South America - Brazil, Peru, Argentina

Visiting a Typical Andean Highlands Home

Alex took me to a friend's home in the small town of Ollantaytambo. The people here live very simply in one room houses, with kitchen, bedroom and living area all contained in a few hundred square feet.

Peruvian Baked Goods

In Pisca, we visited a 300 year old bakery that specialized in bread, chicken and guinea pig.

The Sacred Valley, Peru

My guide, Alex (on left above), took me on a day's drive from the Pisac Market in the east to the Ollantaytambo Temple in the west of the Sacred Valley

Stretching north from Cuzco, the Sacred Valley of the Incas is very fertile land that the Incans farmed for thousands of years.

The Valley is dotted with small towns and villages where the people live as they have for hundreds of years.

Machu Picchu

Mysterious, fascinating, sacred, awesome, inspiring, curious, breathtaking.

Train to Machu Picchu

Surprisingly, from Cuzco to Machu Picchu is downhill -- from 11,000 feet to 8,000 feet.

The only ways to get there are a four day hike on foot (no way) or a 3.5 hour luxury train ride (yes way) on the Orient Express -- named the Hiram Bingham after the Yale professor who rediscoverd Machu Picchu in 1912.

Traveling leisurely through the Andean moutains on a 5-star train was a most enjoyable experience -- where one can enjoy the Oreint Express cusine and the "bottomless cup of coca tea". Yes!

Tupanan Cafe, Cuzco

The Peruvian Highlanders have a rich cutural heritage, which I was able to sample at a fabulous dinner at the Tupanan Cafe. Flutes, drums and a wide array of guitars - including one 20 string guitar -- created an enchanting musical performance complemented by local dancers.

Cuzco Market

The local market in Cuzco is not on the sightseeing list but is well worth a visit. Farmers and other merchants bring fresh food to the market daily, where families sample and shop much as they have for hundreds of years.

Cuzco, Peru

 

Nestled  among the Andean mountain tops at 11,000 feet above sea level, Cuzco has everything except oxygen. Spanish architecture mixed with Incan ruins and traditional Peruvian dress, makes this city of 300,000 absolutely charming.

The oldest city in the America's, Cuzco was the capital of the Incan empire, which stretched from Ecuador down the western coast to the middle of Chile, until it fell to Pizarro's Conquistadors in 1532.

Though the Incan temples, forts and buildings were mostly destoyed by the Spanish, the city looks much as it did in the 16th & 17th centuries.

The red tiled roofs, wooden balconies, and cobblestone streets give one a sense of being back in time. In many ways the people's lives have not changed much over the past few hundred years, as tourism and farming are the major industies.

Many of the monasteries and Catholic churches from the 16th century are still intact and in use. And the local famer's market operates much as it did 300 hundred years ago.

Adjusting to the altitide is a challenge, although the delicious coca tea -- brewed from the leaves of the coca plant -- helped enormously, as did the pure oxygen pumped into my hermetically sealed room each nigh at the Monasterio.

Coca was the original "secret ingredient' in Coca-Cola, helping that company's early growth by literally addicitng its customers. The US governement banned its use in the cola in the 1920's.

The Monasterio Hotel is a 475 year old Catholic monastery converted to a 5 star hotel. One could feel the history, walking the halls where monks trod for hundreds of years, sleeping in the same rooms where they slept and eating from the same mini-bars.

Lima Peru

After the towering offices of Sao Paulo, Lima Peru seems small by comparison, though it has a population of roughly 8 million. The two immediate distinctions are the air pollution and the short buildings, most only 6-8 stories.

The reason for the former is Peru has been slow to adopt natural gas powered cars, without the government mandates that propelled Brazil’s conversion. Gasoline prices are high, however, and though natural gas distribution is not yet widespread, its lower price and greater efficiency are prompting individuals to convert cars on their own.

The reason for smaller buildings is Lima has had many earthquakes throughout its history and tall buildings are too risky.

My time in Lima was focused mostly on the history following the time of “The Conquerors” as the Spanish are called. Francisco Pizarro established Lima in 1535 after conquering the Incas at their capital, Cuzco, in 1532.

The Spanish influence and the Catholic church are completely dominant in Lima, with few traces of any native culture and no other religions. The Conquerors -- both military and clergy -- enforced a complete conversion or annihilation on the Incans. Estimated at 12 million native inhabitants at the time Pizarro landed, the Incan population was down to 1 million within 50 years.

My tour included Catholic churches and monasteries dating back to the mid-16th century and a visit to a house complex in downtown Lima that has been in the same family for 473 years.

I spent several hours at the Museo Larco, with its remarkable series of chronological galleries providing an overview of 3000 years of development of Peruvian pre-Columbian pottery. Not only works of art, pottery was how the Peruvians communicated through the generations since they lacked a written language.

The most fascinating aspect of the galleries is the visual illustration of the technological advancement resulting from two cultures coming together, typically through conquest.

The pottery of one culture would progress over time but eventually reach a technological plateau. Then they would conquer or be conquered and pottery technology would take a leap forward, improve over time, and then again plateau. This cycle repeated itself over thousands of years.

Larco also has the largest collection of erotic Peruvian pottery. Without a written language, this was how they passed sexual knowledge to the next generation. Ah, the joy of pottery…

Midnight Healthcare in Sao Paulo

By the time I’d landed in Sao Paulo, all hell had broken loose – so to speak – in all directions. The airline staff – though empathetic and caring – refused repeated requests to “please just shoot me” and instead delivered me by wheelchair to my next guide.

The drive from Sao Paulo airport to the 5-star Farano Hotel in downtown is just shy of an eternity. My driver kindly stopped the car periodically to allow me to inspect sidewalks and pavement along the way.

Sick as a dog at midnight in Sao Paulo, unable to speak Portuguese (or even English at that point), might cause one to feel concerned. Not at the Farano Hotel.

Within 30 minutes of arrival, a wonderfully competent doctor was at my bedside, quickly diagnosing “feijoaga overdose”, administering IV meds and calling multiple prescriptions into the all-night pharmacy (meds delivered 15 minutes later).

Doctor’s bill: $300
Cost of medications: $25
Value of staying at the best hotel you can afford: Priceless