Ray's Travels

Easter Island is one of the most isolated places in the world. It is in the South Pacific and is something like 1100 miles from the next nearest island. Admittedly, I would never have made it a destination point. Yet, I am so, so, glad it is on the itinerary. It is beautiful and sightseeing here has been a real education. I don’t know where to start. We’ve all seen pictures of the huge stone faces but the origin of them is quite fascinating.

William Malloy was the first scientist, archeologist, to scientifically explore Easter Island. He was a friend of Thor Hyerdahl (of Kon Tiki fame) who also spent time on Easter Island. Our guides were basically family members of the team that took over the work of Malloy. Our guide was Claudio Cristophe who has lived and done archeology on Easter Island for 38 years. Another guide was his ex-wife who actually was the head archeologist. A third guide was their son.

Easter Island was formed by three major underwater volcanoes that spewed lava for eons until it all merged into one island. The volcanoes have been dormant for thousands of years. Polynesians eventually inhabited the island. They were the ones that produced the stone heads. The population of Eastern Island increased to 25-30 thousand at one point. However, they managed to deforest the entire island and that along with other factors eventually reduced the population to 111. Today the population is between 5 and 6 thousand. There is an ecological lesson in this but some will still refuse to listen.

The heads were cut and carved out of rock on the side of a dormant volcano in one particular location on the island. When the sculpture was ready it began the long, arduous process or the “walk” to where it would be placed. I don’t want to get into the details, as best we know them, but needless to say, it is amazing what was accomplished.

After touring some of the sites of the heads and the quarry we went to the beach for a Bar-B-Que. We had our bathing suits with us and took the opportunity to play in the waves of the South Pacific. I’m glad we didn’t pass on that chance as many others did.

Back at the hotel we had a fine buffet dinner and a show of native dancers.

Easter Island is technically part of Chile and is artificially on Chilean time which is the same as Eastern Standard Time. Easter Island should be on Mountain Time.

An early morning visit to one of the sites where the heads had been placed. Of course, these are our shadows in the foreground.

The area near the quarry. These statues were in transit and never made it to their intended final destination.

This is one of the most impressive sites of the heads. This had to be totally restored. All of the statues were knocked over by a tsunami from the largest earthquake ever recorded. It was thought to be forever destroyed. A Japanese company provided the money and machinery to get the site restored. Our guide headed up the restoration.

Techies are really and truly idiot savants. They can design products and write software the will allow them to make animated movies that are almost realistic. They will brag about how this platform integrates seamlessly with that platform. They can stream movies to a cell phone, as if I have the least bit of interest in watching a movie on a phone. (Get me a phone that doesn’t drop calls.)

Cell phones. So I take my new iPhone 5 to Machu Picchu in my backpack. Moisture gets in my backpack but by no means does the phone get soaked. So these geniuses can’t build a $600 phone that can withstand a little bit of moisture. The stupid thing no longer works properly. What a POS. It’s not just iPhones, they are all that way. These designers have their heads you know where.

Chargers. I’ve got mostly Apple stuff but there are other things. These bozos can’t come up with a charging standard. I have a bag of cables and chargers that looks like a rattlesnake pit and is just as inviting. No matter how many I pack I’m always missing something. How hard can it be to come up with one standard that is backwards compatible? These guys are working on artificial intelligence yet seem to lack any practical intelligence of their own.

Good thing these guys aren’t standing in from of me. I would hit them so hard it will kill their families.

The instructions today were to have the bags packed and outside our door at 6:45 am. We would then have breakfast and set off for the airport at 7:30 am. I mentioned yesterday that we got soaked. I had my iPhone in my backpack. It didn’t get drowned but it got wet. When I got back to the room last evening it was acting a bit strange but as things dried out is seemed to be returning to normal. I’ve been using the iPhone as the alarm clock. The room has blackout shutters so it is hard to tell the time from the light. In the morning a porter opens the door to the room. I make him aware we are there, he apologizes and leaves. I’m thinking, “that’s strange.” So then I look at the clock and it is 7:05 am. Total panic sets in. We hadn’t packed anything the night before because we wanted things to dry out. I get Marie up and we go into combat mode. We are throwing everything together as fast as possible. I’m not only worried about the baggage but also about holding the group up. At about 7:20 am I open the door and a porter is outside. I give him the bags and apologize. He says, “no problem.” No problem, maybe you don’t have a problem but I’m panicked.

Outside it is raining hard. We get down to the front desk only to find out that the flight has been delayed. We had plenty of time. Still, I can’t get back the 5 years of my life that the panic took out of me. We have a leisurely breakfast, wait around the hotel and finally the weather clears.

The tour operators had built room into the schedule for such a problem. It was actually better to cool our heels at the hotel than to spend a two hour layover at the airport. The weather cleared and we headed to the airport. When the 737 took off it felt like it was using every inch of the runway. The plane shuddered when it finally left the ground.

In Lima wee cleared immigration and boarded the 757. It was nice to be back on the luxury liner. We headed for Easter Island.

There is nothing to see except for blue water and clouds between Lima and Easter Island. When we approached Easter Island the pilot gave us a special treat. He took the 757 down to about 1000 ft. and did a full circle of the Island pointing out the features. He turned it around so that the people on the other side of the plane could get the full experience. The pilot was excited because as he said, “we don’t get to do this very often.” Then he brought the 757 in on the two mile runway that was lengthened and reinforced as a possible emergency landing strip for the Space Shuttle.

We are staying at the Hangaroa Hotel which is a newly renovated resort. It is gorgeous! We are in heaven.

The flyby of Easter Island. Note how low the tip of the wing is to the Island.

The two mile landing strip.

I like Peru. I was pleasantly surprised. The cities are quite clean. You see very little litter. You do not see people smoking. We were told that sometimes people smoke in their homes or when sitting with friends but is not in their culture to walk around with a cigarette. On the other hand, if you walk into a bar there will be a small basket of coca leaves which is the raw product from which cocaine is derived. It is chewed like chewing tobacco. In Cusco it is common to be served coca tea which helps mitigate high altitude sickness.

I was amazed at how prevalent and fluent the people are in speaking English. While in Argentina it was hit and miss to be able to communicate in English, in Peru it seemed that everyone knew some English, even the children.

Our experience with the people was that they are friendly, competent, prompt and hard working. While people on the street will try to sell you goods or souvenirs, we saw no beggars. Oftentimes, when you travel to second world or developing countries you get the feeling that things are being done half-assed. I didn’t get that feeling at all in Peru. While no place is perfect and Peru has it’s challenges, I get the feeling that things are under control. I hope so.

Virtually all the Peruvians are mixed, mainly Spanish and Incan. It’s probably a good combination. They have the beauty of the Spanish and the industriousness of the Incas.

In my travels I have tried to eat pizza in every country I visit. I didn’t get a chance to have pizza in Peru. I guess I’ll have to go back.

Machu Picchu – What a place!

Up at 5:30 am again. We got our backpacks together for the day’s events. I could not find my Gore-Tex rain jacket and couldn’t figure out where I might have left it. This will be a long, demanding day. We were given a choice. We could take the van to the train and go direct to Machu Picchu. The other option was to take the van further to Olantaytombo, tour that sight, and then catch the train to Machu Picchu. We opted to go to Olantaytombo first. I turned out to be a good choice. Olantaytombo is a ruin that is not as large as Machu Picchu but in some ways is more impressive. Our guide was a young man named Edouardo who claimed to be descended from a tribe in Peru known for its warriors. Yet, he had spent time in Saskatoon, SK. I didn’t get a chance to ask him how that happened.

The pre-Incas and the Incas were incredible engineers. They lived in the Andes Mountains which is the second youngest mountain ranch in the world to the Himalayas. The pre-Incas and Incas terraced these forbidding mountains for agriculture, security and to construct temples. They had an absolute work ethic and were amazing planners and engineers. To build Olantytombo they quarried and hauled rocks up to 25 tons down one side of the valley and up the other side. In order to do this they apparently built what would look like a wooded railroad. They were wooden ties spaced close together with wooden rails on top. Using poles as levers and the ties to prevent the poles from slipping they essentially invented the cog railroad. The rocks got inched along, 10 feet a day might be good progress.

The amazing thing is how precisely carved and polished these rocks are. They used no mortar. Each rock was cut and polished to fit precisely with the adjacent rock. This was not a matter of stacking rocks with right angles. Seams were not at precise distances and not all angles were straight. The gap between the rocks is maybe 1/16 of an inch whether straight or curved. The Incas make the Egyptians look like common bricklayers.

Our guide claimed that the Spanish muskets were no match for the Incan warriors. He had with him a sling that he demonstrated. It is a long woven cord with a thumbhole and a pouch for a stone. The Inca warrior could put a stone in it and sling it at 60 mph with accuracy. The Spanish musket was very inaccurate and took a long time to reload. When the guide snapped that thing it gave off the crack of a whip. It’s easy to see how Spanish soldiers could walk into an ambush for which they were totally unprepared.

Off to Machu Picchu. The train we took wasn’t the common train. It is a luxurious train named the Hiram Bingham (the first person to scientifically explore Machu Picchu). The train is operated by the company that operates the Orient Express. It was quite a luxury to ride this. The food and service were outstanding.

We arrived at Machu Picchu, gathered with our guides in small groups, and started the tour. The weather was perfect. Machu Picchu covers a large area. The mountain it is on and the mountains in it’s view are spectacular. When the peasants directed Hiram Bingham to the area it was totally overgrown with vegetation. All of the rock that makes it look so spectacular had to be uncovered. As we saw, workers are always busy getting rid of excess vegetation that wants to overgrow it. There are undoubtedly other areas that can be uncovered but that will have to happen in time.

Did I say the weather was perfect? Well, that didn’t last long. Out of nowhere it started raining. I figured on getting a little damp but didn’t begin to imagine that the rain wouldn’t let up for 3 hours. We got soaked. The area gets 70 inches of rain a year and we are in the rainy season. Thinking that it would let up there were times when I could see my shadow but it was still raining. My camera was put away in my backpack but that provided limited protection. I got some nice photo but I missed a lot because I didn’t want to risk the camera. Thankfully, it made it through.

We made it through the tour and went back to the restaurant for coffee. The 4 hour train ride back on the Hiram Bingham would have been great except we were wet and chilled. Getting back to the hotel we hung out our wet clothes. I thought I would hang up my wet jacket in the closet and there was my Gore-Tex jacket. I knew I hadn’t put anything in the closet and didn’t think to look there. The cleaning staff had hung it up. We took hot showers but that didn’t do a lot to alleviate the chill.

Overall, it was a wonderful but challenging day.

Eduardo with his sling.

An example of the precise rock cutting and fitting.

The interior of the Hiram Bingham.

The main area of Machu Picchu.

Another early rise. We have to pack and get our things to the lobby for a flight to Cusco. The problem is that the 757 is too big to land at Cusco so we have to take a plane on Peruvian Airlines. Lima is at sea level but Cusco is at over 11,500 ft. Maybe the plane could land at Cusco but it might not be able to to take off. The air is very thin. To do that we have to pack so that we can leave our big bag on the 757 and just take our small checked bag and our carry-ons. The plane into Cusco is a 737. On the way to the airport we got an interesting lecture about Peru.

Geographically, there are three sections to the country. There is Lima, at sea level and where it never rains. The weather can be humid but because of the cold Pacific currents it rarely, if ever rains. All ground vegetation is irrigated and the water for human consumption is from runoff of the Andes. There is the Andes region which is overcast a lot of the time and gets a lot of rain. The weather is very unpredictable there. Then there is the jungle region which also gets a lot of moisture. Being on the other side of the Continental Divide, the water flows to the Amazon. The geography and the cultures of the three regions are distinctly different. Still, Peru has been quite stable since the 1990’s and is doing quite well economically. Mining, agriculture, fishing, tourism and a few other sectors have kept things stable. Inflation is about 3%. There is free medical care, free and mandatory education and there is mandatory voting.

We landed in Cusco and boarded our buses. The first stop was at the Central Plaza and a visit to the cathedral. Mining has been essential to Peru. The cathedral demonstrates some of the amazing use of gold and silver from the area.

On to the hotel. The hotel is a converted monastery and they did it right. They have maintained the monastery architecture and feel while creating a very comfortable environment. The inner garden is gorgeous. Everything is restored and the rooms are very nice. Not over the top, but very comfortable. The help is more than gracious. Instead of doing a side tour we decided to rest in our room and acclimate. Supposedly the air in the room is oxygenated to help prevent altitude sickness. Counterintuitively, while Cusco is at over 11,000 ft., Machu Picchu is at 6000+ ft.

After our nap we took a stroll around the city plaza. I wanted to buy a hat with an all-around brim for our visit to Michou Pichou. An excellent dinner was served in the hotel and then we went to an area where local weavers were demonstrating their art. Weaving is quite an art in Peru. Even watching them do it, it is hard to understand how they can weave such intricate patterns. Everything they do is a primitive art form. They form the thread by hand, no spinning wheels for these artisans.

Tomorrow is the the real kickoff to the expedition, the tour of Machu Picchu.

The plaza in Cusco.

The group sets off today. Of course there is some tension. The tour company wants everything right. The passengers are anxious to get things underway. We got up at 5:15, got packed up and moved our luggage to the lobby before breakfast. The private jet took off from Sanford Airport, not Orlando International. That was much better as getting through security was almost a breeze. The tour company is well aware of where the hitches are likely to occur and does their best to anticipate them.

The private jet is a 757 that has been outfitted with 92 first/business class seats. About 78 are for tour participants, the rest are for the staff. It’s a different way to travel than cramming 230+ people into the same size plane. The flight to Lima was about 6 hours. We flew past Cape Canaveral and over the Panama Canal. I didn’t see much.

Lima is a much nicer city than I anticipated. Granted, we didn’t see the slums but I understand that a lot has been done to get rid of shanty towns. Lima has about 9 million people. The Pacific Ocean is to the West and the mountains are to the east. Therefore, it is a very narrow city along the coast that we were told is almost 60 miles long. Obviously, we traveled by bus through the nicer areas of the city. Buenos Aires is a beautiful city but Lima seem a little less tattered, even in the nice areas. That is probably due to the problems within the Argentinian economy.

We had one major sightseeing event on the calendar for today. It was a visit to the Larco Herrerra Museum which is a private museum of Inca and pre-Inca artifacts. It’s not a large museum but some of the items they have are quite impressive. While they have several hundred pieces on display we also got to go into the storeroom which has another 4500 pieces.

Tonight we are staying at the Miraflores Park Hotel. It is on the ocean and has beautiful views. It is a very luxurious hotel and the group had an excellent buffet dinner this evening. We aren’t spending a lot of time in Lima because we head to Cuscus tomorrow morning. Lima might be a place worth returning to.

This is an item in the museum. It is a sarcophagus of a revered king. It the culture the body was entombed in a fetal position. The head on the sarcophagus is fake. The guide said that it has been X-Rayed and there is a body inside. Yet the body had almost no muscle because, being a king, he did no physical work.

Some metalworking for decorating the royalty. They like ear enhancements and nose pieces. Why such large nose pieces? So that their emotions would be hidden.

It’s a down day but for the tour company it is the first day. Glad we got in yesterday and had a chance to organize. We went through the luggage and repacked for the start tomorrow. The Ritz-Carlton we are staying at is in the middle of nowhere as are most things in Florida. Nobody walks and therefore nothing is designed to accommodate a walker. We needed to go to a CVS to pick up a few incidentals. It turned into a hike but that’s OK. I’ve been struggling with sciatica, a bad knee and a worn out hip. I’ve had about 4 visits with an orthopedist at the Hospital of Special Surgery. I’ve had 3 sessions with an acupuncturist.

Last Wednesday I had a procedure done where the orthopedist injected two of the nerves in my spine to get rid of pain. He didn’t want me, nor did I, to attempt this trip and have to suffer through it. The walk today was longer than we anticipated but it was a good test. While it was not comfortable, it was fine. I think I’m ready to do what I need to do without being a cripple.

This evening we had our first get-together. It’s a much larger group than we are used to traveling with. Bike group are typically from 8 to 24 people. This is more like 80, including the staff. Still, they seem to be doing a good job attending to the details.

We get up tomorrow early to start the real adventure. Off to Peru!

The view from our hotel room. The Ritz-Carleton and the Marriott are right together with a common area in between. Nice collusion.

A view to the West. The lake, the golf course and whatever. I’ve got to tell you, the 1% are suffering.

Not a very eventful day. Our main objective was to get to Orlando, FL so we can join the group and start the adventure. However, we can’t do things without some drama.

We’ve gotten quite good at traveling relatively light. For this trip we are allowed and extra bag and will have help with the luggage so why not bring a little extra? Well, we are creatures of habit. We felt like we had so much stuff that couldn’t possibly be forgetting anything. Our son Thomas offered to drive us to the airport. Right after he dropped us off we realized that we had left Marie’s backpack at the apartment. The backpack is an important accessory and she had some necessary things in it.

I got on the cell phone to Thomas, who hadn’t arrived back at the apartment. He parked out front, found the backpack and drove back to the airport (LaGuardia, not JFK, thank God). We made it through security and to the gate just as they began boarding.

Crisis averted!

We got checked into the Ritz-Carlton and got registered with the group. So far they have done a good job of attending to the details.

I scheduled us to get in a day early. I booked the flight last year and figured that the weather in February is unpredictable so I wanted some wiggle-room. Tomorrow we will relax and get ready. The real adventure begins on Monday.