Lima is at sea level. Cusco is at 11,000+ feet. We were in Cusco two days early in the hope that we could acclimatize. Fat chance. Making that transition is always going to be hard. It's even harder when you make the transition in less than 90 minutes (which is all the time that the flight took). We spend most of the two days walking around Cusco and it was hard, very hard, especially whenever we had to go uphill.

Even though it was hard to breath, we loved Cusco. It is a delightful city of roughly 400,000 that is one of the most pleasant places we've had a chance to visit in our many trips. The city was bright and clean; and the people were quite friendly.

As you can see, the sky was an almost electric blue color and the Conquistador architecture just seems to fit in the context of the clear skies. This main plaza was literally filled with people, most of whom were doing nothing more than enjoying themselves on the day.

The food in Cusco was, if it is possible, even better than what we had eaten in Lima. We ate, twice at the MAP Cafe -- an al fresco cafe located in the courtyard of the Museo de Arte Precolumbiano. The South American wines were brisk and tasty and I had one of the most unusual dishes I've ever had -- a ceviche that was first cooked in lime (as normal) and then heated up by serving it over a hot stone, so that you had a warmed over ceviche. Add a spicy tomato-based sauce on top and it was just delicious.

But the highlight of our two days in Cusco was definitely the National Pre-school Day parade. Who knew? We simply wandered into it.

It seems that mandatory pre-school education is a relatively new thing in Peru and to celebrate there is, each year at the end of the school year, a national day, complete with parade. We were lucky enough to see the regional parade in Cusco which must have had more than 5000 young children marching. Each and every one of them was, like this angel, in a costume of some sort. They ranged from fantastical characters to recognizable cartoons [Spiderman] to themed ensembles [eco-friendly was very big]. The kids marched up to and then around the big plaza in front of the church, all the while accompanied by marching bands, to the enjoyment and admiration of all the parents and spectators. It was an altogether pleasant surprise and we sat on the steps of the church for quite a while watching the parade go by.

And so our 2 days in Cusco passed quickly. Late on Thursday we met our fellow travellers for a briefing in preparation for the Friday morning departure.

Cafe Atlantico -- DC

We went to Cafe Atlantico the other with our friend Lisa. As always the food was quite eclectic and unusual and the wine especially good. We drank a B Crux blend of tempranillo and malbec from Argentina that had a rich, deep color, a fruity nose and deep tastes. It matched up well both with Katy's scallops and caviar and with my conch fritters and feijao tropiero. Brazillian food is always tasty and the habanero paste with my tropiero was especially piquante.

The most interesting part of the meal was Lisa's -- she tried the farmer's menu. There is a local farmer's market in the area, and the chef simply makes whatever it is that he finds at the market and serves it up. Particularly notable was the eggplant with raspberries. We decided that the eggplant had been soaked in port wine before cooking ... an unusual combination.

It's been several months since we'd gone to Cafe Atlantico -- we probably won't wait as long to go back since we'd forgotten how pleasant the experience was.

Our Trip to Peru -- Part 1

In May 2010, we traveled to Peru for a two week trip. The core of the trip was a hike in the Andes. But the first couple of days we started off in Lima.

The history of Peru is fascinating -- it is one of those locations where the history is very much alive today. In early 1500s Peru was ruled by the Inca, the Emperor of a huge 10+ million strong empire that stretched from current Ecuador in the north to the northern reaches of current Chile in the south and from the Pacific Ocean over the Andes and down into the Amazon jungle on the eastern slopes. The Incan empire was divided into 4 provinces and the capital was the town of Cusco, up at 11,800 feet in the Andes.

[Neat fact: One of the 4 provinces, the one on the far side of the mountains, was known as the Antisuyu. It is thought that the current name for the mountains "Andes" is derived from the "Antis" -- that is those who lived in Antisuyu on the other side of the range].

In 1532 Francisco Pizarro, a Spanish conquistador, arrived in Peru with 168 men. With the superiority of his arms (rifles, swords, armor and horses for the Spanish vs. cloth and clubs for the Incans) he won a decisive battle at Cajamarca, capturing the Incan emperor Atahualpa. Within a year he had captured Cuzco and installed a puppet Incan ruler Manco (Manco later led a rebellion) and shortly thereafter he founded Lima.

Thus, Lima's central plaza, known as the Plaza d'Armas, is a monument to Catholic domination of region. There are two large churches that dominate the plaza. The magnificence of the structures is, however, perhaps best captured by the intricacy of the filigree work on the woodworking of the buildings. It's almost overwhelming the level of detail -- the picture doesn't do it justice.

One of the highlights of the visit to Lima (and indeed, of the entire visit to Peru) was the quality of the food we eat. In Lima we stayed in a community to the north of the central part of town known as Miraflores. Miraflores is an upscale community filled with coffee shops and a small walking parks. On the edge of the district is a pre-Incan ruin known as Huaca Pucllana, sort of mini-pyramid like structure. We were fortunate enough to dine at a restaurant literally in the shadows of the ruins, called, fittingly enough Restaurant Huaca Pucllana. There we dined on a Peruvian fusion menu that included the native specialty of guinea pig, and included the domestic specialty drink, a pisco sour (absolutely a killer -- don't have more than one).

We also had the chance to visit the Parque del Amore, on the Pacific coast in Miraflores. As you can see, the park is dedicated to the conception of love. This giant statute (see the person at the bottom right for scale) is said to have scandalized the local population when it was first constructed, but by contemporary standards it seems a bit tame. The remainder of the park is a Gaudi-esque construction of tiles with odes to love. Apparently the custom is for local couples who get married to have their names created in tiling and put up on the park benches. It was pretty cute.

On the whole though, we probably spent more time in Lima than we needed too. It is, by and large, simply a big city with the traffic and congestion that attend that status. After two days, we were not unhappy to be heading to our next stop ... Cuzco.

Speaking of Photos -- My Three Favorites

Over the past several years, Katy and I have had the great opportunity to travel to a number of places. We are fortunate to have the time to do that. Here are my three favorite pictures:

This one is the Taktsiang Monastary in Bhutan. It is located at 10,000 feet, about 3,000 feet above the valley floor outside Paro. Taktsiang means "Tiger's Lair" -- so named because the story is that the Guru took the form of a tiger, bounded up the side of the valley and founded the monastery.

We climbed up to the monastery with our friends Jan and Sandra. It was a moderately difficult climb with a couple of steep precipices (obviously). Along the way we were passed, going and coming, by a number of Buddhist monks, running barefoot on the path. Make you feel inadequate!

This one is, I swear, not a photo shop image. Katy took it from the waterfront on the coast of Zanzibar. It is actually a sunset, not a sunrise photo, even though Zanzibar is off the east coast of Tanzania. We are looking back west, towards the African coast.

The ship is known as a dhow. The rigging is traditional for the area and was the key to the great commercial success of the region in Medieval times, since it let the ships sail to windward and make a passage all the way to
the Persian Gulf. As a result Zanzibar was a key trading stop for spices, silks and, of course, slaves. Zanzibar itself is a classic multicultural melting pot of African, Indian, Arab, Portuguese and British influences. WeI particularly love the small man in the kayak to the left, that gives you a great sense of perspective.

Finally, there is this one. Again, I swear this is how it looks in real life! We took it at Petit St. Vincent, a small private island in the Caribbean.

PSV has only 22 cottages on it. The cottages are each isolated so that you really get a feeling of being alone. There are no phones in the cottages, so if you want service, you just raise a little flag. And if you want to be totally left alone, you can raise a red flag and nobody will disturb you.

Each morning we get some coffee delivered to the cottage and then go for a walk. After room-delivered breakfast the tough choice is whether to go sit by the beach or sit on the deck of your cottage. Later in the day, there's a nap and tea -- a real tough life.

This palm tree leans out over the clear blue waters beside one of the beach palapas -- thatch covered huts that give you shade but are open on each side to the sea breeze. We like to take our lunch under the palapas with this view in mind.

So there you have it -- probably the 3 best photos we've ever taken on travel. Thought I'd share them with you.

So What =IS= That Photo?

We thought we should explain what that photo is that is at the top of our blog. In May, we went on a hike in Peru up into the Andes on the way to Machu Picchu (about which we will have more to say later). Along the way, at the highest point of the hike, we crossed a pass below Mt. Salkantay. The mountain itself is more than 20,000 feet high and has only been climbed twice that anyone knows of. The pass (where this photo was taken) is at 15,300 feet (4,600 meters) and this photo "celebrates" the fact that we got to the top of the pass.

Leonidas Chocalates -- Willamette, IL

Still on the trip to visit family, we also went up to Willamette to do some shopping. On a lark we stopped in a chocolate shop -- Leonidas -- in the heart of the village near the train station.

What a revelation! Of course the chocolate was fantastic. But my step son and I both had the dulce de leche iced frappe, laced with white chocolate. Talk about a sugar high! If I'm ever back in Willamette again, we'd certainly go back.

Tommy Nevins Irish Pub -- Evanston

We had dinner the other night at Tommy Nevins Irish Pub in Evanston, while visiting our family. Tommy Nevins is a fine Irish pub -- with good draft beer and the traditional Irish fare. It adds, as you might expect, a bit of Evanston chic -- we had the lamb burger with cucumber garnish to go with the beer. And the beer list is not just limited to Ireland -- I had a great Dead Guy Rogue beer.

The best part of the visit (besides being with our family of course) was a fine outdoor patio for seating. I don't imagine you can sit out there too often in Chicagoland -- but this is the right time of year.

Welcome to Our Blog

This is Paul & Katy's Excellent Adventures. Here we will blog about our travels, and our pleasures -- places we go; things we see; food we eat; wine we drink. It's stuff we enjoy -- we promise we never will talk about work