Last year I undertook the A to Z blogging challenge. Basically you write a post a day in April, Sundays you have off, and the only condition is your start with the letter ‘A’ as your prompt on the 1st and work forwards through the alphabet. It is enjoyable and a good way to connect with other bloggers. Here is the place to sign up (it has just opened).
As a teaser here is P is for Peru from last year
By spring of 1987 we had spent two years worth of holidays doing up our wreck of a house. Enough! We wanted a properly holiday so chose…. Peru. Why Peru? I expect we’d seen something on the Beeb about Manchu Pichu. Anyway, we saved all our holiday, called in as many favours as we could and set off on a three week jolly.
They way to reach Peru involved a flight to Amsterdam, a long haul to Quito and a hop to Lima. Some 20 hours before we found ourselves, tired and not sure which way was up, in the surprisingly dry, grey and dusty capital.
Up to them I’d never been out of Europe. I’d never seen a slum or shanty town. I’d never seen humanity in such cramped conditions as I spied on the way from the airport to our hotel, an oasis of calm, marble and Bougainvillea and a jarring contrast.
Lima cathedral very Catholic
In October 1987 Peru had had a recent change of government (1985) when 36-year-old Alan Garcia, the ‘South American Kennedy’ came to power. He carried with him with a lot of hopes but by 1987 the failures were mounting and the early indications of the upcoming turmoil were beginning to manifest themselves. Inflation was taking hold – eventually it reached over 7000% in 1990. The communist party, commonly known as the Shining Path had commenced a reign of terror in certain parts – Ayacucho was, even as we arrived, the subject of martial law. But Lima seemed peaceful enough.
My first sighting of Bougainville
Hmm, naiveté is a dangerous commodity. Still, somewhat jet lagged after our journey and with a day or two to acclimatize in Lima we put on our wide brimmed hats and headed off on a sightseeing walk. We’d go to the Presidential Palace, we thought.
Up to that point, my protesting had been of the sanitised sort where you could march and sit in while the police drank tea and looked bored.
So it was with bit of a jolt we found ourselves being herded by riot police and tear-gassed. That and experiencing a pisco sour were our first two shocks.
The Vicuna – an Andean deer.
A third shock came when we signed up, on day two, for a trip along the Colca canyon (at 13,500 feet deep it’s deeper by a factor of two than the Grand Canyon), in the hope of seeing the Condor flying. It took us several hours, we went as high as 15,000 feet to get there (and the altitude did me no favours – I had the usual symptoms – sickness, migraine but toothache? Bloody hell did I get tooth ache. It persisted for several days and all I could eat were papaya slices squeezed between my teeth. Any attempt to open my mouth left me feeling like my wisdom teeth would shatter).
every slope had these strip fields; an awesome feat of engineering
Anyway, I discovered Coca tea, a sort of herbal infusion that would set the sniffer dogs’ dial onto ‘frenzy’ had we bought a box of teabags home with us. That eased the symptoms for a day.
We did see the Condor – it floated up on the thermals and eyed me suspiciously, like a customer checking the freshness of the meat in a dodgy butchers. It wasn’t impressed.
Very Spanish, the centre of Arequipa
Still carrying the toothache and a headache, we headed for Arequipa. This colonial style town was less frenetic and cooler than Lima without the searing altitude (about half – 7000 feet). We spent another day or two here, drinking their odd vegetable beer and even more peculiar red wine (Vino Tinto Don Caesar is not to be recommended). We even sampled roast Coy – Guinea Pig. Don’t. It’s similar to roast boot but without the flavour.
The gorgeous jacaranda trees
What I recall most was sitting drinking coffee (probably with the inevitable pisco somewhere nearby – as the ‘sour’ indicates you drink the raw liquor with egg white. I never really developed a liking for it but when in Rome and after three of these puppies, I didn’t really care about my teeth…) and listening to the seed pods on the Jacaranda trees tinkling like glass mobiles above our heads.
reed canoes of the Uros
By now we had officially acclimatised so set off for Puno on Lake Titicaca. This extraordinary inland sea separates Peru from Bolivia and is home to the Uros Indians who live on the reed islands. They are dirt poor and survive by some fishing and the inevitable tourist visits. Not for the last time on this trip did I feel uncomfortable that these ordinary people were being shown off, like some Victorian freak show, for our benefit. There is something distasteful in an affluent westerner dropping in, buying some artwork and leaving, knowing the creators of the crafts probably see a fraction of the price. They are the bottom of the foodchain and inevitably exploited by everyone.
The reed islands on Lake Titicaca
I tried hard to kill myself, leaving Puno. It was here, perhaps that my love of long distance exotic train journeys began because we caught the Trans Andean train from Puno to Cusco, crossing the Alto Plano, touching 14,000 feet on the way. When I say caught it was more of a run, jump and hang on for grim death until I managed to swing myself onto the footplate. Geez, never have I felt so likely to get squidged as I did that day. I’d been told I could hop off to take a photo but the second I dropped from the train, the bloody thing set off at high-speed. By the time I returned to my seat, sweaty and shaking, the Textiliste had read another two pages of her book. She never really grasped what had just transpired.
Alto Plano
The stupendous mountains form a monumental backdrop to the swaying grasses of the valley floors, with local people scratching out a living aside from the inevitable begging children anytime we stopped.
Proof of our high point
begging was endemic as you might imagine
Cusco Cathedral
Cusco is a pretty extraordinary city, managing to keep both a colonial and Inca feel to it. But really, for most people it is a gateway to Manchu Pichu. Still we had a couple of days here which we enjoyed. The cathedral contains what seemed to be an unusually forward thinking figure of Christ – he was black. That illusion was shattered when we were told that was just how the wood, from which he was carved had reacted to the rain.
A huge market. The Textiliste had that pullover for years.
The beast
From Cusco we had thought about hiking the Inca trail to Manchu Pica. Now it is almost a rite of passage and both the Lawyer and the Vet have done so in the last year. However back then the Inca trail was a death trap and just a few weeks before part had collapsed under some tourists.
We caught the train but not before first hiring a local to drive us to a weekend market. His car, an extraordinary 1950s American beast took us both ways in real style and comfort (we shared it with a few others we had linked up with). Conscious of saving fuel on the way back, which was pretty much downhill, our driver simply coasted riding the brakes all the way.
The H&S nightmare that is the Inca Trail
Gulp!
Manchu Pichu is a wonder. When Hiram Bingham wandered into it in the first decade of the twentieth century, he must have thought he had found Eldorado so extraordinary is it with the sugarloaf mountain behind the altar shaped plateau on which the abandoned town sits. We climbed the mountain (I’m not sure you can anymore) and spent as much time as we could wandering around. I can still reimagine that first sight. It is breath-taking.
Why did the inhabitants leave? A still unanswered question
Our tour now took us to the Amazon but I will leave that for another time. Here are some other photos from our trip.
Llamas and Alpacas were pretty ubiquitous
Can I take one home?
Ahhh!
TanGental 
I envy almost everything about your journey, except the toothache! I had no idea high altitude could cause that. Much as I’d love to visit it one day, it’s probably better if I never go to Peru. I’d definitely try to smuggle out a llama and alpaca or a vicuna. 🙂
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Fantastic account of your Peru trip with great photos. I was amazed to see the sign on the railway station in English too. That ‘walk’ looks like El camino del rey in the Chorro gorge in Málaga province and no I haven’t done it. Going through on the train was sufficient.
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I seem to recall a coach trip to Ronda was scary enough! Thanks Kate. The pictures weren’t bad. I must have had a part decent camera!
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Ah yes, the road to Ronda. Twisty, windy and high up. We got the bus from Fuengirola (I think) which was fine as far as San Pedro, and then it turned inland. I couldn’t believe how the bus managed to negotiate the bends. Especially when there was something coming the other way, like an HGV!
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It was pretty terrifying, hanging over the edge.
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Oh…those mountains. Lovely photos. And the mysterious Machu Picchu…it was always on my bucket list. (former Spanish teacher). ☺ Thanks for sharing.
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It is indescribable really. Feels like Speilberg must have built it for a movie
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What a great idea!
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What a great travel article Geoff!
I have signed up too for A to Z this year, I’ll be on the lookout for your posts 🙂
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Ditto and likewise. Do you have a theme? The A to Z of smiles maybe!?
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No theme yet, I have an idea, but we’ll see… Do you have one?
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I think I’ll take London and find interesting things to write about.
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Travelling/holidays seemed so much more daring and adventurous back then, pre Internet. A friend’s son recently had part of his gap year in Peru and was in contact with his folks nearly every day. Nice for them to know he was safe etc but not much chance for him to be incognito.😀
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I went to Peru in 1999. It was my dream to visit Macchu Picchu for the dawn of the millennium, but in actual fact I was about 6 weeks early. I must say it was the strangest, best, most awful wonderful experience of my life, and I ended up leaving a part of my heart there. I’d go back in a heartbeat, in fact, had always planned to take my boys backpacking and trekking there, until Carys came along and changed our lives forever. You brought back some magnificent memories with this post, the kind that make you smile but feel a bit sad at the same time.
PS I hope not many people take up that posting every day challenge… it’s hard enough keeping up with blog posts as it is! 😁
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Sorry, I may let you down by having a go. We will see.and glad it triggered some happy memories.
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I have always quite fancied myself tripping off to see Machu Pichu – but I’ve just crossed it off my list. This is as good as being there!
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Thanks Pauline. It turned out truly memorable not least for the storms back home and the Oct 87 crash all of which we missed.
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Fantastic photos and an illuminating post. Thought last September I’d go to Peru this spring, but it was much too expensive. Now, since reading this stunning post, I don’t need to go. I feel I’ve already been. Sort of. Thanks for sharing. Superb treat.
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Thanks Tess. It was a splendid holiday with many highlights. Some of the people we went with though weren’t exactly dedicated travellers. I wish I’d kept details of them and written them into some stories. That seems to be the ultimate payback.
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Yes, I agree. I took pictures of all my fellow travelers from my last trip to at least remember their personalities and characters. I figured, they were my minefield. 😀
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Perfect. A fellow blogger wrote on being forgotten by her husband that while waiting for him to return wrote a short story and killed him off in scene 2. Made her feel a lot better
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😀 😀 I love this story. A perfect way to get restitution. Hilarious.
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Wow. I missed this one the first time round? It sounds…interesting. Health, eating… And this: “There is something distasteful in an affluent westerner dropping in, buying some artwork and leaving, knowing the creators of the crafts probably see a fraction of the price. They are the bottom of the foodchain and inevitably exploited by everyone.” And the begging children. In so many places. It’s brutal because to see places like Machu Pikchu…
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Great pictures – I get extreme altitude sickness so the Andes are off my bucket list!
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Wise indeed. I haven’t been as high since then, limiting myself to around 10k feet when I ski.
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Will all of your A-Z posts be as great as this one! Loved taking the trip with you!
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Well I can but try, Noelle. Thanks for the encouragement
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Great pics, Geoff. I know you’ll have no worries completing the challenge again this year. Actually, you might have one worry: eliminating choices. 🙂
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That’s true. Choice is a devil, isn’t it!
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So – a trip of mixed memories
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Yes, mostly great. But with some bits that are better in retrospect, or maybe in someone else’s memoire!
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Put it all down to experience, Geoff? 🙂 Yearning for the tinkling of Jacaranda seeds, but I won’t be going further than the Algarve to find them.
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