marlene reports in from Peru

the always world traveling marlene sends in a report from Peru...

It´s been quite a while, but all is well in Peru. Thisis an abbreviated update since the Internet here is abit slow...Panos left a couple of days ago after three greatweeks together and I just hooked up with an Australiangirl who is traveling the same direction to the northof Peru. We´re in Huacachina at the moment, the leastcultural spot in all of Peru I think. It´s a desert oasis filled with Israeli haggling backpackers. The highlight in this tiny oasis town town is the dune-buggy-sandboarding excursions to the white sand dunes surrounding here. We got into town at 1pm and were signed up within minutes for our sunset ride,featuring the craziest dune buggy drivers in town(that´s the ad at least). The drivers rip apart the desert floor at lightning speed and at certain peaks,let the riders out to fly down giant dunes on sandboards. Some do it snowboard style (one Israeli dislocated his shoulder doing that) and others on their stomachs (like me) or on their butts, which I did on the largest dune. Fun but crazy.Anyway, the trip highlights have been the treks. Panos and I spent seven days trekking Salkantay to MachuPicchu, hooking up to the Inca Trail. It was really challenging, especially day two, heading up to 5,000meters (somewhere around 16,000 feet), but all was beautiful and well worth it. The Inca Trail wassupposed to be super touristy and crowded, but ourguide just let us hang back an hour each morning (more because he hated early wake-ups), but it worked out that we were usually the only ones on the trail --that is, until the last morning crazy march of madness at dawn to Machu Picchu for sunrise, which was like amilitary race. Domingo, our guide was great and really patient with my millions of phots. Our cook, nicknamed Pumanina, was also amazing, and somehow baked abirthday cake in the middle of the Inca Trail for me.He also figured out the whole vegan thing and evenmade vegan lasagne for my birthday meal...The trek included lots of llamas, alpacas, and we even saw condors along the way. Lots of freezing nights, as well. We did some garbage cleanup along the Salkantay route, not too bad but we got our guide hyped about clean trails and he started lecturing the locals. The Inca Trail itself was actually quite clean.Machu Picchu was well worth the hype and Panos and Ispent a couple of days wandering around, as well asdoing one last climb to the peak of Huaynu Picchu,tiny steep stairs and more challenging than much of the trek. After all the trekking, Panos and I stuffedourselves in Aguas Calientes and enjoyed the warmbaths that the town is named for. It´s a bit of apickup scene, though, and is the jumping off point forMachu Picchu as well as the train back to Cusco.Panos and I enjoyed one last day in Cusco beforeheading to Lake Titicaca, which looks more like theMediterranean than a lake. We stayed on two different islands on the lake, the first night at Isla Amantani,where different families take in all the backpackers.At night there is a gathering of backpackers dressedin the local´s clothes and everyone dances in a giantcircle as the strong, tiny ladies whirl you around the room at high speeds. I´m not sure how authentic that dance is.... Isla Taquile, our second island, was more touristy by day, but had amazing views to the lake,and was completely quiet at night. Lots of girls in native dress selling bracelets and other jewelry sellers. Everytime you ask who made the jewelry theanswer was either my father or my husband, though itwas all the same style and looked like all the goods in Cusco and other towns. One big tourist productfactory is out there somewhere in Peru.The first island we stopped at, the floating islands,are actually moving islands built on roots and reeds.It´s possible to saw these islands in half, whichwould solve some marital disputes I suppose. After the Lake, we headed ot Arequipa and the ColcaCanyon where we did a three-day trek into the canyon(barely recovered from our last trek, but eager formore at the same time). Our guide wasn´t nearly asgood as Domingo, but he got us up and down and up again. The last up was at 2am to make the public busto a spot famed for its flight of the condors. Wewanted to spend more time at our rest spots,especially the first night´s which was beautiful and completely deserted (save for a few more Israelibackpackers), replete with a small hot springs. Butthe condors were well worth the wake up call and puton quite a show. At Arequipa we visited a museum thatholds the ice princess, an Incan girl who wassacrificed on one of the surrounding moutains hundredsof years ago and whose body was completely preserveduntil volcanos around there erupted and startedmelting the snow and ice, exposing the body. I just came from Nazca this morning, famed for anotherculture, the Nazca who drew mysterious lines onto thedesert floor. There are flights over the lines that reveal some shapes, like a monkey, hummingbird,condor, etc.. Much research has gone on, especially by one German lady who spent 45 years working on uncovering and researching all the shapes and figures and lines. Now it´s the tourist draw. The flights are interesting but fast, with a lot of stomach churning banking to show the figures on both sides. There is a great cemetery near there (Cemetery of Chauchilla)with preserved mummies. I´m moving quick at the moment to get to the north.Lots of bus rides ahead, though the buses are comfortable and have videos (except one awful bus company Panos and I took that had breakdowns on our bus and the backup bus before we even got on that one). I´ll go to the Islas Balletas tomorrow (PoorMan´s Galapagos) for a half-day and then somehow getup to the north in a couple of days. I´ll try to email more from there. I head to Chile Oct. 4 so time is closing in here.I hope you are all well...Cheers,Marlene