Peru: Ruins, Jungle, and Wanders

At Choquequirao, the sister city to Machu Picchu

A quick note: I wrote this post three weeks ago on Thanksgiving Day, jumping between coffee shops and restaurants in Sicuani, Peru. Wifi in South-Eastern Peru and Bolivia has been spotty hence the late upload. During that time I've been writing quite often so I'll be posting more frequently around the holidays and new year!

11/23/23

Friends,

Hello and Happy Thanksgiving from Sicuani, Peru, a small city between Cusco and Lake Titicaca. I find myself here after an action-packed 4 weeks in Peru, having visited Lima, Cusco, Capuliyoc, Puerto Maldonado and now the towns of Sicuani and Layo. Spending Thanksgiving abroad is definitely a challenge and it's hard not to feel a little homesick, so I've decided to take today to look back at the incredible places and people I've become acquainted with over the past month.

The day after I wrote my last post I flew from Bogota to Lima with new friends Matt and Guy from Norwhich, England. We bonded over beers in the Bogota airport before our flight and trip through Peruvian immigration!

After landing and getting scammed by a taxi driver on our ride out of the airport (perhaps a backpacking right of passage), we shared a few more beers at a River Plate bar in Miraflores neighborhood before parting ways. I spent the next two weeks exploring Lima, Cusco, the Sacred Valley, and Machu Picchu with my wonderful Mom who was a trooper to join me for part of this adventure! Flying from Lima at sea-level to Cusco at 11,100 ft proved to be a challenge, and it took my body nearly a week to fully acclimate!

However, staying in hotels and enjoying the (sometimes questionable) expertise of local guides was a very nice and welcome change of pace from my usual backpacking routine. We learned some very interesting facts about Incan history! Here are some of my favorites, regardless of truth:

• The Incas were one of if not the most advanced civilization in South America until the Spaniards arrived. I initially imagined their horror at seeing Pizarro and his well-armed force, until I realized that Inca King Atahualpa refused to bring any armed guards when he met Pizarro. He believed that the Spanish were harmless and would keep their word to stay peaceful. Unfortunately he was gravely mistaken. His capture and later execution quickly changed the course of History in the Andes.

• Macchu Picchu was built by Pachacutec in the early 15th century but was quickly abandoned when the Spanish arrived. We concluded that MP’s true reason d’etre is unknown, although our guide told us it was a college for training Incans to become farmers and shamans among other things. It was abandoned and somehow the Spanish never found it. 

• At the ancient city of Ollantaytambo we learned of the legend of Ollanta, a peasant-born man who rose to the rank of military general and risked it all by asking King Pachacutec for his daughter’s hand in marriage. Pachacutec refused the request and was later poisoned by Ollanta as revenge. Pachacutec’s successor Topa Inca granted a pardon as well as Ollanta’s request to marry his sister as a way to smooth things over. Later, Ollantaytambo was the site of an Inca victory over the Spanish.

• Rapper Tupac Shakur was named after Tupaq Amaru, the legendary last Inca Warrior King who was executed by the Spanish after his capture in 1572.

• According to our tour guide, when Incan babies were born, the placenta was placed at the top of a flat rock, angled towards the ground at about 45 degrees. The rock has grooves that denote different professions for the newborn child.

If the placenta slid to the left side of the rock, the child would be a commoner and would learn one of the following roles: 

• Land = Mason, responsible for building terraces and buildings

• Water = Farmer, responsible for farming the terraces and producing food for the community

• Fire = Warrior, responsible for keeping peace, protecting nobles, and fighting neighboring nations in battle

• Art = Musician, responsible for playing flutes, drums, and other instruments at ceremonial or other types of events

If the placenta slid to the right side of the rock, they would have the honor of learning one of the more advanced, specialized professions:

• Rainbow = Doctor. Responsible for healing people 

• Lightning = Shaman. Responsible for bridging the gap between normal life and the gods. Communicating with the gods to find information about weather, harvest, and war. 

• Sun = Inca King. Baby would be heir to the throne of the kingdom. We could see the rock was angled in such a way that the Inca King outcome was literally impossible. Apparantly if the baby was chosen by the sitting King to be heir, the shamans overseeing the ceremony would use a stick to push the placenta upwards into the Inca King slot. A bit of a rigged game I have to admit!

After two weeks with Mom, I went off on my own again, this time to hike to the Inca city of Choquequirao with new friends Dan, Ivo, and Max. Similar to my trek in Colombia, every hostel and tour agency I spoke with told me it was too dangerous/illegal to do this trek without a guide, yet similar to last time, a guide was most certainly not needed! 

(To be fair, I think most people in Colombia and Peru don’t grow up with the vigorous/expensive outdoors culture that exists in other parts of the world. When they see foreigners looking to rough it, they get worried and that comes from a caring/good place more than a ‘how can I make money’ place!)

After two nights staying in local hospedajes along the trail, we arrived at Choquequirao, another Pachacutec build, the “sacred sister” of Macchu Picchu. But unlike Macchu Picchu, which sees 1-2,000 visitors per day, we saw five other travelers at Choquequirao over a 5 hour period. The city was likely used in the 15th century as a sacred place and a checkpoint along Inca trails connecting Pisac and Macchu Picchu to the amazon rainforest, where the Incas were looking to expand. Later it may have been used as a hiding place for last bastions of Inca resistance to Spanish rule. 

We spent 5 hours exploring the site and got to watch archeologists hard at work excavating hundreds of terraces built into the side of the mountain. Choquequirao is believed to be bigger than Macchu Picchu, but only ⅓ of the site has been uncovered so far. 

On our last night we celebrated by drinking rum and soda at ChoquequiraoWasi Lodge with owner Don Mario. Possibly the most picturesque lodging I’ve had the pleasure to stay in!

After recovering from 3 brutal days of hiking (including 2 days of going down and back up a canyon 6,000 ft deep), I hopped on a night bus to Puerto Maldonado, a city in the Peruvian rainforest for a 4 day/3 night stay at the Monte Amazonico Lodge on the Rio Madre de Dios, just a couple hours from Peru’s borders with Bolivia and Brazil. Highlights of the stay included a night search for Caimans (and Capybaras!), visiting the recently protected Tambopata Reserve to see Ingabirds, Macaws, Howler Monkeys and Amazonian River Otters on Sandoval Lake, and a harrowing spider night walk. While I talk and write about avoiding guided tours, I am thoroughly grateful I chose to do one in the Amazon. While I was able to see monkeys, birds, and even a sloth at a wildlife shelter after my tour, I would not have seen any wild mammals or caymans had I not paid up for a tour! 

After returning to Cusco once again and re-adjusting once more to the elevation, I made the decision to set out on my own to a less touristic/unknown spot on the map. The spot I chose was a large town called Sicuani, nestled 11,650 ft high in the Andes halfway between Cusco and Lake Titicaca. I arrived on 11/21 with the goal of exploring without expectations and connecting with local people wherever possible. After a day of walking around and enduring the long stares of people in the plaza, I ended up talking with Pedro and Edwin-Andres in their mother’s Gallina restaurant while we watched the Brazil vs. Argentina match, rooting for Messi. Edwin-Andres is 9 years old and he was eager to ask me about my favorite color, animal, and all the places I’ve traveled so far. Then his older brother Pedro joined and practiced his English with me, asking me about the best places to live in the US. 

The next day, I made my way to Pallay Punchu, a rainbow mountain located above the sleepy lake-side town of Layo. It was one of the most incredible and breathtaking days of my trip. Besides a small tour from Cusco and a couple of alpine birds, I was completely alone among the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen (yes Utah crew, I said it!). Walking back to town I ran into a curious herd of Llamas. I spent the afternoon sitting on the banks of Laguna Langui and sharing street food and chicha with elderly locals, some of whom laughed at my inability to understand their thick Spanish accent. 

Here are some of my observations of local manners and tendencies of the wonderful Cusquenos I met over 72 hours in Sicuani and Layo. These are complete generalizations of course and I dont intend to create stereotypes, only to observe and understand key cultural differences. Some of these notes I just observed, while other notes were imparted upon me directly by Peruvians I met along the way!

• Most people in this region speak as much Quechua (a pre-hispanic, native language) as Spanish, sometimes a mix of both at the same time. When they do speak Spanish, their accent is so thick it can be difficult to understand what they mean. I can understand about half as much Spanish as I did back in Medellin, Bogota, Lima, or even Cusco. The Quechua language is still taught in schools mainly for the purpose of cultural preservation, but Spanish is prioritized and more and more children are eagerly learning English as well, so despite best efforts the language may be slowly fading.

• When men speak to each other or share a lunch/dinner table together in a market, they almost always shake hands as a formality, whether they are acquianted or not. The handshake can be quite light and no one squeezes as agressively as in the US! A limp handshake is just as manly here.

• When eating, silence at the lunch/dinner table is quite ok! Older people especially are comfortable with a long drawn out silence and dont view it as awkward.

• Some middle-aged and most older people are either missing teeth and/or have metal braces/dentures that shine when they smile! 

• Many older women dress in traditional Quechua style, I love the hats! Similar to the US, many younger women are on tik tok and like to film selfie videos of themselves lip synching along to popular songs. 

• Most boys are often playing or kicking around a soccer ball in the street or wherever they can. Basketball is also popular but courts are usually used for soccer instead.

• Street food exists here but usually just in the form of fried chicken, bowls of pasta, rice, salad, and other grains mixed together, or postres (desserts), usually for between 1-8 Soles ($0.25-$2.00). I had an incredible “churro” the other day! Chicha, a popular corn drink that sometimes contains a small amount of alcohol, is also served almost everywhere for 1Sol. The original is yellow but you can also find Chicha Morada, which is made from purple corn and is quite tasty. Chicha is usually served cold but sometimes lukewarm; which I expected to be quite gross but was actually not bad! 

• When I first arrived, most people stared at me. When I would smile and say a cheerful ‘hola’ they would usually look away and not smile back. Most were wary of me at first even when striking up a conversation. Once the ice is broken however, most people are quite friendly and want to know where I am from and what the heck I’m doing alone in their town! This is usually where I go off on my usual tirade about the values of solo travel … :)

• Most people are very proud of their town and more importantly the Andes, which are still considered sacred.

• While most local people are quite well-adjusted to the elevation, many still chew coca leaves or drink Muna tea, a digestive wonder.

That’s all for now! I’m waiting for my 9pm bus to Puno tonight, eager to see Titicaca and cross the border into Bolivia! 

A piece of administrative news: I’ve decided to come home for Christmas for 4 weeks starting 12/21. After 4 weeks at home I’ll be flying JFK - Bangkok to begin the Asia edition of my travels! I’m looking forward to spending some time recharging at home and to seeing friends in the RI/MA/NYC area before taking off again!

Much Love,

Charlie