It is unlikely that the soaring altitude and sheer magnificence of the Andes Mountains, inspired “Stairway to Heaven.” This signature work of the virtuoso rock band Led Zepplin is arguably the best rock ballad oh, maybe Ever. Those guitar riffs live on, even if Lake Titicaca isn’t their spirtual home.
However, the lake, situated in the Andes at an elevation of 12, 500 feet (3800 meters), does seem a likely rest stop along the imagined “stairway.”
If not a Stairway, Lake Titicaca is definitely a sanctuary.
Incas conquered (and often enslaved) other tribes, as they built an empire the length of the Andes. Legend has it that the Uru people living along the lake sought sanctuary from Incan rule by building floating reed islands on the lake, out of reach of their hostile neighbors. Today, the Uros continue to live and thrive in their island-based communities.
Visiting the Uros community is kind of travel experience Yampu Tours does so well; authentic, respectful of local cultures and traditions. Knowledgable guides who speak the local languages. In the case of the Uros, the language is Aymara. (Most of the indigenous Andeans speak Quechua, the language of the Incas.
The single day trip to Lake Titicaca was part of a 10-day epic experience in Peru with Yampu. Another segment of the Yampu trip is chronicled here.
Getting to Lake Titicaca
Traveling from Cusco along the spine of South America is a good 8-hour journey overland. One can fly to Puno but the trade-off is to miss the stark, arid beauty of the high desert mountains. The vast expanse of “nothing” is, in itself, something special. Yampu’s organization and attention to detail made the trip bearable in a luxury coach.
The world isn’t uniformly gorgeous, but it is uniformly intriguing. The Andean highlands are like the surface of the moon; endless rock and sand. You don’t want to live there, but it is worth the drive to see it.
Besides, you need to humble brag on Instagram. On a flyover, you’d miss this the dwindling glacier, the woman with her pet alpaca and the welcome to the Abra la Raya mountain pass.
Andean Glacier
Alpaca and keeper
At a bit over 14,000 feet (elevation noted in meters), you feel lightheaded, your heart pounds. You begin to think that you are indeed “knock, knock knockin’ on heaven’s door.”
From there it was quite literally “downhill” into our luxurious base for the next two nights. Given the elevation, we were encouraged to rest. A good idea in my estimation. I welcomed the hotel’s ready supply of oxygen, wheeled bedside.
Floating islands – a place to call home.
The Uru people in Peru, living along Lake Titicaca, took to the water as a defense against the troubling Incas. They fashioned boats using totora reads from the lake and constructed a network of islands Today, they use motor launches to ferry tourists to the islands, about three miles out onto the lake.
Reed boat on Lake Titicaca. No one is messing with those fierce-looking cats! Photo: Jane Trombley
To create the islands, blocks of reeds are cut below the water line to include the buoyant and thickly intertwined roots. The blocks are lashed together forming floating platforms and anchored to the bottom of the lake.
Our guide, left, explained how the reed roots are lashed together and anchored to the bottom of the lake. Photo: Jane Trombley
Reeds are spread on the platform. The surface is spongy, sort of like walking on a waterbed. As the reeds dry out, they become quite brittle and are replaced with a fresh layer, about every three months. On the other hand, during the rainy season, the reeds rot quickly and the replacement is more frequent.
Friends Linda and Geoff might stay; Linda in traditional dress. Photo: Jane TrombleyA typical reed home. No windows. One end is open for some light and ventilation. Inside are reed mattresses, sparse furniture and accessories. Photo: Jane Trombleyin these kitchens, food is cooked on small fires placed on rocks. Photo: Jane Trombley
Modern Life on the floating islands
About 200 people of Uros descent still live on the islands, maintaining the traditional lifestyle. The larger islands house about 10 families; the smaller ones one or two extended families. Each island lasts about 30 years.
Today, solar panels rise above the thatched roofs; outboard engines replace the long oars and traditional sails. Young children attend school on the larger islands and then more advanced education on the mainland.
Tourism is thriving – Uros even has its own passport stamp – for a small charge of course. Sign me up! I was there, 11 October 2018.
It may very well be that tourism to the floating islands is restricted in the future. The reeds are fragile and the increased foot traffic takes its toll. Each step, each footfall, sinks about 2-4″ into the island’s spongy surface reeds, depending on the person’s weight and other factors. A plan for sustainable tourism to the region is in order.
That said, Lake Titicaca’s floating islands are very special place; warm people inviting you into their homes and lives, if only for a little while. Go now, and go with Yampu.
What is Peru’s Sacred Valley? Machu Picchu always grabs the headlines as the Andean destination of dreamers, scholars and intrepid tourists. Retracing the Inca Trail and the steps of the early 20th century explorers who “discovered” the “Lost City” has become almost a rite of passage for second gen hipsters.
The Sacred Valley is a beautiful sixty-mile stretch roughly following the Urubamba River, filled with Incan history and lore. From the Incan capital of Cusco in the dry Andean plateau (altiplano) it descends, literally, into the high jungle of Machu Picchu.
To my mind, this part of Peru should not be overlooked. Done right, visiting the Sacred Valley offers the increasingly rare chance to glimpse and even experience an authentic local culture, built upon ancient belief systems that still resonate today and serve as a touch point to our humanity.
How to See the Sacred Valley
As a baby-boomer traveler, I wanted a thoroughly planned itinerary including hotel bookings, in-country transportation and a friendly face greeting me at each leg. I’m a pretty intrepid traveler, but the assurance of on-the-ground assistance is hugely important.
I called in the pros. Yampu Tours. They delivered. Flawlessly.
I knew I wasn’t going to hike the Inca Trail. Or, heaven forbid, camp. I need a few (say, 4) stars after the hotel name. Further, I need local guides, courteous and flexible, yet knowledgeable beyond the prepared text. I need to trust their knowledge to feel connected to the people and land I’m visiting.
My goal was an experiential, multi-dimensional trip, not just check off bucket list items.
(Note: this is the first installment of a series on my Peru trip with Yampu)
A welcome sight at the train station!
Yampu put together a terrific itinerary. Trustworthy, local guides who grew up in the area and whose native tongue is Quechan, the ancient language of the Incas. Throughout the trip, each guide provided his/her soulful backstory of growing up in the Andean highlands. I understood how, in just a generation or two, traditional lifestyles are now inextricably linked to the modern world.
You don’t get this kind of insight with just any guide. Yampu has found the best.
So, I recruited two friends, seasoned travelers, and we, as a group of three adventurers, set off.
My pals Geoff and Linda with our guide Martin
The “Must Experience” Destinations in the Sacred Valley
MORAY: Experimental farming, the Inca Way
The Inca Empire, at its apex between the 13th to 16th centuries, stretched from modern-day Ecuador to Argentina, from the Pacific coast to the Andes peaks. It’s a harsh landscape with little arable land.
Once conquered, managing a population of nearly 8 million people, scattered over thousands of miles of inhospitable territory, required ingenious military and organizational strategies. The Incas figured it all out brilliantly.
The Incas excelled in harnessing a region of climatic zones ranging from coastal plains to high desert. They developed agricultural labs such as the one found in the archeological complex of Moray. The development of sustainable agriculture was vital to their success.
In this amphitheater of concentric circles, the temperature can differ by as much as 27 degrees (Fahrenheit) from top to bottom. Testing crops in these different micro-climates provided valuable information on successful agriculture production across the Incan empire.
They refined varieties of quinoa in high elevations and developed over three thousand varieties of potatoes. They grew maize of rainbow hues, big kernel stuff, tasty but starchy. It is the basis of a fermented corn brew called chicha de jora.
An array of Peruvian corn – note how big the kernels are.
I didn’t drink any chicha; a bit strong and sweet for my taste. However, if you’re into homebrew, here’s the insider recipe.
Chinchero
Chinchero is the mythical home of the rainbow in Andean lore and a handicraft/weaving capital. I fell hard for the doe-eyed llamas and alpacas.
Even llamas get dressed up in the colors of the rainbow
Hey, there, kiddo. What big blue eyes you have!
The wool from the alpaca is, of course, legendary for its use in fine knitwear. Here’s a tiny example of goods I bought for grownups and kids. The little mitts are for my granddaughter.
Fingerless gloves with llama motif and a wonderfully soft baby alpaca scarf.
Unfortunately, we missed Chinchero’s traditional Sunday handicraft market. This photo essay captures the vibrancy of the marketplace. Indeed, it’s a reason to return!
However, we did see a fascinating demonstration of wool dying with local vegetable dyes. Talk about artisanal!
The women explained the process from the start – the fur of the alpaca (left). On the right, the natural alpaca wool ready for dyeing.
Blending the vegetable pigment.
And here’s the nearly-finished product, out of the pitcher of vegetable dye.
Chinchero, the home of the rainbow offers dyed wool from nature’s color palette.
The Maras Salt Ponds
The salt ponds aren’t an official Wonder of the World, but they should be. Eons ago the region was a seabed. Volcanic and geo-rumblings ultimately forced the Andes to rise and form the spine of South America. Meanwhile, seawater was locked within the rock.
It is still trickling out.
Pre-Columbia tribes harnessed the salty water trickling out of a mountain spring around 200AD. Later, the Incan Empire used this precious commodity trading for cocoa leaves from the jungle.
The stream feeds an ingenious system of small canals that in turn fill thousands of small, vertigo-inducing ponds perched on the hillside. Each basin is about 15 feet square (3 meters) and shallow, about a foot (30 cm.) deep.
When a pond is full, the notch is closed, diverting water to another basin. As the water evaporates, the salt is scraped off, bagged and carried in several kilo bags along narrow paths to the cooperative’s depot. It is hard manual labor done at an elevation of 11,000 feet.
The salt is available at the co-op shop (and across Peru). It has a lovely pink tinge, a very salty taste, and is renown for its curative properties. It’s high in calcium, zinc, magnesium, and iron, used as an effective treatment for skin conditions and swelling.
(Traveler hack: if you can’t get to Maras, this remarkable salt is available on Amazon.)
Ollantaytambo and the Huilloc Community
Ollantaytambo – Architecture in the Incan tradition
The ruins at Ollantaytambo, built by in the 1400s under the leadership of Incan empire builder Pachacutec (1438-1471), who went on to create Machu Picchu. The ruins are thought to be of religious and strategic importance.
Visiting the ruins is a beautiful precursor to Machu Picchu. It’s a bit smaller, not as busy and sets the stage for the remarkable engineering brilliance of the Incas.
Further, their engineering expertise is readily apparent. The Incan ingenious design for interlocking stone blocks gives their buildings resilience in earthquakes. Seven hundred years and the construction is still “rock solid.”
Incan doorways are a trapezoid shape. Narrower at the top places the pressure on the base of the opening, not the top.
Evident, too, is the very advanced water distribution system. This remnant of the intricate canal system at the Ollantaytambo pays tribute to the Inca engineering genius.
A Huilloc Community Welcome
To my mind, the real value of a tour/travel agency is their ability to connect you with an experience you couldn’t do otherwise.
Participating in another culture was a hands-on lesson in gratitude and humility.
We visited the rural Huilloc (pronounced “Wee-oak”) community, to participate in Chakra or agriculture. Roles and dress are traditional, so Linda and I slipped into woolen skirts, hats, and ponchos. Geoff, the guy in our small tribe, donned the male attire.
After introductions, we enjoyed delicious mint tea and a crunchy peanut-like snack.
We joined in dancing accompanied by pan flute and strings played by the men. Everybody participated: the kids, the teens, men, women. What first seemed awkward on our part quickly gave away to the graciousness of our hosts.
However, our visit took us deeper. Geoff practiced traditional farming with a hoe/plow tool, still in use today to plant potatoes, a diet staple.
Linda and I toured the kitchen, where potatoes were on the boil.
I was shown how to stoke the fire (blowing through a hollow log). Later, the lady of the house turned me around and, filling a cloth square about the size of a large scarf with the potatoes, she tied it around my shoulders. I was to carry this to the stream where we had a picnic with the family.
By this time, we were pretty comfortable with one another and chatted as friends do. Through our guide, we learned everyone’s ages and roles, and they learned ours.
They heard about our grandchildren (and gamely complimented the pictures); we learned the road to their village was recently paved making the weekly 24 km walk to the market far easier.
The kids played, the teen boy talked about his wish for a cell phone (that’s pretty universal) and the young woman spoke wistfully of her upcoming marriage.
The elder of the family, with his bottle of homebrewed chicha, poured the first draught on to the ground. It’s the Incan practice of giving thanks to Pachamama, or Mother Earth, for her bounty.
A beautiful, simple expression of gratitude. Grace is such a simple thing – why don’t we do more to incorporate it our 1st world privileged lives?
Lunch, 3 courses, was served in a dining room clearly meant for visitors. Corn soup, chicken, a vegetable dish and sweet pudding for dessert. The room was too dark for pictures; the meal simple and delicious.
Prepping to Go
Before I embarked on the trip, I did plenty of research which I chronicled here and here.
Now, with 20/20 hindsight I mostly agree with my pre-trip expectations. Except Peru was more magnificent, more profound than I dreamed.
More attention will be given to the topic of altitude in further installments of my Peruvian adventure, but suffice to say that hydration is super, super important. Especially if you live at or near sea level.
Here are a few tips for staying hydrated while traveling, but what about before you leave?
About a week before departure, I made a conscious effort to drink at least a liter of water per day, the minimum of what I thought I’d need while in the high Andean plateau. I landed in Lima (sea level) but then went directly to Cusco and from there by car to the Sacred Valley. The Sacred Valley ranges from 6,000-11,000 feet, much higher than my home turf.
I arrived in Peru hydrated, and never had to play catch-up. It proved to be a wise choice. Drink up, my friends.
(Not Quite) Required Reading
I’m a huge fan of reading up on a destination before visiting. And not just travel books or online material. That’s helpful in the planning stage, but not, ahem, the whole story.
To understand a country, to get into its veins, you need their literature, the voice of their authors. For Peru-bound travelers, there’s no better resource than Nobel Laureate Mario Vargas Llosa.
Essayist, novelist, short story writer, his work is legendary.
I loved this one, even though I wasn’t traveling to the Amazon. I found it a thoughtful approach to engaging with indigenous people, a factor very much part of today’s discussion surrounding economic development in Peru.
Here are some other recommendations. I carried the Reader with me and found it an invaluable resource in sorting out the tidal wave of information washing over each day.
If you have the time or inclination for just one book before traveling to Peru, make it this one. A collection of essays, short stories, legends and biographies, this provides a look at the diversity that makes Peru so fascinating.
This one is on every list of must-reads on Peru. Focusing on the history of the Incas, it retraces the steps of Hiram Bingham, the early 20th-century explorer. Clever and funny, it will make you glad you’re not planning a modern-day tramp across the Sacred Valley.
The seminal work of Hiram Bingham. You might as well read his first-hand account, written soon after his 1911 exploration that made him famous for “discovering” Manchu Picchu.
The Upshot/Final Thoughts
Peru clocked 3.3 million tourists in 2017. The growth of international tourism is expected to rise by 8.5% in 2018, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council.
The district government and local communities are only recently awake to the economic benefits of cultural tourism. It is still in its infancy but holds transformational promise. Plans afoot will inalterably change the character of the place. One hopes the commercial development, based on tourism, will be thoughtful; respecting the area’s ecosystems and preserving the inhabitants’ unique heritage.
The economic alternative – migration to the larger cities – threatens to render the region, indeed, “lost.” And by that, I don’t mean overgrown with vegetation.
My advice: see the Sacred Valley soon. The cable cars are coming. The tourist buses will get bigger and more frequent.
Finally, book through an experienced tour provider such as Yampu. You can customize your trip to your liking and come away with a remarkable experience you couldn’t do on your own.
Your Quechan is probably not as good as your tourist Spanish.
N.B. 3 Score & More will receive a slight commission from links to Amazon, at no additional cost to you.
There is no single image that can capture the essence of Peru; it’s more than llamas.
I’m soon heading out on what I’d call the “starter tour” of Peru. Ten days visiting some of the high spots: Cusco, Sacred Valley, Manchu Picchu, Lake Titicaca and, of course, Lima.
I’m going with Yampu Tours, an excellent travel company I’ve used before, traveling to Argentina.
With Yampu, I experienced Buenos Aires, the incomparable wine country around Mendoza (and a wonderful city in itself), and the magnificent, awe-inspiring Iguazu Falls.
The Peru trip promises to be special as it’s the home country of Jose Irauzqui, founder and president of Yampu. So when I say they really put their heart into it… I’m looking forward to great, great experiences.
But 10 days is barely enough time to scratch the surface of Peru.
Start with the country’s almost incomprehensible geographic diversity.
Just a bit bigger than Alaska, Peru boasts the world’s highest city (the mining town La Rinconada, at 16, 700 ft), a 1500 mile Pacific coastline, sand dunes of the Huacachina desert oasis, glaciers and dense jungles, and the soaring the Andean peaks surrounding Manchu Picchu.
Literature as insight into Peru’s cultural diversity and rich history.
Any of the guidebooks — Fodors, Eyewitness, Lonely Planet, or for that matter, Wikipedia — will take you through the drill, but what’s the larger context?
It’s found in stories.
Mario Vargas Llosa, a prolific Peruvian whom the New York Times dubbed the “elder statesman of Latin America literature.” He is an essayist, novelist, and political activist.
He has the soul of his country in his heart.
His skills brought me to the fantastical reaches of Peru’s Amazonian tribes in the 1950’s: The Storyteller.
While not meant to be a “travel book” per se, I find thought-provoking for the serious traveler in our “post-culture” world.
He laments a global sameness, an aspirational materialism stoking the world’s economic engine, the primacy of image over the word. All, he posits, have contrived to change what it means for a society to have a culture.
Culture has little to do with quantity, everything to do with quality. — Mario Vargas Llosa
In travel, culture matters. A lot.
Other Must-Reads for Peru
These provide an insight into Peru you won’t find in travel guides, on Trip Advisor, or even the most informed travel itineraries.
It’s the work you’ve got to do to get behind the brochures.
If you have the time or inclination for just one book before traveling to Peru, make it this one. A collection of essays, short stories, legends and biographies, this provides a look at the diversity that makes Peru so fascinating.
This one is on every list of must-reads on Peru. Focusing on the history of the Incas, it retraces the steps of Hiram Bingham, the early 20th-century explorer who claimed to “find” the lost traces of the remarkable Incan civilization near modern-day Cusco.
We get to retirement, or close, and the siren song of travel beckons. But to travel solo?
Finally, the planets are aligned: time, treasure (ok, budget treasure), and a talent for discovery. We want to go, and yet lingering doubt perceived roadblocks. No one wants to go where you want to go.
A travel partner becomes unable to go.A recent loss alters the course of your life, not to mention travel plans.
It doesn’t take much to upend rickety self-confidence.
“Travel solo at my age? I don’t think so.” So goes the refrain in your head.
Try this refrain instead:”Travel solo at my age? Why the hell not?!”
Need some reasons to pack those bags? Read on.
You set the budget
If you want to go luxury, then go luxury. Some of the best travel I’ve done has been on a more restrained budget, allowing me to see more of the “real” destination, not just a fancy hotel.
Perhaps counter-intuitive, but true in my experience.
Tour companies and travel agents are happy to accommodate you and mix and match to meet your budget. Often, they will cite a “base price,” and you can tweak from there.
A firm I’ve used, and heartily recommend for their customization, is Yampu Tours. They offer a wealth of travel experiences, at every price point.
The best part? A travel consultant pop-up window will greet you on their website. Honestly, it’s a chance to talk to a real human about what you might want to do, where you might like go. Even if you have no real idea.
Another tour company that specializes in solo women travelers is Overseas Adventure Travel. And the dreaded single supplement? Nope, gone.
You set the destination
Think about it — there are probably 3–4 (ok, maybe more) places you’ve secretly wanted to go. For a variety of reasons it didn’t work: no interest from spouse, friend, family. No time. You put it off.
That’s what I’m here to say: in your 60’s the “putting it off” is no longer a valid excuse.
Now, my friend is your time. So think about that place you’ve always wanted to go because the help is there to make it happen.
You set the itinerary
Maybe the best part of travel at 60+, and particularly a solo journey, is that you needn’t answer to anyone. If you want to spa, go for it. Tours, soaking up the local culture, language classes.
Introduce yourself to the world. It is waiting to meet you.
If you want an immersive activity, it’s there, too. I like Yampu’s approach to immersive travel and their volunteer opportunities in particular.
It needn’t be the entire trip, but if the opportunity to interact with the local population — and with children, especially — resonates with you, there are ample opportunities to fold that into your experience.
It’s just one of the many advantages of solo travel. Your trip, your terms.
Is solo travel the ultimate self-indulgence?
Some would say so. I’d say that by the time you’ve reached your early 60’s you’ve earned the right to make your own decisions. Chart your course.
This doesn’t mean you are abandoning your family or your commitment to those things important to your life.
It does mean that you are answering to your self, to your wishes, and perhaps to the fulfillment of a life’s dream.It’s not selfishness, it’s self-affirmation.
It does mean that you are bold enough, confident enough to strike out on your own.
Good for you!
Take that kernel of self-truth, listen to your inner voice that says, “I’d like to see Hawaii” and book it. Rarely, if ever, does your intuition lie.
It comes down to this:
If the choice is between going solo and not going at all, there is only one answer: book the trip.
And please become a 3 Score Traveler by posting a photo on Instagram: @3scoreandmore.
In the meantime, let me know how the planning goes.
Cheers,
Jane
Copyright 2018 3 Score & More All rights reserved
An earlier version of this article appeared on Medium.com
Here we are at the end January 2018 – how are all your wonderful travel plans coming along?
I confessmy travel plans for the year aren’t as clear as I’d wish them to be, quite a confession for a travel blogger!But I do have one wonderful idea in place: a July wedding in Italy will take me to the Lake Como in Italy, a region I’ve been dying to see. Hopefully, one of the big bucket destinations like Antarctica, Patagonia, maybe even Africa, can be ticked off the list this year.
2017 was a banner year for my travel. Some destinations were carefully planned but others were just serendipitous, popping up out of the blue. Either way, believe me, the travel gods cranked it out on my behalf. During this remarkable stretch of travel and exploration, the trips were chronicled in this space. And now, as the year winds to a close, here are my 5 favorite destinations for 2017. I hope you’ll find some ideas and inspiration for your 2018 travel plans.
Ah, Buenos Aires. The first time you visit any city, you can’t do it all. Sometimes budget constraints limit options, or the allotted time slips away. Thanks to a great itinerary put together by Yampu Tours, I experienced some of the best of Buenos Aires in a way that made me want to return. I’m sure I’ll go back for more…. Continue reading “First time in Buenos Aires? 5 Things I loved!”
Say “Argentina” and wine – especially Malbec – comes to mind. But the world’s largest waterfall system, the dramatic Iguazú Falls, lies along Argentina’s border with Brazil. “Amazing” doesn’t really do them justice.
The Iguazú National Park (Parques Nacionales Iguazú (AR) y do lguaçu (Br)) is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. After a few days in the sun-parched wine country of Mendoza, seeing – and occasionally feeling – water drop 270 feet (82 meters) is, well, refreshing.
Yampu Tours booked the day’s tour to Iguazú Falls, as part of a larger trip to Argentina. A high point was an unforgettable boat trip to get up close and personal with water flowing at a rate of 62,ooo cubic feet (approximately 1800 square meters) per second.
2017 is well underway – do you know where your travel bucket list stands? Because the lists themselves are often so willy-nilly… I’ve decided to create Bucket List Goals to help structure a sometimes feckless travel decision-making process. Each of these categories fulfills my passion for travel, style, and discovery. And each promises to open new horizons.
You’ll read about all these adventures as they unfold, but here’s the plan-in-progress.
