Arequipa - Thanksgiving Chifa

Chifa

I've been impressed with the number of "chifas" or Chinese food restuarants in Peru. One of our cabbies told us it was slightly healthier than regular Peruvian fare because there tended to be more veggies in it. And I must say it's pretty hard to find good veggies in Peru, given that salads and fruits with skin are no nos. So last night we went to our first chifa place that also happened to be vegeterian. We ordered tofu with veggies and a veggie chow mein. Yeah, the dishes where pretty terrible, but the veggies were welcome. And it wasn't cheap by Peruvian standards. Each dish cost about $2-$3 whereas, you can find set menu meals for about half that and those prices seem consistent with every chifa place in Arequipas. I don't think I'll be getting it again any time soon, but I had to try. The owner's name was Sun Li and the place was call Sunlight Asian Food. She is Taiwanese and was incredibly sweet. She was really touched that we wanted to take a picture with her.

No soy Peruano, sino Arequipeño

Cruz del Sur Bus Lines

We bussed from Lima to Arequipas overnight, opting for an Imperial Class ride. This spectacular service included 3 movies (Lilo & Stitch 2, Agent Cody Banks 2, Secret Window), a terrible meal (rice, hunk of meat, pastry, mystery kebab), and BINGO! The BINGO winner took home a free return trip, a significant prize worth $40. To spice things up, the conductor would periodically offer people the numbers of their choice if they could answer quiz questions or tell jokes on the PA system. The whole thing reminded me of 8th grade Spanish class. At one point, I thought I had won, and stepped up to the front of the bus, only to be told that I had to black out all the numbers, not just form a line. Only mildly humiliating.

Arequipas

A relatively wealthy town, Arequipeños take pride in their colonial architecture, historic churches and monastery, cobblestone streets, gorgeous volcanic backdrop, and lively main plaza. As Peru´s conservative stronghold, locals apparently consider themselves above the rest of the country (which they are, altitude-wise).

I wish we could spend 2 weeks here, taking time to hike through the local canyons and climb El Misti, one of the 3 extinct volcanos towering over the city. Without a doubt, Arequipas is the nicest place we've seen in Peru. Tourists are commonplace, much more so than in Iquitos. While this spikes prices somewhat, it also means we're not stared at wherever we go. I sat in the main plaza for an hour yesterday, without a single tour operator approaching me (impossible in Iquitos).

Unfortuately, we only have 2 days here before we bus up to Cuzco to meet Diane and do the Inca Trail. I met a Brit this morning spending 3 months in Peru. While that seems like a bit much, a month would be very doable, particularly if you wanted to trek in the Andes.

Eating Out

Jen and I have gotten the hang of finding cheaper, better food. Just head a few blocks away from the tourist district to find lots of great affordable restaurants. Contrary to my Lima pizza experience, we regularly eat our fill for $5 each. Set lunch menus with two courses commonly start at $1.25. For dinner tonight, I plan on hitting Arequipas´roast chicken district, a block with 10 or so
pollerías, each with a window of golden chickens rotating over hot coals. We'll probably also pick up some empanadas - meat filled pastries - great snacks to go. While meat definitely dominates the culinary landscape, fresh fruit shakes, bakeries, and yogurt bars are also everywhere. Unlike Europe, however, the café scene is pretty slim. I´d like a couple of open air spots to have a cup and watch people go by.

Local Connection

After the Iquitos experience, I'm realizing that intense interpersonal contact with locals is going to be a little tougher to come by. Big cities don´t really lend themselves to that kind of traveling. We'll see...

See you in Cuzco.

Arequipa, Peru - Peruvian Healthcare

(Ed, I think this is another thing you probably should NOT mention to our parents...)

So apparently I exaggerated the number of bites I got. As it turns out, they aren't all bug bites. Some of them turned out to be hives due to an allergic reaction I had to the bites themselves. (and yes, I can hear the Cultural Equity Staff laughing incredulously already). We figured this out after three days of being out of the jungle, and while Simon's itchiness had subsided, mine was still just as terrible as ever and got a little worse with a 16 hr overnight bus ride from Lima to Arequipa where I got really tired and dehydrated. Simon suggested we see a doctor so we could find something a little stronger than hydrocortisone.

We showed up to a local clinic armed with snacks and books ready for a long wait. We showed up to the front desk, explained the situation to the secretary at the desk. She nodded and told us to come in back where a nurse examined me immediately. He gave me a couple shots of steroids and antihistamines and kept me there for an hour to make sure I was reacting well to it. A few doctors came by to see the carnage and they seemed pretty impressed. They wrote a prescription for some antihistamines and steriods for the next few days and sent us along our way.

We were there for about an hour a half, no wait, saw two doctors and a nurse, and got two prescriptions for about $60 USD without insurance covering any of it. (We've got a $500 deductible on our travel policy). And they were really friendly and sweet. I can't imagine what it would have cost in the states without insurance.

Iquitos, Peru - mosquitos and shamans

hey, so many thoughts that I've been trying to get down, and I just have to publish this.

A note on Simon's comments on village life.

I really do have to agree with him on the quality of life there, particularily regarding the day to day, so I won't repeat them here. However, one thing I noticed was that all the villagers were pretty much 16 and under and over 35. And I can only assume, that they went off the work in the towns and sent money back. Two of the kids that we spent the most time with, James and Alain, were clearly bright kids. And they both said they wanted to be doctors when they grew up. And given the current situation, I wasn't sure how that would happen exactly. So while their day to day life was great, any life beyond the jungle would be a challenge at the very least.

Los mosquitos tienen hambre por Louie y Simon

Ever since I learned about the rainforest in high school, it´s been my dream to go. And obviously, it´s not everyday I get to fulfill a dream I´ve had since high school, so I must say it's a great feeling. It was amazing to see the wildlife and the plants and trees. Like the trees where the roots grown down, the insects that look like sticks. You really do have a sense of the immense power of the jungle. The sound is almost deafening, but it´s incredible to hear all the different tones. And one of my favorite things about the jungle was the smell. It´s got this sweet flowery smell through out. And it is really beautiful and lush, and we weren´t even in the deep jungle. I loved breathing in the jungle.

But fulfilling this dream was a high cost7high reward thing for me. I got absolutely got eaten alive by the mosquitos and other buggers, in addition to a few scratches from spiney pokey plants. There are diminishing marginal returns on monkey sightings as the mosquito count goes up. If we can, we´ll upload a picture and I will say it´s every bit as uncomfortable as it looks. Those of you who know me, know that my skin tends to be a little hyperactive and this is no exception. The children in the village were fascinated with the gore. And of course I had no grounds to complain since I was the one who really wanted to go into the jungle.

But for the record, Simon wanted to be as "hard core as possible." And this is what he had to say about the buggers. "I hate to admit it, but the mosquitos are one of the images I´m going to take away from the Amazon. If there´s any dengue fever in the area I don´t see how we could have gotten by without catching it, seeing as how we were walking buffet tables. Our DEET repellent was useless, acting only as a citrus marinade before our sweaty flesh was served up."

I thought I could be hard core about it, but on the fourth day, I started to go bananas because I was so uncomfortable between the heat and the irritation. And by that day, we were treking through the jungle with long pants, rubber knee high boots, my gortex jacket, a hat and a bandana. And they still managed to bite through most of my clothing. Those of you who might have stock in a deet manufacturer, dump it. That stuff doesn´t work at all. And to really add insult to injury, our guides who were all locals from Iquitos and the villages, were running around with their shirts off and while they still got bit, it didn´t affect their skin which stayed in clear as a baby´s bum. nargh. And I will say it was a humbling experience to run around in the jungle looking like a makeshift ninja whose uniform was from REI. But so long as I don´t get malaria it´s worth it. And certainly I don´t regret it one bit.

Ramon the Shaman

A friend of mine, Andres, recommended that I visit a Shaman named Norma for an ayahuasca cleansing ceremony which lasts five nights. Basically, the ceremony involves the drinking of a tea made from some plants that have psychotropic propertries (a note to my brother Ed, you should definitely NOT mention this to our parents, really) and from those visions, you can cleanse, heal, get questions answered etc. I´m not describing this accurately, but google it and you´ll get a better idea. Andres said that this woman changed his life and I was super gung ho about this, but Simon wasn´t. He was pretty nervous from the get go about having a bad experience in the middle of the jungle and it is common to throw up after taking it. Our cab driver also told us that when he first did it he lost control of his bowels. But I was pretty stressed out and sad with our departure, packing up and leaving my job, friends and family, so a cleansing ceremony seemed like just the ticket.

Anyhoo, we didn´t have time to find Norma and do the full ceremony with her, since we were slated to take a tour of the Andes at the end of the week in Cusco, Peru. But our guide took us to a Shaman who lived in the jungle near a village called Jerusalem. When we met Ramon the Shaman, he was, no joke, wearing a Kwik-E-Mart hat from the Simpsons. And we planned to do an ayahuasca ceremony with him.

Ramon was an incredibly sweet person, but you can tell there was an air of sadness about him. It turns out his wife, aged 44, died unexpectedly due to a bite from a poisonous snake bite several months ago and died in a matter of hours. They lived in a house - the largest one we´ve seen in the villages - that was about a 45 minute canoe ride from Jerusalem and it was clear that he was incredibly lonely. He lamented to us that there were no young people who wanted to learn shamanism from him, only Americans, and that his family didn´t come visit him very much. It also seemed that he spent a decent amount of his time drinking Masato, a drink made of fermented yucca root. And it seemed like he was well on his way to getting toasted in the middle of the afternoon. But we spent the afternoon talking to him (or rather simon did and I gleaned some bits and simon translated the rest). He was a very interesting person and shed a lot more light on jungle life. He showed us pictures of his family and of previous apprentices. And I don't doubt his sincerity at all.

Simon started reading more about ayahuasca from our guidebook and talked to our guides and got a better sense of it and was feeling pretty comfortable. I, on the other hand, started questioning why I wanted to do this. I didn´t have a specific question in mind or ailment to cure, and now that we were done tying up all the loose ends before we left, I definitely felt less stressed. And all in all, I´m very grateful for everything I have in my life. Not that you must not be to enjoy the ceremony, but I wondered why I was putting so much responsibility on another person to change my life. And to top it off, Ramon´s current disposition wasn´t entirely inspiring confidence.

The ceremony was slated to take place at 8:30 and last three hours. About an hour before, it began to rain and thunder and it continued through the night. There was a lit candle for the first half hour and then he blew the candle out after we had our first drink of ayahuasca. So there we were in the pitch dark where we could see nothing, except when lightning struck and we would see his silhouette with his headress as he sat in the chair. Intense to say the least. The effect of the ayahuasca was supposed to begin after a half an hour, but after an hour, all we felt was the swarm of mosquitos around us. Our guide told us that we could ask for more, if we didn´t feel it. But at that point, Ramon seemed to be in the "zone," with his chanting and we didn´t feel right interrupting. So after another hour simon was so uncomfortable with the mosquitos and sitting on the floor, he left to go sleep in the tent, which our guide told us to do when we were done with the visions.

I, on the other hand, felt it was important to stay for Ramon. I didn´t want to be yet another person who abandoned him. And so for the next hour, I sat alone in front of him, in the middle of this thunderstorm, getting bitten and slowly scaring myself shitless with the stories of the jungle demons from Walter and the cabbie and thoughts of every horror movie I had seen. He kept chanting something about cigarettes and family as far as I can tell. Finally, Ramon turned on the flashlight and asked where simon was. I moved closer so he could hear me over the rain and thunder. At that very moment, there was a huge clap of thunder and a bolt of lightening, lighting up his face and headdress, making me yelp. I answered "dormir" (sleeping), said "muchas gracias y buenas noches" and booked it for the tent.

I brought that one on myself. It wasn´t the most mature thing to do and I´m not proud of the fact that I was so scared. Now we both really regret not asking for more ayahuasca. It seems like a squandered opportunity. But I guess that is one lesson that we should take from this. Hopefully the next time, we won´t be shy to carpe diem.

So onward to Cusco and the Andes.

Jungle Life

Iquitos

(Photo of our guides, Elvis, Walter, Juan Carlos (L to R)

A city of 300,000, only accessible by boat or plane, Iquitos is an amazingly rich and active Amazon town. The food is excellent, the main square stays lively till late at night. The town has Internet cafes, a 5-star hotel, clubs, a couple of casinos, museums, multiplexes, and a huge wet market. It´s near the Brazil and Colombian borders, so is a center of commerce for the region. The Internet cafes are particularly incredible, with local teens "chateando" with people across the world. Yesterday I saw a mother talking to family in the US via the Net with a live camera.

All in all, though, the constant noise and smog from the motorbikes makes it a stopping point, not somewhere we want to spend more than a day. It´s notably cheaper than Lima, though, with our private double room with a fan and cable TV only costing us $10 a night.

The Nature

Swayed by photos of tapirs, anacondas, sloths, and pink dolphins, we signed up for a jungle tour to see Amazonian wildlife. From Iquitos, we boarded a series of motorcabs, taxis, motor boats, and paddle canoes to "el monte."

As promised, in the 5 days, we spotted several species of monkeys, sloths, freshwater dolphins, pirannhas, raptors, an anteater, a river otter, snakes, spiders, and tropical birds. Every square inch of the jungle is covered with sweaty, crawly, spiky, and sticky life. For the most part, the daily expeditions lasted for up to three hours, our guides, Walter and Elvis hacking through a tangle of vines and weeds with their machetes. Elvis, in particular, had an eerie ability to track and spot the animals. He´d spot something and motion for us to creep up behind him, then we´d spend a couple of minutes just trying to see the fuzzy grey bump in a tree forty feet off the ground. I had no idea how he could see these things while simultaneously breaking trail, watching for thorny plants, and avoiding roots and holes in the dirt.

Actually, the jungle we saw was regularly frequented by hunters and fishermen. The deep deep jungle, where you can spot jaguars and other larger animals was a few days away. Walter noted that before the jungle became more crowded, and as recently as the 1940´s, demons and dolphins would would turn to people were common. Now you´d have to go much farther into el monte to encounter these creatures. All this without a trace of irony and from a guy who spent several years learning English in Lima and who communicates via email everyday to people from all over the world.

The Food

We ate better on this tour than in Lima or Iquitos. In addition to the two guides, Juan Carlos, an amazing chef, also accompanied us. Every meal was different, tasty, and healthy. His repertoire included fresh fish and chicken, noodles with tomatos, garlic fried rice, salads of cucumber and tomato, salsa from exotic fruits, plantains, boiled yucca, and gorgeous omelettes. I think I lost a pound of blood to the mosquitos and gained two from Juan Carlos' cooking. He´d obviously been told that he´s a good cook before, with 15 years of experience in restaurants and on expeditions, but he'd still beam with pride every time I complimented him on the meals. In fact, the last day he insisted that we change our plans so he could meet us in another village to make a "surprise" - a moist yellow cake baked on a wood fire with evaporated milk frosting.

The People

We actually only camped out for one night, spending the rest of the time in small villages on the river. While we missed out on a serious Amazon camping experience (i.e., more mosquitos), the chance to meet and talk to people in the villages was way more rewarding. Folks live in ramshackle huts on stilts without running water or electricity. A whole family's belongings could easily fit in a Toyota Camry. But despite being cash poor, they have access to fresh food and really lacked little in the way of daily necessities. Bigger towns are a couple of hours away by boat, where they sell their harvests and pick up supplies. People looked healthy and happy.

Villagers were unfailingly friendly, particularly the younger kids who would take us all over town, showing us the football field, their little school, and their drawings and homework. The "It takes a village to raise a child" concept is huge here, with everyone constantly watching over the everyone´s kids, who run around playing marbles or swimming in the river all afternoon. The larger villages even have a nearby school and access to some medical care. On Saturday night, Juan Carlos (our cook, yes) had organized a party and BBQ in concert with a big football tournament. People from villages all over came to dance at the "discotech" and cheer on their teams. Unfortunately, they burned out the generator relatively early in the evening which killed the party a sooner than expected.

Seeing the strong community life really makes one reconsider the standard definitions of poverty. Simple things like a cold bottle of soda make kids happier than you can imagine. And while most Americans have cars, TVs, and enough clothing in one closet for a whole Amazon family, the quality of life in Puerto Miguel is arguably better than many parts of the US. It usually annoys me to hear gringos say this kind of shit, but there´s truth behind it.

The jungle plays a huge part of peoples' lives and identities. It´s where they get their food, their crops, houses, and the materials for crafts to sell to tourists. It also taketh away. The local shaman lost his wife 6 months ago to a poisonous snake. When I spotted a snake under our boat while bathing one night, Elvis jumped up and looked all over, a little nervous.

The Spanish

My Spanish has suffered notably since high school, but I can defend myself and carry on long conversations with some concentration. The local accent, though, can be a little tough to follow. Everyone speaks with a soft slow Brazilian accent, and they make fun of the crisp big-city Spanish, telling me the people from Lima sound like ducks.

Next Step

We fly out of Iquitos this afternoon, and will spend one night in Lima before heading out to Cuzco to do the Inca trail. I pray there are no mosquitos on the Inca trail. It´s worth mentioning that the local airport is closed from 9am-4pm because there are too many vultures flying around, making it dangerous for the planes.

4 aiports, 24 hours

We're now officially in another country - Peru, actually. To prove it, the computer keyboard is organized differently, with little use for apostrophes and quotation marks in Spanish.

Over the last 24 hours we've been in SFO, San Salvador, San Jose, and Lima. Still, despite the great distance travelled, it's amazing what remains the same. The time, for one, is only 3 hours off PST. This amazes me, since I've spent my whole life traveling east and west, but have never gone below the equator. Nice to travel thousands of miles and have no jetlag.

We arrived in Lima last night and only had time to get a quick bite before crashing. Funny thing about eating out in foreign countries is that travellers often obsess about eating "authentic" local food. The thing is, real locals usually eat bad pizza and greasy burgers. For example, if someone wanted real Filipino food, I'd tell them to hit Jollibee's. Nobody eats lechon or even lumpia on a daily basis. In keeping with that spirit, we ate at D'nno's Pizza, which sported the tagline "Homegrown in Peru."

American fast food chains are everywhere. We were in San Jose, walking around during our 6 hour stop over, and lasted only 2 hours before skulking into a Burger King bathroom. Strangely, the TV showed women's college volleyball with Ohio State playing Wisconsin (Go Badgers!). Random fast food chains have made inroads into Central and S. America, like Papa John's Pizza and Church's Chicken. These marginal US brands are everywhere down here.

Prices are not as cheap here as one would think. Dinner was about $11 total, about what we would pay for a bad pizza in the US. I blame the weak ass dollar. Stupid president. Still, our hotel is a pretty good deal at $25/night for a nice private room and bath.

Today we're heading up to Iquitos to visit the Amazon. I wish we were in Peru for another week. Two weeks and a couple of days barely offers enough time to see the jungle, Lake Titicaca, and the Inca Trail. We could change our itinerary, but that would just mean cutting into Brazil, which has just as much to offer. I'm telling you, 6 months is nothing.

Still in the EC

Our travel agent called me tonight asking when we were going to pick up the tickets, noting that we were leaving on Monday night.
"Monday?" I said. "No, we leave on Tuesday the 15th."
"Yes, Tuesday at 12:35AM. Some might call that Monday night."
I threw up in my mouth.
The thought of me and Jen standing at SFO on Tuesday night, realizing our flight had left 24 hours ago, still sends shivers up my spine.
All I can get from this story is that the journey is either blessed from the start or it will be pure hell.
- Simon