New York, New York

We had an amazing time in New York. We were lucky enough to stay with a very gracious friend who lives in SOHO, and a bunch of mine and Evelyn's friends from Toronto came up for the week as well. Our first day, we walked around lower Manhattan being taken to all the best snack shops in town by our friend. It was delicious! I had a gourmet cupcake, hamburger, some Belgium-style pomme frites, a beef tongue taco, and cinnamon cheesecake pie. In the evening, we went to a Michelin-rated Japanes noodle house, which was also excellent.




The second day we walked through Central Park and ended at the Guggenheim. From the outside, I wasn't actually that impressed with the architecture. But once I started touring the gallery, it was really neat to go up six stories without any stairs and see snippets of the rest of the gallery displays through the open concept spiral. The featured artist was Kandinsky, which was excellent. He is known for colourful, abstract modern art.



In the evening, we went to see a musical called "In the Heights", which I really liked, and I am not a musical person. It was about Central American immigrants trying to get by in an upper Manhattan neighbourhood. After, we walked around times square and the Rockefeller Centre, and saw the giant Christmas tree from Home Alone 2.

The third day we went to the Museum of Natural History in the morning. I loved it, and could have spent the whole day there. We saw a lot of stuffed animals, some minerals, and a cloth made of gold spider silk that took 80 people five years to weave. I also learned about the peoples of Siberia. In the afternoon we went to the MOMA, where we saw Monet's waterlilies and an exhibit on Tim Burton. The permanent gallery was also interesting, but unfortunately I was too tired to appreciate it by the time we got to it. That evening was one of our friends birthday's so after a delicious dinner, we had a late night out on the town.




The last day, after getting up late, we went to the Bronx Zoo. It was a lot of fun too, but by the time we got there it we didn't have much time to see animals. That evening, I went to a long lost cousin's for dinner. It was fun finding out about him and his family. I also learned alot about my extended family, as he loves researching family history, and has tons of old photos and a family tree which he showed me.



On Friday, December 11th, we flew back to cold, cold Toronto in the morning. I can't say I actually want to be back, but its all right :-). I had a great trip, so shouldn't complain. Now, I have to find a place to live in Ottawa before moving there next year for work. The vacation was fun while it lasted. Thanks for reading!

Lima

Our last stop in South America was Lima, the capital of Peru. We had heard that it wasn't a place we would want to spend too much time, so only gave ourselves two days there. The evening we arrived, we went down to Larco Mar, the trendiest mall in the city, situated on cliffs next to the beach. The view was nice, but the restaurant we ate at was crappy and expensive. The first full day was a write off. I had really bad stomach and bowel problems, so spent most of the day sleeping. In the evening, we went to see Funny People, so it wasn't a very 'Peruvian' day.

The second day we walked around central Lima and looked at the colonial architecture. Lima was the chief city of Spanish South America during colonization, only rivaled by Buenos Aires much later, so has a lot of beautiful stone buildings. One funny thing we saw was the statue of the Madre of Lima. When the Spanish benefactor commissioned the statue, the said to give her a crown of flames. However, the Spanish word for flame is 'lama', so the sculptor put a little llama on her head instead.




The only building we entered was the Monestario/Cathedral de San Francisco. Beneath it are catacombs, with graves which contain piles of bones up to seven meters deep. As per usual, all the other museums (and the zoo) were closed for whatever reason, so that was pretty much all we did. We also met a New Yorker of Peruvian descent who works at the MOMA. She told us to drop her name for free tickets, which saved us some money once we got to New York.

Perhaps the most major glitch of the day was when we tried to collect our laundry. The laundry mat was closed because it was Sunday. As we were leaving that night, we had no choice but to leave the laundry. I guess somoe one will look pretty good in their new outdoor adventure duds :-). That night, we took an overnight plane to New York.

Arquipa, the Colca Canyon, Huacachina, and Paracas

We arrived in Arquipa early in the morning, found a hotel, and spent a packed day seeing the sites and booking our three day Colca Canyon tour. After booking the tour, we headed to the Monestario de Catalina, where we went on an excellent guided tour. The monastery used to house hundreds of nuns who never left the convent, and only spoke to their family through screened windows, so had no direct contact with the outside world. Now there are only about twenty and they live a (relatively) more modern life. The older grounds of the Monastery are open to tourists, and they are beautifully painted and decorated with flowers. It is like a little city, and occupies a whole city block.



Afterward, we went to a Museum which houses an Incan ice mummy. Similar to the mummies we saw in Salta, this one, from a scientific point of view, is even better preserved. When they did tests on the mummy, they could still find traces of blood, as well as remnants of the girl´s last meal in her stomach. The only problem with the tour was an annoying little kid who screamed for his mom the whole time, who seemed oblivious to how annoying this was for the rest of the people in the tour group.

The next day, we started our three day trek through the Colca Canyon, the second deepest Canyon in the world, as measured compared to the height of the peeks surrounding it. It is over twice as deep as the Grand Canyon in Arizona. The deepest canyon in the world is about a day´s drive further from Arquipa and also in Peru. To Evelyn´s chagrin, I chose the slightly harder but less visited route. On the first day, we drove to the starting point, stopping at the Cruz del Condor to look for Condors. Unfortunately, we weren´t luck enough to see any.




After lunch, we walked to the bottom and saw some Geysers along with the stark terrain one would expect in a deep Canyon. The second day, we walked up and down through the Canyon, and spent the afternoon relaxing and swimming in an Oasis town at the bottom of the Canyon. The last day, we ascended over 1200m in he three hour morning climb before heading back.



Like in Iguazu, we were followed around by a dog in the Colca cannon. Like the other dog, this one did not once beg for food, or even for water. But while the other dog only followed us for an hour, this one followed us for the whole three day trek! It was so cute. We wish we could have brought it home with us.



We caught an overnight bus the same day to Huacachina. However, we had rented trekking poles, and the rental place had closed by the time we got to Arquipa, so Evelyn couldn´t get her license back. Good thing we´re moving, so she can get a replacement easily anyway.

Haucachina was awesome. It is a tiny resort town surrounded by massive sand dunes. Supposedly, the largest sand dune int he world is in the vicinity, but I don´t see how that can be a permanent honour. Even after being to Israel and Northern Egypt, I have never seen anything like these dunes. Perhaps the best part about them was riding a dune buggy through them. We had a crazy driver who would speed up and down them. It was like being on a roller coaster for two hours. The scariest part was when my seatbelt snapped going over a ridge :-). We also went sanboarding down the dunes on our stomachs, which was alot of fun, but not nearly as scary as the ride to get there.



We spent the last two days in Paracas. The highlight of the city was the tour of the Islas Bastilles, known as ´the poor man´s galapagos´. We saw thousands of see birds, some at a density of 23 birds per square meter.




We also saw lots of sea lions and starfish, and were lucky enough to see a school(?) of dolphins.



Moreover, we saw a freshly born sea lion pup, which had already died. There were vultures eating the placenta and making moves for the baby, which was still being protected by the mother. The second highlight was the seafood. For about $3.50, we got a plate piled with so much fresh seafood that it couldn´t be eaten comfortably (yet I somehow managed to finish anyway).



In the afternoon, we toured the deserty national park Paracas. The highlights for me were seeing the colourful fishing boats, the steep ocean side cliffs, and one red sand beach bordered by the green seawater on one side and yellow sand cliffs on the other.

Cuzco

After returning from the Inca Trail, we spent 5 more days in Cuzco. It is a very pretty city, and an easy place to spend more time than you were planning. On Sunday, our first full day back, we bought a bus ticket to nearby Pisac, which contains an impressive Incan gaurd tower, temple, and terracing. On Sundays, it has a large market, both for locals and tourists. After buying our ticket, we got into a van which took us to Pisac. What the van driver decided not to tell us until we arrived though was that the ticket we had bought was not for his bus, and insisted we pay him again. After much arguing, I angrily paid twice, mainly because it seemed like the loss of the bus tickets ($0.70 each), wasn´t worth the fight. Both the market and the Incan site were great.







Monday we took it relatively easy. To see the site around Cuzco, you have to buy an expensive Boleto Turismo which grants you access to about 12 sites. We spent the day going to all the museums on the ticket which were, for the most part, crappy. The only good one was the Art Museum, which had an exibit of sculptures made from bones. We also went to the Chocultaya ruins (probably spelled wrong, I don´t have my book with me), which were very cool. Some of the walls are still in excellent condition and show the Incan abilty to create elegant and sturdy masonry without mortar. In some parts, you can run your finger along the lines between stone blocks and not feel the dip. In the evening, we attended the surprisingly good cultural show which was part of the ticket, and saw traditional costumes and dance.

Tuesday. we took a cab to still working Incan baths about 8 km north of the city. The best part was watching new age hippies sway around with their eyes closed and meditate before drinking the water. After, we walked back, passing an old army post and huge fortress along the way. We were supposed to pass another site, but got a bit lost and missed it. The fortress, know as ´sexy woman´(I forget the Quecha spelling, but it actually sounds like that phonetically, more or less), had a rock over 80 tons in wight. Alot of it was destroyed by the Spanish, however, as they used the smaller stones to build their own houses and churches.



Interestingly, we were approached by a group of Peruvian tourists who wanted to take OUR picture. It was a nice reversal of us sneaking pictures of women in traditional clothes. Since then, we have been approached three more times. We´re like celebrities!

Wednesday, we visited the main Cathedral, which was beautiful. In general, I have been underwhelmed by the religious monuments in South America. Most Churches and the like are in disrepair on the inside and not that interesting. This one was an exception. It was geourgous! My favorite part was the 80 or so wooden sculptures of Saints known as ´the choir´. Another highlight was a statue of the Saint women pray for for husbands (san Antonio de Padua, in case any ladies are interested). Later on, we saw the painting of the Saint men pray to to ward of the marriage prayers of women :-). We also were given an excellent audio tour to help explain what we were seeing.



For lunch, I ate a ´cuy´, known in English as a guinea pig. It looked like they just stuck it straight into a deep fryer. It still had its face and paws and a little bit of fur. The skin was very tough, and the small amount of meat on it tasted like Quail. In the evening, we saw an expensive but excellent performance which combined traditional dance and music with street theatre. Along with the costumes, I particularly liked the juggling :-).



Thursday, our last day in Cuzco, was slightly disappointing. We booked a private English guide to take us to some harder to reach sites, but he turned out to just be a Spanish speaking driver. We went to a small, pretty town to see some palace ruins, and to Moray, a large circular terrace ruin which is believed to have been a sight of crop experimentation. Each decending circle apparently has a different microclimate. It sounds cool, but was not as cool to see as I thought it would be, though it was very photogenic.



The highlight was the Salt pans we visited. Unlike the salt flats, this was a hill covered in what looked like Salt terraces.



That night, we caught an overnight bus to Arequipa to trek in the Colca Canyon, the second deepest Canyon in the world.