Mitch Manzella's BLOG

CUSCO, PERU – I’ll never walk again. Four days out on the Inca Trail, and now I’m back in Cusco…. Legs very sore.

Going back in time to last Saturday…. We packed up the night before in Cusco; we were each given a duffle bag in which we had a strict 10 pound limit which included our sleeping bags. Porters were hired to carry everything that we needed… except a small day pack which each of us carried with some extra warm clothes, water, and extra film… things like that. These porters were amazing… running up the mountains with 40 pounds or more on their backs… carrying everything from a stove, to food… to tents for everyone… dishes, pots, cups, chairs… a large dining tent… and these were little Peruvian people… with a whole lot of strength. We spent some time making the limit, and going over the orientation of what the 4 day trek would entail. So on Saturday morning we went out with everyone (even the Tucan Tourists who were not doing the Inca Trail) to the Sacred Valley and to Ollantaytambo . We stayed overnight in Ollantaytambo at a hostel… I had Lasagna for dinner that night…. Bad idea… I was sick all night… but by the morning I felt so much better and was ready to go.

Day One would have us start in Ollantaytambo and take a bus up to kilometer 88 where our passports would be checked and stamped and then it was off for 9 hours. This was the worst day of my life… So difficult… the worst part is that our group leader makes his hikers go further than usual on the first day… so instead of stopping at the campsite where everyone else doing the trail stops at, we go an extra 3 hours uphill… well more accurately up steps… hundreds and hundreds of rock steps. Jami and I were at the back of the line and alone for about 2 hours until our 2 ¨end of the line¨ tour guides (Juan & Iban) finally caught up to us and took our daypacks from us so we could walk up the last steps unencumbered…. It still was the hardest thing I’ve ever done in my life. The campsite that we did camp at the first night was above the snowline… so it was very cold. My sleeping bag is rated for as low as 25 degrees… so once I got settled it was not that bad… but I was sore.

Day Two…..6am…. Another 9 hour day… Porters came and shook our tents to wake us up… they brought us tea in bed and a small tray of hot water with a facecloth to wash our faces. After breakfast it was up the mountain to the first of three passes, this one called Dead Woman Pass… It’s difficult to explain what it is like to hike up 2 hours at 6am…. After the worst day of your life… but I guess I made it through… cause here I am, typing about it… So what comes after a 2 hour ascend…. Why a 2 hour descend of course… oh the knees…. Everything hurt by lunchtime. At least I wasn’t the back of the line…. Jami was… that is of course until she got a porter to carry her up the mountain… She was the youngest of our group… and thus the offering to the gods once we reached Macchu Picchu… so she had to make it there alive. There were a few other smaller Inca settlements that we passed along the way this day, but most of them were just one or two buildings most likely used as lookout points or stop-off points along the way to Macchu Picchu. Our campsite on day two might be the most beautiful place that I’ve ever seen. Nestled between 6 or 7 mountains with a full sky of the brightest stars I’ve ever seen…. And a few degrees warmer to boot.

Day Three was much easier that the 2 days before it… only 5 hours… but still a pain in the ass… and the knees, legs, thighs…. The nice thing about this day was that we were done by lunchtime, and there were hot showers available at the nearby hostel for 5 soles. The interesting thing about these showers was that there were called ¨Suicide Showers¨ because there was only one tap which sent cold water to a shower head which had electrical wires running off of it into the wall… and the water was warmed as it reached the shower head… we were told ¨DON´T TOUCH THE WIRES¨ …. It sounds a lot scarier than it actually was… and it was nice to get somewhat clean after days of hiking.

Day Four – It was an early morning yesterday, we were up before the dawn. 3:50am was our wake up tent shake… and we navigated in the dark in order to reach Macchu Picchu at the sunrise. Lori and I must have taken 200 pictures on this day alone… but I doubt that the pictures will do the actual place any justice. At one point I was just sitting on a farming terrace across from the main city…. I think I took the same picture 20 times… each one slightly different as the sun began to touch the old stone city. We had the absolute best tour guide, Julio Caesar… who played his flute of traditional Peruvian music as we marched our tired army of hikers into Macchu Picchu. You’ll have to wait to see the pictures…. They are amazing.

Today… I took the day off. Lori and Jami went out at 9am this morning for an optional side trip of white-water rafting… I’m meeting them in about an hour and then we are going for one hour full body massages… and believe me I need it.

-- Mitch

Cusco, Peru – So where was I? Oh yes on the Island on Amantani... First let me explain the term Pacha. Pacha is a spirtual term used to describe the universe, or at least that is how it was explained to me. The Incan culture, and more generally the Andean culture has three animal familiars to represent the past, present, and future life. The Snake, represented in the human form as the spine is the past, the Puma, represented as the human heart is the present, and the Condor which is the mind represents the future.
So atop Pacha Papa there was a temple-like structure that we all sat around and watched the sunset. After the hike down, going down is always easier... we went back to our family’s house for dinner... more soup... more rice... more potatoes... All I could think about was how much I wanted a hamburger when I got off this island. After dinner we we invited to a fiesta, and we were dressed in typical Amantani culture clothes... you’ll have to wait til I get home for all the pictures... I was given a very nice poncho to wear. The was music (lots of pan flutes, ala Zamfir), and a bonfire... with lots of dancing... again you’ll have to wait til I get home for all the pictures.
Sleeping on Amantani was not very comfortable... the bed was a half inch thick mattress atop a cris-cross of reeds. I woke up just about every hour either from a pressure headache or from a shooting pain in my side telling me it was time to roll over. For the first time that I can remember, I couldn’t wait to wake up at 6am. Roosters called at just before 6, we had a pancake for breakfast and then went back down to the shore to meet all the other Tucan tourists to get back on our boat. We took another little trip over to another island that was a little more modern and had regular restaurants... although the hour hike up the island to the settlement was more than I was really up for at 8 o’clock in the morning... but it had to be done... although Lori and Jami hiked ahead of me... and took all the water that we had... so I was a little angry with them when we all finally met up at the summit. We went to get lunch which was an omlette over rice that was not very good... then we walked down the other side of the island which was 500 steps made out of stone (some people counted 530)... in either case it was a little rough on the knees... but was followed by the 3 hour boat ride back to Puno.
I read a whole lot of the book that I’ve been reading, Red Dirt Marijuana by Terry Southern (the author of such screenplays as Easy Rider and Dr. Strangelove)... very good collection of short stories (Josh... I’ll let you borrow it when I get home). We had engine problems with about 30 meters to go to port, and had to wait for another boat to come by and help us get going again. Then it was back to the hotel in Puno.
Today we woke up early and got on the Tucan tour bus to come here to Cusco. Cusco is by far the nicest city that we’ve been to so far... and I need to run, we are meeting for dinner at an Irish Pub around the corner.

PUNO, PERU --Yesterday after a night of agony from altitude sickness, we woke at about 6am to head downstairs for breakfast. Breakfast was 6 soles for tea, jam, and bread… which was really all I could stomach. I didn’t expect the altitude to effect my so harshly… I have been to Denver and Boulder Colorado and even hiked up the Donner Pass in the Rocky Mountains which was about 2000 feet higher than the altitude here in Puno… In Colorado I was fine… here I am… well it feels like my brain is trying to push out through my skull. After breakfast we locked up our packs in storage, packed an overnight bag and took two seat bike carts down to the lakeshore. This 10 min ride cost us only 2 soles (that’s less than one dollar). We boarded our boat on Lake Titicaca which would take us first to the floating reed islands of the Uros Indians. Quite an amazing tax evading culture. They live on islands made of reeds that float on the lake. I found it all a bit silly… I mean they had solar panels and color tv in their little reed houses. They make all their money to live off selling trinkets to tourists like myself. We stopped our motor boat at one island… and then took a reed boat over to another island where our motor boat then met us to pick us up. After that we were off from the 3 hour ride to the island of Amantani. We would spend the night with our adoptive native family on Amantani. I still was feeling the effects of my altitude sickness, so even the short hike from the shoreline of Amantani to my adoptive mama’s house… er… bungalow… was a difficult trek. A short nap and two advil later I was ready for my lunch… prepared for us by our adoptive mama. A simple potato soup as an appetizer and fried potatoes with white rice as our main course, followed by coca tea. The coca tea was actually quite soothing to the nausea and other symptoms that I was experiencing.
After lunch, we hiked up to the center of the island to the soccer court to relax, watch or participate in the soccer games. Our tour group consists of about 30 people, but Jami, Lori and I are the only Americans in the bunch. Everyone else is either some permutation of British or Australian. After the soccer game we took the 1:30 hike up to the top of the second highest mountain on Amantani, Pacha Papa (With Pacha Mama being the highest). A incredible view of the sunset after quite a challenging hike was well worth the soreness that lasted throughout the night.
Well the internet Café is about to close, so I must leave it here for now… tomorrow I head off to Cuzco… more updates from there

Peace
-- Mitch

PUNO, PERU

So its been a few days since I’ve been able to get to a computer. I am at an internet café right around the corner from the hotel that I am staying at in Puno. In an attempt to keep chronology, lets take it back a few days. The last thing that I blogged about was going to the airport to catch my plane to Puno. So at the airport I was able to retrieve my bag before boarding our plane to Juliaca. We had a quick lunch at the airport at a Dunkin Donuts. Jami and I both had the “Pollo Sandwich,” which was chicken salad on a croissant. Lori had the Omelet, which was ham + egg on a croissant. This was also my first exposure to Inca Kola. Inca Kola looks a lot like Mountain Dew, but had more of a pineapple flavor, its really quite refreshing.
When we landed in Juliaca we were met by a Tucan Tour driver who took us the one-hour drive to Puno. It is about 5:30pm and already the sun is almost completely down, just a hint of pale yellow peeks out from the horizon. Juliaca was basically only an airport and several locals trying to sell various trinkets as we exited the airport. The soft drink competition is fierce here in Peru. It seems that the only buildings with any paint on them are cola advertisements. Inca Kola, Coca Cola, Reyna Cola, Pepsi-Cola, RC Cola, Kola Real…. He who controls the cola, controls the country... I also wonder how many are owned by either Coke or Pepsi. I get the feeling that bringing potable water to everyone in Peru is not a priority due to the huge bottled drink market here… if people could drink the water, many soft drink makers would duffer heavy losses.
Our hotel in Puno is nice… but still there is no heat, and it gets very cold here at night. This first night in Puno, I began to feel the effects of altitude sickness. Nausea, dizziness, and about the worst headache that I’ve ever felt in my life. Throughout the night I tossed and turned, and moaned in agony. Lucky for me, Lori had some Advil in her pack which provided enough relief to make it through the night.

New Format... Nice huh.

I slept in this morning, our flight to Puno doesn´t leave til 3pm (don´t worry mom, its a jet airliner, not some small prop plane). I was supposed to wake up at 9am to call the airline to check on my bags, but I did not want to deal with another ¨we have no information¨phone call. Lucky for my while I was in the shower this morning, the phone rang and my bags are waiting for me at the Lima airport.... don´t rejoice yet... not til they are in my hands. We booked our hotel for the last day of our trip, we come back to Lima from Cuzco on the 26th and we decided to spend another night at the Kamana Hotel before our flight back to America late on the 27th.

Tonight we have a hotel waiting for us in Puno, which is very near to Lake Titicaca, where we will spend our day tomorrow. The real excitement is just beginning. I may not have internet access for a few days now... perhaps tonight in Puno... but tomorrow night we will be staying with a local tribal family on Lake Titicaca.... literally ON the lake. More on that when I know more.

LIMA, PERU -- Still no news on my bag, but the economics here keep getting better for us. A 15 min taxi ride that took us clear cross town cost a total of 8 soles (earlier I refered to the Peruvian money as both sols and solares... but soles is correct). The exchange rate is $1 0 3.40 soles.... We went to a very nice place to eat with about 20 other people from the Kamana Hotel... all people who are going on various Tucan Tours starting tomorrow. I had a strawberry smoothy and a tuna steak with mashed potatos... all for under $10 US.

Somethings to note about Lima... first off TAXIS: In most major cities there are a lot of cabs, and cab drivers tend to use their horn more often than most drivers... In Lima there are thousands of cabs... and not enough people with money to use them... so they honk at you while you are walking... and they honk at other cabs who are trying to pick you up... and they honk as they are driving past people, even if they have passengers... and they honk at red lights... or green lights.... oh... and if a light has only been red for like 10 seconds... its still ok to go through it.

Next, MUSIC: American music is everywhere... or more exact should be British music. I´ve heard REM 2 or 3 times on the street... but Dire Straights, John Lennon, Oasis, Peter Frampton are booming from boxes on the streets... it makes me feel like I´m not in South America at all.

Well I´m going to head off to bed now... I really hope that my bag arrives tomorrow before I fly out to Puno.

Peace
-- Mitch

Well in an attempt to keep this from being one long sob story, let me at least talk about the interesting things that I did today (that didn´t involve me on the phone with American Airlines). We woke up at around 9:30 and came down to Mr. Koala (The hotel´s cafe) and had the traditional European breakfast. For 6 solares (less than $2 American) I had coffee, juice, and various types of toasts, breads, and rolls with jams and butter. We met up with people from the Tucan Tours for a morning tour of Lima Centre, basicly the area around the hotel. My opinion of the city is much nicer in the daylight... There is still the element of people coming up to us (the obvious tourists) and trying to sell various trinkets and food items on the street. However, in the daylight the city seems much nicer and friendlier. There are still dogs on the street, but they are calm for the most part and do not really bother with the people walking by. Our walking tour took us to the various Plazas in the area... an interesting note about Lima is that it supposedly never rains here... in fact the city does not even have a storm drain system, so whatever water does fall from the sky stays on the street... which makes the walkways a little slippery. Our tour guide told us that it is foggy everyday... which does cast a bit of gloom on a city that probably already has all the gloom it can stand. After our walking tour ended, we had lunch... and again the poor economy makes traveling on a budget simple. Again for 6 solares (less than $2 American) We had a potato with peanut sauce appitizer, steak with a fried egg, rice, and a fried banana for the main course, and a pineapple pudding for dessert... also a hot apple tea was included in the cost. After lunch, Lori, Jami, & I went over to the Franciscan Monastery. This was a beautiful old church that was built sometime in the 1500s. In typical museam style we toured the galleries of religious artifacts... but the real interest was in the catacombs. Under this old church lies they bodies of 25,000 people... and we saw them all... bones, bones, bones.... everywhere. It looked like a scene out of Indiana Jones. We should have some great pictures of this place when we return. Tonight we are going out again with the tour guide from Tucan Tours to have dinner at 6pm. So its time for a quick shower and a change of clo.... oh wait... no other clothes... so quick shower and then the same clothes is my story tonight. American Airlines better find my bag... por favor

-- Mitch

Why do we even have computers... American Airlines lost my bags, but they barcoded it before I left Laguardia (so it should be trackable). Oh, we so sorry... Por Favor Por Favor... ok, so where is my bag? We don´t have that information. Really? What information do you have... NOTHING. All they can tell me is that they hope it will be on this evenings flight in from Dallas, but I have no way of knowing that it even left New York (My mother is probably freaking out, don´t worry mom, I´ll be alright... its just my clothes, all my other valuables were in my carry-on). So they tagged my bag twice, with two different claim numbers... because my sleeping bag was attached to my pack, and the attendant at Laguardia was concerned that if my sleeping bag detached, it would be lost... So I have this awful vision of getting the, ¨Mr. Manzella we found your bag¨phone call... only to find them deliver just my sleeping bag. I leave Lima tomorrow and fly to Puno... I hope that I can clear this issue up before then... but all I get from the Airline is... It should be on tonights flight, but there is no way of checking and I can´t even call to find out til 9am tomorrow....

Wait... what about that barcode... doesn´t my bag get scanned like 30 times from LGA to Dallas and then again from Dallas to Lima.... sorry (por favor) we don´t have any of that information in our computer... Why even have computers then

-- Mitch

Kamana Hotel, LIMA, PERU -- Well It seems that we made it here alive... although there were plenty of bumps in the road (some literal). We woke the day yesterday at 8am in order to catch a ride with Lori´s brother to Laguardia Airport. Several hours later we boarded our first plane which took us to Dallas for our connection to Lima. Since this plane was over an hour late landing in Dallas, we had to RUN from one gate to the other in order to catch our connecting flight. Lucky for us, we did get on board the plane... and with 3:30 hours gone by, and 6:30 more to go... well lets just say it was a long day of traveling.

When we finally arrived at Lima, we had to get our passports stamped... which I´ve never had to go through before. It really was nothing, but did simply take up a lot of time. Here comes the BIG ¨bump in the road.¨ Luggage Claim. Lori and Jami found theirs, I did not. So here I am, Sunday morning... still wearing Saturday´s travelling outfit, for that is all that I have. I guess that makes this blog a little more exciting... but I *REALLY* hope that my bag arrives at my hotel sometime today. Today we spend entirely in Lima, without any organized activity. Most likely, we will all go back to sleep after breakfast.... but first let me say some first impressions about Lima.

After dealing with the lost luggage forms, we had to secure ourselves a taxi to take us from the airport to the hotel... several taxi drivers ran up to us (ahh fresh meat) and asked us where we were going. My Spanish is pretty much non-functional, so Lori had to do all the talking... and the lost baggage issue had us all feeling a little defeated. We exchanged $80 into Soles, which yielded us 272 soles. All of our travel information indicated that a taxi from the airport to ¨Lima Centre¨should cost about 10 soles. All of these taxi drivers wanted $10 from us... so we had to haggle with them and eventually settled on 20 soles. The drive from the airport to ¨Lima Centre¨was not a pretty site at 2am. Poverty is definitely the norm here... many buildings did not even appear to have a functional roof on them. Every few blocks we would see another dog eating off of garbage on the street. I am in Lima because there is an international airport here, and in order to see the sites of this country I must start my journey here... but I could not imagine what it must be like to live here. I knew I was coming to Peru to see ruins of an ancient culture... I did not also expect the modern culture to also live in ruins.

All the streets seemed to look the same, it was impossible for me to develop any sense of a mental map during the cab ride to the hotel. I must remark, that the hotel is very nice. Our room is quite large with cable tv that even includes several English language channels... which I believe I will retire to now... more updates as more happens

-- Mitch

Last min packing still going on... leaving for Peru in less than 12 hours